The ClearOut

In this episode, Dara is looking for a pulse. After he and his daughter watched Adam Sandler's 2004 romcom, 50 First Dates, Dara was reminded why he wasn't a fan of the comedian's factory line movies - there were too many moments and gags that were completely devoid of life.

He found something similar in the character played by Nicole Kidman in this year's A Family Affair, a film in which Zac Efron's manchild action star falls for his personal assistant's mother, with 'hilarious results'.* The insistence on Kidman being presented as a middle-aged woman who could be mistaken for being twenty years younger was more than Dara could bear. And why does Kidman's upper lip epitomise the problem of the Female Beauty Industrial Complex?

Seeking a life-force elsewhere, Dara found it in two other films, both strong genre offerings. The first was Ti West's retro slasher movie 'X' (2022) which was bursting at the seams with character and vibe and horrific thrills. The second was a brand new Netflix release, Rebel Ridge, a tasty corrupt cops thriller with two really good central performances from Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson, who gets better and better with age.

Dara continues pitting life against death in a concluding reflection on the connective tissue between acting and teaching. He wonders about the stakes, the idea of service, and the pain of 'losing the room'.

*(Not hilarious at all. Dara forgot to mention Efron and Kidman's first onscreen pairing in 2012's The Paperboy, a much more successful serving of gaudy southern carnality and madness from Lee Daniels.)

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A very simple and straightforward episode this week - Dara reads a lengthy unabridged extract from Marlon Brando's autobiography - Songs My Mother Taught Me, published in 1994. Brando's voice is frank and accessible and he shares his thoughts on acting, fame, and various female lovers during the time of his emergence as America's most captivating actor. He also speaks about being a damaged child and the difficulty he had trying to shake off feelings of worthlessness.

Another distinctive male voice is that of the Irish poet Paul Durcan. Perhaps most commonly connected to his comic surreality, there's still an unmistakable humanity to Durcan's writing, especially in his confessional and vulnerable masculinity and his no-nonsense rebuttals of Catholic hypocrisy. Dara delights in concluding the episode by reading three of his poems.

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In this episode, prompted by his cat and dog, Dara is considering the idea of essentialism. He talks about core dispositions and the perennial pitching of nature against nurture. He argues that there is very little that is not in the mix when it comes to how our identities emerge. He shares his thoughts about his daughter on this stage of her journey and wonders about her essential leaning.

Along the way, Dara reflects on trauma and demons, the relativising of same, and the importance of doing the work early on to save trouble later. He wonders about the relationship between material gain and credibility and presents his case for the value of the examined life, self-understanding, and bringing the most resolved version of yourself to bear on life's challenges.

As for his own essential inclination - is it defiance? Dara thinks it might be, because it requires a certain bloody-mindedness to stay on a path whose material rewards have been so few! But that's part of the pact he has made with himself. He reveals the pact he has made with his daughter - and the clause he hasn't shared with her...

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For the second time in the show's history, Dara is considering the questionable value of nostalgia. While allowing that there are wellness benefits to understanding the connection between nostalgia and loss, and the stark reality of nostalgia's relationship to ageing, there is something offensive about a particular brand of generalised nostalgia that regularly raises its unoriginal head on social media.

Prompted by the palpable fragility of the new recording location for the podcast, and the coincidence of this week's episode taking place during stormy conditions, Dara's mind is cast back to a scene from The Blues Brothers (1980) in which Elwood's apartment is shaken within an inch of its life because of its proximity to a city train track. Considering that movie, he reckons it belongs to a special trinity of favourite childhood comedies that were untouchable. But is that just his nostalgia talking? How well have they aged, really? He tried to show his daughter one of them and she walked away after five minutes!

Dara also takes a moment to accuse the positive living/wellness sector of quackery while arguing once again for his own understanding of self-care, something that involves the real work of personal inventory and facing one's historic demons.

The first nostalgia episode from August 2021: https://theclearout.com/podcast/the-nostalgia-shark-is-coming-for-my-squirrels-episode-14/

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In this episode, Dara doesn't know whether to eat the food or make love to it. He talks about all three seasons of The Bear, the brilliant TV show depicting the trials and tribulations of genius chef Carmen Berzatto and the colourful people who populate his messy, damaged world. Like the extraordinary food that leaves viewers in a state of mouthwatering wonder, the other elements of the show are beautifully sourced, prepped and composed.

Dara discusses different aspects of the acting and staging of key scenes and episodes and expresses admiration for the cast, amongst which there are no weak links. Special mentions are reserved for Jeremy Allen White as the titular Bear, Ayo Edibiri as his frustrated No.2, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as emotional cousin Richie, and Jamie Lee Curtis for her exceptional work as the demented and haunted Donna Berzatto, as realistic a portrayal of toxic maternity as you will ever see.

At the top of the episode, Dara reflects on his own connective tissue to The Bear in the form of self-doubt, being wrong, and avoidance of the uncomfortable.

