Party time, but which party?

I've noticed that since the Northern Irish MLA's went back to work the media have let the general public rely on their memories as to which political party each MLA is a member of. We used to have the name of the MLA and their party shown, on a caption, on TV every time any of them spoke or were interviewed. Now it's, for example...

Ms Michelle Gildernew MP MLA
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development

Is she in the SDLP or Sinn Fein? Maybe she's in the Alliance party.

What about...

Mr Conor Murphy MP MLA
Minister for Regional Development

Or

Ms Margaret Ritchie MLA
Minister for Social Development

Even the Northern Ireland Assembly website isn't helping. They've listed

Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure

Mr Edwin Poots MLA
Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Interpoint Centre
3^rd Floor
20-24 York Street
BELFAST
BT15 1AQ

Tel: (028) 9025 8825
Fax: (028) 9025 8906

First impression by reading his job title and his office address would most certainly change if you check out his profile on his party page. Not a mention of any political parties on the Northern Ireland assembly page, why?

I make this appeal to any journalists or broadcasters that might happen to read this. Please tell us what party each MLA represents. If anyone else, from any firm, is interviewed we're told who exactly they are. Why not with MLA's?

Here endeth my rants for the afternoon!

Explore Derry

Sorry, I meant Londonderry.

If you visit DerryVisitor.Com you'd want to visit the walled city too.

Dominating the Northwestern landscapes of Ireland, astride the flowing waters of the Foyle, is a 6th Century city that today resonates to the sounds of the 21st Century.

Among the happiest of those sounds is the multi-lingual chatter of more international visitors than ever - from conference delegates and backpackers to cruise passengers and tourists of all kinds - who are discovering the delights of a compact city which is unlike any other.

Londonderry, also known as Derry, is the sparkle in the friendly eye of one of our most beautiful regions. It's a centre of culture and creativity, and is now as famous for its confident modern outlook as it is for the timeless quality of its craic.

Meander through the bustling streets of the only completely Walled City in the British Isles and listen to the echoes of 1450 years of history. Stroll along its 17th century Walls, and marvel at the the ever-changing skyline of a city which is constant only in in the warmth of its welcome. Here you can expect many a smile of greeting from people who are noted worldwide for their friendly hospitality.

Gateway to Ireland's Northwest, our city is pulsing with life, resonant with centuries of heritage and passion, yet fresh as an Atlantic breeze.

This is a joyful regional centre filled with celebration and inspiration, as manifested in the number and quality of our festivals and special events throughout the year. Energetic, outward looking and high-spirited, this is truly a city for all seasons.

You might change your mind, if you read the news...

A full-scale riots erupted in the centre of Londonderry in the early hours after exiting nightclub revellers clashed with police.
Hundreds of people were involved in the disturbances during which paving slabs were torn from the ground and hurled at police and business premises broken into.
The trouble started at around 2am when police involved in a routine "nightlife patrol" were attacked by a hostile crowd
It was 4am before officers in full riot gear finally restored order, said a Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman.
An off-licence and other retail premises around Shipquay Street and the Guildhall were broken into and stolen bottles of drink used as missiles against the police.
Fencing and paving stones were used as missiles against the police and a BBC marquee damaged and plasma screens inside destroyed.
At least two officers were injured and PSNI Inspector John Burrows said it could have easily been more.
He said: "It was extremely dangerous, the officers had to wear riot helmets, they had to have pads on, they had to use shields and armoured Land Rovers.
"It simply would have been too dangerous for police officers to confront the crowd throwing bricks and paving slabs. It was only that equipment that prevented more officers being injured.
One civilian was injured and taken to hospital for treatment and police said one male was arrested.
As police prepared to examine CCTV footage of the city centre they appealed for any witnesses to contact them.

On the other hand, if that's your thing and you need that extra excitement in your life you know where to go. It's reassuring to know, even after all the hype about peace in Northern Ireland, that some things still remain the same

Reasons to be cheerful.

