Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year

Tripping Along The Ledge


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“A comic book is only as strong as its weakest link. And some of our stories were very, very silly…”

judge-dredd
PAT MILLS
Founder of 2000AD and ‘Godfather of British Comics’

You’re at the Comic-Con in San Diego. Could you tell us a bit about the scale of that event for people who haven’t heard about it?
It’s absolutely massive. Something in the region of 125,000 comic book fans have converged on downtown San Diego – you can barely move along the street there are so many people here. The street signs directing people to the conference centre are all in Klingon. So anyone who happens to be fluent in Klingon will have no trouble getting here. It’s dominated by Marvel and DC Comics, but I’m here to fly the flag for 2000AD. Read the rest of this interview here.

August 5th, 2010. 14 Comments »

Readers letters

mailbag-2Dear Eoin,

I’ve never been lucky when it comes to love. My first husband Michael was great with the kids and the sex was fantastic. But one day he ran off with my best friend Tracy and the contents of our bank account.

I found new love with Dan. He was great with the kids and the sex was fantastic. But one day he ran off with my brother-in-law Pete and the contents of my lingerie drawer.Read the rest of this article here.

August 5th, 2010. Comment now »

Miscellaneous Amusing Items I Come Across #43

agoraphobia
Sorry, I’m obsessed with these stupid headlines. I’ve got a problem. I admit it. (Although now that I think of it, this one does call to mind a rather amusing interview I conducted last year.)

August 5th, 2010. 11 Comments »

Nothing Came Out (2001)


Really beautiful track from a band that, in retrospect, I might have been kinder to in this 2002 album review for The Slate… Read the rest of this entry »

August 4th, 2010. 3 Comments »

Published: Irish Times, June 26 2010

A preparation for death

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IT ISN’T DIFFICULT to pick out Greg Baxter as he strolls along Dublin’s Lower Ormond Quay. He has been living in Ireland for almost a decade and his native accent has all but disappeared. But, at more than six feet tall, with broad shoulders and a deep tan, the 35-year-old author still looks every inch a Texan.

He is polite too, and neatly dressed. In fact, for a writer who portrays himself as a hopeless degenerate throughout most of his newly published memoir, he looks remarkably well. Read the rest of this entry »

August 4th, 2010. Comment now »

Name That Tune!

keyboard
It’s a track by a legendary north of England band. The photo is the clue. All entries must be in by 1pm. The lucky winner gets four weekend camping tickets to the Electric Picnic, backstage passes, €2,000 spending money, helicopter transfer to the site and a massive pile of drugs. Read the rest of this entry »

August 4th, 2010. 32 Comments »

This is funny


Fast forward to about 1:01 on the video above. Then watch this second video after the jump. Yeah, I know. These clips have been going around since at least last Friday. It’s now almost Wednesday. But goddamnit, this is funny. Read the rest of this entry »

August 3rd, 2010. 4 Comments »

Published: Irish Times, July 29 2010

“To be fair, we did just fly past in a bright pink discotheque on wheels. He might have been a little bit distracted.”

pink-fire-engine-limo
‘I THINK I went to school with that guy,” mutters 28-year-old Chris Dunne of Absolute Limos as he navigates a roundabout in Clondalkin, west Dublin. Its 8pm on Saturday and we’re en route to the first pick-up of the night. When the passerby does not return his salute, Dunne is disappointed. “He didn’t even acknowledge me!”

To be fair, I point out, we did just whizz past in a bright red discotheque on wheels. He might have been a little bit distracted. Read the rest of this entry »

August 2nd, 2010. 9 Comments »

Of course, I don’t believe a word of it…

Shebeen-Chic-Dublin-001
Back in the mid-90s I hitched a lift to Galway with a young businessman who drove a shiny black Mercedes. His job, he told me, involved rummaging around the attics and outhouses of rural Ireland and retrieving whatever rubbish he could find: old bicycles, obsolete household utensils, even discarded road signs.

Why, I asked him? He told me about a craze for Irish-themed bars that was sweeping Britain and continental Europe. Bar owners abroad were paying ridiculous prices for the kind of crap generally found gathering dust in our grandparents’ garages. Foot-pedal sewing machines were being used as tables in Bradford; High Nellies were hanging from tavern walls in Bratislava. Read the rest of this article here.

August 2nd, 2010. 3 Comments »

Published: The Dubliner, July 2010

The rain is bucketing down. I can hear the gutters overflowing outside.

psychiatric hospital
The phone is buzzing on my bedside locker. I wake up with a start. It’s Sunday morning. My friend has just been committed to a psychiatric hospital. Mobile phones are contraband, he says. So he’s texting me from under the sheets of his bed. I sit up and rub my eyes. Christ.

I shuffle downstairs and make a pot of coffee. Then I stand up and pace the kitchen floor. Then I sit down again and drum my fingers on the tabletop. I open up my laptop and type “friend in psychiatric hospital” into Google. Then I close it down again. The rain is bucketing outside. I can hear the gutters in the back yard overflowing. Read the rest of this entry »

July 30th, 2010. 24 Comments »