LISA O'NEILL - A LEGEND IN HER TIME

 

Every now and again, an artist comes along who changes the game. Bob Dylan springs immediately to mind. Yet, Dylan without the sense of mystery would have been just another Woody Guthrie imitator.

Dylan, though ahead of his time, seemed rooted in the past. Small wonder, because soon after his arrival in New York he immersed himself in the newspapers and lore of the Civil War period and emerged as a truly original artist.

When I first heard Lisa O’Neill, I felt a shock of recognition. I was once again a young boy, sitting atop my grandfather’s shoulders outside Enniscorthy GAA grounds. We were part of a hushed crowd listening to Margaret Barry as she sang in a nasally voice while strumming her banjo.

To her credit, Lisa had ignored the tidal wave of modern influences, dug deep into Ireland’s past and uncovered the itinerant street singer.

Lisa hadn’t copied Maggie Barry, it’s more that she instinctively inhabited certain aspects of the street singer’s psyche and times.

I immediately began playing O’Neill on Celtic Crush/SiriusXM, but to my surprise there was very little response from the normally curious Crushers. I put it down to the originality of her songs, and to what at first seemed  an awkwardness of delivery.

But make no mistake, Lisa O’Neill is the most original artist to come out of Ireland in a long time.

Born in 1982 in Ballyhaise, County Cavan, nurtured by the quiet beauty of her rural surroundings, she was always aware of music and began writing her own songs at an early age.

Many of the significant new bands and singers emerging from Ireland nowadays are “from the country.” Previously, most tended to be from the greater Dublin sprawl or the bigger towns.

This new rural sensibility tends to draw from the land and long neglected local tradition; yet, their style is spiced with city experience – perhaps, because so many rural teenagers now attend university.

At the age of 18, Lisa left Cavan for Ballyfermot College to study music, and has lived in Dublin for the last 24 years. Because of her grounding in folk music she became a part of the new Trad scene that centers around The Cobblestone and other inner-city pubs.

For a taste of this new Tradition, listen to Lisa’s striking duet on Factory Girl with Radie Peat of the mighty Lankum.

But there’s always an experimental twist to Ms. O’Neill. As rural Irish and traditional as she may be, she was introduced to the banjo (her main performing instrument) by Billy Bragg while at a workshop in Tasmania. These “young Irish” do get around.

One of the things that attracts me is her fearlessness as a songwriter. Is she confessional? Surely, but it’s more like she scans her own heart and boldly follows  its inclinations.

I persevered and played a number of O’Neill’s songs on Celtic Crush, including her amazing cover of Bob Dylan’s All the Tired Horses which had brought her much attention as the finale of the Peaky Blinders series.

But it wasn’t until I played the almost lullaby-like Goodnight World that listeners began writing me about her. One described her as “a voice of the true Ireland that touches you without you knowing why.”

I echo that assessment and have no fear of Lisa getting stuck in any kind of Celtic Twilight, though her 2023 album All of This Is Chance is poetic in the best sense.

She’s already moved on with a 6 song EP, The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right. It has more of a political edge, and features Mother Jones, a song celebrating the life of “the most dangerous woman in America,” labor activist Mary Harris Jones.

Not to mention the searing Homeless in The Thousands (Dublin In The Digital Age); these two tracks become even more vibrant when set against O’Neill’s chilling treatment of the Yuletide classic, The Bleak Midwinter.

There’s an original oddness to her voice that takes a little getting used to, but Bob Dylan sounded equally strange amidst the pop confectionery of the early 1960’s.

Still, I’d bet a pound to a penny that Lisa O’Neill will become one of the most cherished, and challenging, voices of Ireland down many’s the day to come. Up Cavan!

MEN DON'T READ NOVELS

 

Men No Longer Read Novels – the small headline in the bottom right-hand corner of either the Times or the Journal screamed at me.

Yes, I’m one of those luddites who still delights in receiving two newspapers at my door each morning.

Their views are different, but in my jaundiced mind they serve to keep me somewhat balanced.

The headline wasn’t news to me. I had first noticed a gender imbalance years ago while president of Irish American Writers & Artists, and doing a silent head count at one of our early salons.

It was beyond 60% women to 40% men, and I resolved to gradually turn the majority male board into a body that more closely reflected those numbers.

My fear nowadays is that the last word of the headline will become superfluous.

