Blog: Daddy or Chips?

Dublin's finest , originally uploaded by Enda P . It's Pride season again, and, for the first time in several years, I'll not be taking part. Partially because I'm on uncle duty this weekend (I'm taking the kiddies to see Chris Evans shirtless Fantastic Four II ), and partially because I'm a little bored with the whole thing. A year out will be no harm. (I'll neglect to mention that I'll be parading through the centre of London next weekend on the gay Muslim float, but [...]

Even though saying his name* makes my teeth grate, Rick O'Shea , a 2FM DJ, has a blog and he has a rather amusing entry on cows . Samples: SOCIALISM:You have 2 cows, and you give one to your neighbour. COMMUNISM:You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk. FASCISM:You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk. etc etc My favourites are these; SURREALISM:You [...]

Loksins, ég hélt þú ætlaðir aldrei að koma! Sestu hérna í fangið á mér. This is what you say if you see Jónsi from Sigur Rós approaching you. Or perhaps a Sugacube. Or, yes, Bjork. Ok class, repeat after me: [phonetically] "Loksins, eg helt thu aetladir aldrei ad koma! Sestu herna i fangid a mer." What does it mean? Oh yeah. "At last, I thought you'd never get here. Now, cheer up and sit on my lap". This could be very very useful. (Thanks to [...]

The weather has been good, work has calmed down, and I'm beginning to get into holiday mode. It must be time for a some mixagé. Back to funky town this time with a few choons to jut your hips inappropriately to should you feel so inclined. The Haji & Emanuel mix of Umbrella is rather shagtastic, and the Toto track has nothing to do with Dorothy but more to do with 80s soft rockers - yes, really. Other notables include the Pete Tong mix of With Every Heartbeat (which used to be credited to Kleerup [...]

Who? What? Why? Where? How? Last.fm wiki say: Gotye is 25-year-old Wally De Backer. He plays drums, percussion and piano, and he writes, sings and produces tracks at his home, currently in Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia. Gotye's sound is a melting pot of samples from sources far and wide, mixed with Wally's vocals and home recorded sounds to form original songs that are as likely to channel '80s New Romantic pop or '60s Motown soul as they are to be experiments in kooky turntablism or progressive trip-hop landscapes. The [...]

From the BBC : A senior Polish official has ordered psychologists to investigate whether the popular BBC TV show Teletubbies promotes a homosexual lifestyle. The spokesperson for children's rights in Poland, Ewa Sowinska, singled out Tinky Winky, the purple character with a triangular aerial on his head. "I noticed he was carrying a woman's handbag," she told a magazine. "At first, I didn't realise he was a boy." Idiots. Everyone knows that the real homosexual is Spongebob .

IMG_5518.JPG , originally uploaded by 1541 . This post will probbaly mean little to one's international readers, but tonight, one of Dublin's nicer bars is closing. I'm not sure when GUBU opened, but it's been around several years. Little brother to the Front Lounge*, GUBU was more out-and-proud from the outset. While the FL doggedly maintains that it's bisexual but 'gay-friendly', GUBU's slogan was 'Straight-friendly'. It was the first of the bars & venues to begin the regeneration of dingy old Capel Street [...]

Gosh, Green seems to be losing the perfectionism a little (this is A Good Thing). Two new tracks emerged this week, one of which he just popped out a couple of weeks ago! This is all a bit astonishing seeing as Scritti are not exactly reknowned for being prolific. In fact, they are almost a bad as my other faves, The Blue Nile and The Avalanches , in their tardiness. Thank goodness for Stephin Merritt and his steady stream of stuff (even if quality control could be a leetle tighter of [...]

Congratulations to our Rufus , whose Release The Stars entered the UK album charts at no. 2 today. ' ' also climbed up the singles charts a bit. It looks like he's finally getting the commercial success he wanted.

Combined with a couple of glasses of wine and some nervous exhaustion, The Onion has almost brought me to tears with laughter. Now they've got a 24 hour rolling news service. Who says Americans don't do satire? Gap Unveils 'For Kids, By Kids' Clothing Range. 

