Still not dead… just hibernating…
Hello once again…
Obviously, I have NOT been a very good blournaller as of late. My last post was way back at the start of May and now it’s nearly July so I think some kind of update is long overdue. Initially, I was hoping to make some headway on watching the Star Wars saga in chronological order and do some sort of retrospective but I only got as far as watching The Acolyte (which was decent but felt a little half-cooked and unsatisfying, especially in its last episode), Episodes I and II from the trilogy — for what it’s worth, I do find myself watching the Prequels a lot, so make of that what you will — the brilliant 2D Clone Wars series by Genndy Tartakovsky that’s sadly no longer canon, a few episodes from the actual canonical Clone Wars series and the Star Wars: Tales series. Alas, I started procrastinating after the first week and I never got back into it so… eh, maybe next year. In fact, next year might actually be more appropriate given that it’s the 50th anniversary of Star Wars. I’m not gonna promise anything but watch this space just in case.
Plenty of other things happened. Once again, I did the annual Darkness Into Light charity walk, although I don’t really have much new to say about it other than what I said last year:
I love getting involved in events like this, not only because they’re in support of a cause that I feel very strongly about, but also because they invoke such a powerful feeling of community. Any year when I’ve done the Darkness Into Light walk, there’s always been such a great turnout from both the Moortown and Ardboe sides of the local parish, and I love to see that.
I also participated in the March for Lough Neagh demonstration, which, in the moment, was so thrilling and reinvigorating, but now that I’ve had a little bit of distance from the occasion, I’m unsure if it will actually lead to anything truly meaningful. I hope it does, but politicians tend to be very good at deflecting from the issues at hand and not addressing any of them, but that’s a story for another day… or another blournal entry. Wink wink.
Roughly a-week-and-a-half ago, I went to see Metallica with my brother in Dublin. It was a solid show, but with it being the first of two nights, I did get the feeling that they were holding back slightly, as if they were saving a lot of their best stuff for the second night. This was definitely catered more to the fans who bought tickets for both nights, but either way, I had plenty of fun seeing them again. I don’t think it quite matches my experience seeing them at Slane (which I talked about on my YouTube channel way back in the day), but Metallica still knows how to put on a great show with spectacle, stage presence and intensity in equal measures.
I also saw The Cure this past Sunday when they played at Belsonic and holy fuck, that was an amazing gig. This was my first time going to a big outdoor concert and it didn’t disappoint (aside from the price of beer and food, but I digress). The Cure, on paper, are probably the most unlikely band to be headlining stadiums and festivals, but they’ve been doing that for decades now and for damn good reason. They don’t have the pomp or the extra bells and whistles of other stadium acts, but that’s because there’s no need for such splendour when the music is so vibrant, lush, powerful and dreamy and that unique energy translates so wonderfully in a live setting. I love the outlandish theatricality and bombast of Iron Maiden as much as the next guy, but The Cure are so good at quietly grabbing your attention without commanding it. Also, I’m sure everyone and their mum has said it a million times already but Robert Smith still sounds exactly the same as he did back in 1989.
So, that’s all the fun stuff that I’ve been up to over the past two months. Sadly, I haven’t always been on cloud nine as I did experience an unfortunate bereavement in the family at the start of June and I think that’s part of the reason why it’s taking me so long to get back into the swing of things. I don’t really wanna say much else about it as I’m still trying to process those feelings, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Man, it has been a strange fucking year and I haven’t even mentioned any of the fucking batshit insanity going on outside of my own little bubble. I don’t know if I really want to right now. Maybe some other time, but for now, I just wanna try and get some sleep.
