Chicka bow-ow

Lisbon treaty, blaaah.

2008-06-13T09:27:00.001-07:00

First of all, yeah, I probably would have voted No aswell. Just getting that out of the way.

But the tirade of scare-mongering and sheer propaganda that came from the 'Vote No' camp would be the last reason I would ever have voted No, let's get that straight too. I don't like what they did, I think it was cheap. They lied to people in my opinion. For example, all this, "ooh, the Irish Army is gonna be in 'battle groups' in the EU Army" . Battle groups have been in operation since January 2007. Ireland has been involved in the Nordic Battlegroup of 2800 soliders coming from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Ireland for over a year.
Whoever tried to tell you that this was something to do with the Lisbon treaty, was lying.

That's just one example, I won't go into more right now. Like most people who voted No (I guess), I would have voted No more or less because I don't understand the ins and outs of the treaty. Neither does the government or pro-treaty parties, and clearly, neither did the oppositon. That's just my problem with it.

It's not necessarily the content - I mean change within the Union is obviously necessary: it just doubled in size! Further, I think there was a lot of positive things in the treaty, and the more influence of ideologically-driven European politics has on our conservative -nationalist bullshit political culture, the better in my opinion. But this was handled very wrong.

I am all for a strong and democratic European Union, but more specifically I'm for a participative one. While naturally you can't expect every lay person to understand every single thing about every piece of law signed between countries, there was a dramatic failure on the part of the government or European Union to inform people of what this treaty really involved, which left propagandists on one side and elitists on the other free to either confuse people or make them feel small.

On BBC I just read "Declan Ganley of the anti-treaty lobby group Libertas said that if the No vote had indeed triumphed that it was "a great day for Ireland".

"The people of Ireland have shown enormous courage and wisdom in analysing the facts presented to them and making the decision they have," Mr Ganley said. "

I beg to differ, Declan. The Irish people did not make an informed decision - how the fuck could they? This No vote should reflect the complete opposite; not just the utter failure of our representatives to inform the people of Ireland, nor just the efforts of propagandists with their own agendas to distort the truth, but rather it should reflect the failure of a movement which, whether it was intentional or not, was shifting the democratic process further away from the voting public and hiding it behind a massive wall of words, an impenetrable bureaucracy. While obviously some things need to be left to the professionals, I just feel that moves like this need to be nipped in the bud.

I just think the situation needs to be re-thought. As I said, it's obvious that reform is necessary considering the changes which have taken place in the EU (changes which, let's not forget, the Irish people almost prevented from happening once before). But its clear that something needs to be done to make things more transparent, clear and understandable - so that at least we can keep an eye on the people we elect, the people we are supposed to trust to look after our interests.

blaaaaaaah.

Talking through his arse again...

2008-05-18T05:03:00.000-07:00

Bush is on CNN right now talking about democracy spreading to the middle east. He made a comparison to the democratisation of Latin America and "places like Chile" where democratisation "once seemed impossible". Well, George, Chile was actually a model for democracy in the region until the US stuck a brutal dictator in charge as soon as your fucking corporate mining interests were threatened.

And since we're talking about democratisation in the middle east, why don't you explain your continued support for dictatorships in:
Morocco
Tunisia
Algeria
Libya
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Jordan
United Arab Emirates
Oman
Yemen
...not to mention
Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan
Azerbaijan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Pakistan

...etc.

Basically, don't dare talk about spreading democracy in the middle east (or "the Islamic World" in your Huntingtonian lexicon) when you're the biggest sponsor of authoritarianism in the whole damn world.

Update: He just said something like this: "There are those in the Middle East who are suspicious of democracy. I understand that."

Yeah, they're your fucking friends.

Funny where stuff ends up...

2008-04-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Almost 2 years on, a simple google search for "Wake up to Wexford" now yields about 600 results. It's after showing up on numerous youtube-mimmick websites and has been discussed on the likes of boards.ie, bebo, etc.

But one in particular caught my eye today. It's now found a home on "VideoPile - Thousands of Family-Friendly and Christian videos, for the whole family". [http://www.videopile.com/video/aWcsn3oiyqb3]

Now, just to recall a phrase or two from that video:
"You haven't lived until... you've fucked a complete stranger in Keysers lane..."
"...until you've got your nose broken outside colony for being black..."
"...until you've woken up on a marina, feeling like you've been raped by a large Polish man named Tomas, and it might be true..."

Christian? Family Friendly? I must be getting old...

I want to...

2007-12-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

...start blogging on a more regular basis, but I would rather the subject matter was perhaps more specefic than this blog. This is basically just a mini-forum for my sporadic rantings on pretty much any topic that tickles my fancy. However, I think I'd like to start a blog (perhaps with other people too) which is more consistently political, and which deliberately concentrates on what we are not told by the western media. I'd rather move the serious blogging away from here, cos this is a bit of a mess. As an IR student, journalism presents a serious option for employment for me, so I want to start concentrating on writing just a little more.
So, if anyone is interested in joining me, then let me know.

