Author: anthony

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Music Recommended

Coldplay – X & Y

This is undoubtedly one of the years most anticipated albums and the followup to A Rush of Blood to the Head. First of all, a bit of background. I’ve been a Coldplay fan since hearing Parachutes and have seen them twice live, at Witnness and The Point, and they were fantastic live. If I wasn’t going to Prague in a couple of weeks then I’d definitely be at their Marley Park gig and am sad to miss it on the strength of their previous albums plus the recent addition of X&Y. So to the track analysis:

Track 1 – Square One: Not one of my favourite songs on the album but a solid opener which reflects some of the bigger tracks they’ve done before.

Track 2 – What If?: Superb song and one I’ll be playing over and over again for the next few months. Starts off nice and slow with Chris and the piano but kicks off half way through.

Track 3 – White Shadows: One of those tracks which hits the middle-ground for me. I’m not overly keen on it. Seems a tad over produced.

Track 4 – Fix You: A track which again starts slowly but has some excellent lyrics (“Tears stream down your face, when you lose something you cannot replace”) and rythem. Acoustic guitar kicks in half way through and then progresses to electric as the song builds to a crescendo. Definite single.

Track 5 – Talk: Another definite single, with a catchy guitar riff. Sounds a tad like U2 with the great riff and lyrics. Only criticism is that it feels a tad long. I’d chop about 20 seconds off it. 😛

Track 6 – X & Y: The title track is beautifully melodic and is classic Coldplay.

Track 7 – Speed of Sound: As the first single I wasn’t too impressed with this song when it was released. However, it has grown on me over the past few weeks and I think this album as a whole needs time to grow on you as with A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Track 8 – A Message: A slower track in comparison to the others and is one of those take it or leave it tracks.

Track 9 – Low: Probably my least favourite song off the album and I really don’t know why. Don’t think it’s Coldplay’s best “sound”.

Track 10 – The Hardest Part: A marked improvement in tone on Low and a song which wouldn’t be out of place on any of the older albums.

Track 11 – Swallowed in the Sea: Another strong contender for a single this initially sounds like a simple ballad but, as with most of the tracks on the album, it builds to something more. I could see myself using this in a soundtrack for a film.

Track 12 – Twisted Logic: This track made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Perfect track to close out the “official” tracklist. Love the line “Hundreds of years in the future, there could be computers looking for life on Earth.” 🙂

Track 13 – ‘Til Kingdom Come: A song written by the lads for Johnny Cash but alas, he died before they could record it. This vies for the title of “Tony’s Top Track Off the Album” and is beautiful in its composition and tone. Superb stuff. 😀

Overall, considering the fact that I’ve listened to it 11 times :shock:, it’s a superb album and one which will take pride of place on my MP3 player. The only thing I’m sad about is the fact that I’ll miss the chance to see these tracks performed live next week. Hopefully I’ll get the chance later in the year.

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FridayQ

FridayQ: News

A news story from your past that had a big influence on your life is… Even though it is the obvious answer I feel that I have to say the 9/11 attacks in America. The reason being that I, literally, watched the thing from its shocking beginning to horrible end. I had just made lunch for myself and was flicking through the Irish stations when Anthony Murnane (an Irish newscaster) came on screen with a hastily put together news bulletin. It was like he had literally been thrown in front of the camera and broke the news of how a plane had crashed into the WTC. As I sat and watched the tower burning I got to feeling that it couldn’t have been an accident considering how clear a day it was. Then my mum joined me and we saw a second plane go across the screen from the left and hit the other tower. I’ve never seen something that shocking that I had such a sense of seperation from. Could this really be happening? People will be trapped and dying in those buildings. 🙁 I couldn’t get over it. We sat and watched the news coverage for about 3 hours afterwards in abject shock.

A news story that you wish would go away so you never have to hear about it again is… I get depressed when I see the coverage on the news of Iraq. People are dying there everyday and the vast majority of Americans are still convinced that waging the war was the right thing to do. They’ve completely destabalised the country and the region. Even if you have elections, it doesn’t magically solve the countries problems and the fact that the US has no idea of how to deal with a Muslim country and culture. The whole thing is a disaster area and I wish the US would learn from such actions although I’m 90% sure they’ll make the same mistake again somewhere else.

