Talent versus skill

Talent only counts at the very bottom and the very top. In a group of beginners naturally talented people will stand out, the same in a group where everyone has honed their skills to the extent they’re as good as they’ll ever get.

In between it’s skill (and therefore practice) that counts, not talent – and it’s “in-between” where 99% of the world’s work is done.

Old friends

Twice over the last couple of months I met some old friends who I hadn’t seen in years. You kinda forget people a bit if you haven’t seen them in a long time, and when you see them again being reminded of why you used to like them so much is a delight. It’s also a bit of a downer when you then consider how rarely you see people you’re genuinely fond of (apart from family, obviously, and your band if you’re lucky) these days, compared to when you were younger

Top 3 advantages of hating your job

1. You’re used to operating outside your comfort zone
2. Your self-esteem and identity aren’t tied up with what you get paid to do, so unemployment isn’t soul-destroying
3. You get more out of your holidays

Paying non-peanuts doesn’t get you non-monkeys

Jim McDaid and the shit he’s talking on the radio right now proves it

A gig! An actual gig!

We haven’t played in public since we supported O’Death in Whelan’s about 18 months ago. Blame our kids. The dry spell ends on April 23rd in The Lower Deck – us and Large Mound and Yeh Deadlies and Captain A. We even have some new songs

3 billion people could die …

… and the population of the world would still be at the level it was when I was born. That’s nearly a doubling in the number of humans since I was little.

Fuuuuck

Last night’s journey through dreamland, in three acts

Act 1: sadness

I was at a party or wedding with Niamh. Lots of people I like but hadn’t seen in ages were there, but I wasn’t really enjoying it because I was in some kinda of downer bubble

Act 2: hope

Then we heard amazing music and went to investigate where it was coming from. We found a big bunch of young men, guests from the wedding, high up in the building like a lecture theatre or the choir gallery of a church, and they were singing. I think the words had something to do with pirates.

Act 3: terror

Then we went down to the basement and it was like a warehouse. There was a container of stuff something like plasticine that seemed somehow alive – it was moving and forming hand shapes. Someone put an handful of it on a metal plate on the back of an inactive robot, which activated and grew enormous and proceeded to kill/enslave everyone in sight. Eventually we escaped, but it was still on the rampage back in the warehouse, and would never, ever stop.

Lent

It occurred to me this morning that the Lenten fast coincides with that time in northern Europe when last year’s food stores are almost used up and none of this year’s crops are ready to harvest. What an amazing coincidence!

New entry in my “forbidden words in songs” list

“Society”

So now the list reads:

1. Insane
2. Junkie
3. Society

Any of these words in a song’s lyrics automatically makes the song shit, ok? There are exceptions, of course (“Insaaane in the braaaain”), but not that many.

Oh, and Lily Allen – you really need to grow up a bit before you understand what “society” says (as opposed to what you and your hip young buddies think) about a 29 year-old’s life.

Reading the Sunday papers …

… when you’re supposed to be doing something else is enjoyable. Wasting your actual leisure time reading such a load of bollocks is just depressing.