Yes, we’re back. A couple of people thought the Kilkenny Advertiser had gone to the great newspaper graveyard in the sky when there was no edition last week, but no, just like most of the rest of the country it was just a little break for the Christmas holiday.
I avoid newspapers anyway over the Christmas period. They’re mainly made up of pages of photographs, reviews of the year and “best of…” lists. That’s all very well if your little Jack or Chloe made their first communion during the year or if your son was in the team photograph for the Under 14 Roinn C runners up team, but not of much interest or worth spending a couple of hard earned Euros to anyone else. I didn’t need to be reminded of most of last year’s news stories and most of the lists are predictable, so that’s a nice few Euros saved over the past couple of weeks.
Another reason why I’m not too keen on making up a “best of 2008” list is that I found it hard to remember what exactly I saw or heard during the year. So here’s a few random thoughts from the past twelve months.
I got most of my musical highlights from two events I was involved in: The Rhythm and Roots Festival and The Duiske Concerts in Graiguenamanagh. Chatham County Line and Chuck Prophet were my highlights from the former and Trio di Parma were magnificent on a cold November night down in Duiske Abbey.
On the local scene we had not one, but two, graduates with first class honours from the Pumphouse Musical Academy. Both Jeremy Hickey’s project, RSAG and the Davy Holland-led Good Tiger produced albums that compared favourably to anything released in Ireland in the last year. My tune of the year is Booker T’s “Time is Tight” as performed by The Uptown Band up in Ryans. We all heard the question, “How did Jacobs get the figs into the fig rolls?” The question I’d like the answer to is “How do The Uptown Band manage to fit a singer, a drummer, a guitarist, bass player, keyboard player and a brass section into the front of Ryans?”
Most of my film-viewing was done at the weekly film club in Billy Byrnes on John Street. This is a great spot to catch up on films that would never make it to mainstream cinemas, with the added attraction of a pint or a coffee as you watch the show and no hormonal teenagers kicking the back of your seat.. Two films that stood out here were “My Life As A Dog” and “Into The Wild.” Of the cinema releases my favourite was the Martin McDonagh film, “In Bruges” with Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. Anyone who has ever seen a McDonagh play will know what to expect here, plenty of violence mixed with very black humour.
On the theatre scene there was only one word to describe the year: The Devious Theatre Company (ok, four words ). Their first production, “Heart Shaped Vinyl”, had me hoping they weren’t going to be a one-hit wonder, but I needn’t have worried, they repeated the success not once, but twice, in 2008.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the film “Trainspotting“, but the stage version by Devious Theatre in The Watergate was the highlight of the year. They quickly followed it up with an original play, “Smitten”, by John Morton. I’ve no idea what their plans are for 2009, but already at this early stage of their development, a Devious Theatre production is a guaranteed good night out.
I’m not picking out any book in particular, everyone has their own opinion on what’s a good read and the back of every book seems to have a few quotes which can point you in the right direction, just make sure the quotes are not too biased. Here’s a quote I saw recently that may have persuaded a few people to buy the book: “The best work of fiction I read this year is ‘The Gift‘, by Cecilia Ahern…a brilliant young writer.” She must have been thrilled to read that, even if it was written by her father, Bertie. Then again, he’s a man who knows a lot about writing fiction.
My TV viewing improved immensely this year, mainly due to the purchase of a flat screen TV, not the programmes on it. I managed to catch a documentary on life in rural Ireland on Christmas Day. It painted a grim picture of corrupt politicians and business men, with the usual stereotype of Irish people spending most of their time in the pub. Despite all this I felt this programme had some good ideas that could, with a good scriptwriter, be turned into a comedy series along the lines of Father Ted. My copy of the RTE Guide is gone for recycling, but as far as I can recall the documentary was called Killnaskully.
Here is something useful I learned over Christmas...
Sit on a chair, or if you’re reading this in a pub, a high stool will do, although you may get some funny looks from the barman. Lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Now, while doing this draw the number ’6’ in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction and there’s nothing you can do about it. Amazing.