Men, of course, still read novels, but the gender imbalance can become painfully obvious at book readings or signings. Many men prefer biographies, scientific tomes, and histories; but why the scarcity of novel readers?

I’ve been shaped by the novels I’ve read, and for better or worse, I find that novels say something about the times we live in.

My first pre-teen novels were from the Just William series about the hilarious doings of William Brown, an unruly British 11-year old.

I became a County Wexford Library member soon thereafter, and every Wednesday evening I would borrow three books: a history or biography for my grandfather, a detective or romance for Miss Codd, our housekeeper, and something or other in the boy department for myself.

We read like demons. Everyone seemed to, back in Wexford before television ruled the roost. Books were fuel for conversation, and for library members they were free.

I read all of Dickens, was floored by Conan-Doyle, romanced by Jane Austen; then one blessed evening I discovered Graham Greene. The genial librarian, Miss Lucking assumed that Greene’s existential novels were for the grown-ups. I’ve never looked back.

I was living in Dublin when I bought a well-thumbed paperback on Rathmines Road - For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. The hero of this Spanish Civil War story spoke directly to my teenage psyche – his ideals, quiet intensity and longing for justice rang true.

Hemingway’s pared, but luminous, prose swept me away, and the dramatic unspoken ending still haunts me.

Great Gatsby is by far a better known novel, but to me there’s something hollow at its core. Perhaps I’m repelled by Fitzgerald’s Irish Mid-Western snobbishness or his worship of wealth? But there’s no denying it’s a hell of a story and a literary touchstone - every American high-schooler seems to have read it, and good for them!

From the newspaper article I gather that the educational powers-that-be prefer that students read more novel extracts, that nowadays teenagers no longer have the attention-span to devote to a full novel.

What does that say about our society? It roars out that there’s an elephant in the room – Social Media.

The article was able to track the rise of Facebook and Instagram with the decline of high school reading scores.

This is scary stuff, as the writer hadn’t even taken into account the volcano that is Tik Tok, nor the nascent use of AI.

There is no doubting the instant excitement that one can find in social media as compared to the measured elevation of reading a good novel.

Still, despite all the friends and followers one can find on social media, you can almost touch the digital loneliness that’s gathering force. The streets are full of people sporting AirPods as they blankly scroll their phones. Even in bars, where conversation used to reign, people silently stare at banks of flat-screen televisions.

As for the content on social media, much of it is flippant and harmless, but sometimes I’m reminded that “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

People are so convinced they’re right – gone are the days of reasoning or subtle argument. Lies are common, bluster is the currency, everyone’s “truth” is delivered with a sledgehammer; this hardly augurs well for democracy.

Ah, it makes you long for a nice quiet read, where you’ve time to think, come to terms with character and story, while admiring the subtle workings of a thoughtful novel.

 

Should you wish to learn more about Irish American Writers & Artists visit https://iamwa.org    Men are welcome!

WEXFORD FRIARY - A COMPLICATED CHURCH IN A COMPLICATED TOWN

 

When Christmas is at hand, like most emigrants my thoughts turn to home – Wexford Town, in my case.

After I escort a tour group to Ireland every October, I spend a week’s vacation at the Wexford Opera Festival; so the town, its people, history and distinctive accent still resonate over Yuletide.

My thoughts are often drawn to the Franciscan Friary where I was an altar boy between the ages of 11 and 14. Oh yes, I was a true believer before I got waylaid by dreams of revolution, music, sexuality, and other teenage obsessions.

Teenage years, as most will testify, can be complicated. But then Wexford was a complicated town. Though conservative and Catholic, it was traditionally represented in Dáil Éireann by a left-wing Labour TD.

While the Third Order of St. Francis, the Holy Family Confraternity, and the Legion of Mary held nominal sway in the town, James Connolly and Richard Corish had led torchlight processions down the Main Street during the Great Lockout of 1911.

To top it all, my father, like many other seafarers, was a “silent atheist.” Most had been harassed, even torpedoed, in the Atlantic by Hitler’s U-boats, and as I heard one testifying in a Quayside pub, “I never regained my appetite for pie in the sky.”

The Friary, too, was complicated. It was flanked on either side by the majestic Gothic twin parish churches of the Immaculate Conception and The Assumption. I could have qualified for altar boy service in either, because I lived with my grandfather in George’s Street, while my parent’s house was in nearby Corish Park.

