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Tonight is the night that the Christmas FM crew finally get a chance to have a get-together and enjoy themselves after “bringing the magic of Christmas” to Dublin and Cork for a month. I’ll be there, as I featured on the station, reading Christmas Stories on Keith Shanley’s Breakfast Show (along with my college classmate and friend Suzanne Scollard) and presenting a show on Christmas morning itself.

The station, which broadcast from the D4 Hotel in Ballsbridge, managed to raise a whopping €70,000 for their most Christmassy of chosen charities, the Simon Communities of Dublin and Cork – an incredible achievement – while helping bring a bit of Christmas spirit and joy to it’s many listeners.

Here’s a brief documentary video (by Jen) about the station, that even features me…

I meant to post this on Sunday… Dundalk man Jim Corr’s appeared last weekend on RTÉ’s new Saturday Night Show (hosted by that appalling Cork man Brendan O’Connor). Crap name for a show? Maybe… but at least it’s not “The Brendan O’Connor Show”…

And yes… Jim’s still bonkers… and he’s still going on about the New World Order stuff that he ranted about on the Last Word almost two years ago ahead of the first Lisbon Treaty. He’s still in way out of his depth and still abusing his fame and celebrity to spread this stuff and (repeatedly) promote his activist shite peddling web site.

I mean SURE… he’s entitled to his opinion and he’s certainly entitled to express it if he wants to… (although I believe RTÉ gave him way too much airtime here and any other presenter would have pulled him up on a few points far better than O’Connor could) – but if you’re to believe him, you’d have to believe the following:

So Christmas is upon us!

In the spirit of the recession, I’m going to recycle this image from a previous post from last year (but the feeling is still there in full!)…

By the way, as you may know if you know me (or if you follow me on twitter!), I’ve been on Christmas FM presenting “Christmas Stories” as part of the Breakfast Show for the past few weeks. Tomorrow, Christmas Day itself, I’m on for a very special show – which I’m presenting myself – from 9 to 10am. I may even go in dressed as Santa Claus! (- like I did in work… see pic below!)

So, if you’re in Dublin or Cork – unwrap your presents with me on your radio! The station is on 100.3FM in Dublin and 106.7FM in Cork. If you’re anywhere else in the world, you can tune in via the web site. You can also read the news team blog there and check out some of the stories we’ve been reading out in the mornings!

A very happy and safe Christmas to you all!

I should have had these clips in the “Irish Blog Awards 2009 – The Interviews” post, but didn’t get time to do much more (’cool’) editing … that is, until now:

This is John Williams… and no, he’s not the famous composer known for his movie scores, white beard and slightly Richard Attenborough -like looks… – although he has, like his more famous namesake, done work on television scores and various other audio productions in his capacity as a sound engineer.

He’s also one of Ireland’s most prolific twitterers. I nabbed him for a few words last Saturday night during a smoke break, and this is what he had to say for himself:

[2:54]

Also out in the smoking area (isn’t it always they way… the fun times happen out in the bleedin’ freezin’ cold!) was bubbly Cork lady, Catherine – from MyMunster.com – who spoke to me briefly about the site (they connect Munster rugby fans world-wide) and about why she was there at the Irish Blog Awards 2009.

[1:21]

Unfortunately, the only words I got out of event organiser and blogging supremo Damien Mulley (while the recorder was on, anyway), were the following:


[00:08]

… so I wandered off and interviewed Rick then.

… and yes, this is the last of these interviews (sadly)!

I know the song is over a decade old, but since that fateful second that the first (who was far from the last) person in the crowd at the Irish Blog Awards in Cork shouted out “You’re GORGEOUS!” at someone on stage, it’s been playing over and over in my brain. It’s one of those songs that, when a DJ plays it, you think “Oh…man! …What a TUNE! I haven’t heard it in ages! (etc. etc.)” and you bop along… and it brings soppy memories flooding back…

Anyway, “You’re GORGEOUS!” became quite the catchphrase for Saturday night’s proceedings… as this picture of Grandad (taken by Donncha, doctored by Twenty) fondly recalls:

So!… A simple blog post for today, as it’s about all my brain can muster after another day of dopey tiredness (and football… hey, I scored a winning goal tonight! Hurrah!) Here’s the video for the song of the moment, the song that’s been stuck in my head since that fateful night (although I can’t for the life of me remember if DJ Brian Greene played it at the aftershow disco… I was probably too busy jumping on the bouncy castle…)

Here it is: Babybird’s lovely little ditty – “You’re Gorgeous“. Enjoy!