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... on Bath Avenue
Was it the singing rocking electro-Santas? Or the deers marked John and Edward? Or the pipes collecting money for Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross? Or simply the gigantic winter wonderland visible from space spread across every inch of the modest garden?
Whatever it was... BEST CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS EVER.
Gridlocked between the restaurants, bars and hotels of Temple Bar, Rory’s Fishing Tackle feels like a remnant from a bygone era. Established in 1959, not much about the store has changed – including Rory himself, who opened it all those years ago. “This shop is the exact same as when we opened 50 years ago,” he tells us, proudly. “Back then, there was only retail on this street. It’s all upmarket now. All restaurants and pubs, it’s completely changed.
“We’re here so long now that old customers’ grandchildren are coming in,” adds Rory. But while the shop retains its old-fashioned charm, he’s no slouch when it comes to keeping up with the latest in fishing technology. “When we started there were only about 20 or 30 different rods to cover everything. Now you would have 20 rods for each species. There’s no end to it.”
Continue reading "The little shops that could no.6 - Rory’s Fishing Tackle" »
Tim Burton got it wrong. In his whimsical The Nightmare Before Christmas, the idiosyncratic one envisaged Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, tiring of Hallowe’en and hijacking Christmas instead. It’s now apparent that the reverse has occurred. The commercial behemoth that once confined itself to the final month of the year is working its way back through the calendar by stealth, absorbing all in its wake.
Christmas hit the Dundrum Town Centre on November 5th this year. Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ blasted over the PA in defiance of the unseasonal date. A small, bewildered child who remembered recently returning to school was prompted by a prematurely jovial Marty Whelan to switch on the festive lights. Bah! Humbug! Anyone who indulges in untimely merriment should, in the words of Ebenezer Scrooge, “be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.” Is there a single unadulterated nook or cranny left in this entire city where the true spirit of Christmas still resides?
... aboard Irish train toilets
Has Paul Gogarty taken to criticising the Irish public transport system from the inside?
Hopping the turnstile just got a little easier
Electronic turnstiles at Pearse, Connolly and Tara, black-shirted jack-booted SWAT teams patrolling the carriages and a widespread fear-mongering poster campaign: the DART is finally cracking down on fare evaders.
Except for some stations, obviously.
Fair City's Barbara Cleary set to return to Ireland for a major film
According to the Hedald this week, it seems yer one from Off The Rails (AKA Caroline Morahan) is about to return to our shores from the rolling Hollywod hills in order to star in an Irish 'blockbuster'.
Whether or not an Irish blockbuster (who doesn't work on a building site) is even an actual possibility, it came as something of news to some of us that Ms. Morahan had even begun a silver screen thespian career (I said thespian John, relax).
That's a new one on me, as the man who found a mole on his bum said.
It was an even bigger surprise to learn that she 'd relocated to the US of Anything in order to make it big in the moving pictures. Morahan is undoubtedly some perfect TV presenting talent - able to swap tawdry quips with priapic polystyrene puppets as easily as she can swap slimming tips with a Cabra housewife - but the big screen? In Lalaland? Really?
So, in the spirit of scientific research, we decided to give her a screen test, to confirm her cinematic credentials.
A Late Late Challenge from Louis
In show business you shouldn't work with children or animals or X-Factor contestants it seems - particularly if you're the Late Late Show's new saviour Ryan Tubridy.
"You gave [John and Edward] a hard time on the Late Late," Louis Walsh has told him, "and their mother was watching, Susannah was watching and she wasn't happy.
"They're really nice kids when you get to know them, but they were edited in the show to look like they were not nice."
Considering Ryan cavorted, gamboled and romped in the Late Late playroom as much as the other two hyperactive children, it's a comment that might be a little bit wrongheaded.
We'd just like to know how Pat "The heavy thick board of roughly 2 to 4 inches thick and 8 inches wide" Kenny might have dealt with the situation.
Probably by calling them Nedward, poking at their hair critically and finally shouting at them to keep quiet and stay in the corner like good boys.
See for yourself below:
For the men at Gillette
Wow, if you were marketing manager at Gillette you'd be regretting spitting on that old gypsy woman right now, what with all the press their flagship stars are getting at the moment.
Our predictions for December 2009: It's revealed that Roger Federer has been cheating on his cuckoo clock and disgrace ensues.
The Gillette trio have certainly never seemed to be in such bad sorts. In the spirit of journalistic investigation (and following the latest Facebook scuttlebutt) we logged onto the Gillette website graced by the three amigos.
Imagine our surprise when it became clear that the French site is ever so slightly different from the Irish site. Specifically this piece of Stalinist-style photo manipulation .
Où est la balle, Gillette?
Eoghan Kidney is a young film maker, animator, maker of award winning music videos. He's made videos for Valerie Francis, The Delorentos and Fight Like Apes, we think he's brilliant and so does Kanye West!
Another thing we think is brilliant is Werner Herzog, hardly a day goes by in The Dubliner Office without a discussion on the obscenity of the jungle or someone getting shot at on a roof, we even think Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is going to be the feel good film of the Christmas season!
Eoghan has been accepted into Werner Herzog's Rogue School, no mean feat as Werner himself stated ""The Rogue Film School is not for the faint-hearted. It is for those who have travelled on foot, who have worked as bouncers in sex clubs or as wardens in a lunatic asylum" Wow... we're not sure which catagory Eoghan fell into, but we're mighty impressed!
Eoghan is hoping to raise some money to help cover the tuition fees, travel and accommodation, you can find out more about him and how to help him here...
http://www.eoghankidney.com/
and hopefully when he comes home he'll tell us all about it!
Busker turns into social critic, Noel Fielding
Whatever your feelings about Dave McSavage (most likely something involving razor wire, cyanide, chainsaws or rusty scissors if you're ever been in Temple Bar), you can't help but admire his newest show, The Savage Eye, on RTE.
Best of the pack is McSavage on Gaeilge-crusader/Ratso Rizzo Des Bishop trying to save the Irish language by jumping on its hospital bed and violently shaking its mammaries.
But we just have one question here - when did McSavage morph into Noel Fielding?
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