The ClearOut

This episode does exactly what it says on the tin. Dara settles in to discuss a film he just watched, a concert he just attended, and a theatre production he recently saw.

The film was Paul Thomas Anderson's underappreciated 2002 dark comedy, Punch-Drunk Love, which was notable at the time for giving Adam Sandler a leading dramatic role. Upon rewatching, Dara realised how much like a musical it was, and also a layered love letter to other movies and genres. Having a male protagonist who can barely control his emotional distress and lifelong anguish was part of the appeal, as was Philip Seymour Hoffman's unforgettable mattress salesman.

The concert was the 2024 Peace Proms, a once-a-year touring event that Dara's daughter was participating in as a member of a 2,000-person children's choir, singing alongside the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland. Dragging himself reluctantly to the RDS in Dublin to 'be supportive', Dara was blown away by what he experienced. He couldn't have been more wrong about what was on offer.

The show was Dublin's Gaiety Theatre pantomime, which this season was Cinderella. A family outing, the palpable buzz and connection between the performers and the audience was like electricity in the air. Dara can only conclude that there was something similar at work to the Peace Proms - a total absence of cynicism, and an enthusiastic revelling in that absence.

Peace Proms 2024 - https://peaceproms.com/peace-proms-2024-tickets-on-sale-from-1st-november/

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In this episode, Dara responds to a music podcast he found surprisingly moving by exploring the idea of connection. Why do certain things or people connect with us more powerfully than others? What is it that speaks to us about a particular individual, or their work? And what is it about music and musicians and movies and actors that can so enrapture us?

Dara argues that it is all about relationships and a lot depends on when you meet and what's going on for you at that time. He turns his focus to three music icons that struck deep chords with him as a young person, and lays out how each one spoke to a different part of him. This connects to how he saw himself and also how he thought about the opposite sex.

The power of the moving image in the world of cinema is another area of connection, but Dara realises he has always liked to consume life and the world visually, not just in movies. Movement, and the body in motion is a central part of this aesthetic dynamic, which may be part of Dara's attraction to martial arts.

Also in this episode is a coda to last week's mental health-themed edition, as well as a review of Alexander Payne's The Holdovers.

George Michael episode from '60 Songs That Explain The 90's': https://www.theringer.com/2024/1/24/24048661/60-songs-george-michael-freedom-90-podcast

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WARNING: The content of this episode may be confronting and/or triggering as it contains detailed references to suicidal ideation. The subject is treated respectfully and carefully, but unambiguously.

In this very personal and occasionally difficult episode, Dara decides he can't not examine his near four-decade-old impulse to destroy himself. A follow-on from last week's episode in which he spoke more generally and euphemistically about a recent onset of anxiety-fuelled depression, this time he wants more transparency, more openness, more keeping it real. He understands that for some people this type of sharing gives them the 'ick', hence the title of the episode.

In considering the motivation behind such public exploration of such a private experience, Dara concedes that it is part of how he processes and makes sense of the resultant discomfort and destabilisation. But he also makes clear that he is trying to demonstrate what he believes, which is that the sharing and examination of personal mental health crises can be extremely beneficial to those who may feel isolated in their suffering.

Among other things, Dara talks about generational damage, projecting outward what we believe about ourselves, the connection between suicidal ideation and the collapse of self-worth, recovering from parenting fails, and the deep chords struck in him by the actions and words of his daughter.

Relevant Irish services and charities:

https://www.samaritans.org/ireland/samaritans-ireland/ - supporting individuals at risk of extreme duress and suicide

https://www.pieta.ie/ - supporting those with suicidal thoughts, self-harming, or those bereaved from suicide

https://grow.ie/ - support service for those dealing with mental health issues

https://www.textaboutit.ie/ - text-based service for those encountering mental health struggles

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In this episode, Dara tries to remind himself of the existential power of understanding life as an unending path that leads to endless unknown destinations. In relation to a recent rough mental health episode, he is also happy to be reminded that the path of life will continue past the present moment, no matter how challenging it might be.

Dara discusses destinations, end points, and arrivals in the context of conventional capitalist-materialist thinking. He wonders if we're not better off accepting that one place and one moment can only ever lead to the next place or moment. He argues that we are perpetually moving into empty spaces and empty moments in which we have very little true control.

Citing Darren Aronofsky's 2017 nightmarish Mother!, Dara recounts his experience of having to deal with uninvited guests. He decides that though unwelcome, that these guests must have been invited after all. But what can be learned from such unpleasantness?

Also, a couple of other podcast recommendations that Dara connected with, the independence of traumatised children when they grow up, and a cat in zen mode!

