Dara Clear, Author at The ClearOut

Singular Cinematic Visions – The Darkness of Polanski vs The Light of Spielberg – Episode 94

In this episode Dara shares his thoughts and responses after a movie mini-binge. He is struck by the hackneyed plotline of CODA (2021) but thinks the film is saved by the acting and warmth of the main cast. He compares it to a couple of other movies that didn’t take flight, including the risible Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), and the glorified Apple commercial that was Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013).

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Elastic Time and the Love of Two Cities – Episode 93

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In this episode, Dara is brushing up against his past and walking the fine line between nostalgia and sentimentality. Spending a lot of time in Dublin recently has provoked a host of memories from over 20 years ago and Dara feels like he keeps bumping into his younger self around every street corner.

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Assassination Fascination and the Gun as Symbol of Cultural Psyche – Episode 92

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Inspired by a podcast about Julius Caesar, Dara realises he has long had a fascination with assassinations, particularly those that have played out in movies. In this episode he looks closely at the celluloid executions that most impacted him, paying close attention to Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, amongst others.

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Bent On Being Happy: Interview with Musician, Singer, Songwriter, and Music Therapist, Chiara Clear – Episode 91

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In this episode, Dara finally achieves a long-term goal of the podcast – he gets his wife to sit down for an interview at Hashtag Blessed!

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Pillars, Pathfinders, and Dodging Space Trash – Episode 90

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Dara is not in the mood for this week’s episode. He simply doesn’t have the headspace. But he talks himself into it and soon warms up as he mentions how a recent football podcast planted the seed for what he wants to talk about – touchstones. What are the reference points that help us negotiate the world in which we find ourselves? Who are the pillar-like figures that we feel we can lean on? Who remains unchanged?

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Stirring the Masculinity Pot and Countering Dubious Male Voices – Episode 89

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In this episode, Dara is all stirred up as a result of the theatre production he is currently working on. The subject of the work is masculinity and the nurturing and shaping of boys into men. Dara admits that the process of examining this subject closely is leaving him exhausted but also inspired and full of almost uncontrollable thought processes and emotional impulses around what masculinity means to him

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Laughing at the Wrong Things, or Why Cat Stevens is So Funny to Me – Episode 88

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In this episode, Dara looks at a couple of recent news stories in Ireland that have raised some confronting questions about where we’re at as a society.

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The Attraction of Certain Instruments, or Oh, What a Lovely Wand! – Episode 87

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After hearing his wife listening to a selection of different piano pieces in preparation for a class, Dara realised he wanted to talk about motifs. He discusses motifs in the work of film score composers before warming to the idea of motifs in one’s life – what themes and fascinations have recurred over a lifetime? What has been circled back to? What has been underscored and reiterated?

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Notes From a Funeral, or The Power of the Collective Experience – Episode 86

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In this episode Dara shares his experience of a recent family funeral that seemed to succeed in channelling a profound communal expression of love and grief. Because of his role in the service, he had to wait to express his own feelings.

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Goldfish Memory and the Things We Get Used To – Episode 85

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If last week was the wrap-up of the year, this week is assessing the landscape of the year to come. Dara acknowledges the generic themes he has embraced for the moment that’s in it and tries to contextualise his own attitude to the beginning of another year. Part of that attitude is informed by his birthday falling in January, something that has helped him cultivate a lifelong affinity for the month and what it can represent.

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Dara Clear

Singular Cinematic Visions – The Darkness of Polanski vs The Light of Spielberg – Episode 94

Elastic Time and the Love of Two Cities – Episode 93

Assassination Fascination and the Gun as Symbol of Cultural Psyche – Episode 92

Bent On Being Happy: Interview with Musician, Singer, Songwriter, and Music Therapist, Chiara Clear – Episode 91

Pillars, Pathfinders, and Dodging Space Trash – Episode 90

Stirring the Masculinity Pot and Countering Dubious Male Voices – Episode 89

Laughing at the Wrong Things, or Why Cat Stevens is So Funny to Me – Episode 88

The Attraction of Certain Instruments, or Oh, What a Lovely Wand! – Episode 87

Notes From a Funeral, or The Power of the Collective Experience – Episode 86

Goldfish Memory and the Things We Get Used To – Episode 85

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