Haven’t been on Twitter since Russia invaded Ukraine. Hot takes, meme noise, and am-i-the-asshole all powerless when that nasty power-bloated shit decided to assert his vision as of course, guns and bombs, death, blood and soil. Today I’m trying to stay off Instagram. Just for twenty four hours, just for today, just to feel that…
Category: Uncategorized
Fragments, #438
I will go to the cafe, pull up the chair at the table by the window, and become at once both swallowed by the world as if sucked into the gob of a passing fish, and a poster of this little stub of universe hung up to make newcomers feel at home. I am that…
Song: Lightseeking
Wrote this a few weeks ago and wanted to record a demo over the Christmas. On the last day of the year I managed to record a very basic version that I can work from. Chords: C#m A (5th) E and C#m B E Bit samey, may need a bridge and some variety Demo:http://donalkelly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/seeTheLight.mp3 Lyrics…
Another poorly recorded underdeveloped moody tune.
Come on over. Could be a good song in their somewhere. I like some of the lyrics and how they gel together. But maybe chords are too samey, the structure lacks progressions, and the opening verse is too vague? is it about motivation? trying to get out of inertia, reach for a meaningful life… the…
Oh dear, another rambling musical interlude: The Endless Search For a Cure
I’ve been listening to Bring It All Back Home. Had I a better voice, better guitar skills, the smallest echo of lyrical ability, or a pronity to happy accidents, this might be said to be influenced. http://donalkelly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SearchForACure.mp3 Chords are very simple… A D C Blues 12 bar with interlewdeling bits. Lyrics. Mouthfuls and mouthfuls or…
Lough Corrib: Shots From Home
Some shots taken in and around Baurisheen.
Mayfly 10KM 2013
A new brood of Swans
Mute swans, Cygnus olor, are a common sight on Lough Corrib. Cygnets are rarer, but this couple have a healthy flock of five following bundles of grey. They chirp as they trail after their parents, darting after anything edible and squabbling. The hen is cautious, hanging back while the more confident cob approaches, signalling safe…
Photowander: Owenriff Waterfall after Rain
After two days of heavy rain the Owenriff river is flowing at full throttle. The waterfall that marks the northern boundary of Oughterard is a roaring torrent.
Galway,May 10th, 2013
Showery, bright in between. Meeting people that you know randomly on the street. Walking an hour from a broken down car to a locked office. Wandering around doing errands.
Wonderful Things
Up and down, so it goes. repeat something often enough, it becomes a mantra. The good with the bad. i wrote a song about acknowledging in a time of loss that good things can happen. The cold winter earth harbours the bursting buds of Spring. Listen:: [audio:http://donalkelly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/wonderfulThings.mp3|titles=Wonderful Things] Recorded simply in one take with Audacity,…
The Mountain
A short short story about two small brats and one big hill. Serena and Andrew were 7 and 8 years old, respectively, when they climbed the mountain. It took them a full day to get to the top and when they made it they sat down and cried and cried. In the beginning, they both…
Teaching English in Korea: Activity Doodles
At my desk I always tried to have a few black pens, a pencil, ruler, eraser. In between or after getting through some book corrections before the kids arrived I created doodled away at some exercises, mostly to focus myself on what I wanted to cover and what students of some class should/could know. Each…
Good Together
LISTEN!: [audio:http://donalkelly.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/GoodTogether.mp3|titles=Good Together] Another day, another song. This time I returned to Audacity, downloaded the latest version along with the package of plugins and the decoders (to export mp3s). I used Fruityloops to create a basic rhythm track after I had played around with the song structure. I wanted to have a feel of change…
Moods of Conamara
Rain tumbles down. From the swift clouds that scrape over the maamturks it pours onto the boggy land below. The wipers of the aging Peugeot van snicksnack across the windscreen as I drive the winding road north from Oughterard. With no radio reception, I try a CD but the speakers are tinny and irritating. Visibility…
36 Hours in Transit
July 15th, 08:00, Busan, Korea. Torrential morning. Last morning. Feels like no plane could get up out of this rain. But bags to pack and a bike to box, already hot and sticky and late. Time for a haircut? Up first for breakfast, and then a couple of hours of folding, loosening, taping, stressing, and…
Never Effortless
It feels colder than the reports, the promises of July burdened by skies of rain and mist. The summer has dragged I’m told, a few spits of kind soft green weather between the canopies of grey. Still, the beauty is there, if under a soggy morning’s breath you choose to step onto the earth. Hopes…
Leaving Busan
Rain is hammering down outside, striking its damp intricate melody on the cacophony of roofs and streets. How could it be rainy season again? Where did the year go? The shapeless sprawl of Busan took a long time to imprint its layout, and deliver me from following scribbled notes of subway stations and getting off…
The Long Span
The long span, a slice of sky stretched from border to border, time ticked by a bird’s wing on the wind. Morning shuffling from door to door, knocking quietly with soft insistent knuckles, on the heads of the dream-enclosed. Spring has been chewing for a while, and finally it is getting to grips with the…
You Khan do it.
The scale of information on the Internet is exploding. But can it be harnessed to deliver quality education, and can this make it to the concrete classroom? If one teacher can give 91 million lessons… then yes it Khan. If it can be known, then it’s probably on Wikipedia. If it can be shown, it’s…