Hot 8 Brass Band, Whelans last night

So, last summer (or thereabouts) i was driving over to/home from Niamhs. As it was past midnight, I had Donal Dineen on the radio. Now, sometimes you hear something on the show that knocks you out and makes you want to pull over. And sometimes stuff goes over your head. And then sometimes you hear something that makes you turn the radio up as far it can go, roll down the windows and dance as much as drive, hoping that the people you are passing can hear it, and hear how great it is. This is what happened when Dineen played Hot 8 Brass Band's version of Sexual Healing. Since that night it has picked me up on several occasions, kept me entertained on long walks and ensured crowded dancefloors at various house parties. Last night (thanks to the lads at Choice Cuts they finally came to Dublin. And by god were they great. They came out at half nine, and barely stopped till they finished at approximately 11. They played their own (sterling)compositions, but the two highlights of the night were undoubtedly Sexual Healing (which was played as an encore), and a gospel song whose name evades me at the minute. If they come back, you've really got to go see them....

The Lookout

There's a couple of clichés and a couple of plot holes, but enjoyable overall. One of the more mainstream movies I've seen at DIFF, but that doesn't mean that it's any less worthy of praise. So the praise is going to get lavished on Matthew Goode as Gary Sprago, the "baddie" who rips up the screen in a completely unhammy way.

Bands of Horses, Tripod, Wednesday

They were slighyly underwhelming to be honest. We got in just as they started the gig ,and they walloped through the majority of their two albums and a couple of covers to boot. However there was never a point where it took off and left you going "wow". As a band they were obviously competent, and seemed to enjoy themselves. It's just a pity that the gig never got lifted onto the next level...

Oh Bertie..."A political donation for my personal use..."

You couldn't make it up.
That's it, I quit. I give up in the face of Bertie's unique Teflon-ness.

Going negative, and how to do it properly...

1) Obviously, you have to have a certain level of subtlety. Of course you can attack yourself (see here), but it helps if you have other avenues too. This leads us on to...

2) How to go about things the old - school (or, if you prefer, Swift Boat) way. The article is here, and this is the relevant section:

"Clinton’s camp has been circulating stories criticising the “cult” of Obama in the hope of portraying “Obamania” as a mass delusion. Media Matters, a watchdog organisation sympathetic to Clinton, compiled a report headlined, “Media figures call Obama supporters’ behaviour ‘creepy’, compare them to Hare Krishna and Charles Manson followers”.

It was forwarded by Sidney Blumenthal, a top Clinton adviser, to select reporters."

And the outcome to this? Well, see here for an example. Look familiar?

And the outcome to this policy? Well, it appears to be a continuation of Hillary's losing streak. If she keeps up this negativity, the legendary Republican attack machine that she keeps going on about will have no work left to do come the election proper if he becomes the Democratic nominee, as she will have done all the work already.

More films from the Film Festival

So then...

1) Return To Gorée - A documentary following Youssou N'Dour as he "jazzes up" his music, and tries to examine his roots, and the routes that slaves might have taken. It's slightly overlong, but the sheer proffessionalism of the musicians sparks some intense moments. There's an interesting clash between N'Dour and a accapella group from Atlanta, concerning religion (N'Dour is Muslim, the group are Christian). However it's not developed and explored in the manner it could have been.

2) Comrades In Dreams - A lovely lovely documentary examining a cinema in each of India, America, Burkino Faso and North Korea. The discrepencies and parallels that are highlighted are both touching and insightful. The two most interesting strands were the Burkino Faso story and (perhaps obviously) the North Korean one. The group in Burkino Faso were practising an almost communist form of self-reliance and bartering which was uplifting to watch. The belief in North Korea of the power of movies to uplift the farmers (comrades) and workers was remarkable to watch. The cult of Kim Jong-Il was extremely prevalent but not in the expected manner, the depth of feeling concerning "dear leader" was slightly breathtaking. And North Korea looks like a beautiful country.

3) Irish Film Board Shorts - There were two things to take from this showing of shorts, namely that the Irish pysche is still as twisted and dark as it used to be when it came to story-telling, and all the interesting films being made in Ireland are as Gaeilge. Mainly the films I saw were overlong, and could have done with some serious editing, but Rolla Saor (Free Roll) and An Creatúr were probably the stand out efforts. The Short Shorts were better overall, their shortened time perhaps focusing the minds of the directors. Considering that Declan Conlon and Marcella Plunkett were in it, Basket Case was a dissapoint, Owen O'Neill didn't seem to know what kind of movie he wanted to make, apart from the fact that he knew he wanted to borrow heavily from Pat McCabe. Also, the above two actors aside, some of the casting jarred.

