I am currently reading 'Stepping Stones' Interviews with Seamus Heaney and I am currently enjoying it.
Yesterday 'Poetry Now festival', paid tribute to Him turning 70 and it was a well deserved tribute that I wished to, but could not, attend.
Last year I read to the Children for The DLR Poetry Now Festival and also reading during this festival was Seamus Heaney...
I was really looking forward to meeting Seamus Heaney, at one of the many dinners arranged for the participants of the festivals or failing that at his reading that was occurring on Friday evening.
I had my copy of 'Death of a Naturalist' ready for the great man to sign, I wanted to tell him that I enjoyed his poetry and how much I appreciated being part of the same festival as he was...
So on the Thursday evening as I entered the Hotel to eat with poets and thinkers and feel out of place, I had a quick look around for the distinctive head of white hair and could not see it... I met many wonderful people that night, but no Seamus Heaney.
My reading was the following day and as it was for Children I knew he would not be there...
Our second meal was later that afternoon and again it was Seamus Heaney-less, but that was OK Seamus Heaney's reading was later that afternoon and I was going to attend.
I was going to go, with my copy of, 'Death Of A Naturalist' and queue to get it signed, but my Wife was ill and I attended the reading myself, and afterwards I was too worried about my wife to queue to get my copy signed and banter wittily with a wonderful poet.
But hopefully he was going to be in the Hardy Bar later talking to anyone who wanted to talk to him, so I went up to see my wife who told me to stop worrying about her and to go and circulate... I did as I was told but Mr Heaney was not there.
I left the festival with an unsigned copy of, 'Death of a Naturalist' and it remains unsigned to this day and maybe for ever.
Oh well, at least I can still enjoy the poetry inside...
I will use this blog though, to Thank him for all the Poetry and to wish him all the best as he begins his 71st year by celebrating his 70th birthday...
Happy Birthday Mr Heaney...
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Picturegate... Why, Why, Why...
As Voltaire said, “I don't agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Well I don’t draw pictures of the Taoiseach naked as the thought of it makes me quite queasy, but if you wish to spend your time doing that then go ahead…
Now I didn’t see the original broadcast, but I did see the apology. All I know of the original broadcast is what Vincent Browne has been telling us, they showed it twice and they went down his torso to show his stomach…
Brian Cowen’s humourless response to his pictures and actually using the Garda and the national broadcaster as his own personal service, would be quite disturbing, if he’d actually make a good dictator. You see however despicable and evil Tyrannical Dictators have been, they always had that certain bit of charm and character or they wouldn’t have got where they are, Brian Cowen has none of these so his attempts to turn us into a police state will fail miserably…
You would have thought that being a really un-popular Taoiseach would mean that Brian Cowen would like to keep a low-as profile as he possibly could, but now he is displaying his ineptness when he does not have too…
Well I don’t draw pictures of the Taoiseach naked as the thought of it makes me quite queasy, but if you wish to spend your time doing that then go ahead…
Now I didn’t see the original broadcast, but I did see the apology. All I know of the original broadcast is what Vincent Browne has been telling us, they showed it twice and they went down his torso to show his stomach…
Brian Cowen’s humourless response to his pictures and actually using the Garda and the national broadcaster as his own personal service, would be quite disturbing, if he’d actually make a good dictator. You see however despicable and evil Tyrannical Dictators have been, they always had that certain bit of charm and character or they wouldn’t have got where they are, Brian Cowen has none of these so his attempts to turn us into a police state will fail miserably…
You would have thought that being a really un-popular Taoiseach would mean that Brian Cowen would like to keep a low-as profile as he possibly could, but now he is displaying his ineptness when he does not have too…
Monday, March 23, 2009
Oh how I Cringed...
Did anyone else Cringe when Pat Kenny asked the young Breakdancer, Jack Lynch, if he'd ever thought of, 'Blackening his face up', as most Breakdancers are black?
It made for most uncomfortable viewing.
It made for most uncomfortable viewing.
I'm a bit surprised.
As I blogged last month about Jade Goody , I predicted there will be Queen of our hearts type headlines and quotes...
I thought that Princess Diana comparisons would come and I have been proven right... I just didn't expect them to come from Stephen Fry.
