Diaz of Wine and Roses

From the Irish Independent and The Belfast Telegraph...

She commands multi-million fees to front movies and regularly tops the world's sexiest women polls. Declan Cashin meets golden girl Cameron Diaz....continue reading here

Not so Clueless after all

You can read my interview with Brittany Murphy here, first published in the Irish Independent and then the Belfast Telegraph.

New reviews can be read here of The Devil Wears Prada, Accepted and Isolation

An Isolated Incident

You can read an interview with director Billy O'Brien here, the man behind the new Irish horror film 'Isolation'.

This didn't take long...

Pope offends huge group of people. Imagine my surprise.

Pope Benedict has consistently referred to homosexuals as being evil, immoral and 'objectively disordered' .

He has claimed that gay men and women are incapable of relating to other human beings and couldn't possible understand, give or receive real love.

Worst of all, he has consistently sought to deflect his Church's conspiratorial role in the devastating child sex abuse scandal to gay men, inferring that homosexuality and paedophilia are one and the same.

Where was - is - the condemnation and round-the-clock news coverage of these transgressions?

Will the Holy Father issue an apology to gay people now as well?

Or perhaps he'd care to 'clarify' his remarks?

Source of Internal Conflict

Micheal McDowell is now the Deputy Overlord of the Land.

But just as I was rummaging around for my passport, I remembered that the PDs are threatening to pistol whip into some shape the most incompetent, inefficient, unreliable and unprofessional public transport service in Europe. I'm referring, of course, to Dublin Bus.

My enemy's enemy my friend?

Gore-y Films and more!

You can read new film reviews by clicking below:

An Inconvenient Truth

The Queen

The Night Listener

24. Kiefer. Legendary.

Now if only the television Academy had nominated Battlestar Galactica too, they might have actually gotten some credibility.

Bush Priorities

Today's Irish Times

The Essential Dave Allen, Edited by Graham McCann, Hodder, £8.99

The son of a former general manager of this very newspaper, the late, Dublin-born Allen himself worked as a journalist and as a Butlin's Redcoat before making his mark as a hugely popular comic, first in Australia, then on BBC and ITV. This is a collection of his greatest material - jokes, anecdotes, monologues, lyrics, poems and sketches - divided into thematic sections, ranging from childhood to growing up to the afterlife. Allen's artful, observational humour was often merciless - particularly regarding Catholicism - but was so sharp and classy that people could forgive him anything. This is a joy to read and there is, of course, something extra for Irish readers, who will immediately identify with the domestic cultural peculiarities that Allen both mocks and celebrates with almost poignant affection. Declan Cashin

Reviews

You can read new movie reviews - amongst other things - by clicking on the links below.

The Notorious Bettie Page

Lady in the Water

Just My Look

What do I think about Lindsay Lohan's new movie, Just My Luck? It's a question that has troubled many great minds, but you can now found out by clicking here.

The Dubliner's annual Best of Dublin list is out now in the August edition of the magazine. It's a great read, featuring contributions from such fugures as David Norris, Roisin Ingle, Declan Buckley, Abie Philbin Bowman, Podge and Rodge and, er, me. Look it up, check it out, tá se ann!

From today's Irish Times

Paris: Biography of a City by Colin Jones, Penguin, £10.99
The recent protests in Paris over youth job contracts were just following a long tradition of social and political unrest in the city, as can be seen from Colin Jones's award-winning tour through the history of the French capital. Jones's vibrant and intimately-
detailed text traces the political, cultural and infrastructural development of the city in roughly chronological fashion. The author takes us from Paris's origins as a Roman capital right through to the election of Chirac, before ending with his thoughts on the future of the city. The narrative is interspersed with sidebars that home in on selected figures, places and phenomena from the city's 2,000-year heritage. Jones consistently draws our attention to the emergence of ideas, movements and customs we associate with the City of Light, weaving them into the history of both France and the wider world, upon which Paris had a profound and lasting influence. Declan Cashin

We're men, we're men in tights...

Myself and my friend Sean doing the Flora Women's Mini Marathon in aid of Our Ladies Hospice in Harold's Cross, Dublin on June 5th. Disturbingly, I received more compliments as a fake woman than I ever have as a real man...

Nobody's at fault. Nobody's to blame. Nobody's responsible

No, that's not the forthcoming title of a biography of our Fianna Failure-Regressive Democrat coalition government but it would certainly be an apt one. A forthcoming report into the systemic communication failures that led to last week's constitutional crisis regarding our statutory rape laws is due to be published in a fortnight, and being an internal investigation, it's sure to be a whitewash of Hutton proportions.

As Bertie, McDowell et al scramble to deflect blame and re-establish their profoundly damaged credibilty, can we not, for once, allow them to continue rewriting the events of the last 10 days with a spin that makes them look like they were handling the crisis. Bertie Ahern went swanning off to the US to play the statesman after assuring the Dáil that there was no danger of any convicted sex offenders being released on foot of the Supreme Court ruling. When this proved damningly untrue last Tuesday, he remained abroad and didn't open his mouth on the subject until Thursday. In his place, we had the Tánaiste - the deputy Prime Minister of this country - speaking like a Joe Duffy caller in the Dáil, seemingly baffled and outraged at the situation as if there was nothing she could have or could do about it. Remember, she's the deputy prime minister of the country.

Then she and the Justice Minister gave wildly conflicting accounts of who knew what and when regarding the pivotal CC case that led to the abolition of the section of the 1935 act. All the while, the lack of preparedness for the crisis was never the responsibilty or fault of the Minister for Justice and Law Reform or the Attorney General Rory Brady. Faulting the government for the legal debale caused by the Supreme Court was never going to hold water. However, the political and governing response to it is purely the government's remit. But, as the crisis deepended last week, it became abundantly clear that Fianna Failure and its coalition partner were more concerned with salvaging their own reputations than actually finding solutions.

And where was the Taoiseach in all this? Presumably he was up in every tree in North Dublin trying to find out who was to blame for this mess. What did he find out? A senior official in the Attorney General's office is scapegoat apparently. Who this official is is anyone's guess. My own guess is that there is no official and that any independent analysis of last week's bungling would place the blame right at the door of the Attorney General himself, one of the Taoiseach's closest allies.

Why this conclusion cannot and will not be entertained by the Taoiseach is because Bertie remembers all too well the precedent established by his predecessor as leader of Fianna Fáil, Albert Reynolds. The AG sits at the cabinet table but is not a member of cabinet so lies outside the remit of collective responsibility. So who takes the flack when the AG messes up as gravely as this? Former AG Harry Whelehan bungled the extradition of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth in 1994, and amidst furious public (and intra-governmental) outrage, the Taoiseach fell on his sword and resigned, leading to the collapse of the Fianna Fáil-Labour Partnership government. The Taoiseach is the one responsible for the conduct of the Attorney General but will Bertie have to turn in his seal of office like Reynolds?

Of course not, because Bertie doesn't believe in demanding things like integrity, efficiency and honour from his cabinet, official appointees or himself. What a tremendous message this whole disaster sent to the impressionable minds of this country: you're never wrong no matter how much the facts indict you, never take responsibility for anything, never show respect for the people of your country, efficiency is a thing of the past, always find some anonymous scapegoat to save your own hide, put your own reputation and career above everything else and don't even think about doing the right thing. Such is the nature of politics in this country since his brand of short-term, visionless, bland, meaningless, non-commital, cowardly governing took hold. Yes, Bertie may be a great politician, but almost by definition, that means that he is an increasingly terrible leader.

It's an iPod's World

From The Irish Times on Saturday 3rd June.

iPod, Therefore I am: A Personal Journey Through Music by Dylan Jones Phoenix, £7.99

The iPod is one of the most recognisable and coveted cultural icons of the new century, whose devotees include everyone from Burt Bacharach to George W Bush. GQ editor Dylan Jones has credited his iPod with rejuvenating his passion for music, and that forms the basis of this hugely enjoyable memoir. Jones juxtaposes the history of Apple and the creation of the quasi-religious iPod industry with his own adolescent discovery of records and vinyl. The author hits just the right notes of humour and nostalgia in recreating the sights, sounds and trends of the 1970s and 1980s, as he takes us on a personal (and often painfully frank) trip through his youth, his career and the love of his life: music. Chock full of cultural history, gossip, celebrity anecdotes, this is an effortlessly entertaining treat. Declan Cashin

Enough is Enough: It's time to go lads.

