Lobby still closed

From Pat Conway,

The Lobby Bar, Cork, which has been closed for past three weeks, will remain closed in the medium term to facilitate the reorganisation and restructuring of the business.



‘We at The Lobby feel proud of our contribution to the Cork music scene over the last 17 years’ Pat Conway said today. ‘We look forward to reopening in the near future. We very much appreciate all the support from our friends in music both at home and abroad.’



Details of The Lobby opening will be posted in local press nearer the time.

And I'll post them when I get them too.

Resistance is Duvet

I should really file this under "why do I do these things to myself" except in this instance, I know why. I'm pig headed.

I suffer from "Fat Boy Slim". No, I'm not being stalked by Norman Cook, it's a nick name for the conditional training at work. Well, I would like to say that it's a work thing... but it isn't really. Too many companies are involved.

It's better if I pull you back to September 2004. I did the "Tour de Munster". This is a four day 400 mile charity road cycle (actually 600Km, but 100 miles a day rolls off the tounge). Once the tour is over... the bikes go somewhere to get rusty.

There are the odd "muck-biking" sessions. These are propper mountain bike sessions somewhere in Limerick involving proper mountain bikes (I've only got the road bike a.k.a. a racer) and proper mountains. As as one of the people on it discovered... real muck (his cycling kit still bears traces months later). But that's about it.

So the cyclists get as round as their tires. (There are exceptions, but I'll save that for later). So "Fat boy slim" begins. This is conditional training to get us fit enought to survive the first few sessions because...

1) There is no such thing as a flat cycle in Cork and
2) the first few sessions are 20 to 30 miles. Mostly uphill.
3) since it's a work thing, training begins after work, so you can't road cycle the country roads of country Cork at 6pm or later in complete darkness unless you are a crased cyclepath. (he typed in earshot of one)

Needless to say the condition of my condition is not in the best of condition. And after conditional training, I'm in not condition to do much.

For a while.

Around 2am I'll still be staring at the ceiling because while my body is in bits and achine, for some unknown reason my brain is firing at random on all cylinders keeping me awake. This happens after every training session I've ever done.

So come morning, the alarm clock goes off, and I begin my resistance training. Somehow my duvet has gained the weight of a full grown elephant and I can't get up. I try and try but it's dammed difficult to move.

I'm in more pain from that duvet than I am from the training...

take care,
Will

Night Driving

From the inky night, headlights fly toward,
and the road ascends to meet them

You can make anything in to soup

Somehow the chat moved on to getting kids to eat their food. This was after the long discussion to the point of lettuce (there isn't one).

"She loves pizza", this is of the two year old. "And once we made chilli con carne, and gave her some of it. She looked at it and asked 'pizza soup?'."

So could you actually make pizza soup? Broccoli and cheddar exist as a soup, so a tomato and cheddar based soup with ham and pineapple juice?

Suddenly I don't want to cook tonight.

take care,
Will

Overheard

"Sorry for grasping the wrong end of the stick by the horns"

I'd like to thank the academy

Bono is up for a Nobel Peace Prize!

Hotpress (registration required) are flaging in their news section.

But he's not expected to win since "it's expected that the Prize will go to one of the groups involved in coordinating the tsunami relief effort".

Oh well, can you imagine what Ali would have to do to calm his ego down.

take care,
Will

Old traditions

Stuff gets sent to the many e-mail addresses of me.

One going around work (and no I'm not linking) is this Irish Traditional & folk music concert featuring Noel Shine & Mary Greene, Any Old Time, Ger Wolfe and Garry Walsh & friends. It's on Thursday February 24 at 9pm in An Spailpin Fanac.

And now for the blurb...

"Your support will enable a group of Irish volunteers to work alongside Kenyans this Summer in the Londiani region of Kenya. Together they will - build a hospital and a school; provide running water; run education campaigns about HIV/AIDS, immunisation, malaria and nutrition."

That's why it gets a post...

take care,
Will

Innocents?

I don't know why people think kids are pure and innocent.

