stuff about things, people and places

I have a selective memory. The stuff that my sub-conscious chooses to select is pretty useless - so I'm going to write the stuff down.

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'Climate Change' mural, West Belfast, NI.

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'Oppression Breeds Resistance' mural, West Belfast, NI.

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Anti-War mural, West Belfast, NI.

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'Oppose Racism' mural, West Belfast, NI.

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Love

First of all, love is a joint experience between two persons - but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved. There are the lover and the beloved, but these two come from different countries. Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all stored-up love which has lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto. And somehow every lover knows this. He feels in his soul that his love is a solitary thing. He comes to know a new, strange loneliness and it is this knowledge which makes him suffer. So there is one thing for the lover to do. He must house his love within himself as best he can; he must create for himself a whole new inward world - a world intense and strange, complete in himself. [...]

      Now the beloved can also be of any description. The most outlandish people can be the stimulus for love. A man may be a doddering great-grandfather and still love only a strange girl he saw in the streets of Cheehaw one afternoon two decades past. The preacher may love a fallen woman. The beloved may be treacherous, greasy-headed, and given to evil habits. Yes, and the lover may see this as clearly as anyone else - but that does not affect the evolution of his love one whit. a most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp. A good man may be the stimulus for a love both violent and debased, or a jabbering madman may bring about in the soul of someone a tender and simple idyll. Therefore, the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself.

      It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. Almost everyone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many. The beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best reasons. For the lover is for ever trying to strip bare his beloved. The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if his experience can cause him only pain.

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers

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Ireland sober is Ireland stiff.

James Joyce

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Dublin, Ireland

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The Staves - Mexico

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Michael Kiwanuka - Worry Walks Beside Me

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Michael Kiwanuka: Live in Belfast

The winner of the ‘BBC Sound of 2012’ – Michael Kiwanuka, left his audience speechless on the first night of his UK tour here in Belfast. The sell-out gig at The Stiff Kitten had the audience ‘sshh’-ing each other so as to hear Michael Kiwanuka’s soulful tones without interruption. 

The support act, The Staves, were a tough act to follow. The three-piece indie-folk band of sisters enchanted the audience with their seamless harmonies. They had a shy, reserved demeanour, which complimented their gentle, acoustic sounds and light, angelic voices. Watch out Laura Marling – there’s three of them and they are wonderful. The band’s EP is available to download for free from their website: www.thestaves.com.

Michael Kiwanuka and his band kept the momentum going after a brilliant introduction. Their hour-long set began with, ‘I’m Getting Ready’, an emotive ballad of a poignant, lyrical genius – and lyrical depth is hard to come by with some of these pop-up singer-songwriters – anybody heard Ed Sheeran’s latest single, ‘Drunk’?

The set went on to showcase Michael Kiwanuka’s debut album, ‘Home Again’ due for release on the 12th March. Standout tracks included, ‘Tell Me a Tale’, an up-beat track that showcased the seven-piece band who bounced off each other effortlessly. ‘Worry Walks Beside Me’, an emotional solo that left the audience stunned. And ‘Home Again’ – which concluded the gig. Kiwanuka’s songs are timeless, old-fashioned, and captured brilliantly by his crisp, soulful voice.

The title ‘Sound of 2012’ doesn’t quite do justice enough to Michael Kiwanuka and his seem-less band.  Their ‘sound’ is music stripped back to a fine, perfected artistry. They deserve every bit of success in 2012 and many years after.

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'Equal Opportunity', Chlöe O'Malley

My passport says

I’m British.

My blood says

I’m O

negative

and that I’m

20% Jewish

and

40% Irish

and

10% Native American

and

25% Scottish.

I’m

100 % Atheist

and I’ve

family in

America

and

Ireland

and

Jersey.

I’ve 5 sisters.

2 mums

and

2 dads.

My socks don’t match

and

My accent says

I’m English.

But I tick

1 box

for 1 race

because I’ve heard it

Equals

Opportunity

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Castro ft. Asamoah Gyan - African Girls.

One day, I hope to be 'sexy like cheese'.

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Ghana - Fine like Fanta. Cool like Coke.

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Travel Poster, Srinivas Rayaprol

A Geish- a like a fish for Japan An elephant for India and velvety lions for the veldt A cockatoo for the Indies And a gendarme on Eiffel’s tower for France Beer for Germany on the Motor-bahns Tulips for Holland and a dutch treat for the lower hands A totem for the New- Zealanders An emu for Australia for a maybe Kangaroo Minarets and moustaches for the Middle East and the Albert Hall for the English The Good Earth for China And for the Russian a smell of vodka with a whiff of caviar Cathedrals for Italy and the sparkle of Lova The gold eagle over the Golden Gate for the Americas And all round this world Eternal dissatisfaction in the eye of Man.

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We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

Gandhi, 1948.

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A wonderful assault to the senses - India