Daily Archives: September 1, 2009

Broken Spine #12

  By Ronan | September 1, 2009 - 9:14 pm | Books, Featured Post, The Culch
9 Comments

John Banville returns to his birth name for his first proper novel since his 2005 Booker Prize winner The Sea. Also announced are the nominees for the Guardian First Book Award, which is a great showcase for new work. Recommended Reading #11: John Banville - The Infinities Writing under a pseudonym has been a good experience for John Banville, it allowed him to construct stories with simpler narrative and simpler language, however not everyone loved his Benjamin Black novels. With his first “proper” novel in three years, Banville returns to the metaphysical and as usual, asks deep and meaningful questions in his prose. The Infinities tells the story of an aged dying man and his family over the course of a single day. However, this is Banville, and nothing is ever simple. Apart from the main characters in the family, the Gods play an enormous role in the events of … There’s more →

Guest Post: Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine - Present and Past

  By Keleher | September 1, 2009 - 7:00 pm | Music, The Culch
4 Comments

Keleher spotted this and wanted to share it with the Culchies. Check it out. - Darren I just viewed a recent video of Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine playing ‘The Blacksmith’ on RTE One via You Tube. Thanks to fiddler Philippe Varlet for posting that on Facebook. Both musicians were members of the 1970′s trad super group Planxty. I believe they’re both playing the bouzouki which Donal Lunny introduced to Andy Irvine and traditional Irish music. This is one of my favorite songs by Planxty. They’ve both certainly gotten better with age I have to say.. Here is a video of Planxty performing the very same song, along with Lunny and Irvine, are Liam O’Flynn on the Uilleann pipes and Christy Moore on the bodhran and organ. The video was recorded during the 1970′s on the Late Late Show. Thanks for having a look, comments welcome.

Tellybets 2 - which new US TV shows will be hit or miss?

  By Amanda Fennelly | September 1, 2009 - 6:52 pm | The Culch, TV
4 Comments

Ok so I promised two months ago that this would be a weekly event but work, holidays and moving apartments got in the way (yeah, yeah, excuses excuses) but we’re back, at last, and this week we’re taking a look at the new dramas and comedies from CBS which are due to hit American TV screens in the next 6 to 12 months. Once again, we have to point out that not all of these will make it to our shores, but the whole point of this post is to identify the ones most deserving of being picked up by RTE, TV3 or any of the UK channels. So let’s get cracking! CBS is mostly known for its global smash hit franchise CSI which of course has spawned the likes of CSI Miami, CSI New York, and then there’s NCIS, another acronym titled show that’s not quite in the same … There’s more →

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

  By Darren Byrne | September 1, 2009 - 5:02 pm | Beatles Week, Music, The Culch
1 Comment

Today’s Beatles song is Yellow Submarine. Both childish and complex, with Ringo on vocals for a change, it held the number one spot in the British charts for four weeks. John Lennon’s ‘Bigger Than Jesus’ comment is said to be the reason it didn’t make it to number one in the US. Curiously, when I went searching for this clip, I discovered that the whole film is available to view on Google Videos. Go on - take and hour and a half and enjoy this:

The Walrus and Me

  By Darren Byrne | September 1, 2009 - 4:30 pm | Beatles Week, Music, The Culch
4 Comments

My dad regularly reminds me of the times he would play The Beatles in the car when I was young and I would give out saying, “turn that off, they’re rubbish”. Sure, it was awful music for old people!! He loves to point this out whenever I start spouting on about the finer points of Let It Be, the mixed bag that is the White Album, the gorgeous kaleidoscope of the Yellow Submarine film or the recent musical, Across the Universe, featuring Beatles’ music. And he’s right to make fun – how could I ever have dismissed this phenomenal band’s music? It would be years later, as a teen in the De La Salle School in Wicklow that I would discover my love for The Beatles. I was not part of the cool gang, I was very far from popular, I was the stereotypical secondary school outcast. But even I … There’s more →

Colonel Popcorn’s Minute Movie Mystery

  By Colonel Popcorn | September 1, 2009 - 3:53 pm | Movies & TV, The Culch
7 Comments

Cheating in this will result in you being stuck in a lift with Tom Cruise during Scientology recruitment month. You may not use Google, Twitter, Facebook, the IMDB, Wikipedia, texting, emailing, phone calling, writing, and/or Jedi mind tricks or any other form of cheating. I’m watching and I know where you live. So does Tom Cruise. 000OOO000 Guess the movie - Released in 1985 Jeff Goldblum was considered for a role that went to Christopher Lloyd Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid) was reportedly offered the lead role and turned it down An early test screening for the film had audiences hating it, thinking the dog had been killed Some of the films sets and locations were also used in Gremlins, and Bruce Almighty The actor playing the father of the lead character is 3 years younger than the actor he’s playing father to You’ve probably gotten it already, but anything … There’s more →

B Flat is all kinds of wonderful on YouTube

  By lecraic | September 1, 2009 - 11:10 am | Music, Performance Art
6 Comments

Edit - I am lame - this was already covered on Friday. Apologies y’all. Take 20 YouTube videos of instruments all playing in Bb major with simple floating textures. Embed them all on one single page to make something really, really wonderful. That’s what inbflat.net is. Now I don’t feel guilty wasting time with YouTube. [h/t @justinparks via Twitter on Sunday morning last when everyone was still in bed]

Sweary’s Jaw

  By Lisa McInerney | September 1, 2009 - 10:34 am | Celebs, Featured Post, Gossip, Sweary's Jaw, The Culch
18 Comments

Surreptitiously reading Heat, so you don’t have to. Anyone else like a bit of fluffy celebrity gossip with their cuppa? Ever been frightened by the “culture” part of pop-culture? Do you know more about Jordan, the Boobmeister, than Jordan, that gaff in the Middle East? No? Er … me neither. No. This whole gossip column thing for culch.ie is part of my community service, alright? Although I must say that there’s something vaguely comforting about indulging in a bit of frothy nonsense from time to time – after all, if there’s anything that will make you feel a little more cultured, it’s knowing that somewhere out there, a celebrity is making a twat of themselves. On with the slapstick, then!

Spidermouse, Spidermouse…

  By Niall | September 1, 2009 - 10:22 am | Comics, Featured Post, Movies & TV, TV
7 Comments

So Disney is all set to buy Marvel for four billion dollars in cash and stock, but what does that mean for the future of these two entertainment goliaths? Both sides appear to be gushing over the future possibilities which of course means Marvel characters, and there are some 5,000 of them, should start popping up on Disney’s TV networks, movies and theme parks. But is it really that simple? Currently Paramount hold a 5 picture deal for Marvel intellectual property which includes Iron Man and the Avengers. Universal retains contractual rights over the Hulk. 20th Century Fox has the current movie rights for X-Men, with 3 movies in the pipeline X-Men Origins: Magneto, Deadpool and Wolverine 2. Oh, and Sony Pictures has the rights to a certain web-slinger. Getting out of these deals to give Disney exclusive ownership and distribution will prove nigh-on-impossible so it’ll be a few years … There’s more →