“There is nothing wrong with your television.

Please stand-by…

- Modified opening speech from ‘The New Outer Limits’

Considering how much I hate celebrity, it really is odd to find myself writing this. I’m aware that just by writing this, I’m paying into something horrible that is working akin to a nation wide ‘Wicker Man’, painfully aware. Yet I find myself forced, if only because, out of sheer curiosity, I clicked the comments on an article the Daily Mail website about Amy Winehouse.

Apparently my nose has gone rogue.

Apparently it always has been doing a little bit of freelancing on the side.

Today, I’m going to destroy the Internet.

Today.

That’s all the cursor was flashing beside when I woke up.

Well the first thing I want to say is; Democracy my ass.

My Good Doctor – the naughtiest Panda,

Written in parts when and where I could – bare with the scrawl.

So aye…

Onward – good Christian soldier chainsaw.

So, I’m in Krakow.

Every couple of months.

Now and then.

On whim – or when the addiction scratches through – from my brain to my belly.

I kill someone.

On the 6th of February I arrived late to the Irish Writers Centre in the fear that I’d missed the fortune cookies. The event in question was a night of Chinese and Irish literature and traditional music from both countries. Wandering through the crowd with the only recognizable face being that of Mr. Hayden (one of the organizers), I began to pass an increasing amount of empty food plates and glasses. Worried I’d arrived too late and would now be forced to wait in a graveyard of free food and drink, my heart began to sink. That was, until a guest moved to the table and took a previously thought empty bottle and poured himself a glass.

The Chinese New Year celebrations in Dublin began on Friday the 1st of February in the Irish Film Institute with a small ceremony and a screening of Jia Zhang Ke’s ‘Still Life’ (Sanxia Haoren).

Before writing about the Chinese New Year celebrations in Ireland and cultural dialogue, I need to get a couple of things straight. I’m Irish; I live in Dublin and while many of the messages I send from the Big Rock Candy Mountain reference Ireland or have a distinctly Irish hue. Mine is not the only voice here. We have Finns, Swedes, Dutch, Australians and French writing, Canadians, Americans and English editing, and we hope to add to that.

Hey there,
I’m a bigot.

How you doing?

“Dub a dub a dum dum”

So, annual present giving day rolls by again.

Writing about Christmas while in Ireland has the sensation that you’re writing from a fallout bunker several miles below sea level. I’m not Christian; I’m long past the years where I’d sold my soul to Santa for toys. I don’t celebrate it bar to begrudgingly give presents back to the few close family who give me gifts.

Welcome to the Mountain.



Because you would not come to us, we have come to you

Regrets, I’ve had a few.

When writing on subjects like this, there seems to be a tendency to jump back and forth from foot to foot, people wringing their hands as they try and decide how to tackle something of such sensitivity.