glenn hansard

Rolling Stone

Here he is ... the Tony award winner! I wrote of it a while back after I watched the Tony's. I really enjoyed the performance on the show, and have since purchased the cast album and like it as well as I did the original. I really want to travel to NYC to see this production, particularly if the actor, who sings on the cast album is still playing the part ... he's delightful!

Hansard must feel good ... he's been around for a long time. If you've seen the Irish movie The Commitments circa 1991, he's the skinny red-headed guitar player! That's the first time that I spotted him. How could you not with that ginger on top of his head.

And now he has a Tony to put along side the Oscar that he won for the title song of the film that the musical is based on.

Hey wait a minute ... a Tony?! He's one-upped his fellow Irishman Bono! Bono has a little project on Broadway too. Although that's been terrifically successfully financially, I don't think that it won any Tony's. I went to NYC to see Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark ... of course! Bono is my man! And I loved it, but it had problems and drama. Problems and drama. My sister and her kids just saw it and they loved it too ... maybe having Bono, and the Edge for that matter, in the community was just a bit ... too celestial. Too bright. Oh, nothing against Broadway, I love it, but their community is a little ... smaller, niche'd, compared to the universe that U2 explodes in .... oh, of course I'm saying this tongue in cheek.

It must feel good for Hansard to ... have been recognized in a way that his fellow Irishman wasn't ... I know that they are some kind of mate ... they buskered together on Christmas Eve a year or so ago. But let's face it ... it must get ... tedious to watch his mug constantly being recognized. I can't help but think of the film Killing Bono about the pals who started up a band at the same time as Larry (U2's drummer and the guy who tacked the note on the board looking for bandmates) did. They were always chasing them, Bono in particular, from that time on ... and it wasn't Bono that was the devil for real, but the guy in the other band tried really hard to make him out to be just that. I'm not saying that Hansard has some sort of rivalry with Bono, but I had to think .... hah! you aren't the only star on the celestial plain.


Here they are on Grafton Street ... a couple of Irish buskers singin' for their Christmas supper.