The weather: very Seattlesque. Meaning, rain, clouds, dark. Perhaps if I were on a bicycle or walking and I was properly insulated from it I wouldn't be so bothered, but when I have to get out of my warm, steamy car to the bitter drizzle and there's no photographs to find in the bleakness and the damp, I'm in a mood as foul as the weather.

I was in Sligo and nearly despaired of finding any good music. Tracking hint and rumor I finally found myself at the Furey's Sheela na Gig pub, just past the bridge on Pearse Road (a Sheela na Gig being the ancient explicit female Celtic figure found in early medieval churches). As usual it was half ten before anyone came in with an instrument case, but by 11 the session was roaring. The virtuosity was stunning. The piper's fingers were a blur, and bodhrain subtle and rich, the accordian player inventive, dancing over the figures. It turns out I'd happened onto a session by members of the Irish music group Dervish.

January 1999