Howard Zinn, Camp for Climate Action, demolition, bread ovens, art deco, pinups...
Music
Nick Drake, Maria Callas, Keith Jarrett, Arctic Monkeys, Antony and the Johnsons, Clem Snide, Radiohead, Elvis - esp. in Las Vegas, Niels-Henning Pedersen, Talib Kweli, The Police, Maria Bethania, Manu Chao, Nina Simone, Neko Case, Magnolia Electric Co, Nizlopi, Takagi Masakatsu, Cesar Franck, Hendrix, Joy Division, Kraftwerk, The Stone Roses, Camera Obscura, Neil Young, The Spooks, The Smiths, Nara Leao, Neil Diamond, Otis Redding, Van Morrison, The Sabri Brothers, Nirvana, Orishas, The Rolling Stones, Patsy Cline, Andre..s Segovia, Patti Smith, Noirin Ni Riain & The Monks of Glenstal, ABBA, Norah Jones, U2, Trick Daddy, Vic Chesnutt, Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin, Moby, Paul Weller, Otto Klemperer, Oasis - B sides & Definitely Maybe, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Nouvelle Vague, Nine Inch Nails, Gilberto Gil, Emilie Simon, Baaba Maal, Caribou, Mansour Seck, Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Carole King, Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, My Bloody Valentine, Mutantes, Eminem, Cassandra Wilson - bits of, Carla Bruni, Charles Mingus, Chapelle Du Roi, Aceyalone, Louis Armstrong, Lorna, Benjamin Britten, Muddy Waters, Mozart, Emir Kustirica soundtracks, Modest Mouse, Milton Nascimento, Suzanne Vega, Miles Davis, Supertramp, Brad Mehldau Trio, Supergrass, sun city girls, Booker T. & The MG's, Leonard Cohen, Brendan Benson, Laura Nyro, Ben Kweller, Jose..phine Baker, Jorge Ben, Blur, Lama Gyurme, Claude Debussy, Sine..ad O'Connor, Christy Moore, Johnny Cash, Holcombe Waller, John McCormack, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Lucinda Williams - esp. at the Filmore, Liz Phair, Hilliard Ensemble, Sufjan Stevens, Souls Of Mischief, Smashing Pumpkins, Zion 1, Led Zeppelin, Yungchen Lhamo, Ray LaMontagne, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Amadou & Mariam, Alfred Brendel, Dinosaur Jr, Desi Arnaz & his Orchestra, Robert Pollard, res, He..le..ne Grimaud, Henrique Cazes, Mason Jennings, Feist, Tori Amos, Eric Clapton, Ennio Morricone, Renata Rosa, Don McLean, Stan Getz & Joa~o Gilberto, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra,Tom Jobim, Madonna, Maceo Parker, M.i.a, Steve Turre, Massive Attack, Martha Argerich, Maria Rita, Bob Dylan, Kery James, Angela Hewitt, Compay Segundo, Combustible Edison, Don Byron, Leonard Bernstein, Coldplay, Clem Snide, Django Reinhardt, Michael Jackson, A Tribe Called Quest, Cal Tjader, Caetano Veloso – not the cover dross, Buddy Guy, Bruce Springsteen, Bobby McFerrin, Emiliana Torrini, Bebel Gilberto, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Electrelane, Radiohead, Eels, Primal Scream, David Gray, Elliott Smith, Prince, Gnarls Barkley, Glen Campbell - singing Jimmy Webb songs, Amos Lee, Shannon Wright, Beck, David Russell, Gorillaz, Elbow, Cesaria Evora, Gustavo Santaolalla, Holst, Green Day, Grant Lee Buffalo, Gorecki, Horowitz, Edwin Fischer, Dean Martin, De La Soul, DJ Shadow, Count Basie, Daniel Barenboim, Damien Rice, Coralie Cle..ment, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Rage Against The Machine, R.E.M, Pulp, Portishead, Billie Holiday, Ben Harper, Belle & Sebastian, Simon & Garfunkel, Sigur Ro..s, Billy Eckstine, Yann Tiersen & Shannon Wright, Willie Nelson,Waylon Jennings, The New Pornographers, The La's, The Handsome Family, The Eagles, The Doors, The Clash, Donovan, Thievery Corporation, The Who, The White Stripes, The Velvet Underground, Jill Sobule, Jay-Z, Jane's Addiction, Jamiroquai, The Strokes - 1st album, James Blunt -bits, Jacques Brel, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Sergey Prokofiev, Serge Gainsbourg – bits, Schuman, Rufus Wainwright, Janis Joplin, The Chieftains – bits, The Cardigans, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Sergent Garcia, John Lennon, John Coltrane, The Buzzcocks, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joan Baez, Jeff Buckley, Piotr Anderszewski, Chet Baker, Charlie Byrd, Elton John, Elis Regina, Duke Ellington, Joa~o Gilberto, Iron & Wine, Calexico, Iggy Pop, Pixies,Pink Martini, Vladimir Horowitz, Vicente Fernandez, Bob Dylan, Coldplay, Pink Martini, Sigur Ros, Caribou, Nirvana, Amadou & Miriam, The Boo Radleys, Vivaldi, U2, The Velvet Underground, Piaf, Tears of Lisbon – Fado,Tchaikovsky, Susana Baca, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Thelonius