I Kill Her

This is my 4,000th post.

I've decided to quit the aul blog.

I might call bullshit on this decision and not be able to do without it and keep blogging tomorrow, but probably not. I have been thinking about it for a while, and have almost done it on a few occassions over the last while, but I made a decision last night to just do it, especially after working through my feelings about de-blogging my life with Lili and FionnTimes.

There are LOADS of reasons for this decision. It's probably a bit wanky to work them out on this post, but then again in and around 1,000 people come to this blog every day, so I should probably explain to all of y'all who read and comment on UnaRocks parts of my thinking.

I want to feel what it's like not to be a blogger. I've been doing this since 2005.

I'm sort of sick of the obligations and constraints I feel about it, like thinking "oh, I have to blog that, I must do that."

I'm writing a book at the moment and I need time out to concentrate on that.

I think I've grown out of it. It's my 26th birthday next week. I've never been really comfortable with the persona that has grown out of how I blog. It's my own fault, of course, this whole 'UnaRocks' thing. When I was talking to Lili about it last night, she understood, she said that she could see how people misread me and mistake the personality that emerges from this blog as my actual self. I'm not at ease with that, and I never have been. But then again, that's my own fault, because I suppose that's how I've put myself across. I can totally understand how people would think I'm a self-promoting, ligging little dickhead, although I would like to think that I'm not really.

Although the blog has allowed me to get a few gigs or whatever, and has been like a seperate title ("journalist AND blogger") I sometimes wonder *dons Carrie Bradshaw mask* how it may have actually hindered me in ways. This blog is very bitty and instant. I am a better writer, a more serious person, a deeper thinker, and more professional than it suggests. I think that rarely shines through because of whatever format or voice I have created. That kind of concerns me.

So.

I will probably return to the blogging world in some form or another (or maybe even to UnaRocks), but for now, this is over. That might change, but that's where my mind is at at the moment. There are a couple of online projects floating around in my head, so I'll probably do those instead and avoid any sort of personal platform like this again, because I think it has run its course. And then there's The Book, which I have a lot of work to do on. I'm sure you can keep up with all these boring adventures on Twitter!

So yeah, I guess it's a big decision really. Even sort of emotional. I've made some great friends through blogging, and met some awesome people. And I've learnt a lot. I've had some great scraps and good laughs and fun discussions. But I'm looking forward to a little sense of freedom that will hopefully come from this. It's not that my heart isn't in it anymore, it's just that it's a nagging thing in my head that won't go away, and I've always been one for just fucking making decisions and then dealing with the fall out as it comes. Anyway, it's hardly that dramatic!

I just feel like stepping away from it for a while.

I hope I have contributed something to the blogging community, although I'm not quite sure what that is. All I know is that for some reason the number of people who read this grew and grew over a period of time, and that was always so weird to me and I never knew what to do about it apart from keep blogging...

Finally, I just want to thank everyone who stopped by and read a post, or commented, or slagged me off, or bigged me up, or gave me advice, or mailed me about stuff, or linked me, or talked about the blog, or liked it, or hated it. It has been real. The SoundCheck blogs and JacksGraff will continue. Also, I'd like to ask for an easy ride if I decide that I can't live without my addiction and come back to UnaRocks!

You rock,

Una Mullally

A kinda new Dublin

My new gaff has sort of changed how I view Dublin, and here's a piece I wrote about that in yesterday's Tribune.

Darklight benefit

March 1st sees the Darklight homies take over the Sugar Club for a night of music and movies. Should be a fun night!

Deets:
Darklight: The Benefit
A Night Of Movies & Music in aid of the Darklight Festival 2009
March 1st, 2009 @ 8pm
Sugar Club, Dublin
Tickets EU20
All proceeds donated to Darklight Festival
Free beer on the night (while stocks last) courtesy of Sol

Featuring
Dublin: The Movie... The Live Remix
Plus live music from David Kitt, Somadrone & Sunken Foal
Playing records: Annie T and Una Rocks

Darklight website.

Telling the truth, for a change

Jim Carroll shows why he is the best music journalist in the country by reviewing the new U2 album.

I get so fucking sick of seeing the same journos wheeled out to blab on about how great a new U2 release is everytime one is unveiled. I get so sick of the circle jerks that are "listening parties" where the same old faces hang out to hmmmandhawwwww about how great mediocre rock and roll is (for the record, I didn't get invited to Principle Management's listening party for 'No Line On The Horizon' last week or whenever it was.)

