Daily Archives: September 30, 2009

Sweary’s Jaw

  By Lisa McInerney | September 30, 2009 - 11:41 pm | Celebs, Gossip, Sweary's Jaw, The Culch
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Surreptitiously reading Roman Polanski’s court transcripts, so you don’t have to. We’ve got quite a female-centic ragbag of raging oestrogen this week, fellow gossip hounds. Must have been a drought in the cocoa beanfields, or something - as a gurl, I’m no agricultural expert - but for whatever reason, female celebs have been over-shaking the Crazy onto their chips lately. Who exactly would dare disturb me so, you might ask; Lady Gaga? Peaches Geldof? Mary Hanafin? No, kids. In a much more sinister turn, usually-bland bunnies like Beyonce have just been spotted Dancing On The Broken Mirror - shall we investigate? Let’s! Ms. Knowles is under fire for nearly setting everyone backstage at Singapore’s F1 Rocks concert … well, on fire. The Pear-Shaped One reportedly hogged all of the air conditioning, causing nearby inconsequential mortals to pass out. Supa’sta’ DJ Seb Fontaine suffered heatstroke, and all! I know it wouldn’t … There’s more →

Did I ever tell you about Matt Harding?

  By darraghdoyle | September 30, 2009 - 11:25 pm | Celebs, Random Whimsy, The Culch, The Internet
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I feel like I tell everyone about Matt Harding. He is one of the people I have always wanted to meet, simply because he did something for a laugh, he went with it and it’s brightened so many people’s lives. Well, tomorrow I finally will meet him. I’m very excited. Matt is the guy who went and danced around the world in these videos (and sure even if you’ve seen them before, watch them again!): 2008 2006 2005

The winners of the Touch Film Festival 2009

  By darraghdoyle | September 30, 2009 - 10:13 pm | Events, The Culch, The Internet
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Tonight was the award ceremony for the Touch Film Festival. You may remember Darren talking about it. I was delighted to be invited as a guest of the wonderfully talented Jentertainment to tonight’s award ceremony at the Shelbourne Hotel where they announced the winners. Of the six award categories - action, comedy, gangster, horror, romance and sci-fi, I’m delighted to tell you that Jen’s team (who put in a lot of work) won two - romance for their version of Pretty Woman and sci-fi for their hilarious version of Back to the Future. There were some amazing films with so much work gone into them submitted - The Rock, The Darker Knight, 28 Days Later and more. The overall winner of the trip to Hollywood was Steven Stubbs for his homage to the opening scene of Woody Allen’s Manhattan, simply titled “Waterford”. Congratulations everyone, especially Jen. Woot for you

Science, Form & Film

  By Lottie | September 30, 2009 - 9:34 pm | Movies & TV, The Arts, The Culch
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“WHAT IF… human tissue could be used to make objects? What if…clouds were modified to snow ice cream? What if… we lived in a society where our every thought was public?” Well isn’t that last concept just Twitter? Nevertheless,The Science Gallery on Pearse Street hosts WHAT IF… FUTURE FORM, FUTURE FUNCTION? from 8th October to 13th December 2009. Looks interesting. Also, and this is exciting, they are showing Brazil (YES, BRAZIL!!!!) tomorrow night, 1st October 2009 at 6pm.

If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, you’re just like me…

  By Sinead Keogh | September 30, 2009 - 6:15 pm | Books, Comedy, Events
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Just one of the chuckle-making greeting cards for all occasions contained in Jarlath’s Regan’s first book - ‘How to Break Bad News - greetings from the Dark Side’. The collection of hilarious gift cards has finally been brought together into book form after a number of years of being sold by the comedian on his website and Culch.ie was lucky enough to pop along to the launch. Held in a packed Sugar Club, it earns the gong of being the most entertaining book launch this book launch veteran has ever attended. Though the normal elements were all there - thanking the family, the friends, the publishers and the agent, thanking people for coming and buying the book, saying a few introspective things and signing a few copies of the masterpiece - there were some added extras. Admittedly, extras were in order because it was an unusual book launch - one … There’s more →

