Monthly Archives: September 2010

Nostalgia Week: We Had A Cold War Too, Y’Know.

  By Lisa McInerney | September 30, 2010 - 2:00 pm | Music, Nostalgia Week, Random Whimsy, The Culch
4 Comments

In a case of not so much looking back through rose-tinted glasses as looking back through a tose-tinted kaleidoscope, Bloc Party, in their track Hunting For Witches, referenced the transition from 90s to Noughties with the lyric “90s: optimistic as a teen / Now it’s terror…” And while the 90s was indeed a great decade to grow up in, with a slap bracelet on every wrist and a poster of Lee Sharpe on the inside of every locker door, I feel that Bloc Party are glossing over the terrible conflict of the summer of 1995, a scuffle that divided best mate from best mate and brought the spirit of football hooliganism into what was previously a foppish kind of hobby. I refer, of course, to the Blur vs Oasis War, the lowest, nastiest point of which was the release of Blur’s Country House and Oasis‘ Roll With It on the … There’s more →

Ad Nauseam: Poll – Your Favourite Guinness ad here

  By Éilish Burke | September 30, 2010 - 1:09 pm | Adverts, The Culch
13 Comments

It struck me today that I let Arthur’s Day pass by last week without theming Ad Nauseam accordingly. How remiss of me, dear readers. Let me make amends by dedicating this weeks post to the black stuff. Now, everyone knows that Guinness have been producing advertising par excellence for the best part of 80 years, ever since the days of the iconic posters created by John Gilroy featuring steel-beam carrying workmen, toucans, seals and of course, the proclamation that “Guinness is Good for You”. I know that my favourite part of the Guinness Storehouse is the section dedicated to their advertising (coming in a close second is the cooperage exhibition which is strangely hypnotic) and I’ve spent hours trawling through the brilliantly archived displays there. The brand are famous for making epic, big budget, “big idea” TV ads and boy do they win awards for it. In fact, their 1999 … There’s more →

Competition, Nostalgia Week Day 4: Top 30 Hits - The Best Radio Jams of the 90s

  By Ronan | September 30, 2010 - 10:30 am | Competitions, Music, Nostalgia Week, The Culch
18 Comments

You remember it, don’t you? Back before the days of Sky Digital, NTL, Chorus, and all of them, there was just one place to find music on television, RTE’s Top Thirty Hits. It counted down both the singles and the albums charts, as well as the dance chart. Oh the dance chart… However, for this part of nostalgia week, I’m not looking back at Scooter or Darude, but instead the 30 best radio jams of the nineteen-nineties. Beware, there is some woeful songs coming up. But they do bring back great memories. You’re going to have to hit “Play” on them all though. [Sorry I couldn't get all the videos, but at least a live version is better than watching a ball with the album cover on it for three minutes. And like every good top 30 list, there's 32 entries.]

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

  By brogen | September 30, 2010 - 9:30 am | Movies & TV, The Culch
2 Comments

In 2001, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is released from prison. Gekko served eight years for insider trading, and when he walks through the gates of the prison, he is alone. Seven years later, as the global economy takes a nosedive, young Wall Street trader Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), learns first hand the devastating effect a drop in share price can have on those invested in a company. Moore teams up with his fiancée’s estranged father, Gekko, to not only take revenge on the company that destroyed his mentor, but to also warn the world of the upcoming financial crisis. It seems that releasing a sequel to films years after the first one is something that Hollywood is banking on for success… If you’ll pardon the pun. Toy Story 3 was released 11 years after it’s predecessor, Tron: Legacy is on the way, 28 years after Jeff Bridges first ventured into … There’s more →

Nostalgia Week: What was on the soundtrack to your youth?

  By johnmfinn | September 30, 2010 - 8:59 am | Music, Nostalgia Week, Radio, Random Whimsy, Soundtracks
4 Comments

Can you remember what song was playing during your first kiss? How about during your first break-up? The truth is music has the power to dredge up long buried memories like no other medium so we want you to tell us some of your favourite songs and what memories you associate them with. If we get enough suggestions we’ll put together a little playlist, a sort of soundtrack to our collective naval gazing. To get the old grey matter warmed up here are some songs that will forever remind me of my own teenage years.