Idiotic Power-Hungry Nutcase Alert!!

2007-11-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

I mean, it's always Giant Douche vs. Turd Sandwich, but this guy is taking ignorance to a whole new level. Watch this.

I don't even know where to start! I can't even engage with the sheer idiocy!

Why even bother making such lame excuses??

2007-11-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

So, Gen. Pervez Musharraf is currently giving his tirade of lies for suspending the constitution, declaring emergency rule, shutting down lots of independent media, cutting off phones, arresting opposition and dismissing the head of the supreme court in Pakistan.

The translation on CNN is terrible, but his first point seems to be that it's because of terrorists. Right, so that's why you should arrest the opposition and dismiss the head of the supreme court...because there are Islamist terrorists on the border with Afghanistan? Eh...what? And it has nothing to do with the fact that the supreme court was probably about to declare your election as president to be invalid?

Another excuse coming through on the extremely bad translation is that he did it because "some do not want to obey the constitution". Well, as my flatmate just put it, that's harldy a surprise considering his own flagrant disregard for it.

Essentially he also claims that the institutions and media that he gave independence to disappointed him (they clearly didn't know how to use it?) so he's decided to take it away.

"I was so embarrassed and humiliated, my own capital is not controlled by me" he says, speaking of the battle at the red mosque in Islamabad this year. So, this is about being embarrassed?

Wait, and didn't this guy promise to resign his military position if he was elected?

Does anyone actually believe this liar? I don't know why he even bothered.

Oh, and should Musharraf succeed, I would expect the likes of the U.S. to be relatively toothless in their condemnation of this. Because they don't actually care about democracy - we already know that, right?

Destroying Iraq, part 2

2007-10-15T03:31:00.001-07:00

So, it seems Turkey has begun launching a few rockets in the general direction of Kurdish villages in northern Iraq, in preparation for a possible full-on invasion and violation of the already shaky Iraqi sovereignty. Yes, more bombs and killing of innocent civillians in the most (relatively) prosperous region of the war-torn hell-hole, that's exactly what they need.

Sometimes I can't believe people. Do they seriously think that this is going to make things better? Has it ever made things better? I mean, if there's ever been a more obvious example of a self-sustaining cycle, surely it's the war/terror continuum. Terrorists bomb->terrorists kill->army recruits->army invades->army kills->terrorists recruit->terrorists bomb. Ad infinitum.

Turkey's pig-headed and brainless nationalistic aggression against an ethnic minority doesn't bode well for their denial of genocide against the Armenians in my humble opinion. In fact it's exactly what you'd expect from a country with that kind of history.

Idiots, idiots everywhere!! What are we to do?

Seriously though....

2007-10-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

Why the hell does everyone continue to expect China - CHINA - to put pressure on Myanmar to stop what they're doing? It's CHINA for God's sake. Since when does China have any moral issue with the torturing and killing of Buddhist Monks or democracy advocates?

Jesus, CNN just won't shut up about it. What are ya, stupid?

p.s.
Currently listening to: Manic Street Preachers: Everything Must Go
Currently reading: Jan Neruda: Povidky malostranské (Prague Tales from the Little Quarter)

Brian 'Yap' Barry - PinkPunk - Yapolitical

2007-09-30T13:21:00.001-07:00

pretty epic stuff

International pressure on Myanmar...from, ehh, China? Hardly...

2007-09-28T03:20:00.000-07:00

So, who else has been following the on-going monk-led pro-democracy revolts in Myanmar/Burma? Since CNN is the only English-speaking channel I have in my apartment, I can't quite help but follow it with interest.

Those of you who have been following it will be aware that for the last eleven days, the capital city has witnessed unprecedented protests in a country where any sort of public gathering of this kind is highly illegal. Numbers have apparently risen to as much as 100,000 in the capital, Yangon, according to numerous blogs and press sources.

I personally was delighted to see Buddhist monks leading the protests. I mean, when Buddhist monks are protesting against you, you *know* you're a bad person; hardcore Jews, Christians or Muslims will pretty much protest against anyone who isn't one of them these days, but Buddhist monks are different. Completely different. Where other religious groups seem to base their protests on "God's hatred" of a given group (e.g. westerners, other religions, homosexuals, cartoonists, etc), Buddhist monks are all about love and peace. So the fact that they were the ones protesting said a lot - they surely wouldn't protest something as trivial as, say, sexuality or cartoons.

The timing of course couldn't be better. That the U.N. general assembly happened to be going on at the exact same time as these protests surely played in thier favour; Myanmar was immediately brought into the press spotlight and that of the international community too. Answers could be demanded there and then, and they couldn't quite hide away from it as they usually do. So, the so-called 'democracy promoters' such as the U.S.A, the U.K, France and the ASEAN countries wasted no time in pouring out the pro-democratic rhetoric, as they so often do. Dictatorships such as Russia, China and the Central Asian countries, whilst expressing their "concern", insisted that it was an internal issue, as they so often do.

