Ravings of Love & Death An Anthology For Edgar Allan Poe Lovers

Ravings of love & death

An anthology for Edgar Allan Poe lovers

As a child David G. Forés discovered Edgar Allen Poe and became captivated and enthralled by the American who is credited as leading the American Romantic Movement. Now as an adult G. Forés has set his ambitions high by aiming to bring music and vision to the melancholy madness that fell from Edgar Allen Poe’s mind and onto paper. Two years ago David G.  Forés began illustrating Poe with both respect and terror as this project is the most intense task he has tackled in his career.

This is a fine tribute to Poe; The Master of Macabre as David G. Forés, along with others, affectionately crowns him.

This truly is a must have for any and all fans of Edgar Allen Poe and will surely entice the young and the old to discover and rediscover the much hailed poet.

Soundtrack Composed by Teo Grimalt.

https://soundcloud.com/ipoecollection/ipoe-collection-bell-and-me

My donate finger is twitching like mad.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidgfores/edgar-allan-poe-illustrated-ravings-of-love-and-de?ref=live

Sean Kelly On Introducing A Transfer Fee To Cycling and The Giro In Ireland

Sean Kelly has expressed his disappointment with the Irish Tourism Board saying it’s a ‘Scandal’ how little effort is going into promoting the Giro in Ireland.

Speaking in Belgium earlier this week Sean Kelly said ‘It’s great to see the Giro coming to Ireland’ but feels a lot of the opportunities Ireland had to benefit from the arrival of cycling second biggest race have already slipped through their fingers. ‘Back in Ireland, we've heard almost nothing about [The Giro]. There's so little about it.’ ‘The exposure it’s getting and the promotion is very very poor’. ‘The tool is there.’ He says the Irish Tourism Board should be utilising Dan Martin, Nicholas Roche, Stephen Roche and himself and ‘It all should have been done already, over these past four or five months’. ‘It's going to be a long time before we get to host a big stage race again in Ireland.’ ‘I think it's a scandal that Tourism Ireland are not doing something.’ 

Kelly also discussed the idea of introducing a transfer fee system into the sport. Teams like his An Post – Chain Reaction Cycles, a continental team, are seen as a development team which means when a Pro Continental team or World Tour team come along and want to sign one of their riders the team loses a man from their roster and with that the riders performances, results, and funding so the smaller teams are the losers at the moment. This is‘for the health of cycling’ Kelly explains. ‘A fee of ‘50 or 75’000’ wouldn't impact on the larger teams but would make a huge difference to the likes of An Post.

It is something Kelly has aired in the UCI when he was on the road commission before himself, Stephen Roche and Michael Robb got ‘thrown out’ when the new president, Brian Cookson, came on board.’ ‘If you have a good continental team which is there for many years and who look after riders in the right way [you need to support that] because there’s a lot of teams who are “cowboy” teams they’re there for one or two years then they disappear, they don’t pay their riders the riders are left in the middle of the season or after two months with no team. ‘You look after a rider for a year or two years and then a pro team comes and they’re poaching him from you’ Kelly explained ‘If you go to a pro continental team there should be a fee if you go to a world tour team there should be a bigger fee'. The continental teams are ‘so important’ because they take riders on at a vital time in their development. The UCI have said they'd look into it but, as Kelly suggests, it isn't a priority and could be a while before we see this implemented. 

Sean Kelly and Sir David Brailsford discussed signing Sam Bennett to Team Sky

Sean Kelly discussed signing Sam Bennett with Sky’s Sir Dave Brailsford last year.

In an interview with Sean Kelly during the build up to the launch of his team, An Post – Chain Reaction, for 2014 he discussed how he was in talks with Sky’s Sir Dave Brailsford about signing Sam Bennett on two occasions last year.

Sean Kelly revealed that early last season when Sir Dave Brailsford was looking to sign climber Philip Deignan the two also discussed the possibility of signing another Irishman, sprinter Sam Bennett. At the time Sky were sifting through the team’s riders and their history with a fine tooth comb after the revelation revealing the irregularities in the biological passport of Jonathan Tiernan-Locke. Brailsford approached Kelly to talk about Philip Deignan and discus what he was capable of and if he was a safe signing. Kelly reassured Brailsford that ‘Deignan is a good rider [and] a talented rider’. After Sky secured its contract with Deignan it no longer had room for another Irish rider explained Kelly.

