Eoin Butler

The Fantastic Mr Dahl

Came across this article (and this one) yesterday morning. I met Roald Dahl once when I was a child. He was doing a book signing in Kenny’s bookshop in Galway and my parents brought us along. You had to buy a book if you wanted to meet him. I bought the only book by him in the shop that I’d hadn’t read already: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Read the rest of this entry »

The whirr of the bank machine is my accountant. If I hear it, I’m solvent. If I don’t, I’m not.

Read the rest of this article here.

Signing off now…

Enjoy the weekend. I’m away. This song will be playing on constant rotation in my head until you hear from me again!

A Concise Anthology of Deadly Advertising Slogans

Marketing has been with us in one guise or another for over two thousand years. In fact, it’s often reckoned to be the world’s eighth oldest profession. (Some wags have commented on its remarkable resemblance to the thirteenth oldest; research marketing. That’s a fair point.) But for all that it has done for the betterment of mankind, there remain those who look upon this profession with distain.

For proof, look no further than the books of Naomi Klein, the comedy of Bill Hicks, the paranoid ramblings of Thom Yorke or any of the host of other more up-to-date pop culture references I will no doubt have come up by the time this article goes to print… Read the rest of this article here.

The Greatest (2006)

Readers letters

Dear Eoin,

I’ve never been lucky when it comes to love. My first husband Michael was great with the kids and the sex was fantastic. But one day he ran off with my best friend Tracy and the contents of our bank account.

I found new love with Dan. He was great with the kids and the sex was fantastic. But one day he ran off with my brother-in-law Pete and the contents of my lingerie drawer.Read the rest of this article here.

Miscellaneous Amusing Items I Come Across #43

Sorry, I’m obsessed with these stupid headlines. I’ve got a problem. I admit it. (Although now that I think of it, this one does call to mind a rather amusing interview I conducted last year.)

Nothing Came Out (2001)

Really beautiful track from a band that, in retrospect, I might have been kinder to in this 2002 album review for The Slate… Read the rest of this entry »

Published: Irish Times, July 29 2010

“To be fair, we did just fly past in a bright pink discotheque on wheels. He might have been a little bit distracted.”

‘I THINK I went to school with that guy,” mutters 28-year-old Chris Dunne of Absolute Limos as he navigates a roundabout in Clondalkin, west Dublin. Its 8pm on Saturday and we’re en route to the first pick-up of the night. When the passerby does not return his salute, Dunne is disappointed. “He didn’t even acknowledge me!”

To be fair, I point out, we did just whizz past in a bright red discotheque on wheels. He might have been a little bit distracted. Read the rest of this entry »

Of course, I don’t believe a word of it…

Back in the mid-90s I hitched a lift to Galway with a young businessman who drove a shiny black Mercedes. His job, he told me, involved rummaging around the attics and outhouses of rural Ireland and retrieving whatever rubbish he could find: old bicycles, obsolete household utensils, even discarded road signs.

Why, I asked him? He told me about a craze for Irish-themed bars that was sweeping Britain and continental Europe. Bar owners abroad were paying ridiculous prices for the kind of crap generally found gathering dust in our grandparents’ garages. Foot-pedal sewing machines were being used as tables in Bradford; High Nellies were hanging from tavern walls in Bratislava. Read the rest of this article here.