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April 26, 2011
Sean’s music 23 … Thin Lizzy
Posted by Brendano under Blogging, Death, Ireland, Memories, Music | Tags: rock music, Sean O'Brien, Thin Lizzy |[24] Comments
Sean liked Thin Lizzy … in particular, he regarded the guitar riff in ‘Emerald’ as the best rock riff ever. That was his favourite Lizzy song (it’s in his YouTube ‘favourites’); others he liked included classics such as ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ and ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’.
I wrote a piece on Lizzy on another blogsite a few years ago … here it is …
Thin Lizzy were arguably the best Irish rock band. They started as a three-piece in the early seventies … Phil Lynott and drummer Brian Downey from Crumlin in Dublin; Eric Bell, the lead guitarist, from Belfast.
‘Whiskey in the Jar’ is adapted from an old Irish ballad: I think they recorded it as a kind of joke or novelty track.. They expected nothing of it, but it got them on Top of the Pops and on the road to success, and excess. It’s still a great track, in my opinion … one of those happy accidents that manage to capture and preserve some magic from the place and the time and the people present. (more…)
April 17, 2011
Six months
Posted by Brendano under Blogging, Death, Ireland, Memories | Tags: bereavement, Sean O'Brien |[16] Comments
It is six months today since Sean died. That was a Sunday in autumn; this is a Sunday in spring, and the weather is beautiful. The leaves on the Norway maple were turning yellow then; now it has new green leaves.
I visited Sean’s grave this morning: the grass is growing and will need be kept in check. His Munster rugby jersey on the grave is fading, but the Bob Marley t-shirt is holding up well. I had been to mass – singing in the choir for Palm Sunday – and I saw many of the neighbours and friends who were so good to us on 17 October and subsequently. It’s a great community.
Three of Sean’s friends called to see us last Sunday – one of them, Mike, gave us a large, framed pencil drawing of Sean that he had done. I will not reproduce it here as that wouldn’t do it justice. It will always hang on our wall. It is beautiful, and it captures Sean very well. We are very grateful to Mike. (more…)
January 13, 2011
Blog rationale, and some diary extracts
Posted by Brendano under Anecdotes, Biography, Blogging, Death, Ireland, Memories, The music of what happened | Tags: Sean O'Brien |[12] Comments
The purpose of this blog, since 17 October last, has been to document the life of my son Sean, who died on that day at the age of 19. I hope to build up as detailed a picture as I can.
I will never manage a true representation of Sean … he was too complex and multifaceted for that, and I, like everyone else that knew him, knew him only partly. I loved him, as did many others.
The fragments I present on the blog – photos of moments and people in his life, anecdotes, poems, the things he liked, what he said, the games he played, his music, what people said about him – may form a kind of wall mosaic that, from a distance, looks like a reasonable likeness of Sean. Up close, only the fragments will be visible, but it’s the best I can do. The more fragments I add, the truer the mosaic … or at least that’s the theory.
It will be a sort of memorial to Sean, though the very fact that one is required still breaks our hearts. It will be good for me and, I hope, for others. I know that many people who knew Sean read this blog (they are very welcome to comment here, by the way). It won’t bring Sean back, but it may help him to be held in the memory, as he so deserves to be. (more…)
January 2, 2011
Another year
Posted by Brendano under Blogging, Death, Ireland, Memories | Tags: happy new year, Sean O'Brien |[12] Comments
I’ve had this blog for eight months now. It’s had 57,000 hits in that time, and 3,900 comments … probably not bad for a one-person blog. I enjoy blogging, and it has provided a platform for posting thoughts and images concerning Sean, so I’m glad of that.
We had a good Christmas and New Year, although of course we missed Sean very much. Pauline and I had our first alcohol-free night in a fortnight or so last night, and feel much better for it. We intend to make positive changes in our lives in 2011.
I’ll continue to write about Sean and his life, likes and loves here. One of his friends wrote on Facebook this morning: ‘I’m very grateful for all he taught me in his life, which is a lot more than he would think.’
I wish everyone that reads this blog a happy and fulfilling 2011.
November 6, 2010
Cymbeline, thanks for the note. Please feel free to comment here if you wish.
November 4, 2010
I started this blog on 4 May, so it is six months old today. It has been a strange six months, which has seen the death of several people I knew or to whom I had some connection … notably our son Sean, about whom I have written here at some length.
Life goes on, and we need to face the future with optimism while missing and remembering Sean. I had been planning to post slideshows of him as a baby and young boy with his family and friends … we have a great many photos (fewer of recent times, unfortunately). But the Internet is a strange place and there are creeps out there; furthermore, there would be a risk of boring people and of self-indulgence or maudlinism. So I won’t do that. Instead I’ll write from time to time about Sean’s musical favourites and so forth. (more…)
September 28, 2010
I see that my blog has just passed the ’30,000 hits’ mark. I started it around the beginning of May, and it had roughly 10,000 hits in each of the months of May and June. The rate of views then fell, possibly due to my inattention and/or some determined attacks by an ID hijacker; it has risen again lately.
Thanks to all who have shown an interest, and especially the most regular commenters, for whom I have a great deal of affection and respect. I intend to keep blogging here (DV), and hope to have interesting things to report in the coming weeks and months.
If not, I’ll just make some up.
September 24, 2010
ID hijacking in blogland
Posted by Brendano under Blogging | Tags: ID hijacking, impersonation, stalkers, stalking |[38] Comments
Yesterday a WordPress blogger called Theoretical Democatrix picked up on my ‘Human being = mechanism?’ post, and posted a response on his/her blog, on which I commented.
When I revisited that blog last night, I found that someone else had posted a comment using my name and avatar (it is comment #5 there as I write this). Not only that, but he had entered my WordPress address in the ‘URL’ field when making the comment, so anyone clicking on ‘Brendano’ was led to my WordPress blog. The comment therefore looked as if it was genuinely from me.
Those of you with WordPress blogs, please be aware that any comment purporting to be from me may actually be from my personal stalker.