I was watching the BIG EGO show on UTV yesterday, more commonly known as UTV Life. They'd announced the latest winner of the UTV Autumn Driveaway, then they phoned her. I couldn't believe it when I heard her saying 'My granddaughter works for UTV I'll see her on Monday'. So I had to check out their site, where it stated...

Unfortunately and unknown to us the contestant drawn on Friday to win the car is related to a member of staff here at UTV which makes the draw invalid. We’ll be re-drawing for the prize on Monday on UTV Life in line with our terms and conditions.

As the unfortunate person has already won an 'in-car DVD player' I wonder will she have to give it back.I could read the terms and conditions section but I won't. Let's see on Monday. Maybe not, I'll let someone else tell me as there's only a certain amount of EGO I can stomach.

i hAVE nEVER sEEN a wEBSITE lIKE tHAT bEFORE

Go On . Check Out Accountancy Ireland And See If You Read It As Slowly As I Did.

...del.izio.so

For those who visit this blog from afar, my 10 most recent bookmarks @ del.icio.us

1. Northern Ireland Peace Counts Podcast

   In Northern Ireland, Joe Doherty and Peter McGuire belonged to armed, feuding underground groups. Both spent many years behind bars...

2. Westmonster

   ...aims to bring you what's going on in Westminster, from the insane to the mundane.

3. Patrick Kielty Opens Night in November in October

   Patrick Kielty will make his West End debut in A Night in November, which will return to London next month for a limited season at Trafalgar Studios, where it will have a limited season in the 400-seat Studio 1 from 15 October to 1 December 2007.

4. Political Analyst's Stunning New Novel Explores Conflict in Ireland

   The Ghost Man by Malcolm Haslett is a ripped-from-the-headlines novel of the Irish conflict told by an Irishman who experienced it...

5. Tony Blair’s fixer in chief to reveal Ulster peace manoeuvres

   Great Hatred, Little Room will be published by Bodley Head next April to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday deal.

6. TheStar.com | Ontario Election | The roots of discord over religious schools

   Conservative Leader John Tory's provocative campaign call for public funding for all faith-based schools, or for none, has many Ontarians wondering how Roman Catholics came to have a separate system in the first place...

7. The Vulgarities of web ads - Why Internet Marketing/Advertising still sucks in 2007

   This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while. I’m probably going to be launching a few new blogs...

8. WFU Press wins NEA funds to publish Irish poetry anthology

   Wake Forest University Press has been chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts to publish an anthology of Northern Irish poetry through the endowment’s International Literary Exchange program.

9. Why Brownlee Stayed

   Good news. The New Yorker is going to get a truly world-class poet to be its poetry editor. Paul Muldoon will take over the famous magazine in the world's greatest city...

10. Clones Film Festival

    The 6th Clones Film Festival will be held on the October Bank holiday weekend 24th - 28th October.

    
    

Did you hear the one about?

On a political blog there's a guy earnestly desiring fame and fortune by publishing a book about, yes you've guessed it, blogs. I'm sure it'll sell to most of the bloggers he's listed already on his blog that are mentioned in the book.However,there are three bloggers on the list that are a bit more discerning and I'm sure will see through the real reason for this guy's latest project and won't buy it.
The blog post about the Top Twenty Irish Blogs had a few jokes worth repeating the next time I visit my Granny in County Kerry and so you don't miss out out on the fun my Granny will have I thought I'd share them here.

Comments about the Irish bloggers...

Newmania said...
Did you hear about the Irish abortion clinic ? There was a 12 month waiting list !

Did you hear about the Irish helicopter crash? The pilot got so cold he turned the fan off !

Hear about the Irish cookery programme ? They were going to make ice but lost the recipe

How do you sink an Irish submarine - Knock on the hatch

Why do Irish men wear two condoms - to be sure , to be sure

Why aren`t Junior Orangemen called Satsuma men?

Malcolm Redfellow said...

Oh, and the one about the Titanic? Took ten thousand Irishmen to build it, and one Englishman to sink it.

