A gorilla on the Shankill Road

Daniel O’Donnell in the Waterfront Hall Belfast.

  Daniel was in the Waterfront Hall last night, there's no doubt about it he can give a good show, and punters will get their moneys worth.  A few weeks back we went to see Dominic Kirwan in the Waterfront, in the small theatre they have there.  It was so disappointing, as his son took up all the first half as well as some unknown female singer from Derry, who tried her best but couldn’t sing a note.

 Last night, Daniel had Mary Duff with him and while it was not his Christmas show it was a great night.  You paid for Daniel and you got Daniel.  He is very much in tune with his followers.

Dubai.

Dubai may be in the news for all the wrong reasons of late, but it still appears to be a great place to live and work.  Here are some more pictures from my son who lives over there. I like putting the pictures in with the live writer function, it allows you to round corners, or make a picture black and white, so it shows them a little differently.  
And no news from Dubai would be complete without news or a picture of my grand daughter, the princess herself.

Stewart Parker, Belfast playwright.

I was told today that Stewart Parker was coming back into the public gaze.

I certainly hope so, as Parker is a much misunderstood and ignored Belfast playwright. His trilogy of plays for Ireland are the best I've ever attended or read. This was a guy who was influenced by a French playwright that wanted to put 'play' back into theatre, and saw it as a forerunner to Hollywood. Yet Parkers' trilogies are so different to his French influences, a bit like night and day. The trilogy plays are very verbal plays, not physical at all. One of his other plays, 'Lost belongings' was made by London weekend television.

The Irish Times described him in one of their editorials as interested in jazz. He wrote a column for them, but his interest wasn't merely in jazz but 'high pop'. 'High pop' is a term used for Parker because he tries to combine 'high culture with modern culture. He had a real interest in contemporary culture, the stuff that isn't taught in universities. He wasn't influenced by the Jonsonian idea that judgement of something as good is because it has lasted and stood the test of time. He saw this as critical cowardice, and believed we need to make judgements about what is happening in our own culture aa s it is happening around us in real time.

We had the emergence of pop culture in the 1960's, but many commentators and playwrights were of the old school, influenced by the Johnsonian notions and were wary of contemporary culture. Contemporary culture was left to its own devices, but for Parker, culture was culture. Particularly the culture of the cities, urban culture. Seamus Heaney was dismissive of the urban, he wrote of rural culture, but since the year 2000 most humans now live their lives in cities for the first time in human history. AS a dramatist he makes use of how people live in cities and Belfast in particular, he was obsessed with Belfast. He had a love hate relationship with it.

One of his plays deals with Henry Joy Mc Cracken. McCracken in the play imagines walking through Belfast.

There is of course another walk through the town, still to be taken. From Castle place to Corn market, and down to the Artillery barracks in Ann St. And from thence back up Cornmarket to the scaffold.

Mc Craken knows he is about to die, the fate of all Irish political martyrs. He wants his last words to be profound but can get no further than 'citizens of Belfast'.

He wrote that the city was a giant body,and the diagnosis was not good, circulation sluggish, and lungs congested with severe constipation, when there was a proposal to build roads through the city. He took a stand against the building of the roads, and in Pentecost his last play puts very profound words in to the mouth of one of his female characters. This play is based on the UWC strike, and a couple are divorcing, the wife needs to move out. She says of her house

'the only difference between this house and a stately house is that this home speaks for a far greater community experience'.

Parker thought that the national trust should take over some of these old Belfast homes and keep them in good order as a reminder of what Belfast was once like. The national trust do this now in some instances, though I am not sure if it is done with an old Belfast house, but the museum at Cultra is based on this idea.

Parker died young at the age of forty seven.

Sharing photos via windows live writer.

View Full Album

These photos were taken today in Warrenpoint, County Down. Northern Ireland.  I uploaded them to windows live, and live writer allows you to share them either individually or as an album.

Live writer, inserting maps..moving into first class..

This is a map of Belfast’s Falls Road inserted via live writer into a blog post!!! Good isn’t it? Of course there are different kind of maps, road maps and aerial views, but for demonstration purposes this was a good one.  This windows live writer is like a whole new place for blogging and takes it to a different level.  It’s like moving up into first class from economy in a plane or train.

Thank you to ‘Tales in my head.’

 I would like to thank ‘Tales in my head’, for his ‘awesome blogger’ award.  Wow!!! That took me by surprise.  Thank you Christiejolu!!  it was extremely good of you to think of me.

Ok so now for the rules…..
7 things you don’t know about me.

hmmmm

1) I’m not a great time keeper and always arrive late, not ‘fashionably late, simply late.

2) I’m an Easterenders fan.

3) I like being in the house and listening to the rain and wind outside.

4) I like to read in bed.

5) I’m no good at sports.

6) I like to escape to the country when I can.

7) I’m watching the U.S. series ‘The Unit’, which I am really enjoying….



Bloggers I’d like to give this award to are:-
1) Alice
http://thewondersofalice.blogspot.com/

2) Janice
http://janmrp.blogspot.com/

3) Tales from my head. 
http://christiejolu.blogspot.com/

4) Steve E. 
http://steveroni.blogspot.com/

and as I’m still finding my way around, I hope I’ll be forgiven for not posting seven bloggers, but I’ll keep visiting and commenting from all of you and getting to know more of you I hope. 

When the red red robbin......

A red robin in the tree in my garden on a cold dismal and overcast day in Belfast today.

Windows live writer – a fantastic way of blogging.

Last night I was looking to apply my own handwriting script to the blog posts on this blog.  Now I realise it is not necessary, as windows writer will do it for you, which is much better and easier.  My own hand writing is eligible anyway, so this font changer in windows writer is ideal for changing the font of a blog and making it stand out as different.  I didn’t know I had windows writer and came across it  by mistake, but now I’m glad I found it as it allows blog owners to publish their posts much easier  It also allows you plugins like emotions, and it will automatically update you in twitter if you like.  It has a very easy to use interface. with which you can insert photos and make them smaller or bigger simply by dragging the corner of the uploaded pic.   It will allow you to insert video via an url,, and insert tables, and maps quite easily.  Easier than ABC, dare I say it!