Mark Penn remind you of anyone? Plus, a break...

Mark Penn is Clinton's adviser who's had to step down. He runs a consultancy firm for both politicans and companies. I haven't read Microtrends (Penn's book), but do these terms (ones he uses) sound familiar to any Irish people?

"Shy Millionaires, Mildly Disordered, and Uptown Tattooed"

And, in other news, as I'm sure you've seen over the last while, this hasn't been updated. This is because my organisational skills are being tested to the max at the moment. I will be back in full flow around mid June. There might be an occasional update, you never know...

Adios for now!

Rather bizarrely...

There's a piece in the NY Post, written by a Fox correspondent, complaining about CNN's anti-Obama coverage...

And speaking of RTE...

I think we may have a contender to rival The Roaring Twenties for sheer awfulness. I can't even bring myself to watch one episode...

Headline of the day

It surely has to go to RTE.IE...

...or maybe that's just my inner ten year old coming out to play?!

The Ticket and Radiohead

The Ticket today managed to get a whole two page spread out of a fabricated quote concerning Radiohead. Here's the offending aricle*, and here's the background.

Could we see an Oxford boycotting of The Sun to run alongside the Scouse one?!

*Note - the reference to the quote appears to have been taken out for the online edition, which shows that those over at The Ticket Towers online section are earning their money!

Laughing Len

Do YOU have your ticket? I do...

Rico's Corner

One of the major disappointments of not having Damien Richardson as Shamrock Rovers manager any more is not getting to read his programme notes (a particular favourite of mine was the "Long Day's Journey Into Night" piece about coming back down from Monaghan after a defeat). However, there is cause for rejoicing as RTE have given him is own online column. I'll be throwing it up here every week. It's worth a read, the man's a legend.

Rovers to win tonight against Cork!

From today until the 16th - Winter Soldier

There's something remarkable happening in Washington for the next couple of days. It is Iraqi veterans speaking about their experiences in a war situation, openly, including speaking about atrocities commited against the Iraqi public. It is being run by IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against War).It can be viewed on the web, and seeing as it doesn't seem to be getting much coverage over here, I thought i'd highlight it. Please watch it, it shows what ordinary people are reduced to in horrendous circumstances.

The first Winter Soldier event took place after the Vietnam War, and was moderated by John Kerry. They got the name from the Thomas Paine article written in the winter of 1776, during the American War of Independence. The first line reads:

"These are times that try mens souls."

Mad Men

I wanted to reserve judgement on it, and give a more measured opinion, than one just based on a single (the first) episode. I was going to wait till at least five episodes, but after the second on Tuesday (it's on on a Sunday on BBC 4, and Tuesday's on BBC 2), I can't hold my silence any more. Go, clear your telly viewing schedule on one of the days, and watch it. The writer/creator brought it David Chase (The Soprano's) a number of years ago, he liked it so much he told him that he wanted him to work on his own programme. It's only getting broadcast now. It's dark, funny, and works on a number of different levels; race, feminism, masculinity and other issues in the place of work and 1960s America. What more than that do you need? Oh, how about every single male in it constantly smoking? The programme is single handedly making smoking cool again (think about how so few programmes/films made over the last number of years feature people smoking). Here's a taster:

Fergus Finlay and social inequality

The former Labour advisor (for advisor read 'spinmeister') Fergus Finlay is now the head of Barnardos, he also has a weekly column in the Irish Examiner, in which he pontificates on various topics, while generally managing to avoid the usual cliches that Irish columnists fall into. Here's the one he had last Tuesday. Election promises, who needs em, eh?!

(As an aside, there's truly nothing better than spendin your day off listening to the radio and drinking tea while it's raining outside...)