Just a quick question: exactly what do you have to do in order to get sacked from Bertie Ahern's cabinet? Seriously, I'd really like to know. What depths of incompetence, stupidity and arrogance need to be plumbed before the Taoiseach steps in and says 'this isn't good enough'? But he won't say that because we won't make him, no matter how grave the error - and do errors get any more grave than the rape law nightmare that's engulfed the government? The sick, dangerous inferiority complex that seems to be encoded in our culture has us convinced that we don't deserve better than the shambles that has passed for government in this country over the last number of days.

This government should resign en masse, and let the country adjudicate on who we want to protect the citizens of this state. Their authority, their credibility, and our already faltering trust in their ability to run the institutions of the state has been irrevocably shattered. There is no recourse left but for the Taoiseach to resign his party from the government as a demonstration that he acknowledges the severity of the constitutional, legal and political crisis that he and his cabinet just let happen on their watch. Anything else is just an insult to us.

This Is How It Is

I recently re-listened to this album. It says all I want to at the moment. The defining song of a generation?

Twentysomething, Jamie Callum

After years of expensive education
A car full of books and anticipation
I’m an expert on Shakespeare and that’s a hell of a lot
But the world don’t need scholars as much as I thought

Maybe I’ll go travelling for a year
Finding myself, or start a career
Could work the poor, though I’m hungry for fame
We all seem so different but we’re just the same
Maybe I’ll go to the gym, so I don’t get fat
Aren’t things more easy, with a tight six pack
Who knows the answers, who do you trust
I can’t even seperate love from lust

Maybe I’ll move back home and pay off my loans
Working nine to five, answering phones
But don’t make me live for Friday nights
Drinking eight pints and getting in fights
Maybe I’ll just fall in love
That could solve it all
Philosophers say that that’s enough
There surely must be more
Love ain’t the answer, nor is work
The truth elludes me so much it hurts
But I’m still having fun and I guess that’s the key
I’m a twentysomething and I’ll keep being me

The Church has its Priory-ties straight

It was very interesting to receive a copy of a well-known Catholic publication on the way into a screening of The Da Vinci Code at theweekend, in which a 6 page article refuted all the claims made in the movie.

It got me wondering when the Catholic hierarchy will hand us out detailed articles that respond to the Ferns Report and other similar audits that catalogue the Church's catastrophic mishandling, and subsequent cover-up of, child sex abuse cases?

Just Like A Woman

Cate Blanchett to play Dylan in biopic

by Alfons LunaWed May 24, 5:47 PM ET

Cate Blanchett will play Bob Dylan in his "androgenous phase" in a new biopic of the great poet-songwriter's life, it was announced, as Dylan turned 65.

But even as he shows up everywhere in books, films and even a Broadway musical, Dylan, who has sought seclusion and mystery all his life, remains as enigmatic as ever.

Dylan has clearly shrugged off retirement age, taking on a new job as a radio DJ, publishing a selection of his memoirs, musing in a Martin Scorcese documentary, authorizing a stage musical with his songs -- and appearing in an advert for the Victoria's Secret lingerie store chain.

And on Dylan's birthday, the Hollywood press reported that Blanchett would be among several actors -- also including "Brokeback Mountain" star Heath Ledger and Richard Gere -- to portray the great American folksinger in a film.

Yet the exposure is adding as many layers to his mystery as it is giving fans more insight into the composer of classics such as "Like A Rolling Stone", "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'".

Mystery surrounds the coming biographical film on Dylan by director Todd Haynes, who earlier took great liberties with the life of rock star David Bowie in his 1998 movie "Velvet Goldmine".
Now he is recruiting an all-star cast for his Dylan film "I'm Not There", in which six or seven actors will play the star to show different facets of his life and personality. Dylan has agreed to let Haynes film his biography.

But Dylan's penchant for hiding from publicity and attention has meant that all of the new biographical material, even his own book, have only made him more enigmatic.

A passage in his 2004 autobiography "Chronicles, Volume 1", explains his horrified reaction to fame and exaggerated image in the 1960s: when he was introduced at Princeton University as "the disturbed conscience of Young America", he said could only think, "Oh Sweet Jesus! ... I was so mad I wanted to bite myself."

When he found fans flocking to his Woodstock, New York home in the 1960s, he said, "I wanted to set fire to these people."

"Roadmaps to our homestead must have been posted in all fifty states for gangs of dropouts and druggies," he wrote.

Through the book Dylan refused to provide details on what many readers wanted to know about -- his 1966 motorcycle accident, his love affair with fellow folk star Joan Baez, his controversial move to "go electric".

Though tantalizing, Scorcese's documentary late last year was hardly more revealing about what Dylan himself thinks.

Still, there is more Dylan-mania to come. The Twyla Tharp musical "The Times They Are A-Changin'" will open this summer on Broadway. It is about a drunk named Captain Arab -- a character from a Dylan song -- whose traveling troupe sings out some of Dylan's greatest hits.
While on a tour of the United States, Dylan has also started hosting his own show of his favorite songs on XM, a US satellite radio network. Each week he plays an eclectic list of songs linked to a theme he has chosen, like Mother's Day or the climate.

Showing his broad tastes, in the first show, dedicated to the weather, he played Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary", Judy Garland singing "Come rain or Come Shine", and "Blow Wind Blow" by Frank Sinatra.

Some at first worried about how the show would sound since Dylan's mumbling and growling voice can be unintelligible at times.

"Yes, you can understand Dylan on radio better than you can in concert," wrote Chicago Sun-Times reviewer Dave Hoekstra.

"The show's main challenge will be to keep the music as fascinating as its host."

'United 93' is astonishing

I attended an advanced screening of Paul Greengrass' controversial new movie 'United 93' last night and all I can say is that the early rave reviews from American critics are well deserved.

The action of the movie - which is performed by an unknown cast, some of whom play themselves in the aviation control centres - takes place in real time from when the plane took off from Boston on a beautiful, light Autumn morning and when it plunged into eternal darkness some hour and fifty mintues later. Greengrass keeps ratcheting up the tension, an extraordinary feat considering that everyone knows how this story ends.

It also serves as a searing indictment of George W Bush, simply by not mentioning him by name or using his image in the film. His absence from 'United 93' brilliantly metaphorises he and his government's catastrophic mishandling of events leading up to, and on, that terrible day.

The first hour documents how the controllers on the ground responded to the first wave of attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, faithfully channeling the sense of absolute chaos that prevailed that morning.

Meanwhile, we become familiar with the passengers, crew and, crucially, the hijackers aboard flight 93 (One of the film's most powerful scenes juxtaposes the hostages and the hijackers repeatedly saying prayers that are central to their respective religions, but with obviously different meanings and intentions).

The final 25 minutes of the film should be enough to gaurantee Greengrass a place at next years' Oscars. You as the viewer become a passanger on that plane. You get swept up in the rising panic and desperation, as the hostages get in touch with loved ones on the ground, and, through distraught farewells, realise the fate that awaits them if they don't act.

A plan is hatched to take back the cockpit from the hijackers, and this forms the most suspenseful segment of the movie. My audience were cowered in their seats, chomping on nails, fists - anything - as the desperate situation unfolds before our eyes. When the final credits rolled, my audience were numb. It took a few moments for people to shake themselves, get up, go outside and return to their normal lives, struggling to cast off the devastating impact of this extraordinary, essential and profoundly moving film.

Homophobic bullying rife in schools, survey finds

Pretty depressing, but not at all surprising reading.


Homophobic bullying rife in schools, survey finds

19/05/2006
Homophobic bullying is a prevalent problem in second-level Irish schools, according to a report published today, writes Áine Kerr.

The survey of 364 teachers found almost 80 per cent were aware of instances of verbal bullying where homophobic terms were used. Some 16 per cent reported instances of physical bullying as a result of students perceiving someone to be homosexual.

Teachers involved in the social, personal and health education (SPHE) secondary school programme took part in the three-year study, entitled Straight Talk - Researching Gay and Lesbian Issues in the School Curriculum.

