MOTOWN songster and Rock and Roll hall of fame inductee Normal Whitfield has passed away leaving behind an incredible catalogue of amazing songs including the ones featured below. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
Parts of this you may have read before, sorry about that.
RM Column May 9th - Turn that down
Saying teenagers make a lot of noise is nothing new but I have to say the Young Wan has been taking things to new decibel levels lately between her mobile phone, her new ipod and of course the auld stalwart, her music system in the bedroom.
I am being driven nuts. I am actually boring myself saying ‘turn that down’, well actually it gets to the point where I end up roaring ‘TURN THAT DOWNNNN’.
Like most teenagers her mobile phone has become an extension of her hand and she seems to be constantly texting with the very irritating and constant noise of her hitting the number pad.
The straw that broke the camel's back recently was the all-evening click, click, click, click, click, click of her two-handed teenage texting and it began to grind on my nerves. Between the clicking and the tinny sound of her ipod I told her to 'gowan away and play in your room and give my head a bit of peace'.
I have to say that I didn’t think I would ever be saying that to her again, I thought that had passed around the time she stopped playing with dolls.
When she is at home there is a steady noise level in the house normally going on in all four corners, not to mention the obvious drain on the national grid and my wallet. You can bet the music will be left on in her room, the tv is probably tuned to a music channel, the radio will be on in the kitchen, meanwhile she’ll be listening to the ipod and texting.
She appears to be incapable of doing dishes without loud music, loud enough to drown out the telly.
You find yourself saying that she must be nearly done just leave her to it, but like a slow and steady irritation all of a sudden it creeps up on you and you break before yelling about loud music and how it can be heard all over the street.
She will turn it down then leave it a couple of minutes before slowly and surely turning up the volume slowly. This is another one of those occasions where you wonder if your offspring think you stupid and incapable of realising what they are at. Then the yelling ‘turn that music DOWN’ starts again and so the cycle starts afresh.
That has been bad enough but I recently bought her a new ipod and unlike the other one she had I have not been able to turn the volume down on it.
Ipods allow you to set a higher level for the volume on your computer, this means you can set how loud the ipod can be played at which is great in terms of trying to protect hearing from damage.
On another and more selfish level I want to turn down the volume because the level she has it at sometimes can be heard from another room with two doors closed and the television on; still somehow the tinny noise of the player is audible.
It’s funny though because I will give out yards about the noise yet when she isn’t at home you miss it. But don’t tell her I said that.
I RECENTLY bought the Young Wan a new ipod and the sound level has not only been driving me nuts and can be heard via her ear-plug plugged ears from the next room, not to mention from outside the house, but must also be doing damage, serious damage to her ears.
It has been one of those times where I know she pacifies me and turns it down before slowly and surely turning it back up again.
Her last ipod had the volume set and I could not remember where or how I did it, but I discovered it this evening. So the maximum volume has been turned down by a third and I locked it with a combination number, one she doesn't know! I am actually laughing to myself that she didn't get there before me. Excellent and thank god for that.
THE house move has uncovered lots of pics from years ago that I forgot I had even taken so expect more older non-digital photography over the next while. The amount of negatives I have isn't funny and at some stage I will need to get into a darkroom to document them properly. Course I was bold the first time around and didn't do contact sheets all the time and I regret that now. But sure. Some day they will all be sorted and filed away appropriately.
Now on to the pics. The first two were taken in Belfast (at the same time as this pic) 10 years ago. I love the stance of the guy with the hurly and guy lying on the wall behind him. The last one is Martin Stephenson whom I have loved since I was a teenager and I was fortunate enough to meet him and share a couple of pints and he is as lovely as his music is great. it was taken during one of his gigs in Whelans about 11 years ago, Jaysus where does the time fly to?.
I WENT to see Joan As Police Woman the other night in Vicar Street, excellent show altogether. It is a strange venue with all the seats practically piled up on top of each other. But it is intimate which is great. I imagine it is intimidating for a performer but Joan as Policewoman had the crowd eating of their hands.
I got some videos and some pics. So here you go.
IT IS Saturday night and I am sitting here watching sh*te telly, that isn't much of a surprise. The Young Wan has her boyfriend over and Nanny and I are being tortured by the most awful music coming from her bedroom. Her bedroom is next to the living room and there is only a plaster board separating the two rooms, the music is playing in the bedroom like it would in the actual living room. I keep sending in the doggie to chaperone them but even she keeps running back into the living room because of the woeful tunes. Thank god for broadband.
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I have to update my music. This is the last 25 songs played on my ipod and they are mostly oldies but goldies.
1. The Cure – Friday I’m in love
2. The Kinks – Sunny Afternoon
3. The Jam – That’s Entertainment
4. Erik Satie – Gymnopedies
5. Beautiful South – Old Red Eyes is back
6. Talking Heads – This must be the place
7. Ash – There’s a star
8. Pulp – Something Changed
9. Neil Young – Only love can break your heart
10. Ash – Candy
11. Lloyd Cole – Forest Fire
12. U2 – Beautiful Day
13. Stone Roses – [Song for my] Sugar Spun Sister
14. Fun Loving Criminals – Scooby Snacks [Schmoove version]
15. The Church – Under the Milky Way
16. The Las – There she goes
17. Lloyd Cole – Rattlesnakes
18. One Dove – Breakdown
19. 10CC – Dreadlock Holiday
20. The Beatles – One after 909
21. The Beatles – A Day in the Life
22. Beautiful South – Gold as Gold
23. Violent Femmes – Blister in the sun
24. Dolly Parton – Here you come again
25. Daft Punk - Voyager
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THE Young Wan is out and about today in town with her lovely pal having gotten tickets for some 'gig' in HMV.
