Virtual Methodist

This is the bit of this meme I just wanted to skip, because as I read over other people's ones most of them were either exercises in fantasy conspicuous consumerism, or, and this largely applied to Christian ones, exercises of nauseatingly saccharine spirituality. But I've started so I'll finish. I don't think I have ever written a Christmas list... Not with any expectation of receiving what I wanted... I do keep a "wish list" on Amazon, in order to help my family when they are flailing around trying to think of what to buy me for Christmas or Easter... However, I'm not very good at updating it, so slap it up me when I get multiples of the same thing... None of what follows appear on my Amazon list, nor are you likely to be able to purchase them for Christmas... As with the rest of this meme I have kept to the trivial end of the spectrum, so please take it for granted that I want peace in this province/the world, relief of world hunger, happiness for ...

So here I am, 2nd day in and I'm already 4 days late... But I did say this would be a bit sporadic... Anyway, today it is supposed to be 9 loves. OK... (I really can't wait to get to the simpler ones like books)... Let's clear the decks and take it as read that I love my family, God and pet cat... So in many ways I'm giving you 12 loves for the price of 9... But there is no way on this virtual planet that you are getting me bearing my heart on those three... The first 2 because this is entirely the wrong forum to do them justice, and the third because there is already too much cat-related wackiness on the web, and I don't want to be associated with that... So here goes on a variety of things that I love in no particular rank order: 1) FOOD - Now there is an entire day given over to foods... but this is food in general. I have a serious psychological problem with food. It is my primary response to any emotional state; I'm happy - I eat,  I'm sad- I ea...

Last night I had the privilege of being at an event in the Waterfront Studio which was part of the Belfast Festival, but unlike other events I usually go to in this and other festivals it wasn't primarily an artistic one. There was a short, superb set by the Féile Women's Choir at the beginning, but despite the fact that my wife sings with them, that wasn't my main reason for going, rather it was to hear Professor Phil Scraton, one of the members of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, speak about the work of that panel, the tragedy that unfolded on 15th April 1989 and its aftermath, under the title of "Hillsborough: Speaking Truth to Power." This was an event not just for Liverpool fans or football fans, but for anyone interested in politics, power and the dignity of people in the face of injustice.  Whilst I was quite familiar with most of the material presented, to hear it all over the course of 90 minutes from a person intimately involved with the whole p...

This morning's Thought for the Day offering... Well today the back pages of the newspapers have been filled with stories of my beloved Liverpool's all-too-late thrashing of a weakened Chelsea side . As  Jimmy Greaves used to say of to erstwhile Liverpool player Ian St. John, “It’s a funny old game, Saint…”  And throughout this season it has been just that… Though funny in the sense of strange, rather than “ha-ha”. It has been on the front page of the newspapers as much as on the back… Allegations of racist language being used by high profile premiership players caused huge repercussions, not only to  Liverpool, where it may have contributed to their lacklustre season, but also to the English national team, necessitating the  appointment of a new England manager,  leading in turn to controversy about misjudged jokes in the press about the speech impediment of appointee Roy Hodgson … We also had the seeming suicide of Welsh national manager Gary Speed , ...

Hillsborough means different things to different people. To many in Northern Ireland it represents the seat of British power in the 6 counties: Hillsborough Castle... the site of a number of significant agreements and declarations between the British and Irish governments over the past 30 years... But to Liverpool fans such as myself it is a football stadium that is etched on their hearts and minds. I grew up following Liverpool through the glory days of the 70's and 80's - The latter years of the 80's however, were overshadowed by 2 huge disasters... In the 1985 European Cup Final at the Heysel Stadium where 39 of the opposition Juventus fans were killed, and the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium Disaster where 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death at an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. In the former case the blame initially fell exclusively (and understandably) on Liverpool fans, but later investigations also blamed UEFA for failing to heed warnings re the ...

Sunday was a day for prizes... Not only did my beloved Liverpool win a trophy at long last (despite their best efforts to throw it away), but Northern Irish artistic endeavours had been rewarded by two different august bodies. In Dublin the Irish Theatre Awards had given my friend Conall Morrison the "best director" prize for his production of "The Crucible" which opened the new Lyric last year, while over in LA Terry George et al won the Oscar for the Best Short Live feature for "The Shore"  (not best documenary as BBC1's man on the spot announced this morning). Saw "The Shore" last night and it is a deceptively simple piece about personal reconciliation, set against the background of Northern Irish scenery at its best, with beautiful panoramic shots of Belfast Lough from Black Mountain, and the Mournes and Dundrum Bay from Coney Island. It was apparently devised with a very definite business plan in mind, centred on producing the film...

For me, this week has been dominated by 2 news stories emanating from 2 states with similar, but not identical flags… Being a Liverpool fan, much of my week was marked by the ups and downs of the attempts to oust former owners Hicks and Gillett and sell the club to the Boston Redsox owner John Henry and his NESV consortium... I know that exchanging one American owner for another may seem like a frying-pan/fire situation, but I'm also a Redsox fan and I like what they did there, and anyway, nothing could be worse than the gruesome twosome. However, to wake up on Thursday morning hearing that Tom Hicks had taken out an injunction in a Texas court against the sale of the club, raised in me an unbelievable antipathy to the so-called Lone Star State… Thankfully by the end of the next day the injunction had been lifted and the deal with NESV was done , but it was not a good way to start the day… It stood in huge contrast to how the previous day began, with much celebratory waving of a si...