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FREE THE CHIP SHOP FIVE!

A grave injustice has been done. Five young men have been punished for a crime they had very little to do with. Barred for life from Marco’s Take Away in Stoneybatter (the fast food outlet of choice for a new generation), tut-tutted at by every pain-in-the-hole auld one in a two mile radius, and for what? The muddled testimony of a henpecked chip shop owner? The palsied lies of his stubby-fingered wife? Read the rest of this article here.

IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS OF THE MORNING (1955)

Up very late writing up an interview with David Kitt for the Irish Times. Don’t think he likes giving interviews. Don’t think I like transcribing them. Either way this song has been stuck in my head all night. Sublime.

NOTHING IN THIS PICTURE MAKES ANY SENSE TO ME…

…But I want a goddamn llama and I want it now.

THIS IS FUNNY

It’s odd the things that make me laugh. The Onion cleverly subvert Garrison Keillor’s excellent, but eminently risible, Lake Wobegon books. It barely raises a smirk. Then they put Nicholas Cage in a fake mustache and I’m giggling and like a schoolgirl. Go figure.

STAY WITH ME (1972)

Hell, yeah.

“IT’S 7.30AM. I’VE JUST FINISHED DEER STALKING…”

As promised a while back, here’s the transcript of my “explosive” interview with celebrity chef, rhetorical question fetishist and all-round pompous arsehole Marco Pierre White, published in the Irish Times yesterday. Since I filed copy, he’s been dumped from his reality show in the US. To be honest, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer fellow… Read this article here.

YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS…?

Sara has a rather low opinion of Irish men in general. But there’s one Irishman for whom she reserves particular scorn: One prototypical idiot she regards as even more clueless than the herd. “Tell me Eooo-wen”, she purrs in that lugubrious Teutonic drone of hers. “What are you getting your girlfriend for Christmas? Binliners, perhaps? Tampons?” Read the rest of this entry »

FAITH ALIVE

1. Taliban fighters hand out 37 lashes against a teenage girl in the Swat valley, Pakistan earlier this week, for attending market with a man who was not her husband.
2. Genius YouTube video blogger proves the existence of God. Yip, it’s a pretty watertight case he makes.
3. Ultra-Orthodox newspaper airbrushes women ministers out of photograph of incoming Israeli cabinet.
4. Christian power ballads? Hell yeah!

VISIONS OF CODY/ON THE ROAD (1959)

THINK I’M GONNA BE SICK…

A CUP OF TEA. A bowl of corn flakes. Two slices of brown toast with margarine and honey . . . If someone had asked me on the tarmac what I ate for breakfast this morning, I doubt I’d have been able to recall. Hurling upside down through a bank of clouds at 250 miles per hour, though, I can recount every tiny detail, from the brand name of the margarine, to the expiration date on the milk… Read the rest of this article.