The DCU study funded by the Department of Education concludes that the Catholic Church's teachings are "very influential" on what is taught about relationships and sexuality.

It identifies the church as a significant contributor to "homophobic attitudes". Researchers noted that because the church owns most schools in Ireland, "nothing can be taught in a school that does not reflect the church's view on sexuality".

The report adds: "This situation has gone largely unchallenged, but, it is now clear that in relation to State policy in key areas of SPHE, a potential for conflict is beginning to emerge."
The study, by researchers in DCU's Centre for Educational Evaluation, found teachers feared improving homosexual education due to parental and staff disapproval and a lack of policy guidelines.

Researchers said 41 per cent of teachers found it more difficult to deal with homophobic bullying in their school than other types of bullying. Among the reasons for this were a desire to be sensitive to the victim, lack of guidelines, and a fear of the possible reaction from parents, other staff and students if they were seen to side with the student thought to be lesbian or gay.

Teachers in rural schools were more likely to cite the disapproval of their board of management as a hinderance to improving their work on lesbian and gay issues than their counterparts in urban schools.

"This may be related to the fact that the board of management of a school in a rural area will often include some members of the local clergy or religious personnel who will have a higher profile in the local community," the report states.

Only 10 per cent of schools include reference to homophobic bullying in their school policy on anti-bullying, the report notes.

Principal author James Norman, who undertook the research in conjunction with Miriam Galvin and Gerry McNamara, said that homophobic terms are almost an accepted language in second level schools.

"It is the last accepted prejudice existent in our schools. We have come to a point where we won't allow racist or sexist comments but we haven't been given a language for talking about homosexuality," said Mr Norman.

When teachers were asked if their school was going to attempt to extend its work on lesbian and gay issues, 57 per cent said they believed such a development would be "hindered".
In a list of concluding recommendations, the Department of Education is urged to issue clear guidelines to schools on their responsibility to address homophobic bullying among students and teachers.

It also advises that teachers should receive pre-service and in-service training aimed at promoting acceptance of sexual diversity among students. Boards of management are advised to produce policies in their schools that incorporate both the local school ethos and national equality legislation.

Guidelines on how to represent sexual diversity in SPHE must also be drawn up by the The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the report says.
© The Irish Times

Bush's approval rating at an all-time low

Editors are running out of words and terms to describe the depths to which the presidency of George W. Bush has sunk. Every new poll for the past month has recorded "a new low". Roll on mid-term elections in November and then, hopefully, all his rotten eggs will come home to roost.

May 11, 2006, 9:12 pm

Bush Dips Into the 20s

President Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January. Approval ratings for Congress overall also sank, and now stand at 18%.

Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults say “things in the country are going in the right direction,” while 69% say “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.” This has been the trend since January, when 33% said the nation was heading in the right direction. Iraq remains a key concern for the general public, as 28% of Americans said they consider Iraq to be one of the top two most important issues the government should address, up from 23% in April. The immigration debate also prompted 16% of Americans to consider it a top issue, down from 19% last month, but still sharply higher from 4% in March.

The Harris poll comes two days after a downbeat assessement of Bush in a New York Times/CBS News poll. The Times, in analyzing the results, said “Americans have a bleaker view of the country’s direction than at any time in more than two decades.”
Permalink Trackback URL: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/05/11/bushs-approval-ratings/trackback/

Now You're Lavin!

In a true publishing coup, LowlyJourno.blogspot.com is proud to announce that we will have a weekly column from socialite and IT boy Lavin Gambe O'Murchu, who will be dispensing wisdom on matters of life, love and the universe. In this first installment, Lavin examines a common dating dilemma and gives us directions on how to cope - and what to wear - during the crisis.


So what does one do when confronted with the challenge of going on two dates on the one evening here in fabulous Dublin? This was the fabulous task that I had to face last week when a fabulous, gorgeous blond model named Sorcha and a fabulous, hot, muscle-bound masseur named Ronald both had to have a piece of the Lavin as soon as humanly possible.

So yes, dear reader: your beloved ‘IT’ boy agreed to double dip. That’s what the girls on Sex and the City call it when you agree to go on two separate dates on the same night – and Gucci in Heaven knows that those four fabulous single gals are my role models. New York: Dublin – there’s no difference really. My fabulousness translates.

I was due to meet Sorcha for cocktails in Café en Seine, Dawson St, Dublin 2 at 8pm and then Ronald at 10pm in Cocoon Bar and Cocktail Lounge, Duke Lane, Dublin 2. But first things first: what would I wear? Perusing my walk-in closet – which has more room now since I kinda, more or less came out of it – I was totally aghast to see that I had nothing to wear for my fabulous dates. Imagine? Me? With nothing to wear?! It was such a ludicrous thought that I simply had to call my good friends Pamela and Caroline and tell them to organise an ‘Off the Rails’ special ay-sap!
I was panicking. How did I have nothing to wear? I said I’d have a shower and I’d decide then. After bathing with my Ole Henriksen Loofah Body Scrub (€43) and washing my golden locks with my fabulous Baxter of California Daily Protein Shampoo (€23), I emerged calm and collected and ready to face my evening.

After much deliberating over the fabulous closet that I purchased in Habitat, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, I flopped down on the imported Italian bed sheets that I found at the bargain price of €465 in Arnotts, Henry Street, Dublin1 (and they’re so comfortable too, really, you’d be a sad sack not to own a pair).

Eventually, I decided on a blue Armani shirt that I bought in the fabulous Brown Thomas, Grafton Street, Dublin 2 for €299 (ask for Sarah Jane, ext 6673, sale on until the 15th June). I accompanied that with a pair of G-Star jeans that I purchased in BT2, Grafton St, Dublin 2 for €175 (and they made me so happy too. Really, no Celtic Tiger cub’s life could be complete without them…what? Oh my god, you don’t have a pair? I insist that you rush to BT2, Grafton St, Dublin 2 immediately and purchase a pair). I topped off the Lavin sartorial masterpiece with a swanky pair of brown Prada loafers that I picked up for €200 in Italia…or Italy as you would call it.

I was ready. As I was leaving my penthouse, I stopped and momentarily reflected on this idea: just how do I manage to keep up this hectic love/social life and yet remain so grounded, unaffected and downright fabulous? Well, at least I had the ice-breaking question for both of my dates!

Love,
Lavin
x

Nighty-mare neighbour is back!

The first series was bad...and by bad, I mean horrendously, offensively, shockingly funny. But nothing can prepare you for how dark, sick, twisted, surreal and completely off the wall the second series of BBC comedy Nighty Night is.

Writer-director Julia Davies returns as demented beautician Jill Tyrell, who has pinned the blame for all her crimes on her sad, OCD-afflicted fiance Glen (Mark Gatiss). As the series begins, Jill unearths the seaside hideaway of her former neighbours, the Coles: Cath (Rebecca Front) and - the object of her crazed desires - Dr Don (Aengus Deayton). She then kidnaps her employee Linda (the scene-stealing Ruth Jones) and inveigles her way into the councilling centre that the troubled Coles are attending by posing as a therapist. There are unforeseen roadblocks, however, including a surprise pregnancy and a teenage girlfriend, roadblocks that Jill will do anything...and I mean aaaanything...to overcome.

You should know the score by now: if you're new to the whole Nighty Night thing, then get through series one before starting here. For the converted, brace yourself cos you aint seen nothing yet. Disability, rape, sodomy, paedophilia, sexual abuse, a Princess Diana vision and the most disturbing artificial insemination scene you'll ever in your life see (at least, I hope it is) all await you. If you can peel your hands off your eyes log enough to watch and regain control of your mouth after it gapes open in horror, you might just die laughing. This is inspired, wickedly un-PC stuff that is quite simply unlike anything currently on British television.

Good God.....

Manuel Uribe sits on his bed at home in Monterrey, Mexico in a January 17, 2006 file photo. Uribe, who at 1,212 pounds is possibly the heaviest person in the world, hopes to travel to Italy for a life-saving operation to shed weight. REUTERS/Luis Reyes

Review of 'Minor Irritations'

You can read the review here of the play 'Minor Irritations', which is being staged as part of the third annual Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. Well worth checking out.

