The Format and Culch.ie chat with Nollaig O’Connor, one of Sharon Corr’s protégés in The Voice of Ireland 2012. Nollaig begins her live show campaign on Sunday March 11th. The Voice of Ireland begins on RTÉ 1 at 6.30pm. There’s more
The Olympia Theatre was jammers last night for Choice Music Prize 2011 which saw performances from all ten of the nominated acts. Highlights included a rousing performance of Here Be Monsters from Tieranniesaur, Pugwash being joined on stage for a spot of kazoo playing by Phantom Pure Morning‘s Richie McCormack and Michelle Doherty, Jape having a wee lie down on the stage mid-song, ASIWYFA’s drummer pulling his shirt off and Rory and Johnny tearing around the stage in their suits, and the silence that fell over the chattering Olympia crowd when Lisa Hannigan kicked off her performance, before revving up the masses by banging her high heels through a stomping rendition of Knots. Eventual winner Jape was announced by head of the judging panel Tony Clayton-Lea. Jape bagged a €10,000 prize fund and was shocked to take the prize for a second time, admitting that he thought it was Lisa Hannigan’s … There’s more
It doesn’t go on general release until next Friday, but we got hold of a clip from upcoming horror flick The Devil Inside to whet your appetite a whole week early. Directed by William Brent Bell and set in Italy, it’s the story of a woman who becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms during her mission to discover what happened to her mother, who allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism. Take a look…
… May isn’t soon enough! More brilliant bite-size videos, featuring regulars Enda Kenny, Joan Burton and Michael D. Higgins, can be found on Cutbacks’ YouTube channel. Check ‘em. Despair has never been so amusing.
Meteor, sponsors of the Choice Music Prize, and VenueOne, online livestreamsters of cool stuff, are doing their techy dohickey tonight to provide a livestream of the sold out Meteor Choice Music Prize live event at the Olympia. Featuring performances from all ten nominated acts, it’s set to be a stomper and one of these guys will be walking away with the prize: And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs; Bell X1 – Bloodless Coup; Cashier No 9 – To The Death Of Fun; Lisa Hannigan - Passenger; The Japanese Popstars – Controlling Your Allegiance; Jape – Ocean of Frequency; Patrick Kelleher & His Cold Dead Hands – Golden Syrup; Pugwash – The Olympus Sounds; Tieranniesaur – Tieranniesaur; We Cut Corners – Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards. There’s also gonna be some Irish Song of the Year action to be decided, with this lot in the running: Bell X1 - Velcro; Cashier No 9 - Goldstar; The Coronas - Addicted to Progress; Lisa Hannigan - Knots; The Kanyu Tree … There’s more
This is lovely. I always love the TED Talks and this one is no different. It’s a glimpse into the mind of a great story teller as tries to explain what makes the greatest stories. Andrew Stanton is the writer of Disney’s newest film, John Carter, but he is responsible for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Up, Ratatouille, Wall-E, some of the most wonderful modern stories.
Prodijig won Sky1’s Got To Dance last Sunday night, and half of Ireland was bewildered. “Another talent show?” the Paddies frowned. “With dancing? When did this happen? Sure I was watching The Voice Of Ir… I mean, I don’t be watching that kind of shite.” As is right and proper, until a TV talent show actually uncovers something of genuine cultural worth. Not all TV talent show contestants are of the same stuff. Once every fifty insipid, disposable talent show tryhards, you might chance upon a Susan Boyle, or an Ashley Banjo. How these stars are managed is quite another story, and there are occasionally ominous rumblings from those in the know about this casualty, or that binding contract, a cover-up here and a smoke-screen there. The fact remains that sometimes TV talent shows come up with the goods on every possible level. Got To Dance is one of those … There’s more
Exciting news for those Mayo-bound* this summer. More diverse and delightful acts have been confirmed for the Westport Festival Of Music and Performing Arts, set for Saturday June 23rd/Sunday June 24th. Also flaking it to the stage are the legendary Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, rockabilly and glamorous hair-roll sensation Imelda May, towering diva Macy Gray, Irish punk legends The Undertones, Dublin rockers Royseven, weirdly attractive Northern hipfolksters The Lost Brothers, and Californian singer songwriter Rocco DeLuca, who. Is. Amazing. And very cute, in a scruffy kind of way. Like myself, shure. For more details, shunt yourself back to last week’s update, or check out the festival’s homepage. *Doesn’t “Mayo-bound” sound like a posh way of describing a sandwich? Ah it does.