In his wonderful book, 'The Ode Less Travelled', he expresses his thoughts about the banality of reality television and modern culture...
I am a bit surprised that he would feel the need to celebrate it then...
I thought that Princess Diana comparisons would come and I have been proven right... I just didn't expect them to come from Stephen Fry.
In his wonderful book, 'The Ode Less Travelled', he expresses his thoughts about the banality of reality television and modern culture...
I am a bit surprised that he would feel the need to celebrate it then...
Friday, March 20, 2009
Conclusive Proof that there is a war against Christmas
Now as some of you may or may not be aware there is an alleged war against the sacred Christian holiday of Christmas, see here and here…
I now submit undisputable proof that there is nothing alleged about it, this war is real and the creators/practitioners of other feast days are in on the whole thing…
Valentines Day, a day that, before my marriage, I always seemed more unsuccessful with the female gender than any other day… Well this feast day was created by Warriors against the 25th December being known as anything other than the 25th December…
You think I’m talking gibberish don’t you, I bet you are surmising quietly to yourself that Paul is just being ridiculous and what possible proof does he indeed have?
Well I shall tell you…
Valentines Day is an Anagram of… DENY EVIL SANTA…
Absolutely, Creators and Practitioners of this day are trying, through subliminal messages and downright nasty tactics, to get young people to turn their backs on the cuddly, nice, jolly image of St Nicholas and embrace a small cherub like creature who is armed with a dangerous weapon…
See that is indisputable and cannot be denied, unlike Santa who should never be denied…
I rest my case…
I now submit undisputable proof that there is nothing alleged about it, this war is real and the creators/practitioners of other feast days are in on the whole thing…
Valentines Day, a day that, before my marriage, I always seemed more unsuccessful with the female gender than any other day… Well this feast day was created by Warriors against the 25th December being known as anything other than the 25th December…
You think I’m talking gibberish don’t you, I bet you are surmising quietly to yourself that Paul is just being ridiculous and what possible proof does he indeed have?
Well I shall tell you…
Valentines Day is an Anagram of… DENY EVIL SANTA…
Absolutely, Creators and Practitioners of this day are trying, through subliminal messages and downright nasty tactics, to get young people to turn their backs on the cuddly, nice, jolly image of St Nicholas and embrace a small cherub like creature who is armed with a dangerous weapon…
See that is indisputable and cannot be denied, unlike Santa who should never be denied…
I rest my case…
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Collection of Poetry Available...
My Poetry Collection that I have been going on about constantly since October 2008 is now available for purchasing.
Comic/Nonsense verse suitable for Children of all ages... Further information can be found by clicking the link below...
Comic/Nonsense verse suitable for Children of all ages... Further information can be found by clicking the link below...
Monday, March 16, 2009
Seachtain na Gaeilge
As I have blogged before, I cannot speak a word of the beautiful Irish Language, and things have not changed since I wrote this blog.
So it was a bit surprising to be asked to provide a poetry/song performance for Children in Baldoyle Library for Seachtain na Gaeilge, The festival to promote the use of the language.
But asked I was and pleased I am that I was asked… I had another great reading/performance… My book was met with enthusiasm. As were my poems and songs…
The day started as usual, with a coffee and a breakfast… I made my way to Baldoyle library and tuned up…
The Children were being brought down by a bus and as there were so many of them, they were being brought in, in stages. Therefore, there were a group of Children sitting watching me drink my coffee as I was still waiting for others to come down.
Eventually, due to a delay with the bus… I was asked to start by introducing myself. Normally I would start with a song and then introduce myself… But I’m all for a change and I did this and was immediately met with questions…
As well as reading my poems and singing my songs, I mentioned that I shamefully have not made any attempts to learn Irish, despite the best intentions and I got them to teach me a few phrases and even got an Irish poem written and read by a small group of girls.
All in All an exceptionally enjoyable experience… And this time next year I hope to inform readers that I have made some attempt to learn Irish.
So it was a bit surprising to be asked to provide a poetry/song performance for Children in Baldoyle Library for Seachtain na Gaeilge, The festival to promote the use of the language.