Tonight In Dublin

Poetry Chicks @ Carnival Bar (upstairs),
Wexford Street, Dublin (no charge)

Three Voices - Too True - One Mission:

to stimulate, inform, educate, challenge and entertain through the creative medium of performance poetry with varying creative style, voice, skill and attitude

Described as the "Rock Follies of Verse" Pamela Brown, Jenni Doherty and Abby Oliveira (based in Derry) present a snapshot of their show AlphabeTitudeZ - an A to Z of what it's like to be a woman in modern times: one of truth, humour and reality with no apology, excuse or apathy

Pamela Brown

Pamela is a published poet and creative writing facilitator who has written comedy sketches for radio. She has had two plays produced; one was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 1993. Collaborating with photographer Jan Voster, her work has also been exhibited in Holland. Pamela helped establish The Poets' Corner, a wall in the Gasyard area of Derry displaying poems from local teenagers and primary school children. She received a commendation in Community Drama at the University of Ulster, Magee and has participated in workshops by Augusto Boal - Theatre of the Oppressed, and Barney Simon - The Market Theatre, Johannesburg. Pamela also practices Bio-energy, Reiki and Tai Chi.

Jenni Doherty
Donegal-born, Jenni's background ranges from publishing, book selling, the public library service, journalism, book reviewer, facilitating creative writing workshops, performance poet and organising literary events. Co-author of local folklore book, That Land Beyond (2003), she also directed a multi-creative discipline project called EVE... a Celebration of Creative Women (2006) as both a book and CD of works, and compiled the anthology, Wonderful World of Worders (2007) involving over 70 international writers, all published with Guildhall Press. She toured the literary festival circuit in Australia with the Belfast Poets Tour Group and was a finalist in the Queensland SLAM (2006), and currently runs the monthly BBC RaW Poetry Place in Derry's Central Library. She has been widely published and broadcast in many disciplines.

Abby Oliveira
Abby has lived in the North of Ireland since 1994. She was the winner of the Belfast Poetry Performance Cup 2006 and Cúirt SLAM Finalist 2007. Literary Festival Facilitator for the Gasyard Féile 2005, Abby also has a strong background in the Performing Arts. She has facilitated poetry workshops in Toronto, Canada, and performs regularly with In Your Space theatre company. Abby has a BA (Hons) in Theatre Studies from the University of Ulster, Coleraine and she was awarded a First Class Honours Degree and the Dean's Prize, 2005. She also conducts art and craft workshops with groups of all ages and is a Bio-energy and Reiki practitioner.

• present poetry in a fresh way that celebrates its adaptability, giving it a community driven edge, combining it with visual images and musical soundtrack
  
• stimulate debate around every day issues
  
• inform and give a better understanding on a diversity of subjects
  
• provide a mouthpiece by which modern themes are communicated; in particular to encourage more teenagers from the Northwest (of Ireland) to take part in the workshops and performance evenings, helping them understand, through the medium of poetry, that they are not alone in their challenges

Comments:

"AlphabeTitudeZ is a beautiful show, slickly choreographed and with not a dull moment in sight. The verse is interesting, funny and extremely moving at times"

Eileen Walsh - Daily Ireland (Sept 2006)

"Mind-blowing!"

Sean Kelly - Director of the Cathedral Arts Out To Lunch Festival, Belfast (Nov 2006)

"The crowd is invited into a beautifully crafted linguistic world, one with a distinctly Northern Irish flavour. The Chicks examine the similarly difficult issues of racism, domestic abuse and prostitution in what the audience quickly realises is an unflinching manner, tinged with gallows humour… [and] for an hour, at least, they really did rule"

Maeve Davey – Culture Northern Ireland (Jan 2007)

"The Poetry Chicks are fast becoming the beat in the poetry heart of Northern Ireland. if you want to be moved by words and the gifted voices of three superb poets open your minds to Abby Oliveira, Jenni Doherty & Pamela Brown, your world will be different for the experience"

John G Hall Editor of Citizen 32 Literary Magazine (Feb 2007)

"The Derry based Poetry Chicks did what they do best informing with both great pathos and humour... I adore you ladies. They truly are the Rock Follies of verse"

Chloe Poems - Performance Poet, Manchester (May 2007)

"...really spirited and totally professional..."

