Oscar Pistorius

Well I'm not that sporting.
As a child the only activity I got was moving the joystick.
However I can tell buzz about a boy.

"I certainly see Oscar as having a legitimate shot at qualifying," said American sprinter Brian Frasure, speaking of 17-year-old Oscar Pistorius from South Africa.

Oscar has just run a sub 22 second (21.97 seconds) in Athens this week. Pistorius is only 43 hundredths of a second off the qualifying time for the 200 metres for the junior world championships. There are legitimate whispers for the 2008 Olympics.

The Pretoria schoolboy has a distinct disadvantage over the other competitors for the 2008 Olympics. He is a double-leg amputee. There is a picture of him doing the "victory lap" in this news article..

Marlowe Hood asked if an athlete with a prosthetic leg could compete in the Games, and the reply from an International Athletics Federation official was "There is no mention of prosthetics in the rules," ... "The case has never presented itself".

I suspect the case is going to be presenting itself very soon!

take care,
Will

Unlucky again

Another e-mail which arrived...

Waiting Room from Cork had all their equipment stolen after their show with The Frames on monday night. They already lost their gear in a fire less than a year ago, and are about to go on a US tour, so this is a huge blow for them.

I know its a long shot but if anyone comes across or might be offered any of the following equipment that was stolen on Monday 20th of September in Inchicore, can they please contact outonalimbrecords@hotmail.com or phone 087 9732589

GUITARS/BASSES
faded red gibson sg special and hardcase
black american teleand hardcase
travis bean and hardcase serial number 509
worn green tanglewood warrior bass

AMPS
fender stage 100 amp combo
fender deluxe amp
laney bass head (the one with eqs)

PEDALS
boss tuner tu2 by 2
boss ds1
line6 delay pedal
boss delay dd5
boss blues driver o/drive pedal blue
fender stage tuner
ebow

ACCESSORIES
boss adapters
assorted planet waves leads


Oh, and it's been pointed out to me that I've been linking to frames.ie and not TheFrames.ie. The side links should be right now, but there is no way I'm updating all the postings...

they show up too often.

Take care,
Will

News Dump

Gentle reader,
Some news for you... Some of it old, some of it new.

Ash release a new single, “Renegade Cavalcade” (Infectious) on October 15. It is taken from their current Meltdown album.
The band have also announced that they are planning to release an acoustic album next year. The band are expecting to spend much of next year touring in America and want to be in a position to release something new for their fans.

Bell X1 are currently in the studio recording tracks for a brand new
album which will be released in 2005. They play Clonakilty on September 25 and Cork Opera House on Sunday 26.

Bonnie Prince Billy releases a new single, "No More Workhorse Blues" on 22 October taken from his "Bonnie Prince Billy sings Greatest Palace Music" album released in March.

The Frames released their new album, Burn The Maps, on Friday 17 September which marked the start of another Irish tour including Cork.

Halite release their second album, Courses, on October 1. Which is the day they play Cork.

David Kitt has announced the release of his long-awaited "covers" album, The Black And Red Notebook, on his own independent label on 15 October. The album will include versions of songs by (amongst others) JJ Cale, Sonic Youth, Thin Lizzy, The Beatles and The Velvet Underground.

Dublin 4-piece Life After Modelling will be releasing a new 4-track EP in October. "December 21st" will come out on Modelone Records with 3 different mixes of the title track along with the additional "Dull Suburbia". Needless to say there is a supporting tour including Cork.


The Elliott Smith Memorial Fund, takes place in The Lobby on October 27 at 9pm. Myles O’Reilly from Juno Falls, Ian Whitty, and 2FM favourites Ellison9 are just three of the acts paying homage to the late Elliott Smith. Turn's Ollie Cole will also be performing. The line-up also includes Paul O’Reilly, David Nelligan, Dave Ferriter (of Mir), John Kelly (of The Fallen), Barry Haugh (of Wonderland), and Kilter.

