What will you do this Halloween....?

 Le Cool Issue 070

Goodbye India: Devil's Spoke

Nice Little film of Laura Marling in India with the Mumford boys. It is nice to get a glimpse of her working with the Indian band on 'Devil's Spoke'. Great full version of that collaboration here.

Nice Photos

Love this girls work. Her name is Abigail Varney. Brown and more brown in a living room is always the right move.

Darklight Festival 28-30 Oct

The Darklight Festival launches this Thursday in the Grand Social. There will be State.ie DJs and Le Galaxie along with a screening of some shorts from competition winners....

Brad Pitt.

Was out in Sin E last night and randomly bumped into my sister and her friend. A group of guys next to us kept saying her friend looked like Heather Graham. Then one of them kept prodding me, saying 'isn't she beautiful?' - It reminded me of a scene in the Brady Bunch, where Marcia is told she is beautiful and then Jan, thinking it is her turn for a compliment, instead hears ' and Jan...isnt Marcia beautiful?'

Actually she does look like Heather Graham. A bubbly, blonde doe-eyed girl. We then got talking about who we all look like. My sister, we all agreed, has something Scarlet Johannsen about her. Then they came to me, a bit of a pause. Billie Piper? I suggested. No. How about Christina Ricci? No. As I tried to think of more wide faced celebs I have been told I look like, my sister blurted out assertively ' Brad Pitt'. But only in Legends of the fall she added, as if that made it better. The sad thing is I can actually see it but I suppose if your gonna look like a man who better than the sexist man in the world.

Charlie Brooker Engaged...

So Charlie Brooker has been secretly hiding the fact he has a girlfriend and is now engaged. It is former Blue Peter presenter and now Xtra Factor host, Konnie Huq. Strange, I absolutely hate that show and think it is like a virus, and if one more person starts talking to me about it I dont know what I will do, BUT I did say to a friend recently that I thought Konnie was a good host from what I have seen and very attractive. That was before I knew she was engaged to my Charlie. She is probably the only good thing about that show. I am glad that Charlie has found someone. He seems like he needs a little looking after.

I don't Like Greens.

Lately I have been watching the documentary called the 'Up Series', where the lives of fourteen British children are filmed every seven years, starting in the 1960s when they were seven. They span the social classes and the programme is centered around the Jesuit saying ' Show me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man'. The point being whether social privileges afford children better opportunities and if personality traits at seven predetermine their future and fate. I am not sure if that saying has proven true.

I am finding it very sad to be honest. I am up to where they are 35 and I really don't want them to grow up any more. It is too late though as obviously they already have, but until I play the next episode, they are 35 to me.

I especially don't want to as it isn't working out very well for one man in particular, I want to protect him, I want to hug him and and say 'pull yourself together!', but he keeps getting more lonely and crazy, looking way older than his 35 years. In fact, each time I see an older version of any of them it is a little disturbing.

The show is tainted with sadness from the offset, it is like they were doomed to their fate of looming old age and death the moment the cameras started rolling in the 60s. If I were them I wouldn't be able to live the seven years in between without being constantly aware of how much of a failure or success I will appear in the next series.

It is not all bad of course, some are perfectly happy, but still their life seems synopsised and somehow devalued and with each new installment, someone has lost a parent or divorced a spouse. It is constantly switching back to the black and white footage of happy, optimistic seven year olds. Oh sweet naivety! The message seemingly: Don't grow up, it's hard, confusing and crap.

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Congrats!

Congratulations to Safetext for winning the most innovative website award at the Irish Web Awards 2010 yesterday. Designed by Octopus new Media, it was very nice to work with them on the copy, cute little animation too...Unfortunatly Le Cool missed out to State.ie for best web only publication, but it is a good publication too.

Lovely furniture...

Check out this nice site called Nightwood. Two lovely ladies who make all sorts of stuff I need for my imaginary massive house by the sea.

Foals - Spanish Sahara

They Are Us

Maser & the voice of the people, Damien Dempsey have been collaborating on some street art, around the walls and laneways of Dublin. (Open your eyes! Look up, look around!).  Some messages of hope, inspiration, fun or a painful truth - see pic). You can go to the exhibition launch and get your mitts on some prints of the originals. All in aid of the homeless. And it is in my new favorite place. Perhaps soon to be my new home...Smithfield!
They are Us - Block T, Smithfield. Friday 6-10pm

Note: They Are Us - I wonder if they got this from Rachel Corrie. (American human rights activist killed in Gaza years ago..) I am reading her diary entries, she was an amazing writer, even as a young girl. Puts me to shame. I just read a part where it said when she was very young, maybe 3 or 4, apparently she said a few cute and profound things. 1) Running with arms wide open in a playground "This is the wide world and I am coming to it!' and 2) 'They are us. We are them.'

