My Favourite Things: June 2012

NOTE: This article was originally published by me on ASiteCalledFRED.com

Hey guys! This month saw me take my first real vacation in about 3 years. I was actually away for 15 days of this month so my internet time was exactly halved. As a result, this month's list is slightly shorter than usual. But I think I still found three nuggets of gold for your eye holes so take a look and know that I'll be back to my usual length next month... ladies.

1) Bill Murray's Hall of Fame Speech

 I'm not a baseball fan. As an Irishman I guess it's just not in my blood. But I am a Bill Murray fan. It doesn't matter where you're from, you should be able to love Bill Murray.

What you may not have known about him is that he actually owns a baseball team. He co-owns the Charleston RiverDogs and due to his long service to baseball he has recently been inducted into the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame. And as he says in the video, he's never been inducted into a Hall of Fame before so he had to accept.

Murray is a genius of the highest order so if you give him a podium to make a speech, you know it's going to be good. He didn't write anything for it, he just got up and spoke about how much he loves baseball and it's every bit as good as you think it would be. Take a look.

2) Paul & Storm - Write Like The Wind (George R. R. Martin)

We here at FRED love Paul & Storm.

Well... we love Storm.

They have just released what is to my mind their first proper music video. Hopefully the first of many more to come. The song is about the agony of waiting for the next Game of Thrones book and the video is as ridiculous as you might expect from the duo.

3) Super Mario Street Art

This is a really cool time-lapse video which shows how artist Chris Carlson creates a 3D looking image on the sidewalk with just chalk and a ruler. Two bonus cool points go to the art being of an 8bit Mario and the awesome music added to the video.

After seeing how he does it, I almost feel like I could give it a go too but I know that it would just look like a 5 year old attempted it.

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And that's it! My favourite things of the last month.

The Tired And Emotional Tour Diary: Part 2

I'll jump to the day of Ireland's first match. It was 4 days into our trip and by this point we were chomping at the bit to see some action. Poznan, while wonderful, was pretty boring for us at this point as we didn't know the town very well or anyone in it. This match was our first release of excitement so we dressed appropriately for the occassion (like lunatics).

Here is me ironing my flag to wear around my shoulders. It would make my mother proud...

Of course, it rained for the match. It always rains on the Irish no matter where we are. Despite there being plenty of public transport taking people to the stadium we decided to walk instead. When we saw how packed the trams were going by, it made us feel good about the decision even if we were pretty wet.

So here are some snaps from inside the Poznan stadium:

This is the team warming up before the game.

This next one... well, this is complicated. There is a celebration dance done by the local club team supporters whenever they're doing well. They basically turn their backs to the pitch, put their arms over eachother's shoulders and then jump up and down. It looks cool and has been lovingly named "doing the Poznan" by us foreigners. It has been famous for a while so when we played our first international game in the Poznan stadium we couldn't resist giving it a go ourselves.

As you can see, there was quite a lot of green in the crowd. We took up the majority of the stadium but you would see some red and white, not just for our opposition but also for the neutral locals who dressed in their Polish colours at the games.

I, however, was dressed in a subdued fashion...

Yup, that's me and my friend Andy who was my trip buddy. He actually got me the tickets so I might as well use this opportunity to give him some thanks. Cheers, bud.

This was the last photo I took before the match started. It's the pre-game choreography. It's also Andy's queue for one of his favourite jokes of the tournament; "Trap, still sticking with the rigid defensive formation there". It's also a good picture to see the Croatian corner. In the back left there you can see where the majority of Croatian fans were sitting. They were probably the loudest fans we met on the tour, although we were still much louder.

And the rest, unfortunately, is history. We lost the game 3-1 and it scuppered our chances to qualify straight off. Needless to say, we were miserable afterwards and just went home to sulk.

The next day we were trying to snap out of our misery so we decided to eat our feelings and watch England play on TV. I got some local "Apple beer" called Redd's and found a packet of Pepperoni Pizza flavoured crisps. It was all I could do to stop the tears.

While it wouldn't be our last loss in the tournament it would be the last time we didn't go drinking after the match.

To Be Continued...

I Heart Graffiti: Poland Edition Part 2

Here are a few Poznan things I found from walking around. I got a particular chuckle out of the penis-bomb tucked away behind some trees above a garage. Also, there was loads of the carrot things all over Poznan. Still don't understand it.

Weekend Justice #162: Down the Road That We Must Travel

This was posted while I was away but it's never too late to share with you! It was recorded merely a few hours before I left on my trip. At this point you should know the drill. It's Weekend Justice. The internet's Number 1 audio train-wreck.

Joining me this week (3 weeks ago) is Widge, Jon, Rox, Scott, and Rob. We discuss such inflammatory and racist subjects as:

Degrees of basketball fandom

Aaron vs. Poland. Plus researching jokes.

