Summer Days

June is my favourite month of the year :)
The whole summer lies ahead; right now it feels like forever until September.
Earlier this lovely month some friends and myself went over to York in England and it is such a beautiful and nice place to be, especially when the sun is shining like it was during our stay. I fell in love with the second hand bookshops, especially the one beside the Minster that is 5 floors of tiny, creaking book lined rooms. Evil Eye Lounge was a cool place for hanging out (Johnny Depp's favourite bar in England apparently!) and there was loads of cool small shops like Purple Haze and the Cat Gallery.




Mostly we just did a whole lot of this :)

Upon my return to Dublin it was raining, but that soon cleared up and since then the weather has been ACTUALLY warm! Amazing. I went for Bloomsday swim in Sandycove, which was not very warm at all but very nice, and if you kind of squinted and ignored all the cars and buses and billboards and just focused on the people dressed up in straw hats you could pretend it was a different time, which is always fun.


I'm currently reading a novel written by someone I actually know, which is very exciting! Its called Strangers In America and its by a girl called Erika Meyers from Ohio, who is studying for Creative Writing Masters at UCD with James Ryan, the man himself who gave me the writing exercise that turned in The Beautiful People. I'm really enjoying the book, which is about a girl called Helena, the adopted daughter of adopted parents, who works as an exterminator. I'll write more about it when I'm finished, for now I'm just turning pages and thinking 'YES! It IS possible! Go write a novel!'.

After all my going on about the nice weather, it looks like its actually going to rain today. I guess its the perfect time to get writing...

God Is Nowhere/God Is Now Here

Its been a while since I last wrote and loads of things have been happening but I've been meaning to publish this post for a while now so I'll just go for it and leave my friends exhibition, instrumental gigs and bumper sticker songs till next time.

I finished the Rebecca Miller novel in a day and I'm struggling to put into words what I felt about it because it was one of those books that kind of floated into my brain and then out again. The beginning was interesting; the main character Pippa moves to an old folks village, called something like Marigold, with her 80 year old husband and starts undergoing an existential crisis of sorts when she realizes she's not 80, a realization that is facilitated by the waster son of the elderly couple across the road, who has a giant Jesus tattoo on his back and turned religious after receiving a massive electric shock in his early 20's. It floats back and forth between the past and present kind of clumsily compared to Cats Eye, and quite a lot of the past, set in New York in the 70's, is cliched.

I live in fear of cliches in writing, in others and my own, because I feel like it can drain the life out of a good story.

I suppose my summary would be: sweet, sometimes interesting, not on the top 5 list but would give it to someone who needs a break from reality.

I'm now reading Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland and it is very good. It reminds me of Chuck Palahniuk with softer edges. Its basically about a high school shooting and the repercussions it has on 4 peoples lives, one being Cheryl a pregnant and secretly married student who writes 'God is Nowhere/God is Now Here' in her copy book minutes before she is killed. Her surviving classmates pen it all over her coffin, an action her boyfriend/husband sees as meaningless and her dad sees as a waste of the nice pearly coffin he picked out. Its a good example of the dark humour of the book, the way it uses that to show the effects of death on life as opposed to just the general aftermath. It's a complicated novel but what I like about it is that I'm pretty sure everyone could find a bit of themselves in at least one of the characters.
And the cover is cool too.

The Frances McManus shortlist was anounced today and sadly I didn't get shortlisted, nor did any of my other writerly friends. Maybe next year!

Thank you and good night.

It doesn't feel like Saturday.

This is weird, and I am not sure how to fix it.

That just reminded me of Yeah Yeah Yeah's 'Date With The Night'

Don't tell me to fix her, don't tell me to fix her

After dancing to that for a while, I now feel more saturday-ish. Thanks Karen-O.

Publishing Day at the Writers Centre today was good, all this 'there is no market for fiction' from literary agent Jonothan Williams just made me want to do it more, and Dermot Bolgers funny and inspirational talk made me want to go home, lock the door, put pens in my hair to create an artistic vibe and write the best novel EVER.

'Take a deep breath, suck the water in my chest...'

Being huddled under a duvet with a cold/flu is a good chance to catch up on everything thats been going on...

The filming of 'Play It Cool', my friends masterpiece based on some Xtravision fun times, resulted in us taking over Laser in Ranelagh for a few hours one day last week, disturbing customers with our professionalism/comic genius and generally creating some box office gem moments. Playing myself was hard, but someone had to do it. 

I finally got my Rogue stripe. All I need is a southern accent an' some super powers please.

I finished reading Margaret Atwood's 'Cats Eye' and I'm still letting it sink in. The writing was amazing, the switching between past and present flawless, and the cruelty of girls terrifying. But we all knew that. And if you didn't, lucky you. Next on the list are Douglas Coupland 'Hey Nostradamus' and Rebecca Miller 'The Private Lives of Pippa Lee'. I've had my eye on it for a while (and had it hidden in my 'possibly buy ' pile whilst working in Reads) so when I saw it in my Favourite Charity Shop of All Time (which deserves a post all of its own some day) for a euro I decided now was the time. It has a cover which vaguely suggests chick lit but the daughter of Arthur Miller must have something slightly more to offer. 

