Ok, so I saw one of these quite a while ago featuring Arcade Fire but didn't realise til today that there's an entire series. They're great little impromptu performances by artists posted on blogotheque. Here's the one that got my attention today, a performance by one of my favorite artists at the moment, Final Fantasy AKA Owen Pallett. Word on the street is that Owen is coming back to Dublin at some point before christmas. Oh, the excitement.
Bright Eyes are set to perform alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl this Saturday (September 29). The concert has been a labour of love for Conor Oberst - dedicating eight months to the composition of the 60-piece orchestral score - who will play to 17,300 at the venue. Band member Nate Walcott revealed to Billboard just what a challenge the process has been, arranging parts for 40 strings, 11 brass and 12 woodwinds. Declaring it almost like "music math" Walcott explained, "It's hard to do anything on tour, let alone put together 15 arrangements for the Los Angeles Philharmonic." The Bright Eyes band member also revealed that the show will comprise songs from the past eight years, many of which will contain orchestral elements. Although there are no plans for any further orchestral concerts, Walcott has implied he would not be at all surprised if other shows materialised at a later stage.
Is anyone else shocked and a little disappointed by the treatment Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recieved since arriving in the US? Fair enough, we know at this stage not to expect much a large percentage of the general populace, the deluded Bush-voters and flag wavers. Sure enough, these people were out in force, proclaiming Ahmadinejad a 'Hitler' and such. One New York newspaper (in a fashion typical of the American media's reluctance to sensationalize) led with "The Evil Has Landed".
But I was a bit disappointed to see the Iranian President's treatment having been invited to speak at Columbia University, supposedly on of the most enlightened establishments on the continent. President Lee Bollinger embarrassed himself, his school and his country when he introduced the Iranian leader as a man who appeared to lack "intellectual courage," had a "fanatical mind-set" and may be "astonishingly undereducated." He went on to accuse his guest of "exhibiting all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator".
Now, I'm going to admit that I'm far from an expert on Iran, or President Ahmadinejad, but my impressions of him are (a) as a well educated, well spoken and internationally conscious man, and (b) as a representative of an Iran that has grown hugely since the reign of the Shah's and the bloody early days of Khomeini's republic.
His reaction to this introduction:
"In Iran, tradition requires when you invite a person to be a speaker, we actually respect our students enough to allow them to make their own judgment, and don’t think it’s necessary before the speech is even given to come in with a series of complaints to provide vaccination to the students and faculty."
Before I go any further, I'm not starting a Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fan club here. Obviously he can be criticised, on his statements concerning the holocaust for example, but ultimately he's a representative of an Islamic Republic. Realistically, as non-islamics and 'westerners' we are always going to have fundamental disagreements with nations such as Iran. As far as I can see we fortunate that the leader of a religious state is so moderate compared to, say, the Taliban in Afghanistan. The key issue is that in this day and age we have to show respect for people and cultures that are different to our own. This respect was certainly not shown to President Ahmadinejad during his visit to the US, an ignorance made all the more audacious by that country's recent track record in world affairs.
Here's a somewhat balanced report of the visit:
Obviously this is a tricky one and I'm not going to pretend that I'm all knowing, so if anyone disagrees or has an opinion on this, let me know! Comments below.
My first visit to Tripod finally came last night in the form of Feist's first Irish gig. Initial impressions of the venue were good- it's a nice size, kind of Olympia-esque, but taken down a notch or two. It certainly scores well on one important factor- the sound was amazing, even from where we were camped in the back right corner of the room.
Performance-wise the band were amazing. Both the pianist and guitarist seemed to take turns at trying to upstage Feist herself with some jawdropping (seemingly improvised) solos, but their valiant efforts were unsuccessful. Feist was a consumate professional: just the right amount of excitement & passion, but her voice never once fluctuating from note-perfect.
There were a couple of highlights, but for me the clear winner was the performance of 'My Moon & My Man'. Eamonn will find it difficult to suppress the giggles; and he knows why, but here's a clip of the exact moment I singled out to him and Tara last night as when Feist graduated from cool to supercool.
thanks to jennyhaze for the clip, regardless of the dodgy sound!
Hey hey to Blathnaid who's a feeling poorly. Here's hoping you at least didn't have to go to work today considering the amount you put in on your (supposed) day off. Get well soon!
Thanks to the legendary generosity of Jenn O'Gorman I am now the proud owner of one of the human race's greatest accomplishments: a touch sensitive lamp.
For anyone who doesn't understand- you're missing out. It has multiple settings!!!!
I'm sure any true Harry Potter fan would agree that the most significant addition to the cast of characters for Half-Blood Prince is the new potions-master, Horace Slughorn.
