2009 will be with you in just a second

Introducing....the 61 second minute! Boffins have decreed that tonight's New Year's festivities will last an extra second in order to...well, it involves the earth's clock. I don't do the science part that well. 

Happy New Year y'all. Make every second count. 

The More You Know...

I'm guilty of over-using this phrase the odd time I appear on radio too, but wannabe New York Senator and former First Daughter Caroline Kennedy really does take it to the extreme here, you know?

Got Milk

I'm half way through The Mayor of Castro Street, Randy Shilts' authoritative account of Harvey Milk's life and career. It's really engrossing stuff that gives fascinating insight into the man and his motivations, as well as providing a great cultural and political history of the gay movement in San Francisco, in particular. 

Gus Van Sant's movie, Milk, opens on January 23, but GAZE are holding the Irish premiere of the movie on January 8 - next Thursday - in the Irish Film Institute in Temple Bar. Tickets are 10 yo-yos and can be booked here. 

Euro-Sterling parity = price slashes!

About bloody damn time that something happened about this criminal situation! 

The Celluloid Closet

From today's Independent.

In the new movie Milk, Sean Penn playsAmerica's first openly gay politician Harvey Milk, who was shot dead in San Francisco City Hall 30 years ago. The 48-year-old immerses himself completely in the role, enjoying a steamy French kiss with his co-star, James Franco.

The movie received its premiere in the US last month, and now Penn, who won an Oscar in 2003 for Mystic River, has been firmly installed as the favourite to win a second statue next year for the role. Continue here. 

The year's best telly

1. Lost

Many of you gave up on it around the start of season 3, but following an undoubted slump, JJ Abrams and the gang pulled it all back together and re-invigorated Lost with that staggering flash-forward twist that set up this year's fourth season as the most innovative, suspenseful, rewarding, infuriating, gripping, moving, mental, unmissable series of the show yet. Season 5 cannot come quick enough next month. 

2. 30 Rock

Before she became a global superstar for those Sarah Palin impersonations, I was one of the 14 people in the world who watched Tina Fey's ingenious office comedy/showbiz  satire 30 Rock. Brilliantly written and performed, it deserves a much bigger audience than it gets. Season 2 wobbled slightly after its post-writer's strike return, but it still was enough to win a shedload of Emmys this year, including three for Fey as producer, writer and star. 

3. Gavin and Stacey

So sweet, so romantic, so natural - and so side-splittingly, howlingly funny. Even AA Gill, the acerbic TV reviewer with the Sunday Times, had to admit that the Christmas special was the best thing on television over the whole festive period this year. Dig up the two series on DVD NOW!

4. Summer Heights High

Chris Lilley is a God. The Aussie comic wrote and played three different roles in this savage mockumentary set in an Australian public school. It's crass, tasteless, offensive and racist - and all the better for it. Think Mean Girls meets Nighty Night meets Home and Away.

5.  The Office

The US Office long ago stepped out of its British progenitor's shadow, and now in its fifth series, it continues to boast of the sharpest writing and most incisive characterisation in American comedy today. Its deftness in switching from high farce to quiet tragedy is mind-boggling. Plus, in Jim and Pam, The Office has the best couple and most satisfying romantic subplot on all of US television. 

6. Mad Men

Stylish, evocative, knowing, satirical, nostalgic, acerbic - just some of the ways to describe this 1960s-set drama that won the Emmy and Golden Globe for Best Drama this year. Season 2 went even deeper into the quiet, soul destroying desperation of its characters, particularly the fascinating females Peggy (Elisabeth Moss), Betty (January Jones) and Joan (Christina Hendricks). 

7. Battlestar Galactica

For me, season 4 suffered by dwelling a little too much on the clearly barking (?) Starbuck, back from the dead (?) to lead the dwindling human population back to Earth (?). Yet even at its weakest, BSG continues to stand out as the classiest, most intelligent, surprising and politically savvy sci-fi produced this decade so far.

8. Damages

I just caught this one over Christmas and I was instantly hooked. It's the 24 of legal thrillers, packed with mind-bending twists and great performances notably Glenn Close and the great character actor Zeljko Ivanek, both of whom won Emmys for their roles. 

