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Miscellaneous Amusing Items I’ve Come Across #2

When Bertie Ahern stepped down as Taoiseach last May, I think it sent out a clear message to the world: the Irish people will not stand for their leaders murdering Polish people. Brian Cowan, take heed!

(Incidentally I once interviewed Bertie.)

“AND THEN, BADA-BING!, YOU GOT HIS BRAINS ALL OVER THAT NICE IVY LEAGUE SUIT OF YOURS…”

I’ll never look at you the same way, polar bears.

WHO WILL WATCH THE WATCHMEN (…NO, SERIOUSLY?)

After some savage early notices, the critics seem to be warming to Zach Snyder’s Watchmen movie. Roger Ebert in the Chicago-Sun Times gave it this glowing review. Here’s my interview with Snyder from yesterday’s Ticket.

It wasn’t the forum to offer my own opinion on the film. (Donald Clarke was reviewing it.) But for the record, I thought it was tedious, overlong and preposterous. I saw it in L.A. and was jet-lagged at the screening. Frankly, it was a struggle to stay awake.

“You’ve heard of the Loch Ness monster, right? The fact is that there are dozens of these lake creatures all over the world…”.

For the last year or so I’ve been doing a Q&A interview each week at the front of the Irish Times Saturday Magazine. This is the only one they’ve ever refused to print. It was with a preacher who was about to address a creationism rally in Lucan. The Irish Times refused to publish it on the grounds that the guy was clearly insane. My position was that of course the guy was insane, that was why I interviewed him in the first place. Sanity prevailed, unfortunately… Read the interview here.

I’M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY (1949)

My favourite ever artist. My favourite ever song.

Miscellaneous Amusing Items I’ve Come Across #1

Was in Grogans for a sup earlier this afternoon and spotted this (it says “Ireland For The Irish) on the wall in the jacks. Now I don’t really mind that there’s some eejit going around Dublin with a marker in his pocket. But I hate to think of a foreign person going for a wee, seeing this and assuming that this is what all the Irish people in the bar are secretly thinking. So in a rare moment of inspiration… Read the rest of this entry »

NORM MACDONALD ON CONAN O’BRIEN (1997)

When Late Night With Conan O’Brien finished up last month, much of its last week was devoted to re-showing old clips from the show’s 16 year run. One clip that wasn’t re-aired was this 1997 appearance by Norm MacDonald, in which the comedian hilariously sabotages O’Brien’s interview with Courtney Thorne-Smith, one of the then-stars of Melrose Place. Worth watching until the end.

For the full episode, these are parts one, two and three.

A NEW HOPE

In these difficult times, the world is crying out for a man with fresh ideas…

IRONY R.I.P.

The All-Ireland Talent Show… ha! Apologies to those of you who keep up to date with these sorts of things. I don’t really watch television, so I only found out about this today.

It used to be said that irony died the day Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. If that’s the case, then its corpse was exhumed, resuscitated and clubbed to death again the day Shane Lynch was asked to judge a talent contest.

GET WELL SOON, OLLIE!

Best wishes to singer-songwriter Ollie Higgins, who suffered a smashed pelvis and broken ribs in an accident earlier this week. Many of you will remember Ollie as drummer with the acclaimed Kill City Snowmen, who were big favourites at the Sound Cellar and Baggot Inn back in the day.

True legends of Irish rock, the Snowmen were tipped in Smiley Bolger’s annual ‘ones to to watch’ list a record-breaking five times (1987, ’88, ’90, ’91 and ’93!) One of the nicest guys in the business, Ollie apparently fell fifty feet onto concrete while attempting to rescue a kitten from a tree.

[P.S. In 2004, I was lucky enough to be granted an interview with Ollie, which you can read here.]

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