Daily Archives: June 10, 2009

DCU Rent: A New Lease

  By Darren Byrne | June 10, 2009 - 4:00 pm | Performance Art, The Culch, Theatre
3 Comments

When Rent closed on broadway last September, after a 12 year run, DCU Drama wasted no time in securing the rights to produce and amateur production of the rock musical. Their far-too-short sell out run in The Helix this March was critically lauded and has secured them a number of nominations at this weekend’s Association of Irish Musical Society Awards. So impressive was DCU Drama’s production of Jonathan Larson’s musical about art, family, friends, community, drugs, homelessness and AIDS that they are now ready to bring Rent back to the Olympia Theatre under the direction of John Donnelly, 8 years after the Broadway Tour brought it to our shores. It is nearly unprecedented to see an amateur troupe bring a major production such as this to a national venue. I spoke to Producer Roibeárd O’Mhurchú about the Helix production and the upcoming Olympia run: Rob, when DCU’s Rent hit the … There’s more →

Zombie’s Guide to Podcasting - 10 Tips

  By Rob Cumiskey | June 10, 2009 - 3:08 pm | Infected, The Culch
3 Comments

‘Infected’ is a weekly column by Venntertainment.com documenting Pop Culture in Viral Marketing. ‘Infected’ will also include sporadic ramblings on other random ‘viral’ topics…watch this space! Last week, we talked about the top tools available to Marketers. On Darren’s recommendation, we’re discussing one of those tools this week. Week 5 Idiots Zombie’s Guide to Podcasting 1. Get a quality Mic So, so important. I recommend Studio Projects B1 and a preamp, going through a simple tool like Garageband on a Macbook. Alternatively, the Zoom H-4 is a very portable and affordable quality mp3/Wave recorder. You record directly onto the drive and then export to Garageband for editing. Listeners Zombies know quality when they hear it. 2. Pick a good space If you don’t have a studio, make sure that you pick somewhere nice and quiet, with good absorption. You want rooms with carpets, curtains and soft furniture rather than echoey … There’s more →

Bond Is Back

  By Rick | June 10, 2009 - 11:19 am | Events, In The News, Movies & TV, The Culch
6 Comments

I rattle on with fairly tedious regularity about how I think cinemas should show more old movies every now and then. Over the years I’ve spent incredible days (mostly in the IFI it has to be said) watching everything from Sullivan’s Travels, Bicycle Thieves, The Battle Of Algiers and Ben-Hur to Lawrence Of Arabia, The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg and Citizen Kane and I’ve never come away unhappy. This? I’ve never done before and I’m as excited as a 5 year old on Christmas morning… In celebration of the centenary of the birth of producer Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, a season of classic James Bond films have been digitally restored and are returning to the big screen exclusively at Light House Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin, from June 14th. During June and the first week of July, restored versions of four classic James Bond films, DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, GOLDFINGER and … There’s more →

If Anyone’s Expecting Me To Cry, Expect Again

  By Darren Byrne | June 10, 2009 - 10:34 am | The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
5 Comments

The first thing that begs to be said about the Abbey’s new play is that Marie Mullen in the lead role of Arina is nothing short of spectacular. The character she plays is a one woman army and Mullen makes you believe every word she utters. The Last Days of the Reluctant Tyrant, written by Tom Murphy, tells the story of a woman who began life as a poor girl married off to a local well-to-do family. She takes their ailing fortune and turns it around, building a wealthy estate. Arina is a hardened woman, seemingly lacking and pity, remorse or any emotion whatsoever, save contempt. Tyrant examines this woman’s attempt to reconcile the difference between mother and matriarch. We begin as her ne’er do well son Stephen, played ably by Darragh Kelly, returns to town. This stirs Arina into questioning herself and whether she has made the right decisions … There’s more →

Why So Series: The Wire

  By Lottie | June 10, 2009 - 9:47 am | Featured Post, The Culch
8 Comments

“I had such fucking hopes for us.” -McNulty How do I summarise the The Wire? Well, I can’t. In the simplest terms, it was so good that I watched all five series in a warm flush of excitement over a period of no more than a five weeks. Set and produced in Baltimore, I think it’s universally agreed that The Wire is The Greatest American TV series ever made. It’s insightful, honest, brutally dark yet comically entertaining. A true testament to the power and talent of American Televisions that makes other TV shows weep. And yet it’s one of those shows, like many great BBC/ITV series (which will be covered at a later date) that few seem to have seen on TV but everyone is catching the fever as it hits DVD. The plot: Created by David Simon, The Wire was originally to be a police drama based on the … There’s more →

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

  By Sinead Keogh | June 10, 2009 - 2:00 am | Events, Random Whimsy
5 Comments

Sleepy monkey had nothing on me by the time I made my way to the zoo at lunchtime last Friday, but we eventually got ourselves together and managed the drive to the Phoenix Park in a nifty-enough 30 minutes before being lucky enough to find parking just a hop, skip and jump from the zoo turnstiles. Planning, picnic-making and taking a day off work proved totally worth it to see the likes of… and It was by the hippo enclosure that @pluincee (photographer of the day, responsible for all the lovely pics in this post) heard a Dublin Dad refer to his little girl as ‘Juno’, leaving me wondering what sort of Irish surname that would even match. Juno Byrne? Juno Whelan? Juno Hennessy? but namemutton dressed as namelamb aside, we continued on our three-hour trek around all the animal sights the zoo had to offer and visited these guys