New Reviews, fresh off the laptop

For those interested, you can read reviews of 'Don't Come Knocking' and the so-bad-it's-worse 'Freedomland' by clicking on the titles.

Are You Ready for The Country? Is the Country Ready for You?

Here are the lyrics to Neil Young’s incendiary new song, “Let’s Impeach the President” from the new album 'Living With War'. It's sure to raise the temperature in Bushland...

Let’s impeach the president for lying

And leading our country into war

Abusing all the power that we gave him

And shipping all our money out the door

He’s the man who hired all the criminals

The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors

And bend the facts to fit with their new stories

Of why we have to send our men to war

Let’s impeach the president for spying

On citizens inside their own homes

Breaking every law in the country

By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees

Would New Orleans have been safer that way

Sheltered by our government’s protection

Or was someone just not home that day?

Let’s impeach the president

For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected

Dividing our country into colors

And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he’s racking down on steroids

Since he sold his old baseball team

There’s lot of people looking at big trouble

But of course the president is clean
Thank God

It Merritts a Read

You can read the interview here that I recently conducted with Stephin Merritt, lead singer of 'The Magnetic Fields' for Gay Community News.

'Hot Press' have good taste!

My friend Tony Hoyne recently received a rave review from 'Hot Press' for his contribution to a CD collection by a bunch of new musicians in Dublin. Read full review below; the CD is available from Tower Records

Various ArtistsThe Potential Collection(Independent Release)
11 Apr 2006

A compilation of acoustic acts that have all taken part in the highly regarded Zodiac Sessions open-mic night at Bruxelles in Dublin, this collection serves as a timely reminder of the continuing health of the singer-songwriter scene. But are there any potential Damien Rices or Julie Feeneys out there?

Well, as is usual with these kinds of affairs, the first impressions are mixed, with some faring better than others in the performing and songwriting stakes. Tony Hoyne from Kilkenny stands out immediately, conjuring up the intensity of D. Rice on the plaintive ‘In Lights’.

Tyrone Relph’s bluesy piano-based ballad ‘Aching For You’ recalls James Blunt in style. Justin Manville’s ‘Bring Me Down’ showcases a feisty performer with an r’n’b edge to his work. Other highlights include Michael Roche’s bluesy ‘No More Need To Cry’, Brian McGovern’s poignant anti-war ‘Crash ‘n’ Burn’ and David Burke’s jazzy ‘Grandfather Song’, the liveliest tune here.
Also of interest is Ray Heffernan (who wrote Robbie Williams' smash ‘Angels’). Whether that was typical of his style or not is hard to say. His contribution here is ‘Let Go Of The Wheel’, an engaging ballad without the pop smarts of his better known number.

It’s not all solo acts however; Anima’s ‘Hold On’ boasts nice harmonies, Australian outfit Doubled’s ‘Freedom’ recalls Jack Johnson just a tad while Caruso’s ‘The Man Walks Into Doors’ is intriguing. Kumara are blessed with a singer in the Richard Ashcroft mould as displayed on ‘Secret’s And Lies’ while the sole female singer-songwriter Sarah Williams wraps things up nicely with her Sinéad O’Connor-like voice on ‘Lifetime’. Whether any of these make the grade in the long run is hard to tell – it’s written in the stars I suppose!
Colm O HareRating: 6 / 10

A Rolling Stone Flatters No Bush

W. does karaoke

Whale's See Men in the Ocean

Pro Life Britney

Dear God almighty.

This weird, creepy sculpture by British artist Daniel Edwards depicts Britney Spears giving birth on a bear-skin rug. It's entitled "Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston." Apparently, it's dedicated to the anti-abortion movement.

Just when you thought that the abortion debate couldn't get any stranger.

The pop star who's not a girl but, curiously not yet a woman either, has a song called 'Someday I Will Understand'.

Someday perhaps. Right now, I'm just baffled and disturbed.

Camels of Mass Destruction

From the Telegraph. So this is the threat to world peace that Bush and Blair were so worried about?

Saddam planned to deploy 'camels of mass destruction'

By James Langton(Filed: 26/03/2006)

Saddam Hussein planned to use "camels of mass destruction" as weapons to defend Iraq, loading them with bombs and directing them towards invading forces.

The animals were part of a plan to arm and equip foreign insurgents drawn up by the dictator shortly before the American-led invasion three years ago, reveals a 37-page report, captured after the fall of Baghdad and just released by the Pentagon. It is part of a cache of thousands of documents that the United States Department of Defence says it does not have the resources to translate.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon released copies in the original Arabic onto the internet in the hope that others would interpret them into English.

Handwritten on official paper, one of the reports appears to be a road map for the insurgency, with detailed instructions for training what it calls suicide bombers.

In the memo, they are described as "estishehadeyeen", Arabic for suicide martyrs, and would almost certainly have been foreign volunteers.

The memo details a training commission to be headed by senior officers, including a colonel from the "Directory of Political Orientation". Their job, says the report, was to "prepare a very intensive training course", "to raise the physical fitness and train in the use of Kalashnikovs and hand grenades".

It continues: "The largest section of the course will be specialised to focus on using the explosive material in the body, in motorcycle, in cars, and in camels". Camels will be "provided by the Directory of General Military Intelligence".

The memo also reveals the incredible bureaucracy that underpinned Saddam's Iraq. Rifles and hand grenades were to be provided by a Department of Armament and Equipping, explosives by the Directory of Military Engineering and "religious sermons that emphasise jihad'' by the Directory of Political Orientation and the Religious Scholars.

The papers have been translated by Arabic-speaking members of Free Republic, a conservative internet discussion forum that believes the documents will justify British and American claims that Saddam had made Iraq a haven for terrorists.

If the translation is correct, it suggests that many of the foreign fighters now attacking coalition forces and bombing Iraqi civilians were directly trained by the Saddam regime, although there are no known reports of camels being used in suicide attacks.

One for the boys

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Things that are difficult to say when you're drunk

Things that are difficult to say when you're drunk

a) Innovative
b) Preliminary
c) Proliferation
d) Cinnamon




Things that are VERY difficult to say when you're drunk

a) Specificity
b) British Constitution
c) Passive-aggressive disorder
d) Transubstantiate

Things that are DOWNRIGHT IMPOSSIBLE to say when you're drunk

a) Thanks, but I don't want to sleep with you.
b) Nope, no more booze for me.
c) Sorry, but you're not really my type.
d) No kebab for me, thank you.
e) Good evening officer, isn't it lovely out tonight?
f) I'm not interested in fighting you.
g) Oh, I just couldn't - no one wants to hear me sing.
h) Thank you, but I won't make any attempt to dance, I have zero co-ordination.
i) Where is the nearest toilet? I refuse to vomit in the street.
j) I must be going home now as I have work in the morning.
k) There is simply no way i would be able to jump that fence.
l) Do you really want to do this tonight.....

'Prepare for the Power of the Blog'

From today's Irish Times...

Prepare for the power of the blog
21/03/2006
Are Irish politicians ready for bloggers? They look set to become a force in the next election, writes Liam Reid, political reporter

It sounds unkind, but it is probably fair to say that the average TD or senator is not the most technically literate of people. Spending any time in Leinster House, a journalist learns that most TDs prefer the fax or the telephone to e-mail; better still a chat over a cuppa or a pint. Irish politics is still very much a world where presence at a funeral rather than on the web is seen as important.

Mention the word "blog" and some TDs are likely to ask if it is the new brand name for Bord na Móna briquettes. The main political parties might have impressive websites and use e-mail as a primary means of communication, but that is about as far as it goes. While they put huge resources into monitoring newspapers and radio phone-in shows around the country, the same cannot be said of the internet.

Politicians, party officials and indeed commentators and journalists are mostly oblivious to the growing army of Irish political bloggers, who are determined to emerge as a force in next year's general election.

Short for web logs, blogs are normally personal websites, often in a diary format, updated regularly with whatever takes the blogger's fancy. They exist in the "blogosphere" - the wider online community of web-logs and bulletin boards, where users post comments, photos and video, and share information generally.

