About darraghdoyle

Blogger, event addict and fan of street and performance art. You can contact me directly at darraghdoyle[at]gmail[dot]com or @darraghdoyle on twitter.

PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God - book available now

It’s one of the first blogs I ever read and one I check every week to see what people are confessing. Countless tributes and copies have emerged during the years (since January 1, 2005) but Postsecret still captures the minds, thoughts, emotions and secrets of countless individuals around the world. The latest book in the series, the fifth, is called Confessions on Life, Death, and God and it’s available from today. Here’s the trailer for Frank Warren‘s latest creation, something that started as a community art project. Since November 2004 Warren has received more than 150,000 anonymous postcards. This will be a book I’ll be sure to add to complete the collection.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus will make Lily Cole a superstar

I’m just back from a press screening of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam‘s latest film due out on October 16. I’ll leave the review to Niamh but I will say this. It will only help Lily Cole to superstardom. Heath Ledger notwithstanding, she’s the best thing about the film. Stunning is the only word I can use.

Soundcheck want to see you dead on the streets of Dublin

Those crazy Soundcheck kids are up to something a bit crazier than usual. Play dead on the streets of Dublin and be part of the DEATH MOB, the Flash Mob to end all Flash Mobs. Meet Thursday October 8 at 9.30pm in Dublin 2. RSVP on Facebook to receive details and updates, with the first coming Tuesday evening. The location is to be made known to us on Thursday afternoon and all participants will get a free copy of the official DEATH MOB photo. Sounds mad. MAD!! All details on Facebook here. Soundcheck at Spy, South William Street on Thursday eveneings (free in before 11, just a fiver after) continues with FREE cupcakes, FREE chocolate, FREE popcorn, bottles of vino for a tenner before 9pm, 2-for-1 cocktails until 11pm and loads of 4 euro drinks. After last week’s karaoke madness, they’ve got a SINGSTAR party going on this week. They’re … There’s more

Moore Street Masala - did you dance in Moore Street Bollywood style?

Remember I posted about the massive Bollywood dance scene to be shot in Dublin last April? I know some of the readers or posters on here were there… Well here’s the trailer: Looks great, doesn’t it? It’s going top be shown at the Darklight Festival 2009 at Exposure at the Lighthouse Cinema at 1.30pm, Oct 10. Tickets are €8. Music by Decor Music. Film is directed by David O’ Sullivan and Produced by Miriam Cahill/fishfilms. The website is here.

The Tales of Ballycumber by Sebastian Barry - photo preview of the Abbey stage

The Tales of Ballycumber is playing at the Abbey Theatre - it’s opening this week in fact, as part of the 2009 Dublin Theatre Festival. I’ve was invited down to the theatre to watch the set being built. It started out in the design phase as just a model: where only certain details could be seen: and then progressed onto the main stage where it’s taken on a life of its own, including a startling 5,000 daffodils!

140 Characters - the movie. See it Friday October 16.

There’s a new film coming out that I’m really looking forward to. It’s Areaman Productions‘ 140 Characters. Similar to their marvellous recent film The Liberties, this is a series of short film clips shot in Dublin city. However in this case the film features 140 people answering the same question using 140 characters or less. Shot over the course of one week - actually this week - in Dublin city, 140 Characters beautifully captures real people from Dublin City talking about their lives. The film features children, teachers, singers, travellers, nuns, fathers, mothers, dancers, hipsters, grandparents, dreamers, believers, cleaners, creative people and people who are creative with the truth. Every person is different and every person gives a different answer. In answering the question people reveal something about their lives, their community, their hopes. In listening to these people we can learn something about ourselves, our city and our society. … There’s more

It is *the* culchie calendar for 2010

Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on Mr September. and Mr August: It’s not, you’ll be glad (?) to hear a Culch.ie calendar, but rather the 2010 Farmer’s Calendar, just been released, where all proceeds are in aid of the wonderful charity Bóthar. There’s 12 mighty men of the land for you to feast your eyes on and you can rest easy knowing all the money goes to a great cause. Even better, there’s a competition where you could win a date with either Ciarán (Mr March) or Eamonn (Mr November) in Taste of Monkstown and the runners-up will get free six month membership of MuddyMatches.ie, the “dating site for country-minded people”. And shure if you know a hunky culchie man yourself, you can always get them to submit an application to feature in next year’s edition. I hope it goes well for them. It’s €12 or €13 and available … There’s more

Dining in Dublin? There’s no better time than Dine in Dublin week.

Dublin can be an expensive place to go out for a meal. Trust me on this. Due to work commitments I eat out a lot. Therefore I’m delighted to see that the Dine in Dublin week is coming back. From Monday next, October 12 to the 18, there’ll be 50 city centre restaurants taking part in the initiative offering people special rates of €25 or €30 per person for their three course dinner menus after 7pm. Yum! The list of restaurants reads like any foodie’s dream. A lot in there are on my “would love to if I could afford it list” including Alex at The Conrad, Balzac, Bang Cafe, Café Novo, Chatham Brasserie, Ely CHQ, Ely Wine Bar, Fallon & Byrne, FXB, Gallaghers Boxty House, Hugos, Jaipur, Koh, Monty’s of Kathmandu and Tiger Becs. For the first time too there’ll be a 10% discount off the lowest quoted accommodation … There’s more

Did I ever tell you about Matt Harding?

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

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

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

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