Absorb.

I wrote this song over a period of a month last year. I wanted to write a simple tune with basic lyrics relating to current events in the news. I wanted to absorb what was going on around me. I didn't want to spend the usual torturous time of writing lyrics as I normally do so the news, both radio and TV was on pretty much consistently. I wasn't over thinking this one. If memory serves me right it was mostly domestic political showboating such as the national debt ceiling, Irish default worries and the Arab spring.  

Somewhere after getting the music down and in the beginning stages of writing the lyrics, Anders Behring Breivik went on a rampage killing 77 people in Norway. I simply chose to ignore it, I can't write about that. I could not stop thinking about it though and slowly it made its way into the song. The killing on Utoya Island of 69 teenagers from the Labor Party's youth wing I found particularly disturbing. Pick your flowers, you’re king of an island. 

So that's how this one came about. Normally I record a rough demo version with the notion to record it proper sometime. I never do. Anyway, slowly this year I'm gonna start posting them here, all of them. I thought I'd get this one out of the way first. I simply do not know what to do with this song. I've never played it live and most likely never will, but it exists. The title comes from a phrase I find myself using when I am about to lose my patience. Again, it's a very rough demo.     

Stop This Madness

Digging a hole, looking for answers,

Shining a light, searching for darkness,

Empty your lungs, begging for silence,

Pick your flowers, you’re king of an island.

And the hairs on my arms stand up for you,

All that scares me drives you on like fuel,

To a flame ,

From a spark,

That once,

Was silent.

Stop This Madness

Stop This Madness

Stop This Madness

Stop This Madness

Tell me for now it's gonna be forever,

Tell me what you want is what I need,

Somethings I just can’t believe in,

Sometimes seeing is not believing.

And the hairs on my arms stand up for you,

All that scares me drives you on like fuel,

To a flame ,

From a spark,

That once,

Was silent.

Stop This Madness

Stop This Madness

Stop This Madness

Stop This Madness

The Liar Show Review by Jester Journal

Liar, Liar

Themed night of storytelling and stand-up blends the tragic and comic in an involving way

By Gabrielle Nash / Jester correspondent

The Liar Show, a high-concept blend of comedy and storytelling seen at the 92Y Tribeca on January 19, blends funny moments with serious ones as five performers try to convince the audience that all their stories are true. (In this performance, two of the five had fictional tales).

Picking the fake stories among those delivered by this group of skilled performers – the Liar Show has run in different venues around New York regularly for years, usually with different storytellers every time – was actually a challenging task on this night. Comedian Colin Dempsey’s true story of the perceived origin of a pair of shoes he bought, and the luck they may or may not have brought him, while living in Australia was artfully constructed in a way that made it seem false. Monologist Leslie Goshko told her story, about where a pet mouse ended up, in such believable fashion that many were convinced it was true.

Jim O’Grady, an author and reporter, gleefully told a tale that was more obviously a constructed fiction, in which he unwittingly donned attire while interacting with black children living next door to him that made it seem as if he were getting a thrill from acting like a Southern plantation owner.

Writer/director Tracy Rowland and author Kambri Crews told personal stories with serious focus and resonance, but still managed to play up certain comic aspects. Rowland, recounting what a character her father was – and not always in a positive way – talked about how his actions over the years didn’t exactly inspire them to get extravagant in his funeral arrangements, which included empty seats, a cardboard box of ashes and music played on a boombox. Crews recalled how she lived a real-life version of the movie “Sixteen Candles,” where everyone in her family forgot about her 16^th birthday, only her house was far over on the “other side of the tracks.”

It was inspiring how those with serious stories could find humor in the face of adversity. At the same time, the silly stories in the show had their own solemn overtones. A nice mix of the range of human experience comes out through the structure of the Liar Show’s storytelling and performances. The Liar Show will also keep you talking about its tales long after it ends.

The Liar Show returns at the Cornelia Street Cafe on February 4.

openclosedthenandnow

I went for a long walk this evening for some much needed exercise and ended up at a local guitar store. I cut straight to the high end section and played every single acoustic guitar they had. The Gibson J45, Hummingbird, I even tried a Taylor or two but my favorite remains the Martin. I play a Martin DCME but they don’t make them anymore, discontinued. I fell in love with a Martin HD28 Dreadnought. The smell of the wood, the feel of the fretboard and the weight of it, beautiful. I played it for about twenty minutes not realizing I had gone into my own little world and was singing out loud. Customers came and went but I didn’t care.

I remember when I first started playing I sang with my eyes closed for most of a gig. I hated performing to be honest but I always loved the sense of achievement afterwards. Conquering shyness, a total lack of confidence and zero self esteem. This evening I was singing like I owned the bloody place. I've always used music to be somewhere else, that's the great thing about music. I'm here but I'm not here, and now it seems I can do it with my eyes open.

Martin HD28

There's something ugly in those woods.