It must be hard to live up to that kind of legacy. Also, weird to know your father went out with Marylin Monroe before your mother.

I'll leave you with the song thats been playing in my head almost all the time lately (also where the title quote comes from), and an amazing video; Flo crackling and roaring at her fiery best :)

I think I'm developing an unhealthy addiction to Fishermans Friends.

Hennessy's and the flea market gift from the gods

The fateful day of 2oth of April dawned and the Hennessy XO Literary Awards banners were unrolled. I was so nervous as I crossed the cobblestones, it all looked amazing; red velvet ropes, an amazing light show across the ceiling and a whole lot of glasses glinting gold with Hennessy. 

A photographer took me aside to take my picture ('Smile! Give me teeth!', 'No', '....teeth?', 'NO') but despite my lack of teeth I was very happy and felt so honored to be there. I wasn't expecting to win, so wasn't disappointed when I didn't, and was very happy for Madeleine D'Arcy who did. To be honest, after what the judge Carlo Gebler said about my story, I didn't care at all anymore; he said my writing reminded him of Evelyn Waugh and was exactly what we needed right now. He called it 'attack fiction', as it attacks the rising tide of stupidity and forces the slowly crumbling brain to do some work. It really made me feel like I was going in the right direction, and that I wasn't crazy to think that this is something I can do for real. 

Since then time has been flying by in a lovely sunny haze, with the return of the friends London stole and their having to stay longer due to ash clouds (thank you volcano!), night time music watching, movies and reading. I Am Love is an incredible film, it messes with your emotions for 2 hours in a glorious way. I'm currently reading (and enjoying) Cats Eye by Margaret Atwood; her writing is intimidatingly smooth and perfect. I'll write more about it when I'm finished. 

Yesterday was the third Sunday of the month and that meant...the dublin flea market :)

As I was wandering around taking pictures of cool-looking people I don't know and wondering if The Right Way To Keep Ponies would come up with some way in which I could have one in my apartment, I said to my friend 'I really hope I find a pair of Docs today'. I used to have a pair but they didn't belong to me and I miss them. Then, by some miracle, about two minutes after we got inside, I saw them; a pair of Doc Martens, battered but still good, my size and...in someone elses hands. However, she was clearly an angel as she heard me saying 'NO! Just too late!' to my friend and handed them over saying 'You go for it, dear'. I swear, an ANGEL. I don't care that they look like they probably used to be red and someone tried to colour them black with permanent marker; I love them.
This week should be interesting; I'm helping my friend with the script for a webisode she's shooting for her final project as it is QUITE similar to my own life, sorting out my Rogue hair so I can have some super powers all ready and hopefully starting work on my novel. Sometimes Mondays can be nice.

The music thats been rocking my socks

Notorious B.I.G: cool. The XX: super cool. The Notorious XX: awesome! A soundcloud that I've been happily floating on.

The Notorious XX was a free download album but The Man cracked down and now its only available to listen to online. Damn you Man! I have been recommending it to everyone I come into contact with, including my dad and Ezra. It totally paid off when Louise referenced me in her blog post about it. Seeing as hers says it all (she's even got a fancy video) there's no point in me saying it all again; I'll just say this: check out the Notorious XX! Sit back, relax, enjoy, and possibly feel politically incensed. 

A lil closer to home, I went to see my friends band The Jazzberries play in Tripod on Wednesday. They were competing in Trinity's Battle of the Bands for a place at Trinity Ball. They didn't win, which was totally unfair because they were amazing! The musicians are all really talented and individual, and the fabulous Sallay sashayed across the stage whilst singing her sirens songs like a true star.

Last but not least: Laura Marling. I love her. She is my absolute favourite singer/songwriter. Alas I Cannot Swim is the album I listen to morning, noon and night, when I'm happy, sad or sleepy, and I never ever tire of it. I also love what I've heard of the new album. She didn't show up to her free gig in Tower, and I didn't get tickets in time to see her at the Academy, but I don't mind too much. She's one of those I'm pretty sure I'm gonna like everything she comes out with, so I'll see her some day and really enjoy the show. 

Give me to a rambling man, let it always be known that I was who am

The days of Donegal

I spent the Easter break gallivanting around Donegal and it was pretty awesome. We had a very chilled out vibe going and it only rained on us once! Its hard to describe Donegal; its totally beautiful but in a wild, rugged way. As I was standing on a beach surrounded by mountains getting blown to pieces by the wind, I felt very lucky to live in a country that was so capable of being really, really ridiculously good looking.

I kind of fell in love with Buncrana Cinema; it shows one film for a whole week, at 8 o'clock every evening. It also has Bingo Friday-Sunday.

I would love to be able to say 'its raining so we cant race our tractors, want to go see the film?'. Oh for a simple country life.