Lonely At The Top

A few weeks ago, my friend John and I caught the first in what promises to be a busy few months of checking out some of our favourite songwriters at various venues around the British Isles. First up was Randy Newman who played two gigs at Dublin’s Vicar St. at the start of March. We had hoped to catch him there a couple of years ago, but he caught a sore throat and had to cancel. On the opening night this time, he began with Mama Told Me Not To Come and it was obvious that he was under the weather again and should probably have heeded the song’s advice. Fortunately, his head cold only affected him on a few songs and the rest of the show made me forget my own dose of the man ‘flu for a couple of hours

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(A Biologist’s) St Patrick’s Day Song

An intoxicating mix of chemistry, biology & Celtic folk music for Ireland’s national saint. NPR’s Adam Cole creates a modern Irish folk song that traces the development of brewer’s yeast and the subsequent effects of alcohol on the brain and the body. His witty ditty also goes some way towards explaining the next day’s hangover. Happy St Patrick’s Day to one and all around the world. Sláinte!

(A Biologist’s) St Patrick’s Day Song – Adam Cole

Say You Wanna Dance

Today is the start of a new series which features songs by singers that I’m not a fan of being sung by people I do like. The original artists are often successful and far more well known than those I’ve chosen, though they’re also performers that I wouldn’t usually admit to liking. I had planned to feature Whitney Houston at a later date, but her untimely death over the weekend has pushed her to the front of the queue. Her first appearances on the musical scene in the eighties coincided with my own introduction to music during that decade, first through music videos, then the radio and finally the humble cassette tape. I remember being particularly struck by the 1987 single from her second album, I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), possibly her finest performance

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Re-make Re-model

I finally got my hair cut last week after many months of humming and hawing about it. This big leap has also inspired me to give a bit of a makeover to Town Full of Losers. I blog with WordPress and they offer dozens of free themes to suit all sorts of needs. I’ve used three or four in the past and, as it’s been over a year since the last change, I decided to go with a new one today. It’s called Quintus and here’s what the good folks at WordPress have to say about it:

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Understated But Elegant: 2011 In Film

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I spent a lot of 2011 reading and watching Scandinavian and Nordic thrillers, but I still managed to find time to catch a few new films on DVD and at the cinema throughout the year. I made it to the pictures about twice a month over the last year, though a few of those visits were in the company of my nephews and none of those films made my final list. On the face of it, 2011 didn’t appear to be a great year for movies, but I still managed to come up with a shortlist of twenty that I’ve narrowed down to a final dozen. Here are the eight films I enjoyed that just missed out on my top twelve: Source Code (Duncan Jones); Captain America (Joe Johnston); Hanna (Joe Wright); The Inbetweeners (Ben Palmer); The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper); Lou (Belinda Chayko); The Guard (John Michael McDonagh); Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance). The latter was one of two films on my list to feature Ryan Gosling and I’ll start looking at my favourite films of 2011 with the other one he was in

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Get In Line

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The second part of my list of favourite albums from last year continues with five acts that were already familiar to me from previous years. I’m a big fan of the debut album by Fleet Foxes and I was always going to like their second record. I don’t like it as much as their first one, however, and I have to admit that it’s taken me a while to get into it. It doesn’t have any standout tracks like White Winter Hymnal on the previous album, but it works well as a consistent collection of original songs and that’s why it makes it onto my list

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Ladies First

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I’ve been meaning to put up a list of my favourite albums of 2011 for a while now, but I’ve only gotten around to it this week. I didn’t think 2011 was one of the best in recent years for new releases, though I did have a few dozen worthy efforts on my final list. When I narrowed it down to ten I noticed that it was evenly split along gender lines, so I’m going to present it in two parts

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Vagabond of the Western World

It’s the fiftieth anniversary of Ireland’s national television broadcaster this year and amidst all the backslapping I’m sure there’ll be one or two shows worth checking out. One of the highlights so far was a tribite to one of Ireland’s first and finest rock stars. The Phil Lynott Archive was produced and directed by David Heffernan and featured already existing footage of the former Thin Lizzy frontman as well as new interviews and film. The near hour long programme didn’t contribute anything too new to his already well-documented story but it was wonderful to relive some of his finest moments again. We got to see clips of Phil’s early days with Taste, Lizzy’s heyday in the seventies and his solo work in the eighties. It was also interesting to compare the less coherent interview of a stoned Lynott backstage with the more gregarious fella on The Late Late Show with Gay Byrne. The interviews with the great and the good were mostly padding but I quite enjoyed the discussion of Lynott’s songwriting abilities by contemporary musicians. Even though Lizzy were lumped in with the hard rock and heavy metal crowds, Phil was equally at home writing a melodic ballad like Sarah or Dancing in the Moonlight. I had a look through my collection to see what if I had any versions of Phil’s songs by other artists and I was pleasantly surprised to find I had a few

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