Last night i was at PJ Harvey in the Olympia with andy. Every time i'm in dublin these days it's a little strange. I've half a mind to move back up here but i honestly don't know if that's a good idea for a number of reasons. But needless to say i'm looking at all my options at the moment.
Polly was fantastic solo :) i've seen her with the band before, in belfast, also with andy, and she was riveting :) but last night she was so chatty and funny. Which contrasted nicely with her choice me material: heavy on the Desire, with the more spooky or storybased songs from all the albums making an appearance. The new songs sounded like a logical progression from that earlier material.
Free free to sing along and join in! It's the last gig before the new year (except the for a New Years Eve private gig myself and Sarah are playing) and we want to celebrate the end of the year with all our friends, old and new.
If you have any requests for songs you'd like to hear, sure let us know in advance and we'll see what we can do :)
It's due to start from about 9:30, but it'll be quite flexible and relaxed. Thanks so much to Java's café for letting us use the upstairs part of the café, and the beautiful piano. It does have a wine licence and serves liqueur coffees too, so if you fancy a drink that option is there, or if you just want some nice food, some good coffee and a great atmosphere, you'll find that there too.
Hope to see you there!
My top songs of 2007, minus the obvious Kate/Tori/PJ/Bjork people - cross posted from @forumz :)
- Amy Winehouse / Mark Ronson - Valerie
Any incarnation of this song with Amy Winehouse singing the vocals is my song of the year. I don't give a shit what anything thinks about Ms Winehouse, but she really made this song something else whether just with an Acoustic Guitar live on radio, or like the B-Side version to Back To Black (Live version of this arrangement, or the Mark Ronson remix version from his album. I know I'm more than a little swayed by the fact that this song pretty much describes my Big Emotional Summer and the lyrics were all too appropriate. The original version by the Zutons is a good song, but there's something kinda emotionally detached in the vocals in my opinion. Whereas Amy really does have soul, and she found the (broken)heart of the song. - Philip Morrow - Joanne Part 3
You probably haven't heard of this guy, as he's a Galway based songwriter, but his songs are enchanting and his voice just draws you in. This song is part 3 of 7 (?) all called Joanne and written by a group of different songwriters who were all friends or something from what I can gather. I know Emily Mure wrote the first part, and Ryan And The Lions did part 5, and they're all great songs
Anyhow, check out Philip Morrow's myspace, as he's well worth it. He's previously released an album as The Red Rose Café (itunes link).
He included Joanne Part 3 on a CD for amnesty international here in
Galway which I was working on (and have a track on too) and I just fell
in love with that song. Philip also wrote Joanne Part 2, which you can
hear on his Myspace, and it's just gorgeous too Seriously, lovely songs. For fans of Leonard Cohen, Josh Ritter, and other storytelling americana/follk songwriters. - Jens Lekman - Friday Night At The Drive-in Bingo
I think it's time to start blaming Morgan. When I added this album to iTunes and started listening to it, all the songs were in reverse order, 'cause I'm a twat sometimes. And this song came on first, and it's still my favourite off that album at the moment. That might change
But I have this on a mix cd in the car, which contains all my favourite
happy driving songs. This is such a happy pill as a song. I love it so
much. - Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
Yeah, the lyrics are a bit cheesy. (happy = major key - so bloody cliché) but it still makes me jump around the room and smile. It's also on the aforementioned mix cd as it makes me very very happy indeed. youtube - St. Vincent - Paris Is Burning
The Pete! posted a link to a video with a guitar and voice live version of this song, and I was more than intrigued. I really love the album version too, and I think it's a wonderful song. I have visions of a demented dance version being performed on stage with a full choir. It's luscious in my mind. I think it's a song that works in any arrangement. - Cuckoo Savante & Mary Coughlan - Red Apple
Maybe I'm a little biased, but I don't care, I love Cuckoo Savante's music, and Mary Coughlan does a wonderful duet version of their song Red Apple as a charity single here in Ireland at the moment. Absolutely brilliant. I've been going to see these guys playing live for over a year now, and I'm so thrilled to finally have something from them to buy, even if it is only a single yet. - Eluvium - Prelude For Time Feelers
I think this is a general OMA/Morgan influence, but I really love Copia and I've been listening to it quite a bit over the last few weeks. I have a few favourites off it, and I found it really hard to pick just one track but I had to pick something. The piano is so simple, yet so beautiful. That moment at about 2:33 when the horn (? I'm sure it's a synth) comes in is so beautiful. Really, this whole album is gorgeous. - Cobra Starship - This City Is At War
Yes it's tacky. Yes it's probably commercial as hell, but damned if I can't not sing along and want to dance. This is my pop guilty pleasure at the moment - I've not even listened to the new Britney all the way through even though it's on my itunes as any time I get a pop craving I throw on Cobra Starship. I was torn between this song and Guilty Pleasure which is just so apt
- Roisín Murphy - Overpowered
I love her She's fantastic. This is a great track too
I still have to get the full album, but the tracks that I have I'm
loving. It's definitely on the "to buy" list. Intelligent electronic
pop songs - something like where Bjork was circa Debut only updated to
now. - Joanna Newsom - Colleen
Was in heavy rotation when that EP came out. I prefer the other two songs on the EP to be honest, but this is a great song and definitely worth a place on my top ten of this year.