So, on the eleventh day of protestes and the second day of killings, we're left with an interesting situation; the demonstrators are left with the choice to either risk their lives or go home and give in. Western countries can attempt to exert their influence but it's not like they'll go to war over this - although there is plenty of gas in Myanmar, so you never know.

But what I find just a little stupid about all this is that everyone is looking to *China* - yes, CHINA - to exert pressure on Myanmar. Example: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1666044,00.html?cnn=yes

CHINA! Yes, the fascist one. Everone is looking to a fascist regime, which has demonstrated that it has no moral issue with killing democratic protesters in cold blood, to "intervene" against another fascist regime, in support of democratic protesters...led by Buddhist Monks!

TIBET??? HELLO??? TIANAMEN SQUARE??? Does anyone else see how ridiculous that idea is?

What the fuck do you expect?

Forthcoming Music

2007-08-17T04:42:00.000-07:00

1. We're starting to record Shelley Bukspan's new record this month. Hopefully it won't take long before everyone can bask in the brilliance of her voice again. The album looks like it will be pretty acoustic and sparse with the occasional funk or rock injection.

2. Myself and Aidan Holland have begun writing a small number of songs which we will finish and record this month, then put up onto myspace. Its likely that most of the work will be done in the small hours of the morning in his house near Clontarf. It sounds (so far) pretty damn unique and i cant wait to show it to y'all when its done.

3. Before I go to Prague I am undertaking the project of putting together an album of songs written with most of my musician-friends. This could lead to some fantastic moments and I'm expecting a very diverse album. More info on who will be involved soon but I'm quite excited about it.

Yeah, okay, yeah, I know

2007-08-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, yeah, I know, I'm sorry, I know, okay, sorry, yes, I know, alright, okay.

Soon. Honest.

The Next Several Blogs: "Dicatorships Supported by the U.S and/or Europe"

2007-07-10T17:22:00.001-07:00

Exactly what it says on the tin.

The next several blogs will aim to shed light on the numerous dictatorships which are actively supported by & enjoy friendly relations with the U.S. and/or Europe, just in case anyone thought that they still gave a flying fuck about democracy.

I will start - hopefully this week - with Morocco, then probably move eastwards through the Middle East, Central Asia and so on.

Good Night and Good Luck

Currently listening to John Frusciante: "The Will to Death" - quite impressive.

New Name and Stuff

2007-07-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to pull a Kevin Doran on it and change the name of the blog.

Maybe the address aswell.

The name above is probably temporary - for those of you who don't know, it's the name of a Manic Street Preachers album. But i'll put up a list of possibilites soon and get your opinions.

Election Rant. Synopsis: Irish Democracy Sucks Balls

2007-06-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

So, George Bush's corrupt little northside lapdog, Mr Bertie 'Ordinary Guy' Ahern and his half-witted boghopping agri-friends win again. What the fuck is it gonna take?

But the worst thing about it is that the next biggest party - his biggest rivals - Fine Gael, could seamlessly merge into Fianna Fáil without any ideological differences being encountered aside from a small disagreement which arose 80 fucking years ago. A disagreement, I might add, which is hugely misconstrued amongst the general public in Ireland (many of whom believe that it came down to remaining in the UK or not - which of course it was not). That's another rant for another time, but while I'm at it, I'm just gonna throw it out there: Eamonn de Valera was a backstabber and a dishonest opportunist charlatan just like every other man to lead that party, with the possible exception of Seán Lemass.

I just don't get Irish politics. Irish people don't think about politics enough in my opinion. I guess it probably goes back to the fact that we never had a proper industrial revolution accompanied by the rival ideologies of socialism and capitalism that has shaped the political makeup of most other european countries. Instead we're left with a choice between two carbon copies of the same bunch of centre-rightist, formerly christo-fascist nationalists who talk nothing but shit year in year out.

But don't get me wrong. I could tolerate either of them if they were in coalition with a more ideologically based party such as Labour (or the Greens, if there were more of them, but I'll get to that. BUT NOT THE PDs - I'll get to them too). Now, don't get me wrong about Labour - i think Pat Rabitte totally sold that party out to the point where they were just an extension of Fine Gael. I mean, come on, this was once the party that gave us Joe Higgins (one of the only true opposition members in the last government).
I think it's high time Brendan Howlin stepped in and saved that party from an eternity of being Fine Gael's bitch and sacrificing all the principles upon which it was founded. But i get the feeling - and bear in mind that I don't know anything about how that party works - that the powers-that-be within that party feel a bit threatened by him.

Take, for example, last week when Bertie Ahern spoke to Mr Howlin about nominating him as Ceann Comhairle. Surely the leadership of Labour and other opposition parties should have jumped at the opportunity to have such an experienced opposition TD as Ceann Comhairle. But no - they (and I'm not sure in this case who 'they' are - probably Pat Rabbitte, Enda Kenney and Ruarai Quinn) had already decided to nominate Ruairi Quinn and stuck with their decision, despite the fact that it would surely result in a Fianna Fáil Ceann Comhairle. I mean, where's the sense in that?

