Smile of a stranger

Jul 28, 2009 by John    2 Comments    Posted under: waffle, writing

Book in hand I open the front door and the sun burns a smile on to my face. I glance to the left as I lock the door and catch the eye of a guy walking down the terrace path. He’s young, early twenties, not Irish, maybe Polish. I turn to the right and head to the canal for my hour of solace. His footsteps behind me are silent, like mine, the Nike generation.

I cross the road, one turn left, one turn right and I am alone on the street that leads to the canal. As I cross a final road, a guy appears from the right and walks in front of me. He’s young, early twenties, not Irish, maybe Polish. He stops at a door and turns to the right as he inserts the key. He catches my eye and smiles. I smile back, and nod to acknowledge the joke of our mirrored exchange.

He’s younger than I thought I ponder. Give him a few more years and he’ll stop smiling at strangers. Strangers who will easily, and understandably miss such subtleties, and strangers who will think him strange for smiling. But I cherish the moment, and the canal is all the more soothing that day.

A very short story

Jan 9, 2009 by John    4 Comments    Posted under: illustration, waffle, web, writing

“He lifted her bloodied head – eyes gouged out, bedroom door ajar, then looked inside, prised the knife from her hand and repeated the act.”

I thought I’d have a go at a twitter sized (140 characters) short story during the week. Though I did get one WTF?! reply on Twitter, thankfully the Dublin homicide team didn’t smash the door down; recently a friend of a friend of…. twittered about smothering her daughter, very obviously joking and in context. Soon enough the LA cops were banging the door down. Yikes.

Homepages, the book.

Dec 8, 2008 by John    6 Comments    Posted under: writing

Homepages, the book went on sale today from Lulu. It’s a collection of short stories and photographs from Irish bloggers. All profit goes to to Focus Ireland.

I can be quite impulsive sometimes. I had my contribution written and sent off before I’d given myself the chance to decide if I liked it or not. But I’m still not sure if I like it, so ho hum.

Stocking filler? Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, GO ON. Pauline McLynn has written the foreward (sorry Pauline, couldn’t resist but I did resist in Tescos once!)

Organized with gob-dropping efficiency by Catherine.

Music articles

May 19, 2007 by John    28 Comments    Posted under: music, writing

I’ve chucked up a few old music articles that I wrote years ago. Hardcore you know the score was written for Anorak. And the (rose-tinted) History of Dublin Clubbing was written for DUBfly. Actually they’re both fairly rose tinted. And there’s my thesis on acoustic phenomena.