Like many people at home in Ireland and around the Globe, I’ve been tuning in every week to listen to the Blindboy podcast to revel in his hot takes on all things mental health, wellbeing, mindfulness, music, literature, culture, history and divilment. And maybe a few short musings on an Otter named Yurty Ahern.
The Original 1978 Picture, The Painting from Goodfellas, and My Creation
Listening to the Podcast a few months ago, Blindboy illuminated the fact that a painting that features in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film “Goodfellas” is based on a 1978 National Geographic picture of a Limerick man with his two dogs on a boat.
In the film when the lads go back to Tommy’s house, his mother (played by Scorsese’s actual mother) implores the lads to sit and have some food. While the fellas are eating, she proudly presents to them a picture that she had painted. Studying the painting of a man and two dogs on a river boat, Joe Pesci’s character exclaims “One dog goes one way, the other dog goes the other. And then this guy's saying "whaddya want from me?" He's got a nice head of white hair, it's beautiful.”
Stewing on this newfound knowledge, I wanted to take Blindboy and his Otter pal Yurty Ahern, and thrust them into the madness of this National Geographic, Gangster Film, Podcaster cross-over. I spent a few months trying to get this piece right and after a handful of different style attempts, a few complete start-overs, I am happy to say I am finished and ready for the world to enjoy “Blindboy on the River”.