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In this episode, Dara is reflecting on the good fortune of finding a new place to live, but he is wondering how to refer to The ClearOut's new home. His daughter has rejected his suggestions so far as being 'too cringe'. Hashtag Blessed is no more! What to call the new abode...?

After a week off to facilitate the house move, it's back down to business. Dara considers the idea of 'rightness' and the natural state that best serves our happiness and fulfilment. He wonders what our lives would look like if we never faced any obstacles on our path. What would that self look like? And can our true self still emerge and thrive in the face of life's tribulations, rejections and other expressions of adversity?

The Buddhist position of life being suffering flies against Dara's proposition of unbridled advance. Do the contradictory positions have something valid to offer in tandem, or are they mutually exclusive? How do you consider the burdens that you carry - do you have the opportunity to put them down, or are they perpetually obscuring your field of vision?

To conclude the episode, Dara presents some core concepts from the philosophy of karate-do that pertain to larger wellness strategies including, self-respect, integrity and evocative images of mindfulness.

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In this episode Dara is giving out about recent bad movies, and not the 'so bad they're good' kind. Kevin Costner's Western opus Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 starts the party with its bloated scale, turgid pacing, and on-the-nose representations of archetypal stories and characters. Far too earnest and self-serious, Dara recommends at least half a dozen alternatives, including Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate and Costner's own Open Range.

Ticket to Paradise, the George Clooney-Julia Roberts rom-com is next and its generic and self-congratulatory tone are a painful reminder of the earlier Clooney-Roberts crimes as seen in Ocean's 12 when we were all meant to be tickled by their being in on the joke of Roberts' celebrity. Dara advises a revisiting of Pretty Woman instead where Roberts' screen presence and beauty were not to be denied.

The recent animated movies IF and Inside Out 2 are compared - one of them had Dara squirming in his seat, but not for the reason you might think.

Finally there's a word for the execrable The Beekeeper and the joyless gurning of its muscular star, Jason Statham.

And in case you're worried it's all doom and gloom, there are at least three recent movies that Dara is more than happy to recommend for their aesthetic pleasures and assuredness of tone.

Website: https://theclearout.com/

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In this episode Dara is looking at two significant news stories from the big nations to Ireland's east and west. At the weekend just gone, Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate and bete noire of liberals and humane humans everywhere, survived an assassination attempt. In Germany not long afterwards, England's national football team contested the final of the EURO 2024 tournament, and lost.

The US and England in recent years have become more and more troubled states with huge social unrest and unconvincing politics and leadership, leaving their respective citizenry highly agitated and discontented. Dara wonders if both countries would have benefited measurably more if the outcomes of both news stories had gone the other way. Would Trump's removal and England's triumph become unifying events for their embattled nations?

Exploring both alternate realities, different things are considered: how can an Irish person be okay with their old oppressor enjoying sporting glory? Why does the England team's uncertain identity reflect that of the country it represents? What dark spell would be broken if Trump was no more? In what way would his supporters awaken and greet the new dawn? Wouldn't people rather get on with their neighbours? Or never hear them?

Further to that last question Dara knows he would much prefer if the US and England were quietly and boringly going about their business.

Also in this episode, doing your best, the ripple effect, the sensitive human race, and the ugly egos of powerful men.

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In this episode, Dara is wondering about what comes next. We can never truly know what lies in the future so how do we cope with that uncertainty? Are we willing to step into the unknown without the security of a plan? Do we trust we have the resources to deal with what we find?

Contextualising this dilemma in a world that seems to be spiralling out of control, and acknowledging the philosophical belief that the human experience is endlessly and exhaustingly repeated, Dara comes back to elemental grounding and deep listening as key components of the existential toolkit.

Part of this approach includes knowing what to let go of and knowing what to let pass through us. Holding onto things for too long can define us in ways that leave us trapped and unable to grow. We have to step out of suffering and give ourselves permission to be free. If the keys to our liberation are placed in the hands of others, we might be waiting a long time.

Website: https://theclearout.com/

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In this episode, Dara is taking time to express thanks to a place that has served him well over the last few years, and he's so determined to do so in a special way that he moves the podcast to the location he's honouring! At the end, when a certain flying creature appears, it's time to bring things to a close. No, it's not a dragon...

Dara sets up to record in his garden and he explains why it has been such a special place for him over the last three and a half years. That said, it hasn't all been plain sailing. Just ask his chickens! It makes him wonder about the duration of a moment. Can a moment really last a lifetime?

Once the natural world part of the pod is over, Dara discusses a couple of shows he watched in relation to the radically different iterations of femininity they present and prioritise. One of them, a sports documentary about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, is troubling in the version of womanhood it valorises. The other, True Detective Season 4, has at its heart two ferociously tough and uncompromising female cops who don't care who they offend. They're remarkably unapologetic characters who make clear how seldom women on screen are written like that. Written like what? Like men!

Website: https://theclearout.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclearoutpodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theclearout2

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclearoutpodcast/

YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theclearout

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.