I get so sick of journalists who refuse to actually tell the truth about something just because it will be to their own personal detriment. I get sick of journalists who care about guestlist, and blags, and staying on the right side of PR heads and promoters, and not wanting to tell a truth that might hurt or that might be nasty, or that might mean there's no plus one for them in the post, or that might piss people off.

This mentality is INGRAINED in music journalism in Ireland. Just ask people who used to work for Hotpress whose album reviews were intefered with to save face. Just ask people who write reviews for certain publications that they don't fucking believe in! Just ask those people who wank all over an album or a festival or a band just because it is to their own personal benefit to do so.

I hate that shit. But it's easy to take that route, very easy in fact, far more comfortable! And it means you can chill the max backstage at any festival you want, get priority on interviews, get all the right invites, get all the guestlist you want, and exclusives and all the backslapping you want. And it stinks.

Which is why I have nothing but respect when Jim goes and writes something like this. Because he doesn't have to. But when you tell the truth, and when you're honest, you don't have to answer to anyone.

Respect.

GlastoBoss

Bruce Springsteen is headlining this year's Glastonbury Festival.

Rock.

Bravo to all the Blog Award winners!

Still bummed I missed the Blog Awards due to work stuff all weekend, but how and ever, the results are out and the winners are:

Best Popculture Blog
rapture ponies

Best Blog from a Journalist - Sponsored by Mamut
Markham Nolan - expad.ie

Best Food/Drink Blog - Sponsored by Bord Bia
the daily spud

Best Fashion Blog - Sponsored by Spinnakerpro
beaut.ie

Best Arts and Culture Blog - Sponsored by Poetry Ireland
pursued by a bear

Best Political Blog - Sponsored by Digital Revolutionaries
cedar lounge

Best Group Blog - Sponsored by DineToMeet.ie
dublinblog.ie

Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog - Sponsored by Edgecast Media
igaeilge

Best Technology Blog/Blogger - Sponsored by Bitbuzz
Justin Mason - taint.org

Best Sport and Recreation Blog - Sponsored by Boards.ie
The kop blog

Best News/Current Affairs Blog - Sponsored by IGO People
Suzy Byrne mamanpoulet

Best Specialist Blog - Sponsored by iQ Content
irisheconomy.ie

Best Newcomer - Sponsored by Teamworkpm.net
Trust Tommy

Best Blog of a Business - Sponsored by RedCardinal.ie
The blacknight blog

Best Music Blog - Sponsored by DownloadMusic.ie
nialler9

Best Personal Blog - Sponsored by Microsoft Ireland’s Developer and Platform Group
annie rhiannon.

Best Humour Blog - Sponsored by Beecher Networks
The Swearing Lady

Best Photo Blog - Sponsored by Pix.ie
Ryan Whalley glasseyalley.com

Best Blog Post - Sponsored by KRO IT Solutions
K8 the GR8: “The Secret Fire”

Grand Prix Prize - Best Blog sponsored by McConnells
Suzy Byrne - Mamanpoulet.com

Well done to everyone!

You Gotta Give 'Em Hope

Yay! Sean Penn won the Oscar for Milk.

Bitches With Wolves - 'Tip Of My Tongue'

Myself and Nialler were talking the other day about the lack of electro pop clubby stuff in Dublin in comparison to London, and it's kind of playing on my mind because I've been listening to 'Tip Of My Tongue' by BWW (you can go listen on their MySpace) a lot today.

Bitches With Wolves buck the trend when it comes to Irish music from 'the scene'. There are very few people out there making club pop organically who aren't part of a bigger machine; a label, or a giant writing team or something. But James and his bitches manage to make hot party music made for clubs. It's fun, dark, glittery, and very danceable. You just know if a big producer got their hands on tunes like 'Tip Of My Tongue', they would be hits.

Part Sam Sparro, part Lady Gaga, unashamedly fashionable, offensive (their should be a counter on stage to measure how many times James says "fucking cunts", "cunts", "motherfucking cunts" and anything that ends in "cunts", really, live), built for dark dancefloors filled with hot people - this bitch has got his shit going on.

Bitches With Wolves played the GCN Icon party in Tripod last night, play Thinktank in Temple Bar tonight (as far as I know) and Catch in Shoreditch on Feb 28th.