But asked I was and pleased I am that I was asked… I had another great reading/performance… My book was met with enthusiasm. As were my poems and songs…
The day started as usual, with a coffee and a breakfast… I made my way to Baldoyle library and tuned up…
The Children were being brought down by a bus and as there were so many of them, they were being brought in, in stages. Therefore, there were a group of Children sitting watching me drink my coffee as I was still waiting for others to come down.
Eventually, due to a delay with the bus… I was asked to start by introducing myself. Normally I would start with a song and then introduce myself… But I’m all for a change and I did this and was immediately met with questions…
As well as reading my poems and singing my songs, I mentioned that I shamefully have not made any attempts to learn Irish, despite the best intentions and I got them to teach me a few phrases and even got an Irish poem written and read by a small group of girls.
All in All an exceptionally enjoyable experience… And this time next year I hope to inform readers that I have made some attempt to learn Irish.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Library Ireland Week Part 2
During the Q&A section of my performance on Monday I was asked this question, ‘What was the score of the Carling Cup Competition yesterday?’ Of course the question-asker did know the answer to the question, but as I predicted in Sundays blog, me being a Tottenham Hotspur fan would mean that I was to come into a bit of Friendly joking…
The day started, as is my norm, with a coffee and breakfast had at my house in Howth…
The Coffee was again instant due to another broken Cafetierre, but as it didn’t seem to affect me last time I read at Malahide (See Here) I wasn’t as concerned this time.
Catching the 0820 dart from my home town of Howth, I was in Malahide before 9 am and decided to try out a nice place called ‘The Coffee Scene’ for my pre-reading coffee…
I had a bit of time after this so I walked around Malahide before going to the Library. I was upstairs in the Library on this occasion and I found out it was to 70 Children I would be performing too.
And the performance went exceptionally well, except for the story I wrote about in my last Blog about a young experience with the library, that didn't seem to make anyone laugh… but that’s OK, because the poems were well received and the songs were exceptionally well received, I had enquiries about purchasing my poems and I was happy to inform anyone that I have a book coming out (reminder here.) My new song ‘Library Card Blues’ (Listen to here) went down really well, even though I, being a numpty, left my bottleneck at home. I was so pleased with the amount of giggles it got, and I was a bit surprised that at the end, I was asked to play the coat-hanger song again but not this one.
Anyway, after the reading I adjourned to Malahide’s Starbucks where I was impressed by exceptionally friendly staff...
If I have one complaint, it is that, witty comments from Manchester United fans aside, there was only one performance… normally I do two or three, but after this performance I really wanted to do another one and would have stayed in the room and performed to nobody, but that misses the point and looks rather sad.
But anyway, I have my first reading of 2009 down and it is hopefully the first of many…
The day started, as is my norm, with a coffee and breakfast had at my house in Howth…
The Coffee was again instant due to another broken Cafetierre, but as it didn’t seem to affect me last time I read at Malahide (See Here) I wasn’t as concerned this time.
Catching the 0820 dart from my home town of Howth, I was in Malahide before 9 am and decided to try out a nice place called ‘The Coffee Scene’ for my pre-reading coffee…
I had a bit of time after this so I walked around Malahide before going to the Library. I was upstairs in the Library on this occasion and I found out it was to 70 Children I would be performing too.
And the performance went exceptionally well, except for the story I wrote about in my last Blog about a young experience with the library, that didn't seem to make anyone laugh… but that’s OK, because the poems were well received and the songs were exceptionally well received, I had enquiries about purchasing my poems and I was happy to inform anyone that I have a book coming out (reminder here.) My new song ‘Library Card Blues’ (Listen to here) went down really well, even though I, being a numpty, left my bottleneck at home. I was so pleased with the amount of giggles it got, and I was a bit surprised that at the end, I was asked to play the coat-hanger song again but not this one.
Anyway, after the reading I adjourned to Malahide’s Starbucks where I was impressed by exceptionally friendly staff...
If I have one complaint, it is that, witty comments from Manchester United fans aside, there was only one performance… normally I do two or three, but after this performance I really wanted to do another one and would have stayed in the room and performed to nobody, but that misses the point and looks rather sad.
But anyway, I have my first reading of 2009 down and it is hopefully the first of many…
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Library Ireland Week
Tomorrow, I am doing my first Poetry/Song Performance of 2009 as part of the Library Ireland Week, and I am looking forward to it immensely. The Performance will be too Children in Malahide Library.