The best of the PJ-Bjork-Tori-Kate types
PJ Harvey - The Piano
Christ PJ really hit it out of the park with this album. I fucking love it. The Piano is the song from that album that grabs me the most, and really gets into my head and runs around. This may of course be due to the DES, however, I digress.
Bjork - Earth Intruders
Bjork at her most infectious!
Kate Bush - Lyra
Ok, so I'm only including this as it's a new Kate song, and it's rather pretty
There's nothing else new Kate-wise this year, so it gets the honours by default Tori Amos - My Posse Can Do
Sometimes Tori has her head screwed on. This is a perfect little song, perfectly placed. No it shouldn't be on the album - that'd just be crass, it's bad enough having an album with Posse in the title, and a "posse bonus" song, but to have added this would have made the concept even more literal. So, it's wonderful as a little bonus B-Side/DVD extra whatever. It's the kind of Tori I like, witty and quirky, lots of fun and with some great jazz influenced piano. It could have been a LE B-Side and people would have loved it. Totally my favourite song from the ADP period.
Other songs/The Honourable Mentions
Pacha Massive - Your Love
Air - Left Bank
Bloc Party - The Prayer
Britney - Gimmie Gimmie More!
Rhianna - Shut Up And Drive (I agree with androoo on this one.)
Klaxons - Golden Skans
Radiohead - nude
I went to post this in this thread on @forumz, but the server crapped out, and hasn't come back, and I didn't want to lose it, so I'm posting here instead.
Loca!
My life would suck without Tom of Finland.
But what is at the root of that art, so to speak? What is the defining characteristic of his work? Is it not sex and sexual attraction between idealised male figures?
I always wonder about the concept of a gay culture, as I don't believe there is a particular culture associated with the gay orientation, but there are subcultures which are tied together or grow out of a shared outsider experience. Whether it arises out of a need to have some kind of identifier to an outside world, or as a way of signalling to those in the know that you too are "that way".
For example, the polari slang grew as a way for gay men to comfortably chat about their orientation, who they fancied, any gossip, and signal their orientation to others without people outside of the sub-culture understanding what they were talking about. So it grew out of the illegality of the orientation and the activity. It's also interesting to look at, as it has virtually disappeared since the laws changed in Britain, and it just wasn't necessary anymore.
Is anything created by a gay artist automatically a part of the gay culture? Is the gay culture not just then a hodgepodge of many different types and styles of artistic expression only grouped together because of the sexual orientation of those artists? There's no such thing as a gay style of music, is there? Is there a particular style of gay art? What makes it so other than conveying same-sex attraction? Then what of straight artists who deal with gay themes? There's a straight female Irish author who has written two novels featuring primarily gay characters and the gay scene. Is this then a part of gay culture because of the subject matter? Or should it be disregarded as it's an outside opinion of gay life?
Conversely, I was one of the organisers of Pride here in my city this summer, and that's supposed to be a big representation of the gay community in the city. So we tried to organise a diverse range of all kinds of events to try and reflect the diversity inherent in the community. Which only served to show me that there's no such a thing as a gay culture as it's so multifaceted as to be a completely irrelevant umbrella term to connect people of a similar sexual orientation. Gay culture has always been a part of the mainstream culture, whether overtly or not, as the arts has always been a haven for more liberal thought, and gay expression more likely to be tolerated or accepted. Indeed, two of the major theatres in Ireland were set up by a famous gay couple in the first part of the 1900s in Ireland.
Unfortunately, a lot of gay people feel the need for some kind of tangible connection to other folk with the same orientation, and take on whatever is considered to be a part of their new lives. Sure coming out is a life-changing experience, but it's not supposed to completely change who you are. Especially witih gay boys - who become exaggeratedly camp, and pop-loving or whatever stereotype they ascribe to initially in their quest for self-identity as a gay man. You see the same happening with lesbians - often due to pressure from within the lesbian scene. Femme lesbians are only starting to be tolerated in my city, for example, but still there are women who will berate more feminine lesbians for being a true lesbian.