The Sindo

It makes me cry. In between the defending of Bertie Ahern and the fawning piece with "Wesanna" (at least it wasn't Brendan O'Connor doing the "interviewing") they spend two pages complaining about Trappattoni. In a little box on one of these pages, they have an admission that basically states that they made up an article about the goings on in an FAI meeting. What was said, who was there, everything. Just plain made up. It baffles me as to how the paper still has a readership in the country.

Nightbus, The Band's Visit (DIFF post)

Saw these two films last night as part of my 12 film odyssey that is DIFF. The Band's Visit is a lovely little movie from Israel. Its glacial pace isn't a barrier to enjoying the movie, instead it enhances the attempt to portray the town it's set in as slow moving. The acting is superb, Sasson Gabai and Saleh Bakri stand out especially. Both of their characters are reserved, yet both characters manage to convey their feelings in an understated way. My only complaint would be with regard to the contrived nature of the composition of some of the shots, but overall the positives overwhelm any misgivings.

Unfortunately Nightbus is a different proposition. It's a juvenile attempt at portraying the affects of war that is poorly written and is salvaged (only somewhat) towards the end of the film.

In Bruges

Martin Mc Donagh is a legend, go see it when it comes out. As long as you're not easily offended that is. And you don't have anything against Colin Farrell. Who carries the film remarkably well.

Corrections and clarifications

So, on Trappatoni being the first non-national to hold the post. Geordies are Irish. Obviously.

And on the listening list, to make it a rather akward six..i forgot to include Sean O'Rourke, mainly to be found on RTE Radio 1's News At One. A proper hard hitting journalist, of too few there are left.

So, Trappatoni it is so...

And has anyone noticed how little soul searching there's been (either in the media or amongst the general public) in relation to his being the first non-national to hold the post? Compared to the angst displayed across the water when Capello was appointed, we've been positively mature about it? Is it maturity, or a weariness associated with anything to do with the FAI?

My ideal job..

..or, who i'd like to be at this moment in time...Obama's speech writer...

Dublin Bus

Shane Hegarty has a post about a bugbear of mine over at his Irish Times blog...

The Farreller, Shamrock Rovers, and hats...

Everytime we watch an old movie (case in point 'The Apartment'), me and Niamh bemoan the lack of hats in todays world. Not baseball caps, hats. Proper ones, that made men look even more manly. I'm talking trilbys here folks. Anyway, Farreller does his best to re-introduce them to society (but gets upstaged in the saratorial stakes by Letterman at the end) while talking about a missed opportunity - playing midfield enforcer for Shamrock Rovers. All this was on Letterman recently.

Gig Of The Week

Quite simply any of the concerts taking place around Arvo Part over the next week or so are unmissable. They're all sold out, so if you have a ticket, hang onto it...Living Music

Required Listening

To go hand in hand with the required reading post above, here are radio programs to listen to while perusing your papers...
The one thing I have discovered over my radio listening life is that I'm a sucker for Kerry accents, hence why the list is weighed heavily towards those from the Kingdom...
1) Small Hours, Today FM nightly 12-2am.
2) Failte Isteach, RTE Radio 1, Saturday nights, 10pm
3) South Wind Blows, RTE Radio 1, Saturday nights, 8pm
4 The JK Ensemble, Lyric FM, weekday afternoons, 2.30-4.30pm
5) For the weekend mornings its still the best, and her voice is still great...Marian Finucane, RTE Radio 1, Saturday/Sunday mornings 11am-1pm

So then, I'm sure Failte Isteach is going to be the one that either has people going huh, what's that? Or...why? Simply because Donnacha O'Dulaing is not a broadcasting legend without good reason, and secondly because there is a purity about the show that is unmatched by most shows across any medium. Give it a chance if you happen to be in some Saturday night.

Adamstown

Where to start? At the beginning? The governmental ineptitude that leaves this FF led administration into the pockets of private developers? For instance, which section of Dublin City Centre has most recently finished its redevelopment? The section of the quays that Mick Wallace has turned into a little corner of Italy. (As an aside ,who remembers that Wallace was not adverse to take Dublin City Council's money and simultaneously promote his politics with the oversize banner on the then building site which read 'No to War, No to Nice, No to American Terrorism.'?) Who threw up a 5 star complex in the site that gave Wicklow it's reputation as the garden of Ireland, Powerscourt? Treasury Holdings. And what esteemed luminary opened this private development? An Taoiseach. These cases highlight the growing privatisation of the governments social responsibility.