In Ireland, this community is keen to replicate the situation that emerged in the US during the 2004 presidential election where the blogosphere became a significant player. Bloggers and an online campaign are credited with transforming Howard Dean from an outsider to a front-runner in the Democratic nomination race. In September of that year, bloggers on a conservative site, "Free Republic", collated evidence which suggested a report by CBS 60 minutes, which had questioned the military record of President George W Bush, was based on forged documents. Not only did they kill the story, they turned the debate on its head and onto the conduct of the media. The bloggers were taken seriously by politicians, and enjoyed accreditation and access usually reserved for media.

In Ireland the blogosphere remains on the fringes of political life. Dr John Breslin, the computer scientist who created Boards.ie, the largest Irish internet bulletin board, is convinced that blogging and the internet will become a factor in Irish politics in the future. "They're psyching themselves up for next year, that's when they hope they are going to get noticed." He cites the explosion of blogging among the Irish internet community, often known as the "bogosphere". When he began monitoring the number of Irish blogs last year, there were about 100. Now there are more than 1,000, he believes, with more than 140 of them devoted to politics and current affairs.

There are only two TDs who have blogs, Liz McManus of Labour and Ciaran Cuffe of the Green party.

On Boards.ie, politics is always in the top five categories for messages and posts, after computer technology and soccer. But they have still to make any significant mark on the mainstream.
Dr Niall O'Dochartaigh, a political scientist at NUI Galway, says there are a number of key elements that need to exist for the blogosphere to become a factor in political life, the first being internet access. Despite the country's high-tech reputation, broadband penetration is still lower than in many other Western countries. He also believes there needs to be a major event that will motivate people to seek information on the internet, and again this event could be the next general election. The third element is for the blogs to be providing good quality information, analysis or debate that is otherwise unavailable.

However, even with these conditions, he believes Irish bloggers may never enjoy the influence of those in the US, because of the size of Ireland. "It is still very much about face-to-face contact," he explains. "A candidate for the Dáil can reasonably expect to personally canvass a good proportion of the electorate. That's an absolute impossibility in the US so voters can be much more reliant on the internet for information."

Dr O'Dochartaigh believes, however, that blogging will become increasingly important in Irish politics. He cites the Dublin riots last month as one of the first events in Ireland where these elements came together. It saw bloggers and internet users post large amounts of information, including photos and videos, onto websites in the aftermath of the incidents, a lot of which was not available through mainstream media.

In Northern Ireland, one blog has emerged as an essential reference tool for politicians, journalists and academics, and that is Slugger O'Toole. Established in 2002 by Mick Fealty, an England-based researcher and journalist, it quickly became a hub for the debate on the future of unionism. Fealty credits this partly to the fact that in 2003 he and his associates printed a pamphlet on unionism, which was distributed to every politician in Northern Ireland. Quality is a key element, he believes, pointing out that the pamphlet was the product of more than six months' research and interviews.

This is one of the biggest challenges Irish political blogs have to surmount if they are to become influential, Fealty says. "They need to be good at what they do if they are to have an impact. People are not going to come back to a blog if what you're posting is unreadable."
© The Irish Times

Fun at the Fair!

For those of you who don't know, the biggest funfair in Dublin is currently located on Merrion Square - and I'm not talking about the Dáil.

A rather large amusement park has been set up outside the Taoiseach's department as part of the St Patrick's Week (Month?) festival. I live around the corner from it and I can attest to the large numbers that the fair has been attracting.

I think that it would be a good idea to keep the funfair there permanently. The Taoiseach should seriously consider it as he could co-opt all the regalia of the fair for party political purposes.

Think of what all the promotional blurbs could be for the rides and attractions:

"Come and be taken for a ride on the Bertie Taoishocker Rollercoaster!"

"Go and get fleeced by renowned Candy Floss Man Cowen"

"Take a spooky and disturbing journey on the extra-scary Tribunal Ghost Train"

"Visit the PD Hall of Mirrors and behold their many deformed faces!"

"Take a spin on the All-Party Coalition Merry Go-Round!"

"And don't forget: come and play a game of pin the tail on the Cullen donkey!"

Brokeblock Mountain

Pride and Prejudice

Congratulations to Drs Katherine Zappone and Anna Louise Gilligan for so eloquently making their case on the ‘Late Late Show’ last night. They are taking a High Court action to have their marriage recognised by the Irish state.

They are magnificent figureheads for an important campaign that could have huge repercussions for co-habiting couples in Ireland. Their bravery, determination and honesty is inspiring and I wish them all the best with their case.

There will be a fundraising table quiz in the Front Lounge on Wednesday 15 March. €40 for a table of four.

Anatomy of an Eve-ning

My friend Gar called me the other evening and told me that he had won free tickets for the production of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ in Spirit on Middle Abbey Street and asked me if I wanted to go.

Oh I was terrified.

I was totally clueless about this play. I had heard of it, of course and had even (unknowingly) met its author Eve Ensler (she had been a guest in the Long Island hotel I was working in three summers ago. One day I noticed her reading the Hillary Clinton memoirs on the beach and got talking to her. She loved the Irish accent. I only found out later who she was).

Before I saw it, I had two images in my mind as to what it would be like.

1) Something like that episode of ‘Friends’ where Joey wants to get rid of the others for the evening in order to hold a party for his actor friends so he gets them tickets to a one woman play. Chandler is the only one who can attend and spends the next two hours being shouted at by an angry, pre-menstrual uber-feminist.

2) Or/and there would be huge props on stage – kind of like the huge plant in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ that sings and talks, which would result in my having nightmares for days, weeks, months to come.

As it turns out, this was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve seen in a long time. Yes, it was a predominantly female audience but this play (and subject matter) has, er, wide appeal. ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is uproariously funny, thought-provoking and poignant. Much of the humour stems from the unbridled honesty of the writing and the general shock of hearing women talk so intimately about their, you know...

You could hear a pin drop when the actresses – Norma Sheehan, Fenella Fielding and, ahem, Glenda Gilsen (surprisingly good!) – delivered monologues by women from Afghanistan and a Bosnian rape camp. These quiet, powerful moments are more than balanced out by tear-inducing comic set pieces, such as a thorough listing of all the different names for the vagina, a vocal, communal reclaiming of the word ‘cunt’ and – best of all – a cataloguing of all the different kinds of female orgasms. Norma Sheehan – best known from RTE’s ‘The Clinic’ – is a star in the making.

Hilarious, moving, entertaining, enlightening (perhaps too much so) plus a portion of the door charge goes to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre: going to see ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is as good a reason as I can muster for you to spend one evening away from the box (tee hee hee).

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Let them have Tayto!

The front page of the Irish Times yesterday (Thursday) featured a picture of 2,500 undocumented Irish people working in the US who converged on Washington in support of the Kennedy-McCain Bill that would grant the 11m of America's illegal immigrants a chance to apply for citizenship.

It brought to mind a woman that I worked with in the US three summers ago. I was on my J1 student working Visa and was working in a resort hotel in the Hamptons in New York state. My boss hadn't hired many Irish students for the few years prior to this - the summer staff consisted mainly of Eastern European students.

There was one woman working on the reception in this hotel. She was from Donegal and had come over to the US on a Morrison Visa in the 1980s but stayed there illegally when her visa expired.

She has lived in the US for nearly 20 years but yet cannot leave the country as she most certainly would not get back in. She drives illegally, cannot avail of full banking facilites, cannot travel. She works extremely hard in a number of seasonal jobs. She has built up a life in America - she has a teenage daughter, her family, her friends. Yet by the time I met her, she hadn't been home to Donegal in over a decade. She loved talking to me and my two friends about Ireland and her life back home. Everytime she spoke, her words were tinged with profound sadness. Yes, she had created a life for herself in the US but she didn't officially belong there. She is technically without a home country, a kind of bureaucratic refugee. Her life is characterised by fear, insecurity and a soul-sapping liminality.

We left the US soon after Labour Day and she was visibily upset and envious that we were leaving for home. I meant to stay in touch with her and send her some uniquely Irish things that all people abroad crave: Bachelors Beans, Meanies, Chipsticks, Cadbury chocolate and, of course Tayto! I never did though and I feel bad. I just got back into the swing of things here in Ireland and that summer faded into memory.