I love visiting the Library and I think it is a wonderful to have a week set aside to acknowledge the wonderful service Libraries provide, but… My first memory with a Library is an unpleasant one… I shall proceed to explain why…
At a young age I was given a position of responsibility that I was obviously not ready for. We lived in a town in Hertfordshire called, Bishops Stortford and to two different tasks had to be attended to, one involved going to the Bishops Stortford Library to return books and this is the task I was given… My Mother asked me to return books to the Library and to meet her outside after she had performed the other task.
Now I was unaware of the etiquette of returning Library books by giving them to a Librarian, obviously I had been to the Library before this, but obviously had never returned books. So I carried these books into the Library and put them on the shelf… Obviously wanting to do the job properly I had to look around the Library to find similar books so they could go in their rightful place, but I remember the ordeal of locating these ‘rightful places’ being quite tormenting and eventually I placed these books anywhere I could.
As I left the Library, my Mother was cross at the length of time it had taken me to return books and we travelled home in silence…
A while later reminders and fines started coming to our house for the books that I was supposed to have returned… My parents were shocked, ‘these books had been returned.’ They reasoned and I could confirm this…
As time went by I learnt how to return books properly and I never owned up to how I had returned the books that first time I ever did it…
But hopefully, my journey to Malahide Library tomorrow will not be as disagreeable as this memory, but this reading is coming after a weekend of unhappy, for me, sporting results…
I will be unable to hide the fact that I am English, and some of the Children may mention the fact that Ireland beat England in the Rugby, but I’m more concerned with the Manchester United Fans amongst them mentioning and taking pleasure in, the fact that their team beat my team, Tottenham Hotspur, in the Final of the Carling Cup today… some of my songs and poems performed mention Tottenham and I let them all know that I am a Tottenham fan, but I’m sure I’ll be able to deal with any gloating coming my way…
To commemorate Library Ireland Week, I wrote a new song called ‘Library Card Blues’, and it can be listened too at my musical myspace page… www.myspace.com/failedrockstar/ I shall be writing another blog about this tomorrow…
I love visiting the Library and I think it is a wonderful to have a week set aside to acknowledge the wonderful service Libraries provide, but… My first memory with a Library is an unpleasant one… I shall proceed to explain why…
At a young age I was given a position of responsibility that I was obviously not ready for. We lived in a town in Hertfordshire called, Bishops Stortford and to two different tasks had to be attended to, one involved going to the Bishops Stortford Library to return books and this is the task I was given… My Mother asked me to return books to the Library and to meet her outside after she had performed the other task.
Now I was unaware of the etiquette of returning Library books by giving them to a Librarian, obviously I had been to the Library before this, but obviously had never returned books. So I carried these books into the Library and put them on the shelf… Obviously wanting to do the job properly I had to look around the Library to find similar books so they could go in their rightful place, but I remember the ordeal of locating these ‘rightful places’ being quite tormenting and eventually I placed these books anywhere I could.
As I left the Library, my Mother was cross at the length of time it had taken me to return books and we travelled home in silence…
A while later reminders and fines started coming to our house for the books that I was supposed to have returned… My parents were shocked, ‘these books had been returned.’ They reasoned and I could confirm this…
As time went by I learnt how to return books properly and I never owned up to how I had returned the books that first time I ever did it…
But hopefully, my journey to Malahide Library tomorrow will not be as disagreeable as this memory, but this reading is coming after a weekend of unhappy, for me, sporting results…
I will be unable to hide the fact that I am English, and some of the Children may mention the fact that Ireland beat England in the Rugby, but I’m more concerned with the Manchester United Fans amongst them mentioning and taking pleasure in, the fact that their team beat my team, Tottenham Hotspur, in the Final of the Carling Cup today… some of my songs and poems performed mention Tottenham and I let them all know that I am a Tottenham fan, but I’m sure I’ll be able to deal with any gloating coming my way…
To commemorate Library Ireland Week, I wrote a new song called ‘Library Card Blues’, and it can be listened too at my musical myspace page… www.myspace.com/failedrockstar/ I shall be writing another blog about this tomorrow…
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