John Spillanne starts a radio show on Radio one on Friday (10.30pm) called The Well of Song. The series will feature John sharing songs that have moved him over the years from the "3 Canadians"- Joni Mitchell/ Leonard Cohen/ Neil Young - to the eccentric sounds of his native Cork with bands such as The Sultans of Ping, Five Go Down to the Sea, Microdisney, The Nine Wassies from Bainne, to gems with the lustre of Con Fada O'Drisceoill and his current three favourite living Irish songwriters - Damian Dempsey, Ger Wolfe and Ronán Ó Snodaigh. Send comments to his website.


Take care,
Will

Info Dump

Gentle reader,

Another Info Dump, with my usual opinions of what is good and worth seeing...
In chronological order...

September 24
The Frames Cork Opera House (late show) with support from Life After Modelling and Mark Palmer.

September 25
There is a lot on this Saturday...
The Frames move to the Everyman Palace.
Life After Modelling do a free show at An Brog. To be honest, I have no idea if they are any good. They just seem to get mentioned a lot in the mails that come in.
The venue also sees Stanley Super 800 playing today.
Bell X1 are due at De Barras in Clonakilty with Matt Lunson. They are also meant to be doing a live in-store performance in Virgin Records, but I'm not too sure it that's the one in Daunt Square or not.

September 26
The Frames move back to the Opera
House. Also in the Opera House are Bell X1 and Jeff Martin.

September 27
Snatch do another Comedy Workshop on Improvised Comedy at The Granary Theatre form 1pm to 6pm this Sunday. Cost is €10. The first session they'll introduce the very first steps in Improv through the use of the 3 Basic Concepts of: acceptance, spontaneity and awareness. To book end an email to info@snatchcomedy.com with your name and mobile phone number.

October 1
Halite play in Cypress Avenue to promote their new album, released that day.

October 7
David Kitt returns to Cork to play in in UCC (well I assume that University Of Cork is UCC).

October 8
Not one of my picks, but I'm hearing talk about them on the radio (not actually hearing any tracks from them, just talk). Archie Bronson Outfit do a free gig in the Pine Lodge, Myrtleville.
Life After Modelling come back to play with The Walls & Iain Archer. No idea as to who is supporting who.

October 18
The Divine Comedy play the Everyman.
This is also when The Hunger gets re-released on DVD with a bunch of extras. Sorry lads, Catherine wins.

October 27
The Elliott Smith Memorial Fund, The Lobby 9pm. Myles O’Reilly from Juno Falls, Ian Whitty, and 2FM favourites Ellison9 are just three of the acts paying homage to the late Elliott Smith. Turn's Ollie Cole will also be performing. The line-up also includes Paul O’Reilly, David Nelligan, Dave Ferriter (of Mir), John Kelly (of The Fallen), Barry Haugh (of Wonderland), and Kilter.

October 29
Lonnie Liston Smith the Jazz keyboardist and singer plays An Crúiscín Lán. Must be the Jazz Festival weekend! I'll mention stuff sent in, but I'm not going out of my way to get listings. I'm thinking of getting out of the festivals way to be honest.

Oh and James Yorkston & The Athletes play An Crúiscín Lan on October 10.
And with that my listings for Cork run out. For now, I still have lots of stuff in the inbox to go over.

take care,
Will

Cahir. Tour de Munster 2004 - Thursday Aug 26

The first proper stop. Soup and sandwiches had been organised in the Cahir House Hotel. After a little confusion on how to get to the car park, we dismounted and walked inside.

This was the first time I really got to see the Limerick contingent of cyclists. This was also when I got to see some of the, er, one day eveners. This also was the first time I'd seen some of the people I'd been training with for the past few months.

It sounds weirs, but remember the training kit. Helmet for the falls, glasses for the road spray. Usually dark tinted jobs. You end up recognising people not by their face but by their shirt, helmet and bike. Most of us were wearing their team shirts for the photos earlier in the day.