Anyways since Labour is, for now, married to Fine Gael we are left with Fianna Fáil and a little mixed bag of contradictions. Despite being absoloutely fucking raped in the election, the neo-liberal zealot party (also known as the PDs) retain a cabinet seat. But not just any cabinet seat: the Minister for Health! As if our health system wasn't in a state of complete crisis for the last decade, they've decided to appoint the same god-damn minister who remains bent on reinforcing the emerging class system in Ireland by continuing the privatisation of our health service.

So, it's private hospitals with their nice little rock-fountain features and carpets for the wealthy and as for the less fortunate, well, it's to hell or to fucking Cuba.

I don't think people are taking this seriously enough either. This is our HEALTH and it is fucking paramount. Believe me, I would be completely ignorant of the crisis if I didn't have family and friends whom have suffered continuously at the hands of our sub-standard (understatement alert) health service and its spoilt and all-too-often inadequate professionals for years. If a government with as much money as ours cannot provide a health system on a par with our neighbours in Europe, then something is seriously wrong. Instead of rectifying that, they're going to simply reinforce the divide between rich and poor in this country.

I think Bertie Ahern has some neck to appoint a position of such importance to a member of a party which was shown, in no uncertain terms, where to go by the people of this country at the election.

Thank God for the small grace of at least having the Greens in the coalition - although I'm not yet convinced it was the best idea. However, despite the fact that they gained 3 times as many seats as the PDs, they were given much less important cabinet positions. And one would assume that they have been asked to keep schtoom about Shannon Airport, which continues to be used for CIA extraordinary rendition flights and thus constitutes participation in acts which violate human rights law.

Further, the position of Tánaiste was given to Brian Cowen, not John Gormley! What??

Okay I'm tired now. I think you see where I'm going with this. Basically the way I see it, Irish people don't give a fuck about anything except for making money these days. The formerly quasi-fascist influence of the catholic church, which constantly acted as a barricade against the development of any kind of socialist-influenced policies in this country has been replaced by a blind faith in neo-liberalism. What's worse is it just seems like we don't care about each other any more. Once you can pay for your own health, your own children's private education, and continue working for your large US-owned corporation, well everyone else can fuck off and look after themselves. In the oh-so-relevant words of Kele Okereke:

'Oh, how our parents they suffered for nothing,
Live a dream, like the eighties never happened'

Instead of writing a blog

2007-05-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here's some songs i've been listening to recently...

I'm very tired....

Oh, and if anyone out there has suggestions where i can get a part time job in dublin, let me know!

This week I have been mostly listening to....

2007-04-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

Saul Williams feat. Zack de la Rocha: Act III, Scene 2

Manic Street Preachers: A Design For Life

Nine Inch Nails: The Great Destroyer

The result of all this was some pretty intensely political music.

Extremely busy with college work at the moment, so I dont have much time to blog properly (as if i ever did that anyway), hopefully will be back ranting again soon.

Chili's weirding it up live

2007-04-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

RHCP have recently got back to weird live improvisations and doing two-guitar songs thanks to help from their friend Josh Klinghoffer (of Ataxia, The Bicycle Thief, and for a while, Gnarls Barkley). They also did a free experimental show in melbourne. Here's some cool Youtube examples

This Velvet Glove - Adelaide Australia (one of my favourite songs - rarely played live until recently. The audio/visual is a little off on this but quality is high)

She's Only 18 (Short...not the best quality)

Flea Trumpet Solo/Klinghoffer on Bass

Experimental (Free) Show - Federation Square Melbourne (Chad, Flea [trumpet], John and Josh - videos are short, not the best quality but pretty fuckin crazy..sounds like TMV or some shit!)

2

3

4

5

Fuck Storm Front

2007-04-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

Storm Front . org

"White Nationalists"

I think I've found a website which sums up everything which is wrong with humanity. A perfect example of our flaws. A perfect example of unevolved souls and minds. A perfect example of people who I have to fight myself not to hate. I dont know if I can put it into words.

It disgusts me.

The WORST part, is how many of these spiritually retarded bastions of hatred, these fucking lighthouses of ignorance and excuses for conscious fucking human beings described themselves - in their unique, uneducated and arbitrary ways - as being "Scotch-Irish", "Slavic", "English-Irish" etc . . . whilst often sporting a confederate flag or fucking swastika as their avatar image!

HELLO?

Irish..? Confederate..?

WHAT??

SLAVIC FUCKING NAZIS?

HELLO?

My personal favourite...just a taster
"Father's side: 50% Irish and 50% Polish.
Mother's side: 100% pure Polish.
100% white.100% loyal to England."

Check it out and arbitrarily classify yourself in the most hypocritical way possible - join the Storm Front Partaaay! www.stormfront.org

Here's hoping we are wiped off the planet by a comet.

