Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Next Batman villain?
It's going to be hard to top Heath Ledger's by-now iconic performance in The Dark Knight, but Empire has an interesting feature on who should be the villain - and who should play them - in the next Batman movie. Emily Blunt for Catwoman I say!
Mad out of it
Series 2 of Mad Men started in the US last night. Season 1 is on DVD now (buy it and thank me later). EW have a catch-up guide here.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
The world's brainiest Page 3 Model...
From yesterday's IndependentIt's been a bumpy couple of weeks for Ireland's first Page 3 model Claire Tully. After signing up for RTE's forthcoming celebrity reality show Failte Towers, the 24-year-old Dubliner discovered that not one, not two, but three breast cancer charities were refusing to accept any money she raised on the show. Continue here.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Mmm, land of chocolate
Feature on this weekend's Chocolate Festival in Temple Bar from today's Examiner.
Chocolate, as the saying goes, is not a matter of life and death – it’s more important than that. This is certainly the philosophy behind the sweetest event of summer 2008: the first ever Chocolate Festival which takes place in Temple Bar in Dublin this weekend.
The festival will bring together chocolate artisans from all over Ireland for three lip-smacking days of sampling and tasting, as well as talks, exhibitions, workshops and movies all revolving around the world’s most popular confectionary.
It should certainly go down well in this country where research shows we are officially a nation of chocoholics. Ireland has the highest per capita consumption of chocolate in the world (just ahead of the Swiss), munching our way through 11.2kg each of the stuff every year. What’s more, our chocolate market is the 12th biggest in Europe, estimated at e544m, and we remain the biggest export market for the UK.
It should come as little surprise therefore that attitudes here towards chocolate have become more sophisticated in recent years. While chocolate produced by commercial giants like Cadbury and Nestle evidently remains popular, there has been a growing interest in speciality chocolate, particularly focusing on the origins, and quality, of the product’s cocoa beans, and the conditions in which it is made.
According to market analysts ABM Amro, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk was the strongest seller in the Irish market (40 per cent) for the years 2006-2007, followed by Galaxy (12 per cent of market share) and Bournville (10 per cent).
However, the big news from that research was the growth in sales at the premium end of the chocolate market, notably the organic Fairtrade producers Green and Black’s, which grew by double digits in the year.
This development itself is proof of the interest in high-quality chocolate. Micah Carr-Hill, head taster with Green and Black’s, puts the company’s surge in sales down to the growing interest in organic food and that its product contains more cocoa than its milk chocolate rivals (double the amount in some cases).
“I also think the company really took off because we use a fine flavour variety of bean called Trinitario, which has a more distinctive flavour than the Forastero type used by the majority of the world’s chocolate producers,” Carr-Hill says.
“I’m in charge of product development, but I worked in the wine industry beforehand, so I approach the job from a point of view of general taste, not just chocolate.”
The Chocolate Festival’s organiser, Eimear Chaomhanach of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, says one of the purposes of this weekend’s event is to encourage a wider appreciation of chocolate and how it is consumed.
“There’s so much out there in this field,” she explains. “We had been doing initial preparation on a festival like this for a few years, and we just had the capacity this year to do it.
“The idea behind it really just came from feedback from chocolate enthusiasts nationwide: people who wanted to celebrate high quality, handmade chocolate where the cocoa content is high up the scale. The response has been phenomenal: mention chocolate to anyone – adult, child or connoisseur – and their face just lights up.”
One of the artisan producers taking part in the festival is the Skellig Chocolate and Cocoa Bean Company, which is based in Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry. They specialise in handmade confectionary, and one of their trademarks is their adventurous approach to flavours and recipes: recent concoctions have been infused with sea salt, lime and black pepper, gin and tonic and even a Christmas chocolate bar with sprinklings of pine needles and festive spices.
“Chocolate is a fantastic but affordable luxury, and high end chocolate is going the same way as wine, coffee or olive oil,” explains Skellig’s Emily Sandford. “People are travelling more and sampling different cuisines so their understanding of food has improved.
“They are beginning to understand the various flavours of chocolate and the ways it can be used in different combinations and styles.”
The festival will also look at one of the more surprising developments to emerge in the chocolate industry in recent years: the supposed health benefits from indulging your sweet tooth. For centuries cocoa and its derivatives had been hailed as some kind of natural remedy for ailments such as liver disease and kidney disorders.
Of course, in recent decades, chocolate has gotten a bad rap from health officials, as the majority of chocolate consumed is heavily processed, and so is problematic in terms of saturated fat, cholesterol and sugar. However, less-processed darker chocolate with a high cocoa quotient has been shown to be high in flavonoids, an antioxidant which slow down cell damage.
Chocolate artisan Natasha Czoper is a self-confessed “raw foodie” who will deliver a lecture during the festival entitled ‘The Chocolate Revolution’ in which she will extol the virtues of the cacao plant and its positive effects on the body.
Czoper’s company, Natasha’s Living Foods, makes its products from raw cacao beans sourced from the Andes that are cold pressed, rather than roasted, and so retain most of their nutritional worth. Cacao contains some 300 compounds including protein, fibre, iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium, which helps to build strong bones and is known as a muscle relaxant. And it doesn’t end there.
“Cacao also contains phenylethylamine (PEA) which is a ‘bliss’ chemical,” Czoper explains. “This helps to release serotonin in the brain, which creates the same feeling you have when you’re excited or in love. It also helps to keep you focused and alert.
“The way cacao helps stimulate neurotransmitters from the brain is what makes chocolate so powerful and addictive. These chemicals help to orchestrate our moods and energy levels, and they create a compulsion to eat it.”
Czoper also stresses that the mere act of eating high quality chocolate can be just as powerful. “Chocolate is about enjoyment and sharing something beautiful, even if it’s just with yourself,” she says.
“You’ll find that within five minutes of people eating this kind of chocolate that they’re giggling or flirting because they’re starting to relax. Chocolate gives the body pleasure, as well as it being a pleasurable thing to eat.
“People love their sweets in Ireland, but we have such an issue around guilt. The thinking goes that anything that’s really tasty obviously has to be bad. I want to change that attitude and show people that things that are luxurious and tasty can also be healthy and pleasurable.”
Heaven is a halfpipe
My feature on skater culture and this weekend's Kings of Concrete festival in today's Irish Examiner.Mention skateboarding to the average Irish person and the first image that will probably come to mind is of Michael J. Fox out-manoeuvring a group of bullies with his board in the time-travelling classic Back to the Future.
Marty McFly’s iconic shenanigans blazed onto the silver screen at the height of the skater resurgence of the 1980s, but until very recently in Ireland, skateboarding itself seemed like a fantastical, futuristic novelty, such was the dearth of facilities and official support for the pastime.
Not anymore, however. This weekend, Dublin’s Wood Quay will leap to life in a frantic flurry of ollies, slaloms, pivots and wheelies, as Ireland’s top skaters congregate for the third annual Kings of Concrete festival.
The family-friendly bash will feature ramp competitions for the country’s skater brethren, as well as celebrating other urban sports like parkour (free-running), blading and BMX-ing, with some music, break-dancing, and street art thrown in for good measure.
This year’s event has broadened in scope, extending over two days as opposed to just one last year, a move that is reflective of the rapidly expanding skater scene here in Ireland. More importantly, argues organiser Dave Smith, the Kings of Concrete festival is the perfect vessel to demonstrate the positive aspects of the skater culture.
“Skateboarding has traditionally been perceived in a negative way – alienated, rebellious youth and all that - when it’s the opposite in reality,” explains Smith, who collaborated on the event with Geoff Fitzpatrick, his partner in their multimedia company Micromedia.
“For instance, if you go to a skate park, you’ll see the older kids teaching the younger ones tricks, and when they master it they all start banging their boards in support. That spirit and ethos comes out in the festival. It’s always extremely vibrant and eclectic, and generates a lot of good will in the community.”
Smith himself has been a keen skater since his teens, despite the woeful lack of resources available in the country. “I’m from west Cork, but I had to travel to Dublin just to buy a board,” Smith recalls. “There was nowhere to practice, and no real outlet for kids who were into more alternative pastimes than hurling or soccer.”
One man who understands only too well the struggle to bring skateboarding to the masses is Clive Rowen, a skating fanatic who opened Ireland’s first skate shop in Dublin’s Hill Street in the early 1980s (the store, Skate City, is now based in Temple Bar).
Rowen started selling boards here in Ireland after making contact with a wholesaler at the European Championships in Lowestoft, England in 1981 – and he spent the next two decades pushing for facilities to help enthusiastic young skaters to master their skills.
“In the early days, we would just roll around on the street, but then I built a mini-ramp in my backyard,” Rowen explains. “The shop on Hill Street was on a quiet road, so I built a series of ramps to put out on the public road every morning in order to hold jams. The guards did give us a bit of hassle over them, understandably, but as soon as the cops were gone, the ramps would come back out again.”
For decades, the major issue holding up the development of proper skate parks was insurance. Indeed, ever-increasing liability costs are held up as one of the main reasons why skateboarding went underground nearly everywhere after the peek of its popularity in the 60s and early 70s.
Here, skater groups spent years lobbying for resources to no avail. However, in 2002, Waterford City Council gave the go-ahead for a skate park, having convinced the Irish Public Bodies Ltd to provide liability cover.
This opened the door for other councils to get similar cover, and in November 2005, the then Environment Minister, Dick Roche, announced some e2 million in funding for the construction of 21 skate parks around the country (with planning input from Irish and American skater experts). The most recent park at Steamboat Quay in Limerick opened just last weekend.
It is initiatives such as these that have brought skateboarding more and more into the mainstream here and abroad in recent years. For example, last month, it was announced that skateboarding will be an Olympic sport in time for the 2012 Games in London. Here in Ireland, the burgeoning confidence of skater culture was exemplified by the launch of the country’s first skateboarding magazine, Wizard, earlier this summer.
Now that there’s greater support from officialdom, the focus has switched to how best to nurture Ireland’s young talent. “It’s like the whole 50m swimming pool issue here: unless you have the facilities you’re not going to be able to produce people who know what they’re doing,” Clive Rowen says.
“Younger kids are coming to these parks to give skateboarding a go simply because the parks are there. When a kid starts a sport at an early age they have no fear and they just throw themselves into it. That’s how we have so many rising skater stars today.”
One such rising star is Gav Coughlan (19) from Walkinstown in Dublin. The Trinity engineering student was inspired to take up the pastime at aged 12 after buying a board while on holiday in America, and crammed in as much practice as he could in makeshift skate venues.
“Generally I practiced beside the school in my area,” Coughlan says. “There were about 5 or 6 of us so we just kept finding new places in the city to skate, like car parks, but you’d be kicked out of them pretty quickly. Bushy skate park is just around the corner from my house now so I’m lucky.”
Coughlan’s dedication is paying off: he has already come to the attention of several influential sponsors in the US.“I have some video footage of my skating, so one of the magazines sent it to the team manager at an American skateboarding firm named Zero, and now they provide me with boards, wheels, and clothes,” he explains.
“I then won a competition in Belfast organised by a shoe company called Emerica, who gave me 12 pairs of shoes to last through the year. I just got talking to their rep, showed him some footage, and he put me on their team.”
The young skater says he would love to go professional, but accepts that it could be a tough road ahead. “I’d love to be able to make a living from it,” he states. “At this point, it’s about getting coverage, making better footage of your skating to show to the right people, and trying to take part in jams in America as much as possible.
“I’m taking part in Kings of Concrete, then going on the America Tour in England on August 16, but then it’s back to college. Hopefully I’ll get a back-up career out of that if I can last it! Either way, I’ll always keep skating.”
Diep Impact
Restaurant review of Diep-Le Shaker in Day and Night in today's Independent.
The end is nigh. This is the Last Hurrah. The economy is in the toilet; consumer confidence is at an all time low; we're pariahs in the EU following the Liz Bonnin treaty debacle; and embarrassing new licensing laws are about to annihilate any lingering remnants of a party atmosphere in this country.
Continue here.
The end is nigh. This is the Last Hurrah. The economy is in the toilet; consumer confidence is at an all time low; we're pariahs in the EU following the Liz Bonnin treaty debacle; and embarrassing new licensing laws are about to annihilate any lingering remnants of a party atmosphere in this country.
Continue here.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny tribute
From today's Independent.This month is a deeply significant one in the American calendar. After all, the Fourth of July celebrates the birth of the nation, marking the moment of the country's glorious independence from the British crown.
However, you might not be aware that another culturally important American event is honoured in July -- it's National Bikini Month. Continue here.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Irisss: "Homosexuality is worse than child abuse"
Iris the Virus strikes again. Seriously, what can be done with this woman?
Golden Knight?
The influential AwardsDaily website is speculating on the Oscar chances of Heath Ledger and The Dark Knight, and it argues that TDK could seriously end up picking up nods for 9, possibly 10 Oscars next year. Read here.
Joe's Reasons to be Cheerful
Joseph O'Connor's 'Reasons to be Cheerful' from last week's Drivetime on RTE and reprinted in yesterday's Tribune. Perfect reading on a recession-era Monday...
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
(After Ian Dury)
Lately we're worried. We need advice.
We were Boomtown rats. Now we're poor church mice.
Fretful, anxious, broke and fearful
But still –
there's reasons to be cheerful...
Continue here.
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
(After Ian Dury)
Lately we're worried. We need advice.
We were Boomtown rats. Now we're poor church mice.
Fretful, anxious, broke and fearful
But still –
there's reasons to be cheerful...
Continue here.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Knight Fever
The Dark Knight is already one of the biggest box office hits of all time - after just its first weekend in the US.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Beauty Queen
From today's Independent..
For anyone who doubted that a woman can still be sexy after 60, the shots of actress Helen Mirren flaunting her curvaceous body in a bikini this last week should more than set the record straight.Continue here.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Breaking up is never easy I know...
Feature in today's D'IndoWith lurid revelations involving internet porn addiction and affairs with teenage girls, supermodel Christie Brinkley's divorce from ex-husband Peter Cook has proved yet again that nobody can do messy break-ups and custody battles like celebrities. Continue here.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The long and the short of it
My piece from today's Examiner (no pictures alas - go buy the paper to see!)
It’s not every day that I can solicit wolf-whistles, literally cause jaws to drop, and nearly stop traffic just by walking down the street. But then, it’s not every day – mercifully – that I find myself strutting about Dublin city centre wearing a stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb shorts-suit ensemble.
What inspired this act of sartorial daring/social hari-kari? Apparently, notions of what is acceptable as office wear are more fluid than ever before. A survey from the UK last month found that just 24 per cent of office workers are still required to wear a suit to work, compared with 37 per cent four years ago.
GQ magazine then went one further in their last edition when they trumpeted the cause of the shorts-suit look amongst men in London. “Shorts are becoming a natural summer staple for those who dress well in the city,” the magazine stated, hailing the sawn-off shorts-suit as “a bold fashion statement that’s totally tied to 2008”.
The leading men’s clothing chain, Topman, was soon reporting that its jacket-and-shorts combos were rapidly selling out, which prompted the question: if the shorts-suit trend is gaining traction in London, will it take off here in Ireland too? There was one sure-fire way to find out.
Last Wednesday morning, I put the look to the test, by decking myself out in a light grey fitted suit jacket, lilac shirt, white tie, grey knee-length shorts, black socks, and navy loafers courtesy of the flagship Topman store on Grafton Street.
My personal opinion of myself was that I looked like an over-grown schoolboy, or someone akin to Tom Hanks’ character in Big: a dorky, self-conscious teenager who suddenly woke up in the body of an even dorkier, more self-conscious adult.
I start my bare-kneed journey in my local area of Smithfield, right in the heart of the north inner city. The weather is not the best – of course - which makes me look even odder. Out on the main street, the very first reactions I get are from a man who does a double take, and a young woman walking her dog, who openly laughs. I approach her, and she seems relieved when I tell her my look is just for work, and not my personal style.
“I was just thinking, ‘What has he got on him?’” she says in between chuckles. I pass the Luas stop, and a bunch of Spanish students, who are not as reserved as the others waiting there, openly gawk at my legs, though I think their fascination had more to do with the paleness of my hairy pins rather than the shorts themselves.
I start making my way down the north quays. At one point a taxi passes me, and I can see the driver staring with his mouth open. He slows down slightly as he gapes, prompting a disgruntled blare of the car horn from the vehicle behind him. Fearing I may cause an accident, I move on.
While waiting at a crossing guard, a wolf whistle draws my attention to a woman leaning out of the window of a passing van, who shouts, ‘Looking sexy love!” I mentally decide to strip the comment of its sarcasm and take her at her word, for something tells me I’m going to need all the self-esteem boosts I can get.
As I make my way over towards Temple Bar, I note that the majority of women who pass me seem amused (or perhaps it’s bemused?), while men, in general, appear truly disgusted, even afraid. One man gives me such a dirty look that I momentarily fear for my life.
More than once, people talking on their mobiles stop mid-sentence as I pass them, only to then hear them tell the person on the other line, ‘Sorry I completely lost my train of thought there,” or ‘You’ll never believe what I just saw some guy wearing’.
On Dame Street, I happen upon a group of young kids on an outing, the most brutal of audiences because they are so honest. “The state of your man,” one calls out to the other. Touche, my boy. Touché.
Then, as a timely confidence-building remedy to that encounter, I get my first cheer and purring sound from a builder, who also gives me the thumbs-up as I make my way past College Green. A little bit later on Grafton Street, an elderly lady comes up to me while I’m getting my picture taken and says: “You look gorgeous – shame about the legs.”
Onto my final destination, Stephen’s Green, where I spot a group of young men and women in suits having a cigarette break outside an insurance firm. Some of their jaws drop as I approach them. One literally turns and runs back inside, while another girl calls a colleague inside on her mobile, imploring her to come out and see this. Those who remained gracefully give their opinions on my look.
Man 1: “I wouldn’t be caught dead in that, mate.”
Man 2: “No offence, you look ridiculous.”
Man 3: “I worked in London and Stockholm for years, and you would definitely see guys mixing casual and formal wear like that. But not here.”
Man 4: “Maybe lads would wear them if it was really hot or we had good weather all the time. But no way would I wear it.”
I think the verdict is pretty clear. We might like to think we’re as fashionable, cutting edge, savvy, and cool as Londoners or New Yorkers, but if this small experiment is anything to go by, we still have some distance to travel in terms of our acceptance of non-traditional fashion looks for men.
The experts are in agreement with that view. “The mix just won’t fly in an Irish business context,” says stylist Suzie Coen. “It doesn’t fall into any remit. Even on casual Fridays most people resort to the conservative chino and shirt look.
“I can’t see it being worn on business, or in the pub, or on the Nightlink bus home. From a stylistic point of view we’re just not ready for it.”
But what is it exactly about the look that doesn’t work? “I think it’s a leg thing – we don’t have the tan – and it’s hard to know what to do with the footwear,” Coen replies.
“I also feel the majority of men don’t want to stand out. They want nice clothes, but they don’t want to be on trend. I’d imagine very young guys, or musicians aged 20-25, would most likely try this look.”
Declan Leavy, men’s editor with Social and Personal magazine, offers an even harsher assessment of the suit shorts trend. “Personally I think it looks awful,” he states. “I was in London myself last week and I saw a guy walking into Harrods wearing a really smart suit jacket and a matching pair of shorts. He looked ridiculous, and got plenty of odd glances from me and other shoppers.
“From an Irish point of view, I don’t think society needs to be inflicted with our dodgy male legs in weird suit-shorts. They would not do Irish guys any justice. The David Beckhams of this world, who can carry off almost any fashion trend, would probably look effortlessly chic in suit shorts, but those specimens are few and far between here!”
It’s not every day that I can solicit wolf-whistles, literally cause jaws to drop, and nearly stop traffic just by walking down the street. But then, it’s not every day – mercifully – that I find myself strutting about Dublin city centre wearing a stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb shorts-suit ensemble.
What inspired this act of sartorial daring/social hari-kari? Apparently, notions of what is acceptable as office wear are more fluid than ever before. A survey from the UK last month found that just 24 per cent of office workers are still required to wear a suit to work, compared with 37 per cent four years ago.
GQ magazine then went one further in their last edition when they trumpeted the cause of the shorts-suit look amongst men in London. “Shorts are becoming a natural summer staple for those who dress well in the city,” the magazine stated, hailing the sawn-off shorts-suit as “a bold fashion statement that’s totally tied to 2008”.
The leading men’s clothing chain, Topman, was soon reporting that its jacket-and-shorts combos were rapidly selling out, which prompted the question: if the shorts-suit trend is gaining traction in London, will it take off here in Ireland too? There was one sure-fire way to find out.
Last Wednesday morning, I put the look to the test, by decking myself out in a light grey fitted suit jacket, lilac shirt, white tie, grey knee-length shorts, black socks, and navy loafers courtesy of the flagship Topman store on Grafton Street.
My personal opinion of myself was that I looked like an over-grown schoolboy, or someone akin to Tom Hanks’ character in Big: a dorky, self-conscious teenager who suddenly woke up in the body of an even dorkier, more self-conscious adult.
I start my bare-kneed journey in my local area of Smithfield, right in the heart of the north inner city. The weather is not the best – of course - which makes me look even odder. Out on the main street, the very first reactions I get are from a man who does a double take, and a young woman walking her dog, who openly laughs. I approach her, and she seems relieved when I tell her my look is just for work, and not my personal style.
“I was just thinking, ‘What has he got on him?’” she says in between chuckles. I pass the Luas stop, and a bunch of Spanish students, who are not as reserved as the others waiting there, openly gawk at my legs, though I think their fascination had more to do with the paleness of my hairy pins rather than the shorts themselves.
I start making my way down the north quays. At one point a taxi passes me, and I can see the driver staring with his mouth open. He slows down slightly as he gapes, prompting a disgruntled blare of the car horn from the vehicle behind him. Fearing I may cause an accident, I move on.
While waiting at a crossing guard, a wolf whistle draws my attention to a woman leaning out of the window of a passing van, who shouts, ‘Looking sexy love!” I mentally decide to strip the comment of its sarcasm and take her at her word, for something tells me I’m going to need all the self-esteem boosts I can get.
As I make my way over towards Temple Bar, I note that the majority of women who pass me seem amused (or perhaps it’s bemused?), while men, in general, appear truly disgusted, even afraid. One man gives me such a dirty look that I momentarily fear for my life.
More than once, people talking on their mobiles stop mid-sentence as I pass them, only to then hear them tell the person on the other line, ‘Sorry I completely lost my train of thought there,” or ‘You’ll never believe what I just saw some guy wearing’.
On Dame Street, I happen upon a group of young kids on an outing, the most brutal of audiences because they are so honest. “The state of your man,” one calls out to the other. Touche, my boy. Touché.
Then, as a timely confidence-building remedy to that encounter, I get my first cheer and purring sound from a builder, who also gives me the thumbs-up as I make my way past College Green. A little bit later on Grafton Street, an elderly lady comes up to me while I’m getting my picture taken and says: “You look gorgeous – shame about the legs.”
Onto my final destination, Stephen’s Green, where I spot a group of young men and women in suits having a cigarette break outside an insurance firm. Some of their jaws drop as I approach them. One literally turns and runs back inside, while another girl calls a colleague inside on her mobile, imploring her to come out and see this. Those who remained gracefully give their opinions on my look.
Man 1: “I wouldn’t be caught dead in that, mate.”
Man 2: “No offence, you look ridiculous.”
Man 3: “I worked in London and Stockholm for years, and you would definitely see guys mixing casual and formal wear like that. But not here.”
Man 4: “Maybe lads would wear them if it was really hot or we had good weather all the time. But no way would I wear it.”
I think the verdict is pretty clear. We might like to think we’re as fashionable, cutting edge, savvy, and cool as Londoners or New Yorkers, but if this small experiment is anything to go by, we still have some distance to travel in terms of our acceptance of non-traditional fashion looks for men.
The experts are in agreement with that view. “The mix just won’t fly in an Irish business context,” says stylist Suzie Coen. “It doesn’t fall into any remit. Even on casual Fridays most people resort to the conservative chino and shirt look.
“I can’t see it being worn on business, or in the pub, or on the Nightlink bus home. From a stylistic point of view we’re just not ready for it.”
But what is it exactly about the look that doesn’t work? “I think it’s a leg thing – we don’t have the tan – and it’s hard to know what to do with the footwear,” Coen replies.
“I also feel the majority of men don’t want to stand out. They want nice clothes, but they don’t want to be on trend. I’d imagine very young guys, or musicians aged 20-25, would most likely try this look.”
Declan Leavy, men’s editor with Social and Personal magazine, offers an even harsher assessment of the suit shorts trend. “Personally I think it looks awful,” he states. “I was in London myself last week and I saw a guy walking into Harrods wearing a really smart suit jacket and a matching pair of shorts. He looked ridiculous, and got plenty of odd glances from me and other shoppers.
“From an Irish point of view, I don’t think society needs to be inflicted with our dodgy male legs in weird suit-shorts. They would not do Irish guys any justice. The David Beckhams of this world, who can carry off almost any fashion trend, would probably look effortlessly chic in suit shorts, but those specimens are few and far between here!”
Are you taking the mic?
Feature from today's Independent...The Reverend Jesse Jackson last week painfully learned one of the most crucial lessons about life in the public eye: always beware of the live microphone. Continue here.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
"You know who gets upset about cartoons...?"
Jon Stewart makes a good point about the Obama/New Yorker controversy. Watch here (and wait until the end)
Share the Emmy love...
This year's Emmy nominations are announced tomorrow so Salon has a feature on last minute suggestions to make the cut...read here.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
When bad satire happens to good people
"On the cover of the July 21, 2008, issue of the The New Yorker, in ‘The Politics of Fear,’ artist Barry Blitt satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign." Continue reading here.
Long Day's Journey into Knight
Tuesday morning. I cannot wait
Early reviews are in to add to the sense of anticipation. Follow the links from here.
Bad Abbotts
Anyone unfamiliar with the truly astounding life story of Paul Abbott, creator and writer of the TV dramas Shameless and State of Play, should read this interview from yesterday's Guardian.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Megabites with computer chips
From today's Independent
My relationship with cooking is kind of like my relationship with religion: that is, it's non-existent except in times of absolute, do-or-die necessity. Continue here.
My relationship with cooking is kind of like my relationship with religion: that is, it's non-existent except in times of absolute, do-or-die necessity. Continue here.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Come on Eileen!
Feature from today's Irish Examiner
Two best friends head to a music festival, camp out for the weekend, and get up to all sorts of mad adventures. That will be the blueprint for many a festival-goer at Oxegen this weekend, but what happens when said best friends are two grandmothers looking to recapture some of that old-time rock and roll?
Kerry women Eileen McGillycuddy (70) and Eileen Murphy (65) will give TV viewers the answer to that question tomorrow night on the RTE 1 series One Thing To Do Before You Die.
The popular series is all about older people stepping outside their comfort zone to experience things that they’ve always wanted to do. Last summer, the two Eileens, who hail from Kilorglin, fulfilled a lifelong ambition to rock out when they travelled to the Electric Picnic music festival in Stradbally, Co Meath – and the TV cameras were there to capture all of their hijinks.
Eileen McGillycuddy explains that the adventure started when the other Eileen’s daughter entered her mum’s name into a competition for tickets to the festival on The Ray Foley Show on Today FM.
“Ray Foley then called us both one day and asked us if we would camp at Electric Picnic for the three nights and take in all the excitement,” says the mother of 10, grandmother of 27, and great-grandmother of one.
“We said we’d give it a go. It was definitely a first for me. I was never even at a rock concert. I’m more a fan of Irish dancing. I have done the hornpipe since I was 3 or 4 year of age, and I also do the Kerry Set. There wasn’t an awful lot of that at Electric Picnic!”
The two intrepid grannies, who have known each other for 18 years, dove into the challenge and quickly became a huge hit amongst their fellow campers on the festival site.
“We had lovely neighbours around us who put up the tent for us and advised us on what to do,” Eileen recalls. “One young lad offered to make us breakfast on our first morning there, so we got tea and burnt toast delivered to us!
“I have been camping with my family for many years so it was nothing new to me. But the cold at night was the worst thing this time. I’d normally bring a big duvet camping, but I just had a sleeping bag which wasn’t enough really.
“The mud wasn’t that bad either. I had a big pair of heavy boots on me, and there were steel paths all over the site so you could avoid a lot of it.”
Eileen admits they were both a bit nervous about the reception they would receive from the youngsters at the festival, but they found that their rocking grannies reputations had preceded them.
“No matter where we went we were recognised,” Eileen laughs. “The young people made it for us. They kept coming up to kiss us and give us hugs. One girl told me, ‘I wish my mother was like you’. They never made us outcasts or anything like that. We were just one of them.”
Having being made feel right at home, the two Eileens could concentrate on having fun. “We did reflexology and went up on the big wheel, and I even attended a Mock Wedding,” Eileen reveals.
“There was a big inflatable church, and this fellow over from England was getting married. He asked me to partake so I was a bridesmaid and was dressed up for it and everything.”
Eileen bursts out laughing when I ask if she or her pal had any festival romance themselves. “We’re not interested in getting a partner again, no way!” she replies. “But Eileen’s niece Elaine was with us as our chaperone so we tried to find someone for her. I think she had fun.”
So what was the highlight of the festival for Eileen – musical or otherwise? “The most enjoyable band was the Beastie Boys,” she laughs. “Their music was a lot of fun and again the young people made it for us.
“Meeting Diarmaid Gavin was something else. The bandstand he had made was oval shaped, with all sorts of colours over it, and it was magnificent.
“The evening time was beautiful too, just sitting outside, with all the music going on around us, eating burgers, and drinking a glass or two of beer. We just met so many lovely people and we were treated like queens. We would love to do it all again!”
Since their festival experience last year, the two ladies’ appetite for adventure hasn’t waned in the slightest. “Both of us are used to going away and travelling so it wasn’t a bother to us,” Eileen explains.
“We go every place we get a chance. We were in Tunisia a little time ago, and I’m just back from London. I’m also going to America in September.
“My nephew is getting married in Staten Island and I have two brothers and two sisters over there too so I have loads of family to visit.
“Eileen and I love travelling – this is our time. We’re going to enjoy the years we have.”
So having accomplished one of her dreams, is there anything else Eileen would like to do before she dies? “I’d love to visit the Valley of the Kings in Egypt,” she answers. “I’ve always wanted to do that.
“Both of us would be open to most things within reason. Eileen has gone gliding before, though I couldn’t do it. But we’d be up for anything if it was put to us!”
For now, the two pals can just sit back and bask in their fame. “Eileen was in Wexford at a wedding last weekend, and when she walked into the church, everyone clapped,” Eileen laughs.
“They all recognised her. I’m a bit wary about seeing the show tomorrow night because I’ve forgotten a lot of what happened. But I think we behaved ourselves!”
*One Thing To Do Before You Die, RTE 1, tomorrow, 7pm
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Monday, July 07, 2008
Meryl on Jonathan Ross
Mad about the boys
USA Today has a preview of season 2 of the brilliant 60s-set drama series Mad Men, which starts in the US on July 27. I've just finished season 1 on DVD and it really is astoundingly good stuff: stylish, knowing and subtle, with some magnificent ensemble acting. And the period detail is out of this world.Read a review od season 1 from the Washington Post here.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Super Trouper
My feature-profile on Meryl Streep in today's Irish Examiner.
Audiences have seen her play everything from a Holocaust survivor to a10-year-old girl on The Simpsons. Now screen legend Meryl Streep can add 'Dancing Queen' to her astonishingly varied repertoire thanks to her new role in the movie adaptation of the monster hit ABBA musical Mamma Mia!
The 59-year-old star might be best known for her fiercely dramatic performances, and ability to master any accent a part demands of her, but Mamma Mia! gives Streep the opportunity to showcase her equally impressive song and dance skills, as well as her shrewd comic timing.
In the movie, which opens here on Thursday (July 10), Streep plays Donna Sheridan, a former wild child living on a Greek island, and now the single mother of Sophie (Mean Girls star Amanda Seyfried), a bride-to-be who starts asking awkward questions about her absent father.
Things then get more complicated when Sophie tries to crack the mystery of her paternity by inviting three of her mother's former lovers – played by Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Irish hunk Pierce Brosnan – to the wedding. The result is a lively and hugely entertaining movie, one that Streep became involved with almost a decade ago – albeit inadvertently.
"I took my daughter Louisa to see the show in 2000, as a birthday treat," the two-time Oscar winner explains. "Of course, I was up in the aisle, dancing and screaming and yelling. It was an infusion of joy. I just fell in love with it.
"I wrote a fan letter to the cast, and the producers remembered this when they began casting the movie. So they called and said, 'You probably won't be interested but ...' and I said, 'Are you crazy? I would love to do it'. That fan letter got me the job."
Fans of the stage show – and there are some 30 million of them globally according to ticket sales – will be eager to see, and hear, how well the movie's A-list cast carry the tunes originally made famous by Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid in the 1970s.
However, the artist formerly known as Mary Louise Streep is no stranger to warbling on screen, having flexed her vocal cords in Postcards from the Edge and A Prairie Home Companion, as well as contributing to the soundtrack of her 1983 movie Silkwood.
"I love singing and I had sung before, so I was more afraid of the physicality of the role because there was a lot of dancing involved," reveals New Jersey-native Streep, who belts out nine numbers in the movie, amongst them 'Money, Money, Money', 'The Winner Takes It All', and the rousing title track.
Mamma Mia! is widely predicted to top box office charts all over the world next week, marking another major upward swing in Streep's career renaissance over the past decade. Having made her movie debut in the 1977 drama Julia, the icy-blonde, porcelain-skinned Streep quickly went on to win her first Academy Award for the divorce weepie Kramer vs Kramer (1979).
Between 1980 and 1990, 'La Streep' established, and solidified, her reputation as the world's greatest living actress, winning a second Academy Award for the wrenching Sophie's Choice, and picking up a further six of her record-setting 14 career Oscar nominations for classics such as
The French Lieutenant's Woman, Out of Africa and A Cry in the Dark.
But, by the star's own admission, her career stalled in the early-to-mid 1990s, having made some poorly-received moves into comedy in the likes of She-Devil and Death Becomes Her (though she shined as a voiceover artist in The Simpsons, playing Bart's first girlfriend Jessica Lovejoy).
Between 1995 and 1999, she plied her trade in middle-of-the-road fare with appalling titles like One True Thing and Music of the Heart, and tackled an Irish brogue (with mixed results) in the movie adaptation of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa (1998).
Streep then pulled off a whopper of a comeback in 2002 with two wildly different movies: Spike Jones' bizarre Adaptation, and the weighty literary drama The Hours (opposite Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore), which, for my money, is Streep's finest screen performance.
However, the charismatic star scored the biggest hit of her three-decade-long career two years ago when she played the monstrous fashion magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada, a spiky office comedy that grossed a massive $300 million worldwide.
Suddenly, Streep was not only back at the top of her game – she was bankable. Today, she is arguably the only actress over the age of 50 whom movie studios will trust to deliver a box office hit. So how does she stay so regularly employed in such an ageist industry?
"There are two female studio bosses [Sherry Lansing and Amy Pascal] that have kept me working and refused to cast some fabulous looking 32-year-old in the parts I've played," Streep states.
"People don't like older people on screen. It's understandable, because movies are a fantasy. Someone once said that male studio heads don't want to cast films with the image of their first wife in the role. They like the idea of the new one."
With her formidable reputation and mantelpiece-straining stack of awards (which also includes 6 Golden Globes, 2 Emmys and a Best Actress gong from Cannes), one would imagine Streep to be the most self-assured actress on the planet. Nothing could be further from the truth, she claims.
"I have doubts all the time, and have had so all through my success," she admits frankly. "It's because I don't know if I can do certain things. Each time I begin a film, I have varying degrees of confidence and self- loathing. I think, 'Why did they hire me? I've got to get out of this'. That's my process. I've always imagined that the wolf is at the door, and I'll never work again."
Streep says that it's Don Gummer, her husband of almost 30 years, who always encourages her to overcome her self-doubt. Streep first met sculptor Don soon after the death of her first love, actor John Cazale, when she sublet his apartment.