Clem Cairns & Lorraine Bacchus - West Cork Literary Festival Directors (July 2007)

*

Past performances include:

Electric Picnic, Stradbally, Co Laois (Sept 2007); The Flat Lake Festival, Clones, Monaghan (Aug 2007); BK's Wine Bar and Galway City Museum, Galway (Aug 2007); The West Cork Literary Festival (July 2007); Gasyard Feile '07, Derry; BBC Breathing Places Festival, Derry (June 2007); the launch of literary magazine Citizen32's latest issue Class, Manchester (May 2007); Cathedral Arts Out To Lunch Festival, Belfast (Jan 2007), Sliabh Beagh Arts, Fermanagh and the OMAC, Belfast plus many regular Spoken Word and Open Mic events throughout the North that include the BBC RaW Poetry Place in the Central Library, Derry; Bookfinder's Café, Belfast and with Guildhall Press Publishers, Derry

*

Upcoming appearances include:

The Spirit of Tara Awareness & Solidarity Concert, Derry (Sept 2007); Derry & Dublin Poets, BBC RaW & WELB Poetry Place, Central Library, Derry (Oct 2007); the Charles Macklin School Festival, Culdaff (Oct 2007); Dungannon Arts Festival, Craic Arts Theatre, Coalisland (Oct 2007); Wonderful World of Worders Book Launch, Guildhall Press, Derry (Oct 2007); Looking Back 2 Look Forward Book Launch, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh (Oct 2007); Clones Film Festival 2007, Clones, Co Monaghan (Oct 2007); Tigh Fili Arts Centre, Cork (Nov 2007) and the White House Pub, Limerick city (Nov 2007)

*

As creative partners of ACE the Poetry Chicks have facilitated creative writing workshops throughout schools and youth centres in Derry, Donegal, Tyrone and Manchester with over 600 young people as part of ACE's WordFlight - Young People’s Written and Verbal Arts Project and will be further involved in two Transnational European Arts in Health Projects in 2008

*

Formed in 2006, the Poetry Chicks have already established a reputation as both performance poets and published writers, having performed and/or given workshops, either as individuals or as a collective group, throughout Ireland (North & South); England; Scotland; Canada, Holland and Australia.
They have also been widely published and broadcast

www.myspace.com/poetrychicks

email: poetrychicks3@yahoo.co.uk

Knudsen World

This guy must be on blogger's Viagra.

Ask Knudsen
An agony blog where I solve the problems/humiliate desperate people with no where else to turn, because I care.

Bitter Old Balls
A blog that is a gallery of all the pictures of me because it really is all about me also I'm fucking beautiful, go a head wank away.

Fake Old Man Balls
When I write something and then change my mind as its not up to my own personal standards, its more like something you lot would do it ends up here.

Knudsen Justice
A dark depressing blog about rape, abuse and murder, to show people of the horror and injustices and to sway them towards the death penalty, that is unless you support murderers and pedos.

Knudsen Nation
The nation is an honour bestowed unto those brave souls who will fight to the death for me when I am ready to take over the world.

Knudsen Porn
I like weemen, I like to see them in a state of total or semi undress in fact I want to see everyone naked. Any pictures I see and like goes here .

Knudsen's Madeleine Rage
I've written a lot about the McCanns so I put it onto its own blog.

Old Ball Buster
When the other blogs are filled up but I still have some slagging to do it goes here.

Old Knudsen's Fans
When you blog drunk and leave a nice comment about me I put it up here to shame you.

Well Done Millie
My latest blog taking the piss out of my mate Manuel but its all done with love.............................. harsh cruel love.

Keep It UP Old Knudsen!

It's a sad day for Northern Ireland.

My campaign for Lisnagunogue to be immortalised on the new monopoly board has failed.

I never got to sign the visitor's book, so...