9. In Treatment

This one took some time to warm to, but, by the halfway point, I was hooked on the 43 episodes from season 1, covering psychotherapist Gabriel Byrne's treatment of four different patients - plus his own sessions with his therapist (played by the great Dianne Wiest). Who wouldn't love eavesdropping on other people's therapy? This is engrossing stuff, given all the more oomph thanks to Byrne's own dark revelations in the documentary Stories from Home. 

10. Brothers and Sisters

Yes it's sudsy, glossy and sentimental - but it's also touching, funny and easy watching. Plus it has a great cast to paper over any cracks, especially the great Sally Field. Kevin and Scotty's wedding at the end of season 2 was a real weepie. 

Honorable mentions: Desperate Housewives (back from the dead after that five year time leap), Family Guy (still just about hitting the mark more than it misses), Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Billie Piper rocks). 

TV Emeritus: This was also the year I tackled all seven series of the glorious Gilmore Girls, which had finished on TV in 2007. Seriously, it's great stuff - so sassy, charming and full of crackling writing. Ditto for Veronica Mars which I also watched this year. 

Worst TV show of the year: Grey's Anatomy. Its descent into pure, unadulterated rubbish summed up in seven words: Izzie having sex with dead Denny's ghost. 

Dishonorable mentions: Privileged, 90210

TV projects for 2009: Friday Night Lights, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, True Blood, Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Wire (at last) plus Buffy the Vampire Slayer (at long last). 

Damaged goods

Over a 36 hour period, I watched season 1 of Damages, a totally ludicrous and whiplash-inducing, yet insanely addictive and brilliantly acted legal thriller starring an Emmy winning Glenn Close as a ruthless, diabolical (?) attorney. Series 2 starts next week. I cannot wait. 

My top 10 movies of 2008

1. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

2. Slumdog Millionaire

3. Man on Wire

4. Rachel Getting Married

5. I've Loved You So Long

6. The Visitor

7. The Dark Knight

8. Juno

9. No Country for Old Men

10. There Will Be Blood

Best Actor:

Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Honorable Mentions: Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)

Best Actress:

Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)

Honorable Mentions: Kristin Scott Thomas (I've Loved You So Long)

Picture of the day

Barack Obama on the beach in Hawaii. 47 years old!!

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 22nd

This is my last day of the Cheesy classics before I head to the homestead of Kilkenny, so it could only really be one song...

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 21st

I love this one, but is it just me or is there something quite creepy and ominous about it?

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 20th

Does it get any better than this?

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 19th

Say what you like about SeaLion, but this is good stuff....

My sister, my best friend

My feature from Weekend magazine in today's Irish Independent.

Jackie and Matt Smith will spend this Christmas in Los Angeles with their 15-year-old son, Aaron, visitingDisneyland and Universal Studios, touring Hollywood, and walking the vibrant promenades in Santa Monica andVenice Beach. They are a family that wants to get every experience out of life, and not waste a single moment of their days. Continue here. 

Deep Throat croaks

Mark Felt - aka Deep Throat to Bob Woodward's Watergate probing journalist - has died age 95. 

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 18th

For all those making the trek home home this weekend....

Screen Actors Guild

Nominations for the 15th Screen Actors Guild Awards can be viewed here. Since they're voted for entirely by actors, who also make up the largest voting block at the Oscars, the SAGs are seen as the most accurate barometer of where the Academy will be leaning. Bad news so for the much-touted The Dark Knight and Revolutionary Road, but it's looking better than ever for Milk, Doubt, Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon. 

Good analysis here from the LA Times and New York Times. 

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 17th

So what if the lead singer look's like something from a child's nightmare? Enjoy...

Time Person of the Year 2008

It was only ever going to be one man...

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 16th

The one and only... Miss M. Scarey

Place your bets!

Who will be the first Irish gay person to get married? Paddy Power has the odds...

Rachel Weisz for Catwoman in third Bale Batman?

Intriguing. Read here. 

