Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed….
Seriously, he was such an angelic presence… not otherworldly…in fact, very present this presence…
A smiling rascal if you needed him to be… this most musical and mischievous archangel of Ballymun… no airs, plenty of graces...
Of course, Glen was the shining star of the Christmas Eve busk… sometimes the only one reminding the rest of us that Christmas began with a refugee born in a manger, which is hardly a step from living on the street.
To be utterly yourself by being more interested in others - a clue for any of us trying out different personas. He really was who you thought he was. He could never walk by a person living rough without checking they were OK… and more than that, he worked very hard so that less people had to live on the streets in the first place.
When the crowds got bigger and for safety’s sake Glen had to agree to move the busk to a stage kindly provided outside The Gaiety Theatre, he would say 'we’ll give it our best but it’s not a busk if we’re not on the street!’ …because that’s who he was - a performer at eye level in any situation. The stage was a separation he wouldn’t recognize. Of all the grand and gigantic venues he and The Frames played, you sensed the street was his most favoured place to perform. And street people, his favourite audience.
Voice of the streets. A choir of angels in one man. The rest of us blessed to stand there beside our very own and very earthed Angel Gabriel… All of us welcome in his choir, whatever shape or form.
….and I’m telling myself this morning that if he never existed, then he can never cease to exist. For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case.
May you rest in the peace you gave to so many.
Bono
This exchange between @SenBlumenthal and Trump’s judicial nominees is utterly astounding.
If you can watch this and still think this country isn’t falling into authoritarianism and fascism under Donald Trump, then you are not being honest with yourself.
Pacheco Pereira sugere a resposta que Portugal deveria dar ao Conselho da Paz (Board of Peace) de Donald Trump.
👑😆É só muito bom!
[Princípio da Incerteza, 22.02]
"It was a breakthrough, and I was loved and read and seen," the superstar author Karl Ove Knausgård told Jeremy Strong of his rarefied early-career success. "But then I realized there's no end to how much you need if you go down this path."
https://t.co/surm87kCYW
Ricky Gervais‘ next stand-up special will arrive on Netflix on Dec. 30.
“Mortality,” the hour he’s been touring since 2024, was filmed in 2025 at the London Palladium.
https://t.co/lVqnSrEMSY
Quando se vencem eleições o território político a dominar não se resume ao governo - deve alargar-se aos vários sistemas de poder, incluindo o judicial e o mediático. A esquerda contemporânea não incorpora essa visão. A direita vê e executa.