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Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Rabble presents Munchi (Rotterdam) and LionDub (NYC) – Nov. 27

Posted in Events on November 24, 2010| 2 Comments »

There’s been murmurs, there’s been whispers in the dark and there’s been fallow moments. But fuck it, we’re heading straight deep into a winter of deep discontent. And we want to get this magazine moving. So, what better way to do it than with a party. The bass and genre fucking blogosphere has been going ga-ga with production prodigy Munchi, some like Generation Bass have gone so far as to call him “the next Diplo.”

Why not drop down after the ICTU march?

Full Line up:

MUNCHI (ROTTERDAM)
LIONDUB (NEW YORK)
PSYMONOK
PCP
REDMONK
RICHIE K
WELFARE
SHATTERFREAK
CARAX
ANTROPHE
SEXFACE

Saturday, November 27. | Toners, Baggot St. | €8. | All dayer, kicks off @ 6pm. | More info here.

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Football; much better when watched in a pub?

Posted in Events, Football Articles, Miscellaneous, Social History, tagged , , , on November 15, 2010| 7 Comments »

The gem of a picture that accompanies this piece was spotted in Friday’s Metro by a good mate of mine. Now, I know the domestic season is over, the cup final done and dusted (with a deserved victory for Sligo Rovers, and their ex- Bohs talisman Joe Ndo) but this takes the biscuit, really pushing us as a nation of barstoolers to the limit. We often wax lyrical on here about the League of Ireland, no it doesn’t draw the masses, and no, its not always sexy. But its ours, and thats what counts. So seeing ads like this is a real slap in the face for the League- Football is not much better when watched from a pub, its much better watched from the steps of the Jodi Stand in Dalymount Park, or the shed in Richmond Park, even the bloody lego stand in Tolka Park is better than a pub.

Football is certainly not much better when watched from a pub. Photo credit, Ciarán Mangan

With the season over, I’ll miss the football. And considering our current predicament, this time next year I could be saying I’m missing Bohs. The thoughts of it are depressing. We are in danger but fans are rallying behind the club. Donations are coming in fast, and some very generous ones at that. Even a bunch of Sligo Rovers fans passed on some money on Sunday to go towards the €300, 000 needed for us to retain our license for next season. More of a reason to have cheered for the Bit o’ Red yesterday. I’ll do another piece on the subject later in the week but as well as the donations, there’s a fundraising night and a monster raffle being held in The Phoenix Bar, Dalymount Park this Saturday night, details here. I’d urge, not only Bohs fans but all LOI fans to drop in. I know we joke about “the league needs a strong Rovers,” but where would we really be without Dalymount Park? The original home of Irish Football, and a place that truly deserves National Monument status.

So that’s why when I was sent that picture above, a number of feelings stirred in me. Pity, for those who remain oblivious to their own national League. Contempt for the same people. Anger, at the short-sightedness of the advertisement. And sadness, that only if some of those the article targets made the effort to come to LOI games, clubs like Bohs, and Shams, Derry and Cork before them wouldn’t be in the situations they are/were in. You can stick your barstools where the sun doesn’t shine. Football is much better when watched from the steps of Block G.

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There’s a Tempest a comin’

Posted in Events, Miscellaneous, Music, tagged , , , , on November 11, 2010| 2 Comments »

With all this weeks madness keeping us busy, I neglected to plug the visit to Dublin of an exceptionally talented lyricist and rap artist, a woman who Scroobius Pip has lauded from the high heavens and who tore the Electric Picnic a new one with her performance last summer. I’m talking about Kate Tempest. Brought to my attention by my brother a few months back, I had a listen to a couple of her tracks on youtube and was blown away.

Kate Tempest visits Dublin this Sunday

Slam poetry is something that you either get or don’t. I never really got it until I heard a man by the name of Marty Mulligan stun The Stables in Mullingar into silence with a four minute piece sometime back in 2003 or 2004. So when I heard that himself and my brother were bringing her over, I’ll admit it and say I was f*cking chuffed.

Influenced equally by a love of hip hop and a love of great literature Kate Tempest is a rapper,… poet and playwright. She has performed consistently and comprehensively since she began rapping in battles at 16.
Since then she has continued to develop her skills as a writer and a performer, and has made a name for herself in the UK hip hop, spoken word and live music scenes.

She’s visiting Kelly’s in Galway at 8.30 tomorrow (Friday 12th) and The Stables, Mullingar at 10.00 on Saturday before making her way up to us here in Dublin on Sunday.

She’s hitting the new Grand Social (used to be Pravda, I look forward to seeing what they replaced the murals with) at 8.15pm for a half hour set before heading down to Block T in Smithfield where she’s onstage at 9.45. Trust me folks, you need to see this. I know it’s short notice but tell everyone you know… there’s a Tempest a comin’.

