A Complete Explanation Of Everything

... just another anti-climatic train wreck from start to finish, which I'll end up drowning in alcohol come the next December 31st."

Prescient.

I'll predict next year now...

Just another ...

You get the picture.

Highlights and lowlights of this year included the surprising enduring popularity of thepropertypin, me crashing the car back in March, Leon's wedding and not a great deal else. Actually, I suppose it was the year I left formal political activity for the time being and also the year, I nearly went as far as putting an offer in on a place but am seriously glad sense returned before that point. It was also the year in which Granny finally succumbed to both old age and a very long illness. I went to Belgium, Slovakia, Italy and Spain all for the first time aswell.

Well, here's wishing you and yours all the best for the arbitrary rolling over of clocks this midnight that we, adherents to the modern calender, place so much store by.

The times they are a stayin', roughly the same...

Guess I don't listen to enough music anymore in a traditional format to pick up on things at the right or appropriate time to provide any form of definitive listing. In fact, I was going to put in The Hold Steady - "Boys & Girls in America" in here but I've just realised that record is actually 2006.

So in order of enjoyment...

5 - Wilco - "Sky Blue Sky"

A good record in all respects, I'm not a fan of one or two tunes on it, I might not even be a fan of the return to some of the old directions and the guitar heaviness of this record. It's got a certain prog rock aspect lashed in with folkier sounds but all in all, I'll keep listening.

4 - Ryan Adams - "Easy Tiger"

John Allison (see scarygoround in the sidebar) put this in his top 20 of the year and he listens to alot more ubertrendy music than me so consider your nerdish goatee stroked, actually he put Wilco in there too. Anyhoo, what I take umbrage at was that he descibed the intervening records since Adam's solo debut as patchy or worse. I reckon some of the Cardinals stuff was his best ever, this has some nice tunes but it's a little flat in terms of the edge that has been writ large over those records.

3 - Paramore - "Riot"

Albums I enjoyed, remember. This is not going to come into anybody's top twenty over 25 and European most likely but hell, I gotta a real kick out of this record all year long. Perfect for in the car, it didn't leave it for a long time. Great production, catchy tunes, powerhouse drumming and the singer is cute as all hell too. It's lightweight, it's bubblegum but it has an enduring charm...

2 - Rilo Kiley - "Under the blacklight"

Time to step up and believe the hype. I had steered clear for quite some time, for much the same reasons I refused to entertain Death Cab for Cutie for so long. Pointless snobbery, in any case, if you're not involved in the world of Rilo Kiley yet this seems like a great record to do it. It's danceable even, which is tough when you have country overtones...

1 - Feist - "The Reminder"

Yep. This didn't make it into Allison's top 20 strangely but how and ever, if I'm to pick one record out I kept returning to during 2007, it's definitely this opus. It's got great variety, the lilting ballads, the dancier numbers and even the up tempo pop of the stand out track: "I feel it all"... Which about sums up this record, it feels it all...

Top gigs this year included a majestical Feist in Tripod and a pretty damn good rock show from Wilco in Vicar Street.

Not a vintage year for music was 2007, at least not for me.

We'll see what 2008 brings...

When I'm here, I dream of being away...

When I'm away, I dream of being here, settling down and making music...

It's all a little bit irréconciliable really...

I can't believe I'm going to try and shelve a weeks worth of holidays next so I can make an assault on the trans-siberian the following year...

I further can't believe that with 5 days (minimum) booked out for recording in April (ish), then I'll only have 12 leave days to play with.

That basically means, I'm only going to make it out of the country for two weeks maximum next year.

That is not a pretty thought.

Yeah, seems like most people are compiling end of year lists. It's funny, since I don't really get music through the traditional format, it's kind of hard to know what was a 2007 record and what wasn't, plus I don't indulge as copiously as I used to, I'll give it some serious thought tomorrow.

Likely to feature? Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight; Feist - The Reminder...

The rest, I'll have to check... Paramore might sneak in there only to be subject to extreme shameful revisionism doubtlessly years from now!

So I was dreaming of my hotel in Brussels that I'm going to have to stay in for 2 nights at the very least in about three weeks time. It was a strange dream in the sense, that I've been there before and yet I dreamt I had a split level double room, almost a kind of a mezzanine affair.

Anyway, in between all sorts of weird stuff happening, some kind of gigantic insect invasion (straight outta Final Fantasy) and witnessing a car crash, going to the injured parties aid etc., I wandered back to the room and proceeded to get into a complicated situation whereby I was left dangling offa the edge of the mezzanine as it collapsed.

