Every Day is Election Day

…I thought I might as well do a semi-fitting iTunes meme.

So, without further ado…

How many total songs?
8237 songs, equal to 23.4 days or 28.89 GB. I do have tons more that’s just unsorted though, in seperate folders elsewhere on my external harddrive. Integrating the whole lot together is a (very) long-term project. I did a Windows search on them before and counted the full tally of songs at somewhere around 21,000.

Sort by song title - first and last?

• First: “A-Punk” by Vampire Weekend
• Last: “99 Red Balloons” by Nena

Sort by time - shortest and longest?

• Shortest: “Windows XP Shut Down Effect (Piano Solo)” (0:02) by Martin Leung, “the Video Game pianist”. The shortest actual self-sufficient musical thing - not including spoken interludes on albums, and that kind of thing - is the “Itchy And Scratchy” End Credits Theme.
• Longest: Godskitchen “Live at the Point Theatre, Dublin” (1hr 21). I have four tracks over one hour in length, and then five radio records from a show I used to do on Belfield FM which are between 58 and 61 minutes each.

Sort by Album - first and last?

• First: “Aaagh!” by Republic of Loose
• Last: Either “( )” by Sigur Rós, “/±” by Oxide and Neutrino, “9th Symphony” by Beethoven or “9″ by Damien Rice

Sort by Artist - first and last?

• First: A-ha
• Last: 98 Degrees

Top five played songs?

They’re actually completely empty at the minute, this being the first time iTunes has been operated since the laptop was reformatted. It’s also deleted all the music on my iPod so I’ve no idea. My last computer at work was pretty stocked with Radiohead though.

Find the following words. How many songs show up?

• Sex: 74
• Death:44
• Love:408
• You: 958
• Home:68
• Boy: 192 (193 if you count “Sk8er Boi” by Avril Lavigne)
• Girl:122

We’re playing around with some new themes on the blog - this is a prototype, there might be a rotating image header after a bit, but do bear with us if this blog has more looks than Madonna’s back catalogue over the next few days. Anyway, as per usual Brennan has outdone herself on prolificy so I have to chip in with my token tuppence for a bit.

So, this is my first entry as a UCDSU alumnus - like Ciara, I left office at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday morning - and so far I can’t say I’ve been all too overcome with emotion about leaving the job. Somewhere around Spring a switch flipped in me where things at work seemed to tire me more than excite me and while I don’t regret taking the year out of my life for something that at times has stirred passion in me that few things have ever matched, I do feel a natural sense of conclusion in quietly slipping out and getting on with other things.

Having started the new job this week - with the Affordable Homes Partnership - and with Ciara still doing her job in Croker and her evening classes, we haven’t been seeing quite as much of each other as we’re used to, where instead of going to work together and going home together, we work in different places and don’t get every evening together either. When we have gotten time to ourselves this week we’ve taken to watching The Office (obviously) in bed. Having made it as far as the Christmas Specials (after four attempts!) I came across the first thirty-odd seconds of this bit:

I think it says pretty much all there is to say about life down there - you really are just thrown together with people with whom you have little but the same CAO preferences, and being able to spend it with a couple of people who just fit into your life anyway is quite a special thing and for that I’m very lucky and truly grateful.

So that’s that then. What’s next? Accidentally making the Six One news (clicky) yesterday for a couple of seconds with the new workplace being featured in a report by Gareth O’Connor and including a shot of me from a not-so-flattering angle. Well for some, eh? If anyone’s bored call AHP free on 1800 365 555 over the weekend - that’s me doing the voicemail.

Amusingly enough, the press release that went out from the photocall last week (recall?) carried myself and Steph’s home addresses for some reason, and my local radio station in Meath, LMFM, called work on Thursday asking if they could get a number “for that young man who got an affordable home, just to talk to him about his experiences of trying to find housing”. Now that was a call-back that was worth listening into. Imagine, my new employers denying my adoring public a chance to speak to me? I suppose it would probably never reach the same glorious peaks as my appearance with George Hook last August anyway on other matters accommodation. Which reminds me - I must throw up an mp3 of that.

Anyway, today’s drenched Saturday shall be spent importing my 70GB-odd of music from the external hard drive - and about ten hours’ worth of new podcasts - onto my re-formatted laptop (my God, the speed…), so expect more frequent posts today with me reminiscing about/guffawing about/taking the piss out of a decade’s worth of a music collection.

… but I didn’t so I can only promise myself I won’t deny myself next year.

Looking forward to what Unarocks has to say about the Jay-Z debacle; personally I thought it was banging, was glued to the TV all weekend. Mark Ronson’s set seemed decent too, but what do I know, because…
YES I went to Boyzone, YES I had fun, YES you can fuck off. I’m with McLynn on this one.

Mother and Orla came to visit and elder sister even stayed over on Saturday, bringing cold hard cash and M&S cookies. On the win list for sure.

Gave a voucher a battering on Benefit buying products such as this, this and that. God bless vouchers for ensuring you have nice skin on an oh-so-rainy day.

Have a woeful pain in my left arm, a sort of dull, throbbing pang of aghness, and the accountants are laughing at me, nerdy so-and-sos. Last time I said fuckers my Nan told me to say ‘so-and-sos’, so there you go Peggy. She’s probably online… she’s not a regular Nan, she’s a cool Nan. Very mean-girls-velour-tracksuit. I’m lying.

Study is crappy-pile-of-highlighed-and-starred-for-asthetics-load-of bull. So I’m dealing with it by kicking its ass.

