I'm not broody, but...

I loved how small her hands were next to mine. Her tiny fingers, tinier fingernails.

I loved the tiny details of her skin. Soft and malleable, waiting for her to grow into it.

I loved how small her head was, the tiny features of her nose.

I loved watching her sleep, the rise and fall of this tiny body, sleeping, dreaming, oblivious to the room, the world, nestled in my arms, comfortable.

I loved that I wasn't afraid to hold her.

She was the youngest baby I have ever met, born a mere eight days earlier, all six pounds, two ounces of her. As the others in the room chatted to her parents, I stared at the beautiful infant in my arms, the others perhaps not knowing that this was one of the only times I've ever held such a young human.

I thought of all the things that could have happened and thankfully didn't before she was both and about all the good things that may happen to her in her life and hopefully will.

She woke, her tiny arms and legs moving as she did so, her world expanding into sounds, shaped and colours. Her tiny eyes opened, her mouth smiled and she drifted back off for another few minutes. I was fascinated. New life fascinates me.

I held her in my arms, tenderly. Not broodily, but with more care, attention and love than I've felt in a long long time.

Some details about the 2009 Meteor Awards

Have you voted yet? Have you?

I'm nomming (in order of category)

• best national dj - Rick
  
  
• best regional dj - Dublin's 98's Dermot, Dave and Siobhan
  
  
• best Irish band - FLApes
  
  
• best Irish male - Duke Special
  
  
• best Irish female - Camille O Sullivan (tho 'twas a close one with Lisa Hannigan)
  
  
• best Irish album - Messiah J & The Expert (again, narrowly beating Sea Sew)

and I can't judge best live performance because I wasn't at any of them and sure best pop will go to The Script. The Coronas, pop, really?

In further news, I've just received (and edited for you) a letter from the PR company to tell me:

The 2009 Meteor Ireland Music Awards will take place at the Simmonscourt Pavillion in the RDS on St. Patrick’s Day 2009. The awards will be broadcast on Wednesday March 18th on RTE2.

The star-studded music spectacular,will be hosted by Amanda Byram.

The glamour event of the year will see the cream of the crop turn out in force. The breathtaking line up for the night will see James Morrison, Duke Special, Elbow, Boyzone, The Blizzards, Stereophonics, Imelda May, and Enrique Iglesias take to the limelight and entertain like never before.

This year will also see a long awaited special collaboration from Sharon Shannon and Mundy. Sharon Shannon will also be presented with The Life Time Achievement Award for her contribution to Irish music.

Fr. Shay Cullen from the Preda foundation will be presented with the 2009 Humanitarian Award for his phenomenal work in the Philippines. The award will be accompanied by a €100,000 donation to aid the continuation of his life changing work.

I see also that Niall Stokes from Hot Press is due to get the Industry award.

Should be a good night. I was there last year. Mr Tayto was the biggest celebrity I met... until I met Rick O Shea of course. Jesus, a year already...



G'wan and vote, why don't ya?

Win an online campaign worth €25K with Pigsback.com

That Curly is a clever piggy. Not only is he now Guaranteed Irish, he's also offering one Irish brand a €25K campaign, throwing the full reach and expertise of Pigsback.com behind it. And here's me pimping it.

In-joke aside, this is a big chance for charities, events, start-ups to get their brand out there for free with the resources of a marketing company operating in the Irish market since 2000.

Basically Pigsback is a loyalty site with offers and competitions for the people who sign up to the site who are rewarded for giving details and opting to get targeted newsletters and surveys based on their location interests. It means they have unparalleled "targeting based on who-you-are" capability.

Given the fact they boast an active Irish member base of almost 300,000 with a comprehensive email and statistics package coupled with the expertise of working with most of the country's top brands, the potential of a well thought out integrated campaign seems a no-brainer to anyone with limited or no funding. Just imagine your site or logo promoted like the below:



Given the volume of emails that Pigsback send any brand getting (pardon the pun) onto the site is sure to get attention and awareness, if not interaction. It is, as I said, a great opportunity for some company to get targeted emails sent on their behalf by a company that knows what it's doing. I can certainly think of a few things I'd be planning.

One of the things Pigsback has always operated on - in its Empathy Marketing principles - is trust and this is is possibly the most enticing part of the offer. It would be fair to say that Pigsback members trust Curly and all he delivers. This seems as important now as when I worked there

The terms and conditions include an entry of not more than 250 words, you must be an Irish manufactured brand or supplied service to be eligible and you will not have run a campaign on Pigsback.com before. You should check this out before March 31, 2009.

