The ClearOut

Dara is thinking about imprints, specifically the ones left on us in our formative years. He argues that our sense of wellness is very much connected to how successfully we negotiate or accommodate those imprints in our adult selves.

He shares some scenarios from his own childhood to try to illustrate his point, including watching The Muppet Show in a bar while a fight broke out above his 8-year-old head.

He talks about the Pixar movie Turning Red and how its menstruation-based story raised some issues for him. He looks at the cultural setting of that tale and wonders if Western culture's modernising zeal has completely eradicated the idea of rites and rituals.

A final word is given to another Pixar film - Wall-E - as Dara expresses admiration for its central character, the Chaplinesque garbage droid whose significant imprint is one of love and innocence.

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In this episode, Dara discusses some hot potatoes that are being passed from hand to hand in Hashtag Blessed. Beyonce's new album art raises some concern, as does Marilyn Monroe's appearance on the screen on Dara and his daughter's scheduled movie night. Are these icons of female beauty and performance actually problematic? Is there a radically different experience in how they are perceived by men and women?

Also on the table are ideas of resilience, self-care, and what we allow to affect us. Dara wonders if we get less or more resilient as we age, or if we just lose the energy to fight. He reflects on a recently departed family member on his wife's side who decided her time was up.

Other points are made about divergent parenting styles, how material is generated for the podcast, and a causality that makes Kim Novak responsible for Sharon Stone's character in Basic Instinct.

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In this episode, Dara takes a deep dive into two very different on-screen depictions of what the French call 'amour fou', or 'mad love'. 1986's Betty Blue (37.2 Le Matin) and Hitchcock's 1958 classic 'Vertigo' are the two texts in question.

Dara recalls the impact of Betty Blue on his 18-year-old self and how it's sexual frankness was a mind-altering experience in terms of what he felt movies could show. Rewatching it for the podcast he found it less surprising but still quite compelling.

After a friend confessed to being nonplussed by 'Vertigo', Dara found his enthusiasm reinvigorated for the tale of obsession and manipulation and male crisis. He discovers an extraordinary revelation from Hitchcock in relation to one of the film's most memorable scenes.

Having discussed both films in some detail, Dara wonders about the validity of regarding them through a misogynist lens. He argues for checking one's morality at the door when it comes to a certain type of film. He advocates the importance of individual critical thinking, not only with regard to provocative art, but also in the face of cancel culture and the reductive discourse of woke posturing.

And then there's the significance to the themes of both movies of the chimney Dara is currently demolishing. What does the chimney represent? And why did Betty Blue come in his head when he was taking it apart one brick at a time? What's the connection?

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Dara presents the second of two parts of an in-depth interview with author, artist, and abuse survivor, Aisling Creegan.

Aisling grew up in the 1970s as the youngest child of a large Dublin family, but hers was a harrowing childhood that played out in a chaotic and violent household. Alcoholism, one ailing parent, and the other with severe mental health problems meant the young Aisling was never safe. Her refuge lay in her imagination, her relationship with nature, and her love of art.

In her brilliant and ferociously honest memoir - I Am Someone - Aisling shares her story of survival in the face of extreme adversity and persecution.

In Part 2, Aisling talks about the power of a single person to offer hope to an embattled child. Getting older, she finds herself redefining her relationship with her mother while also negotiating her own sexuality. Discussing her partner, Aisling lays out a definition of intimacy. Dara and Aisling also discuss her art and the significance of horses in her work. They conclude by looking at Aisling's aspirations for her book, which returns them to the motif of pebbles.

Warning: Some of the subject matter covered in this interview may be triggering. While avoiding anything too explicit or gratuitous, child abuse, both physical and sexual, is part of Aisling's story.

Aisling's book - I Am Someone: https://www.gillbooks.ie/stories/stories/i-am-someone

Aisling's New Irish Art page: https://newirishart.com/irish-artists/aisling-creegan-artist.htm

Relevant Irish services and charities:

https://www.cari.ie/ - therapy provision for victims of childhood sexual abuse

https://www.rcni.ie/ - rape crisis centre

https://www.oneinfour.ie/ - supporting victims of childhood sexual abuse

https://www.belongto.org/ - supporting LGBTI+ young people

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

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.

Dara presents the first of two parts of an in-depth interview with author, artist, and abuse survivor, Aisling Creegan.

Aisling grew up in the 1970s as the youngest child of a large Dublin family, but hers was a harrowing childhood that played out in a chaotic and violent household. Alcoholism, one ailing parent, and the other with severe mental health problems meant the young Aisling was never safe. Her refuge lay in her imagination, her relationship with nature, and her love of art.

In her brilliant and ferociously honest memoir - I Am Someone - Aisling shares her story of survival in the face of extreme adversity and persecution.

Dara discusses the events that informed the book in a candid conversation with Aisling, leading up to a significant figure in Aisling's youth who made her think life was worth living after all.

Warning: Some of the subject matter covered in this interview may be triggering. While avoiding anything too explicit or gratuitous, child abuse, both physical and sexual, is part of Aisling's story.