A lot of gay culture I believe is utter bullshit that has been drawn up to tenuously link people of a similar sexual orientation to create an identifiable concept of what a gay person is in order to present something tangible in order to fight together as a group for equality and rights. People who feel a part of a group are more likely to do group events and pride events capitalise on this false sense of a wider gay culture.
If you were to talk about sub-cultures that are more prevalent with lesbian or gay orientations, then there'd be something more concrete there, but I don't think there is such a thing as a great grand gay culture which a gay person ascribes to or not. And I've not even touched upon the argument that as a gay person comes out and breaks out of the societal norm, that they are also more open to breaking out of the restrictions placed within society on conforming to a particular stereotype (how many jocks love musicals? how many alternative music lovers are into interior design?) If anything, coming out as gay enables the person to also break down any of the other categories that people get boxed into, but this notion of a gay culture seems to suggest that once someone comes out they must then love Judy / Madonna / Edmund White / whatever else is considered to be gay.
I say bollox to all that :) A gay person can like whatever they like. Sometimes it follows a pattern of what other gay people relate to - usually themes of isolation, being an outside, heartbreak or unrequited love as they are themes which feature frequently in the lives of a gay person until it becomes more of a non-issue. Indeed a lot of gay people go out of their ways to be not associated with the gay community or anything gay related as they don't relate to what is considered to be the gay culture.
There are some parts of gay culture which are exclusively gay, and not really a feature of the wider culture at all, nor do they have much chance of becoming a part of it, but that's things like the bathhouse/sauna sex culture, or two-way love triangles, but usually they're linked into either sex, or the unique situation of liking someone of the same sex, which of course reverts back to being linked into sex.
So while the primary connection between gay people is that of sex, the only other ones that specifically link gay people is the outsider status/isolation/shared experience of having to deviate from what is considered the norm, that that's only still the case while sexual orientation is still such a big issue in many parts of the world, and the gay rights movement is fighting to change that, which would then negate that connection, leaving just sex as the main connection between all gay people.
Was such a good gig. He really knows how to put on a good show. Between that last night and ani on tuesday last i'm all concerted out. Just gotta drive back to Galway now this morning. I stayed in my sister's place in maynooth. This place has changed so much in the 5 years since i finished my degree.
cause they basically update on most of the non-personal stuff that's going on.. oh, and the non-pride-related or LGBT youth group related or any of that stuff... meh.
____________________________________________
yesterday:
Heya,
Things have been ok here in Galway, however, I've already gotten a ticket for not having a tax disc, and I've had my first flat tire. I also managed to lose my glasses into the river (don't ask) and have already ordered new ones from Specsavers. At least I'm getting 2 for the price of one in sepcsavers, so I'll have a spare pair now. It just meant I was wearing my sunglasses driving out to Athenry with Kevin to pick up a PA for the sunday night gig off Paul and Moira.
The house is ok, Eduardo loaned me his jack to change my tire this morning, I had a spare one in the boot, but now I've to get that flat tire fixed. Who should I go to? I've to go into town, so I might just go to that place opposite the omniplex. Needless to say, any money I made from the gig last night is already well gone! but the gig went well, and the bar manager was happy. So that's a good sign.
Rita said to pop into the Gardaí with the ticket and see what they say, as I only got my registration cert in the post this morning, and I got the ticket on friday when I had to park in town to pop into the bank.
Ben ended up having to cancel again, as he had to meet a client for work on tuesday morning, so he couldn't come over. Annika should be here tomorrow or the next day. I've been feeding the birds, and generally popping into the house every so often, but I'm gonna stay there now for a few days. I called in to visit Kevin and Caroline when Laura was visiting, so I got to see Laura while she was up.
Other than all that, everything's not too bad.
Eamon
____________________________________________
today:
I got my registration cert yesterday in the post, just as I was about to leave, so I went and sorted out my tax for the year in the motor tax office. The woman there also gave me a letter to present in city hall about the ticket I got for not having my tax disc up to date. Which ended up being fine - I chatted to the lady in the traffic office in city hall, and she could see that I only just bought the car and that I had been waiting for the registration to go through so I could tax it. I should be getting a letter in a few days to confirm that the ticket has been cancelled.