In another example of how on the ball the series' casting director is, it's been revealed that Slughorn will be played be Jim Broadbent, of Moulin Rouge, Iris, & Hot Fuzz fame. The man's a great actor, and perfect for the character. Roll on November '08.
(Damn, so infuriatingly far away!)
Just realised Broadbent's currently shooting Indy 4. He must have a really good agent.
As anyone who i've spoken too over the last month or two knows, I'm a stinking nerd-bag and have been gagging for college to start back for ages. I must truly be getting old because this summer was loooong. So today was finally the day and we got the ball rolling with 'Freudian Case Studies', which was pretty interesting. A lot of talk about infantile sexuality and the libido.
We started to touch on Lacan, so i picked up one of my educational 'secret weapons': an 'Introducing...' book on him. In case anyone doesn't know the series, they're a kick ass way of getting a grip on tricksie subjects. In comic-book form, no less! Having saved my ass last year, i highly recommend them- even for non-essential learning. I've got a few completely unrelated to psychology that are pretty damn fascinating. 'Quantum Physics' for example. Wow.
But I won't get into a big quantum physics spiel right now.
"Clockwork Noise's first album "If I Wanted, I Could" will be available for digital download from iTunes from November 15th 2007. The album features 11 tracks including 'Simple Problems', 'Talking to Ghosts' and 'Sodium Sweet'.
"The Launch will coincide with Clockwork noise's first public appearances in over a year. The band plan to reinvent themselves from their last stint on the road and push the boundaries of noise."
I'm heading to Feist on tuesday night and can't wait. Partly cause i STILL haven't been into Tripod since the big changeroo, and mostly cause Feist produces little slices of happiness like this.
continue reading>>
In a moment of madness i recently agreed to do a snowboarding course in Kilternan's 'Ski Club of Ireland'. Last week i was (unsurprisingly) a disaster. I don't really have the coordination required to balance myself on a small object while rapidly moving downhill. I spent the entire first lesson merrily falling over, picking up a few minor scratches, but nothing that could deter me from giving it a shot again today.
So myself and Tara headed up and i found myself doing a damn sight better that last week, not falling, but successfully carrying out the basic maneuvers- and on a bigger slope, no less! Of course, this was a bad sign, as sure enough i started to get foolishly self assured. From about halfway up the slope (the medium one, for anyone who knows Kilternan) i saw that Tar had picked up some sort of injury and was being tended to below. Naturally being the kind of chivalrous soul that i am i hastened down the slope, inadvertently building up quite a bit of speed.
What followed was inevitable. The feeling of bliss, the wind through my hair, thinking: "you know, i'm pretty darn good at this." Then that oh-so-busy split second where i realise "oh, actually, no- i'm going to fall"; swiftly followed by "my, i am going rather fast"; then kaboom, another idiot learns the hard way why it's called 'extreme' sport.
Bottom line (oho!): my ass hurts. I really hope this isn't broken. Imagine the shame of a broken ass. A plaster-nappy (shudder..). For some reason my leg won't lift more than a couple of inches. I'm going sideways up stairs. Sigh. I should have known that putting someone as accident prone as me on a snowboard was a bad move. It's like those 'Trouble Brewing' cartoons from the far side. "Ooh, rob's going snowboarding...".
Although the 'my friends snowboarding' injury list is steadily growing.
I must point out though (even if it seems redundant after this the 'injury' post) that the ski club is exceedingly well run and the staff are incredible! In fact i just found out from their website that it's a non-profit organisation and all the instructors are voluntary, which is a pretty strong testament as to the love that goes into the place. So if you're not a complete clutz like myself i heartily endorse checking it out.
Tis my friend Ste's birthday on sunday. Here's him as a trucker:
To celebrate we're all going to this sweet EP launch party in Portabello tomorrow night. Bats are playing, I've wanted to check them out for ages so I'm uber-excited. People should come- free EP! Sexy truckers!
Bray's Mermaid arts center is 5 this year and is celebrating by (amongst other things) putting on some kickass films. This sunday at 1pm you can catch John Boorman's wickla' classic 'Excalibur' introduced by Boorman himself and preceded by a documentary at noon.
Next sunday however sees the screening of three flicks: Neil Jordan's bray based 'The Miracle'; 'How Harry became a Tree'; and.....drumroll....one of my all time favorite films: Paddy Breathnach and Conor McPherson's 'I Went Down'.
