Monday, February 13, 2017

The Duchess of Duke St And the Flower Sellers of Grafton St



The Duchess of Duke Street

Wrapped from head to toe against the hostile elements, surrounded by a riot of colour which cuts a sharp contrast with the grey February day, meet the flower ladies of Grafton Street.
They say the ladies are “the heart and soul of Grafton Street” and what helps save the road from becoming just another English high street. You’ll find the ladies bringing both wit and colour to the corners of Chatham, Harry and Duke Streets.
Tina Kelly tells us she’s been selling flowers all her life, starting off aged 12 helping her mother when Grafton St still had two-way traffic. She has seen a lot come and go from her perch on Duke Street. Tina tells Dublin.ie that one time she even met The Duke himself. “Yeah I met John Wayne.” “Sure I met them all,” she adds. “Sean Connery… I was talking away to him, Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan, Lisa Stanfield. I met an awful lot of them. And sure Eric Clapton, well I was talking to him on the street for nearly two hours and I hadn’t a clue who he was.”
A natural born story teller, you can tell Tina enjoys the banter that comes with the trade. Many of the customers are obviously regulars as there’s lots of first name usage. Sister-in-law Susanne, who mans the Harry Street corner, says “you have to enjoy talking to people.” And in case we hadn’t noticed, she adds: “Now I would be a talker!”.....



Continued:


https://dublin.ie/living/articles/the-flower-ladies-of-grafton-street/

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

IT'S WAR BABY AND I'M SCARED, SO SCARED



CIVIL WAR IS A COMING
Chomsky susses the show - we need a 'militant Labour movement' to fight the surreal fascist circus that neoliberalism has delivered to us with #Trump#Bannon of course is aware of the opposition and is into the aesthetics of crushing it.
That's what us normal folks would call 'war' or a brutal fascist state.
Some on the left are thrilled by this 'end of days' prospect.
Neoliberal days.
But civl wars are very very messy events.
With a lot of hate.
And though the Bernie troops and the Trump foot soldiers have much in common.
That common ground vanishes in secs when the victims start dropping.
And the memories linger.
Go whistle Dixie
It's not good.
But I suppose Chomsky is right, it has to be tried.
There has to be organised opposition.
But just remember we are up against a sociopath president with a #fascistwhispering in his ear.
It ain't going to be pretty.
Weird scenes inside the goldmine.
I blame Bush and the whole WMD lie for the degree of alienation that allowed a snake oil salesman like Trump come to town.
All those kids going off to die for a lie.
While Cheney et Blackwater all get rich.
And of course Mr Blackwater is hitched to the Trump snake oil wagon as we speak.
#Tinpot Trump's sales pitch was fuelled by the disappointment of Obama.
Hope?
Dope!
But most of that was down to the nihilistic Reps.
The GOPS that are letting Trump run riot unrestrained, are cowering in cowardice or are actually supporting him.
But these fucks have shown us their patriotism.
They were prepared to fuck their country over just to get one over on that 'niggah' in the White House.
Niggah in the White House.
A smart one too.
Uppity.
Jesus Clinton was bad enough.
But Hussein from who knows where.
Show us your birth cert.
Yet the clown rallied the loons.
Pointing out it's called the White House.
And Michelle's arms.
The audacity.
Yet now we have Trump with his daughter in the house.
His 'hot' daughter with a great body.
His daughter he would like to date.
Who he thinks about having sex with.
Hitler meets King Lear.
Then Iago Bannon.
Whispering flattering facist dreams in his Trumps ear.
Visions of concentration camps.
Rounding up all the Othellos.
And Melania Macbeth?
The price of ambition.
Just cos you're a high class hooker doesn't protect you from a sociopath John. 
Incest, plots, covert deals with foreign powers, talk of civil war.
Game of Thrones goes to the White House.
So.
Yo Mr Chomsky we ain't got no flying dragons.
And the fascists got the drones.
And there's not even military and security professionals sitting there adding more voices, perhaps even challenging their use.
No. No.
We are all talk about our vets and our military.
But could you wait outside please.
Can't have people meddling in Bannon's assassination plans.
Alan Ginsberg and Hunter S - we miss you.
You're needed in this war.
OK kids let's go.
Let's lock n load.