"Shame on us
Doomed from the Start
May God have mercy on our dirty little hearts
Shame on us
For all that we've done
And all we ever were
Just zeros and ones"

- Trent Reznor

China

2007-03-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'll say it now - 'cos I don't think I've said it before, and I definitely don't say it enough - China is a fully fledged and well-oiled oppressive fascist state, and I only hope that regime bites the dust before they become a genuine threat to regional and global freedom.

My thanks to Kevin Doran [http://kevindoran.blogspot.com] for these two articles:

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=17004

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21354

Oh, and a personal favourite of mine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet

The more chinese people who decide to stand up to their oppressive regime and try to make a difference through any form of expression the better.

In the Next Six Weeks

2007-03-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

I have 3 essays and a dissertation which collectively add up to 13,500 words, and two group presentations. Not including work for Spanish. In six weeks.

Then three exams.

Harsh.

Some people need to get a sense of humour...

2007-03-13T15:35:00.001-07:00

In the last couple of weeks a huge group of class-list email addresses in DCU have been barraged by stupid fucking emails asking for tickets to on-campus events.

First of all there was the Casino ball. Heaps of people decided it would be a good idea to turn the inboxes of easily a couple of thousand people into a live buy-and-sell operation because they were too fucking lazy to queue up when they got a chance. Every email was one of two varieties

1. "HEy does any1 hav a ticket for the casino ball? good prices paid email me back"

2. "I have three tickets available for the casino ball if any1 wants em. Highest offer"

First of all I was a little ticked off and decided to get in on the action.

--------
From: "Dan Cloney" *************@mail.dcu.ie
To: [insert heaps of class lists cos they take up too much space]
Subject: RE: [Ir2] RE: [Bsi3] (no subject)
Sent: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 14:37:13 +0000

Looking for a ticket for tonight?My friend has a fucking time machine if anyone wants to use it so you can go back and queue up like everyone else.
--------

Later that day I checked my inbox to find not only a heap more requests/offers for tickets, but also about 3 emails from people claiming to have "lost a USB key" somewhere in the Business school. I figured maybe it was time for something a little more drastic. So I changed my name.

--------
From: "Thomas Arse" **************@mail.dcu.ie
To: [same huge list of classes]
Subject:RE: [Ir2] Lost usb key
Sent: Tue, 6 Mar 2007 18:34:10 +0000

Hi,I lost 34 partially dismantled nuclear warheads somewhere in the moldovan breakaway republic of transnistria last week. i'm told they were last seen in the business school, if anyone has them could you please let me know?

Thomas Arse

Oh and if anyone's selling Casino Ball tickets please email me back too
---------

A lot of people found this pretty funny, which i thought was cool. However it didn't stop the madness. This week we have had a non-stop stream of emails, blissfully free of spelling or grammar concerns (not that I'm very picky...i mean look at this shit), concerning tickets to "the paddy's ball," as well as one very strange email requesting the help of any gays or lesbians to help "a friend" out with their research into comparative homosexual lifestyles. After deleting over ten such emails in 12 hours, I decided tonight that one of my little friends had to intervene.

---------
From: "Franz Schitt" **************@mail.dcu.ie
To: [same list]
Subject: RE: [Ir2] FW: [Fm2] paddys balls
Sent: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 17:58:11 +0000

Hi everyone,sorry for the group mail

I have two of my friend paddy's balls in a jar going at cost price.Email me back if you're interested.

He's also hoping to conduct some pretty intensive research into the homosexual lifestyle so if you wanna give him a hand, as it were, you can reach him at 1550 69 69 69 outside office hours.

Regards,
Thomas Schitt [sic. my mistake.]

ps has anyone seen my usb key?
---------

I got at least 5 emails saying something like this:

"do ya still have the tickets, i'll buy them 087blablabla"

Yep. Some people actually neglected to realise that the word "tickets" wasnt even mentioned - even hinted at! - in the email. Jesus.

There was one thing that pissed me off though. I mean, yeah, i guess i was probably contributing to the problem - they're just more silly emails filling up people's inboxes - but at the same time, in the context of the sheer numbers of these fucking emails, a bit of a pisstake was doing no harm, was it? I mean, at least it was a bit funny, right? Surely it couldn't hurt to have a bit of a giggle at the whole situation.

Wrong apparently. I got this email from some chick when i logged on tonight....it was something like this

------
Hi Franz,
I'm sure your friend has really small insignificant balls so I won't be buying them, so you can stop filling my inbox with crap.
------

Oh, chill the fuck out. I mean, come on!

It actually put a downer on what was supposed to be a light-hearted thing. But no, no. She was clearly so deeply offended that she felt the need to insult the ball-size of an imaginary character. "Oooh, zing!"

Some people need to pull the stick out. I hope to God she fucking emailed all those other people too and insulted *their* imaginary characters. That'll show 'em.

So remember - don't try to shed light on the funny side of things! Cos some people are devoid of a sense of humour.

This is a crossroads. And other related non-stories

2007-03-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

*****NORMAL SERVICE WILL RESUME SHORTLY*****

I know, I know....and I feel bad.