Wild animals are innocent, and willing to kill another cute animal for food. Children aren't that different, except for the eating bit (but they do bite).

Which is why I'm thinking of a play coming soon to the Cork Opera House. Namely, The Pillowman.

"Martin McDonagh's viciously funny play about a writer in a totalitarian state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories". I love the description from a critic... "The Brothers Grimm done by Quentin Tarantino".

It plays Tuesday 15th - Saturday 19th March.

The following Wednesday (March 23) the Second City Trilogy by Cónal Creedon arrives to the Half Moon Theatre.

What can I say, I like his stuff...

Going back to kids for a second... how come they don't mention Rosie Palm on this finger based poem for children?

take care,
Will

Time for the classics

The Michael Nyman Band (not to be confused with Albert Niland) visit the Cork Opera House on April 11.

Nyman is best know for suppling the score for The Piano, and has just completed the soundtrack to the new Johnny Depp movie, The Libertine.

Not waving

Overheard -
"My best swiming record was three minutes before the lifeguard paniced"

More lobby relocation

Hello there,

It appears that all is not well yet with the Lobby.

Noelie McDonnell who was due to play on Sunday will be postponed till further date.

Nick Kelly on Friday 11th February will now play City Limits in Coburg Street, Cork. (Doors 9pm – admission €10)

James Yorkston (solo) on Saturday 12th February will also play City Limits in Coburg Street, Cork (Doors 9pm – admission €12)

Tickets from The Lobby are still valid. (Refunds are available)

Tickets also available at door for both concerts

take care,
Will

I love typos

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
Attend and you will hear an excellent speaker and heave a healthy lunch.

Father Jack would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7PM. Please use the back door.

The children from class 8 will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the local Methodist Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

Ringing around

Bell X1 are touring in support of a new album. And on Wednesday April 27 they hit the Savoy Theatre.

So that's where my culture is...

The Cork 2005 people have been updating their website, and I think that the link to this PDF file of current listings is likely to stay valid for a while. Oh and their programme calendar (I think it's on every page) is worth playing with, if a bit hard to use).

Under the heading of "yes I am that shallow" is that the cleavage on the side of the Cork Opera House has now been identified. It's used to advertise the Opera Figaro's Wedding which is the first full scale production by Opera 2005. Oddly enough Mozart is not mentioned once, so this might not be Le Nozze di Figaro a.k.a. "The Marriage of Figaro". All the main characters are present however... Ewan Taylor from South Africa plays Figaro and the Countess will be sung by Norwegian Ann-Helen Moen. The Count is Riccardo Simonetti from the UK and Susanna is the Irish-born Sandra Oman.

Stating tomorrow is the literary masters for World Writing Series. The series runs in Cork from 11- 13 February and from 19 - 20 February at the Trinity Presbyterian Church on Summer Hill North and the Gresham Metropole Hotel on MacCurtain Street. Tickets are at the Cork Opera House Box Office.

Of personal interest are...
Seamus Heaney and Greg Delanty reading at The Metropole Hotel, MacCurtain Street on Sunday, 13th February, 4pm and...
Paula Meehan and Doris Lessing reading at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Summer Hill North on Saturday, 19th February, 4pm.

There are more readings on the and information here.

And finally, a festival, or at least a series of gigs from Friday March 11 until Wednesday March 30. Namely A Continent Undivided. You can read the blurb and the reasons behind it on their pages in Cork2005.ie, but of personal interest (it's my blog, I can have personal interest so there) are...

Sounds of the Balkans on Friday March 11 2005, 8pm in the Cork Opera House

Taraf de Haïdouks & Koçani Orkestar on Saturday March 12 2005, 8pm in the Cork Opera House

Radio Tarifa on Sunday March 20 2005, 8pm in the Everyman Palace
and
Mariza on Wednesday March 30 2005, 8.30pm in the Savoy Theatre

take care,
Will

Celtic Iron

Iron Maiden is something of a staple. Even if you don't like them, most people at least know of them.

Well, the original Iron Maiden singer, Paul Di’Anno, is heading to Cork with his new band on February 26 to play Nancy Spain’s. And the support slot is filled by the Scavenger metallers who are plugging their "Ethereal Journey" album.