Good luck - hope you do well!

Five reasons I volunteer with St Patrick's Festival - a gallery

This may not be 100% accurate but I'm fairly sure that the 2009 St Patrick's Festival will be the seventh time I've volunteered with it. From my first year of just walking in the Parade way back in 2000 to this week, it's something I look forward to every year and it's just been a case of me living in London that I missed one year and in hospital the other.

So, why do it? Why not spend the time in the pub, out with friends or away out of Dublin altogether for an event that draws thousands of people year on year? Well...

5. Seeing it up close



The incredible amount of work and detail that goes into each event at the festival is quite staggering and by volunteering, you're not only getting to help out on that but to see things up close.



Whether it's the parade set-up, the effort people go to dress up and enjoy the Treasure Hunt or just the sheer delight people have in creating something colourful to amuse and entertain, the chance to see all this up close, not behind barriers or in the midst of crowds is important and helps set the full picture.



It's how too drawings like the below turn into the displays underneath







4. The events themselves

I'll stick this into another post but it's been great to see some of the events that have happened over the last few years. There was the year we were in the middle of the Liffey setting up for Skyfest and the giant inflatable Polish puppets. There was the rain from last year's event down at the Docklands. There was the speed dating as Gaeilge.

There was also the time the Andalucian shepherds I was looking after lassoed Mary McAleese in the Grandstand while her Aide de Camp looked daggers at me. Very good memories. Very funny.



My personal favourite? The Denny Treasure Hunt that people dress up to participate in. Every year people come back saying how much fun it was and how they've learned something new about Dublin. Great event altogther.

3. The photos

Head on over to Pix.ie to see the thousands of photos about the Festival, the parade and all the people involved. If it's true that part of the soul is taken away by a photograph, mine has evaporated after last year's festivities. As much as I like seeing them, I am particularly fond of some of the photos I managed to grab last year myself.











2. The people

I almost put this first but really it and no. 1 are as important to me. I'm always so entertained by the thousands of people who voluntarily come to participate, to give their time, creativity and enthusiasm to something that entertains so many others. The amount of work that is going on in school halls, warehouses and garden sheds all over the country shouldn't be under-estimated. Why do they do it? For the love of it!

























1. The friends I make

I've made a wide group of friends through volunteering at different events. We stay in touch, see each other at different festivals, meet up for pints and look forward to seeing each other again. From all different countries and places, we share a lot of the work, the laughter and the shared experience of working for Ireland's premier festival.

Some of course are only for the duration of the festival and then fade away despite best intentions and some are there to stay. Each encounter is special in its way and makes the memories all the better.







You can find out more information about volunteering with St Patrick's Festival here. The lovely Kathy would be more than happy to help you with any queries you may have. See you there!

Tim Burton's Vincent, his first stop motion film, made in 1982

I love Vincent Price's voice in this.

Vincent Malloy is seven years old
He’s always polite and he does what he’s told
For a boy his age, he’s considerate and nice
But he wants to be just like Vincent Price.

He doesn’t mind living with his sister, dog and cats
Though he’d rather share a home with spiders and bats.

There he could reflect on the horrors he’s invented
And wander dark hallways, alone and tormented.

Vincent is nice when his aunt comes to see him
But imagines dipping her in wax for his wax museum

He likes to experiment on his dog Abercrombie
In the hopes of creating a horrible zombie,
So he and his horrible zombie dog
Could go searching for victims in the London fog,

His thoughts, though, aren’t only of ghoulish crimes
He likes to paint and read to pass some of the times.
While other kids read books like Go, Jane, Go!
Vincent’s favourite author is Edgar Allen Poe

One night, while reading a gruesome tale
He read a passage that made him turn pale
Such horrible news he could not survive
For his beautiful wife had been buried alive!

He dug out her grave to make sure she was dead
Unaware that her grave was his mother’s flower bed
His mother sent Vincent off to his room
He knew he’d been banished to the tower of doom
Where he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life
Alone with the portrait of his beautiful wife

While alone and insane encased in his tomb
Vincent’s mother burst suddenly into the room
She said: “If you want to, you can go out and play
It’s sunny outside, and a beautiful day”

Vincent tried to talk, but he just couldn’t speak
The years of isolation had made him quite weak
So he took out some paper and scrawled with a pen:
"I am possessed by this house, and can never leave it again"

His mother said: "You’re not possessed, and you’re not almost dead
These games that you play are all in your head
You’re not Vincent Price, you’re Vincent Malloy
You’re not tormented or insane, you’re just a young boy.
You’re seven years old and you are my son
I want you to get outside and have some real fun."

