Backstage Shots

Here is the most important room in the entire casino, the Pit. There is another room below the pit, we reckon that is where the phantom lives....

Here is a very inspirational shot. This is the backstage ramp that all the actors go up to get onstage. Someone taped in the word "enjoy" onto it, very thoughtfull

And here is the second most important room, the stars dressing room (usually occupied by the principle viola player....) Also, i found out last night that if the show runs over time by 5 mins, we all get an hours overtime pay! Ill be playing REALLY REALLY slowly during my solo........

My moment to shine

Here is that world famous 3 note viola solo from Fiddler on the Roof. About 12 songs into the show, i get my 6 seconds of fame as I dazzle the audience with my near perfect antiphonal response to Topols laments in what has to be the most illustrious and infamous D flat in all of violadom.

It was hilarious, at the first pit rehearsal, we all had to be sound checked individually, so naturally everyone played bits from their parts, usually the tune etc. I don’t have ANY recognizable tune in the entire 3 hours of the production. All i have is off beat cha-cha's and the occasional doubling of the winds, which makes it a really simple gig, but really boring too. I mean, even the percussionist has the tune at one point and all I get is that 3 bar, 3 note solo. Anyway, the sound checking, when it came around to me, i had to pretty much play the first thing that came into my mind, which was "happy birthday", and by pure co-incidence it was the oboe-ists birthday, the entire pit burst into song and they loved my little finishing pizzicato chord. I am pretty certain I will be hired again.

Martial Arts Equipment

John Hearne sent us a package the other day and look what was in it. A set of nunchucks. Classic!

Take two of these and call me in the morning

Check out this new wondercure i found in a shop the other day.

Happy Valentines Day Everyone

Check out the card I got from a certain secret admirer. Fantastic!

The Sisters New Blog

Hi World.

This is my sister Margaret, she has anew blog here: http://magzinthebigcity.blogspot.com/index.html Check it out, she has a few entries up already and is keeping up with the family blogging tradition. Huzzzah.

Watch out Chuck Norris

Chuck and Bruce hard at it

I am getting back in training, I found a club near me which teaches the same kung fu that I used to do in Ireland (wing chun). I am going to start it up once I have finished with this Fiddler gig. I am gonna get back into training, get back into shape, maybe do some competitions and in general get healthier this year. Also there are some incredible benefits to being a kung fu master including invisibility, origami skills AND an incredible sense of fashion.



Me as a ninja at a fancy dress party a few years ago. HHAAAIIIAAAGHH

Archive footage....

I just came across this old picture of me talking to a horse on the way back from a gig in 2004 that I would like to share with the world. That is all.

Sundays Big Day Out

We had a fantastic day yesterday. First day off in weeks (we do a lot of weekend gigs and stuff) SO we came up with a fantastic plan, which consisted of a lot of beer, so we had to make our list in picture form. It all started with a lovely breakfast, then a walk in the park with Reilly, then we made our way down the the main street and had lunch and a few beers, then we went to see james bond (which was fantastic) then had more beers and home. Things on the list we didn't do was fishing, ice cream and coffee's, all tasks we substituted with more beer. Great day, and my last day off until the 24th of March.

Here was the menu of the pub down the road from the cinema, this is from the pizza menu, have a look at the last item, I had that before, pretty filling!

The Birds Nest

Nadine found a birds nest in our tree the other day, sort of hard to make out in this photo, but its there. I think this is the bird that sounds a LOT like a cow that wakes us up in the mornings.

Extreme Alcohol Technology

I called round to the brewshop on saturday morning and found this stuff on the shelf. See the bottom: Extreme Alcohol Technology, makes it sound all futuristic! Turbo yeast. Just when beer making was starting to become a dull hobby.........

Hally meets Reilly

Kev came to one of our gigs last friday night and then came back home for a "few" beers. Here he is playing a few tunes for Reilly

Then the good stuff came out, this is a 2006 beer (2006 was a good year)

And here he is on the phone to his twin who was 9 hours behind in time and about 9 pints behind as well!