‘I spoke to Brailsford again at the tour of Britain and he was inquiring about Bennett’ said Kelly who also pointed out to Brailsford that confidence is an issue with young Bennett. ‘You need to have a guy who works with him if he’s going through difficult times that he doesn't lose the confidence’. ‘I said that to sky I said “if you can work with him. Then you've a guy, Sam, he can win sprints he can get some good results.” Unfortunately with Sky they already had an Irish guy and they had too many riders’.

Sam Bennett’s move to sign a two year contract with German Pro-Continental team NetApp – Endura may be a blessing in disguise kelly explains as with Sky he wouldn’t really get the chance to shine like Sam has already, sparing no time in securing his first pro win early in the season at the Clásica de Almería (and with a sizable gap too).

Team NetApp - Endura were not given a wild card invitation to this year’s Giro de Italia which starts in Ireland on 9th of May but were invited to the Tour de France which Sam Bennett expressed “I’d love to be able to do a Grand Tour like that in my first season,” “I would absolutely love to start [the Tour].”

When asked how he felt about NetApp – Endura not receiving a wild card from the Giro organisers, RCS Sport, Kelly said ‘I think the Giro mightn't be a good one so early in the year [for] Sam. I was thinking later on in the year the Vuelta.’ ‘[Sam] is twenty three he is going on twenty four this year I think to do a big tour [would be good for him], he doesn't have to do it all of course, and he’s the sprinter of the team so there is a possibility of him going there for ten days.’ ‘We could see him doing that at the tour.’ With the Vuelta route presenting twelve mountain top finishes Kelly said although ‘as sprinters go he is able to climb pretty well. He’s stronger then the really top sprinter’ Sam won’t be able to cope with the volume of climbs in this year’s edition of the Spanish race. ‘I haven’t looked at the programme seriously but in the early part of the race there’s surely a number of days there with flat stages, the mountain days you just get through.’ ‘The Vuelta wouldn’t be a problem for [Sam] to go there for ten days’. But the organisers of the Spanish Grand Tour announced its wild card picks yesterday and unfortunately Net App-Endura were not one of the four teams named so if Bennett is to make a Grand Tour appearance this year if it will be in Le Tour were The German Pro continental team were already invited.

An Post - Chain Reaction Cycles 2014 Team Launch

An Post - Chain Reaction Cycles 2014 Team Launch 

The 2014 cycling season is underway and with the spring classics just around the corner the An Post – Chain Reaction Team, headed by Sean Kelly and Kurt Bogaerts, is ready to show off its new kit and rising Talents. The Irish team based in Belgium launched its seventh year on the road in Brussels’ Shamrock Hotel, yesterday evening in front of sponsors, Irish and Belgian journalists and Jeff Liffey head of Cycling Ireland. With new signings, Irish riders Conor Dunne and Marcus Christie and Australian native Robert-Jon McCarthy, fresh motivation and an indomitable attitude 2014 is set to be a good one for An Post - Chain Reaction.

The team is setting out to improve on the success of last year with two stage wins in the RAS and A stage in the Tour of Britain, With former team-mate Sam Bennett now riding for the German team NetApp – Endura, it’s a tall order but with the talent of Jack Wilson and Sean Downey it is not out of reach. Trying to improve on last year’s performance may be ‘Pushing the boat out too far’ but ‘I feel we can do something the same, we have the pool of riders that are capable of doing that.’ Said Sean Kelly. With the Tour of Britain moving up to new race category (1.1HC) the Team no longer get handed a spot and need to fight hard for a place in this year’s addition. But with talent such as Jack Wilson and Sean Downey both Sean Kelly and Kurt Bogaerts believe they can do it.

The Team has signed a new two year contract with title sponsors An Post and ‘we are a very happy with the deal’ Kelly said. Co-title sponsor CRC are entering their second year with the team ‘Chain Reaction is very important because if we did have Chain Reaction Cycles (CRC) these past years we wouldn’t be able to [run] the team, we’d have to make cut backs somewhere. We’ve upped our training camps and our race programme, without CRC’. As Co-Manager Kurt Bogaerts illustrates ‘There is no certainty with cycling’ sponsors come and go. CRC also provided the Vitus bike for the team which Sean Kelly and the team have lent a hand in designing. The Whole team seem motivated and in high spirits, with a very relaxed atmosphere but one thing is for certain they won’t be taking it easy on the road or their competitors.

90% of the Giro peloton were doping the other '10% don't care about the Giro d'Italia'.