Inuit racism

Ukraine vs. The Boy Scouts

Places boys can laugh at in Ireland

Game of Thrones

Mockingbird Lane

Grimm

Bring It On in Broadway

Queer Eye for the Straight Tent

The Fate of Mr. Mister

Rock Lobster saves us! Not really.

DJing for fifth graders.

World War Z, Twilight Zone and anthology shows

In memory of Richard Dawson

Jon and Rob swap DJ horror stories

To listen CLICK HERE or to download the podcast directly CLICK HERE.

The Tired And Emotional Tour Diary: Part 1

I thought I would share some pictures and stories from the trip. It would be impossible to tell you about all the craic but I'll go through some highlights in a tournament full of low-lights for the Irish team.

First of all, we travelled there pretty early, as a result we only saw about 5 other fans (and Karl Spain) on the trip out. Plus, we were put on this tiny plane from Frankfurt to Poznan.

Once in Poznan, we spent a lot of our time in this lovely little park space just as you enter the town.

Poznan is full of park areas like this, it's a very pretty town. Also, it's full of what seems to be circus performers.

These guys were in the park on a regular basis doing flips and tricks on their tightropes. Quite a sight to see.

Another thing we got a kick out of was on the day the tournament started. The Polish news team had painted their faces with the Polish colours (red and white). I thought it was fun to see but it was a sign of things to come as everyone in the town would do the same over the next couple weeks.

That same day we thought we would go to an Irish pub in the town called The Dubliner to have a few drinks and watch the opening games of the tournament. Yes, it's a bit of a cliché to go to an Irish pub but it was right beside the park above so it was an easy decision.

Besides, it looks like a nice quiet pub right?

Cut to about 3 hours later...

Basically what happened was; most of the fans started to arrive that evening and their first stop? You guessed it. Some still had their bags from the airport with them! The chanting and singing lasted for hours. It was a real celebration. Everyone's excitement for the tournament was being released in one joyous moment.

Little did we know what was to come...

I Heart Graffiti: Poland Edition Part 1

That's right folks, I'm back and I brought a shit-ton of graffiti pictures with me. Get ready for a bunch of these over the next couple weeks.

First up is this rather cool anti-ACTA poster that was pasted onto an empty shop window in Poznan.

Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go...

Tomorrow morning I fly out to Poznan and my two weeks of madness begins. I have no idea what I'm in for but I can't wait and it feels like Christmas Eve today.

The likelihood is, I'll be sans internet for the entire trip so don't expect anything from me until I get back.

In the mean time, wish us luck. Although, as the poster says...

My Interview On The Ken PD Snydecast Blog

The wonderful Guy Hutchinson recently asked me to share some memories of my time on the Snydecast with him for his wonderful "Experience" blog. Guy has always been an utter gent online and it was a lot of fun as he reminded me of some rather bizarre experiences I've had with Ken and Dana in years gone by.

He has collected this interview with some clips of the show in the videos below. Hope you enjoy.

The Drive-In of DOOM! – Spider-Man

What? Another podcast, Aaron? Really?

Yeah.

I'll let my co-host describe it for you, as he does such a lovely job of it.

Hello and welcome to the first DOOM movie commentary podcast hosted by Aaron Poole and JJ Hawkins. Fresh off a conversation in a recent Mars Needs Podcasts, the DOOM’ed Duo are here to provide a monthly commentary on superhero flicks. This month the movie is 2002′s Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, and James Franco. Will it hold up, or will the pair throw it on the scrap heap and hope that the reboot proves to be the salvation of the beloved superheroic icon?

To listen CLICK HERE.

Weekend Justice #161: As The Prophecy Foretold, The Coming of Gray

Weekend Justice returns after a one week hiatus. A hiatus I wasn't aware of, might I add, until I showed up last week to an empty room. Yeah. I don't get no respect, no respect.

This week I join Widge, Jon, Rox, Leigh, Kim, Tuffley, Scott, and Rob. We discuss such madness as:

• The tata story 
• Leigh's DragonCon update 
• Rox vs. Oasis25 
• Horrible Jem flashback 
• Patrick Warburton is Superman 
• The Summer of Gin 
• The Fat Tuesday Story 
• Mega Mad Men Discussion 
• Game of Thrones compression! 
• Fun with box office numbers 
• Rob's movie reviews 
• Liam Neeson vs. the answerphone

To listen CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

A Bluffer's Guide To The Irish Squad At Euro 2012

With only a week to go before the tournament kicks off, I thought I would give a quick run down of some of Ireland's most important players and talking points going into it.


"GO ON... MY SON"



Our lads have already left the country to warm up before Poland and with more and more people getting interested in the big event, this guide will hopefully be able to give even the most clueless foreigner enough info to bluff your way through watching the tournament and shout at the screen. Sure, it's all just a bit of craic.

Here are our most important players in the tournament.