Reading lots about the Women’s Liberation movement in the 70s, it all started with a book Reilly bought me called Monday’s at Gaj’s. Oh, the male oppressors.

Spain won. There was a Torres v. Ballack situation in Treesdale, but we couldn’t argue with the result.

I’m a bit meh at the minute, if you haven’t guessed. Darmo is coming up on Thursday, and I can tell you, I need her right now. We’re in similar situations, between projects, and both more than a little disillusioned with a plethora of stuff… but if there is one person I can rely on to supply the belly laughs, it’s my Darmo.

I lost my title at midnight. UCD seems far away. Me no likey. This may explain my aggression.

So this is the real world eh? Fucking accountants.

Want out.

What’s next?

PS - I’m liking my new phone and no I can’t do without it Declan!
PPS - Mulley on crisps and chocolate makes me want to undo my good curves work. Damn it. It’s so true. Hits the spot.

In a past online life I used to regularly(ish) review albums for the Irish music webzine, Cluas.com, before working for the University Observer took the emphasis.

Well, I’m back in the game - here’s my review of Rubies’ Explode From The Center, as published on Cluas this afternoon. Click here to read it on Cluas, or find it after the jump. (more…)

Viva la Vida on repeat in work, at home, the iPod… tad ridiculous. And even more ridiculous that I just heard an ad on the radio announcing that it’s out on Friday… aaaaaaaaaaand I still squealed. Breaking the law can be good for the ears.

Juno is [finally!] out on DVD… Hurrah! Pizza night ahoy friendies. WATCH THIS MOVIE. The dialogue is phemonenal and Ellen Page is tremendous in it.

If you haven’t been before, visit www.rarebooks.ie. Fabulous. Just as a real musty bookshop should be, and if you buy online, they send you your book wrapped in old newspapers! Spiffy.

Softening to Damien Dempsey through his recent album ‘The Rocky Road’. Luke Kelly is alive and well folks…

We’re going to Neil Diamond on Saturday with respective parentals. Both sets are equally excited, and it should be yet another fabulous family occasion in Croker. President McAleese shall be in attendance so it’s a night for the glad rags…

Kilkenny kick off the championship season this weekend… WIN!

Davy Fitz in Waterford… I feel I must restrain myself here. I won’t say what I really want to for fear it will come back and bite me in the ass.

Home to vote tomorrow, how quaint. Driving home with Nickey and using the occasion to hang with Darmo on Thursday. I won’t lecture you, but I’ll be voting yes.

Oh, and Prince is cancelled. That’s the secret I couldn’t tell you the other night buds.

Meanwhile here are two photos of Reilly and I at Radiohead, and one of the boys themselves to boot:

Ps. I don’t really follow BB (I swear *cough*) but I will miss Dermot O’Leary from BBLB. Here is one of his best (Irish) moments. G’wan ya yellabelly!

…and where Hollywood actors come to see the odd musical.

Very proud of elder sister Nicola of late. A teacher (Gaeilge and Geography) in the Cistercian in Roscrea - former secondary school of the Tea-Shock - she has the most wonderful melodic voice, without doubt the only Brennan with the entertainment gene. She moved back home recently and jumped at the opportunity to get involved in the Kilkenny Musical Society, of which she is a now a committee member (we Brennans don’t hang around!).

Even though it was her first audition for the Society, she managed to bag a part in the latest production, the wonderful Oklahoma!. She played Gertie Cummins which was met with much amusement by all, as the character is an obnoxious, in-your-face flirt (with the most hideous laugh that she managed to perfect to an astounding degree of annoyance). She pulled it off brilliantly, and la famille Brennan were dead proud of her.

So needless to say all were thrilled when a certain Mr. Gabriel Byrne shared the following during a rare break last Friday, between rehearsals for the New York Philharmonic’s semistaged concert performances of “Camelot,” the classic Lerner and Loewe musical, in which he stars as King Arthur.

Quoth the Byrne:

“I was never a big fan [of musicals] until I saw an amateur production of ‘Oklahoma!’ in Kilkenny not long ago. [...] I was absolutely stunned how good those players in Ireland were. The joy and enthusiasm of the entire cast were extremely moving to me.”

Five stars! Well done all!

Some good friends of mine from home in Kilkenny are gigging in Whelans tonight, and I’m gutted I can’t be there (we’re still in Bratislava…), so treat the following as a plug to add my support to their cause! Saving J have been on the road for a while now and are well worth a look! The band formed in late 2005 and comprises Sean Redmond (Lead Vocals. rhythm guitar), Paul Hindle (Drums, backing vocals), Liam Redmond (Lead Guitar) and new addition Graham Hynes (Bass guitar).

How time has moved on… Paul was my date for my Debs all those moons ago… No, there are no photos… I hope…

I haven’t slept very well since last Sunday… though not because of anything wrong, or anxiety, or illness (well, mostly, anyway), or having eaten some dodgy, undercooked Slovak cuisine. What’s had me up late since last Sunday is the fact that I cannot get this song out of my head:

It’s called Fascination and it’s by Alphabeat, and it’s terrifically amazing. It’s got that semi-syncopated chromatic backbeat going on (listen to the hook from Rooney’s Where Did Your Heart Go Missing to figure out what I mean) - the sticky, creeping kind that sticks in the back of your mind to the point where stirring a coffee-cup reminds you of it. It’s a great track and one that will definitely rise higher than the #23 it currently occupies on the Irish singles chart.

Further listening includes their single Boyfriend - they’re basically the new Ting Tings…