"doin it to yuh in da eaya"

Er, happy 40th birthday to me, can't believe I've done this 40 times (blog that is).

Anyway, Joya's off at her Boutique BaROQUE extravaganza at the Crane Lane; niwel, andremud, mel and the gang will be tuning into gamelan in a half hour at UCC; and Christian and who knows how many young singer songwriters are at the KC sessions in the new Gateway bar in Barrack St.

And I never got to tell ye about any of it.

Me I'll miss it all too, I'm home with the bass beside me waiting for one of my very last practise opportunities before the concert this sunday afternoon. We'll rehearse as an orchestra on saturday first, but there's so much I can't reliably play at speed it's a bit nervewracking.

I nearly skipped off to all them lovely gigs instead but funny, when I got home I listened to a new Captain Hotknives tune Safety is Important off the cd he gave us on saturday and had a big belly laugh, then stopped that (don't want to eat the whole box of squidgy black chocolates in one go eh) threw on P Funk's Mothership and got funked up, boppin away in the sitting room and singin me head off. All energised I said I write a blog so ye know what's coming up and then get down to the nitty gritty with Elgar. I'll do what I can, eh.


Saturday 28th

1pm Stack Theatre, Cork School of Music Don't miss seeing my brilliant double bass teacher and mate Dave Whitla play his first solo recital since I've known him. A really interesting choice of music and I'm excited about the Vasks piece cause I was fundamentally changed in a tiny but lovely way by that concerto he did with the Irish Chamber Orchestra I think it was called Distant Light?) and plus Vasks's a bass player itself and I've had some preview snippets during my lessons...


8pm Blackrock Castle Don't be late or you'll miss EARTH HOUR at 8.30 when the lights in the whole area go out and the big-news Italics play a sweet acoustic reggae set by lamplight. We'll be looking at stars through telescopes if HAARP will just blast a hole in the clouds. When the power kicks in again VJ Present will inspire while Green Monitor dub things up. Last up Brian Deady will funk yis all up with some soul action. Cork Food Web are co-presenting, last night's large gathering in the Franciscan Well would suggest there'll be a big turnout. And it's only a fiver in!!

Sunday 29th
3pm City Hall The CSO Symphony Orchestra perform their big concert of the year, my first full length one with them. Brian O'Kane will play a cello concerto type yoke by Taverner, a pretty amazing yoke actually when the orchestra is divided into a massive number of layers, really textural and also Elgar's expansive, romantic and great fun Enigma Variations. Meet you for a pint in Charlie's after you can be sure!!


There's loads more but sorry I just haven't time :-)

happy listening

yip yip yip

Ok I am still mid-house move so I didn't put this together like I'd planned but there's hot stuff on so here's some leads the first of which I'll flag as urgent.

Friday 6th March
8pm Cork School of Music Some young buck by the name of Pierre O'Reilly's after composing a work called Ubu's Story, for Choir and orchestra and our great fiend Niwel is narrating. I will definitely be there.

Fi 6th - Sun 8th March
Make a promise to yourself and me to avail of some of the total once-off performances in this year's Cork Singer's Festival happening all this weekend. You'll find full details on my work events page (loads waiting to be uploaded for the Lifelong Learning Fest happening at the end of the month by the way, I'll get to it soon). I'll be honest and say while I recognise alot of the names though all the concerts but I'm not qualified to tip. Check out this link and see what bites you http://www.civictrusthouse.ie/events.htm

Weds 11th March
8.30-2am Crane Lane Joya's at it again with a heady night of gyptian buzz - Balkan Bohemia. Don some scarves and skirts, hitch up your boots and catch a caravan into town, cross her hands with brass and a night of jumped up jarring eastern folk from Lazik, dance tips, art and heaps of entertainment await.

Thurs 12th March
8pm Cork School of Music Jerry Creedon's guitar concert with Cork Orchestral Society last year was superstar John Williams. This year it's Xue Fei Yang. http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=L_WF2eSMwc8&feature=related

apart from that ye'll have to fend for yerselves I have guests here ;-)