Since the last blog things have ticked along nicely but I've been unsure about what to blog about. I've stayed at home and we've been hosting a number of "cultural events", as we tend to do. Here are some pictures, each one enlargeable by clicking. This first pic shows the exhibition of Clas Hansen alongside the banner for a live radio broadcast that Radio Nova did from our bar on 10 April.

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Posted by Barry at 6:23 EM | Permalink

In the final part of Blather.net's in-depth investigation of the infamous fifth-century thug and womaniser, Niall of the Nine Hostages, our grave-robber in residence Ender Wiggan digs deeper into the genetic history of the indigenous Irish population in an effort to finally find out "who's yo' Daddy?".

No really. Who *is* your daddy?

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Posted by ender at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Memories, music, words, ambiguity and mathematics will all feature in this blog entry. It is the third - and will surely be the last - time I write about the band Hanny. The first time I wrote about how I liked their first album. The second time I was actually in the band (a period that lasted for about six months) and I wrote about that experience. This time I'm writing about the new album, Sceneity, which I played on. I attended the album launch at the Henie Onstad Art Centre on 20 April and it was the first time I'd seen the band play since my departure...

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Posted by Barry at 11:33 EM | Permalink

Click for larger cover image

Only € 9.99 + P&P!
By Dave Walsh, Barry Kavanagh, Damien DeBarra, Sue Walsh and others
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Nonsuch Publishing (May 2008)
Launch Party June 12th, Dice Bar, 78 Queen Street, Dublin @1800 hrs (that's 6pm you landlubbers)

Published May 12 2008 - Preorder now!

Eleven years, three convictions, two deportations, ten thousand pints, six barring orders and a legion of leather-clad groupies later, Dave Walsh, Barry Kavanagh and Damien DeBarra (the cheap tarts that brought you Blather.net) bring you their latest labour of love: A Load of Blather: Unreal Reports from Ireland and Beyond, the first book that anyone has been nuts enough to let them publish. Shamelessly re-working articles which have been online for years anyway, this magnificent tome is a veritable smorgasboard of smut; bursting out of its trousers with a great heaving cavalcade of paranormal events, superstitions, mysterious happenings, conspiracy theories, hordes of rampaging kangaroos in the Dublin hills, and the previously untold story of General Michael Collins' forays into outer space. There's even a bit about talking cows in there. If the lawyers haven't cut it out. There's guest articles too, from the likes of Sue Walsh, Oliver Bayliss and Dr. Stewart Roberts.

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Posted by Dave at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Scribbling furiously with the bloodied broken stump of a leprechaun's finger, under an apocalyptic cloud of molten ash and flames; blather.nets 'end of days' emissary, Ender Wiggan, concludes the I, Patrick saga, concerning the real life and times of the blow in from Britain.

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Posted by ender at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A sad London scene: an alcoholic takes his only companion, a Christmas Tree he calls "Rover", out for a walk.

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Posted by Barry at 6:08 EM | Permalink

No doubt you remember where you were when you heard about the shocking and horrible events of February 28. Feared academic, writer, rambler and digressionator, Noam Chomsky, was killed by a lone flying saucer in Antarctica, alongside his many lawyers.

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Posted by Barry at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

'No Thoroughfare on The Tram Road: History of Clontarf and its Environs' by historian Val Lynch is a charming local history book which many northside Dubliners may have seen knocking around in newsagents and shops. Being from the area myself, I have an obvious interest. Whilst I am all for local history (something which we here on blather.net have always been fans of) one does have to worry when such books simply repeat stories about local legends and folklore. In the book I've just mentioned, there is an excellent example: the story of the 'Mysterious Underground Tunnels Under Clontarf'.

The fact is, this entire story is complete nonsense. How do I know? Because I was part of the group that made the whole thing up.

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Posted by Damien at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This time two months ago, I was in Tasmania - and I saw my first Tasmanian Devils up close. While generally deeply interested (perhaps obsessed) by wildlife, encountering Tassie devils was high on my list - and these photographs are the fruits of my labours. Now, a Tasmanian devil superhero named Cedric has made news this week, after scientists found that his genes may save the species from extinction.

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Posted by Dave at 2:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Who could have known that the story of Ireland's Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's solicitors Frank Ward & Co. threatening politics.ie into silence would take this truly shocking twist? Frank Ward, the Senior Managing Partner (capital S, capital M, capital P) and Founder (capital F) of Frank Ward & Company, Solicitors (capital F, capital W, capital C, capital S) has been found dead following a horrific incident on his Kilkenny ostrich farm!

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Posted by Barry at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)