1) I am lazy
2) I am paranoid
3) I am lazy
4) Sometimes I feel like I've said it all before
5) I often feel like I'm not articulating myself
6) I am really, really fucking lazy

A lot has happened since my last non-post. I have a couple of assertions that i feel need to be put out there and a couple of questions that I would like answered.

1) I no longer believe in physical violence. In theory at least. However, what about self-defence? I mean, surely if you are being gratuitously attacked there is nothing wrong with defending yourself? But then again, isn't "self-defence" a term which, as we've seen, is open to interpretation by very, very evil people? Isn't "self-defence" the "reason" Iraq was destroyed by the U*****S*****? The reason the Israeli government envokes as it ruins the lives of the Palestinians (I'll get to that later)? The reason envoked for atrocities like Vietnam, Chechnya, Nicaragua, and so forth? Does this mean that self defence is a bad thing?

2) I do not know how to interact with my flatmate any more. There are 5 of us. 4 cool, one complete retard. Socially he does not know how to interact with people. I won't even go into it...suffice to say he makes a regular geek look like Jay fucking Z. Anyway there was an "incident" a while ago wherein he squealed to the lesbian storm-troopers of campus res [who may be reading this...who knows?] about us for having a cat in the flat.
It wasnt the fact that he didnt like the cat that got under my skin. It was that he lied to us. We said, when he told us he "wasn't comfortable" living with the cat, that we would have a talk about it...y'know...reach a fucking compromise. We thought that would be okay. Well, despite his apparent acquiesence [spelling? it's late...], it wasn't good enough for him and he went behind our backs and squealed like a little piggy.

You see it's worse than that though. Not only were we threatened with eviction but combined with other factors this all added up to the worst couple of days I've had in the last year or two. It was genuinely horrible. And it came back to that fucker.

My exact words to him later that day - upon his denial of said squealing - were:

"Fuck off, I am through with you."

I don't think that is open to misinterpretation. Is it?

'Cos the thing is HE KEEPS TRYING TO FUCKING TALK TO ME.

I'm not a man who enjoys conflict or negative energy, but why, why oh why must he do this? I dont have the energy to tell him to piss off, to go and die, to get a life or to punch his ugly, spotty fucking face, ... so what the fuck am i supposed to do? Talk to him? If only I could demonstrate to you how hard that actually is! He is a second hand grey carpet trapped in a man's body!

I can't be negative, I can't be positive

How should I interact with this simpleton of a dickwad who has been such a prick but yet continues to expect my attention?

Anyway. I felt i needed to put that out there. I'll get back to more regular and more concise blogging from here on in. More news coming soon regarding music.

Trivium Interpretation...hilarious

2007-01-14T07:51:00.000-08:00

Props to a guy called 'Paranoidave' on Youtube.

Exile

2007-01-13T17:48:00.000-08:00

This was inspired by the third song from the short "concept" piece - now renamed "bloodlines" - which I will be working on with Mark Kerry and Gary Furlong (God willing), amongst others. I have the musical skeleton written as well as most of the lyrics

I have to wait for mark to bring up a fucking bass amp so that we can get moving...he also has songs that we have to work on so when we finally get recording it will be interesting to see how it works out. Gary Furlong is hopefully getting involved too, he's a brilliant guitarist.

What you are seeing in the background are just jumbled lyrical phrases from the song itself. This song focuses on the disillusioned son leaving his father's home never to return, guided by a knowledge that there is something or someone looking out for him.

Try to outdo me for pretentiousness, i just dare you.

Random philosophical moment / London...(like, a month later)

2006-12-13T17:29:00.000-08:00

so Many homes of worship I can't find peace in one...
looking down on your creations I know I don't need none
- Shelley Bukspan

I really connected with that song when we played it in London for whatever reason. So I was very happy and decided drunk was the way to go.

The night in a few pictures [although I dont have any good ones of Shelley on a cd yet...]

Random update

2006-12-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

Seems like its a while since i posted...cos it is.

That girl in the room above me is singing shit music again, and its really shit. Not quite sure how else to put it.

Incubus: Light grenades gets a very respectable 7.5/10 from me
"A Kiss to Send us off", "Dig", "Anna Molly", and "Rogues" are probably the best tunes, and amongst the best incubus have ever come out with. There are hardly any dissappointments, maybe "oil and water" and "diamons and coal" are a little lacklustre, but all in all its a great album. It sounds like a mix between "morning view" and "a crow left of the murder" but it has a pretty unique vibe. Anyways, yeah, great album.

Sparta: Threes gets an impressive 7
It's still Sparta, just better than before - more razor sharp and to-the-point, and more consistently good. Threes in my opinion is superior to "Amputecture" by the Mars Volta, whom for all their amazing skill and talent and moments of brilliance, fail to cut to the core of me recently in a way that Sparta succeed. Best songs are "Untreatable Disease", "Taking Back Control", "Unstitch Your Mouth" and "Without a Sound"

Will have pictures and stories from my ultimate London adventure soon.

Entering the Bronx Age...?

