the calm before the storm

There was a silent protest of sorts in the Phoenix Park tonight. Arcade Fire played the first of their two gigs here in Dublin. The gig is taking place about 800m from my house as the crow flies. They must be doing an acoustic set because I haven't heard a bloody thing all night. Of course when Robbie Williams was playing a couple of years ago in the park I couldn't drown the sound out for love nor money. It's an awful feeling, standing in your kitchen and hearing the fucker sing 'Angels' and not being able to turn him off.

I'm going to the Arcade Fire gig tomorrow so it will be interesting to hear how it went tonight. On a separate note I've been strolling around town over the last few days and there's a proliferation of posters about the place advertising 'A celebration of the Russian Revolution'. If you're into ice picks in the back of the head, salt mines, mass extermination and queueing for bread then this is the event for you.

Finally, I've just watched Arsenal win 7-0 in their Champions League match against Slavia Prague. I was really embarrassed for the Czech team who were pretty close to useless. I put €20 on Arsenal to win the Premiership this season but I've already got €20 worth of value out of them and its still only October. I only started supporting them 27 years ago because a bloke walked into school with a red over the shoulder plastic Arsenal bag with 'The Gunners' emblazoned on it. Thank you Graham Doolin.