More Lost

A new sneak peek at Lost Season 5 has been posted online. Watch here. 

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 15th

This one is making a comeback thanks to the Christmas Sky ad...

Why Mickey Rourke is going to win an Oscar next year

Watch it and weep. 

Movie mash-ups

Fun stuff, courtesy of Empire Online...

China Syndrome

For once, China leads the way on social legislation!

Wendy and Lucy

The AFI just named this indie movie one of the year's best films, and a sleeper campaign is developing to get its star, the fantastic Michelle Williams, an Oscar nomination. Worth waiting for by all accounts. 

AFI Top 10

The American Film Institute's top 10 movies of 2008...

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Frozen River
Gran Torino
Iron Man
Milk
Wall-E
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 14th

Not exactly a Christmas track per se, but a festive No 1...

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 13th

An abomination. And just when you thought it couldn't get worse, it does

OscarEye

The state of the awards race so far. Slumdog is in the lead, followed by Benjamin Button

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 12th

The old is past, there's a new beginning. 

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 11th

A little Christmas melancholy on this Friday morning...

Coming Out - live on TV

I'm just surprised it took this long for this to be made into a reality show...

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the 10th

I was away for the past five days on a ski trip to Austria so alas my planned daily cheesy Christmas songs posts were interrupted as I got 'piste' for the past week. Back on track today with a classic....

Global domination

Golden Globe nominations are out...view them here.

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the Fourth

Shudder. 

Dear God, why?!

Hollywood really is running out of ideas...

Slumdog is topdog

The annual critics awards jaunt kicks off with the National Board of Review, who named Danny Boyle's brilliant Slumdog Millionaire the best movie of the year. 

Film: "Slumdog Millionaire" 

Director: David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" 

Actor: Clint Eastwood, "Gran Torino" 

Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married" 

Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk" 

Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" 

Foreign Language Film: "Mongol" 

Documentary: "Man On Wire" 

Animated Feature: "Wall-E" 

Ensemble Cast: "Doubt" 

Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Dev Patel, "Slumdog Millionaire" 

Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Viola Davis, "Doubt" 

Directorial Debut: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River" 

Original Screenplay: Nick Schenk, "Gran Torino" 

Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"; Eric Roth, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" 

Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo, "Frozen River" 
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor" 

The BVLGARI Award for NBR Freedom of Expression: "Trumbo"

TOP TEN FILMS

• "Burn After Reading"
  
• "Changeling"
  
• "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button"
  
• "The Dark Knight"
  
• "Defiance"
  
• "Frost/Nixon"
  
• "Gran Torino"
  
• "Milk"
  
• "Wall-E"
  
• "The Wrestler"

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the Third

This one is just surreal. 

Proposition 8 - The Musical

This features the glorious Allison Janney. What else do you need?

Lost sneak peek

EEK! Watch a two minute sneak of Lost's season 5, starting in January. 

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the Second

Fun-kay. Click

Twilight years

From today's Independent

It's already a literary juggernaut that's been compared toHarry Potter, Romeo and Juliet and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now the phenomenon known as Twilight has been made into a hit movie that's taken a huge bite out of theUS box office and is about to sink its lucrative teeth into the Irish cinema-going public. Continue here. 

So frackin' good

Preview of the final 10 episodes of the peerless Battlestar Galactica can be seen here. Be excited. January 16

Declan's Cheesy Christmas Hits: Day the First

Click...if you dare. 

"Did he"?

Weeks have passed and I'm still laughing at this scene between Stewie and New Brian from the latest series of Family Guy - probably my favourite FG clip ever. 

Meryl: Bankable at last

It only took 30 years, but after the success of Mamma Mia! and The Devil Wears Prada,  59-year-old Meryl Streep is finally declared one of the most bankable actresses in the world. 

Tina conquers the world

Fab cover. Read article here.

Madam Secretary

 The world is just one giant West Wing script anymore

Mapple, MiPods, MiPhones...

OK so the past, oh, 10 seasons have been dirt, but The Simpsons can still hit home every now and then. Watch this piss-take of Apple and Steve Jobs