DarrenByrne.com

After my glass of white and some tasty seafood chowder, I left the Hairy Lemon (I refer to the bar and not Darragh) and headed towards my DART. I have been listening to the one album pretty much non-stop for two weeks, so today I decided to throw my iPod on shuffle and see what happened. This morning’s If You Could Read My Mind was a lovely surprise. This evening I heard a nice short piece from Carmen, a decent track from the Buffy soundtrack, Lucky by Bif Naked (no, I’ve never heard of them either), and then Brenda Lee came on singing Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.

I was standing on the platform, there was a clichéd chill in the air, the wind rustled stuff (crisp bags and bits of tin foil) and I wondered…is it that time of year again already?

The streets around where I work will be taken up with busy idiots. There will be fights and tears and 24 hour drunkenness. The TV will abandon anything resembling quality broadcasting and all we’ll hear from radio DJ’s is “Sure, you can never have too much Fairytale of New York”. I hate the shallow adverts and the amount of debt we invariably accrue. I hate seeing hurried mothers and their nagging brats shouting “I want, I want, I want”. I hate the vomit on the footpath as I walk up to work. I hate Christmas work parties. They’re uncomfortable, boring and ultimately end in tears. And I hate that the ‘season’ seems to start earlier every year. Debenhams are selling their Christmas stock already. There is already an increase in ‘must-have’ toys ads on TV. I have already been asked far too many times what my Christmas plans are. Bah bah humbug. It’s October 22^nd and it’s already irritating me.

Maybe the students have the right attitude. They arrive en masse and take over Molesworth Street. They beat drums, they scream, they shout, they dance. Then they depart leaving a huge mess in their wake. But where are they going? Where will 10,000 hyped up students go? To the Purty Kitchen, of course –

These flyers are strewn all over the streets.

“Let’s turn this Recession into a Session” – Genius!

“Every Drink Now €1.99” – More genius!

There’s somewhere between five and twelve million people outside the door of my office protesting about the budget. I can’t get out to get my lunch. Make them go away please!!!

Update: Feckin’ students are out there now. Thousands of them…with drums no less!!!

If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
‘Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong,
With chains upon my feet.
You know that ghost is me.
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost that you can’t see.

If I could read your mind, love,
What a tale your thoughts could tell.
Just like a paperback novel,
The kind the drugstores sell.
When you reached the part where the heartaches come,
The hero would be me.
But heroes often fail,
And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take!

I‘d walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script.
Enter number two:
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me.
But for now, love, let’s be real;
I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it.
I don’t know where we went wrong,
But the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back.

If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
‘Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong.
With chains upon my feet.
But stories always end,
And if you read between the lines,
You’ll know that I’m just tryin’ to understand
The feelin’s that you lack.
I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it.
I don’t know where we went wrong,
But the feelin’s gone
And I just can’t get it back!

– Gordon Lightfoot

And here’s Johnny Cash‘s great version from the Hundred Highways album: