This is a movie trailer used in the forthcoming movie adap of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Highlarious.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Obama's Veep...
Drudge says Obama's ready to announce his running mate as early as tomorrow (Tuesday). My top picks are Joe Biden, Tim Kaine or Kathleen Sebelius. Unless...
Meanwhile, McCain is ready to announce his running mate on Aug 29. Read here...
Meanwhile, McCain is ready to announce his running mate on Aug 29. Read here...
The Joke(r)'s on us
Christopher Goodwin had a good piece in yesterday's Sunday Times about why The Dark Knight has touched such a cultural nerve amongst audiences in America and abroad.
Stick to the Script
Irish band The Script topped the charts here and in the UK at the weekend with their self-titled debut album. It's fantastic news for the three guys, whom I interviewed for The Star back in March. I'm posting that interview below to mark their success. Well done lads!
Irish trio The Script might not be household names right now, but allthat is about to change with the release of their debut single We Cry next month.
The band consists of Danny O'Donoghue, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power – and their sound is like nothing anyone has ever heard from an Irish band. In fact, the guys' infectious mix of melodic pop and soul, blended with strong hip-hop and R&B hooks, is generating so much buzz that record company Sony BMG has invested more in pushing The Script in the UK and the US than any other band this year.
With so much seemingly riding on the single and their self-titled debut album, you would think the three guys would be buckling under the weight of expectation. But that couldn't be further from the truth. These music industry veterans - even though they're all still in their 20s – are enjoying themselves too much to get bogged down by pressure.
"It's surreal at the moment," front-man and keyboard player Danny (26) says. "We've been touring in England with Newton Faulker and The Hoosiers, which has really helped us build buzz and support from our live shows.
"We've been getting a phenomenal response. Big-time English radio DJs like Jo Wiley and Steve Wright have come to see us and are playing us. Terry Wogan actually played us the other day. He gave us a big intro, pushing the Irish thing. It's like we've broken through, and it's given us great confidence. We're loving every second of this."
The guys' debut single We Cry is a catchy and immensely polished soulful anthem that manages to be both bleak and uplifting at the same time. Lead guitarist Mark (27) explains: "We decided to come back here to make the record. I'm from James St in Dublin. When you listen to the lyrics about the kid who had hope and all of a sudden she has a baby –I know these people.
"I know the people like John in the song who was a great musician and he messed it up by getting into drugs – people who are victims of their environment. The single is an observation that says a problem shared is a problem halved. We're all in this together."
So where did their distinctive sound come from? "Living in Ireland you inherently have one ear on Ireland/England and the other on America," Danny states. "It's a bit of a mish-mash. Everything is going in, but we've spearheaded it into this particular sound.
"Mark's musical tastes are very much R&B, rap, hip-hop; Glen's would be funk and things like Sting and The Police; and mine would be emotional music, ballads, black soul music. Coming into the studio with three such different styles is like waves crashing together."
All three guys have been heavily involved in the music industry sincetheir teens. Glen has been gigging around the country for years, while Danny's brothers Dara and Ian were members of 90s band The Big Geraniums (co-managed by their dad).
In addition, Danny and Mark wereboth members of My Town in the late 90s, mentored by U2 boss Paul McGuinness. Danny and Mark then established a production partnership, moved to LA and began working with a host of American pop and R&B luminaries.
Itwas at this stage that drummer Glen (28) came into contact with the guys, and The Script evolved naturally from their jamming sessions.
"We had this crappy little studio in Venice Beach," Danny recalls."Glen came to visit us, and literally within four hours, we slapped him down in front of the drums and had him play with some of our friends. With us being producers, we used to have the best Venice Beach musicians coming through playing with us. So we threw Glen in at the deep end and he swam!
"From there we got on so well that we started working/writingtogether. It was never an outright intention to make a band – it just came about naturally."
The Script's debut album of the same name will be simultaneously launched in Europe and the US in the summer. It's a record born of an intense period in the band's life.
"The album is a bluntly honest snapshot of our collective lives as a band over the past year and a half," Mark reveals. "Over that time alot of stuff hit us. My mother was terminally ill in hospital and she passed away after ten months, and then four months later Dan's dad passed away suddenly.
"Those songs poured out of us at that point. I always said that if my mam died, then my life would be over because she was everything I had. But then when it happened I realised that every end is also a beginning, so a song like The End Where I Begin is an absolute honest reflection of that time."
Danny adds: "That was a very dark time in the band's evolution. And I'm really proud that we've come out of the opposite end of that, that we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and it wasn't the train!"
Teeing is believing
From today's Independent...
Jimmy Murray has always been sporty. He competed in athletic events right into his 40s and now, in his 60s, he regularly plays golf for his country.
His achievements sound impressive, until you realise that Jimmy is blind -- then they enter the realm of the incredible. He has just finished representing the Republic in the World Blind Golf Championships in Belfast, where he achieved his goal of finishing in the top 20.
Continue here.
Jimmy Murray has always been sporty. He competed in athletic events right into his 40s and now, in his 60s, he regularly plays golf for his country.
His achievements sound impressive, until you realise that Jimmy is blind -- then they enter the realm of the incredible. He has just finished representing the Republic in the World Blind Golf Championships in Belfast, where he achieved his goal of finishing in the top 20.
Continue here.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
You ad me at hello
Salon.com gets a political advertising expert to analyse the latest ad campaigns in the US presidential race. Interesting stuff.
Monday, August 11, 2008
How they got to Sesame Street
In honour of Feist's joyful appearance on the new season of Sesame Street, EW has a list of the most memorable Street appearances by artists like Paul Simon and Johnny Cash.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Friday, August 08, 2008
Briefs encounter
Feature from today's Independent
It seems David Beckham has done it again. The founding father of metrosexuality, who made it acceptable for men everywhere to use moisturiser and wax their chests, has sparked another style revolution -- this time in the underwear department.Continue here.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Obama, McCain go after the 'pop'-ular vote
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Friday, August 01, 2008
Was the 2004 election fixed?
Andrew O'Hehir at Salon takes apart the new documentary, Stealing America: Vote by Vote, which revisits the contentious theory that the results from the 2004 US presidential face off between Bush and John Kerry were seriously dodgy. Worth a read.
Adam Sandler sings...
Adam Sandler does guest vocals on a cover of Freefallin' in Temple Bar's Purty Kitchen last night.
Lard times
Restaurant review of The Larder in 'Day and Night' in today's Independent.
Working from home as a freelance journalist can be a cold and solitary existence. Don't get me wrong, there's a helluva lot to be said for it. There are no public transport traumas, no insufferable office colleagues and, sometimes, no need to leave the house for days at a time. Continue here.
Working from home as a freelance journalist can be a cold and solitary existence. Don't get me wrong, there's a helluva lot to be said for it. There are no public transport traumas, no insufferable office colleagues and, sometimes, no need to leave the house for days at a time. Continue here.
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