Monk, Laura Nyro, Mahler, O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, Noirin Ni Riain, Debussy, Ennio Morricone, Pachelbel, Mozart, Albinoni, Orenda Native American, James Brown, Charles Trenet, Peter Green - esp. Man of the World, Howlin Wolf, Gorillaz, Dvora..k, Etta James, Teenage Fanclub, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven, Haydn, Prokefiev – bits, Maurice Ravel, Smashing Pumpkins, Cesaria Evoria, Damien Rice, The Stone Roses, Theolonius Monk - esp. Live at Carnegie Hall, All the Emir Kusturica soundtracks, Ray Davies, Portishead, Air, Nina Simone, Georges Brassens, Joni Mitchell, John Lennon, Neko Case, Johnny Cash, Bowie - esp. Hunky Dory, Tom Jones, Chuck Berry, Amadeus Soundtrack, Aimee Mann, Sigur Ros, Arctic Monkeys, All early blues, Amadeus soundtrack, Pink Floyd, Death Cab For Cutie, Super Furry Animals sometimes, Al Green, Billie Holiday, Brian Eno, David Byrne, Tom Waits, Tracy Chapman....
Movies
Emir Kusturica, Kurosawa, Double Indemnity, Truffaut - esp. Les Quatre Cents Coups, Coppola - some, Sideways, Lubitsch, Tarkovsky, Days of Heaven, Shane, Citizen Kane, The Bicyle Thief, Rashomon, Casablanca, Duck Soup, Animal Crackers.To Die For, La Dolce Vita, La Strada, Visconti, His Girl Friday, Almodovar - esp. Habla con Ella, The Royal Tenenbaums, Igby Goes Down, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Lost in Translation, Wedding Crashers, Swingers, Eisenstein, Five Easy Pieces, Annie Hall, City Lights, Sunset Blvd., Network, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Duck Soup, All About Eve, E.T., Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Midnight Cowboy, The Bridge Over the River Quai, The End of the Affair, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Kelly's Heroes, Spartacus, Rear Window, The Graduate, Some lIke it Hot, The Squid and the Whale, Pier Paolo Passolini - all of him, Wild Strawberries, Bunel - all, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Run Lola Run, Breakfast at Tiffanys, Splendor In the Grass, Withnail and I, The Last Farm, Six Shooter, Sweet Smell of Success, Withnail and I, Easy Rider, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Chungking Express, Kung Fu Hussle, Taxi Driver, Amelie, Wizard of Oz, Spinal Tap, Deliverance, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Magnolia, Peckinpah -esp. Wild Bunch,
Television
Minder, Only Fools and Horses, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Harry Enfield and Friends, Monty Python, The Sopranos, The Daily Show, Lost, CSPAN Books, The Office, Father Ted, Curb Your Enthusiasm,
Books
Renoir, My Father, Beloved, Speak Memory, Orwell's essays, Down and Out in London and Paris, Sean, In Our Time, A Moveable Feast, The Pastures of Heaven, East of Eden, West with the Night, Factotum, Post Office, Matthew Sharpe, The Lord of the Rings, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Dubliners, Baldwin - bits, F. Scott Fitzgerald - Gatsby, Catch-22, Jesus' Son, Catcher in The Rye, Tom Sawyer, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Dress Me Up In Cordoruys, Bad Faith, The Canterbury Tales, My Mother's Lovers, Ecclesiastes, Despair, Lolita, Heart Of Darkness, Eugene O'Neill, Ionesco, Frederick Barthelme, Sylvia Plath, Alice Munro, Jung, Florence Scovel Shin, Sophocles, Terrence, Lucretius, Vergil - bits of Eclogues and Aenied, Homer - all, Catullus, Hass - esp. his haiku transpositions, Crossing to Safety, Revolutionary Road, To a God Unknown, Angle of Repose, The Twelve Caesars, Samson Raphaelson, The Ice Storm, John Clanchy, J.G Ballard, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Crumb, Rumi, The Metamorphoses, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Jane Austen, Zola, Flaubert, Marcel Proust,
Heroes
"Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior." Catullus “Be cheerful while you are alive.” Ptahhotype, 2400 B.C. “vita somnium breve” (Life is a short dream) old roman saying. “Remember: it is not given to man to take his goods with him. No one goes away and then comes back.” The Song of the Harper, c.2650-2600 B.C. "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact." A Midsummer’s Night Dream, "Nothing can be loved too much, but all things can be loved in the wrong way." Auden “Human nature is the only subject that doesn’t date.” Faulkner “Those that know they are profound strive for clarity; those who would like to seem profound…strive for obscurity.” Nietzche “beneath that glittering surface is a universe of gliding monsters.” Billy Budd “There is only one thing that interests man and that is man.” Pascal “What freedom! Not to have to be preoccupied with a story, since it has been already told hundreds of times. That’s what is important: to escape from the subject matter, to avoid being ‘literary’ and so choose somehing that everybody knows – still better, no story at all.” Auguste Renoir “I was being the ‘cork’.” Renoir “You can ruin a friendship with a witty remark. Words can be very dangerous. They can start you off in the wrong direction; worst of all they can hide your real thoughts.” Renoir “calm of mind, all passion spent.” Milton “never sign anything.” Casanova (in Da Ponte’s Memoirs) “Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Eliot “timor mortis conturbat me” (forget, maybe Ovid.) “Word over all, beautiful as the sky, Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost, That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soiled world; For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead.” Whitman, Leaves of Grass, “Reconciliation” “Let us go then, you and I, Where the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table.” T.S. Eliot, “Love Song of Alfred J Prufock” “But the bravest are surely those who have the cleanest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.” Thucydides, “Hist. of the Pel. War”, Funeral Oration of Pericles, “La parole humain est comme un chaudron fele ou nous battons des melodies a faire danser les ourses, quand on voudrait attendrir les etoiles.” (My trans.: “Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythmns for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will move the stars.” Madame Bovary “C'est la Mort qui console, helas! et qui fait vivre; C'est le but de la vie, et c'est le seul espoir Qui, comme un elixir, nous monte et nous enivre, Et nous donne le coeur de marcher jusqu' au soir.” Baudelaire Fleurs du Mal “Is there a hell besides this, villains?” The Revenger’s Tragedy “The world always looks outward, I turn my gaze inward; there I fix it, and there I keep it busy. Everyone looks before him; I look within. I have no business but with myself.” Montaigne “We dress our garden, eat our dinners, discuss the household with our wives, and these things make no impression, are forgotten next week; but in the solitude to which every man is always returning, he has a sanity and revelations, which in the passage into new worlds he will carry with him. Never mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat; up again, old heart!” Emerson, “Experience” “Post tenebras lux” 16th century protestant temple in Les Baux de Provence Jean Calvin "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few." Shunryu Suzuki "The unexpected connection is more powerful than one that is obvious." Heraclitus "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts." R W Emerson "He who asks is a fool for five minutes; he who doesn't ask remains a fool forever." Chinese Proverb "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." Mark Twain "I can't write five words but that I change seven." Dorothy Parker "Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." Pablo Picasso "Chance favors the prepared mind." Louis Pasteur "You can't outperform your own self-image." Tim Hurson “Every memory we have is of ourselves. If its of an experience that’s flawed, then it’s a break, a rift in the continuity of the self” Delilio “When I found contentment and replaced the word with ‘happiness’ with ‘contentment’, I realized I was happy all along.” Billy Connolly “The more you come into the daylight and tell the truth, the happier you become, the more your shadow goes away.” Billy Connolly. “Dripping water hollows the stone.” Virgil “What is more harmful than any vice? Active pity for all the failures and all the weak: Christianity.” The Anti-Christ, Nietszche "Is treine duchas na oiliunt" old Irish proverb
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Kildare, Ireland
Graduated: 1995
Student status: Alumni
Degree: High School Diploma
Major: Greek & Roman Civilization, English
Minor: Sociology
About me: I write. Novels, short stories, plays, poems, screenplays.
Who I'd like to meet: Elvis, Lester Piggott, Burton, Orwell, George Best, my Dad's Dad, my wife's Dad, Cervantes, Kusturica, Marquez, Marlowe, Wilde, Errol Flynn, Lorenzo da Ponte, Lucretius, Sophocles, Billy Connolly...