KAMP at the Samuel Beckett Theatre - an amazing piece of drama with no dialogue

  By darraghdoyle | September 30, 2009 - 4:57 pm | The Culch
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I attended the opening night of KAMP, part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 2009 last night. This is what they say it’s about: An enormous model of Auschwitz takes up the whole stage with crowded huts, a railway line, and a gate with the slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei”. The model of the camp comes to life with thousands of 8cm high hand-made puppets, representing the prisoners and their executioners. The actors, like colossal war correspondents, weave through the scene with hand-held cameras. They film the atrocities. The audience becomes witness. Not a word is spoken, the audience only experiences the sights and sounds, which transcend the powerlessness of the figures into much more than a mere reporting of events. It is, quite simply, amazing. Performed by Herman Helle, Pauline Kalker and Arlène Hoornweg has three amazing attributes that make it worth seeing: The camera angles The sounds The … There’s more →

Three Sisters: Dublin Theatre Festival Review

  By bngr | September 30, 2009 - 12:20 pm | Featured Post, The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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For the uninitiated, Anton Chekov is a Russian playwright who wrote tragedies with complex and intriguing characters which means you have to put the time in to get something from his plays but they’re generally worth it. Having seen two of his plays in Dublin before, including the recent Gate production of Uncle Vanya, I knew this Theatre Festival production of Three Sisters was going to be hard work not only because of the Chekov factor but because it was in Russian with surtitles. Logistically this was hard work and it took longer than normal to get used to reading the translations. What with sitting near the front and the titles near the ceiling and to the sides, this meant I had to completely shift my face from the stage every few seconds but you get used to it after a while; and if you’re further back then you’ll probably … There’s more →

Are you Ireland’s biggest inner geek? Celebrate Geek and win!

  By darraghdoyle | September 30, 2009 - 12:16 pm | Events, The Culch, The Internet
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I feel somewhat conflicted in posting this, considering I really believe I could have won it if I hadn’t been asked to be a judge. A new competition has been announced today to search for Ireland’s “biggest inner geek”. NERDS √16 EVER! If you got that, you could be just the person Microsoft is looking for. To celebrate the launch of Windows 7 on October 22, the computer giant has begun a nationwide search for Ireland’s biggest inner geek The press release points to nominations for people who for example Know more people online than in the real world; Get their kids out of bed at an unearthly hour on Christmas morning just so they can play with their kids’ new gadgets; Prefer to instant message someone even though they are in the same room; Always have to have the latest and greatest MP3 player, mobile phone or computer game; … There’s more →

Cool but Ultimately Pointless - Sony’s Pocket Rocket

  By Niall | September 30, 2009 - 9:00 am | Gadgets, Games, The Culch
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Cool but Ultimately Pointless this week focuses on Sony’s latest effort to corner the market in hand-held computer gaming, the PSP Go. [History lesson - feel free to skip] Sony launched the original PlayStation Portable system back in 2005, the first hand-held video game console to use an optical disc format, Universal Media Disc (UMD), as its primary storage medium. With 1.8Gb of storage, Sony intended this medium to herald a new wave of mobile media. But the format’s proprietary nature and the lack of writers and blank media meant that film studios and content providers shied away from it. Despite the relative failure of its storage medium the PSP sold well worldwide but continually lagged behind its main competitor, the Nintendo DS. Sony has constantly strived to increase it’s market-share in hand-held gaming and with the launch of the PSP Slim & Lite in 2007 sales increased dramatically. This … There’s more →

Competition: The Dublin Paulaner Oktoberfest

  By Darren Byrne | September 30, 2009 - 12:10 am | Competitions, Events, Featured Post, Site News, The Culch
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*** Competition Closed *** *** Congratulations to Aine and her three lucky friends *** Be in with a chance to win dinner for you and three of your mates at the opening night of the Paulaner Oktoberfest, which is running at the Dublin Docklands from 8-18th October. Visited by over 70,000 people last year, The Oktoberfest is rapidly becoming one of the highlights of Autumn in Dublin. For the second year running, the Oktoberfest comes from Germany to Dublin, giving us Irish the chance to experience the authentic Oktoberfest. A marquee - representative of that in the Munich Oktoberfest, German markets, as well as over 24 Munich barmaids will descend on Georges Dock for some German fun, food, entertainment and authentic Bavarian beer. Visitors will also be treated to the sounds of Bavarian brass and dance music from the German group, Mostland Stürmer. To enjoy a taste of this Bavarian … There’s more →