I wish I was 18 again!!

It's not something I'd normally say. I wasn't that happy when I was a teenager, in fact I was a right miserable git. But back in the early 80's Dublin was a very different place to the Dublin of today.

One area I've seen a huge change in is education.

This morning my wife sent me a link to a student website for the course that our Son, David, is considering applying for. It's a course in Creative Digital Media at the Institute of Technology in Blanchardstown. Here is a link to the site so you can see for yourself Link.

When you look through that site and see how the creative side of these young minds are encouraged and fostered it really does give you a sense of hope for the future.

Also it makes me yearn for those days again and to have the chance to do stuff like this.

I'm afraid my schooling was very much old school..the three R's as they said back then. Reading, w(R)iting and A(R)ithmetic.

So even though I don't envy my son the future of high mortgages, rising unemployment and an ever more competitive capitalistic world..I do envy the sheer width of learning choices they have nowadays.

Maybe I'll wait a few years and become a mature student myself.

Well..they say it's never too late to teach an old dog new tricks :-)

Day 13 - I Wont Send Roses

Project 365 - Day 13: I Wont Send Roses

This evening we started rehearsals for Coolmine Musical Society's main production for the year, Jerry Herman's "Mack and Mabel"...the story of the releationship between famed Hollywwod silent movie producer Mack Sennet and the young girl he helped become a star Mabel Nomand.

This was our very first rehearsal and none of the principle roles have yet been filled.

It looks like it should be a fun show.

Audions are next Sunday, which doesn't give much time to prepare, but I think I'll probably audion for a principle role anyway. After playing The Beadle in last years production of Sweeney Todd, it's given me the confidence to try it again. This is a very different kind of show though, with lots of movement and choreography, not my strongest point.

Anyway, watch this space and see what develops.








As you can see, it wasn't all seriousness tonight. I had a little time to myself and played around with this glitter ball left over from the Christmas decorations in the Hall.

Our Musical Director, Dermot, running through some pieces from Mack and Mabel.

Project 365 - The first 12 Days

So I've made it through the first 12 days of my first 365 Project and have managed to get at least one half decent pic each day, sometimes more. I've been publishing the pics on my Flickr account and my Facebook account. I had intended on posting here each day with an expanded description but time and ill health over the first 2 weeks of the year slowed me down.

So with this post hopefully I'm back on track and will post a seperate pic each day.

Any comments on the shots or even ideas for shots in the future gratefully accepted.

Later.

Day 12 - Once

Day 11 - A Musical Interlude

Day 10 - Jennifer
Day 9 - Detail on a branch in the snow

Day 8 - Just Dessert

Day 7 - Ignorance or Rebellion?

Day 6 - The Big Chill

Day 5 - Back to Work

Day 4 - Lisdoonan Graveyard, Co. Monaghan.

Day 3 - Farewell to Christmas

Day 2 - Resolutions

Day 1 - A New Start

You are my muse
You’re face inspires my thoughts
Into words and more
You’re voice sends my mind
Heavenward
Always searching
For the perfect something
You are my muse
Though I don’t know
If I have seen you yet
If I have ever stood beside you
If your hand
Ever touched mine
If your jokes made me laugh
Or your sadness
Made me cry


But when I lose myself
In those quiet musings
It’s you
That I think of
Somewhere
Out there
The perfect shape
To slide effortlessly
Into mine
You are my muse
Even if
You never existed
....I know you.

rk 2010

365 Project

I've recently decided to try my hand at a 365 Project. What is that I hear you ask?

Well, it's basically a photography project in which participants take one photo every day for a full year, or 365 days.

I've found, at least in the first week, that I tend to end up with 1 or 2 more pics extra, so I thought this might be a good place to post them along with any thoughts I have on them.

I intend to try and keep the project loosely based on a diary, so I can look back over the year and see how it progressed, or not ;-)

I'll be uploading the first few pics later today. So watch this space.

Unveiled

A blank page
That has not spoken to him
for so very long
Remembers him so much younger
paler
less sure of who he was
where he could go.
that person still lives
beneath the skin
hiding behind veils of time
and humour
the blank page still knows him
still spoke to him
though the years
all the changes
the rushing torrents that carried him
and his children
family
friends
lovers
an ever growing mass
towards the inevitable conclusion.
No, all that has passed
cannot hide him
he is still there.
he used to write poetry
and ache for unrequited love
worry about things
that do not concern him now
dream about things
that have come and gone
or never came at all
and now he comes to visit
after so many years
the blank page
welcomes him
as if he'd never been away.

Thoughts on the late John Martyn.

For some reason today he was on my mind. The late great John Martyn. Musician, songwriter, performer, but most of all beautiful human being. Flawed of course..but then which of us isn't in some way or other.

I first saw John play live in Milton Keynes outside London, back in the 80's. Back then we'd arrived late for his set and only saw the last few songs, but his music had been indelibly stamped on my mind.

I saw him many times after in Dublin. He was a frequent visitor to Ireland, and eventually moved here altogether and spent the last days of his life in these shores.

I've watched him played under the influence of alcohol and drugs...watched him play with anger and watched him play with a gentleness unsurpassed by any other musician in my experience.

But he always always played with passion. Even at his last gig on these shores, when he was very ill and barely able to play his guitar anymore..he still played and sang with passion if not the dexterity which I'd come to expect from him.

When he sang " Baby please come Home" from Grace and Danger that night I felt goosebumps all over my body. His eyes closed and tears rolling down his cheeks, he sang with a passion that was straight from the heart.

This was John Martyn to me.

The hopeless romantic and the joker...he could hold an audience in the palm of his hand for 2 hours..make them laugh and cry and take them with him on a journey through his pain and his joy.

When he died earlier this year, he left behind a large back catalogu of the finest music you will ever hear..but dammit..I'd love to see him one more time ... stand in the audience and lose myself in his voice and his playing.

Brilliant and all as the recorded music is...it can never replace the feeling of his live performances.

I miss you John.