90% of the Giro peloton were doping the other '10% don't care about the Giro d'Italia'.

Winner of the 2007 Giro Danilo Di Luca (who will probably have that title taken off him now) said in an interview with Italia 1 that 90% of the peloton were doping during the sports second largest race, the Tour of Italy, which aired on Wednesday night. This has sparked outrage throughout the cycling world between professionals, journalist and fans. Team Garmin-Sharp's Andrew Talansky got some attention when he tweeted '[Di Luca's] statements are delusional. I feel genuine hatred towards Di Luca. He's a worthless lying scumbag'.                                    
Doping is a subject that has been of main concern for cycling for decades and the world got a very large and bitter mouth full of it in January of last year when Lance Armstrong admitted to doping throughout his seven Tour de France victories in an interview with Oprah. Now, 12 months later, Danilo Di Luca has gotten the cycling community up in arms with his 'delusional' accusations. Without naming people he has ignited a flame that could potentially burn a lot of people and with plans to release a book I'm sure there are some worried people out there in cycling community. Prime Italian newspaper Gazzetta have asked what does Di Luca want out of this. 'A high-profile trial with shocking revelations? Tyler Hamilton like attention? 'This could become the Armstrong affair of Italy, considering the level of person [Di Luca is, in Italy].' I don't think people would waste money by paying for a book written by a disgraced and widely hated ex-professional who has recently been described as 'an idiot' by many people including Luca Scinto who was Di Luca's directeur sportif last year before he was fired for a positive EPO test. 'I was against hiring him' says Scinto, claiming he only hired him to secure funding for the team. I guess with statements like 'The best thing would be to legalise drugs so the entire peloton is on a level playing field' it is hard to disagree with Vincenzo Nibali( current Giro champion) that Di Luca is 'at the end of his tether' and 'has become a little brain-damaged'. That is contemptible talk but it seems like he doesn't care. 'It doesn't change a lot.' 'I feel I can say anything. Whoever was my fan will remain my fan and whoever wasn't a fan won't be a fan now' Di Luca said when being questioned about his statements on Wednesday night. A man comfortable with himself and obviously doesn't care what others think of him. With three doping violations to his name he has not apologised to the sport and it fans, it's almost safe to say remorse is not in Di Luca's vocabulary or whatever the Italian is for remorse (rimorso. I looked it up). Danilo Di Luca was banned for life on December 5th 2013 by Italian National Olympic Committee.

Are you happy?

Imagine, one day you have it all together and the next you don't. It's scary right? Well, that is what happened

You wake up, you suffer through traffic, you get to work and you let the day pass you by, you watch in agony the minutes tick way on the clock. This is your life ticking away, counting down to the end, your end. You die a little bit everyday. We're all heading to the same place. Is it what you want? Sitting in your office, wishing time away, is this what you wanted when you were a kid. Is this the life you envisioned for yourself? The world is becoming a bigger place everyday. It's becoming easier to get lost. It's becoming easier to be forgotten. Everything is becoming manufactured, mass produced, products and people. Young people are dressing the same. Teenagers all wearing the same clothes and same hair styles as if they've just fallen out of a River Island catalogue. And it's getting worse. You don't want to just blend in like these mindless victims of advertising and P.R managers. You don't want an expensive tie and shirt because you saw Leonardo DiCaprio wear it, you just think you do because you are unhappy in your own life and you think if you wear the clothes and own the watch that you will be just like Leonardo DiCaprio, a happy and successful man but you won't. Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken. I hope you are beginning to learn that fact. Following a leader is dangerous. Fuck that, be your own leader. You need to throw away everything you know about the importance of material possessions, forget your assumptions of civilisation and let go. Just let go. It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
Ask yourself right now are you happy? You don't know? Ask again. If you still don't know then I'll tell you. No you are not happy. You now need to make changes. This will not be easy but you've done what comes easy and look where it has landed you. Today you've seen the light and you will start your transformation.
Start with little changes and move on to bigger more life altering changes. But the most important of all, first think of what you really want, think hard. Now start thinking of a plan. How you are going to get there?Make it a mission statement. Make one small step closer to your goal everyday.
Now I'm not saying go out quite your job, not right now anyway. Locate your target, set a game plan and put that plan in motion. If your plan is to quite your job and acquire your dream job then find what skills that job requires get them and then quite your job and don't look back. Fear is a great motivation tool.
People on their death beds always have a list, they always have fear in their eyes. You don't want to be like that. You are going to die. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. It is the only certain thing in your life right now. You need to know this, not fear it, know it. I'm not going to vomit some fucking crap about live each day to the fullest or live each day as if it were your last but I will say don't die with a to do list and don't fear death. Easier said then done but it is possible. You can and will be happy but only you have the power to make it happen.
Do you want to wear the same clothes as everybody else? Do you want to be a leader or a follower? Weak or strong? Loser or winner?  I don't and I rather be a leader, a winner. Do you want to wake up tomorrow and relive that sickening feeling, that "Oh fuck this is my life" feeling? Do you want to go back to your shitty job, your dull apartment or empty house and watch T.V just because the noise drowns out the loneliness. No! Fuck that. I won't do it and neither will you.
Maybe being a minimalist is the way to go. It would certainly cause us less stress. I mean there is near war over next generation games systems. It makes me sick. It's not essential to our lives, to our happiness, to our worth or survival but we crave it. We have become weak as a race. Humans have become dependant on each other to the point where we are constantly on Twitter, Facebook and every other site (sometimes simultaneously) looking for attention and companionship.
Can you really have friends if you don't even know who you are? I don't think so. Not true friends anyway. Be a fucking human being not a by-product of some lifestyle template. Be an individual not another member of some conformity. BE HAPPY. Be truly happy. Never wish time away again. Never do anything without thinking "Is this really what I want". Don't fear death, be ready. Then maybe, just maybe, you'll be remember

