Happy Birthday, Prince of Darkness!

On this day 1897, Bram Stoker's Gothic masterpiece Dracula was first published. Famously referred to in the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire by Louis de Pointe du Lac as "the vulgar fictions of a demented Irishman." Nonetheless, academics have deemed it important enough to have written reams of shite about Stoker's creation.
The text has been interpreted as everything from a Christian allegory to evidence of the author's repressed desires (homosexuality, necrophilia, etc.) and it has even been claimed that Stoker died of syphilis (an outright lie, apparently). Thankfully, the renowned Stoker scholar Elizabeth Miller has done a masterful job of debunking the Postmodernist rubbish spewed by those who have superimposed their own hang-ups onto Stoker's work in her article Coitus Interruptus: Sex, Bram Stoker and Dracula.

backyard bliss

All the signs were there for classic surf in Dougmore last week. The reality, however, was disappointing; instead of clean, stacked lines it was typically fat and lumpy. Then, after driving back to Cork feeling dejected and having written off the chances of scoring decent waves that week, a quick glance at the forecast showed some promise for the South Coast: I decided another hour's driving was worth a shot. Driving over the crest of a narrow West Cork boreen the spray was visible first - Offshore!, followed by a perfectly peeling, shoulder-high, fast and hollow righthander - Yes! I would have the classic session I'd imagined after all: only not in Clare but right here in Cork.

Doom 'n' Gloom

Yes, I'm in a slightly gloomy frame of mind today:

'Eschatology (from the Greek ἔσχατος, Eschatos meaning "last" and -logy meaning "the study of") is a part of theology and philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world.'

Or when there's no surf.

the sickest species

Haven't posted anything for awhile because I just didn't feel like it. Sometimes you just got nothing to say; especially when disaster strikes on a massive scale and those affected are denied aid because of their rulers' political agenda. At such times the depravity of humans seems to know no bounds.

Thinkers debate what it is that makes us uniquely human and sets us apart from all the other sentient lifeforms: Our tool-making ability? The use of language? Our capacity to reason? Sometimes I think it's our limitless cruelty.