links for 2006-11-27
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“Surely it is time for a few scholar-bloggers to make their way onto the Irish scene? “
Mark Waters marked time at 7:18 pm on November 27th, 2006 | Add a comment .
Archive for November, 2006
Return of the Bishop of Babel
Foburg
Artist: Cathal Coughlan
Rating: out of 5
Media: CD
Year: 2006
Label: Beneath
It may not be instantly appealing but Cathal Coughlan’s Foburg is a grower that rewards repeated listening and concentration. The vocabulary of rock music has become so limited that when faced with something as wordy as this it’s almost like an overload to the senses. An accompanying set of CliffsNotes wouldn’t go astray. This is rock music for adults that doesn’t assume that they’re all wallowing in their second childhood.
There’s loads going on here lyrically, and the music ably supports it. Foburg is a sort of concept album, the recorded version of Flannery’s Mounted Head, a live performance piece which Coughlan was commissioned to write for the Cork City Of Culture 2005 event. It’s theatrical in nature - some of the songs remind me of the musical numbers in the Simpsons - and all the songs slot together to form a coherent whole, telling a complicated story that I’m not even going to begin to attempt to summarise.
I found much of the Fatima Mansions output to be childish and irritating. It was frustrating for me because among the nonsense and the piss-taking (fun as it was) there were moments of maturity that showed that Coughlan had much more to offer. With his solo career he’s finally getting there. Foburg is proof that the medium of rock music still has the potential to produce something approximating art.
Mark Waters marked time at 12:16 pm on November 24th, 2006 | Add a comment .
links for 2006-11-23
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Looks like a case of “don’t frighten the horses”. A bit of a credibility problem for AAM and its perceived links to VIs.
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“The economic divide is a non-issue, but the usability and empowerment divides alienate huge population groups who miss out on the Internet’s potential.”
Mark Waters marked time at 7:17 pm on November 23rd, 2006 | Add a comment .
Double Standards
Why is it wrong for YouTube to host video of boy racers but it’s OK for RTÉ to show extended clips of same in its prime time bulletins? By the logic of the RSA it must have been especially inappropriate to show the footage in the News as Entertainment slot on RTE2 after Podge and Rodge, aimed as it is, at the crucial 18-25 age group most susceptible to the evils of the internet. (I wonder did they clear the copyright to show the clips).
And then there was the Irish Examiner a few weeks back with a front page article about how a girl who had been assaulted had been even further traumatised when she discovered that footage of the assault had appeared on YouTube and had been viewed around a hundred times.
The newspaper article was accompanied by five still images of the video.
This internet thing will be the death of us all.
Mark Waters marked time at 7:19 pm on November 21st, 2006 | Add a comment .
links for 2006-11-20
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“We need to refuse to vote on electronic voting machines without a voter-verifiable paper ballot, and to continue to pressure our legislatures to implement voting technology that works.”(tags: Politics technology)
Mark Waters marked time at 7:17 pm on November 20th, 2006 | Add a comment .
A Ricochet from Daisy Days
I’m trying to identify a date for when my grandfather returned to Ireland. I think it would have been the early thirties, possibly even as early as 1929. Anyway, when he brought back the Buick he was in the unusual position at the time of having two cars. His sister took the opportunity this presented and claimed the second car for herself.
more…
Mark Waters marked time at 8:09 pm on November 19th, 2006 | Add a comment .
On a Road To Nowhere
Little Children
Year: 2006
Category: Drama
Media: Film
Rating: out of 5
I never got what all the fuss was about with American Beauty. It was acclaimed as a serious commentary on mid-life crisis and suburban malaise but to me it was a cartoon story full of caricatures with unlikely relationships and unconvincing motivations - a little too close to American Pie for my liking.
Little Children is in similar terrain but it rings truer. The characters are more rounded and more interesting and the story has a lot more subtlety and nuance. And it’s a lot darker, a bit hectic at times, especially when you’re the only people in the cinema as we were the other night.
Mark Waters marked time at 7:25 pm on November 19th, 2006 | Add a comment .
