Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
the wire
“Readers will have to live without his thoughts on the the retirement of Micheal O’Muircheartaigh and the suspicious longevity of Fungi the Dolphin…”
It is a bright, clear morning in mid-September. Aidan Gillen’s battered BMW rattles along one of the bumpy backroads that snake across the sun-kissed Dingle peninsula. To our right stands Mount Brandon. Ahead, the Atlantic Ocean sparkles in a summer’s last hurrah. But the driver is ill-at-ease. I’m a journalist. He doesn’t like journalists. You can tell. Read the rest of this interview here.
I’m reminded of Garrison Keillor’s uncle, the one reputed to have “unfinished sentences dating back to the Hoover administration…”
It is a bright, clear morning in mid-September. Aidan Gillen’s battered BMW rattles along one of the bumpy backroads that snake across the sun-kissed Dingle peninsula. To our right stands Mount Brandon. Ahead, the Atlantic Ocean sparkles in a summer’s last hurrah. But the driver is ill-at-ease. I’m a journalist. He doesn’t like journalists. You can tell. Read the rest of this interview here.
“Readers will have to live without his thoughts on the the retirement of Micheal O’Muircheartaigh and the suspicious longevity of Fungi the Dolphin…”
It is a bright, clear morning in mid-September. Aidan Gillen’s battered BMW rattles along one of the bumpy backroads that snake across the sun-kissed Dingle peninsula. To our right stands Mount Brandon. Ahead, the Atlantic Ocean sparkles in a summer’s last hurrah. But the driver is ill-at-ease. I’m a journalist. He doesn’t like journalists. You can tell. Read the rest of this entry »
The man was a midget… midget… midget…
“Y’all want more Trapped in the Closet?” R. Kelly asked his followers on Twitter the other day. “I need to know if this is what you guys want from me…” The R&B singer has already served up 22 installments of his “incalculably bizarre” urban hip-(soap)-hopera Trapped in the Closet. And the good news is that, after a three year break, episodes 23-27 are now ready to drop this spring. Read the rest of this entry »
YOU’RE NOT SINGING, YOU’RE NOT SINGING, YOU’RE NOT SINGING ANYMOORE…!
Polls and top tens lists and all that crap, whether compiled by critics or voted for by “the public”, are all inherently arbitrary and silly. The only exception to this rule is when my favourite show, The Sopranos, is rightfully anointed the greatest television series of all time. To sweeten the deal even further, that square-jawed cardboard cut out of a cop you’re all so fond of limps in at a laughable no. 14… Read the rest of this entry »
DESERVE GOT NUTHIN’ TO DO WITH IT
On Saturday, I turned down the chance to participate in a football vs. X Factor debate on Newtalk’s Weekend Blend. (Ireland’s World Cup qualifier in Croker that evening clashed with the popular television show.) I told the producers that I find the whole X Factor phenomenon so monumentally stupid, I wasn’t prepared to waste my breath even slagging it off. Just as well I did too, or I’d probably have been accused of intellectual snobbery by Sarah Carey in the Irish Times today. Read the rest of this entry »
MENACE II SOBRIETY
Into my fourth straight week of unrelenting, mind-numbing sobriety now. At the outset, I told my friends that if they were ever doing any, you know, non-alcohol related activities, they might consider inviting me along. To date I’ve had only one offer. (Whether this is a reflection on my company or their proclivities, I wouldn’t hazard to guess.) Last Thursday, my sister texted to say that she was about to drive across the city on unspecified errant. To be honest, I don’t know which is sadder – that she invited me, or that I accepted.
Other than that, I’ve been pricking around, taking on some extra work and trying to get into The Wire. I know I said I wouldn’t write about The Wire. I lied. (In other shock revelations, there’s no such thing as Santa Claus, friends come and go and you can’t always get what you want.) Fuck it, whaddiya gonna do? Read the rest of this entry »
I’M GOING TO WATCH TELEVISION NOW. I MAY BE GONE FOR SOME TIME…
As mentioned earlier, I’ve recently quit drinking. I’m feeling good, I’m looking great (hey, its relative) and my bank balance has never been healthier. But the question still remains of what to do with all my additional free time.
Do I exercise? Do I take up a hobby? Do I spend my evenings playing table tennis with anthropomorphic hedgehogs on one of those Game Cube console thingys? Read the rest of this entry »