NiallOK’s Blog

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I’ve been listening to classic episodes of the ground-breaking BBC comedy radio show from the 50’s and 60’s, The Goon Show - and, while I’m not old enough to have heard it the first time around, I remembered listening to it back in the early 90’s when it was played again on RTÉ Radio… and I was a huge fan of it (along with Scrap Saturday).

A lot of people don’t seem to realise the absolute importance of a show like this - the Goons (Spike Milligan - the man who looks a lot like my uncle, and who threw himself so much into creating and writing the show, he had a nervous breakdown, Peter Sellers - the man for whom the words ‘versatile comedy genius’ were first strung together, and the literally irrepressible shouty little man, Harry Secombe) having been one of the first and greatest radio comedies of all time (still!) and one of the biggest influences on more modern comedians such as the Monty Python crew, Eddie Izzard and Billy Connolly.

More about the Goons can be read here. Here’s how they ended it… The Last Goon show of all (in a trilogy of five wonderful YouTubey parts), recorded as part of the BBC’s 50th anniversary celebrations:

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m impressed with a few people actually…

I was impressed with the people that turned up at football tonight in our local sports centre - enough, finally, that we didn’t have to call it a day and not play any more. I was impressed with how well they played - and somewhat impressed with myself that I made it through the night, could still hack it with the youngsters and that I actually managed to score a few goals! Good work football playing fellahs!

I was impressed with RTÉ’s new 4-part documentary, Bertie, (or what little I saw of it, at least) which documents the life and times of our last Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. It was made by the same (also impressive) team (Miriam O’Callaghan’s company) who made “Haughey” - about our most infamous Taoiseach. Part two goes out next Monday night. Good work, telly production fellahs!

I was even impressed to learn that there’s an Irish version of Wikipedia… although I guess I should have realised that ages ago… Good work, language loving online encyclopedia localisation fellahs!

I’m somewhat impressed by Barack Obama (as, it seems, are both Damien and Fergal) and would like - and expect - to see him become President Elect of the United States within the next 36 hours. Good work, America’s first black President fellah!

Incidentally, I’m also impressed with Damien himself, in all honesty - with the incredible work he did as Ireland Offline chairman - as well as his creation of both the Irish Blog Awards and the Irish Web Awards. Good work, hard-working comms consultant fellah!

Speaking of awards - well done to Michele Neylon, who won two of the gongs at the NetVisionary awards recently - those being the awards for business blogging and Internet marketing. Good work, ISP running net visionary fellah!

I’m impressed by a few radio DJ’s too… particularly with Today FM’s Ray Foley and his sensible stance on the Brand/Ross controversy. Honestly - it’s a ridiculous situation that’s been blown out of proportion by bandwagon jumping complainers who, for the most part, probably never even listened to Russell Brand - or possibly even to the excellent BBC Radio 2. Seriously - read Ray’s blog post on the issue - it’s clever and well written, and while the story is still unfolding and we have yet to see the results of the BBC’s investigation into the incident, I find myself agreeing strongly with him… so good work, just-a-bit-of-fun-for-your-lunchtime fellah!

At the same time, while he doesn’t want to comment on the controversy itself, Rick O’Shea brings up another point that’s well worth considering… where do we draw the line? How far is too far in comedy? What rules should there be? How should the BBC react? … and so on… Good work, hairy-whiskey-drinking-good-point-making-DJ-slash-blogger fellah!

Finally, more DJ’s I’m impressed with are these two lads from CKY Radio, Montreal - who prank called Sarah Palin in a way that helped showed off her… erm… “qualities” even further. (Good work, prank-calling Canuck fellahs!) As if everything that Saturday Night Live has done to her (not to mention her own performances) hasn’t walloped her credibility hard enough, here she displays her incredible (and I mean “in-credible” in the literal sense) intellect when she believes she’s talking to President Sarkozy of France.

Canada seems cool…

(Yeah, this has just been a post of links… sorry.)

Not long after the character he played was brutally killed off, while his (*ahem*… so-called) “religion” was belittled in a pivotal episode of “South Park“, Isaac Hayes, the voice of “Chef” and singer of the theme tune to Shaft, has died in Memphis at the age of 65.

I just noticed that this image appears on his official web site:

It’s a photo of Bernie Mac (who died on Saturday), Isaac himself (who died just about 8 hours ago) and Samuel L. Jackson (who is very much alive, as far as I know). It links to this page which reports that Hayes was due to play himself in an upcoming movie along with the other two.

This photo would be extra freaky, and the production itself clearly cursed beyond belief if Samuel L. Jackson were to die within the next day or so. Let’s hope, of course, that this doesn’t happen as surely there’s bound to be loads more motherf*cking deadly creatures for him to get off some motherf*cking modes of transport…

R.I.P. Isaac. Scientology and all that bollocks aside, you were still a soul legend.

This is Australian singer, Gabriella Cilmi. Not a bad looking young woman, I think you’ll agree. I believe her second name is pronounced “Kill Me” - which seems kind-of appropriate as I can’t get her song “Sweet About Me” out of my head, and it tends to drive me a bit nutty.

Oh, and what about that band all the radio stations seem to be banking on right now, - the Ting Tings? They get a lot of airplay and are seen as ‘quirky’ and ‘eclectic’ and perhaps even ‘the new CSS‘! (I’ve read that the new CSS album, “Donkey” isn’t all that great in fairness). They create some supremely head-wrecking tracks too (ever get “That’s not my Name”, or it’s B-Side “Great DJ” - the song used on the RTÉ 2fm TV ads - stuck in your head?).

Their new single “Shut up and Let Me Go” sort of epitomises their style - a repetitive pouty, shouty, grouchy female lead “telling it like it is” over an electro-rock/pop backing with a cheeky feel to it… like a modern day Transvision Vamp (well… ALMOST), except again, it has that insidious beat and infectious lyrics that grab hold of your mind and set up residence there, like a fungus on a tree, getting - as I say - stuck in your head. I’m not saying it’s BAD, per se- it’s fairly simple music, stripped back to it’s basics in some ways, … but it CAN be head-wrecking, and it’s difficult to explain why.

Actually, is it a sign of a good song when it’s stuck in your head, or just a sign of a “so bad it’s good” song, cleverly constructed in such a way that you can’t help but hum it and keep having it repeat on you like a bad cup of tea? I’m tending to lean towards the second definition/explanation to be honest.

These are the thoughts that occupy my mind when I wake up too early… must stop doing that.