The ClearOut

In this Christmas shopping list of an episode, Dara has a look at the festive season through the lens of Christmases past. He also considers the pressure people are put under to partake of all things yule.

He reads two seasonal poems, one from Robert Louis Stevenson and one from Robert Frost, both of which evoke something bucolic and poignant.

He also includes a Christmas story he wrote last year that tries to capture the innocence and wonder of a small child immersed in a very bust adult Christmas experience.

The episode was beset with technical and animal interruptions which threatened to derail it completely. You may detect a note or two of distraction as things proceed...

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In this episode Dara has a flea in his ear about what he sees as the shortage of social and political ideas to cater for a world that is outrunning itself.

Before getting into that he takes a moment to breathe with you, the listener. He follows that with an apology of sorts for last week's half-baked episode. He also shares the reaction of his wife and daughter to meeting the new addition to Hashtag Blessed - Pepper the dog.

The main course though is the worrying absence of a social and political revolution inspired by a sufficiently complex vision for an improved world for all. Where are the equivalents of The Communist Manifesto or Paine's Rights of Man or Hobbes's Social Contract? Where are the visionary ideas and templates that lay out workable methodologies of social transformation? Where is the contagious desire for change that informed the best of the 60s counter-cultural movements?

Has the advent and acceleration of the tech age morphed the world and its inhabitants into something post-political, post-social? Are we stuck with egomaniacal blowhards masquerading as thought leaders? Are they not simply opinionated flotsam borne aloft by the swirling waters of malcontent? Have we lost our ability to listen to reason? Have we lost our ability to even be interested in it?

Underneath all the white noise and distraction of the boons of technology, Dara argues that basic human needs remain the same. If we lose sight of that, we haven't a prayer.

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In this pinball machine of an episode, Dara bounces all over the place and is none the wiser at the end of it whether things held together.

He starts with strange bodies in 1983's Terms of Endearment before sharing some information about positive brain chemicals that he gleaned from social media. From there he reveals a surprise he has planned for his wife and daughter, who are returning home after 5 weeks away - he's expecting a big reaction...

A sharp left turn takes Dara to the WWI poet Wilfred Owen and his last letter home to his mother. Amongst other, more conflict-based themes, it raises the question of whether the art of good letter writing has completely ceased to exist. Postcards and epistolary style seem a thing of the past.

There is time to briefly discuss James Kirk and James T. Kirk and James Cook - but what do these Jameses have in common?

Finally, two teenagers ensnared in a passionate kiss strike a compelling pose on Dara's drive home, and they help to bring things full circle. Just about!

Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time podcast on Wilfred Owen: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001df48

Paul Daley on Captain Cook's Cottage: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2020/mar/02/captain-cooks-cottage-the-place-he-didnt-ever-call-home

Wilfred Owen's Last Letter to his mother: https://advancingpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/10/his-last-letter.html

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In this episode Dara discusses the importance of tone. Considering tone as the ultimate mood setter, he looks at it in the context of movies, public ceremonies and vocations. He also considers tone in the auditory sense, recognising it as a vibration, and recalls how thrilled he was as a child to hear and feel the rumble of the engine of the car ferry that he travelled on several times on journeys to London.

Discussing a funeral he recently attended, Dara observes how well the officiating priest did in putting the congregation at ease, and how comfortable the priest was with his faith and vocation. News of another recent death gives cause to reflect briefly on grief.

Finally, more thoughts on the debacle that constitutes the FIFA world cup in Qatar. Is anyone striking a worse tone than Gianni Infantino, the hapless president of football's governing corporation?

Time is also found to look at the impact of its resident menagerie on the domestic tone at Hashtag Blessed, and the very particular tone of butter in your oatmeal...

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In this episode Dara finds himself concerned about the upcoming FIFA world cup in Qatar. What blind eyes were turned and what palms greased to award the tournament to such an unlikely host nation? Footballers heading to the competition want to express their reservations about human rights abuses and the exploitation of workers, but FIFA wants them to 'stick to football'.

In explaining why that infuriates him so much, Dara stresses the need for voices of protest to be heard. Staying in that area, he reflects on Bruce Springsteen's Broadway show, which features the rock and roll frontman looking back at his storied career and preaching a mantra of uplift and togetherness as an antidote to the divisive times in which America finds itself.

A rock and roll man as preacher. Ireland's equivalent? Bono of U2, whom Dara admits being greatly irritated by as a young man. Now however, even though they are not cool, Dara professes his admiration for both men and their consistent speaking up and speaking out. Grandiose and self-indulgent though they may be, their righteous rhetoric is coming from a good place.

Dara also looks at the incendiary director Spike Lee, and his most explosive film, Do The Right Thing. Lee is another preacher of sorts, speaking truth to power and laying bare the tensions and hypocrisies of racial politics and posturing in his America. What these three artists have in common is a willingness to nail their colours to the mast in a bid to move and engage and provoke. Their modes might be different, but they are all speaking from the heart.

The question is, is their faith and passion and bigheartedness tantamount to a truth worth valuing, or is it just artistic ego and posturing?

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A mental health-focused episode partly inspired by Blindboy Boatclub's ongoing commitment to sharing his own mental health and wellness journey.

A free rolling, some might say freefalling, edition of the tell has Dara reflecting on his university days and the persona he leaned into then. The context is identity and authenticity and what face we show the world.

