Coming Soon!!!

Louise Phillips is launching her book Red Ribbons very soon and I can't wait to read it.

Go here

http://www.louise-phillips.com/

to check her and it... out - it's going to be a thrilling read, having had the privilege of being in the same writers group for a time with Louise, hearing her work fresh off the press, I can confidently promise this will be a book well worth reading and will most likely be one of those you keep, on your shelf, for a long time, for when you want to read it again or offer to a friend.

Anyway, she's coming soon, and will be here with me on this very blog on the very day of her launch...

CAN


NOT


WAIT

So I'll see you all then - 5th of September...

I never wanted to be that blog

Not posting for ages and ages - then coming back in with apologies for all the lost time and promises to mend my ways, then failing to do so...

So where does that leave us?

Nowhere really, since not wanting to be something sometimes isn't enough to prevent you from becoming exactly that.

It's been a summer.  I've had holidays.  I should say we've had holidays.  Danger has taken to doing spontaneous happy dances with some mean fancy footwork, and has already learned to direct our hands back to the computer when we mistakenly put on something boring like the olympics instead of Tellytubbies.

 He's getting bossy.

Hedges are exploding with colour.

My evenings are being spent learning how to replace computer key board keys  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9K13E-N6h8 - here's how if you ever need help)
and finding more childhood works of genius...

what's he on about?

Yes, we're here... Still...  Hope you enjoy this latest installment from Danger, entitled

  "A Brief Soliliquay"  You'll need to paste it into your browser as I don't think the linky thing is working  http://soundcloud.com/variouscushions/

daddy3

Good Medicine

A crowd of music, poetry and general good time lovers ascended into the upstairs bar in the Teach Beag Lismore last night - moments after the infamous defeat (they only won 4 nil!) Vick of Watercats fame was on hand to dry all our tears.

Here's Vick introducing the night

the venue is cool - and I mean Cool with a capital C

Check out the lampshade!  And the wonderful Noel, who kicked off the night with some atmospheric and carefully crafted multi layered music.  More than a touch of the Tom Waits from him.

Peadar's poems were searching, thought provoking, and honest.  This picture was taken during his preamble when he mostly said "The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain"*

And down to business - absolutely holding everyone captive with his words.

The famous Poet generously signing copies of the book for his adoring fans.  (aka my mammy)  (yes my mammy and daddy followed me to Lismore - what can you do?!)

And the moment when I read out poems in public for the first time in over a year, with mixed levels of success in terms of brain function, (and my mam says I spoke too fast, but I always do that) and the kindest audience you could ever want.  Seriously I wanted to take them all home with me. (even the parents)

The people of Lismore are haunted, as we say in Cork, to have such a great night on their doorstep.  Keep it up Vick and Ron!!


* I might be making that bit up

Just because it's Easter too, I've decided to share this sighting of a Giant Bunny with baby in background.  It has created havoc in a normally very orderly and tidy room - disgraceful really.  Bad Bunny!

Book of Faces

I bought a new phone at the weekend, finally caving and abandoning my less intelligent hand set for a so called "Smart" phone.  A boy barely older than my son sold it to me, and when he heard my date of birth as part of the interaction, he proceeded to write down all the apps I should get - including facebook... he didn't think me capable of remembering to get facebook.  I need new wrinkle cream.

In other news - this has led to the ability to get photos onto the computer without using a lead.  Like magic it is.

So I give you - "Danger on a train" he's the one hanging out the back - little stunt man - no wires or anything.

In other news - The Scottish Book Trust has an article about IPYPIASM in scottish schools... that's gonna be worth a lot of points when the season starts... See here - isn't that exciting?  Well it was for me - thanks to all the Scots IPYPIers for firing that teacher's imagination.

In still other news - I'm heading to the medicine sessions on Thursday night.  Really looking forward to seeing the famous published poet Peadar O'Busahue doing his thing.  Going to read a few pomes myself for the first time in over a year.... I'm not saying I'm nervous, but I might do a passable impression of someone reading poetry while driving over a bumpy road.

Now off to find this Face Book thing the young people are always on about.

About the pedometry

So yes, they gave us pedometers, for team spirit.  So we can write down every day how many steps we've taken.  I foolishly asked my good friend google what counts as average, - it's 5000 steps, if you're a woman, and 7000 steps if you're a man. The difference between sexes is kind of odd - considering most women are slightly shorter than most men, so you would think they would need to take more steps to cover the same ground.  I have two theories for why this might be - A - Multitasking - women get more done at a time, so can iron while practising harmonica and still manage to nag their husbands (might as well go the whole hog on the stereotyping) and typing too of course.  so they don't need to retrace their steps as often.   B - The method of measurement.   The pedometer is attached to me all day - and there is an honour system whereby the people running the event trust the partakers to enter the correct number.  Now there is a possibility that sometimes men might feel compelled to fib just a tiny bit to make their number look bigger.  I'm not saying they're more competitive than women, but they're more competitive than women.
Anyway - turns out - I'm a smidge below average most days - 1000 or so below if I'm feeling womanly, and a whopping 3 K less on my manly days.  And well short of the 10 thousand steps a day that we're actually really supposed to be taking in order to stay healthy.... I was telling my colleague about it the other day "I think my pedometer is broken" I said, "It never seems to go up, I was sitting there last night waiting for it to go up..." how they laughed....  So I'm lazy - it's been officially diagnosed.