But I was a Friary boy, born and bred, and always attended mass or devotions in its humbler, but inviting, Italianate structure. And why wouldn’t I?

The Friars had first come to Wexford circa1240, not long after the Normans seized the Viking town, often known back then as Weissfjord. You could say, there was a mysterious steely gentleness to our Franciscans.

For one thing, they had taken a vow of poverty. They were as poor as the poorest, and subsisted on donations from their local spiritual clientele. But it was more than that – they had stood with the people at the worst moment in Wexford history – when Oliver Cromwell’s troops slaughtered 2000 civilians after a long siege in 1649.

The vengeful roundhead cavalry galloped through the church, murdering 7 friars and their congregation, and then for a little insulte final they stabled their horses at the altar rails. The surviving friars remained in the shattered town to minister to their surviving flock.

Likewise in the Great Lockout, while the regular clergy took the side of the bosses, the friars stuck by the strikers and shared their food and few possessions with them.

That’s why on Christmas Eve, I time-travel back to boyhood midnight mass at the Wexford Friary, and experience once again its glorious choir, glowing candles, clouds of incense, and my dear friend, jolly Fr. Justin OFM.

No matter what I confessed to that merciful friar he never sentenced me to more than 3 Hail Mary’s penance, before soliciting my opinion on Manchester United’s prospects in their next game.

Fr. Justin was the reason for my friendship with Black 47 fan, Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM. I once asked Mychal to find out what had become of Fr. Justin. About 6 months later, he showed up in Connolly’s on a boisterous, packed Saturday night with the news that he’d fulfilled my request.

“What request was that?” I inquired.

“Didn’t you ask about Fr Justin?” And with that Mychal delivered a full report on the fate of his brother Friar. We laughed about the doings and sayings of jolly Fr. Justin every time we met thereafter. Franciscan solidarity!

Like all Catholic orders the Franciscans are experiencing tough recruitment times, but I suspect that their belief and adherence to the Christian socialism espoused in the Sermon on the Mount will lead them to better days.

In the meantime, the old Friary in Wexford is badly in need of a new roof. Should you feel like donating a few bucks, go to https://friarywexford.ie/

And if you’re in any kind of spiritual fix, reach out to dear departed Fr. Justin, OFM. I feel sure he won’t give you any more than 3 Hail Mary’s no matter what your transgression, but I wouldn’t mention Manchester United. Even the ever-forgiving Fr. Justin has to draw a line somewhere.

WARREN ZEVON - THE CLANCY BROTHERS & TOMMY MAKEM INFLUENCE

 

Warren Zevon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently. 

 

He was a fine songwriter and wrote of what he knew. You might remember Werewolves of London, Send Lawyers, Guns and Money, or Carmelita, one of the best songs written about heroin.

 

He was well able for his subject matter, his Ukrainian-born father was a gangster in Chicago, and Warren had done his own share of walking on the wild side. Oddly enough, he had taken piano lessons from master modernist, Igor Stravinsky in LA where he also hob-knobbed with the likes of Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks.

 

All of this, and his many influences, were detailed in various media upon his popular ascension to Rock and Roll immortality.

 

One major influence – of a Celtic nature – was overlooked.

 

It had to be some summer in the late 1970’s, hot as hell, and definitely a Sunday night because the Bells of Hell was near deserted. Barry Murphy was behind the stick and I had dropped by to pick up my guitar.

 

Murph bought me a Heineken and I was sitting close to the door when Warren Zevon strolled in.

 

He was tall, lean and handsome, if a little weathered, and he stood out in his cowboy hat and LA threads. The two other customers paid him no pass, while Murph continued reading Nabokov or whatever barmen intellectuals read in those distant days.

 

I recognized him instantly, but being a cool New Yorker, I merely nodded.

 

“Are the Clancy Brothers here?” Zevon inquired in an excitable drawl.

 

Though taken aback, how was one to answer? Was he having me on, and would I end up a fall guy in one of his cosmic songs?

 

Murph finally deigned to look up from Pale Fire or whatever, and cast a wary eye down the length of the bar in case Tom, Pat and Liam might have snuck in.

 

“What would they be doing here?” The barman pondered his own existential question.

 

“They drink here.” Zevon shot back.

 

“Yeah, about once a year, if they’re in town.”