"Lovely atmosphere"

"Clean, comfortable and quiet (until we arrived)"

"The perfect location, so close to Coleraine, Portrush, Ballymoney"

"Had a great weekend"





And...

For those who want to know exactly where it is, it's here.

I'd never heard of Adam Hills before.

I suppose Sarah O'Riordan still can't remember his name.

Some stories written in the press are just that little bit unbelievable. The one by David Collins about how according to him Patrick Kielty left an audience in a state of shock with a string of vile jokes about Madeleine. He mentions...

Sarah O'Riordan, 22, also left Dublin's Olympia theatre early.

She said: "The guy who was on before Kielty was brilliant. But then Kielty came out and it just wasn't funny.

"When he asked people to put their hands up if they thought the McCanns had done it, I saw one person put their hand up.

"Around five or six raised their hands to say they hadn't. It was awful."

If the guy before Paddy was brilliant I'd have expected to read who he was. I had to find out for myself. It was...

ADAM HILLS
Adam Hill's playful personality, which has taken him to the top of the international comedy circuit, has translated seamlessly to his hosting role on the small screen, making him one of the most recognisable faces on Australian TV. His is one of Australia's most talented and well-travelled comedians. His positive, energetic comedy and rampant spontaneity have won him universal acclaim, rave reviews and a swag of awards throughout Australia, Ireland and Europe.

Adam's solo shows are established highlights at the Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe and the Melbourne Comedy Festivals, receiving five-star reviews and sold-out houses. His 2001, 2002 & 2003 shows were all nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival. The 2002 show, Happy Feet, took out the inaugural Best Of The Fest Peoples Choice Award in Edinburgh. Adam is also a regular at the Montreal "Just For Laughs" Comedy Festival, having been invited to perform there the last three years.

And then there's Outraged barman William Boland mentioned in the story A barman with no sense of humour? You'd need a sense of humour to do that job.

Anyone remember Jackanory?

Ahh, those were the days!

On television we had adverts like...

Now we've got Peace and no good ads to watch on the telly.

from the Seamus Heaney Centre

In the post today I received the programme for Autumn Events at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry. Poets this season include Paul Durcan, Patience Agbabi, Gearóid Mac Lochlainn, Robert Crawford, Gwyneth Lewis, Ian Sansom, Matt Kirkham, Maria McManus, Eoghan Walls, Liam ÓMuirthile , Iarla Ó Lionaird, Liz Lochead, Justin Quinn, David Wheatley, Alan Gillis, Leontia Flynn, Christopher Whyte, Susan Bassnett and Menna Elfyn.

I'll try my best to get along to this...

THE LUNCHBOX

Friday Lunchtime Readings in the Seamus Heaney Centre

The Lunchbox is a series of Friday lunchtime readings, debates and conversations in the Seamus Heaney Centre, organised by BBC Writer in Residence, Ian Sansom. Lunch is not provided. All events will begin at 1.00pm in the Seamus Heaney Centre and end promptly by 2.00pm.

NEW POETRY:

Matt Kirkham, Maria McManus, Eoghan Walls

Friday, 5^th October at 1pm, Seamus Heaney Centre

Poets associated with the Seamus Heaney Centre will read from their own work. An opportunity to hear the voices of a new generation. Maria McManus and Matt Kirkham both have first collections from Lagan Press and both were nominated for the Rupert and Eithne Strong Prize for best first collection. Matt Kirkham’s collection is The Lost Museums; Maria McManus’s is Reading the Dog. Eoghan Walls was the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award in 2006 and is currently working on his first collection.

Also, each Friday during November novelists and writers from the Seamus Heaney Centre – including Glenn Patterson, Andrew Pepper and Carlo Gebler - will be offering advice, warnings and encouragement for those trying to write 50,000 words in the National Novel Writing Month.

Happy Birthday Lou-la-belle!

Dad's are allowed to embarrass their daughters! :-)

Searching for Madeleine.

Recently...