Road To Albany

It had been raining on our road trip the whole day. The long straight roads that cut through the empty spaces of south western Australia made us feel like we were stuck on an infinite loop. We had been warned that the weather that time of year could be unpredictable. It was. In a break from the downpour we parked the car and hiked into a wood to stretch our legs. The dark overcast sky hung low above our heads and it became increasingly uninviting the deeper we ventured into it. We eventually stumbled upon this unearthly creation: A deformed human face crossed with an octopus in tree form. What a find, all the way out here, alone!  It started raining. 

Welcome food, I mean friends.

We returned to the car and continued on our infinite road trip to Albany in silence.

Not Quite Obnoxious Enough!

Somewhere on our road trip from Canberra to Sydney, Australia we decided to take a detour and visit the Blue Mountains. A really nice place to get a photo some people told us along the way. I had purchased my first ever proper camera some months back and was determined to take as many a fine a picture I could on my travels. It really was an amazing scene. Beautiful.  

Lovely stuff, got my Kangaroo skin hat on and everything!

Then I spotted this particular rock formation jutting out over the plain below. It was famous for looking somewhat like a face. That's when in all my youthful inexperience I thought of an even better photograph to take at the Blue Mountains. 

I have an Idea...

I ran over to it, climbed to the top and posed for what I thought until I developed the film was the best ever photograph ever taken at The Blue Mountains by anyone, ever. See below:

Twat!

Obnoxious, arrogant and somewhat unsettling. Oh to be young and stupid. I really thought I was the bee's knees. 

Don't ever tell me growing old and wiser is a bad thing.

Diner on The Edge of America

Once a month I meet up with two good friends of mine for coffee. We always meet at the same diner, same time and sit in the same section. Michael is a fellow Irishman and an incredibly talented stage actor while Jeff is what I would consider one of the funniest comics I've ever met. I love our coffee meet-ups, we talk about anything and everything. As the youngest and least experienced I've learned a lot from them both over the years. I'm very lucky.   

The last time we met up I noticed a photographer outside the diner taking photographs. He was there for the entire evening but I paid him little notice. Tonight while having coffee the same photographer approached our table upon recognizing us. He showed us the below photograph which is part of a project called Diner on The Edge of America. Kinda cool methinks. It was a very random and lovely end to our evening. 

I love this kind of inside outside image that for me gives you the increased feeling of being there...it's like the city is seeping into the diner...into the thoughts of the people inside...the city and the people are never separate not in New York...never in the Diner on the Edge of America - Jez Coulson.

Check out Jez Coulson's website here for his photography.

The Happiness Helicopter

Bob just made the invention of a lifetime, if only he could feel good about it. That's Shelly's problem.

Helicopter Happynes 5-13-09

Downbeat Depressed Coworker :-(

Tom, Bob and Jill just want to have an upbeat lunch break for once.

Depressed Coworker 5-5-09

Rev-ASS: Pharmaceutical Commercial #1

Another forgotten sketch. This is a commercial for a drug I made up. Oh how I wish it was real. Enjoy.

Rev-Ass #1 - May 14th, 09

If you thought that was bad just think of the ones I'm not sharing.

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I was going through some old writing on my computer tonight when I found what I can say with much gusto and confidence is the most ridiculous thing I've ever written. A parody sketch of an ethnic based comedy show. I wrote it, it made me laugh and I filed it away with the other weird stuff without showing anybody and forgot all about it.  Tonight was the first time I seen it in over two and a half years.

I remember walking through the west village one night when I came upon a poster advertising a show inside a local theater. The basic premise was that the performer was of one ethnicity and that his wife was of another and they were both in therapy because of it. Why? I never bothered to find out. I had seen a lot of these shows being advertised at the time. I done stand up comedy for over five years and I always tried to avoid talking about being Irish. It's hard to do when you live abroad but it is possible. I've never found ethnic based humor funny to be honest but some people base their whole careers on it. I went home and wrote a sketch taking the piss out of the show and the poster and went to bed. It was ridiculous, stupid and weird in that way that only makes me laugh and laugh alone. That was that. I scratched my itch and the following day I tried to write something proper.    

Upon finding it tonight I wanted to post it for a laugh. Why? Because it's stupid and silly and it still makes me laugh even though it's terrible. Then I thought of a piece Stewart Lee performed a year after I wrote my sketch that also cracked me up. It is in my opinion an accurate assessment unfortunately. See below:



Then I remembered how I felt when I saw the poster, I remember that I was pissed off. I had done a show recently that did not go well. I remember being embarrassed simply being a part of it and that a few performers had done well with some lazy, racist and misogynistic material. A few even drew some of the night's biggest laughs by simply mining material from the stereotypes of their own ethnicity. I wasn't jealous, just confused. I don't think I was ever cut out to be a comedian anyway. If you didn't laugh at the Stewart Lee video you probably would agree.

So the sketch is not a parody I realize but a satire. It still makes me laugh, probably only me though.

Parody - Therapy - 4 21 09