Her anger now spent, she walked out through the hall
And while Vincent backed slowly against the wall
The room started to swell, to shiver and creak
His horrid insanity had reached its peak

He saw Abercrombie, his zombie slave
And heard his wife call from beyond the grave
She spoke from her coffin and made ghoulish demands
While, through cracking walls, reached skeleton hands

Every horror in his life that had crept through his dreams
Swept his mad laughter to terrified screams!
To escape the madness, he reached for the door
But fell limp and lifeless down on the floor

His voice was soft and very slow
As he quoted The Raven from Edgar Allen Poe:

“and my soul from out that shadow
that lies floating on the floor
shall be lifted?
Nevermore…”

National Lottie wins, Off Her Rocker ends and the whole of the moon

It's one of those days I guess. Shortly after I read that the wonderfully talented Lottie has won February's Blog Post of the Month for her post on Misadventures in Life and Fashion, I go to read that my inspirational friend Nay is finishing the Off Her Rocker Blog over at Hot Press and heading off for new adventures and, hopefully, to pastures green.

I first met Nay in an official capacity where she, as Hot Press photographer, was working at the Bright New Sounds gig - wow, nearly a year ago! Impressed by her ownership of the event and what she needed to get done and how (basically just point me in the direction and let me get on with it) she stuck in my head as someone I'd like to know.

I started reading the Off Her Rocker blog. I know virtually nothing about Irish music past what's already on my iPod so the amount of people, gigs, albums and art that I found out there was such a revelation. Every post was well thought out, there was no just "throwing it up there" and she had such a genuine interest and passion for the music, it practically shone from it. It became a regular destination.

I was lucky enough to meet her then later in the year and we've since become good friends. I can understand completely how - and why - she feels she has to stop - pressure, time (especially raising two small children), criticism, lack of support, lack of resource - all things that have such a draining effect. While I'm sorry to see her go because of the big gap she will leave, I'm glad she's leaving to try something new, exciting and hopefully more fulfilling.

I trust too that the big space she leaves will help people - and indeed Hot Press themselves - see what a need there is for people to support the Irish music industry both online and offline - it's why events like the Road Records benefit is happening - and why other music bloggers who give people coverage/priase/feedback/a break - Nialler9, Guess List, KilkennyMusic.com, Drop-d, State.ie, Swear I'm not Paul, MP3 Hugger, Ragged Words, Nick Thinks, On the Record and Analogue to name but a few that I have found through my wanders from Off Her Rocker and more - are so important to keeping us up to date with what's going on.

From the amount of musicians I have spoken to, every review, every interview, ever photo and every piece of promotion all helps and is appreciated. Those who know how can really help those who don't, but want to learn. Nay was someone who lived and breathed that. She still is.

It's been interesting to see the reaction to some blogs ending. I'll miss blogs like Sinéad's, Una's and The Chancer but look forward to finding new ones too and catching up with the people that I don't get to read often enough. Blogging is alive and well and I can only thank all those who have contributed to my first, quite eventful year at it, but who, for their own great reasons, have decided enough is enough. It must be a hard thing to do. Fair play to yis.

As for the rest of us, sure all we can do is keep on truckin. Nay, this one is for you - shot at the Tuesday's Child gig in Vicar Street on February 6. You have no idea how difficult it was for me not to sing along and ruin the video ;-)

€9.4 million and 2,000 bees - sure that's nonsense!

I got sent this by Kerry from Red Rage Films - the people behind the Meteor ads I posted yesterday. Excellent stuff altogether for the lads over at No Nonsense Car Insurance.

Stay with it to the end, trust me.



You can see the latest No Nonsense TV ads over on their blog. "Oh the evil gypsy curse, gammy leg and the twisty eyes and she stares at you through the..."

Normal, non commercial posting may resume shortly. Busy in work, don't ya know!

New Meteor Mobile Broadband To Go ads starring Chris O' Dowd

I was at the launch of the new Meteor Mobile Broadband To Go service this afternoon. I've been on the trial myself for the last four months but was there today following a tweet from Damien and an email from their PR company inviting me along.

I'll post more about the service later but for now, the new Meteor ads starring The IT Crowd star Chris O' Dowd.