 

“Oh.” The trainee rock god conceded, but shaking off another of life’s disappointments he said, “Give me a Tequila.”

 

Murph laid aside his tome and began to pour a shot of top-shelf Jose Gold.

 

“I meant a bottle.”

 

“We don’t sell liquor by the bottle.”

 

“For the right price you will.”

 

Sensing Murph’s hesitance, the two other customers offered their advice on an equitable price. 

 

Shrugging his toil-worn shoulders Murph settled on a round $30, at which Zevon asked for 4 glasses and invited the clientele to join him at a table, adding that the only worthwhile advice his father ever gave him was never to drink at a bar, especially with one’s back to the door.

 

Tossing down shots of Gold like John Wayne, I ventured, “What’s with the Clancy Brothers?”

“They saved my life.” Zevon replied, “In Spain of all places.”

 

Then he was off in a gallop. “I hit rock bottom in Sitges, near Barcelona. Woke up, no money, no prospects, nothing left but my guitar. I chanced upon a hole-in-the-wall called The Dubliner. 

 

When I asked the owner if I could play, he told me to knock myself out – which I did. He said I wasn’t bad but they only hired Irish ballad singers – whereupon he took pity on me and gave me three Clancy Brothers LPs, said come back when I’d learned all the tracks.

 

“The chords were a breeze, and I figured that if you got the lyrics of the first verse right, you could fake the others. 

 

So, I came back 2 days later with the first verse of 30 Clancy songs and blew them Spaniards away.

 

Best summer of my life. I should have stayed there. Instead I came back to this madness,” he cast a deprecating glance at his drinking companions and at Murph murdering Nabakov behind the bar. “But I owe a debt to the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. They changed my life - made my music what it is today.”

 

With that, he took a long slug from the bottle, stood up, belched, straightened his hat, and strode out the door into the long hot summer’s night, another pit stop behind him on his way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

WHO FEARS TO SPEAK OF ZOHRAN MAMDANI

 Greetings from the soon-to-be Socialist Republic of New York, or rather from a city that has elected a politician determined to confront the curse of affordability.

So why don’t we dispense with the American phobia of “socialism,” and see if Zohran Mamdani’s proposed solutions have any merit.

 

New York is still a comfortable abode for those in the top 10%, but for just about everyone else it can be a struggle.  

 

And who wants to live in a city without a confident working-class where clubs, dive bars and an affordable social scene are fast disappearing.

 

Our Mayor-elect put forward 5 solutions to New York’s affordability crisis and received a majority of votes in a huge turnout. I voted for him. Give the man credit - he electrified an apolitical Gen Z!

 

Mamdani’s first goal is to freeze stabilized rents. He’s hardly unique: Mayor de Blasio did it 3 times. The real question is – for how long? The howls from landlords are intense and warranted: buildings are costly to maintain. One compromise would be to allow landlords to charge capital spending as a tax deductible expense over a two year freeze. 

 

I’m all in favor of Mamdani’s city-owned grocery stores - one in each borough. If nothing else, this will help ascertain if grocery chains are guilty of price gouging, as many New Yorkers suspect. 

 

Every year, despite economic fluctuations, corporate profits outpace Wall Street expectations. Meanwhile, workers’ wages and salaries tend to remain stagnant or below inflation. So let’s follow the money on these city-owned bodegas.

 

The free and faster MTA buses idea is a no-go for many reasons. The MTA needs every penny of income to keep trains and buses moving. Giving away over $600 million annually is not an option. 

 

45% of those presently riding buses are not paying, so how about placing cameras that can identify free-loaders both on buses and subway platforms. Stiff fines and more paying customers would definitely help the MTA’s finances. (Senior citizens and very low income earners should be exempt from charge.) 

 

Besides, “free” means that buses would likely end up housing the unsheltered and those struggling with mental health problems. And since Gov. Hochul has no interest in financing this quixotic goal, better to drop it and concentrate on the Mayor-Elect’s final two important proposals.

 

Mr. Mamdani hopes to build 200,000 affordable, rent-stabilized, union-built houses over the next 10 years. This should be possible since Mayor de Blasio came close to achieving the same goal during his tenure. Unfortunately, it will still leave a huge housing shortage. 

