Aug 02, 2026 Weeknote

#76 - From Dublin

Updates

This week was dominated by the sad news of the death of Glen Hansard. A friend messaged me on Wednesday morning asking if I had read the rumours, soon afterwards more official news started to arrive of Glen's death in a motorcycle accident.

Glen was a favourite - I've seen him live 5 or 6 times, and enjoy his music. I also love his spirit. The live shows were always an event, and he frequently stood up for people less fortunate. His regular championing of other peoples performance was inspiring, and was a good example of being open and supportive.

I went into Dublin on Friday for lunch with a friend, and then signed the book of condolence at Mansion House. It was small act, but felt appropriate.

Yesterday we were invited to a garden party to watch the Bray Air Show. It was a beautiful day, we walked along the beach to the location and met some new friends whilst we watched the planes going over toward the show. I even got a sunburned nose!

The quiz team had a strong win to finish this season of Online Quiz League on Wednesday, that meant we safely escaped relegation. We'll go again in September hoping for a better season.

Reading. I've nearly finished Autocorrect by Etgar Keret - a strange set of short stories, vignettes and thought experiments that are a lot of fun and very provoking!

Recommended Music

This week, another stunner of an album from a place I didn't expect.

Renascent by The Durutti Column, reached me via a recommendation. I haven't previously got on with music from the group, despite knowing of their music as label mates of New Order and others over the years.

However, I try and listen to as much new music as possible, and this seemed like a good opportunity to give them another go.

I love this release, which treads a line between ambient, romantic and almost a desert blues feeling. There are some beautiful vocals on a couple of tracks from Caolifhionn Rose - who I've mentioned as a recommendation before.

This is a great album, and I suspect will be in heavy rotation over the last weeks of summer.

Highly Recommended.