The topicality of this drive by the Irish lobby in the US at the moment has made me think more and more about this lady and all the thousands of other Irish people in the same position as her. It's such a sad situation to be from one country and live in another and yet be deprived of fully and freely engaging with both. Let's hope that the law is changed to allow these Irish people the chance to collect their Tayto crisps in person and legally bring them back to their homes for their American family and friends to consume!!

And, of course, we can't forget...

In the rush to comment on the Oscars, we can't forget the other awards ceremony held this weekend...

26th Annual Golden Raspberry (Razzie©) Award “Winners” 2006

Worst Picture: Dirty Love

Worst Actor: Rob Schneider, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Worst Actress: Jenny McCarthy, Dirty Love

Worst Supporting Actor: Hayden Christensen, Star Wars III: No Sith, He's Supposed to be Darth Vader

Worst Supporting Actress: Paris Hilton, House Of Whacks (Warner Bros.)

Worst Screen Couple: Will Ferrell & Nicole Kidman, Bewitched (Sony/Columbia)

Worst Remake Or Sequel: Son Of The Mask

Worst Screenplay: Dirty Love, Written by Jenny McCarthy

Worst Director: John Asher / Dirty Love

Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets:(New Category, Saluting the Celebs We're ALL Sick & Tired Of!) Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Oprah Winfrey's Couch,The Eiffel Tower & "Tom's Baby"

"Wins" per Picture:

Dirty Love — 4 "Wins":Worst Picture, Worst Actress,Worst Director, Worst Screenplay

One Award Each: Bewitched (Worst Screen Couple)
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo(Worst Actor)
House Of Wax (Worst Supporting Actress) Son Of The Mask (Worst Remake or Sequel)
Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith(Worst Supporting Actor)

Crash-ing Brokeback's party

It's a good thing that I didn't head off to bed after the announcement that Ang Lee had won Best Director for 'Brokeback Mountain'. Having sat through four hours of an interminably predictable and lifeless ceremony - exacerbated by Sky's segues to the abysmally clueless Mariella Frostrup - everything seemed to be going according to plan. All of the expected winners - deservedly in the vast majority of cases - had been to the podium to claim their prizes. 'Brokeback' was on the way to capping its incredible year by taking home Hollywood's top honour.

And then, out came Jack Nicholson to reveal the winner of the Best Picture Oscar. We were a bit surprised seven years ago when 'Shakespeare in Love' pipped 'Saving Private Ryan' to the top award but nothing in recent Academy Award history compared to the gasps and stunned silence that greeted the proclamation that melting-pot ensemble drama 'Crash' had emerged as victor.

It's a good movie, no doubt, but 'Brokeback Mountain' was infinitely superior in nearly every respect. But, Lions Gate, the backers of 'Crash', ran a brilliant (and expensive) marketing campaign that played on 'Brokeback's frontrunner status.

'Crash' was released last summer: never before has a movie released so early in the award year won the Best Film Oscar. In the pre-award analysis, commentators noticed that this was the first time since 1981 that the nominees for Best Picture and Director were for all the same movies. There was a premonition of last night's final shock in that fact: 25 years ago, Warren Beatty won the Directing prize for 'Reds' but was beaten at the last minute for Best Film by 'Chariots of Fire'.

'Crash' was an actors movie, set in L.A, the home to the majority of Academy members so it must have resonated with them. It's also the first film to win Best Picture without winning a single Best Film prize in the pre-Oscar award blitz. This is also the first time that there has been consecutive Best Picture winners that were written by the same person ('Crash' writer, director and producer Paul Haggis wrote last year's big winner 'Million Dollar Baby').

A clearly devastated Ang Lee saw his film - the most acclaimed of the year by a long stretch - tie with 'Crash', 'King Kong' and 'Memoirs of a Geisha' for award wins (three apiece). 'Brokeback' took home Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. 'Crash' also won Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing. That latter award went some way to prove a point that I remember 'LA Times' critic David Ansen making a few years back: that the film that wins the Editing prize nearly always goes on to win Best Film.

The acting prizes went as expected. Bafta, Golden Globe and SAG winners Philip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon took home Best Actor and Actress for 'Capote' and 'Walk the Line' respectively. Hoffman had an easy win whereas Witherspoon arguably had a much closer result over chief competitor Felicity Huffman.

Hollywood favourite George Clooney saw off a last minute surge from Paul Giamatti to win Best Supporting Actor for the complex geopolitical drama 'Syriana'. Clooney's 'Good Night, and Good Luck' (for which he was also nominated as Director and Writer) went home empty-handed as did Steven Spielberg's controversial 'Munich'. Both movies had six nominations each.

British actress Rachel Weisz made up enough lost ground at the Baftas to emerge victorious in the closely contested Best Supporting Actress category. Weisz won for her movie-stealing role opposite Ralph Fiennes in 'The Constant Gardener'.

Emcee for the night was freshman Jon Stewart, acerbic host of satirical news programme 'The Daily Show'. It's fair to say that Stewart's performance was mixed at best. His opening monologue died a death and many of his jokes and asides were met with silence. He improved as the dreadful show dragged on however. A great spoof reel claiming dirty campaigning in the Best Actress race went down a storm as did the joke about Bjork (who attended the Oscars five years ago dressed as a swan) being shot by Dick Cheney. Other highlights included a beautiful performance by Dolly Parton of her nominated song 'Travellin Thru' whilst Meryl Streep's and Lily Tomlin's tribute to Robert Altman was inspired.

Overall, the show was dire and was made all the worse by a seemingly endless stream of movie montages and some nauseating, self-pitying pleas from presenters for audiences to abandon DVD and return to the cinemas. 2005 was a hard year for the Hollywood studios so there is a lot of lost ground - and money - to make up for. Expect a slew of big budget movies to dominate next year's ceremony.

Despite the quality of the delivery, most of the awards were deserving. The problem is that most of the winners have been front-runners since January. Apart from Best Picture, there were literally no other surprises. Congratulations to Irish playwrite Martin McDonagh, who won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short for 'Six Shooter'. Let's hope that we'll be hearing more Irish accents at the show over the next few years.

And that's all I want to say about Oscar 2006 because, like an Irish general election campaign, it feels as if the contest has been on-going for the last seven months. Some great work was produced and, true to form, the Academy failed to award the year's best film with the Best Film Oscar. Next, please. The challenge to Hollywood is to find a way to move forward from one of the most unusual award years' in recent memory. If the current trend for topical, political cinema continues into the next movie year, it'll be interesting to see what 'hammers to mould society' Tinseltown produces next.

Oscar Predix

And so the long campaign is over. The winners of the 78th Annual Academy Awards are announced Sunday night in LA, which means that viewers on this side of the pond will have to stay up until the wee hours to watch the whole orgy of self-congratulation live on Sky Movies.

This awards year has been dominated by Ang Lee's 'Brokeback Mountain', which so far has won 14 Best Film citations, including the Producers Guild, the Golden Globe and the Bafta. It's just one of a series of nominated films this year that tackle topical issues, transforming the mid-Noughties into the most politicised era of film-making since the 1970s.

'Brokeback' is entering the race with the most nominations (8) but, if the ceremony turns out to be as predictable as anticipated, it will win perhaps only 4, possibly 5 of those categories. There is no landslide on the cards for any nominee so it looks as if there will be a more even spread of winners than there has been in recent years.

All of the main categories have had their frontrunners the whole way through the pre-Oscar award blitz and there is little expectation that Sunday's awards will diverge greatly from what's gone before. However, there is the potential for one or two surprises: early favourites may have peaked too soon or, in the case of one category, the favourite has kept changing. Also, you can never underestimate the bizarre tastes and voting patterns of the Academy. They tend to vote with their hearts rather than their heads so with that in mind, I have given my predictions for who I want to win (the 'heart' option) and who I think will win (the 'head' option).

Best Picture:
It has only ever been a two-way race in this category: 'Brokeback' vs 'Crash'. However, the only major pre-Oscar gong that 'Crash' was won was the Ensemble prize at the Screen Actors Guild. It is an actors movie but might be a bit too edgy for Academy tastes. Having said that, its backers have spent almost twice 'Crash's' original budget in marketing the movie. An intensive Miramax marketing campaign for 'Shakespeare in Love' was enough for it to snag the top award from favourite 'Saving Private Ryan' in 1998. I can't see the same thing happening here though. If 'Crash', which was released last summer, manages this feat, it will count as one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history. It'd sure shake things up on the night, that's for sure.