2006-11-25T15:01:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night we had our first electric gig as "Shelley Bukspan and the Fake Celebs" in Bewleys Theatre on Grafton Street. It was so much fun. The theatre is lovely although the stage was a little small for the eight of us, and there was a good crowd there of mostly people in some way connected to someone in the band. Personally, bass-wise I wasn't on top form but I got away with it, and I played SexyBack.
We also played some songs which will probably be on Shelley's next album, a few of which me and Derm have had a bit of input into (most notably "I'm not your mother"), and they have a different sound to the old album So Eclectic; more chilled out, and funky in a more understated way...although "I'm not your mother" has a good driving funk to it. Shelley was saying the next album will probably be called The Bronx Age, which I think is a really cool name.
Even though its not the same as my old band, I have so much fun in this band, there's a lot less pressure, and being totally outclassed by people like Conor Brady from time to time is definitely a good thing. There's a lot of positive vibes around Shelley's house too. Hopefully this summer we'll get to go to London and record the album if all goes well. Rock and fucking roll.

Today I bought Light Grenades by Incubus and Threes by Sparta. On first listen, both sound fucking brilliant. Later.

Straight back to earth

2006-11-20T15:39:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's a good thing to be given a good dressing-down, even in a non-explicit way. It's good to realize sometimes that you're not so fucking great yourself, so shut the fuck up and stop being such a self-centred asshole. It's good, when you can't keep your ego in check, to have someone else do it for you.

Especially when you're just being hypocritical and petty and you're too wrapped up in your own little imaginary reality to even realize it.
Smack.

Straight back to earth.

Dust yourself off, remember the lesson and start again.

Olbermann for the win

2006-11-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

This guy is a legend, pure and simple.
God damn.

Confirmed.

2006-11-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

1.

It never ceases to amaze me: The pure and blatant hypocricy to be found in politics. I mean, I should know better than to expect more, but....for all the rhetoric, all the bullshit and brainwashing going on, its easy to get sucked into thinking that maybe there's some good in the superpower that Kevin Doran refers to as A*****a.

But no, here it comes again. A nice dose of foreign-policy hypocricy. On the eve of Daniel Ortega's second victory in the Nicaraguan elections (the first being in 1984), the USA has stated that they may cut their aid to Latin America's poorest country should he win.

This, from the country which claims to be promoting democracy in the world? What a load of bollocks. But wait, it gets better.

The little-known Tajik elections happened to be taking place on the same day as those in Nicaragua. Here, Imomali Rahmononov, who has been in power since 1992, has once again tightened his control over the democratic process (in which the 2 main opposition parties did not take part)and it would appear has come out of the election with a 96% approval rate. What has Uncle Sam said? He hasnt said shit.

I wonder why the USA would want a stable, strong dictatorship in place in a country which borders...Iran...? Oh, and China.

2.

I can confirm it at this point...maybe i just had to confirm it to myself...I'm just not as fucking happy as i was a year ago, plain and simple. So much so that it merited a moody, pretentious picture...

But thats okay. I'm just a little off-kilter...I just need to find my rhythm again. I need to find purpose again.
At least now I know. If I wanna fix myself i have to tell myself these things...

The Day in Quotes

2006-11-03T12:35:00.000-08:00

1. Regarding http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=r87-IJAKOHY&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3Dr87-IJAKOHY , an absoloutely hideous neo-con advertisement smearing John Kerry during his failed presidential campaign, something I saw made me...less than happy.

Comments:
emoemu10 (18 hours ago)
as a soldier just back from iraq i noe first hand that the troops support
the war and bush

Well, first of all, the guy who commented on this, with all due respect, doesn't know how to spell 'know', which may go some way towards giving credit to some of senator Kerry's more recent comments.
Secondly, the war in Vietnam was a disgrace to humanity. Was it in the backyard of the USA? No. Was it a threat to the USA? No. Did they even win? No. Fucking bullshit.
Thirdly, anyone who thinks the US government cares about democracy should Google "Contra War", "Pinochet", and "Guatemala 1954" just for a little education...although you may need a fucking dictionary if you're a fucking jock like our friend here.
Last but not least, - and this doesn't feel good - the shambles in Iraq has turned into what may be the most spectacular "We Told You So!" in history. We fucking told you so. Three years ago. We said it. And why did we say it? Cos we gave a fuck about the people of Iraq, and the US government DEFINITELY don't. Fuck you, neo-con wankers. We fucking told you so. And now you have to deal with that.

2. Kevin Doran- myspace bulletin

Ah, Kevin. You brighten up my day...

Date: Nov 3 2006 11:33
Subject: Paris Hilton is Ugly
Body:
is anyone
else out there aware of this?

Basically, you see where I'm going with this.
I hate the US government, and i fucking hate Paris Hilton.
Love,
Dan

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

2006-10-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

Worst Movie Ever EVER.

Freedomhouse, eat your heart out.

2006-10-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna start a brand new "freedom" map to rival freedomhouse's liberal free-trade agenda. The world's countries will be divided into 3 groups: "Free", "A bit free", and "Wankers".