Dara discusses his recent tendency to catastrophise his concerns when he is in bad form. He looks at that through a self-defence lens to help modify his perspective and considers strategies to help deal better with the perceived threat. Not for the first time, he finds himself advocating response over reaction. He expands by asking whether we can assess choices in terms of helping or hindering us.

An upcoming appointment with a new dentist has Dara concerned about what secrets his teeth will reveal.

The Blindboy Podcast - 'Why I'm going Back to Therapy' episode: https://play.acast.com/s/blindboy/why-im-going-back-to-therapy

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In this free-roaming episode, Dara attempts to thread the needle from poor mental health to perceived male incompetence and on to a celebration of non-toxic men.

The launch pad is an account of some very recent mental health challenges that Dara had to face. As part of his recovery he listened to some psychology and counselling podcasts which, though very helpful and informative, perpetuated a certain idea of infantilised masculinity that Dara felt didn't reflect his experience of men. He talks about the male friends in his life and how they represent a powerful counter-narrative to lazy stereotypes of male immaturity and toxic masculinity.

He also looks at certain equally lazy stereotypes that some men have about women and explains why he hates the phrase 'happy wife, happy life' so much. He believes, amongst other things, it contributes to the characterisation of men as 'manchild doofuses' or 'helpless gobshites' - iterations of masculinity that Dara is determined to challenge.

He concludes with the question of whether we can be of value to people who don't know us. This line of enquiry was prompted by a participant in one of Dara's Holistic Self-Defence classes who confessed to wanting to be liked and struggling badly with setting boundaries. Where do we locate our sense of value?

Dr. Abby Medcalf relationship podcast about what (hetero) women need to know about men, with special guest Shana James: https://abbymedcalf.com/bonus-the-5-things-women-need-to-know-about-men-with-shana-james/

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After semi-bingeing on Netflix documentaries set in the USA, Dara has some chewy meat to digest in the areas of race, beauty, identity, representation, status and opportunity.

The retail clothing companies Abercrombie & Fitch and And1 promoted expressions of whiteness and blackness respectively in their bids to dominate their chosen markets. They each enjoyed enormous success before pushback, politics and hubris sent their shares plummeting. Two Netflix documentaries look closely, but not closely enough in Dara's opinion, at the rise and fall of these two very successful brands and what they represented to the owners and consumers alike.

A third Netflix show turns the camera on a brilliant young basketball team and their collective effort to become state champions under the leadership of an inspirational coach. Dara found the arc of Last Chance U: Basketball moving and thought-provoking in its depiction of black talent and aspiration struggling to overcome poverty and generational disadvantage.

The connective tissue of the stories relayed in these shows is how blackness and whiteness can be exploited in different ways in service of capitalism and the bottom line. It has so much to do with race and identity, but do CEOs and business people really care about such things when all they want to do is turn a profit and walk away with a huge payout?

SFGate.com article (Sep 2022) discussing Netflix And1 documentary: https://www.sfgate.com/streaming/article/netflix-untold-and1-documentary-17413889.php

BusinessInsider.com article (Aug 2022) discussing Netflix Abercrombie & Fitch documentary: https://www.businessinsider.com/abercrombie-and-fitch-rise-and-fall-lawsuits-controversy-comeback-2022-8?r=US&IR=T

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In this episode, Dara wades into the murky waters of the discourse around transgender identity and language, and who is or isn't a woman. The focal point for the discussion is the recent Twitter row that erupted in the wake of Graham Norton's framing of cancel culture, the support he got from Billy Bragg, and the anger it inspired in JK Rowling.

Looking at the history of the apparent controversy, Dara concludes that Rowling was extremely unlucky to find herself in the crosshairs of a woke-think armageddon. It is another issue that centres on subjective versus objective realities, and epitomises everything that is broken in public discourse. Dara wonders if it is a generational affliction and what role the internet has played in facilitating a particular flavour of violent misogyny.

Before any of that, Dara talks about the impact on him of Rob Delaney's recently published essay on personal grief after the death of his 2-year-old son. He looks at his own thoughts around becoming a father and the intensity of fear and love connected to that experience. He follows that with a brief segue to bizarre seaside conversations with strangers that seem to only happen when he's in a state of undress.

JK Rowling 2020 piece defending her position on transgender language and issues: https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/

Glamour.com article from October 2022 detailing the history of the controversy: https://www.glamour.com/story/a-complete-breakdown-of-the-jk-rowling-transgender-comments-controversy

Suzanne Moore 2020 article explaining her experience of being shut out over her trans commentary: https://unherd.com/2020/11/why-i-had-to-leave-the-guardian/

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In this episode Dara assesses the recently-released Marilyn Monroe biopic, 'Blonde'. Written and directed by Andew Dominik, and based on the 2000 Joyce Carol Oates book of the same name, the film has been widely panned by critics and Marilyn fans, but Dara found a lot to recommend in the performance as Marilyn of Ana de Armas. He argues that de Armas imbues her characterisation with such sympathy and emotional honesty that she effectively insulates herself from many of the less subtle aspects of the film's storytelling.

Dara wonders what it was about Monroe that fascinated people so much and he can't help coming to the conclusion that misogyny and sexual obsession were key elements in how she was treated by Hollywood, the media, and the men in her life. He goes further to argue that many flailing female celebrities are pounced on by media and fans alike with a violent fervour that is almost primal in its compulsiveness.

There's also time to spare a thought for the community of Creeslough in Donegal and the terrible explosion that occurred there last week; a laying out of a couple of mental health/wellness touchstones, and a celebration of the Ireland women's soccer team and their succesful qualification for next year's world cup.

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