The Facebook event page is here.

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Student protest media coverage

Posted in Events, Miscellaneous on November 4, 2010| 3 Comments »

I’m still taking in all that happened yesterday. I’ll probably write my personal account of the day. Until then, here’s the various newspaper accounts of yesterday’s march, direct action and police violence. (The Irish Times article can be viewed here and The Irish Independent one here)

The Independent

The Mirror (1)

The Mirror (2)

The Mirror (3)

The Star

The Star (2)

The Sun

The Herald (2)

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Movember rolls around.

Posted in Events, tagged on November 1, 2010| 3 Comments »

Inspiration.

You’ve got to love the Movember idea don’t you? Every year, all over the globe, thousands of folks decide to grow moustaches to raise awareness and dosh for mens health issues like prostrate cancer.

“It’s easy to get involved…gentleman start your Mo register at Movember.com and encourage your friends and family to take notice and donate.”

From the Dublin school, Big Jim Larkin, Arthur Griffith and James Joyce come to mind straight away. James Connolly was photographed on his arrival in the United States with this excellent moustache. Synge Street lad George Bernard Shaw went one better than the moustache, with a full beard to boot. One isn’t expected to go that far for Movember.

Give it some thought, or at least give someone braver a few quid. For now, here are a few ideas….

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The Beautiful Game- Ballyfermot Late Night League.

Posted in Events, Football Articles, tagged , , , , on October 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Ballyfermot Late Night League is being run in conjunction with the BASE youth Centre at Kylemore Park on Thursday nights at the following times.

Times: 6pm to 7pm (12 to 13years old)
8pm to 10pm 14 to 17years old

If interested pleae contact The BASE Damien Finneran or FAIDCC Michael Moore on 087 9805772.

Late night soccer is once again taking off around the capital. Normally with the support of local youth groups and authorities, the games give young people something positive to do with their time, taking young people off street corners and uniting them around a love of the beautiful game. The social positives of late night football are obvious. Crime falls in areas where the games have taken off, and a recent report in the Sunday Tribune made for interesting reading.

“On an average Friday night before the soccer league was running, gardaí at Ballymun received an average of 89 call-outs to deal with anti-social behaviour. But since the league has been running, the average number of call-outs relating to youngsters has been just 44 – half the previous amount. “

League of Ireland clubs have given their support to the ventures, in fact it was through Saint Patrick’s Athletic I heard of the Ballyfermot league. Let’s hope it works out in the area, which is soccer mad to say the least.

The Late Night League (LNL) idea comes from the Football Assocation of Ireland, and so far has been a roaring success. They used to joke that getting good at football was one of the only ways to get out of working class Dublin, hopefully being good at football however will give kids a sense of pride in their own communities, not to mention create a bit of craic.

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I had a dream last night

Posted in Events, Football Articles, Reviews, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 27, 2010| 1 Comment »

I had a dream last night. It went like this. Its a cold, dark Friday evening;  I am in Dalymount Park, on the steps of Block G in the Jodi Stand. With ten minutes to go in the League of Ireland’s last round of games, Shamrock Rovers are trailing 2 – 1 to Bray in the Carlisle Grounds and Twigg has just been sent off for dissent. Bohemians are drawing 1 – 1 with a scrappy Dundalk team here in the home of Irish Football when Paddy Madden is brought down twenty yards out from goal, right in front of us.  After some pushing and shoving, the wall is brought back the required ten yards. Killian Brennan takes four steps back, makes the run up, before gloriously dipping the ball over the wall and… well, I woke up.

The cruel things life does to you. Waking up mid- dream is one thing, but having a real life dream turn into a nightmare is another. Last week,  Bohs were on the pig’s back, (some might say literally,) needing two wins over an injury struck Galway side (who, despite their lowly position have caused us problems all year) and a Dundalk team we’ve beaten twice already this season (and, well, lost to once.) We all know what happened. Galway won 3 – 2 and dare I say it, the ramifications sent tremors down the spines of League of Ireland fans everywhere. It left Shamrock Rovers in pole position to win their first league title in 6, 066 days precisely. While on Friday’s performance, Bohs don’t deserve to win the League, that isn’t going to stop me wanting them to win it.

Pat Fenlon has chastised his players, saying he doesn’t want to see them until before this Friday’s showdown with Dundalk. Captain, Owen Heary has admitted that the team wasn’t up for the fight. Where were the battling qualities present for the unbeaten run stretching back ten games prior to Friday? Thats the question every Bohs fan is left asking. The possibility of an historic three-in-a-row has likely gone amiss. And yet they were still applauded off the field by the travelling support. Certainly not as a gesture of thanks for their performance over the previous ninety minutes. More a salute to the last three years; a goodbye and a thanks for the memories. They had better remember that this Friday if they’re going to finish this season with their heads held high.