My Plan(s)

My master plans

Hey there I’m Chris Duff and this is my life plan. Well actually I have two plans. Plan A is to make my living as a professional cyclist and Plan B is to be a journalist. (If I can’t be the story I might as well write it.) I guess, before I tell you how I intend to fulfil my goal(s) I should give you an origins story.

The life ahead of me didn’t always look bright and at times the future looked dark and even terrifying. I was, and guess I still am, a shy and socially inept person. I didn’t really fit in at school and wasn’t very popular as while other kids played football and PlayStation I played drums and read. I did like sport it just wasn’t the modish kind. I preferred long distance running swimming and above all cycling but just at a pastime level. I’ve been left perplexed recently, as I’ve been characterised as “intelligent, charming and not without humour.” That’s always nice, right?

I am from Skerries [where the Captain of the 2012 Dublin Football Team, Bryan Cullen, also calls home]. I, along with other inhabitants of this once intimate town, still like to believe it is the quaint fishing village it once was but Skerries has flourished quiet impressively over the years. I played Hurling, Gaelic and Soccer but was terrible at soccer however exceptional at the former two. For a few years I gave up on sport for various reasons, primarily illness. Before you ask I’ll tell you. I was diagnosed with anorexia and depression in 2008. I was fourteen. In 2009 I was very ill as a result of my anorexia and spent over a month in hospital. It wasn’t the first time or the last but it was the longest. One day while flicking through the channels on the small television in the corner of my hospital room I happened upon the Tour de France. It was stage 4, the team time trial round Montpellier. I was immediately transfixed by the fluid style of the sport. The instantly evident brutality of the sport, the high speeds, the precision of each move, it was poetry in motion and I was captivated immediately. After that I continued to follow the race day my day, stage by stage. I was amazed by the drama of the race, the super human displays of power, the team work, the sacrifices each member made for their team leader and the glory. I previously didn’t know cycling was a team sport but was left in awe of the team spirit and loyalty I think is unequalled in any other sport. Watching the winner of each stage cross the line, throwing his hands up in the air and scream with joy and seeing the pride on his face and the happiness of everyone around him, I wanted that. I was given Lance Armstrong’s book “It’s not about the bike” as a gift. I read it cover to cover and although I had anorexia and not cancer I was so inspired by Lance’s come back that it left me feeling compelled to do the same. This was my “moment of clarity”. Although I was still sick and wouldn’t be allowed exercise for a few months, even after I was let leave the hospital to recover at home, I started to work out how I could kick start my cycling career. I had received a tone of get well cards with money inside so I saved every cent toward purchasing my very first race bike.