Hubba Hubba

  By Dermot | September 29, 2010 - 10:54 pm | Games
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Last Saturday myself and this dude over here took a quick peek into the new Playstation® Hub in Dublin. By quick peek I do obviously mean stayed there for ages and acted the eejits. Even so, its pretty damn cool. What’s better than free gaming and a chance to check out new technology? ‘Druuuuuuugs’ would normally be the answer but this “did the job”. To be able to walk straight in (free admission) and just start playing I thought was very interesting. I’ve never heard or known of anywhere like this. Sure, you can play short demo’s in places like Gamestop and the like but The Hub gives you the opportunity to play some exciting new PS3 game releases (Grand Turismo 5 and Killzone 3 to name a couple) and to test out the new Playstation® Move technology (Playstation’s took-way-longer-to-make-but-is-still-basically-the-same version of Wii motion sensing, in case ya hadn’t heard..) … There’s more →

Arthur’s Day 2010 recap and photos

  By Anto | September 29, 2010 - 6:30 pm | Events, Music
1 Comment

I’m aware that we’ve covered Arthur’s Day quite a bit on Culch (check out Sean’s interview with The Script) but we wanted to show you some of the photos we captured on the night from The Hop Store in St. Jame’s Gate. We joined the red carpet around 4pm to shoot the stars arriving for both the Hop Store gig and the pubs and venues across Dublin. As the 17:59 moment approached, Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, led the toast before the rest of the band joined him on stage for their acoustic set. Playing hits like ‘Take Back the City’ and ‘Chocolate’ the lads were great and even dueted with Maud in Cahoots for ‘Set the Fire to the Third Bar’. The aforementioned winners of the Our Thursdays competition, Maud in Cahoots, followed Snow Patrol with a great set which kept the crowd reveling. A change of pace came next, … There’s more →

Seán’s Movie Music Magorium: True Blood Season 1

  By Seanplaywrite | September 29, 2010 - 12:05 pm | Movies & TV, Music, Soundtracks, The Culch, TV
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Nathan Barr’s score for the first season of HBO’s vampire series ‘True Blood’ is a display of a man on a mission. He writes, arranges and performs the music himself – all by himself. The music, in keeping with practicalities, is minimalist for the most part. It sometimes stays in the background as Sookie, Bill or Sam face danger after danger (after danger) and sometimes becomes a part of the story – Eric’s ode from his younger days or Gran being taken home. Much of the season floats in mystery – the score reflects this. The released album contains 21 tracks and is a fair representation of the soundtrack of the show – it combines most of the elements of the musical narrative, not in order, but in a musical flow. The show itself is a mix of sex, violence and good ole’ fashioned home cooking. It’s a more adult … There’s more →

Nostalgia (Hump Of The) Week: Will Smith ALWAYS Gets A Free Pass.

  By Lisa McInerney | September 29, 2010 - 12:00 pm | Movies & TV, Music, Nostalgia Week, Random Whimsy
2 Comments

… aaaaand we’re over the hump of the week. Happy Wednesday afternoon, everyone! Half the week is gone! Two and a half days out of your life you’re never getting back. Two and a half days closer to death! But never mind. Yeah, you’re not fourteen anymore, but if you were, you wouldn’t be able to roar your guts out to this beauty, would you? I want you all to do me a favour. Click the link (because we’re not allowed embed this piece of cultural history, boo, hiss). Square your shoulders. Press play. And wherever you are: the office, on the train, at the bus stop, in the hairdresser’s - sing out at the very top of your lungs! For this is the greatest nostalgic tune there ever was or ever will be! This separates the twentythirty-somethings from the boys. This. Is. THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR!

