Posts tagged music
"And the wind owes me nothing"

At times, there is a story for every occasion. I just must remember not to tell the same one twice. At other times there is nothing.

Writing fulfils me, but I do not profess to be any good.

Writing makes me happy as much as it tends to frustrate.

Selfishly, I did not set out for people to read my column.

"Think I've nailed it this week," I proclaim to Mrs W.

"You say that every week," she laments.

And that's why readers owe me nothing.

Here's to the next 150.

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When the Wind Blows

Geoffrey Dyer is dead.

He painted Richard Flanagan and won the Archibald Prize in 2003.

I am reading Flanagan's new novel.

Artists and writers inspire me: their craft, their dedication, their toil, and their need.

They are like old friends.

I had a glass of something with Dyer and a glass of something else with Flanagan in a bar on Salamanca.

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Music To My Ears

My earliest music memories are of mum singing a lullaby to soothe my fear of the dark and my father humming tunes from a life past.

Goodbye Dolly Gray, a song that Orange Order marching bands play when they parade in Northern Ireland on 12 July to signify the Battle of the Boyne (1690) where William III of Orange defeated his uncle and father-in-law King James II, is a tune that I remember from my childhood.

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