While I don't usually blog about current affairs, I'm particularly interested in Poland and the attitudes of some of its ministers and people towards homosexuality . Human Rights Watch are organising a petition, and while I will sign it, I'm so embarrassed that a member of the European Union is behaving so illiberally that it is being petitioned by a human rights organisation. Shameful! (And your Eurovision song was rubbish.) More info on the petition is available. 

A tad annoyed with myself today. After many weeks of not hitting the Dublin scene, I went out last night with a mission. Met Kevin and caught up and danced and drank and the like. (Saw the ex too after several months - we locked eyes for a few miliseconds which seemed like longer and then proceeded to ignore each other again. Normal service has been resumed ha ha! Felt absolutely nothing though, no nostalgia, regret, anger, anything. It's like another lifetime that I can hardly remember). I digress... Left The Dragon and went to the White Horse [...]

Here's the latest one. And it's a bit of a departure from the usual 'hands-in-the-air' diva-vocal predict-a-future-hit stuff. I thought I'd get a bit serious and compile a mix that would be suitable for after the club. So get ready for spacey instrumentals, spooky twinklings and curious urps and bleeps. We start off with hip 'n' doomy producer du jour , Trentemøller, who is having a Moan for himself. That is interrupted by Jesse Rose's very odd and glitchy repetitiveness, then some euphoric disco sampling before a wave of understated tech-house. That's followed [...]

So one arrived back from Hong Kong to be greeted with some rather wonderful news! A portrait of me is now hanging in a terribly reputable gallery in Dublin. Some weeks ago, my friend Garvan asked me to be a model for one of a series of photographs he was undertaking. The series was of men looking at something that the viewer cannot see. "No problem. I'm good at looking at things", I said. And then I learned that I would be partially clad. Something about the 'subject' 'male gaze' and [...]

Bonkers about Honkers 香港 , originally uploaded by Enda P . Well, we're back from Hong Kong. I'm sure I could write tonnes about it, but best not bore you m'dears. Here's the skinny. 1. It looks like something from the future (see above). 2. It's the safest city I've ever been in. 3. It's a gentle introduction to Asia for a Westerner. 4. They love to shop. 5. Public transport is dirt cheap and hyper-efficient. 6. Wine is ludicrously expensive. 7. [...]

One is being in Hong Kong for a week, so unless I get profoundly restless there, I'll not be back in the blogosphere til the week after next. I hope the Easter Bunny smears butter all over your hot cross buns! xxxx

I cannot wait .

A very low-fi radio rip of a new Rufus Wainwright track, Going To A Town , which seems to be a pointed protest track, has appeared. It sounds like the forthcoming album won't disappoint. Sample lyric: Tell me, do you really think you go to hell for having love, Tell me, enough of thinking everything that you’ve done is good, I really need to know, after soaking the body of Jesus Christ in blood, I’m so tired of America [...]

EMI announced today that they will make their catalogue available in a higher bitrate and free of DRM from May. The new 'premium' versions will be available first via iTunes and will be encoded as 256kbps AAC files. They'll be a little more expensive than the standard files. This is rather good news. I very rarely purchase tracks from iTunes as the bitrate is low (128kbps) and the DRM would prevent me from using the track in a mix or any other form of lossless editing. The fact that it's so easy to find higher [...]

Ok, here's the latest one. I really wanted to get in Scarlet Fantastic (one of the best 80s tracks remixed), Beyoncé & Shakira (boring radio mix, superb Freemasons version), Mika's new one and Calvin Harris. Anyway, there's a slightly shit transition between Death Cab For Cutie and Ben Macklin, but it gets back on track. I just couldn't resist a Death Cab For Cutie trance remix ("Who could?", The Blogosphere). I notice that there is a very American "chonk chonk chonk" track in there (The Bird And The Bee). I remember dancing in Alegria [...]