We pray to the Spirit of Hunt to lead us to a miraculous three- in- a- row

I spoke in the build up to the Dublin Derby of 2010’s run- in being a battle of the bottlers, and while it makes for heartbreaking rather than heart racing football, that’s what it has become. Bohemians look set to part with, whether they can miraculously clinch the title or not,  a great period in their history. Three fantastic years, some heartbreaking moments aside, that will stick with me in the bleak times ahead. The squad of players that we have now will leave come season’s end, there’s no doubt about that. And with some of those players reported to be making a move to Tallaght Stadium, it will sicken me to see former players (and one in particular who has grafted for Bohs when others played like they couldn’t be bothered,) turn out in green and white next season.

Two League titles, Setanta Cup Champions (and by default, Champions of Ireland,) a League Cup and an FAI Cup in three years. People say we shouldn’t be looking to the past when the future is scarily unclear. What does it hold? In the short term, Pat Fenlon has said he will honour his contract, which ties him to the club until 2013. And while I would love to see the most successful League of Ireland manager of recent years to stay with the club, at his current rate, we just can’t afford him. He says he’ll field a team of kids next year if he has to, and maybe he’ll get the required out of them, hopefully so.

Pat Fenlon's Bohemians in a pre-season friendly against Drumcondra, 2011.

The days of players chasing big contracts around the League have thankfully come to an end; and while the circumstances that have led to this are unfortunate, at least it might bring some realism back to the LOI. Three years ago, there were players making more at Bohs than some players in the upper echelons of the English Championship. So who knows, a part- time Bohs next year may still be able to field a team, if only because players won’t be able to find a wage elsewhere. Bleak times, preceeded by an amazing past.

A bleak future, preceeded by an amazing past. Bohemian FC of 1907/08, from Storie di Calcio

All this talk of dreams and nightmares and the chance of victory, however remote, is still there. This Friday, come 21:35 or thereabouts will tell whether I’m a visionary, a lunatic for having hope or just an unwavering dreamer. To be honest, I couldn’t care less which if things go our way. Maybe I’m mad for holding onto the vague hope that we can do it. But isn’t it madness that drives most of us to follow this league of ours anyways?

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Cor Klaasen exhibition from the Vintage Irish Book Covers blog.

Posted in Events, tagged , , on October 26, 2010| 2 Comments »

One of the highlights of Culture Night for me was an excellent exhibition of vintage Irish bookcovers from Niall McCormack’s collection. In my own house we’ve an impressive enough collection of O’ Casey’s, O’ Faolain’s and O’ Flaherty’s, but nothing near the excellent collection McCormack has built up. I have been attempting to bully the younger brother into scanning some up online somewhere, and I hope he will soon.

Now, that culture night exhibition is being followed up with an exhibition on the work of Cor Klaasen.

“The Vintage Irish Book Covers blog are very proud to be presenting this exhibition of Cor Klaasen’s wonderful book and record cover designs. We have been looking through the Klaasen familys’ archive of Cor’s work and selecting the most interesting and striking pieces for inclusion in the show. The record sleeves alone will make this exhibition unmissable for anyone interested in graphic design, illustration and visual culture in general.”

Cor Klaasen (1926-1989) was a Dutch illustrator and designer, who became an Irish citizen early in the 1960s and worked here for O’Kennedy Brindley Advertising while also designing many excellent book and record covers. I knew nothing of him before hearing of this exhibition. There is a sizeable collection of his work on the exhibitions site here.

All details are on the poster above. The event takes place at adfferentkettleoffishaltogether, and this recent Come Here To Me post on the past life of the premises may interest a few of you.

'adifferentkettleoffishaltogether'

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Game On! Review

Posted in Events, Reviews, Uncategorized, tagged on October 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The Barbican Art Gallery in London had a real brain wave with this one. Like footage of Italia 90 or the times when you spent more time in the air than in the airport, people are nostalgic for classic video games to say the least. I actually still have a Sega Mega Drive upstairs, and next to it there is a Nintendo Gamecube. Her run didn’t last long, granted.

Game On! gives the visitor the chance to play dozens of classics at the top of O’ Connell Street, these ranging from Street Fighter to Donkey Kong and whichever ones made you an anti-social git as a child. Personally, it was a combination of Sonic and various sub par football games. I was skeptical of visiting this exhibition owing to the door-tax at first, but now it’s €5 an hour Monday to Thursday. An hour became two. Two nearly became three.