Nostalgia Week: Boys of the Nineties

  By Kitty Catastrophe | September 29, 2010 - 10:16 am | Celebs, Nostalgia Week, The Culch, TV, wantsies
3 Comments

As a fully qualified kid of the Nineties, I have to say I’m loving the revival that’s going on at the minute. 80s nights are gradually being supplanted by 90s nights flush with high top runners, brightly patterened shirts and Boom Shake Shake Shake The Room. So naturally I’m delighted that Culch.ie have decided to go all retro on our asses with Nostalgia Week. Now to the topic at hand. I’ve decided to focus on some of the boys of the 90s. At least, the boys that I found myself blu tacking to my bedroom walls as I entered the adolescent minefield of crushes. Saved By The Bell was a show that gave us comedy, questionable fashion, “serious issues” episodes where they’d crowbar in a moral message about smoking, alcohol or drugs, but most importantly to my eleven year old self, it gave us Zack Morris and AC Slater. Dreamboat … There’s more →

Competition Closed: Nostalgia Week Day 3 : The Den Saves Christmas

  By Andy Gaffney | September 29, 2010 - 9:50 am | Comedy, Competitions, Nostalgia Week, Random Whimsy, The Culch, TV, wantsies
3 Comments

The occurrence of nostalgia can a lot of the time be pinned down to one exact moment. It’s that magical time during a night out with your friends and a couple of bar stools. It’s at the point which is post the slightly sober conversations of if Mizzoni’s is simply the best pizza in Dublin or actually an addictive cocaine topped slab from God himself. While it’s pre the part of the night where you have fallen out with your best mate and are drunkenly obsessing about some stranger with a degree in politics simply because ‘The Frontline’ with Pat Kenny happened to be on in the back ground when your Ex stamped all over your heart, the adorable little thing. Yes, the trip down Nostalgia road should happen somewhere in between the two and is clearly marked with a ‘Sure you know what I miss?’ line from one of … There’s more →

Competition Closed: Nostalgia Week Day 2, and the worst toys EVER.

  By Lisa McInerney | September 28, 2010 - 8:55 am | Competitions, Nostalgia Week, Random Whimsy, The Culch
14 Comments

This post is, by its very nature, depressing as The Cleveland Show, except that The Cleveland Show is a recent kind of letdown and this one will twang at the very fibres that you’re spun out of. Yes, it’s Nostalgia Week on Culch.ie, and it’s all very well reminiscing about the great and the gloopy, but a huge, blown chunk of the Irish psyche is “suffering” - that bit chipped out of your rose-tinted glasses - and we’re gonna wallow in that for the day. Want to hear something even more disappointing? This isn’t even an original list; I wrote it about a year ago. Disappointment is like the smell of boiling turnips, though; it lingers. It doesn’t matter that this is an old list. Nothing. Has. Changed. I’m gonna sweeten it up with a prizey at the end for those of you sturdy enough to get through this, though. … There’s more →

Competition Closed: Unislim and The Apprentice

  By Darren Byrne | September 27, 2010 - 11:00 pm | Apprentice, Apprentice, Celebs, Competitions, Featured Post, Gossip, Movies & TV
1 Comment

*** Competiton Closed *** *** Congratulations to Aideen O’Flaherty and Jenny O’Connor *** Week Two of this year’s Apprentice saw the departure of Elev8′s Project Manager David O’Byrne. Elev8 had so much wrong with their task this week and with no strong leadership, he was the obvious choice. In this week’s task Unislim and TodayFM set the teams the challenge of designing an original and exciting healthy eating menu. They then had to plan a media campaign worth €10,000 and write and record a radio advert. Elev8 started very strongly but dipped in many areas, while Fusion were up and down throughout, but the team, led by Nagaite, won out in the end. Your very own Irish slimming club, Unislim, are the first weight loss club ever to appear on The Apprentice. Unislim have just launched their new website, Unislim.ie, and starting tomorrow, they will have prizes and goodies … There’s more →

The Apprentice Liveblog Week Two

  By Darren Byrne | September 27, 2010 - 8:30 pm | Apprentice, Apprentice, Movies & TV, TV
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Welcome to the second of this year’s Apprentice Liveblogs. If you’re unfamiliar with liveblogs, it’s simply a place to chat about the show while we’re watching. It’s one big moderated chat room for The Apprentice. You can follow it below on Culch.ie or you can launch a stand alone window and follow it there. It’s simple and fun, so please come join us. Also, after the show, I’ll be announcing the winner of last week’s competition and will be announcing this week’s competition in conjunction with Unislim, who are this week’s challenge sponsor. Unislim have just launched their new website and will have loads of prizes and goodies to give away from tomorrow to celebrate their launch and sponsorship of The Apprentice.. The Apprentice Ireland 2010 Week Two Click Here to Launch in a Separate Window