 

To compound matters, because of tariffs and inflation, prices of materials have risen appreciably, and the immigrant community that supplies many construction workers is reeling from an unsympathetic federal government and often brutal ICE enforcement. Still, 200,000 houses is a very concrete start and worth achieving.

 

This leaves the dream of free universal childcare. To survive with any comfort in NYC both spouses must work. But even if a couple makes as much as $150k between them, child-care can cost up to 25K annually. Thus, many young couples are being forced to leave the city for less expensive rents and childcare in exurbia. 

 

I mention “dream” because this proposal would cost so much, but at least, governor and mayor-elect are adamant that something must be done, and the sooner a start is made the better.

 

Who’s to pay for this? Well, under President Trump’s recent tax bill, the top 1% received disproportionately higher breaks, it’s time for them to give back a little.

 

Taxes are already high in NYC but that’s the price of living in such a vibrant community. Still, with federal corporate taxes now reduced to 21%, perhaps it’s time for a small corporate surcharge to aid the city that houses Wall Street?

 

Mamdani’s proposals, though lofty, are humane and intended to make New York an affordable city - not just a playground for the rich. 

 

Affordability will be the key issue in all upcoming elections. So, let’s get beyond the tired scapegoat of “socialism” and deal with fiscal reality.

 

And for God’s sake, spare us the Islamophobia! Mr. Mamdani is one of a million upstanding people of Islamic faith in our city, none of whom crashed the planes into the Towers on 9/11. 

 

Many remind me of our 19^th Century Irish Catholic immigrant forebears, a misunderstood, pious people seeking a new and affordable life in the city of their dreams.

THE STATE OF IRELAND AND A WORD OF ADVICE FROM MISTER YEATS

 

“The longer you stay away, the less likely you are to go home.” That was another piece of wisdom the auld fellah imparted to me up in The Archway so many years ago.

 

He neglected to say that once your parents pass away, there’s even less likelihood of a grand return. It’s like the roots have been cut from under you.

 

I used to feel like I was floating over Ireland when I’d return on vacation. I could see and hear everything, but I was no longer involved. That’s when I got the idea of taking a tour group back every year.

 

Not only would I see Ireland through the group’s eyes, but I’d be working. That’s how I experienced America with Black 47. Each club, pub, or concert hall was a new challenge. You had to be alert because there was often a bonus to be negotiated. Likewise, to attract a crowd, you had to do interviews with local press and radio – that’s how I came to know each individual city, college or town. 

 

There’s not nearly the same pressure taking a group to Ireland; but I’m still working and making sure that those traveling with me are seeing the real Ireland.

 

And, boy, has the real Ireland changed over the last twenty or so years!

 

Ireland is now a modern, secular European country. Moving statues have long since hung up their dancing shoes.

 

I’m not even sure I saw a priest or nun in the recent couple of weeks I was over there. I did attend two concerts in St. Iberius, the stately Protestant church on Wexford’s Main Street. The place was jammed with opera lovers, whereas the nearby Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Friary where I’d served as altar boy, were deserted.

 

Membership of the EU has been good for Ireland. Many old friends now winter in Portugal or The Canaries, “It’s much cheaper and you can’t beat the weather,” they tell me.

 

Big Tech and favorable tax laws have dumped bucketfuls of Euros on the country. It goes without saying that this moolah has not been equitably distributed.

 

Still, everyone lives in fear of President Trump and follows his daily pronouncements like scripture. Will he introduce new tariffs on Pharma exports, will he force Ireland to rescind its favorable corporate tax laws?

 

Is he really going to check every visitor’s Facebook page for snide comments about his sanity, or for supporting a Palestinian state? I’ve had to assure ladies in their 70’s who wish to visit their American grandchildren, as well as students in their teens, that the man from Queens has bigger fish to fry.

 

They even worried about me being allowed back in the US after describing the great man as a “megalomaniac” in the local newspaper. But here I am in Lower Manhattan, jet-lagged and writing this, with no sign of ICE breaking down my door.

 

Ireland is still a beautiful country that can take your breath away. A visit is good for the soul.

And yet, the country is becoming more like the US by the day. Things I heard with Black 47 while crisscrossing the US 30 years ago, I heard in Ireland last week -  that self-same dull rumble of racism and xenophobia. 

 

It’s not loud and the great majority are resisting it, but the “us against them” sensibility is, as ever, being fanned by lies and rumors spread on social media.