Possibly the greatest Irish film of all time, this exceedingly clever crime caper (like my alliteration?) features Brendan Gleeson's greatest ever creation: Bunny Kelly. A knacker with a heart of gold, Kelly whips out line after line of incessantly quotable madness ("look at you there, you tubby little no-dick in-the-bath-fella."). Miss this at your peril! Even if you've seen this before, I can assure you from personal experience that it's a true example of something that gets better every time. I'm on at least 40 views (...i have a little condition).
By the by, the whole shebang is free, but you need to book. Do so here!
Man, mid-week drinking is a disaster. I was having genuine problems with what day it was for a while there. I settled on thursday, only to have the newspaper disagree with me.
Damn.
I hope i'm not expected to drink again tonight just cause it's a friday. I'm feeling the first genuine hangover i've had for a while. Odd cause i only drank about 4 pints. It's probably the chips. I wish i could invest in some sort of shock-collar thing that stuns you if you wander too close to a chipper when you're pissed. Hmmm...yeh, you could program it to watch out for all sorts of foolishness. The 'Booze-Nanny'.
I know i only posted the 'it's not working' gripe earlier today, but the damn thing has been down for ages.
Advice- be wary of accepting software updates for no good reason. Apparently moving from OSX 10.4.9 to 10.4.10 that screwed me. Surely common sense dictates that an update brings improvements!
But apparently not.
Now that I'm back up and running expect new songs to be posted in the near future.
Apparently Shia LaBeouf let slip at the VMA's that Indy 4 is called 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'.
Hmmmmm.......
Could it be a Hoax along the lines of the Star Wars 'Blue Harvest' thing?
Or is it just the old 'anything would have sounded crap' syndrome. I'm sure 'The Empire Strikes Back' elicited a few groans when it was first announced.
I pride myself on being more computer literate than most household pets, but when i hit a brick wall it can be quite intimidating. My pro-tools hasn't been working for a few weeks, and i've been instructed to run all sorts of updaters and pre-script binders or something.
I have no idea what these things are. What am i doing to my computer??
The digidesign website advises those who are "unfamiliar with Terminal and UNIX-style environments" to proceed with caution.
I finally got my new guitar so I'm over the moon. Look at her there, lookin all purdy. It's a custom 72 fender tele.
I had to get rid of my les paul cause it was driving me crazy. It may have sounded great but the overall gibson crapocity bugged the hell out of me. I've decided i'm a fender man through and through.
This baby has all the greatness of the regular telecaster (one of which i still own, my ever reliable old mexican model) but with the fatness of a humbucker on the neck. So it can effectively do the jobs of both tele and les paul, without the crapocity - woo hoo! Bah humbug to the les paul! Good riddance.
Quick plug for soundslive.co.uk, where i got it from. Cheapest in the world as far as my extensive research could tell, and snappy as hell delivery.
Justice are one of those bands that keep cropping up as being fantabulous for a variety of reasons, but i have as yet not been properly acquainted with their material. This might be the perfect reason to do so.
Apparently they have the Daft Punk seal of approval.
Hot Hot Heat are to play the village on Nov 11th. In case no one knows, HHH released one of THE best up-tempo-guitar-rock albums in recent memory: Make Up The Breakdown. They haven't quite managed to recreate it's dizzy heights, but nonetheless a rare Irish show is certainly not to be missed. Particularly in the Village. Tix on sale from 9am thurs 20th sep, at 20euro. (Not too shabby..) I shall certainly be there, bank balance permitting.
According to sky Jose Mourinho has got the sack after a "disastrous" start to the season. Talk about hard to please! That'll certainly go down as a bad move for chelsea. They're gonna have to whip something miraculous out of the bag to replace him with anyone half as good. And we play them on sunday- moo ha ha!
I've already gotten some stick for being fixated on how much of an imbecile kanye west is, but i don't think it can be pointed out enough- the man is an absolute joke.
and here's why:
apart from the obvious- that he's a terrible 'musician', and makes a living by putting samples of good songs under his own inane drivel; several things have come to my attention in the past few days that have prompted me to write this.
firstly, a video posted by Unarocks featuring kanye freaking out backstage at the vma's because britney opened the show instead of him. watch it here.
then this proof that the moron is a serial offender in the court of uber-diva-ness. he crashed the stage at the european vma's last year during justice & simian's acceptance speech for best video. why? to bitch that HE should have got the award cause his video "cost a million dollars" and "had pamela anderson and shit".
"if i don't win, the award show loses credibility" sigh
Howdy, so i've decided to become a do-er and enter the blogosphere. This shall be primarily used for the posting of tidbits and general stuff-and-crap that i find interesting for whatever reason. Or possibly inane ramblings. In fact, i can almost guarantee inane ramblings on a regular basis. Nice to meet you.