UnaRocks articles of the day

Dolly Parton won't be in the new Hannah Montana film - AP

The best online video lectures - Slate

Pretty comprehensive airline sick bag collection - Sick Sack

Republican lawmakers in Georgia and the Christian Coalition want queer theory professors fired - Raw Story

Taylor Swift interview - Rolling Stone

US senator compares gays to radical Muslims - ABC

NYU protests get serious - New York Magazine

The mystery of Ireland's worst driver - BBC

Hot, sweaty people at a Justice gig - Village Voice

Jury selection begins in gay porn murder trial - Advocate

Japanese business cards - Danny Choo

MF Doom, now DOOM - Pitchfork

Kings of Leon are being stalked - Spin

Picture of battered Rihanna sparks media ethics debate - Gawker

Confessions of an iPod Touch artist - Wired

this song has been in my head since Wednesday @ Pantibar

The Rihanna photo

Someone in the LAPD has leaked a police photograph of Rihanna after Chris Brown allegedly beat her up. TMZ has it here.

It's pretty upsetting.

Rock!

Thanks to EVERYONE who came down to SoundCheck Battle of the Bloggers last nigh - SO MUCH FUN! Full report will be up on the SoundCheck blog later.

Rock.

SoundCheck tonight!

Yo! See y'all down at SoundCheck Battle of the Bloggers tonight. Was on Phantom earlier talking about it with Nialler, big up to Sinead & Front Row for having us on.

Get down there early tonight folks. Kicks off @ 7pm free in until 11pm, fiver after.

Let's wreck it!

(spotted: Zach, AC and Kelly hanging out in Spy just a few short moments ago)

Lily Ellen - 'Womanizer'

Nouveau Vadge @ Seomra Spraoi

Nouveau Vadge is a night of music, art and all sorts of 'cunst' happening @ Seomra Spraoi on February 28th from 9pm (€12 donation at the door, more if you can afford it, less if you can't.)

They also have the best flyer in the history of the universe for the night, click on it there. Really looking forward to this!

Lily Allen's new tattoo, pretty rad

The (Dublin) Hills

via Tainer Bang

Welcome To Heartbreak.... WOAH!

Saw this vid on Nialler.

Fucking savage:


KANYE WEST "Welcome To Heartbreak" Directed by Nabil from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

It's my favourite song from the album too.

Obama sushi

(via Gawker)

Scenes from the Great Recession 2009

Bravo, El Chancero.

Zero

Listen to the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs tune on their MySpace.

It's a little more industrial than their previous stuff, yet the vocals are more glossy and epic than I was expecting. I like the jerky 80s drum beat and the choppy guitar/synth/sound throughout. Quite German, ja?

Congrats to Allison Goldtrash

Last night, after a potato bake in the turret with FionnTimes and Rueben, we went to the final of the quest to find a student drag queen to host Soup Bitchin', Student Low Down on Wednesdays @ Pantibar.

The winner was Allison Goldtrash aka Sean, who we were there to support, which was awesome. I thought it was such a great decision to make. There were plenty of completely traditional drag queens there to choose from and it would have been so easy to go for the obvious option, but Panti chose the more left-field alterno-gay entrant. w00t!

Pushing things forward.

SoundCheck tonight: Let the Battle Commence

MAN! Am I looking forward to tonight. It's the Battle of the Bloggers (Facebook event is here, more info on the SoundCheck blog) and it's going to be ROCKING!

Myself, Nialler9, Jim Carroll, Rick O’Shea, Ian Wright (Thrill Pier), NaRocRoc, Sweet Oblivion, Rapture Ponies, Aoife McIndieHour, Bluebirds Are So Natural and Dublin Streets will all be DJing from 7pm until LATE.

The line-up times are on the Facebook event page.

If you're heading down to SoundCheck @ Spy tonight, my words of advice would be to get there early. If you're hungry after work, never fear! Along with our free cupcake buffet, Spy is now serving food until 9pm. AND they'll throw in a bottle of wine for a tenner if you're ordering grub. Pretty rocking.

As usual, along with a wealth of DJing talent, we have great drink promos: two-for-one cocktails until 11pm, €4 vodka and anything (incl. Red Bull) and cheap beers and ciders. It's FREE IN until 11pm, and a fiver after. Le Cirque kicks off upstairs @ 11pm too, so it's two clubs in one!

Tonight's gonna be great, see yiz down there!

Fever Ray - 'When I Grow Up'

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

Dentist

Ow

Delorentos call it a day, almost

Really shocked by getting this statement just now from their PR:

We've got some sad news.