The worrying thing with admitting to something I am unable to give up is the imbalance it reflects in my psyche. Well there is no greater imbalance in my life than my compulsion to watch cookery shows – and not just cookery shows, but repeats of them. This has spiralled to such an extent that I know the dialogue of some episodes of Nigella Bites and The Naked Chef – these shows have been given the re-run treatment ad nauseum over the years and I have been there to witness it. I cannot begin to think of the shocking quantity of hours spent watching people look for carmelisation on meat, thicken chicken stock and effortlessly feed 40 people without showing them needing to load the dishwasher afterwards. I become engrossed, TV on - it’s immediately to the cookery channels, wincing with disappointment when the +1 option is not working for … There’s more
The goal of SSX – EA Canada’s reimagining of the much-adored snowboarding sugar-trip – is simple: get to the bottom of the mountain either faster than your competitors, or with more trick points than your competitors. It’s unapologetically direct. The gamer is let loose on an open world from the beginning, with no grander objective than going bigger, better, faster than on their previous run. There’s a ton of tricks, pick-ups and routes to discover, and it’s gratifying to know that for every successful run, there are five unexplored alternatives that will produce a different successful result. Its controls are a triumph, responsive enough to quickly become instinctive, so it’s a game that lends itself beautifully to the “one more go” compulsion. The competitive aspect makes up the meat of SSX, and it’s designed to be maddeningly compulsive. The game keeps track of your friends’ times and achievements, and baits … There’s more
We don’t normally feature photographic exhibitions on culch but this one is particularly notable. Sky, WWF and the Gallery of Photography have opened ‘AMAZON‘, an exhibition in aid of Sky Rainforest Rescue, featuring the work of two award-winning photographers - Sebastião Salgado and Per-Anders Pettersson. The exhibition taking place throughout March, brings together two remarkable, distinct bodies of photography, highlighting the plight of the Amazonian rainforest and the people living within it and showcasing the efforts of Sky’s Rainforest Rescue initiative, a three year partnership between Sky and WWF, that began in 2009 and aims to help save one billion trees in the state of Acre, North-West Brazil. Brazilian photographer, Sebastião Salgado presents work from his ongoing photographic essay ‘Genesis’ that began in 2004 and is due to reach completion this year. The images portray landscapes in their most pristine state, and the communities still living in them, according to … There’s more
You know what would really help you over humpday? A dash of Disney… Bitta Avenger’s anyone? Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, “Marvel Avengers Assemble” is based on the Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963. It’s not here until April 26th but here’s a wee tease…
Praise the Lord! The Shins are back and even though there have been plenty of changes to the lineup they’re still producing the same gorgeous indie pop sounds that we have come to know and love. Album number four, Port of Morrow, won’t be released for another couple of weeks but to keep us all interested they have just dropped another video from the album, “Bait and Switch.”
We have to wait flippin’ aaaages until it hits cinemas on June 28th, but it looks like it just might be worth it. Despicable Me 2, the follow-up to, you’ll never guess… 2010′s Despicable Me, is once again voiced by the likes of Jason Segal and Steve Carrell but this time with the added awesomeness of Al Pacino. The fine people at Universal sent us the trailer for your viewing pleasure… What can we say? Oh wait… ba ba ba ba banana ba ba ba ba banana bananaaaa potato naaaa bananaaa tokalilo potatoli kanimalo manikanochika ba ba banana yuhplanuhu lapanolutu ma banana lakamupitalamu banana ba ba ba ba banana potatooooo
Maybe you think Grimes is the next big thing. Maybe you think Grimes is just another over-hyped indie darling, beloved of bloggers but rightfully ignored by everyone else or maybe you have absolutely no idea who Grimes is and couldn’t care less. Regardless, she has a new album, Visions, coming out next week and to whet your appetite there’s a new video for Oblivion, one of the stand out tracks. The song itself is a hazy, meandering pop gem while the video features Ms Boucher dancing and singing in various locations with assorted randomers and passersby. Check it out below. Visons is released on March 9th on 4AD.