A Belfast solicitor, who defended Omagh bomb suspect Sean Hoey, is to assist Madeleine McCann's parents in their legal defence.
Peter Corrigan was approached by Gerry and Kate McCann's legal team.The move follows allegations that the four-year-old's DNA was found in the boot of their hire car weeks after their daughter disappeared.Mr Corrigan told the Irish News his work would involve "exposing the unreliability of LCN DNA".

Yesterday...

Madeleine McCann: Ex-BBC man determined to clear parents' name
The new spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann quit his job as a civil servant because he felt "so strongly" that the couple were innocent and he wanted to help them

I'm sure there'll be more news stories before the end of the day. My interest in this case has been heightened again after seeing that my previous blog post about the McCanns has been e-mailed a few times to addresses in Lisbon. I still would like to know the truth as countless others would too.

Competition Time

The Answer

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin which acts like a hormone, regulating the formation of bone and the absorption of calcium and phosphorus from the intestine. It helps to control the movement of calcium between bone and blood, and vice versa.
source Vegan Society

The Question

Red meat is considered the largest natural source of vitamin D, second only to vitamin D fortified fat spreads. What is vitamin D essential for in the body?

How To Enter

Email answers to mmclaughlin@lmcni.com Closing date for entries 28 September 2007.

The Prize

A recipe book entitled 'Northern Ireland Good Food is in Our Nature'

from www.lovebeefandlamb.com

Did you hear what he just said?

At times I'm easily amused, like earlier today. On the radio the newscaster read...

The Sex Pistols to make live comeback

Punk legends The Sex Pistols have announced a concert to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of their seminal album Never Mind the Bollocks.

I've never heard anyone pronounce the word 'bollocks' like that before. If you're easily amused and live a sad life, listen for it yourself.

Remember...

I am an antichrist
I am an anarchist
Dont know what I want but
I know how to get it
I wanna destroy the passer by cos i

I wanna be anarchy !
No dogs body

I've been reading the New York Times and noticed...

What’s New in the Old Country?

By MARK BLANKENSHIP

THE Troubles are over, but the trouble has just begun.

That could be the tag line for “Rock Doves,” a savage drama by the Northern Irish playwright Marie Jones that receives its world premiere Sunday at the Irish Arts Center in Midtown Manhattan. Set in present-day Belfast, it depicts four outsiders — including a transvestite and a homeless man — enduring the aftermath of the Belfast Agreement, which ostensibly ended paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland in 1998. Of course declaring peace isn’t the same as having it, and as she’s hiding from the hostility in her neighborhood, a prostitute named Bella declares, “Compared to what’s going on out there, we’re normal.”

Its thorny view of peacetime makes “Rock Doves’” an obvious fit for the arts center, which was founded in 1972 to demonstrate the breadth of Irish life and culture through classes, film, music, dance, the visual arts — and theater.

Next, wait to read the reviews.Then...

And...

Marie Jones is amazing, she just keeps churning them out.


UPDATE about 60 minutes later

The reviews have started.

Rock Doves
Reviewed By: Dan Bacalzo

Those going into Marie Jones' Rock Doves expecting anything resembling the inspired brilliance of her Olivier award-winning international hit, Stones in His Pockets, will be disappointed. The playwright's latest world premiere, helmed by her husband and Stones director Ian McElhinney at the Irish Arts Center, may deal with some interesting subject matter, but it's a fairly humdrum drama with far too many melodramatic tendencies.

The play is set in current-day Belfast, and deals with the aftereffects of the "troubles" that officially came to an end in the mid-1990s, but which continue to inform the lives of the city's inhabitants. The action centers around four misfits on the fringe of society: Knacker (Marty Maguire), an alcoholic squatter with a penchant for watching a TV with no electricity; Bella (Natalie Brown), an aging former prostitute and Knacker's best friend; Lillian (Tim Ruddy), Bella's transvestite brother who performs nightclub entertainment as a Tina Turner impersonator; and a nameless teenager known only as "The Boy" (Johnny Hopkins), who's on the run and claims to be a "top ranker" in a loyalist paramilitary.