My heart says: 'Brokeback Mountain'
My head says: 'Brokeback Mountain'

Best Director:
There has been some speculation that there might be a Picture/Director split this year. It's a possibility - especially considering that Ang Lee was in this exact position going into the awards with 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' in 2000. That year, Lee had won the Directors Guild, the Golden Globe and the Bafta (like this year) but fell at the last hurdle to Steven Soderbergh for 'Traffic'. However, it is highly unlikely that Lee will be snubbed this year having delivered the years' most acclaimed movie. Also, Soderbergh was a double Directing nominee that year (he was also nominated for 'Erin Brockovich') so he was being justly awarded for directing 2 actors, a screenwriter and an editor to Oscar wins for two different movies on the same night. This is Lee's for the taking.

My heart says: Ang Lee
My head says: Ang Lee

Best Actor:
Unless there is a major 'Brokeback' sweep on the night, this award belongs - and has belonged all year - to 'Capote's' Philip Seymour Hoffman. With the Golden Globe, Bafta and Screen Actors Guild under his belt, in addition to 12 other critics' citations, I will be flabbergasted if he doesn't take home the gold. Besides, he deserves if for a truly astonishing performance.

My heart says: Philip Seymour Hoffman
My head says: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Best Actress:
I'm quite torn here. It's been a miserable year for lead actresses and this has always been a two horse race. Reese Witherspoon is the favourite going into the ceremony - she's won the Golden Globe, Bafta and SAG as well as 8 other prizes for her turn as June Carter in 'Walk the Line'. She is the heart of that movie. Although she doesn't appear until a third of the way in, the movie literally loses its sparkle afterwards when she's not on screen. It's a terrific, multi-layered performance that would certainly not be the worst choice the Academy has made.

However, I'm rooting for Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman for her engaging, brave and moving performance as a pre-operative male-to-female transexual who meets the son she never knew existed in 'TransAmerica'. Witherspoon may be the heart of her movie, but Huffman is her movie. She's in almost every scene and brilliantly captures her characters gaucheness, vulnerabilty and determination. It's an astonishing performance that might bring Huffman to the podium. Hollywood seems to love her survival story ('20 years to achieve overnight success' as she has said herself), they love her husband (William H. Macy) just as much and she's already very familiar to voters thanks to her role in a high-profile TV show from which this movie is a considerable stretch. Plus she's paid her dues more than Reese Whippersnapper. I anticipate this result with bated breath.

My heart says: Felicity Huffman
My head says: Reese Witherspoon

Best Supporting Actor:
The two Supporting categories are arguably the strongest and most competitive ones this year. The Supporting Actor race has been particularly tough to call. I still think that multi-tasker George Clooney is the one to beat for his role in 'Syriana'. Clooney gained an early lead by claiming the Golden Globe but appeared to be losing the actors' sympathy by losing the SAG to 'Cinderella Man's' Paul Giamatti (who has been snubbed for the past two years).

Giamatti definitely has potential to carry this: he is a supporting player more than a leading man. Clooney is the opposite. Plus, it looks as if Clooney will lose the other categories he's competing in (Director and Screenplay) so this will be the chance for the Academy to award him. I also think they will be interested in hearing what he has to say by way of a speech, known as he is for his strong anti-Bush feeling.

Then, there's Matt Dillon, who hasn't won any of the pre-Oscar awards for his revelatory turn as racist cop John Ryan in 'Crash'. Dillon might well harness the obvious good-will that the actors feel towards the movie and become a conduit for those voters who want to reward the fine ensemble work done in the movie.

The one really to watch, however, might well be 25 year old Jake Gyllenhall. Nominated as support for a lead performance, Gyllenhall seemed to be a non-runner - until he won the Bafta 2 weeks ago. That will have raised his profile considerably in the crucial final weeks of balloting. There's also a sense that he's been unduly overlooked whilst Heath Ledger got all the praise. I think he could well seal the deal but Clooney should just about shade it.

My heart says: Jake Gyllenhall
My head says: George Clooney

Best Supporting Actress:
Another extremely hard one to call. Rachel Weisz has dominated until now for a brilliant performance in 'The Constant Gardener'. Like Witherspoon, she is the heart and soul of the movie and makes such an impression, that you look forward to her reappearing on screen.

The movie itself has not been really embraced outside of her fine workthough. This might hurt her chances. Weisz lost the Lead Actress Bafta to Witherspoon, which left that Supporting category free for the non-Oscar nominated Thandie Newton to win for 'Crash'.

Amy Adams made enough of an impact to get nominated out of nowhere for 'Junebug' but I suspect that the nomination is her reward. Ditto Frances McDormand for some great supporting work in the poorly-received 'North Country'.

Catherine Keener is one to watch. She has had a prolific year in which she demonstrated her true versatility - in addition to her subtle nominated work as Harper Lee in 'Capote', she also appeared in 'The Forty Year Old Virgin', 'The Interpreter', and 'The Ballad of Jack and Rose'. Hoffman's landslide victory will also keep her in the spotlight.

My choice is former 'Dawson's Creek' star Michelle Williams for a remarkably expressive and poignant performance as Heath Ledger's devastated wife in 'Brokeback Mountain'. Williams nailed that part and her scenes seared into the memory. A 'Brokeback' sweep could well push it in her direction. Weisz seems the safe pick but this is the one race that I'm going to stick my neck out on.

My heart says: Michelle Williams
My head says: Michelle Williams

Best Original Screenplay:
'Crash' should comfortably take this one home. Clooney could upset if the Academy put their support behind him here, rather than in the acting race.

My heart and head says: 'Crash'

Best Adapted Screenplay:
'Brokeback' will win and it thoroughly deserves it too.

My heart and head says: 'Brokeback Mountain'

All in all, I predict that 'Brokeback' will win 5 Oscars and 'Crash' will win 3. Remaining Best Picture nominees 'Capote' will win 1 whilst both 'Munich' and 'Good Night, and Good Luck' will be lucky to snag single victories.

The Riots and Wrongs of Modern Ireland

Like the majority of Irish people, I was embarrassed by what happened at the 'Love Ulster' march last Saturday and was ashamed to call myself Irish that day. The protest was hijacked by skangers and political and historical illiterates, whose Christmases all came in one, giving them the perfect opportunity to cause mayhem. International news coverage, as always, decontextualised the dispute and filed the conflagration under the resurrected title of 'Nationalists vs Unionists'.

The riots that ensued told us many things about the Ireland we live in today.

We were all so smug in the build-up to the march. We sat back with self-satisfied grins on our faces that seemed to say 'look how politically mature we are?' and 'See how things have normalised here?' We didn't even consider that elements of Dublin city were planning to use the event to unleash chaos on the streets.

Why? My guess is that we all assumed that the people who did eventually unleash all that chaos were apolitical and totally disengaged from the political process. They would carry on with whatever it is they do and the march would be over before we know it.

I think that claim is true. But this riot, at its heart, had nothing - and everything - to do with politics. In one sense, it was just an excuse to riot, loot and attack members of Ireland’s security forces and media figures. However, a cursory survey of some of the tribal, ‘catch-cry of a clown’ phrases and chants spouted during the clashes exposed the perverted, warped and dangerously misinformed version of history that these people seem to subscribe to. Where those opinions originate from is hard to pinpoint but the first witness I’d call is an education system that seems to have utterly failed to cultivate a rounded, multi-facetted approach to the teaching and learning about our past.

Our history and the very nature of the circumstances in which Ireland became a State have been subject to intense scrutiny and debate lately. There is no clear argument and all sides make interesting points. Our relationship with revolution and the concept of 'blood sacrifice' is at the heart of this debate. Should we be ashamed of 1916 or should we embrace it? Were the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation - whom I would like all those rioters to name for me since they seem to mean so much to them - terrorists or freedom-fighters? Should we reinstate the Easter military parade to commemorate the Rising or does that send out a repugnant and inappropriate message in today's volatile political and cultural climate?

