From the release of Early in the Morning (2010) to Wide Open, Horses (2024) an era has passed.
At the time I was living in a damp 1-bed apartment in Cabra Park, Phibsboro.
The year started with a big snow big for Ireland, anyway).
I was part of the Micah Community, a group of young adult meeting at St. Peter’s church, which was just across the road from where I lived.
It was also last year of Gabriel in Dublin.
Gabriel was a guy from Spain that I met through the Micah community and became friend with.
We would often go out and play football together.
I was working for Bookassist, the company that brought me to Ireland from Italy.
It was also the year I joined and became an organizer of the meetup group “New and Not So New in Dublin”.
Jeff, the other organizer, would become a friend of mine.
I was wearing shitty clothes and was not in a stable relationship.
I also had a shitty phone, as you can see from the quality of some of the photos.
It was a year of great gigs with two of my favourite bands, Beach House and LCD Soundsystem, both playing shows in Dublin.
This is Beach House at Vicar Street.
And this was LCD Soundsystem at Tripod.
My grandfather was still alive.
Fast forward to 2024 and a geological era has passed, not only because of the 14-year gap.
I am now a different person from the one I used to be. I have a different identity so to speak.
I am vegetarian (almost vegan).
I go to the gym Monday to Friday and I run 3-4 times a week.
I started my own business,, a small digital marketing agency, in 2016 and sold it in 2022.
I work for myself (still in digital) and started a real estate project to renovate and sell my family’s apartments in Chianciano Terme and Chiusi.
I read 15-20 books a year and listen to 1-2 podcasts per day.
I am married. I have a stepdaughter and a cat. We bought our own place in 2022.
My granddad is not with us anymore and my dad survived a heart attack.
I am still going to the odd gig but not so regularly like I used to do.
This free event organised by Hot Press was a good opportunity to see again James Vincent McMorrow.
It was also an opportunity to reflect on the 14-year gap between the first time I saw him at the Academy and now in Windmill Lane QTR.
Since then, there has definitely been a lot of water under the bridge.
The year ended as it started, with another big snow and for the first and only time since I was in Ireland, I could not go to Italy and spend Christmas with my parents.
Here’s a photo of the second flight I was on, after my original flight was cancelled because of the snow.
Only this flight will never depart and we were asked to leave the plane and go home.
From Early in the Morning to Wide Open, Horses an era has passed.
The featured image is a photo my friend Paolo took and that I have used as a profile picture multiple times.