Soup - Veg. In fact, the soup seemed to follow us around the province, no matter where it was served, it was the same soup.

We drank, we talked, we paid and left.

Something for the morning crew

Hello Ryan and more to the point, Hello Penny.

Ryan mentioned that you have someone from China working with you Sunny...

Well you could play something Chinese for her...

Music for Robots blog had a posting on some music from 王菲 (aka "Wang Fei" or "Faye Wong" for the mandarin impaired). The Mandarin version of "To Love" might go down well with her (it's actually very good, but a little more "Night time 2FM" than something to Ryan's tastes). I suspect that you won't be able to get clearances to play it before Ryan comes back, but you might be able to play it, off air, for Sunny.

It is Sunny and not Sonny?

take care,
Will

Spamed from the USA

It's not all that often that I'll actually read a spam advert, but this title made me open it just because it seemed so odd.

"Bush advocates buying meds online. crania"

Given that it is the political season I might expect to see political spam, but I didn't expect to see one of the spammers actually using President Bush as a spokesperson.

The text of the spam is below...

Bush Advocates "Sense If Safe" Policy On Importing Meds.
If bush is advocating this and you've been contemplating, why not give it a try.

SAVE UP TO 80% ON ALL MEDICATIONS, STOP PAYING RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS TO ALREADY OVERPAID DOCTORS.

click below for more information.
NO I'M NOT PUTTING IN THE LINK IN TO THIS POST

"President Bush says the importation of prescription medication from Canada and elsewhere into the US makes sense only if the medications can be assured to not harm US citizens. The government is obliged to assure the safety of its citizens, he says."
These products are all Rx, all FDA approved, and produced by licensed pharmacists and Doctors.



I wonder if this means spammers are Republican?

On the one hand this does sound a little like the comments Mary Harney made a few months back about advocating going on line to get a cheaper price, just after IRMA sued CDWow.ie. On the other, it sounds, well, fake.

Maybe the talking Bush Doll said it. It looks like an official site, but considering what the dolls actually say, I suspect it's a joke site. I mean would you have your Rummy Doll saying "Oh, it was your rhetoric that made us do it..."

take care,
Will

Overheard

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body.
But rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand, chocolate covered strawberries in the other,body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming WOO HOO - What a Ride!"


- Tony from San Diego. Tony, what's your full name so I can credit this properly?

Overheard

Well, mailed to me...
"He missed his prescription this morning and so he's failing parity checks."

Yes folks, the BOFH rides again

The last goodbye

"The child's body lay on a stretcher, the skin charred and pale, an arm wrenched off by blasts, the little stomach concave and its dead face etched for eternity with disbelief." ... "[T]he small town of Beslan struggled with an aching grief, with incredulity and with a fearsome anger as it faced the reality of the siege of Middle School Number One."

The book of condolences for Cork is at City Hall.

There isn't much more to say.
Will

Lismore - The Vee - Clogheen - Cahir. Tour de Munster 2004 - Thursday Aug 26

Sometimes being heavy is an advantage.

Then there is The Vee. (It deserved caps).
It's a long climb. I fell back. The sweeper van eventually swept me up to the top.

take care,
Will

Midleton - Tallow - Lismore. Tour de Munster 2004 - Thursday Aug 26

I only started cycling in April.

I rode a bike for years, its part of being a child in Ireland... you want a bike. Eventually it happens and you learn to ride it. You might ride it to school every day, but usually at some point you stop and switch to the car, or the bus, or the trail (and thanks to the Luas you have the Tram as an option again).

However I sort of wanted to do this tour (see I really am insane) and I started training with the Airport crew in April. Two training trips in I realised that I was not going to do this on my mountain bike and live to tell the tale.

So I only started this year. Which means I'm not that strong in the endurance stakes. I'm also not build like a cyclist.

This became obvious when the team shirt arrived. Since the shirt is based on the now defunct Motorola Cycling Team, its specially made. (Job lot for a lot of cyclists...). It arrived with the standard label... XL is a 40 inch chest. I'm 48.