These are difficult questions but they are just the tip of the iceberg for a country that has never come to terms with its origins and never engaged in national debate and self-reflection. If everything seems confused and chaotic and, at times even surreal at, don’t panic, because it's always been that way. Civil War in the North and decades of near-economic bankruptcy dominated and distracted national discourse up until now. This is the first time in our history that we have the space and time with which to deal with the questions of who and what we are as a nation – but it may be too late for that.

The government wants to reclaim an interpretation of 1916 from Sinn Fein-IRA in order to curtail – or perhaps, cash-in on - their political and electoral momentum before next year's (?) general election. But how can you explain that momentum in the first place? This is an organisation who is elected to a democratic parliament that they don't officially recognise of a state (i.e. the Republic) that they don't officially recognise. We know full well of that organisation's ties to crime and criminality, murder, punishment beatings, bank robberies and money laundering. They undoubtedly stoked tensions in the build-up to the parade last Saturday.

And yet, Sinn Fein-IRA will probably top the poll in many constituencies in the next election. Bertie et al are right to be worried - but the rise and/or regeneration of this republican movement is largely the fault of our established political parties. The standard of public representation must be so abysmal that people are willing to give the most precious thing that exists in a democracy - the vote - to the likes of Sinn Fein-IRA rather than to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour or the PDs.

This is a political establishment that has remained purposefully vague about the very legitimacy of the Irish republic, allowing a vacuum to develop that was going to be filled by someone with the braggadocio to come out publicly with some sort of ideology, regardless of how dangerous that might be.

What do I mean by that? For instance, instead of trying to appear like Sinn Fein by claiming back 1916 - the Irish equivalent of the Taoiseach donning a military uniform like George W Bush did to announce the 'end' of the Iraq war three years ago - why doesn't the government hold a parade to commemorate the Republic of Ireland Act? That Act came into effect on 18 April 1949 and the state has been known as the Republic of Ireland since then.

But no. That's something else we have to be ashamed of on top of 1916. It was the Inter-Party government with a Fine Gael Taoiseach that proclaimed the Republic. Fianna Fáil opposed it at the time as they deemed it unnecessary: they argued, disingenuously, that DeValera's 1937 Constitution declared the Republic in all but name and so they saw the 1949 Act as serving no purpose. What they really meant was that (a) we refuse to be upstaged as republicans by Fine Gael and (b) we will not offically endorse a 26 county republic.

Fianna Fáil have been in power for 40 of the 57 years that have elapsed since then and it appears as if they have refused to change their original view of the 1949 Act in the meantime. Otherwise, as the most dominant political party in any Western democracy since WWII, what's stopping them from marking out 18 April as the Republic Day?

Because, like Sinn Fein, they still cling to some half-arsed notion of All-Ireland Unification, a process that appears to be a long-way off if last Saturday is anything to go by. Don't get me wrong; the alternative governments in the interim - the Inter-Party governments of 1948-1951, 1951 - 1957, the Fine Gael-Labour coalitions of 1973-1977 and 1982-1987 and the Rainbow Government 1994-1997 - could have done likewise. All of them are afraid to officially and permanently institutionalise and acclaim the Republic of Ireland Act lest they be cast as bad republicans.

They ARE bad republicans already. We have no Republic Day. In fact, I'd bet that the majority of Irish people - and that includes the members of the cabinet and Dáil Eireann - don't even know the date and year that Ireland was proclaimed a Republic. We have no Constitution Day, no EU Accession Day - all major events in the development of this Republic, wouldn't you think?

No, our political leaders have been happy to treat the Republic of Ireland as, at best, some kind of booby prize and, at worst, an illegitimate state - or to borrow a phrase from a former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, "a temporary little arrangement". If we have no sense of permanency or pride about our very State, not to mention its many historical and political intricacies - is it any wonder that criminal organisations and yobs can swoop in with a perverted sense of Irish-ness and republicanism and unleash chaos?

You might not agree with my drawing together strands as seemingly diverse as the Republic of Ireland Act 1949 and the riots of February 2006. But there is a link. This country, fundamentally, does not know what it is or what we stand for. Maybe it’s a post-colonial thing – another aspect of our history and culture we have to get to grips with – or maybe it’s the result of hysterical and over-zealous political posturing for the last 100 years.

For example, Ireland is a country with a constitutionally inscribed first language – which hardly anyone can speak. There is a small scale, fashionable (i.e. middle-class) movement to resurrect it by way of Gaelscoileanna and glamourous advertising campaigns. But it is not, and has not, been the language of Irish life or popular culture, indeed of the Irish soul, for nearly 150 years. The vast majority of us can’t speak it – something else to feel guilty about. We don’t converse, gossip, argue, sing or dream in the language. We don’t seduce with it, don’t use it in the work place or in our homes. We don’t want to hear it as the means of our filmic and television entertainment. Irish today is more like a hobby or a museum relic – not a constitutional first language.

But, no. The Irish language – the repository of so much negative memories for most of us – was as imposed on this state after Independence as English was in the nineteenth century. The linguistic Gaelic revival failed. But the State has clung to it ever since, resulting in the creation of a kind of schizophrenic identity whereby proudly using the language you are born into (i.e. English) is hypocritically tainted as a form of historical and cultural betrayal and even inferiority.

Just last week, a mini-storm blew up over the fact that the majority of the Irish people can’t sing along to our national anthem – because it is in Irish. Another thing to feel guilty about folks. So not only can we not converse in the language that we were told is the only true expression of the Irish soul, we can’t join in the public celebration of national pride – all because of an unrealistic, failed language policy.

We are all over the place, historically and culturally. As stated earlier, this is really the first time in history where war or poverty is not the main preoccupations of the national consciousness. But those deep traumas from our past have left indelible marks. We are war-weary, complacent about the North, sick of it, in all honesty.

Money has also been a double-edged sword. This is an old argument: all the Celtic Tiger clichés are back to haunt us but they merit repeating. Yes, we are all – theoretically – better off than ever before. Yes, we’ve had a great run of it over the past 12 years. We had just been let out of the strict, puritanical boarding school of the 1980s and let loose in the fin-de siecle 1990s university, where endless partying and consumerism were the most popular courses on offer.

And we were bought off. We have become complacent. The next election will – is - being fought on economic issues. It’s all that really concerns us now. It’s of no matter that our very being as a state, as a nation, as a culture is in dire need of examination.

Of course, by ‘we’ and ‘us’, I mean middle-Ireland – because last Saturday also showed us once and for all that there is a class-war in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. As the rising tide lifted so many boats, a lot of passengers fell overboard and have not been able to get back on board since. It has created gross divisions and inequalities – financially, socially, and educationally – that are just storing up problems for the future. We know all this already: well the future is here folks.

Those last three paragraphs are SO 2001. We live in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland now – when the rush is calming, when the party is creeping towards dawn and that hangover is on the way. Now is the time for the really tough decisions, when we need real ideas and vision, qualities that - and I think you’ll agree with me here - are missing in abundance in our political establishment today.

What happened last Saturday served as a visible signpost pointing to far deeper problems within the Irish nation. The riots struck at the heart of far-reaching failings in our cultural, intellectual and social experiment of the last 80 years. Martin Luther King said that ‘a riot is the language of the unheard’. What were these rioters trying to tell us by their loaded words, their actions, their very existence in the first place?

If all the disparate forces discussed above that fed into last Saturday’s violence were unheard before, we’ve certainly heard them now.

We’ve heard – but is anybody really listening?

Drudge Non-Report

An hour ago, I tried to access a story twice from the website drudgereport.com - a famously right-leaning news portal (it broke the Lewinsky scandal in 1998).

The story was about how George W. Bush's approval ratings have dropped to 34% and Cheney's to 18%. This was the headline article and I clicked into into the link, which was to a report on the CBS News website.

As soon as I got to it, a malfunction occured and I had to close the website.

I went straight back to drudge and suddenly the headline story had changed to 'Bush praises the rise of alternative press [i.e. like Drudge] over alternative media'.

The story about the 34% approval has vanished. It hasn't even been moved lower down the page and with a smaller headline. It's just gone.

I clicked into the seperate CBS news link from Drudge, found the approval rating story and the same thing happened: an explorer error occured and I had to close down the page.

W. is already monitoring phonecalls and emails. Are web links to critical news reports next?

Dublin Riots, Saturday 25th February 2006