Aisling's book - I Am Someone: https://www.gillbooks.ie/stories/stories/i-am-someone

Aisling's New Irish Art page: https://newirishart.com/irish-artists/aisling-creegan-artist.htm

Relevant Irish services and charities:

https://www.cari.ie/ - therapy provision for victims of childhood sexual abuse

https://www.rcni.ie/ - rape crisis centre

https://www.oneinfour.ie/ - supporting victims of childhood sexual abuse

https://www.belongto.org/ - supporting LGBTI+ young people

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

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.

Dara begins this week's episode by looking at the Irish discomfort with self-approval and putting it in the context of small-island, village mentality. He argues that it is a product of a damaged national psyche that leaves many Irish people with a pathological self-deprecation born of superstition and distrust of success.

Reflecting on the too-seldom declared mission statement of the podcast, Dara reminds himself what he's trying to achieve by putting out the show once a week. He has to conclude that it's connected to something idealistic.

That leads him to discuss the words and work of Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian diplomat and Nobel laureate who for 12 years oversaw the international agency responsible for the safe management and use of nuclear energy. He was part of the team who inspected Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction post the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He also had a role to play in 2011's Arab Spring and the subsequent coup d'etat which briefly placed him as Egypt's interim vice president.

Responding to ElBaradei's thoughts on how to achieve a peaceful, unified world, Dara ends the episode discussing the complex similarity of sworn enemies.

Podchaser token: oSNcU0jOX1l1yiAMpyvH

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

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In this week's episode Dara reflects on a week in recovery from Covid and realises he enjoyed dropping down to his slowest gear. It prompts him to think about the benefits of living with one's defences down. He argues that it makes us more receptive and more capable of seeing positive things in the world.

From a self-defence point of view, he argues for the cultivation of calm and embracing the artificial idea of minimal threat. He believes we cannot fight effectively if we are too wedded to a rigid defence. Dara lays out the benefits of being defenceless and wonders if that vulnerability doesn't make us view the world in a more benign light.

There is also discussion of some good movies taken in while in covid isolation, with special affection expressed for 1980's Urban Cowboy, a gritty John Travolta vehicle that also starred an excellent Debra Winger and Scott Glenn. Dara concludes with a new book recommendation.

And even if you don't listen carefully, the chickens can be heard making a nuisance of themselves in the background!

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Compromised by a cold-induced fogginess of brain which precludes his normal freestyling approach, Dara decides to recite some American poetry from the Confessional School, and cautiously takes on Allen Ginsberg's Howl as the closing piece of this verse-drenched episode.

You will hear the following poems:

Song of Myself, 52 by Walt Whitman

Daddy by Sylvia Plath

Red Roses, Barefoot and 45 Mercy Street (a fragment) by Anne Sexton

Howl by Allen Ginsberg

A little bit of background and reaction will accompany each piece.

Check out Sean Whitehill's beautiful and intricate artwork here: https://travelmandalas.com/

Website: https://theclearout.com/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theclearout2

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YouTube: The ClearOut Podcast

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

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Dara kicks off this episode with a revelation from his daughter, follows it with a plant the size of three Manhattan islands, and then discusses a black actress getting hate online after appearing in a new Star Wars tv series.

All that out of the way, the remainder of the episode is essentially a love letter to the late Ray Liotta, one of Dara's favourite actors. By the time he finishes, Dara finally understands what it was that Liotta meant to him as a young man. To get there, he discusses in some detail Liotta's acting career and electric screen presence, with particular focus on 1986's Something Wild, and 1989's Field of Dreams.

Talking about the latter movie leads to analysing Kevin Costner and the place he occupied in American movies at that time. Dara was a big fan but argues that Costner represented a conspicuously white, Baby Boomer ideal of American masculinity which isn't quite so appealing nowadays.

This week's extras: Ray Liotta interviewed by Marc Maron in 2018 - http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/repost-ray-liotta-from-2018

The Rewatchables does Field of Dreams - https://www.theringer.com/2019/4/19/18508201/field-of-dreams-with-bill-simmons-chris-ryan-and-mallory-rubin

Website: https://theclearout.com/

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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.

In this episode Dara is very pleased to be celebrating a year of The ClearOut. He revisits the last twelve months and talks about some of the other ways he was spending his time.

After last week's serious and rather confronting subject matter, Dara turns his attention to things joyous and joyful. He wonders how joy is transmitted and whether we shouldn't be actively seeking it out, or at the very least tuning our 'life balance radio' to try and catch the positive signals that are out there.

He argues for the joy of connection and being present, and marvels at the generous spirit of a grumpy rock star. He discusses the power children have to be present and observant and in thrall to the moment, and how as adults we would do well to open ourselves to such innocence and wonder. He also looks at the resounding positive impact an adult can have on a child, simply by seeing them.

Also, coffee, football, pop-singing trolls, Latin lovers, and grotesque narcissism.

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.