Those unfamiliar with Irish politics and the infighting that resulted following the end of the decades-long conflict may have some trouble following portions of the play. While Jones packs the work with a lot of character exposition, she assumes a background knowledge of the way some of the more prominent paramilitary organizations have begun to traffic in drugs, prostitution, and other forms of crime in order to keep some of the status they formally enjoyed. A program note from McElhinney helps rectify this somewhat, but a little more information within the play itself would have been helpful for American audiences, especially as it's this backdrop that is the most compelling aspect of Rock Doves.

The characters' secrets, revelations, and betrayals are less engaging. While there are some fine moments and humorous lines, the play spends far too long introducing the characters and setting up the action. The first act, in particular, has very little forward momentum. Once things do come to a head, they unfold in a melodramatic fashion, with too many coincidences to be completely believable.

Maguire does a good job at conveying Knacker's anxieties, and making the audience wonder if he is feigning madness or really suffering from it. His more emotional turn towards the end of the play is nicely handled. Brown also does fine work, capturing the contradictory impulses of Bella's hardened exterior and warm-hearted interior.

Hopkins stays too much on one note through most of the play, indicating his emotions and intentions in far too broad a manner. Still, his final scene with Knacker is quite strong, partly because the actor doesn't push and lets the moment unfold quietly. Ruddy doesn't make for a particularly convincing drag queen (especially during his first appearance in an extremely non-flattering outfit from costumer Chris Rumery). Worse still, he barely scratches the complexity of emotions that should have been triggered by Lillian's actions towards the play's end.

Jones' talents as a writer are still in evidence in Rock Doves, and the material is good enough to maintain audience interest for its two hours running time. But while there's certainly potential in examining Belfast life following the "troubles," that promise is only partially fulfilled here.

ODE TO THE SPELL CHECKER!

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew

stolen from DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com

To mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Marc Bolan

The videobar on this blog is featuring Marc Bolan.

Verging, or is that Virgin, on the ridiculous?

In the news today...

Virgin boss Richard Branson has pledged 100,000 pounds for a legal fund to defend the parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann, the Sunday Times reported.

Gerry and Kate McCann have been named as formal suspects by Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine in May.

"Sir Richard wants to ensure the McCanns get access to the best legal advice," the weekly newspaper quoted a source close to Branson as saying.

"He has a good instinct on these things. It will help to ensure that they get a fair hearing and that all of the facts become available."

The paper added that Branson, head of the group that includes Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Mobile, has been in regular contact with the couple since their daughter went missing.

"A number of other individuals will be involved. The fund's size is potentially unlimited," the source was quoted as saying.

"It will initially look to raise about 1.0 million pounds, but it will be as much as it takes to make the McCanns' case."

Madeleine, then aged three, vanished from the family's holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve in Portugal on May 3 as her parents ate an evening meal with friends in a restaurant just metres away.

Gerry McCann, a hospital cardiologist, and Kate McCann, a family doctor, flew back to Britain with their two-year-old twins last weekend after spending nearly four months based in Portugal coordinating a search for their daughter.

The couple this weekend launched a new publicity campaign in Europe to help the search, and their friends have sought to shift the focus back onto this aspect of the case and away from speculation about the parents.

Friends of Kate McCann, 39, came out Sunday to insist she was an exemplary mother who would never harm her children.

Newspaper speculation in Portugal and Britain has flown since the McCanns were named as "arguidos" -- formal suspects -- in Madeleine's disappearance.

The status means they can no longer speak about the police investigation.

According to the family, Portuguese police suspect Kate McCann was involved in the accidental death of her daughter and both parents then tried to cover it up.

The McCanns strongly deny any role in Madeleine's disappearance.

If the McCanns are guilty and people like Richard Branson have supported them are they guilty of aiding and abetting?
Is this just a major achievement for the McCanns' clever use of deflecting?
If your daughter was missing through neglectful parenting , what would you do?
Kate McCann, an exemplary mother who would never harm her children?