It's with a very heavy heart that we have to let you know that Ronan has decided to leave the band. He feels it’s best for him to move on and do other things. The three of us will still be making music and will let you know what happens next.

As our songs always came from the four of us playing together we've also decided that it wouldn't feel right to continue "delorentos" without him.

We're all very proud of the songs we've written over the last year, we feel they're some of the best we've ever done, and as a result we're determined not to discard them or let them go.

Next month, the four of us are going to record this album together and plan on making it something we'll all be proud of. It'll be our last collection of songs as delorentos, and we hope you'll like them.

We want to thank everyone that's supported us since we started, we'd never have gotten this far without you. We hope to play a gig or two to say goodbye.

We'll be in touch soon with more details.

Ross, Níal and Kieran and Ro

Congrats to the Blog Award nominees!

Well done to all the Blog Award nominees (all the shortlists are here). No noms for me this year, but I'm still gonna try and make the awards, even if I have to fly back first thing Sunday morning for work :(

Anyway, go team blogosphere!

Ben, the alcoholic tortilla wrap

By Conor The Shark aka Dudehawk.

Your daily Lindsay & Sam epic argument update

The New York Post has details on the latest Valentine's barney.

A guide to Peaches Geldof's tattoos

On Gawker.

Before I got a new gaff, I moved back in with my folks

And this is what that was like.

Twat

I've finally given in to Twitter. You can follow me @ twitter.com/unarocks

No More Mr Nice Gay

Panti made a post about attending the LGBT Noise demonstration on Dame Street and was seriously unimpressed by the turn out.

Read her thoughts, and the thoughts of others in the comment section by clicking the link above.

some photees from the weekend

Ze Weekend

Friday: moved into the new gaff. I love it. It has a turret. Nuff sed. Went to Q&A and Partie Monster too. Lots of fun.

Saturday: More moving stuff and running around the world. The Rocky Horror Picture Show @ the Sugar Club was AWESOME. Bravo to Tainer Bang for being amazing as usual. We danced are feet off in Spy afterwards.

Sunday: Worksies and chilling in the gaff last night.

PS: that photee is the view from our new living room.

something for the weekend

a couple of Irish blogs I discovered recently that I really like

Literally, a couple.

Philth.ie is Phil's blog and it's awesome. Really nice design too. Thanks to FionnTimes for alerting me to that one.

Then there's I Just Got A Text by the Rack Pack (who are also SoundCheck homies). This blog exists for people who feel guilty about deleting old txts and want to share them instead, like "And she has the face of a Rottweiler. And the vagina. Of a Rottweiler."

Check them out.

I'm feeling quite dramatic today

Fight Like Apes wish everyone an Unhappy Valentine's Day

Did you stick things up her?

UnaRocks articles of the day

Jay-Z is gonna fuck Chris Brown's shit up - Mirror

11 best lesbian Valentine dates - AfterEllen

How the Facebook '25 random things' craze really started - Slate

Boy, 9, won't do time for killing his dad - Houston Chronicle

JNLRs are in - Hotpress

Police want to nail Michael Phelps for hitting a bong - AP

The top 36 American Idol contestants - New York Magazine

Video of the Buffalo plane crash - YouTube

Awesome full-body costume that's a working Game Boy Tetris game! - Boing Boing Gadgets

First gay person to headline the White House correspondents dinner - Gawker

Rich nerd - Wired

Lessons in love from Jennifer Aniston, to Jennifer Aniston - Daily Beast

Sex in Hollyoaks is educational - Guardian

Beth Ditto naked again

(via Perez)

Choice Music Prize live line-up announced

Fight Like Apes, Mick Flannery, Halfset, Jape, Messiah J & The Expert and RSAG will be playing in Vicar St on Wednesday 4 March. David Holmes doesn't do duvets live sets (or DJ sets most of the time actually, considering he must cancel 90% of his shows when you think about it) and Lisa Hannigan, The Script and Oppenheimer have touring commitments.

Tickets are €24, on sale now.

For some reason, I woke up with this movie in my head today

Oxegen: Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

Yeah Yeah Yeahs are set to play Oxegen, woohoo!

They're one of my favourite bands EVER, and I've only seen them once at Electric Picnic, which was one of the highlights of my life maybe (too much?) so I can't wait to see them again. I'd fucking walk over broken glass to see them play.

Also confirmed this morning are Razorlight, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Pete Doherty, Elbow, The Ting Tings, White Lies, Fight Like Apes, Pendulum and Jason Mraz.