Recruitment Consultant....

Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the side of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt.

The driver, a young man, dressed in an Armani Suit, Ray-Bans, Tag-Heuer watch, Cerutti Shoes and a Boss tie gets out and asks the shepherd, "If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?"

The shepherd looks at the young man, then looks at the large flock of sheep and replies, "Okay". The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to his mobile-fax, enters NASA Webster, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with logarithms and pivot tables, then prints out a 150-page report on his high tech mini printer.

He turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1586 sheep."

The shepherd answers "That`s correct . You can have your choice of sheep " .

The young man takes an animal and puts it in the back of his Porsche.

The shepherd looks at him and asks "If I guess your profession will you return my animal to me?"

The young man answers "Yes, why not?"

The shepherd says, " You are a Recruitment Consultant " .

"How did you know? " asks the young man.

"Very simple," answers the shepherd. "First you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew, and third, you don’t understand anything about my business " .

" Now can I have my dog back?"

No need for a television ever again!

No need for a television ever again!
A friend pointed me in the direction of this website:
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/
this morning. Its by far the most usefull website I have ever been to. Its got links to pretty much every half decent telly program and cartoon made in the last 20 years.
You can watch them on your computer OR download them to your computer and watch them later by copying and pasting the link into this website:
http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php
and then use the FLV player (free) which you can get here:
http://www.download.com/FLV-Player/3000-2139_4-10467082.html
Sounds a bit long winded but WELL worth it. Enjoy.

The Bird Flew

An ironic verb or an epidemic? Here is a map of all the countries with poultry or wild birds killed by in light red and the dark red indicates countries with human cases of H5N1. Now its in the UK, there is a pretty good review of whats going on here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_spread_of_H5N1 . I predict that Hillbillys chicken burger sales are about to plummet!

If i were a rich man.....

Well its not long to go, the gig of the year, fiddler on the roof. The show kicks off in a fortnight and runs for about a month, the proceeds of which will go towards buying us a dishwasher, a shiny new fridge and perhaps some furniture for the front room. Looking forward to it big time!

Perth Forrest Fires

Forrest fires are pretty common over here and generally kept under control, but these recent ones are really big. Out of control raging inferno is a way to describe them. Looking out my window now I can see three MASSIVE plumes of smoke in the distance. 12,000ha (30,000 acres) of land has been destroyed and the firefighters are doing their best to stop it. Lots of houses have lost power and many homes have been destroyed. A brief flick through google will get you a few stories about that. We are safe here in the city, we are pretty far from all these fires (80km to the nearest) but the smoke still carries. Yesterday we were driving into the city and could barely make it out from a distance, sometimes it “snows” ash from these fires too! Hot stuff!

May the force be with you...

I got this game for Christmas, its just monopoly but with a star wars twist to it. We had a great game of it during the week, my greatest moment was when I bought the Death Star!

CSM Update

For all you cork exiles in Dublin and abroad, here is an update as to the construction status of the CSM. They are starting to remove some of the scaffolding and work is going along to schedule perfectly. Looking forward to seeing the final product!

Hally Invasion Phase 1

Well, it was only a matter of time. Kevin Hally has arrived in Australia and has made his way over east to Perth to work for a few months before continuing his travels. He is here with his friend Michael Crowley and the two of them are set to start working today in the city. 37 degrees forecasted for here today, and whenever it hits 38 everyone on site is allowed to go home for the day. Welcome to Perth lads.

The Farside

I have a gary larson desktop calender and its pretty funny, i really liked this mornings one.

Australia Day

Here is a picture taken on a really wide angle lens at the australia day celebrations. The fireworks were going off at one side and there was an incredible lightning storm on the other. Single click on the picture for a larger image.

The Lads

Here is another photo from the wedding of the year, Eoin & Michelle, from December last. Here are a right bunch of buckos on the front steps of the church.