Maybe i'm lazy

So, they've given us pedometers at work... Part of a fun, team building, which team can walk moreee kinda thing (and i do know, before you all point it out, that It's really their sneaky way of actually i've just confirmed it, I'm too lazy to even finish this post!!! No maybe about it!!! Off to enjoy more suntime, GOWAN JEDWARD!!!!!!

I love JD

I know some of you are thinking of that handsome young Doctor in Scrubs (and I do love him too if you must know, I've got a lot of love to go around), but in this instance I'm referring to the remarkable JD Salinger and his book "Franny and Zooey"
The book is two short stories sewn together, one called Franny, and the other (rather predictably) titled Zooey (ok it's only predictable when you know the full title I suppose, but you know what I mean).... (especially when he bursts into song - that's when he's at his cutest I find).. and anyway - this book was picked for my local book club, and I got my second hand copy from the nice Amazonians, (they've some amount of cheap books in Brazil, must be all the rainforests) and so my copy had been intriguingly gifted to someone from their parents for their 22nd Birthday - imagine that?!  A skinny book, for a 22nd birthday present, maybe they pushed the boat out for his 21st... There was nothing written on the back, so, with no hint apart from a dedication stating that it was being offered with the enthusiasm of a one year old offering a cold lima bean - (and when he plays those hilarious tricks with the dead dog), I dived in.
In summary, in 178 or so pages - the main character Franny stares twice (maybe even more often, but definitely at least twice) at the ceiling (and then there's those times he has that sweet little sing song voice where he talks about the lessons learned during the day aka the half hour that the show has lasted).  She has a fight with her boyfriend - who's a bit of a drip, then goes home all mopey, not over the boyfriend, more because she wants to find some kind of inner peace, so she's home all mopey and her mother and brother try to cheer her up and then she falls asleep in the end. (or when he thinks out loud in the middle of the corridor)
So in summary, not much happens, the action covers about 3 hours in total, and yet it is  COM PLETE LY transfixing.  He's a genius of a writer, that's all there is to it.  Shows you the minute telltale signifiers of a person's mood, effortlessly brings you into the hot, smoke filled, world of the characters and doesn't let you out. So, yeah, I love him.  There were bits that I didn't love too, but sure no one's perfect, (except JD from scrubs maybe)... And it is the ONLY book I've managed to finish this year so far... apart from "La Gatita", "Colours for Babies", "Shapes for Babies", "Words for Babies" and "Jenni, an Chearc Beag Donn" (Jenny the little brown hen).  I'm still struggling through "Teddy is Polite" it's a hard hitting drama about a Teddy forced to recognise the consequences of his actions - I'm fairly sure it's not by a JD of any kind.

The book list is gonna be short this year.

Maestro

Here is...  I think you'll agree - the most moving rendition of Twinkle Twinkle recorded by anyone - anywhere - ever

http://soundcloud.com/variouscushions/dangersings/s-szXW0

The kid's got some voice

Daft Punk

Danger loves Daft punk - most specifically their Around the World video... Youtube it... watch it once a day for the next month - I can personally guarantee  it never gets old.  It's most likely the most magical music video ever.  I find it particularly apt coming up to the olympics, with all the swimming and synchronisation and all. I couldn't even see Jedward doing something as good as it...
So anyway - all this daft punking has led him to his first independant steps two days ago 3 weeks ahead of his first birthday.  And here you've all been thinking you're missing majorly profound thoughts and huge entertainment since I've been so slack on the bloggy front whereas actually you've just been spared the mind numbingly boring repetetive parent talk that I go on and on with at work and anywhere else anyone talks to me... " he's so cute, he's doing kisses, he climbed up the stairs with a balloon in one hand,  he loved the swimming pool, he knows how to say tweet tweet,  he always wants to play with whatever the dog's playing with, he's very discerning in his musical tastes, he's figured out how to stick out his tongue on purpose, he'll wave after you leave the room blah blah blah - " I do see people's eyes glazing over with it all, but wanted to put this up about the walking anyway, as I don't have one of those books to fill out all his firsts in (ok I do, got one as a present but I never filled it out, in my defense neither has he,,, danger that is... ) and we haven't taken any photos of him for quite a while (this is not because he's not beautiful, he is, it's just that the charger for the camera is lost etc etc) so anyway - this is my little attempt at cherishing his youth while he's still having firsts...
Don't worry, I won't keep ye posted on further developments.