I was left dangling wearing only a towel (don't ask) and all my clothes were upstairs, so I wandered out through the lower door to this piano type bar affair, where the female DJs / singers were in the midst of ejecting anyone from the crowd who they suspected of being Jewish. Anyway, I finally caught up with Umberto, who was the Italian handyman (Belgian Hotel = Italian Handyman?) and he basically thought I was taking the piss with my tale of woe and destruction that had befallen my room.

However on inspection, he agreed that the place was totalled. Cut to a scene in my new replacement room and I'm telling this Umberto chap that I don't really like to complain but this new room is great, I can tell it's just been redecorated, etc.

And as I'm congratulating him on the fine job, a huge ceiling tile crashes onto the bed.

Don't give up the dayjob Umberto, wherever you are!

(Can anyone beat that for strangeness, I think not!)

Just to get things up and running here after severe bouts of christmas and drinking, I shall describe the gifts received, well two of 'em anyway.

I got a Sony Playstation portable which is highly intriguing, as though I enjoyed both the PS1 & 2 to various degrees, I never had a gameboy or any some such. The screen is very nice on it and it seems to work well, only have FIFA08 and Smackdown Vs. Raw on it at the minute but will probably pick up Final Fantasy Tactics shortly... Looks like some good fun to be had on lunch hour here, or even during business trips (I have 3 days in Brussels coming up)...

I also got what I REALLY WANTED... Which is the latest Garmin Sat Nav, the nuvi... It's very nice and even comes with bluetooth for the phone, so I can do hands free if I so feel like it, plus it has all the maps of Eastern Europe alongside the rest of the Member States... That could be alot of fun but it's eminently practical for me, who gets lost trying to find friends houses in Dublin.

Very good altogether.

Bray is an average sized town on the east coast of Ireland. Completely unremarkable, save for the fact that it's the arsehole of humanity and has been home to some senior members of my extended family for longer than I could care to, or possibly remember.

Today, that link ended.

Was finally extinguished.

No more trips to Bray.

No more Paul.

No more Granny.

I lifted a weight off my shoulder today. It just happened to be a coffin with my granny on board.

It is unflaggingly my ambition to just walk out the door one day, clothes on my back, mp3 player mebbe and just go.

But I always have a heavy suitcase.

Emotional and material baggage in equal parts...

Do you ever just want to go? What ties you or I here?

Yeah, you can emigrate in a very studied and serious way, fall into the same pattern in a different place, travel in itself is now a very mundane activity. Dancing through security, with your gels and your pastes in a transparent bag, don't forget your zip lock, sandwich bags are just not cool.

I think travelling light should be effortless but it would just disappoint...

Filling out the back catalogue... I have recently purchased and they should soon be winging their way to my bulging CD racks...

The Best of the Mock Turtles - Can you dig it?

Principally for, "Can you dig it..." Haven't been able to get a hold of a decent MP3 of the track annoyingly...

Veruca Salt - Eight arms to hold you

Principally for, the excellent: "Volcano Girls", which again, I haven't been able to lay my hands on...

Filter - Short Bus

Only for the epic: "Hey man, nice shot", which is great fun on youtube but you really need it blasting in the car as you sideswipe someone off the road (in your imagination and flip them off in reality...)...

*Angry*

The young Spaniard arrived at Liverpool via EasyJet, with his mum.

He then proceeded to get kicked out of a cash'n'carry in Liverpool because he hadn't paid his 20 quid sterling membership.

Today, it is reported he has signed up for a DIY course because he is having difficulty with his flatpack furniture...

FLATPACK?

The guy is on nearly 90,000 sterling a week! Surely, he could throw some scouser a hundred quid to put together whatever seriously cheap furniture he has bought...

More than likely, he is supporting his entire and extended family but when you are earning about £5 million a year (about €7 million / $10 million) then really... How expensive can they be to keep?

Watch the pennies Fernando and the pounds will look after themselves, eh!

Erm... Back in the land of the living after a week en Angleterre, in the middle of nowhere for work reasons, mostly the avoiding thereof. Currently listening to the Jay Bennett record, The Magnificent Defeat, which is coming off slightly less than magnificent.

Interpol last night, were pretty good although the RDS is still a shite venue...

Anything else to report? Xmas draws near, all is busy and I have a tonne of shopping yet to do and some serious work to get on top of tomorrow...

Still, it's not like life has any purpose...