The excitement was palpable since I said she could go a couple of days ago. She has been so delighted that people only needed to look at her sideways and she would say 'I'm going to a gig!'. She was thrilled. And I have enjoyed laughing at her telling all and sundry 'I'm going to a gig' 'did I say I was going to a gig' 'I'm off now to the gig I was telling you about'.
Deciding what to wear last night was also fun. The cool (as in not warm - but it is actually cool-looking on her) dress was a no no because she would be moshing and her sandled feet could be a problem. I said then don't mosh because you will be roasting in those jeans in this weather. Ah Mammies - we are just to sensible for our own good. Just one question do people mosh in a record shop?
Ah the innocence of it all, brings an auld tear to the eye.
However consider the fact I brought her to the Pixies and Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert in the Phoenix Park two years ago. Despite my thoughts on that being a very cool thing for a mum to do, nah the gig in HMV is well cooler. Mummies are just not cool.
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EACH day that passes brings us closer and closer to the U2 concerts scheduled to take place as part of the summer music fest in Dublin.
I have to say my last experience of U2 has completely left me traumatised, so much so, that I almost stick two fingers in my ears whilst loudly singing ‘la la la la la la la la la’.
'la la la la la la la la la'
I have been lucky and seen them in concert on a number of occasions but the whole experience of living in Dublin when they are playing kinda translates to the haves and have-nots of tickets. So when you are in the have-not category – you feel that you are missing out on a very significant concert, which is sure to go down in the musical archives of time.
So back to why I can’t even think about a U2 concert without breaking out in hives follows my experience a couple of years back.
U2 announced they were to play Slane, which is a big music festival day at Slane Castle held most years, however the tickets sold out in a flash.
Obviously someone who managed to keep a hold of their ticket
Then sometime later, it was announced that some tickets were available on the internet so I get on, managed to overcome the incredibly busy internet, managed to order four tickets (knowing I could easily rustle up three other interested bodies) and sat back feeling smug, lucky and delighted with myself.
Some days later the tickets arrived in a row of six, four were tickets, one was my address and the other was my invoice. Fantastic, and up they went on my shelf beside my passport and other things that I need to keep an eye on.
Every now and again, I would take them down, and try to give my friend her two for herself and her partner but she kept going ‘no, leave them and I will get them again’. Now that started to piss me off, I wanted rid of them, I only wanted to be responsible for my own. But she insisted and this went on for weeks.
Until one day, she was in my flat showing me a book she was making for someone which had lots of draft pages, etc, etc. In other words an armful of stuff to be thrown out. Before she left, I put my foot down, took the tickets from the shelf where I was keeping them, ripped off two tickets and insisted she take them.
So the day loomed closer and closer, until it finally arrived. Off we went, with our picnics, some drinks and full of ‘wayyyy haaaayyyy’. Until we arrived near Slane that is….
My friend said: “Where’s those tickets?”
Me: “Aye yer funny – I only have me own!”
My friend: “No seriously, where’s the tickets?”
Me: “AYE yer funny, I have mine!”… This went on for a bit… a bit too long.
I wont bore you anymore with that, just to say again that this went on for a while, with each of us thinking the other was pulling the other’s leg.
Eventually I went ‘I DON’T have yours, I have mine’. The long and the short was, she didn’t have her two. All of a sudden, people were quizzing me as to where the tickets were and I began to doubt myself and what I KNEW happened. Anyway we drove all the way back to Dublin, while she searched her flat and I searched mine (we live beside each other).
All of a sudden, everyone was up in my flat helping me, including the friend ticketlosing offender. This started to really piss me off BIGTIME. Everyone had abandoned looking in the tickerlosers flat and were helping me, this could only mean that the blame was falling on me. This is despite me constantly saying, ‘I kept them here, here is the invoice and they are not here, as I said they wouldn’t be, because I handed them to (friend) at my flat door, I can see myself doing it now’. Besides which, while I had the tickets I kept them in the one long chain to keep them safe, and did not rip them off until I insisted my friend take hers. Why would I rip off two valuable tickets doing this and separate them.
Anyway bear in mind, there were still two tickets and because I was somehow entangled with the ticketloser I decided to be big and insist the other two go. However the ticketloser threw a mini wobblie because one of the others was her partner and told him if he was to go he could feck off.
I couldn’t believe this and insisted they went. In the end they drove about for an hour before coming back with two intact U2 tickets for Slane.
The end of the tale, is that I didn’t lose the tickets, and I no longer even have the unused tickets which would be worth money.
To this day, we still do not really talk about it other than to say that we are both still traumatised. So while she thinks it was me that lost the tickets, it was not. IN fact they all think it was me. I have often wondered if the others ever turned up and she could not face me to tell me so. While it might sound ridiculous, it was such a horrible day, where the blame completely wrongly fell on me, I do hope that they turned up in her flat and she felt guilt like never before as well as having the knowledge that I was telling the truth the whole time and no one, no one, would listen to me, they only listened to her – the ticketloser.
The moral of the story is, stick to your guns when you know something to be true, despite the bullying? (for want of a better word) and other people’s opinions to the contrary.
So while this year’s concert takes place, I will be hiding. (I going to hide now cos I’m depressed again after telling that tale of woe).
Visitors since May 4, 2005