My criteria (subject to change) will be:
- Free and fair elections, regular
- An ideological & policy driven party system
- Relatively even distribution of wealth
- Separation of Powers
- Police force free of political bias and/or corruption
- Military free of political bias and/or corruption
- Religious, Racial, Ethnic & Sexual freedom
- Freedom in enterprise
- Quality of health and education systems relative to wealth (as per UNDP)
- Benign External Relations.

These criteria are up for debate of course. Anyone who wants to join me in this venture, - Kev and Scamall, I'm looking at you - hit me back.

Lyrics - 1

2006-10-18T17:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the lyrics for the first song on The Bloodline of Seme Orbainak. Musically I haven't recorded anything yet. The Collaborators on this song will be Mark Kerry, Gary Furlong and Dermot Murphy.

------------------------------------------------------
1. Carrying My Cross [ provisional ! ]
A. Turn Away
I can feel the scars now burning me
think again before you judge me
scars that you cant see
I am not in control
when I hear you cry again
and rivers of tears run within me
turn away from me
I am not in control
it was a long time ago
when I felt myself let go

B. Alone Again
today I saw my own blood on the floor
but it didnt come from me
dwelling in this place it was an easy choice to make
to let the bottle drink from me
when i felt my fist against his face
my heart was stone cold dead
but when he left me alone in this world again
then it was me who bled

now i've been left alone again

who raises us to leave us alone in this world?
who abandons us scarred and ripped apart
to see it all repeat again?

am i to blame for carrying my cross?
could i have been someone other than who i was?
the more i tried I could never escape my...

no eres perfecto hijo
-------------------------------------

Since you have not heard and will not hear music for this song for a while, I guess the influences behind it would be:

The Mars Volta: Son Et Lumiere / Inertiatic ESP
The Mars Volta: Cygnus, Vismund Cygnus
A Perfect Circle: Weak and Powerless
Muse: Map of the Problematique
Muse: Citizen Erased
Incubus: Nice to Know You

Bloodlines [update #1]

2006-10-18T16:41:00.000-07:00

As some of you know and others don't, I am working (in the little spare time I have) on a kind of conceptual EP which follows the dysfunctional, intense relationship between a young man and his father. This story now has a (provisional) name: Bloodlines.

Also, I made it a point from the start to try and involve as many of my friends as possible in the project - and I had intended to give Mark Kerry (cousin/flatmate/bestmate/musician/german porn star)in particular a major role. However, since then we've decided that rather than both of us working alone on our own things it's now likely that we're going to start collaborating on a more regular basis - this will probably involve one single EP with The Bloodline of Seme Orbainak and the material Mark has been working on. More info as it comes but that I am looking forward to.

Other (confirmed or hopeful) collaborators are:
Musical:
>John Cloney
>Gary Furlong
>Dermot Murphy
>Euan McMahon
>Stephen Byrne
>Aidan Holland
>Simon Fergus
Artistic:
>Kevin Doran
>John Dunne

Although with musicians i can imagine it might be hard to fit all of them onto a mere 4 songs, ya never know; I am considering writing more songs apart from this story anyway.

The Lyrics (so far) will be posted as they come.

Ps. I am no longer a teenager. Crap.

Worthy of a Monument

2006-10-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the cosmos just connects people...draws them together. People from all over, people with all kinds of different backgrounds and knowledge. Often for the most ephemeral but wonderful experience.

We sat there with our beers, talking as if we had known each other forever.

We could change the world that night.

We can change the world anytime. Because we learned that you don't need the internet to find people like you.

I just want to say thanks to Leo, Jellena, Shaunn, Brett and Devin for teaching me a lot.

Worthy of a blog? Worthy of a fucking monument.

Become

2006-09-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

everything you know you can be

Project for the New American Catastrophe

2006-09-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else get the sense of Deja Vu?

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061009/lindorff

It would appear that perhaps within the next month we may find ourselves looking on as the United States makes a big glass crater out of Iran....and they still haven't denied that possibility of using the Bomb.

I try my best not to think I know a lot - otherwise I'd never learn anything new. But I can say now, in no uncertain terms, that if the United States launches a war on Iran it will mark the beginning of the single biggest tragedy since the Holocaust.

Consequences of the war:
-> A huge increase in terrorism
-> Increased polarity in international relations
-> US control of most of the oil in the middle east (on top of its own already formidable oil reserves. This, in my opinion, is the key objective of the mission -- a US monopoly on oil would guarantee that the US could afford to remain the hegemonic power in the world)
-> The end of the United Nations
-> Huge increase in polarity in the United States - possibly resulting in subsequent crackdown on protests
-> The rest of the world will have to either fall in line or declare themeselves an enemy of the US. And if they want oil, they better fucking fall in line.

I hope and pray that the US government are not as stupid as I am beginning to think that they are.

I'm Bringing Rusty Back

2006-09-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hello there........

This is my new blog for my opinions, photos and lyrics

And as you can see....

I'm bringin' rusty back.

Talk soon

Dan