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Dara has just turned 50, and in this episode he lets his mind hover over the moment in an attempted stocktake. Even as he argues for gratitude, he acknowledges how challenging the world is right now. This leads him to consider whether enough weight is attached to softer impulses and emotions. In these times of fracture and isolation and estrangement, should we attach greater significance and worthiness to love and positivity and connection?

Reflecting on his life to date, Dara talks about the importance he places on honour. But does trying to live an honourable life mean anything? Is it just a self-administered high-brow ego-boost?

Taking a photo at the weekend of an iconic figurine triggered something in Dara that returns him to his childhood. Perhaps he has been trying to emulate something that he first tapped into as a little boy...

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Dara reviews his year in watching on screens big and small over the last twelve months. Some of the obvious big 2023 releases are covered, including Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon and Anatomy of a Fall, but also mentioned are older movies that were watched during the year at home - Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr.Ripley, for example, or Paul Schrader's Hardcore.

Dara also looks back at TV and documentaries he took in, as well as the considerable number of children's films he watched with his daughter, the most recent of which was Wonka. Did he prefer Timothee Chalamet's chocolate maker to Gene Wilder's? Listen to find out!

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Following the previous episode's last-minute production, Dara does another late night recording, this time in the wind and rain, with at least two interruptions from a sleeping dog. He's determined to maintain his line, and that means he refuses to put out another delayed episode.

This week it's all about Maestro, Bradley Cooper's biopic of the American conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein. Dara enjoyed the film so much he watched it back to back. He tries to explain why he found it so beguiling, but it is very much about the film's aesthetic pleasures, particularly how it sounds and how it is shot.

He wonders if Cooper is trying to render them as a proxy first couple of American beauty and success, a la the White House Kennedys of Camelot.

He also has thoughts on the weighting of female characters in movies like this, and the policy of an Irish supermarket on broken bottles of alcohol.

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In this hard-fought-for episode, Dara soldiers on alone to deliver this year's Christmas special.

Coming in at the eleventh hour, Dara presents a brand new story that he completed only a day before recording. An old woman lies stricken on the floor of her hallway. Who will come to her aid, and will she welcome their assistance? A meeting of minds old and young that reveals an unexpected commonality, it is a nice alternative tale to more conventional fare. And also funny, although that depends on what you find funny...

Dara's usual team on the special have been laid low by illness, so he has no Hashtag Blessed Christmas Recital to share. Stubbornly, and honourably overcoming his disappointment, he plays out the episode with a solo Christmas song - just one man, a voice, and a humble tilt at a festive windmill!

Happy Christmas everyone, stay safe.

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In this episode, Dara jumps in feet first to Christmas tales of yore. Reading from a compendium of Yuletide tales, he selects two contrasting entries that brought some balance to proceedings. The first is A Christmas Inspiration, a sweet and somewhat sentimental tale by L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) of a group of young women coming to the aid of a lonely cohabitant of their boarding house.

The second moves as far and fast as it can in the opposite direction, depicting the bloodless revenge of a persona non grata on his over-privileged and self-indulgent relatives. Bertie's Christmas Eve by the great short story writer Saki is evocative of a time when the idle beneficiaries of the British Empire had very little to concern them other than the prospect of talking livestock.

Finally, Dara includes a story of his own that, while not specifically connected to Christmas, seems to somehow fit with the general theme of rounding out the year. One On One takes the listener on a journey in a city where three very different people are each engaged in very particular activities that are uniquely connected.

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In this episode, Dara has further thoughts on the ongoing Middle East conflict after listening to the concerns of a good friend who has a certain amount of skin in the game. He wonders if a peaceful end will ever be possible when key combatants on both sides are so determined to eradicate each other. It raises the existential question of what value one human life has over any other.

The deaths occurred in the last week of a great Irish songwriter and iconic performer, as well as a German-born US diplomat who was instrumental in shaping US foreign policy in the mid-20th century. Dara shares his thoughts on Shane MacGowan and Henry Kissinger, with particular focus on the former's Fairytale of New York and its recently acquired status as lightning rod for the culture wars and woke revisionism, and the latter's infamous directive in relation to the deployment of a relentless bombing campaign in Cambodia that began in 1969.

Ending the episode on a lighter note, Dara argues that David Fincher's recently released 'The Killer' might be the best comedy of the year, with a Michael Fassbender's central performance embodying a jet-black humour that infects the entire film. He also review's Grant Singer's 'Reptile', a cop thriller that is distinguished mainly by an excellent Benicio Del Toro as the world-weary protagonist. He celebrates Fassbender and Del Toro's uniqueness as actors at a time when many American actors feel interchangeable.

Note: No chickens were harmed during the making of this podcast, but maybe they should have been!

Website: https://theclearout.com/

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YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

Email: [email protected]

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