Tuesday, August 04, 2009

5 movies for a desert Island

Imagine you're alone on a deserted Island, with a DVD player and 5 movies.... on a rainy days what movies would you bring with you and why ?

1. Monthy Python Holy Grail
To keep the moral up, a bit of laugh, can be watch over and over again... especially to hear french swearing (Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! )


2. Chung King Express (Wong Kar Wai)
A romantic stylistic movie, because i fall in love with Faye everytime i watch the movie.

(Full Movie can be seen there, and Quentin Tarantino talks about the movie here)

3. Mon oncle (J.Tati)
Another simple feel good movie


4. Once upon a time in the west (Sergio Leone)
A classic


5. MegaVixens by Russ Meyer
Alone, on an island, migt rise some tension, so here's the solution, more cartoonish than real erotic stuff.


Surprisingly, i did not put any pixar movie, nor Kubrick ....
Note: Based on a French Article on Ecran Large.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Rodrigo y Gabriella ... summer 2009

Oh god i miss the free summer concert in Grenoble, fortunately there is some good bands playing in Limerick, most notably in Dolans, last night it was Rodrigo y Gabriella, absolutely brilliant.

RYG (IMG_0236)

RYG (IMG_0245)

RYG (IMG_0253)

GAB (IMG_0257)

RODRIGO (IMG_0239)

GAB (IMG_0241)

GAB (IMG_0234)

RYG (IMG_0216)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

How many of these books have you read?

How many of these books have you read?

Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

[Updated August 2016]


  1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen *
  2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien *
  3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brone
  4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling   X+
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
  6. The Bible X
  7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte *
  8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X+
  9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
  10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
  11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
  12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
  13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller *
  14. Complete Works of Shakespeare X+ ( i might be missing 2 or 3 )
  15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
  16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
  17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
  18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 
  19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
  20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
  21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
  22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
  23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
  24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
  25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy X+
  26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
  27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
  29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X+
  30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame *
  31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
  32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
  33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
  34. Emma - Jane Austen
  35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
  36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
  37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
  38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
  39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
  40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
  41. Animal Farm - George Orwell X+
  42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
  43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
  44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
  45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
  46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
  47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
  48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood *
  49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
  50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
  51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
  52. Dune - Frank Herbert [Update September 2023]
  53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
  54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
  55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
  56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
  58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley X+
  59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
  60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
  62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov *
  63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
  64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
  65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas *
  66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac *
  67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
  68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X+
  69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
  70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville X ( not sure i finished it )
  71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
  72. Dracula - Bram Stoker X+
  73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
  74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson *
  75. Ulysses - James Joyce *
  76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
  77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
  78. Germinal - Emile Zola *
  79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
  80. Possession - AS Byatt
  81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
  82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell  X
  83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
  84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
  85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert *
  86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
  87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
  88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Alborn
  89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X+
  90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
  91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X+
  92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X+
  93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks *
  94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
  95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole X+
  96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
  97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas *
  98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare X+
  99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
  100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo *


Instructions:
  • Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
  • Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
  • Star (*) those you plan on reading.
  • Tally your total at the bottom
My score 13... not bad

2016 Update -> 15
2023 Update ->  20 (Also realised I missed some books)

Monday, July 06, 2009

iTunes - Medium .... tell me tell me

Today 5 July - Playing with your shufle music player
Go to your music player of choice, and put it all on "shuffle." Say the following questions aloud, and after each one press play. Use the song title as the answer to the question.

  • What do you think of me, random music player?
    "I go through all this
    Before you wake up
    So I can feel happier
    To be safe up here with you"
    Hyperballad - Bjork

  • Will I have a long and happy life?
    "Let's Talk
    Let's talk
    Let the dirt fall
    Let Heads Roll"
    Passionless, pointless - PJ.Harvey

  • What do my friends really think of me?
    "Send me home restless
    Send me home damaged
    Send me home disposes
    Send me home damaged"
    The Soldier - PJ.Harvey

  • What does my S/O think of me?
    Hot Stuff - cover by Jape

  • Do people secretly lust after me?
    "That either way you turn
    I'll be there
    Open up your skull
    I'll be there"
    Climbing Up the Walls - radiohead

  • How can I make myself happy?
    "Show your hand
    I'm jumping off the fence
    Into your corner"
    Show your hand - Super Furry Animal

  • What should I do with my life?
    "And if I could be who you wanted
    If I could be who you wanted,
    All the time, all the time, ohhh... ohh..."
    Fake plastic Tree - Radiohead

  • Why must life be so full of pain?
    "Purple haze all around
    Don't know if I'm comin' up or down
    Am I happy or in misery?
    Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me"
    Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix (Franck Zappa Cover)

  • How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?
    "Oh, My-ex says I'm lacking in depth
    I will do my best"
    Someday - The Strokes

  • Will I ever have children?
    "And if you complain once more
    You'll meet an army of me"
    Arme of me - Bjork

  • Will I die happy?
    "mailprintvotesmallerlarger
    Send "Novocaine for The Soul" Ringtone to Cell Phone

    Life is hard and so am i
    You better give me something
    So I dont die
    Novocaine for the soul
    Before I sputter out"
    Novocaine for the soul - Eels

  • Can you give me some advice?
    Salsa con coco - Pochy y su cocoband

  • What do you think happiness is?
    "I've been waiting so long
    To be where I'm going
    In the sunshine of your love."
    Sunshine of your love - Cream ( F.Zappa cover )

  • Do you have any advice to give over the next few hours/days?
    "Bought a present for my guy
    I bought him a pair of second hand boots
    Those boots were white not pink
    He liked to think, that he wore them well
    He took them to the park, he wore them out
    And played with the geese
    Those geese were stupified"
    Jake Summers - Fight like Apes


    Next time i'll change the questions......
  • Monday, June 15, 2009

    Been there

    An update in songs....

    Been there, done that, messed around....I'm having fun don't put me down,
    Bullet Proof (La Roux)

    i love the quiet of the night time, when the sun is drown in a deathly sea
    Death (White Lies)
    yes this fears got a hold on me

    It's a cruel cruel world, to face on your own,
    Heavy Cross (The Gossip)

    But every time it rains,
    Youre here in my head,
    Like the sun coming out--
    Cloudbusting (Kate Bush)
    Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen.

    Monday, June 08, 2009

    Traffic Jam at Black Head

    There was a traffic Jam in Black Head this Saturday:
    IMG_9207

    IMG_8892

    the reason: the start of LEG8 of the Volvo Ocean Race ( Galway to Marstrand )

    As the boat left Galway, they come fast along SaltHill:
    IMG_8950

    Loads of boat came to visit the race, and accompany them along the irish coast
    IMG_8929

    As they pass the lighthouse, they all started tacking to take the inside route, between the Aran Island and the Burren... much to our delight:
    IMG_9003

    And here's the chinese-irish competitor
    IMG_9100

    IMG_9132

    IMG_9150

    Some boat came quite close from the shore (here Delta Lloyd ):
    IMG_9156

    IMG_9183

    Finally everybody wished a goodbye and safe sailing top the Dragon:
    IMG_9164

    IMG_9168

    Wednesday, June 03, 2009

    King Seal

    Seal program tagging in Ireland:


    Mobile phone for seal, i love it...

    The data is available:
    http://sealtrack.ucc.ie/

    Other seal links:
    Irish Seal Sanctuary

    Brickmania

    Lego Smurf castle ??   Eva.... massive build Swimming in bricks ?