So this brings us onto Adamstown, an SDZ. What, you may legitimately ask, is an SDZ? This is one of the Governments great ideas for using the space in the greater Dublin area in a more efficient way. The SDZ is planned by the local council (in Adamstown's case, South Dublin County Council) and then handed over to a developer, Castlethorn Construction. Castlethorn then got in six architectural firms to design Adamstown town centre, in a "rare example of joined up thinking in urban development"(1).

So we can see that the project was passed on a number of times - from governmental level, to local planning level, to development level, to architectural level to enable the project to achieve "joined up thinking". If we are to take the development's name at face value, we can assume that it is the first of many towns of its ilk, towns which highlight this governments continuing abrogation of its social responsibilities, something which is reflected also in its Education policy. That, however, is a topic for another time.

(1) Irish Times Property Supplement Jan 31st

Required Reading

There are very few newspaper columns that I actively look forward to reading. My least favourite columns are those based on personal experience and the writers own day to day life. So surprise surprise, my two favourite weekly columns do exactly that. Michael Harding in The Irish Times features pages on a Friday, has, for a number of months now, managed to maintain an astonishingly high standard of writing. His columns leave me contemplating life in a way that very little writing in any genre has an ability to do. Unfortunately, the majority of the Irish Times website is subscription (including Harding's columns), so I can't link to them here.

The second column is perhaps even more surprising. Its one I stumbled across by chance - it's buried in the Family section of The Guardian on a Saturday, and it details the life of the mother of three teenagers. It manages to be reflective, humorous, and scarily accurate, all within the space of four or so paragraphs. Here's the most recent column:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/family/story/0,,2250686,00.html

Celebrity Endorsements and Rhetoric

So this is what happens when The Black Eyed Peas and others decide to get behind your nomination campaign. Personally, I'd prefer this or this but maybe that's just me being a music snob. Though you can't really argue with having Scarlett Johannsen in your video, can you?

The interesting thing about the song, is how little they had to actually do to it to make it work musically. The Clinton attacks on Obama have focused on his verbosity and, as they put it, rhetoric. Obviously we are meant to focus on the negativity of the word rhetoric. We associate it with tub thumping and empty words. There is no doubt that at times, Obama's message can be vague. But in the heat of a nomination battle, what good is making specific promises going to be do for a candidate? There is a chance they might not be able to be kept (eg if the Republicans retake Congress), or, as we know all to well here in Ireland, they just might not be kept at all. What is wrong with talking to your audience and talking them up, instead of talking down to them, and hectoring them? Surely a country that believes in itself is more capable than one that has lost faith in its own abilities? Witness Ireland post Italia 90, 1960s America reaching for the moon. Feel the hairs stand on the back of your neck when you listen to the New Hampshire speech that the above song is based on, and contrast that to what happens to your body when you hear An Taoiseach attempt to speak in public. Do this and dare to believe that not all rhetoric is empty, and not all hope is false.

Super (Dooper) Tuesday Predictions

Neck on the line time here. In the democratic race I think that Hillary will win more states, but Obama will push her close on the delegate count. Added to that, I think he will cause an upset by winning one (if not both) of New York and California, thereby giving him "the big 'mo" for the final stretch before the convention.

On the Republican side, it's hard not to see McCain wrapping up his nomination bid.

Watch this space for humble pie eating come Wednesday...

The Sunday Business Post

The Sunday Business Post is probably the best paper we have in Ireland at the moment. A joy to read, it never attempts to simplify matters and covers a wide range of news items. Ditch your Sindos and your Sunday Times next week and give it a try...

"..and when the damn things came down, I thought...

...I might as well write about them..."


So goes Mark Eitzel's reason for writing 'Windows Of The World', a song from American Music Club's new album 'The Golden Age'. It might seem like a blasé or even curt way to describe a song about the collapse of the Twin Towers, however for a large amount of people who love the band, it is this type of black humour they find so appealing. It is also one of the reasons that American Music Club should be considered a vital voice for America. It is a voice that rivals Frank Bascombe's as an outlet for examining a country's conscience, and taking account of America at a particular moment in time. Similarly to Richard Ford's creation, the songs of American Music Club do this with subtelty, wit, and, well...dark humour. Since AMC were reformed (for want of a better term) a number of years ago, they have released 'Love Songs For Patriots' (2004) and 'The Golden Age'. The anger that permeated throughout 'Love Songs...' (have a listen to 'Patriot's Heart' from the album for the best example) has been replaced with a more reflective tone, but none of the incisiveness has been lost in the meantime. What appear on first listen to be throwaway lines, reveal themselves over time as cutting dissections of American obsessions and aspects of its culture.