After a few months of saving and convalescing I was ready to buy my first race bike. I had joined the Swords Cycling Club on the advice of my neighbor who was a member and whose son, Stephen Halpin, is a professional cyclist and spent a brief year on the An Post Sean Kelly Team. I started going on club spins every Sunday morning and I fell in love after just meters of pedaling with the group. The comradery of the group was inspiring; everybody looked after one and other. I finally felt like I had a place where I belonged. A few weeks later I entered my first race. It was a cold May evening. It was a club organised race on pothole riddled country roads and I was pumped, overly eager to impress and unaware of the pain about to be trust upon me. I was the youngest by at least six years from what I could gather. I was about half the size of the next biggest guy, at 6”2 and 58kg I bet some of the guys there could have crushed me with their calf muscles. I finished roughly fiftieth out of eighty. Thankfully it was a hilly course; otherwise I’d have been dropped after lap three of the 12km course which we completed six times. I was light therefore got up the hills with ease. My small frame also meant I could shelter from the wind behind almost anybody. I was exhausted, sore, cold, saturated in sweat but I had the biggest smile on my face. I loved every pedal stroke of that race. I had this overwhelming sense of exhilaration. I was sore and so depleted that I could barely walk but I felt wonderful and I decided I was going to do everything in my power to chase that high for as long as possible. I know fiftieth place isn’t anything to write home about, I wasn’t exactly please with that result myself, but I am a fighter I am a perfectionist I hate losing. I hate losing almost more then I love winning. I would improve on that every week, I was indomitable from that point. I set out on this journey of transformation; I was determined to be a pro-cyclist.

After a summer of racing and a visibly vast improvement I had people coming up and congratulating me at the end of races, people who saw me at the beginning and people who saw me at the end of the season. Some said to me if I kept going the way I was going, put on a bit more muscle weight and stayed smart, I could one day make the National Team. It was so humbling to see people I’d only met three months ago put that kind of faith in me. They gave me a sense of worth a sense of belonging and, something I hadn’t really had before, confidence. They also gave me a new goal, the Irish National Team.

A few years have passed and I have learnt a lot about cycling and racing. I’ve not won a race yet but I’ve come close. I’ve put it down to lack of experience and misfortune but at times I just didn’t have the legs on the day. I didn’t race in 2013, unfortunately. I had a rough summer. Although I am able to keep my anorexia relatively at bay my depression was effecting me terribly throughout sixth year and following a (thankfully) failed suicide attempt I spent the beginning of June in the hospital not doing my leaving certificate and reevaluating my life(for the second time). I’ve joined a new club, Dunboyne Cycling Club, who put a team into the RAS every year (Which is an eight day long race spanning across Ireland). I’ve bought a new bike that is crazy fast, aerodynamic and ultra-stiff for the upcoming season. I’ve been training harder than ever before and looking after my diet. I will race more than I have in the past few years. I plan on going to races all over the country. My aim for this cycling season is to impress my new club and get a few top five placing’s in races, even a win if I can make that happen and be considered for the RAS team within the next two years. That’s A

I never do anything without a Plan B I often have a Plan C and D too, so not having a Plan B for life is ludicrous by my standard. I’ve always had a passion for writing, I revel in it. I always enjoyed English in school and I excelled at it. Whether it was using my imagination to create a story or researching and gathering information to construct an essay I relished it. I was always reading and checking books out from the school library. Before I discovered cycling writing was the only thing I was good at or truly enjoyed so I wanted to pursue it. My uncle, Mark Comerford, works in the media and I really look up to him. I very seldom see, or get to chat with him because he lives in Sweden and is constantly busy but we get along very well. I always thought he was one of the coolest people ever so naturally as a ten year old looking for a role model and something to aspire to Uncle Mark was my man. This enthusiasm has stuck with me and is as strong today as it was nine years ago. I love telling stories. I grave that light in people’s eyes when I drag them into a story. I am a very curious person. “Why” is probably the word I say most of all. I’ve an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. I want to be able to convey a story in a way that is entertaining, informative and, probably most of all, inspiring. I got publish for the first time this year, it was only the local paper but it counts (so I’m told) and the reaction I got from people around town, in school, from family and friends was encouraging to say the least. People literally used the words inspiring to describe my story and that was one of the aims of my piece. Knowing I achieved my goal at the time was an amazing feeling. Knowing I informed and helped people was brilliant and I want to do it again and again for as long as I can.

After being ill for so long and then relapsing in sixth year I missed a lot of school and ended up spending time in hospital again instead of a large room sitting my leaving Cert. I am currently studying journalism and photography in Marino College of Further Education and I hope to get into DCU next year and continue in my pursuit of becoming a journalist.

My aspiration to become a journalist out dates my desire to become a professional cyclist but the passion I have for cycling outweighs that of a journalistic career.