A news story that you feel deserves much more attention than it has been getting lately is… I have to echo Dave’s thoughts on this. The news story which does not get enough attention is that of Africa. As a continent they have some major problems. The G8 countries are meeting next month but even Bob Geldof is expecting a “glorious failure”. What does that say about the world’s leaders? That they won’t listen to the starving millions in Africa and the ordinary citizens attempting to weigh up lives against gold reserves? They won’t listen to the starving millions cos they’re far enough away not to hear them and “ordinary citizens” mean nothing to politicians.

FQ REPORTER: Look into the future and create a headline for an interesting news story that hasn’t happened yet… TONY SCORES SCORCHER IN WORLD CUP FINAL TO GIVE IRELAND 2-1 VICTORY….SHOCKER 🙂

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Web

Super Mario Blocks

Some guy in Canada is making Super Mario-like blocks and putting them up around his home town of Windsor, Ontario. He believes that the local streets are being “taken over by ads” and this is his way to fight back. I can’t think of anything cooler. 🙂

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Football

Faroe Islands 0 – Ireland 2

Pretty happy with last nights result in the Faroe Islands. Ireland seemed slightly hungover in the first half from the game on Saturday and a lot of players had bellow par performances. Before the game the media had been reporting on fog which was hampering planes landing and it resulted in at least three plane loads of supporters not being able to make the game. 🙁 Bit of a nightmare when you’ve paid for your ticket and flight.

Ireland got off to a bright start but kept getting caught offside anytime they came forward. The Faroes had a few chances themselves during the first half and came close on a couple of occasions. Shay Given was very alert in goal though and would be my number one target for United as they’ve never truly replaced Schmeichel. Our best chance of the half came when Andy Reid hit a left foot shot from the edge of the box which their goalie couldn’t hold and Stephen Elliott followed up but hit the bar. In fairness to him it was his first competitive start and he got slightly ahead of himself when going to hit the shot.

The second half was much better from Ireland as they played like they should have in the first half. On 52 minutes Elliott was put through with a ball over the top and ran onto it as the goalkeeper hesistated and then brought him down. Ian Harte scored the resulting penalty and it was a relief if nothing else. A short time later, I can’t remember how long to be honest :), Kevin Kilbane shot from the edge of the area but his shot was deflected off Johansson (Faroes captain) and flew past the keeper on his right hand side. It wasn’t a vintage performance by Ireland’s standards but this was all about getting the 3 points and going home. The players have had a long season with their clubs and deserve the break. There’s talk about going to Cyprus in October for the away qualifier but I’ve to look up flight information to see how we’d get there. Hopefully we’ll still be on course for qualification at that stage. 🙂

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Football General

Bank me a holiday

Seen as it’s the bank holiday weekend I thought I’d do a general update on what’s been going on in my life. 🙂 I’ve been shifting lots of stuff out of my room over the past two days in a vain attempt to sort the good from the bad. I’ve currently got a black sack full of old clothes which will be going to a charity shop soon. There’s still tons of old board games and bits of PCs that I need to sort and ship out as I’m sick of holding onto stuff when I have such a small space to live in.

Last night I went down to the local pub, Kenny’s, to watch the Ireland versus Israel match. I’ve never been so disappointed and frustrated in my life. We scored twice within 10 minutes and were cruising before Brian Kerr decided to introduce Kavanagh, a midfield player, for Robbie Keane who’s a striker. The change put the team off balance and they conceded two goals in the space of 7 minutes just before half-time. We then had to contend with their goalkeeper play acting all through the second half. 👿 Fair enough, he got a bash on the nose at one point but the guy was rolling around like someone had chopped his nads off. I’ve never seen such a display in my life and the guy should have been sent off after going for Andy O’Brien’s neck when they fell togetheron the goal line. Instead, O’Brien got sent off!! 🙁 A dodgy ref didn’t help us either by turning away a rake of valid penalty appeals. We have another game against the Faroe Islands on Wednesday but it’s gonna be tough to qualify from where we’re sitting now.

It’s less than 3 weeks before I travel off to Prague for a week with a few of the lads I used to work with. One of the guys, Pavel, is from Czech and invited us over for his 30th party. We all travel out on the Wednesday and come back the following Tuesday. Our accomodation arrangements are fairly loose as we’ll be staying with family friends etc but it sounds like it will be a great few days. 🙂 I also got word from my uncle that I can have his holiday home for ten days in August. Myself, Mark and maybe Hugh will be going so the arrangements will be solidified over the coming week and then I’ll book the Aer Lingus flights.