The first video game, the rubbishly titled Spacewar,features here. The game that led to the downfall of the western youth. Arcade games feature prominently here, but space is given also to consoles. Atari, Sega, Nintendo…… it’s difficult not to feel much older than you are. Video games change rapidly of course, and this is evident as you walk through the exhibition. Young kids literally laugh at games you thought were advanced in their day. When you get up to Halo you kinda see what they were laughing at. We’ve come a long way.

The complaints I heard were excellent. Saturn Bomberman is only 6 player , being among the better ones. Playing Pong on a big screen is priceless but, as is watching the new generation who started with FIFA 08 or something higher getting frustrated with the oldies. “Fuck this! I haven’t got the patience!” is heard on more than one occasion from people more familiar with Grand Theft Auto than the Sega Mega Drive.

The exhibition examines the contributions of various regions to video game culture, from the Japanese to the Americans. Looking at some of the leading developers from each region, you get hands on with some of the leading games from afar. All games are set to free mode (they’d want to be!) though sometimes you will end up waiting. Many of us are here to play the same games it seems.

Is it worth a visit? It is now. The price has dropped. It is worth a five Euro note. In fact, as I proved, it’s worth two. Near the end we’re shown examples of what may be ahead of us in terms of video gaming, and it makes you wonder if one day kids will laugh at Halo and the sort. No doubt they will.


Game On! runs at the Ambassador until January 30

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Bomb The Music Industry!

Posted in Events, Music, tagged , , on October 25, 2010| 1 Comment »

Ever since my cell phone, I never have a pen.
And I don’t speak in English, I speak in predictive text.
Ever since we got our cable, I never have anything to do…..

Feck sake. I can’t make this one as I will be in Glasgow Airport at the time.

I really enjoy the music of Bomb The Music Industry!, I’ve been to see frontman Jeff Rosenstock in the past, in what I remember to have been Greystones. BTMI! are a musical collective from New York who best fit into the punk/ska school. All their music is available online for free, over here. That sums up the bands DIY work ethic pretty well. They also try to ensure as many gigs as possible are All Ages. Unfortunately, the Dublin gig is not so.

The night before this gig, they play Katie Gallaghers in Bray with a 7pm start.

Bomb the Music Industry! plays a blend of several musical styles anchored onto ska and punk. They’re often compared to bands from previous waves of ska such as the Blue Meanies, Fishbone or Big D and the Kids Table that blended a range of influences and experimental effects onto the ska framework common in each band’s respective eras. Bomb the Music Industry! also share similarities with popular ska/punk and punk acts such as Catch-22 and Slapstick.

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Keeping It Peel.

Posted in Events, Music, tagged , , , on October 25, 2010| 2 Comments »

Football and Music is one of my favourite blogs, despite knowing absolutely nothing about football in the UK it seems to be a very similar passion to those of us who follow the League of Ireland. From Serious Drinking’s Love On The Terraces to the ever classic All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit, the site is a tribute to the connection between the beautiful game and music.

John Peel was a hero to many. The legendary DJ, who died in 2004, had everyone from Planxty to Atari Teenage Riot in for a ‘Peel Session’. Below, to mark the anniversary of his passing and as part of the excellent ‘Keeping It Peel’ idea from Football and Music, we bring you Fools Gold and Emerald from Dubliners Thin Lizzy, from a Peel Session in 1976.

Thin Lizzy- Fools Gold (Peel Session 76)

Thin Lizzy- Emerald (Peel Session 76)

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And to the lad who joined the lasses, ten young women and one young man.

Posted in Events on October 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Arthur Scargill with the striking Dunnes workers

One of the best images from the lengthy Dunnes stores dispute of the 1980s shows one of the workers, Michelle Gavin, being presented with a birthday cake to mark her 21st birthday on the picket lines. An incredible image, it is difficult to imagine many 21 year olds today who would have the willpower or resolve of Michelle and her co-workers.

Strike! tells the story of that strike, and those behind it. It has previously ran in the city to great acclaim, and now returns for a second run. It is a fictionalised account of events, which uses visuals and music from the period in its production. With a cast of twenty young people, it is interesting to note that quite like many of us in blogland, many of these actors would not have been born at the time the dispute began.

Mary Manning, in refusing to handle Outspan grapefruit, began a dispute that would drag on for longer than the lockout of 1913. Ultimately, the workers would win. Their story should be told.

STRIKE! is coming back to the Samuel Beckett for 13 performances from Tuesday 26th October. Then it will perform in the Axis: Ballymun for 5 nights from Tuesday 6th November. Tickets cost 15.99/11.99 (concession)

So here’s to the girls of Dublin City who stretched their hands across the sea
That action surely is a lesson in workers’ solidarity
Here’s to the folk who heed the boycott, won’t buy Cape and spurn Outspan
And to the lad who joined the lasses
Ten young women and one young man
-Ewan MacColl.

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