Tentatively pitched as the possible first single off the new album ‘Ceremonials’, the follow up effort to the hugely successful ‘Lungs’. Tracklisting for ‘Ceremonials’ available here http://disconaivete.com/post/10166691230 This track definitely excites me more than the previously online preview of ‘What the Water Gave Me’. Piles more upbeat, catchy and definitely sing-a-long worthy! You be the judge?
Look. Doctor Who, despite its impressive lore, despite its extraordinary status in the hearts of grown-up telly addicts, is a kids’ show. Its plotlines are never clever enough to be called intricate, its monsters never scary enough to make an adult check under the bed before lights-out, and that’s absolutely fine. You have to be able to watch Doctor Who with the eyes of a child (preferably with the child still attached); it’s best enjoyed with a complete lack of cynicism and a big bowl of popcorn. But just as we can’t help getting swept away by the shenanigans of the Doctor and his sidekicks, we cannot but indulge in a little adult nitpicking. A lot of us have grown-up with Doctor Who. A lot of us take it delightfully seriously. Every Saturday night, on Twitter, the debate swells and splashes as the big kids take to t’internet to bond … There’s more
Useful Links: Buy a ticket - €95 for the 2 day camping pass Getting to the SoF actual site …. actually there! Best directions ever ! find Spirit of Folk of Facebook This is an UNofficial guide. Not a United Nations guide and not a Spirit of folk organisers’ guide. It’s year one and I’ve been to the site so these are my recommendations on what I have been suggesting people do and I got bored repeating myself so now they can have a link. It is my A-Z of sorts. In short: Friday 23rd - 25th September 2011 Gates open at 3pm on the Friday - I’ll be there and waiting as you see in the vid above its a 5 minute trek to anywhere maximum - from anywhere more info on spiritOF folk.com Wine-ing and Dining: Dunderry House is in the middle of nowhere. There isn’t a super … There’s more
Jane Eyre “Do you think that because I am poor, obscure, plain and little that I am soulless and heartless?” There has been adaptations, re-workings, re-tellings, sequels, silent films, plays, there has even been a musical ballet and yet the hold Jane Eyre has on the imagination has not been lost. It is easy to now overlook the impact the novel made when it was released all those years ago but looking back, it revolutionised feminist writing. To us now, it seems like more of a dramatic love story but to the 19th century reader, Jane was far from commonplace. A lowly governess with a mind of her own who would eventually marry the master of the house she worked in would have been entirely unheard of. And yet, Charlotte Bronte crafted the implausible tale, partially from her own experiences, of possibly one of the greatest females who never … There’s more
As some of you may remember I was overjoyed to come across the wonderful Niamh Marron recently at a gig in Whelan’s. So much so that I stalked her on Facebook and begged her to let me interview her. She of course said yes. I sat down to chat to her about life as a comedian and the bits in between! How did you get into comedy? When I was in college I always had an interest in comedy, I was starting to lose interest in my course so I decided to mix my photography and my love of comedy together and did an end of year presentation so I got Dave McSavage, Robbie Bonham, Eleanor Tiernan and Fred Cooke in a photo in mundane poses and then contrasting that with their onstage stuff. That was the start of it. Then I started working for a photography studio but that … There’s more
What’s Popscotch? Popscotch is pop culture hopscotch. Popscotch is when two things marry in your brain, even though they wouldn’t touch each other in real life. Popscotch is when you make a spurious connection with something on TV, or in a song, or an ad on the side of a bus. Popscotch happens when you’re so immersed in pop culture that you don’t even know your own name anymore, but you could easily list the last seven features that Winona Ryder was in faster than IMDB. Popscotch… well, you’ll never really get it until you watch it play out. This month we’re asking… how the hell did Annette get hold of Sebastian’s car at the end of Cruel Intentions? Seriously now. When that chap died there’s no way he had a will, and even if he did, he only met the girl a few weeks back, there’s no way he’d … There’s more
Culch marked Smithwick’s 300 year anniversary with a tour of the plant in Kilkenny late last year and there’s more news with the launch of a new beer, Smithwick’s Pale Ale. Launched this week, Pale Ale is craft brewed in individual batches using: aromatic Amarillo hops, 100% pale ale malt and the prized Smithwick’s yeast. It’s been nine months in development, is golden in colour and has a distinct full flavour. We went along to Doheny & Nesbitt’s to chat to Billy Power, Smithwick’s Global Governance Director, who explained how Smithwick’s is well up in on and off license sales in the last 18 months. He said now is the right time for such a craft launch and it will be available in 350 outlets over the next couple of weeks (list of pubs here). I enjoyed the few taster pints we had with the distinction that the flavour was … There’s more
Podcast name: This American Life In Short: weekly podcast of the award-winning radio show “This American Life.” First-person stories and short fiction pieces that are touching, funny, and surprising. Updated Mondays. Host: Ira Glass Their Description: One of our problems from the start has been that when we try to describe This American Life in a sentence or two, it just sounds awful. For instance: each week we choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme. That doesn’t sound like something we’d want to listen to on the radio, and it’s our show. So usually we just say what we’re not. We’re not a news show or a talk show or a call-in show. We’re not really formatted like other radio shows at all. Instead, we do these stories that are like movies for radio. There are people in dramatic situations. Things happen to them. … There’s more
