Speis

A journalist is making a call to a contact:

"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? ... Yes, we were speaking earlier in the week...Yeah, about the article ... Sorry, it's a bad line ... Are those your children screaming in the background?"

Oh boy, I really hope they weren't someone else's kids.

I'm having a chicken and egg moment. It's very upsetting. I seem to be hearing great gluts of brilliant music on the radio. There are all these songs out there right now that I'm loving. There's one that Zane Lowe plays on his tv spots called 'Crazy' by Gnarles Barclay and it's got this infectious '"i remember when/ I remember/I remember/ when I lost my mind" thing that makes my head somersault. But it's the tip of the iceberg. New stuff from Snow Patrol and Pearl Jam. The Editors doing a cover of Gorillaz 'Feel Good Inc.' The Flaming Lips with their feelgood song 'Yeah Yeah Yeah'. And the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have their new song called 'Gold Lion' which is that sleazy rock that they do so well. Jack White is sneaking songs out with a band called The Raconteurs. (look at the picture in the band bio, there he is in the back, hiding) Local stuff too. Rodriogo Y Gabriela release an album and it jumps to the top of the Irish album charts. That's all instrumental no vocals Mexican guitar magic and everyone here is humming it. Bell X1 have a song called 'Flame' that's all about marshmallows and has this nifty bit at the end where the music fades out and everyone is singing like they're hanging out around a campfire. The Arctic Monkeys are being hyped to smithereens but 'When the sun goes down' is a fine piece of addictive pop rock. And watching Ray Darcy dancing in his (tiny) back yard has turned me back on to Ok Go.

It's all good and I don't mind if you just skipped that whole paragraph of enthusiasm. That's how damn nifty I feel everytime I switch on the radio. But here's my problem. I've recently started consciously seeking out music on radio. I listen to Zane Lowe when I'm working in college and Ray Darcy and Ian Dempsey play good music in the mornings on Today FM. Late night on 2FM has always been strong, especially Cormac Battle on a Sunday night. Rick O'Shea introduced my ears to lemon demon's 'Ultimate Showdown', which is basically nirvana for any pop culture nerd out there.

So my question is. Have I just happened to tune in at a time when musicians around the world are all hitting the bullseye? Or is it always this good if you take the time to seek it out?

Today, March 8th is International Women's Day, a festival that has been around for over 80 days and its origins lie in the socialist and suffrage movements.

I don't like it.

Don't get me wrong, I think there should be a day dedicated to discussions of equality and fairness for women, I just have a problem with the air of indignant outrage that some of the discussions I've heard today. All day on the radio, back and forth like a tennis ball, men have been asking "When's National Men Day?" and women have been replying "Every day is national men's day".

That's not right.

If you want to talk about equality, then you should apply it to everyone. Equally. Then maybe we could keep moving the discussion forward instead of just flipping it around.

However on the upside I found pictures of the First Albanian Annual National Men's Day 2002. What would men do to celebrate their manliness? Hold meetings, enjoy a good sit and have beards. Delightful.