Official-ish announcement

Those of you who follow this column may notice that last week's column was not published.  That is because I have been offered a welcome change of direction and am now writing a fashion and style column for the Cork Independent.

To my followers, thanks for following.  I don't think that there will be any further updates on this blog and I may delete it once I gather all the columns into a portfolio.  A blog is nothing if not immediate and this is no longer immediate.

Thanks so much for your support.  If you wish to keep supporting, just unfollow this blog and perhaps follow my blog proper here.  Thanks a million.

A new blog

Hello readers.

I've started up a new blog called The Licentiate. Please do check out my fashion oriented musings and such. I should also point out that this is completely separate from my work - it's just for fun (and rampant self promotion). Become a follower, leave comments... any feedback is very welcome!

Not so Happy New Year

I'm not a big fan of New Years Eve. Two reasons - one practical, one totally illogical. In another life, I was a bar supervisor at a large nightclub in a one horse town. Without the vital protection of beer goggles I saw (albeit through a cynical lens) that New Years Eve is just your typical Saturday night, magnified a hundred times. The queues are a hundred times longer, entrance fees are multiplied by a hundred percent. Girls weep a hundred tears because their hope for a New Years kiss is currently pawing a seventeen year old who resembles nothing so much as a Barbie that's spent too much time in the sun. And then there's the vomit. A hundred times the normal amount of human effluvium, all waiting to be swept up in preparation for the brand new (and sparking clean) year ahead.

If you think about it, New Years Celebrations are a microcosm of the year itself. It's all about bingeing and purging, literally and metaphorically. 'Out with the Old, in with the New' is the new maxim. Everyone shakes off the hangover and tries to find a new sense of equilibrium, only to fling themselves off the rickety see-saw with one too many Cosmos at next years shindig.

Which brings me to my nonsensical reason for abhorring the New Year. The endless cycle of self-improvement, failure and staring again leads me to think that humans are willfully repeating itself. What was so wrong with the Old? I liked 2009! I finished my degree. I was published. I moved into a house on my own and became independent (of my parents but woefully not the State).

What if 2010 is the year that I catch Swine Flu or lose out at the Topshop January Sale? Or worse still, what if, by December 31st 2010, I still don't have my first proper big girl job and am still on the dole?

For many people, NYE is an opportunity to celebrate. For a minority of people in a transition period (translation - me), it's a precipice. My fear of change and failure are making me drag my heels. Unfortunately for me, there's only one way to go, and that's forward. The only option is to jump off the edge and hope to fly instead of fall.

A huge thanks

I'd just like to say the most massive thanks ever to all the nice people who have complimented me on the columns (all in the past week - very odd). I really appreciate everyone's feedback. It's nice to know that there are people out there reading it. I've disabled comments for obvious spamming reasons but if anyone want to get in contact or give Graduate feedback you can get in touch via the Cork Independent website here or email my own sweet self at sarah.a.waldron(at)gmail.com.

Save the KINO!

This was ostensibly supposed to be a Graduate column, but it probably fits better on the blog. My beloved Kino is set to be closed very soon if sufficient funds are not raised. Sad times for all. I fondly remember the Kino as the place where I could go on many a hungover afternoon with my flatmate Nicola and watch good films in peace. I also remember less fondly one hungover afternoon where we went to watch Rachel Getting Married. It was an amazing film, but the shaky camerawork made us very queasy indeed.

Consider the following a b-side column if you will.

The recession is over. Yes, you heard it here first. Unfortunately it's not over for us in the Emerald Isle but rather in the UK, where the economy has decided, much like a crash dieter, that all this economy shrinking is bad for it's health and will quickly pick up inflationary sticky buns in no time at all (well, until 2011, but who's counting?).

Not so for us in Ireland. The Celtic Hangover seems interminable. The December budget looming over us like a fiscal Freddie Krueger will adversely affect what the press ominously refers to as EVERYONE. Everyone, including children under three, will have to file tax returns. We will return to the Oirish Ireland of Angela's Ashes, where the only forms of recreation (for a woman) is to smoke and tut, (for a man) to drink the money earned on a casual basis as a hod carrier and (for children) retrieve a drunken Da from the pub after too many sups of porter.

Thankfully we in Cork have other, less ultimately depressing modes of distraction. As least we have the Kino, Ireland's only independent art-house cinema; the only place to watch hard-to-get films with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. Oh wait, actually we don't, because it's due to close at the end of the month.

The closure would be conceivable if it was badly managed, but it is not. The movie selections are uniformly good, the prices are reasonable and the coffee is piping hot. The cinema itself seems to be run on a shoestring of duct tape, Hersheys chocolate bars and a bottomless well of love and loyalty from it's staff and many patrons. At the time of writing, a Save the Kino Facebook page has almost eight thousand members, and counting. A fundraising website (www.savethekino.com) provides details on how to donate.

There is a lesson to be learned here. The budget that affects EVERYONE is no doubt affected in part by huge bailouts to our banks, yet the Kino is due to close for want of tens of thousands of euros, a fraction of government funding that was promised but never materialised. If everyone on that Facebook page donated eight euros, then the Kino could be saved. One of Corks most valuable cultural institutions could be rescued from oblivion for the price of a cinema ticket. Unfortunately, by the end of November there may not be any art-house films for Corkonians to watch.