Daily Archives: September 24, 2009

The Apprentice Week One – What Happened?

  By Darren Byrne | September 24, 2009 - 10:47 pm | Apprentice, Apprentice, The Culch, TV
4 Comments

It’s no secret, I’ve been looking forward to this year’s Irish Apprentice. I love the build up, the backbiting, the Alpha-male aggression and the subtle nitpicking among the girls. It’s an exciting show to watch and Monday night’s series opener was no different. In fact, it raised the stakes. We followed the show with a live blog on Culch.ie/apprentice and I was overwhelmed with the amount of people who pitched in with their thoughts on the show. Throughout the show, we had 197 people click through to follow the liveblog and we amassed nearly 1,000 comments. Granted, a lot of them were merely reiterating what a nutcase Samantha, the Tallaght music teacher, truly is. So, before I get knee deep in Apprentice week one details, let me thank everyone for participating and making the show even funnier to watch [Comment From Rick] My dad asked me what a Liveblog was. … There’s more →

Broken Spine #15 - Complete with Book Giveaway

  By Ronan | September 24, 2009 - 4:34 pm | Books, The Culch
6 Comments

*** Competition Closed *** This week’s Broken Spine has a give away of an entertaining new Irish autobiography, from someone other than a GAA hero or former politician. Ronan Smith - Lord of the Rams Lord of the Rams is the autobiography/ memoir / autohagiography of a Munterconnaught, Co. Cavan native named Ronan Smith. He’s known to his mates as a variety of names: “Rambo”, “Rams”, “the Rams”, and sometimes, but very rarely, Ronan. Note: he’s not to be confused with me. I don’t have the bizarre habit of referring to myself in the third person, like Bob Dole, The Rock, or the all-time champion illeist Rickey Henderson. Smith (I’m not going to call him “the Rams”, as he does throughout his book) was born in 1978, and the book concerns his life and times as a County Cavan tearaway. His school days were a series of tall tales, particularly … There’s more →

Special Culture Night offer at The Abbey theatre

  By Niamh | September 24, 2009 - 3:42 pm | The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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One of the wonderful things to happen on Culture Night tomorrow - one of the many, many things, is that our national theatre, The Abbey, is giving away some free tickets. The Abbey is a building full of history, excitement, drama, comedy and fun, originally founded by W.B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory in 1903 and opened in 1904. It was given a State subsidy in 1925 and became the first ever State-subsidised theatre in the English speaking world. To celebrate Culture Night, the Abbey Theatre are very kindly setting aside 25 FREE tickets for two events on the Peacock stage tomorrow night. 6.00 - 6.45pm The Abbey Talks with Enda Walsh: Enda Walsh is writer and director of the award-winning play The New Electric Ballroom. 8pm The New Electric Ballroom The Druid production of The New Electric Ballroom. This performance is actually part of the 2009 Ulster Bank Dublin … There’s more →

Plastic fantastic - Mattel goes to the movies

  By Niall | September 24, 2009 - 3:33 pm | Movies & TV, The Culch
1 Comment

It would appear that Mattel is anxious to follow Hasbro’s lead and start developing movies based on their popular toy brands. This news is unsurprising as Hasbro has made a small fortune on the back of Michael Bay’s out-landish, effects laden, big-budget blockbuster franchise Transformers, as well this summer’s GI:JOE. Mattel has quite a large stable of intellectual properties which includes Hot Wheels, Battle Force 5, Masters of the Universe and of course Barbie. It is the last two that Mattel is keen to exploit, with news surfacing this week that both will soon be adapted into new live-action feature films. The Masters of the Universe toy line spawned the much loved 1980’s classic TV series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and its spin-off She-Ra: Princess of Power. As a child I could often be found 2 feet in front of a TV screen, glued to the adventures … There’s more →

National Campaign for the Arts launched

  By Niamh | September 24, 2009 - 3:04 pm | Events, Performance Art, The Arts, The Culch, Theatre, Tourism
7 Comments

Yesterday 23 September saw the launch of the National Campaign for the Arts at The Ark Cultural Centre for Children. There were faces from all walks of Irelands cultural scene there to show their support for the cause, to talk to anyone who would listen about how the cuts proposed by the McCarthy Report and the possible cuts in the next Budget would affect them as artists, their work, the work of future artists and current struggling artists. Here is what some of the attendees had to say about National Campaign for the Arts:

The real Mad Men television advertising archive

  By lecraic | September 24, 2009 - 1:09 pm | The Internet, TV
1 Comment

Fans of the hit US drama series Mad Men will love this website. Adviews is a digital archive of TV advertising from the 1950′s through to the 80′s. There are literally thousands of ads in the archive. They were created or collected by the ad agency Benton & Bowles or its successor, D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B).It would be wonderful to see a digital archive of Irish adverts created along these lines too. In case you missed it first time round, you can still catch the excellent documentary Ireland’s Mad Men on RTE Player. It explores Ireland’s advertising industry from the 60′s to the 80′s and includes footage of popular ad campaigns of the time. Hurry though - it is only available on the web until Tuesday 29th September.

There’s SO MUCH happening in Dublin for Culture Night 2009

  By darraghdoyle | September 24, 2009 - 1:03 pm | Events, Music, Performance Art, The Arts, The Culch, Tourism
7 Comments

Are you ready for Friday night in Dublin? Are you ready for some culture? This is the fourth Culture Night and it is, to many, one of the most eagerly anticipated cultural nights of the year. With more cultural events crammed into one evening than any one person could possibly do, it’s certainly going to be a busy night for the families, friends and tourists about to take part. This year, organisers Temple Bar Cultural Trust have expanded Culture Night into Tralee, Sligo, Letterkenny, Mayo, Wexford and Roscommon, while Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford are again taking part. Will’s posts on Cork are here and here. So in Dublin over 120 organisations will be opening their doors until late. There is so so much happening that I’ll direct you over to their website or to download the programme if you haven’t already, but I wanted to tell you some of … There’s more →