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Those stunning Young Hearts are back with a special yuletide show with another wonderful title ; The Winking Glitter of a Frosty Dawn, this Saturday in Dublin Co-Op. A terrific and varied line up as always, with live highlights sure to be Donal Lunny, Sunken Foal, Tieranniesaur, Maeve Higgins, Katie Kim, and, Kate Ellis. (full line up after the jump) The Co-op is one of my favourite Young Hearts venues, so get along – it’ll be a late one no doubt. These nights are a little slice of magic that you’d be mad to miss.
Acts on the night include the mighty Donal Lunny, Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, Sunken Foal, Melodica Deathship, Tieranniesaur, You Kiss By The Book, Maeve Higgins, NiamhMcCormackSings, Katie Kim, Kevin Barry, Kate Ellis
with DJ sets by;
James Byrne (Any Other City)
Niall McCormack (Hi-Tone)
Joss Moorkens (The Dudley Corporation)
Peter Toomey
and more very special guests to be confirmed!
at the Co-op, Newmarket Square, Dublin 8 on Saturday 10th December, 2011.
Admission 15euros with all proceeds going to Simon Community
I”m joining in with the decade-ending celebrationary reviews to post by Top 5′s of the decade. This is impossibly difficult of course, so it’s not in any way exhaustive, just a reminder of some great moments, and the realisation that I’ve been working in the arts for over a decade. Eek.
None of these are in any particular order, and given that i could only pick 5 under each category I’m sure the list would change all the time- particularly around music, but instead of choosing the “most important” or “best” albums I tried to choose albums based on what I’ve listened to most over the decade. Disclaimer: yes, I do work for The Model, but I also love the programme and am clearly there a lot, so I feel allowed.
Top 5 gigs of the decade*
- Electric Picnic 2005- ALL of IT but especially Arcade Fire and Goldfrapp
- Patti Smith, Model Sligo, 2006
- Feist, Tripod, 2008
- Presets, Village, Dublin, 2007
- Anthony & the Johnsons, mainstage, Electric Picnic 2006
Most listened to / Top 5 Albums of the Decade*
- Radiohead – In Rainbows
- Presets - Beams
- Burial – Untrue
- Arcade Fire - Funeral
- Iron and Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog
* This is ludicrous and far too difficult.
Top 5 Theatre
- Bedbound, Enda Walsh, 2000
- Terminus, Mark O’Rowe, Project, 2008
- Titus Andronicus, Project, 2005 (dir. Selina Cartmell)
- Festen, Gate for Dublin Theatre Festival 2006 (dir: Selena Cartmel)
- Genesi: from the Museum of Sleep, Romeo Castellucci for Dublin Theatre Festival, 2000
Top 5 Live Comedy gigs
- Reggie Watts, Edinburgh Festival 2006 and Sydney Festival 2008
- Dylan Moran, Kilkenny Comedy Festival, 2005
- Jason Byrne, Kilkenny Comedy Festival, 2005
- Colin Murphy, Sligo, 2004
- Stewart Lee, Edinburgh, 2008
Top 5 Art Exhibitions
- Thomas Demand’s L’esprit D’escalier @ IMMA, Dublin
- Monet’s lillies (Les Nymphéas) @ L’Orangerie in Paris
- Gerard Byrne, Model, Sligo
- Warhol & The Factory, Model, Sligo
- Rosalie Gascoigne, NGV, Melbourne, Australia
Amazing weekend was had in Kilkenny at the Cat Laughs Festival this year which I have been meaning to blog about for weeks but the volume of work ever since has put paid to that notion. However, a round up is needed for posterity and for a great critical round up with some ace writing head to Peter Crawleys review in the Irish Times – sounds like we were very much at the same festival -even though I got to about a third of the gigs he did, but then he is on the freebie press ticket.
I’ve been going to Kilkenny for 5 years now- from when I started programming comedy for the model- and usually run around to as many shows as my pocket can handle and my head can take. For the fits few years it was about genning up on the best irish comics and the newbies coming up so I could gen up for the comedy club, then it became about international acts as I knew what the irish ones were all about, and this year was a gloriously calmer affair as I wasn’t technically programming at all and could do it at a holiday pace.
Kilkenny has always been a girls weekend for me – all that laughing and drinking and great food and nice hotel rooms seems seems a good fit- and this year was no different as three of us bunked in one fab room and made a great weekend of it – here are the highlights
- Weather. OMG it was outstanding. In my memory it always is for Cat Laughs of course but this one was like being in another country. A weekend like this a year will definitely see me right.
- Foodage. As always Kilkenny does not disappoint on the culinary front. Outstanding meal and service at Zuni, and more of the same with the great late night supper menu that Fleva do for the festival. The people that run that place could not do better, chatty, great service, happy to accommodate late eating and menu re-arranging. Go there. Oh and new kid on the block- Grapevine. Excellent tapas, great wine, brilliant owner.
- Gigs. Of course the gigs are the real reason for going. This year we just took in two and a movie so hard to pick highlights but Kathleen Madigan was great and the Hans Teeuwen gig was an experience like no other. Peter describes it far better than I but the great thing about it is the tension moment when you realise a) this is his act, it’s on purpose and it’s not getting any “better” and b) well over half the audience are hating it and not getting it and stressed and will either walk out, heckle or stew in their seat hating every minute but not having the balls to leave, or maybe hoping it will somehow get better. The tension of that moment, which gets replayed around the room every few minutes as people decide which camp they fall into, is a deliciously stressful and funny thing. In fairness- it is more performance art that comedy, and if you had paid your 30euro expecting to roll in the aisles you have every right to be angry, but if you want a whole chunk of post-modern comedy then there you have. I”m still not sure if I love it or hate it but I do know I’m going to check him out again in Edinburgh to find out.
- A Film with Me In It. Me being Mark Doherty and not Stranded of course. This was a brilliant way to spend a few hungover hours on saturday afternoon in the Parade Tower. Delightful slice of black comedy (if black humour can be delightful?) that made me laugh out loud and contemplate my moral compass and Dylan Moran’s brilliance.
- Kilkenny RiverCourt Hotel. A revelation (we usually stay at the Ormond). Great rooms, comfy beds, nice staff, great breakfast (crap carvery meals the rest of the time but) and acres of outdoor drinking and lounging space with a spiffy view of the castle. Oh- and 2e parking for guests all weekend. sweet.
Downsides? the 3.5 hour cross country drive back to Sligo through every little town known to man (there is a townplace called Swan in this country) and having to go back on the Sunday and miss the football match with stellar commentary by Karl Spain.
Magic weekend. Why more people don’t make it a regular calendar date I’ll never know.
Kilkenny Sunset