Ethereal Journey sounds a bit Enya-ish. Now Enya doing heavy metal...

Eating the evidence

I blame the likes of CSI. Somehow the conversation at work turned to just how nasty a pig can be, and dead bodies and how to get rid of them.

It's fair to say it was a disgruntled day.

Anyway, the solution was suggested by Guy Richie in Snatch.

'Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. You gotta shave the heads of your victims, and pull the teeth out for the sake of the piggies' digestion. You could do this afterwards, of course, but you don't want to go sievin' through pig shit, now do you? They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs 200 pounds in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression, "as greedy as a pig".'

I don't think I have the ham salad right now...

Will

if it's open

Gospel and blues legend Eric Bibb is to play Crawdaddy to help launch a new album by Mayo's Brian Flanagan. It's booked for the Lobby Bar on February 23. Assuming it's allowed to open.

quotes

Party as contact sport: lots of scrimmaging, plenty of scoring. Not everyone will be standing at the end.
-- Geraldine Bedell

Exchange rates

One of the advantages of sharing the house with The Librarian is that not only does he collect books like it's going out of style, but DVD too.

The downside of this is that his tastes runs towards schlock horror, and a lot of this collection reflects this.

Ginger Snaps is not schlock, it is however low budget horror. It also spawned a sequel and a prequel.

Both DVDs have commentaries.

They are Canadian films, but funded form the US. On the commentary track the director complains that the US dollar has dropped so much in comparison to the Canadian dollar that the exchange rate was killing them...

Pressing stop, up popped the US Ambassador to Ireland asking for more students to apply for the J1 visa.
I suspect the Euro - US dollar exchange rate is such that it's more profitable for the students to remain on this side of the Atlantic.

After all, if the Canadian dollar is worth so much...

take care,
Will

Closing the Lobby...

Due to a problem with their license, the Lobby Bar has been forced to close it's doors (for a little while)...

The following venue changes announced are...

Chris Smither Cypress Avenue(Old Oak),
Oliver Plunket Street
Sat 5 & Sun 6 February – 9pm, limited seating.

Tickets for the Lobby will be honoured.

Will

Beating up the police?

This is an odd press release....

"Rylane Boxing Club / An Garda Siochána Boxing Club are competing in a Garda Boxing Tournament / Dinner Show" (sounds like a food fight to me...) "against the New Yorp Police Department, on Saint Patrick's night 2005 at Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork City."

The release goes on a bit, I'm not too sure why, and there are no ticket details.

There is no doubt a joke which could be attached to this, but something tells me not to type it.

Coming back

There are a few "big name" gigs coming to Cork soon...

New Zealanders take over the Cork Opera House on Sunday April 3 when Finn Brothers and Bic Runga come to town.

Or rather come back to town. The Finns seem to keep popping up on Lobby and Sirius listings and Bic was sent to West Cork to write and record her album. So this is a sort fo homecoming.

And in poppier news, "Bryan McFadden brings his Irish Son tour to Cork 2005" on Saturday July 2. I'm assuming that the quote is a typo, hopefully someone left out the 'in' between 'Cork' and '2005'. Either that or the media in Dublin have yet to figure out that 'Cork 2005' is about a city, and not an event in a gallery somewhere.

take care,
Will

Overheard

Growing old in unavoidable, but growing up is optional.

Copyright house ... sounds like a gothic novel

Bands have up until Monday February 28 to apply for a spot on the 2005 IMRO Showcase Tour, which will be criss-crossing the country in March. I suspect the Cork date will be in the Lobby again.

The tour has an impressive track record with X Factor contestant Tabby Callaghan, Vertigo signings The Marshal Stars and Morrissey's new favourite band, Remma, all participating in the 2004 trek.

Demos for the Showcase should be sent to
Copyright House,
Pembroke Row,
Lower Baggot Street,
Dublin 2
to arrive no later than Monday February 28.

Is it just me, or is that address slightly disturbing?

take care,
Will