Why do I mention this? Cause in Midleton we hit our first hill.

Since I have a clear disadvantage in the climbing stakes, I was called up front to set the pace. (this happened a lot. Someone really needs to know that this isn't a race...). Not too bad, but then came the downhill.

"Gosh, you're a good descender" said one of the "near" pros who joined us on the first day. This was while al those around me were pedalling like sprinters while I was free wheeling. Sometimes being heavy is an advantage.

take care,
Will

Another dream

Jeremy Rifkin has written an article in the Guardian about the difference between the American Dream, and the European Dream. (Hint, it's about belonging, not belongings.)

It may simply be a long advert for his new book "The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream", published by Polity Press, but it is interesting reading.

take care,
Will

Cork - Midleton. Tour de Munster 2004 - Thursday Aug 26

The best place to start this story at is at the bag.

When travelling you need a bag. Now, when cycling 400 miles, you don't want to carry the bag, which would live in the back of the sweeper van during the cycle. Since you aren't carrying the bag, you over pack.

Well I do.

So I packed. Unpacked and re-packed. Now, after the event I know what I needed and didn't need. I didn't need the 3 kg of pasta and tinned tomatoes and the fig rolls I brought. Somehow, the thought of staying in hostels meant, to me at least, that I'd have to fend for myself. I know that I'm going to be pointing out the error of my packing in later posts.

The bag weighed a lot.

So in to the back of the car with it, and on to the back of the car goes the bike.

The meeting point turned out to the very bottom of the Silver Springs Hotel. Milling around are lots of familiar and unfamiliar cyclists. Some of these people remained unfamiliar for a while... more on this later.

The call went out... the plan is changing.

Since for some reason the cycle is due to start at City Hall, we all have to make our own way, in ones and twos to City Hall and meet outside where the Garda escort will let the 40 cyclists cycle together. Great idea. Cork has traffic lights. Minutes later, thirty or so separate cyclists, mostly in identical shirts, were stuck at the lights on the Penrose Quay. A large mob of completely unrelated cyclists all arrived at City Hall.

Then the photos started. This took a while and is as boring as it sounds. If you've ever been in a "group shot" wedding photograph, you know exactly how this went.

Then the "fearless leader" announced that the plan had changed slightly... again. It appears that due to the permit for that day in Cork, the collectors (bucket shakers asking for change, money or personal assets) could only do their collecting on the streets we cycled down.

I actually have to pull out a map for this one. From City Hall, down Anglesea Street on to South Terrace, from there along the Quay's George, Sullivan's and Proby's on to Sharman Crawford Street to get to Washington Street. Through a side street to Sheares' Street and past the Mercy Hospital to get to the Quays Bachelor, Coal, Lavitt and Merchants. From there I think it was the Michael Collins Bridge on toe Penrose Quay, up to the Lower Glanmire Road and out of the city.

Don't worry, that's the last time I'm going to give a description that detailed.

After that it's a simple (and mostly flat) ride out of the city, towards the tunnel, then over the overpass belonging to the tunnel roundabout and off Middleton. Being sort of easy going chats were had when doubled up.

"So how did you get roped in to this"
"Well I'm a friend of - LEFT - Tom's"
"You mean - CENTRE - Tom up there?"
"No the other - COMING THROUGH - Tom"

Deep meaningful chats are not exactly possible when warnings are to be passed along the line of bikes.
They are the exception.

Shortly, we were in Middleton, on main street turned left past the Rugby Club and hit the first hill...

take care,
Will

Not bicycles

I had intended to start off today with a Tour de Munster tale or two but news just in...

A public auction of miscellaneous items (not bicycles) will take place at Kevin Street Garda Station in Dublin at 11am on Thursday 16th September 2004.

Interested members of the public may view these goods in advance on Wednesday 15th September 2004 between 10am and 3pm.

Yeah it's Dublin, but think of the cool stuff they might have siezed!

take care,
Will