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First I was ginger. Then I was bald. Nelson Mandela, are you on Twitter? We have a lot in common.

Erected by Sydney Goldsmith of the Universal Hair & Scalp Clinic in 1962, Georges Street’s “Why Go Bald” sign is one of Dublin’s oddest and best loved landmarks. Rescued from the jaws of the scrapheap in November 1999 (after a campaign by a group called the 20th Century Trust) and restored to its former glory, it is now a cult tourist attraction that has won plaudits from admirers including U2’s Bono. Which is kind of appropriate when you consider… Well, we’ll come back to that later. Read the rest of this entry »

Miscellaneous Amusing Items I Come Across #53

Seriously, how out of shape do you need to be before even the darts community starts taking pot shots? Might be time to start rethinking those lifestyle choices, dude…

Wait, haven’t we met somewhere before?

Does this face look familiar? He is is 27-year-old Billy Lee, fast establishing himself as one of Ireland’s top jockeys. Currently based in Dubai, Billy has ridden winners on both sides of the Irish sea. But even high fliers have to start at the somewhere. In this case, possibly the funniest sporting contest in YouTube history. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey Joe (1974)

Miscellaneous Amusing Items I Come Across #52

“I really admire any game that can go on for five days and not produce a winner”

EOIN BUTLER talks to Neil Hannon about cricket, Britpop and “Father Ted”.

What are you listening to these days?
I listen to far too much music that is not considered cool. I’m a lifelong fan of Cole Porter and Noel Coward. I also love Maurice Ravel. As far as pop music is concerned, it tends to be strangely commercial stuff. I’ll find I’m just mad about a Sugababes song or something. The new Jarvis Cocker album is brilliant too, much better than his first album. I was always a massive Pulp fan.

Do I recall that you and Jarvis once had an argument about an anorak?
That has a basis in truth. Jarvis and I once did a joint cover shoot for a French magazine. I turned up wearing an anorak, basically, because I had no clue. It got back to me afterwards that Jarvis had been outraged. The phrase he used was “You’ve got to live it” [referring to being a pop star, presumably]. Afterwards, I thought “Hmm . . . He was probably right.” But we never had a face-to-face argument. Read the rest of this article here.

This is funny

Forget this year’s boring Oscars, one of my all time favourite awards show moments is this clip of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert presenting an award at the Emmys, circa 2006. Requires no intro really. Also that year’s host Conan O’Brien did an intro bit that was pretty fuppin’ hilarious.

So I hear you’re a racist… Is this the new thing?

“Ah for Christ’s sake… Who told you?”

“I met Tina in Tescos the other night.” Read the full article here.

Never Get Ahead (1997)

Wow, hadn’t seen this before. It’s a special clean version of Bobby Conn’s Couldn’t Get Ahead recorded for a kids television show in 1997. The singer recalled the performance on his blog many years later: Read the rest of this entry »

And the Best Picture Award goes to… Let’s Just Go F**k Ourselves, Shall We?

Acclaim for The King’s Speech irks me for any number of reasons. It’s a nothing film that’s been done a thousand times before, but one that was nonetheless attracting Oscar buzz before anyone had even seen it. Now, inexplicably, it’s regarded as a shoo-in for Best Picture ahead of David Fincher’s far superior (and infinitely more relevant) The Social Network.

Does this sound familiar? In John Madden’s Mrs Brown (1997) an aloof monarch deigned to interact with an extremely helpful commoner. The viewer was expected to admire said monarch’s eventual magnanimity, rather than abhorring her initial imbecility. Read the rest of this entry »