I picked up my new glasses too - so that's all sorted. I'm going to withdraw some of the money from my credit union savings (as small as they are) to try and cover that. After my afternoon in town yesterday I went and met up with Amanda for a coffee out in Barna, which is one of the benefits of having the car - I can actually meet up with people now who live further out of town.
I didn't drop the tire in anywhere to get fixed yet - Amanda recommended a place out in Liosbaun Ind Est, as she says it's cheaper than anywhere in town.
I got my voting card postal vote for the Seanad today too, and my phone network are giving me a free upgrade on my phone because I've been such a good customer and paid all my bills to them on time so far. So there's some little bits of good news too.
Eamon
Seems like such a regular little thing, but it's my new car, and it was the first time I drove myself to work and back ever. Colour me happy with myself, as this means I now have transport for gigs and the like.
Not that I'm gonna play all of these, but this is a starting list so I have an idea of what I know I can already play off by heart (as opposed to just sitting idly infront of the music and playing it..)
- Famous Blue Raincoat
- Even An Ugly Man
- Last Night I Nearly Died
- Tiny Dancer
- Freewheel
- Worms
- Face Of A Killer
- Fly Me To The Moon
- Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes)
- Haircut
- Hotel Song
- Sunny Afternoon
- Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay
- Heartbreak Hotel
- Will You?
- Show Me Heaven
- Stay
- Those Were The Days My Friend
- Sweet Ones
- Chasing Cars
- Anything Goes
- Colorblind
- My Beloved Monster
- Lovefool
- Hope There's Someone
- Sk8r Boi
- Brown Eyed Girl
- Boys Of Melody
- Hit The Road Jack
- Feeling Good
- Sweet Ones
- Volcano
Tori Amos
- Leather
- Winter
- Happy Phantom
- Cool On Your Island
- Tear In Your Hand
- Father Lucifer
- Cornflake Girl
- Crucify
- Strange
- Running Up That Hill
- Under The Ivy
- Wuthering Heights
- All The Love
- Coffee Homeground
- My Guy
- Shoop Shoop Song
- The Score
- Son Of A Preacherman
- Big Spender
- Glory Box
- Hotel Song
- Fever
- Ain't No Sunshine
- Sweet Ones
- Get Happy
- Hallelujah I Love Him So
- Don't Know Why
- Jolene
- Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (A Man After Midnight)
- Heartbreak Hotel
- Hound Dog
- Standing In The Way Of Control
- The Muppet Show
Still Learning, so not confident enough with yet (both sets)
- Savin' All My Love
- Blue Skies
- Brick
- At Seventeen
- Fallen
- Build Me Up Buttercup
- I Don't Like Mondays
- Into My Arms
- Everybody's Changing
- Love It When You Call
- Iris
- Don't Explain
- The Man I Love
- My Baby Just Cares For Me
- Never Be Lonely
- Fill My World
- You Are My Sister
- My Immortal
- You And I Both
- The Man I Love
- 9 Crimes
- Chicago
- I Wish You Were Here
- The House On My Back Door
- Orlando / Drag King Love Song
- Helen (Don't Make A Sound)
- Waitress
- Maria
- Caoineadh
- I Wanna Love
I'm probably forgetting some and adding in ones that I most likely won't play... hmmm. anyways, that's what I came up with brainstorming just now.
My housemate has a pet lizard that he feeds live crickets to. He's away this week, so his cousin who's staying with us at the moment, and my other housemate have the task of minding the lizard. They kinda messed up feeding him though as there are crickets loose in the room, and I found one in my room. Not the most ideal of occurances.
I've managed to land two gigs doing piano bar kinda nights in two different bars here in town. One's a straight bar that's trying to pull in a crowd on a monday night with some chilled out live music, and the other is one of the gay bars, who want a kinda jazz set on the sunday nights. So I'm trying to prepare a 3 or 4 hour setlist to be able to call on. The gay bar one is sunday week, and he'll see what he thinks about asking us back again, and the straight bar one is the start of July. Both are paid gigs though, and both are looking at running it as a weekly night for the rest of the summer, which would be great, as then I'd have enough cash coming in to tide myself over for the summer while my work is in a lull.
Anyways, I've been trying to pick songs that'll suit the different places. The straight bar gig is about 3 hours long. The gay bar one is only an hour and a half or so. I'm gonna have the girls singing a lot in the gay bar, and one doing an hour or so of the straight bar set, so I'm not constantly singing, and to give a bit of variety.
Anyways, I've had to learn a lot of covers for the gigs, which I've not really done much of in a while. It's good though, as I've been learning some more recent songs, as well as some jazz standards and other great older songs too. It's just a lot of work.