They married within nine months, and have been together ever since, raising four children in the process: Henry (28), Mamie (24), Grace (22) and Louisa (17).
The star's family has always precedence over everything else, to the point where Streep cut back on her workload to keep her children's lives as regular as possible.
"Motherhood was a full-time job, and my children's teachers took a dim view of me taking them out of school so I could make a movie," she explains. "So I accepted only one film a year, working about four months, and rejecting films if it meant travelling in the children's school year.
"I had to be home with them, or I couldn't sleep. For Dancing at Lughnasa I was on my own in Ireland for six weeks. It almost killed me. It felt like a lifetime. I was never again away from my family for more than two weeks at the time."
Streep also went out of her way to keep her children separate from her own public profile, and to that end the family lived for 16 years on a farm in rural Connecticut to maintain their privacy and stay grounded.
"You can't get spoiled if you do your own ironing," Streep laughs. "There was no media in Connecticut, just people being used to me, and it was good for the children.
"My girls just hated being talked about. It was so embarrassing for them to have me as a mother. It was harder on the girls because they read everything.
"My son was fine. His friends were not interested at all. They were like, 'Meryl who? What was she in?' The one thing I've never done is to publicise my family to enhance me. If I publicised them in pictures, they are public figures and they don't have any protections. I don't want them to suffer because I have chosen a job in the limelight."
Be that as it may, two of her children have followed their mother into showbiz. Henry recently made his movie debut in Lying, while Mamie actually co-starred with Streep in last year's Evening, where mother and daughter played the same character at different ages. Surely Streep must advise them on their careers?
She laughs before replying: "Endlessly, but do they listen? They're going to do whatever they want to do because it's a hard choice to enter our business.
"They've gotten a skewed version of things because I've kept them completely out of the picture. They have never seen me at work and having fun on the set. They have just seen me come home and do what I do at home, which is to whine and complain and go 'poor me!' And yet they still want to do it. It's quite unbelievable!"
Friday, July 04, 2008
Worth a Visit
My review of Tom McCarthy's excellent new movie, The Visitor, in Day and Night in today's Independent.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Nip 'n' tuck
My contribution to a feature in today's Examiner about a website, www.liftmagic.com, that shows you how you'd look after cosmetic surgery. Pic above is before (left) and after.
I’m a huge fan of the Channel 4 makeover show 10 Years Younger, and even though its host Nikki Hambleton-Jones both irritates and terrifies me beyond words, I always find myself fantasising about what I would look life if I threw myself at the mercy of her surgical and beautician team.
For that reason, I was more than willing to submit a picture of myself to the site www.liftmagic.com to see the theoretical surgical results of some nip and tuck.
LiftMagic – which calls itself “the world’s most advanced facelift visualisation studio” – allows you to choose from a list of 14 surgical options, including enhancements for the forehead, tear troughs and cheeks, as well as nose reductions and lip augmentation.
I chose all 14 and availed of the option that sets the scale of all of the individual procedures to their suggested maximum.
I have to admit that I found some of the results pretty impressive, particularly around the eyes. I wasn’t too gone on my nose reduction, but the ‘weight reduction’ option gave me a glimpse of what my face would look like if I would only avail of my gym membership more.
But what do the experts make of my before and after shots?
“Overall, the after shot is a good effect,” says Dr Patrick Treacy, renowned cosmetic surgeon at the Ailesbury Clinic in Dublin.
“You have a young symmetrical face without hardly any wrinkles. The visualisation appears to have taken this into account and not changed any of your proportions.
“It has also retained straight eye brows, which are a notable male feature. In the wrong hands, Botox treatments cause the brows to arch, giving them a female effect.
“It has also lifted inter-brow hair, which male clients normally get treated with a laser. This takes about six sessions in total at a cost of e70 each.”
Dr Treacy was also impressed by the effect the theoretical treatments had on my eyes. “It has cleared your tear troughs, which could be filled with either Restylane or Matridur for e200. This would last for around six months after treatment.”
Finally, aware that my body image and self-esteem could be about to get the trampling of a lifetime, I ask Dr Treacy what procedures he would recommend for me, based on my before shot.
“The treatment has cleared your cheeks and your face of pigment and blemishes, which is helping your skin to glow,” he replies. “You could achieve this with Intense Pulsed Lights (IPL) skin treatment. It would require three sessions of e250 each. Blepharoplasty [reshaping upper or lower lids] costs between e3,500-e5,000.
“You could do most of the selected treatments non-surgically for about e1,500. If you went down a surgical route it could cost you e10,000.”
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Palmer/Obama
Actor Dennis Haysbert believes his role as African-American president David Palmer on the TV show 24 helped pave the way for Obama. Read here. Palmer himself was a model of integrity, but the Obama camp won't welcome any comparison between Michelle Obama and Palmer's wife, Sherry. What a weapon she was!
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Clarke on McCain's military record...
Er, so I guess that's Gen. Wesley Clark scratched off Obama's Veep list?
Could you live without your mobile?
From today's D'Indo.
How on earth did we ever live without mobile phones? It's a question we all ask at some point, and one that seems even more pertinent to Irish people in light of the astounding statistics on mobile- phone use just released by ComReg. Continue here.
How on earth did we ever live without mobile phones? It's a question we all ask at some point, and one that seems even more pertinent to Irish people in light of the astounding statistics on mobile- phone use just released by ComReg. Continue here.
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