CURRENTLY…

I’m a bad blogger, please forgive me.

LISTENING TO:

CURRENTLY…

Sorry I’ve been crap at blogging lately. I’ll try to be better. Here’s a short one to keep things ticking over… recommendations always appreciated.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

Yuck - ‘Yuck’

Very taken by Yuck’s album… like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, it’s totally derivative but the songs are GREAT. Bits of the Pixies, Pavement, Sonic Youth. Great name, too.

JDIFF 2011: HIGHS AND LOWS

It’s been running for nine years, but 2011 marked the first time I’ve actually gotten around to attending some screenings at JDIFF. Apologies if the title of this post is misleading, since I only got around to four screenings – but it’s a start, right?

MINCE PIE-D AND GOGGLE-EYED

So it’s nose to the grindstone for most people today (for me, yesterday – nothing like waking up to an email wondering where a feature that you should have filed a week ago is), but most of my Christmas – the part that wasn’t spent eating too much and drinking too much – was spent in a lovely lazy bubble of film- and TV series-watching. In general, most of my spare time is eaten up by music, so it was good to get some quality screen time in.

MISCELLANEOUS

Another catch-up post. Apologies. I really just want an excuse to prove that I can spell ‘miscellaneous’.

The past few weeks have been a bit crazy for me, but I’ve managed to get to a few gigs and listen to a few albums (behaviour becoming of a music journalist, I’m sure you’ll agree), and even got to the cinema for the first time in months.

SHUTTERBUGS

Originally published in The Irish Times Magazine on Saturday, October 16th 2010

EVER HEARD OF Meiert Avis? Didn’t think so. How about Steve Barron? No? Well, jot those names down for your next pub quiz, because there may just be a question about Irish-born music-video directors. Avis is the man behind U2’s early videos ( I Will Follow, The Unforgettable Fire, With Or Without You ) as well as videos by some of the biggest names in music, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan included. Barron directed two of the most famous music videos of the 1980s – the revolutionary animation/live-action crossover Take On Me , and Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean – as well as videos by The Human League, Whitney Houston and David Bowie.

Yet Avis and Barron aside, there has never really been a tradition of innovative music video-making in Ireland. Now, however, thanks to the internet and the easy availability of high-end equipment, there are a group of young Irish filmmakers starting to make a splash.

MY SPACEBOOKITTER

I couldn’t fall asleep until a ridiculous hour last night, and for some reason ended up wandering around the deserted social network graveyard that is my MySpace account. I never use it anymore, but it was fun reading back through the messages (once I’d spent a good ten minutes cracking the password).

MISCELLANEOUS

Hi folks. Sorry I’ve been a bit rubbish at posting lately. House-hunting, work, and life in general have been getting in the way. I’m working on finishing my ‘Albums of the Noughties’ series and that should be up over the next week or so. In the meantime, I’ve been to some gigs over the last few weeks that I’ve enjoyed.