It's a wet, windy, and cold St. Pat's Day morning here in Wisconsin. It's still dark outside but from what I can tell, we did not get that inch of snow they'd been predicting. We did get a ton of rain though, which is good and bad. The snow is mostly gone, but it's so sooooo muddy and sloppy now.
So, St. Patrick's Day. Do you celebrate? We don't. I mentioned in a previous post that I do have a chunk of Irish in my ancestry and I've always sort of embraced my Irish side because I was into great Irish bands like U2 and Boomtown Rats. Then I found out I was more Scottish than Irish. Doh! Ah well, what's that saying, 'Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!'
I have my Gaelic Storm CDs playing today. Are you familiar with them? They were the steerage band in the Titanic movie. I'm sure you know the scene . . .
I couldn't find a decent pic online that actually shows the Gaelic Storm members more clearly. Not all of the musicians you see in that scene are from the band. The man to the left of the lady on fiddle on the far right is Patrick Murphy, singer and leader of Gaelic Storm. The lady might be Kathleen from the band. The black hat guy mostly blocked by Patrick in this photo is Steve.
Gaelic Storm had a small following already but Titanic really made them popular. The first thing I did when we finally got internet at our house back then was find a Titanic message board and became completely obsessed. Those were the early days of 'social media,' before Facebook and Instagram and all the evils of today. I made many friends on the Titanic boards and had sooo much fun! And we all learned so much about Gaelic Storm through all that. They were touring a lot, playing Irish Fests and small towns, making them easily accessible. Band member Steve was also known to hop on the boards and chat with fans.
The height of Titanic chaos was 1998 but carried on for quite a while after. It was 2002 when I finally saw Gaelic Storm live, and yes, we were all still chatting on the Titanic boards online even then. I saw them in a tiny little town near me called Green Lake.
My sister and I went, and even got to meet the band after because it was such a small venue and they were well known to meet and greet.
This photo was actually taken by band member Steve. That's my sister on the left, singer Patrick in the middle, and me on the right. Steve had said, "On the count of three, give him a kiss!" We all laughed like 'yeah yeah, whatever,' but he really did count to three and my sister really did kiss him. It was hysterical. I even got their autographs that night.
Their third CD had just come out shortly before we saw them live. It's called Tree, which is actually a play on the strong accent making the word 'three' come out like 'tree.' (Actually, not all members of the band were even Irish.) Everyone's favorite song at the time was An Poc Ar Buile, about a goat on a rampage. Tree is still my favorite of their CDs.
Band members started coming and going shortly after this. I saw them I think three more times back around that time. I do have their first seven CDs but was losing interest by then. Not only were most original members gone but they'd sort of started to change their style, taking on a bit more of a modern music style instead of the more traditional Irish jig type stuff. Bands change and evolve, I know, but I just lost interest along the way. I do still love those first three CDs though!
I'm wearing a green t-shirt today and listening to Gaelic Storm, and that's about the extent of my St. Patrick's Day celebration. Oh, and here are the almost nothing decorations I have for the occasion . . .
Are you celebrating today?
I'm listening to the link you shared right now, it's catchy. I think I like the instrumental part of the music the best though. We don't do much to celebrate over here. I did make soda bread this morning. And my youngest and I go get Shamrock Shakes from McDonald's. On nice days we walk but we'll probably drive today since it's chilly (we got a dusting of snow overnight, most of it has already melted from the sun). Hope you have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteThe early Gaelic Storm stuff is indeed quite catchy. They have some instrumental ones (like the Titanic songs) but even those with singing often have the catchy Irish jig type music.
DeleteI know many people rush out for those Shamrock Shakes but I've never had one in my life. Doh! lol
~Deb
I am Irish, my mother used to say that her grandmother "came over on the boat". My mom had red hair, some of my kids have red highlights, and we have one "ginger" :). I'm making the corned beef tomorrow, a day late and a dollar short, as usual. The Last of Us: I agree somewhat that it was better when Joel was gruff and held Ellie at arm's length, but he's worried about her when she's so quiet. I LOVE the puns. (Previous episode: I did NOT love the whole mall scene, it was so creepy. I can't for the life of me imagine how those girls would be so la-di-dah in that place. I think they would be tiptoeing, listening, and seeing if there was anything good left in Target...or maybe that's just me,ha.). (And the David episode: terrifying. He almost almost almost had me a teeny bit fooled, to trust him...but he was evil and scary and demonic, played the part quite excellently.) Anyway, I'm totally Team Joel, Marlene was way out of line, I mean, fine job of taking care of your bestie's baby girl...and how on earth would them make/manufacture a vaccine anyway? He shouldn't have lied about it all though....and the episode was too short....now we have to wait forever and a day to see what happens next....ugh. I've enjoyed it though.
ReplyDeleteI'm having an urge to start digging around with ancestry stuff again. I used to be SO into it years ago but then got quite discouraged when it wasn't as easy as it seemed to find all those fabulous, ancient connections on the internet. I think too many people latch too quickly onto names and claim the connection without really checking out whether they are legit. In my own searches, names or 'clues' have popped up but when taking a closer look, a date or another family connection will not match. That's why I'm very leery of all those people who claim to be descendants of famous people in history.
DeleteLast of Us . . . yes to all that you said! That mall episode was probably the least favorite of mine. Yeah, it showed how Ellie got infected but the rest of it was rather weak and almost pointless. And I agree, I wouldn't be running around laughing and yelling in there! But I suppose maybe they were used to living in such conditions and were a bit more 'carefree' by then? We have the whole season saved on DVR so I will probably binge watch sometime soon. And both of my boys played the Last of Us videogame back in the day so they've already hinted at things that happen in the second part of the game. lol
~Deb