...Oh Joy, I can see you. It's all I want.

Crystal Castles - The Academy

Last night with Crystal Castles at The Academy rocked!

Alice Glass is the perfect front woman for the electronic/dance duo. Beautiful, energetic, a little crazy but with a whole lot of edge. You don't even notice the other two on stage (producer Ethan Kath and a drummer). Mainly because Ethan hides under his hoody, slouched over the keyboard. All eyes are on Alice. She crawls onto the stage looking like a long limbed Russian doll in converse and lies hunched in a ball. slowly she unravels as she screams out the lyrics jumping from foot to foot, the lights pulsing in time with the bass, but leaving them in darkness for the down-tempo parts. This allows us only dramatic glimpses of them serving to give an exciting and untouchable aura, such as when she stands on the drum kit, banging the symbols sporadically with her microphone .

Through the voice distorter they both sound a bit wheezy and muffled, like harmonicas are trapped in their lungs. Alice chaotically screams words we cant make out, but strangely it works and lyrics aren't what they do best anyway, it is making brilliant and thrilling dance tunes, such as firm favorites Baptism and Air Wave.

As any good rock chick should, she occasionally swigs from a bottle of Jacky D before pouring shots into the mouths of her adoring indie boy fans as she crowd surfs, losing the bottle completely to some hipster kids up the front. Probably for the best as she appears ragingly demonic enough, a few more swigs and it could've gotten ugly.

Crowd surfing is something she does repeatedly throughout the set, even after the encore and the other two have left the stage, music over, Alice remains floating along outstretched hands in the buzzing mosh pit (see above photo my mate took), eyes rolling in the back in her head, mouth wide open, before security pull her out.

Suddenly, on stage on her own, lights on full, she appears bashful and gives a shy wave as she skips off. Leaving hundreds of very sweaty but very happy people to spill out into the street. Perfect Saturday night gig.

Web Awards and safe sex

SafeText is a nice new site just launched. I worked on the copy for it and was happy to hear it got nominated for the Most Innovative Website Award at the Irish Web Awards 2010, also Le Cool  were nominated for Best Web Only Publication and have promised us a party if they win...Good news for everybody really.

Fairy Lion - by my talented little bro..

Me, Windows Movie Maker and You tube have gotten acquainted. Been spending alot of time together today. I had to put a few pictures I had on my desktop with this track to trick Blogger into thinking it is a video as audio wouldn't work on it's own. Aha!

Anyhoo this is the solo version of 'Fairy Lion' - the fabulous and slightly sad song by the talented Mr Craig Reynolds, a.k.a. my younger bro who is pretty handy on the gee-tar, has one mean set of pipes and knows a great choon when he writes it!

I don't know where he got his musical skills from (perhaps he over heard me singing about the house!?) but I digg it, and I see dollar signs y'all!! $$$$$$

Bathtime with Hayley

(FYI the 'bathtime' has nothing to do with the boobies on show...just that I often play this Satie song when I am having a bath as it's so beautiful and relaxing. This animation is great though)

Lot's of fun for everyone-else.

I have been out of action for the last few weeks and meanwhile some fabulous momentum of positive energy has overtaken Dublin. Well, it certainly looked that way through my paranoid internet. I had planned to do so much at the Fringe festival, possibly pop out on Arthur's Day and visit some events at Offset...But no, no my gammy leg kept me holed up inside. Which wasn't bad for reading, watching films and getting visits from lovely friends and family, but there is only so much of that you can take before you feel pasty and sick. I had a slight panicky feeling that I was missing out on Dublin' last-ditch attempt to hold onto the summer.

Instead I lived vicariously through my sisters, one of which filmed Arthur's Day for Diageo and the other attended the 'awesome' conferences at Offset. Just the kind of inspiration Ireland needs right now and some I could have done with too.

It's not all bad though, cast off but bandaged up heavily I did make it out to the lovely Frank Ryans in Smithfield on Saturday with friends followed by the Offset party in the Twisted Pepper. Feeling like I was out on day release from solitary confinement I was very wary of the over crowding and young NCAD types stepping on my foot with their clunky brogues!

'Easy now' I muttered as I lurked in the corners, taking it all in. Planning my comeback.

I cant do it for longer than 10 mins!

For your sunday blues...- Steak takes a little longer...

I like thinking so I do.

A good friend is trying to get me to read the Stieg Larrson trilogy.

A thrilling page turner, just so atmospheric and exciting. Says she.

'I just don't think it is my cup of tea', I replied.

I went on to explain how all those exciting twists and turns in most novels don't appeal to me.

'What do you like then?' she asked.

'Well .... I like books where not much happens, and people are just...thinking about stuff'.

She blinks.

I should have just said existentialism peoples! That would have saved me some face and maybe stopped my friend from thinking of me as incredibly dull.