 

Recent Irish governments have done the country no favors by allowing quite so much immigration and refugee intake in the midst of an acute housing shortage. Biden revisited!

 

In the long run this influx of people will add immeasurably to the country. In the short run, however, there will be further turmoil as budgets tighten - for as the owner of a popular Wexford pub mentioned, “disposable income is at a new low.”

 

It doesn’t take a genius to notice that the “rare auld financial good times” are coming to an end. Same as the US,  “affordability” will be the next big word in Irish life. It will sit snugly next to “immigration” and “refugees.” 

 

In other words, beware of politicians – Irish or American - who traffic in loud words and drastic solutions.

 

For as Mr. Yeats put it, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst. Are full of passionate intensity.”

YER MAN FROM PEARL RIVER MEETS JAMES JOYCE

 “I’m pingless,” said I.“And I thought you were just brainless.” Replied Yer Man from Pearl River.

He had been wondering why I hadn’t replied to his text immediately.

 

Meanwhile, I was wondering why I’d ever given him my phone number in the first place.

I hadn’t heard from him since well before the Pandemic. In fact, I assumed Covid had done a number on him. 

 

But then, I never really knew him. He was a self-appointed literary guardian – “just making sure you don’t lose the run of yourself,” as he put it one day.

 

Did I need such a person in my life anymore?

 

He also commented on my Celtic Crush radio show, and attended many Black 47 gigs, around Westchester and Rockland County. 

 

But how could I tell if he was even the original “Yer Man From Pearl River;” or a Bot out of Hell come to haunt me?

 

What times we live in!

 

I’d long ago stopped giving out my phone number – not that I’m particularly paranoid, it’s just that as a self-employed person I work on deadlines, and don’t have time for random phone calls unless they’re from family or close friends. 

 

I’m not much of a texter either, especially since you’re expected to return such jittery interruptions forthwith.

 

Hence, my choice to go pingless. I have all rings, prompts, buzzes and nudges silenced on my iPhone.

 

“Aren’t you afraid of missing out on something?” Yer Man from Pearl River inquired solicitously during our reunion call – he snuck through my defenses because I had been expecting a call from my sister in Ireland.

 

Don’t get me wrong – I’m far from some solitary monk squirrelled away in the bowels of Manhattan. It’s just that I value my time.

 

Think of it! When you’re pingless the world is your oyster. You’re not jumping from Billy to Joe on text, plus I rarely get spammed anymore.

 

Am I any happier because of this? Immensely so! When I go for a walk, I often don’t even take my phone, nor do I wear the obligatory white Apple earbuds.

 

Instead I amble along like people used to. I’m tuned into the same rhythms of the city that poets and musicians from Walt Whitman through Miles Davis, Brendan Behan to Bob Dylan moved to. I have no need of podcasters or other “influencers” screaming in my ears.

 

It’s a lot safer too. I’m less likely to get a belt in the back of the head from some crazy who doesn’t appreciate my hair-style. Although a majority of contemporary lunatics appear to be conversing with argumentative old girlfriends or concerned fathers-in-law through concealed microphones.

 

This makes for a noisy world and I’m determined to keep my little patch of it as quiet as possible.

 

That’s not to say I’m some kind of luddite. I use my phone and laptop frequently to seek or confirm information; for instance, I was stuck for a name a few minutes back and googled “first poet of the Manhattan skyline?”

 

Bob’s your uncle, out popped Walt Whitman. The old poet and printer has always fascinated me, consequently I had to restrain myself from following him down an AI rabbit hole, one of the temptations of modern life.

 

I don’t use Instagram. Nor do I subscribe to X or anything of that nature, and the thought of getting information on current affairs through social media strikes me as beyond ludicrous.

 

Try it sometime – de-ping yourself! You’ll find a certain sense of self returning. You’ll definitely be less stressed and time-constrained, and your neck will feel a little more supple when you no longer have to crane it downwards to fixate on your phone.

 

You may even find an original idea or two bouncing around again in your cranium. Don’t take my word for it, I’m merely heeding the advice of Mr. Joyce. Would Jamesy have written Ulysses if he’d been following Taylor Swift on Instagram?

 

As the great man put it, "I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art... using for my defense the only arms I allow myself -- silence, exile, and cunning.  

 

As for Yer Man from Pearl River -- Ah well, I guess everyone occasionally needs a guardian angel.