Is there anything more heartbreaking than watching Colm Meaney being sad? Parked is released on October 14th. We cannae wait. Watch the trailer. And check out our Sue’s review here. They only quote her on the bloody film website and everything. Proud as punch we are. Look maw, we’re a real meeja outlet…
Niamh Marron has been described by many as “filthy”. I was lucky enough to see her recently supporting the wonderful Gearoid Farrelly in Vicar Street. When I heard she was playing in Slattery’s I just had to go along to check her out. I had never been to Slattery’s before. It was their second night to run the comedy night. As a venue for comedy, it’s a bit of a strange one. Set upstairs in the pub, it all seemed a little busy for me with the bar taking over the room a little too much. With people moving around the room to the bar during the gig, it distracted from the comedians on stage for me. However having said that I was there to see Niamh Marron who absolutely rocked the room. Niamh is a mixture of pure “dirty stuff” with some proper clean material thrown in to balance … There’s more
I’m not exactly an expert when it comes to jazz music but I know the sound of a good festival and the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival (28th-31st October 2011) is shaping up to be just that. The opening act is none other than Damon Albarn, along with his band, Another Honest John’s Chop-Up, a collective of musicians who take inspiration from jazz funk and southern soul. The Kyle Eastwood Quintet is another outstanding act who will be performing. Son of actor/director Clint Eastwood, Kyle has made a name for himself on the jazz scene, releasing eight albums and composing numerous scores for his father’s films including Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby. Other noteworthy acts on the schedule include; Randy Brecker, the acclaimed trumpet player, Tia Fuller, the saxophonist, who not only has her own highly successful band but also plays alongside Beyoncé and Richard Galliano, the renowned accordionist. Galliano’s … There’s more
Any review of the Electric Picnic experience can be justifiably called a post-mortem - there have been traumas, blunt force abuse of livers and inhumane conditions - but of course the object of the exercise is enjoyment and this also occured. I don’t recall right now how the West Cork Ukulele Orchestra came into my life, that is, the sequence of events that lead us to the performance area in the Slow Food section, but I have been able to hang on to the enthusiasm I felt on hearing them this past Saturday. I have also hung on to the enthusiasm I felt hearing them this past Sunday when we returned with a bigger group of soon-to-be-converts, got seats closer to the act and also led the dancing at the end of the set. Maybe not meeting all the requirements for the dictionary definition of an orchestra the group comprises … There’s more
Lisa Joyce is an up-and-coming comedian who has been creating a storm around Dublin. With some very prestigious awards under her belt she decided it was time to venture out on her own and do a one woman show! I caught up with before her recent gig in The Twisted Pepper to discuss comedy and being a female comedian in Dublin! What made you want to get into comedy? Well I was in college in Galway and did a few gigs which went really well. Then I did a gig which went really badly, it was during rag week and it made me want to stop. I stopped doing comedy after that. Then I moved to Dublin and started doing a few open mic nights and slots here and there and it was going well. Then I had the idea that I wanted to do my own show and here … There’s more
For as long as there have been violent video games, there have been hand-wringing numpties complaining about them. From the days of running down pixels pedestrians in Death Race, our moral guardians have been foretelling the end of childhood as we know it, predicting that reverence for one’s elders will be replaced by a lawless dystopia where teenagers roam in vampiric gangs, hacking the heads off clergymen and razing libraries to the ground. There have been a lot of video games that shocked and upset conservative non-gamers, but not many as successful as the Mortal Kombat franchise. I was far too young to play Mortal Kombat and its sequel. I was still too young to play Mortal Kombat 3, which was plastered with warnings about its fantastical gore and vicious objectives , but this time, I was old enough to want it. And once I got my mitts on it, … There’s more
Podcast name: BBC Comedy of the Week Description: see above Host: BBC There are 2 BBC Comedy of the Week Podcasts that I listen to. They say: Bringing you a satirical take on the week’s news with Chain Reaction, Radio 4′s tag-team interview show, to entertain you during the Now Show/News Quiz summer break. culch.ie say: At present the podcasts are in short running like so for the summer season: Rhys Thomas interviews Simon Day who i/v’s Peter Hook who i/v’s ‘punk poet laureate’ John Cooper Clarke who….. which may put some off as it’s not exactly Friday night at The Bankers Comedy Club if you get my drift. That said… I’ve been subscribed to Friday Night comedy of the week for as long as I can remember and for the long term this is one of my favourite podcasts ever. I follow them and love them like I follow … There’s more
