Culch.ie

Please help promote the Zombie Apocalypse. Please. Oh dear god, please.

It’s no secret that here at Culch.ie, we’ve been huge fans of the irritatingly talented Devious Theatre troup for a number of years. Not only are they brave enough to stage the likes of Cannibal: The Musical, Trainspotting, War of the Worlds (as well as a considerable amount of original material), they manage to do it well. More than well – these guys are brilliant. Every actor and actress in the group are skilled, diverse and rivetting to watch. The direction is always inspired and they have mastered the very difficult skill of making sure a shoestring budget does not stop them from creating an incredible show.

Their next big project is something I’m particularly excited about.  They are performing a brand new stage version of George A. Romero’s classic horror, Night of the Living Dead, from 24th – 28th July at the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. It will be the first time any version of the work has been performed in Ireland. 

The original 1968 movie is one of the greatest horror movies of all time and regarded as the template for political commentary in horror cinema. It also gave birth to what has become known as the ‘zombie’ genre of movies.  This production is written by Devious Theatre’s own John Morton and Connie Walsh and uses the original script by George A. Romero and John A. Russo as a jumping off point.

…Click here to read more…

Movie Review: Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows

I should probably throw down my thoughts on Dark Shadows as quickly as possible – the more I think about the film, the more flaws I find to pick at and the the more that initial lustre of having seen a shiny new film fades to a dull, tarnished some-film-I-once-saw shade.

Dark Shadows was a groundbreaking 60s and 70s gothic soap opera that has amassed a cult following over the years. Attempted revivals on television in the nineties and naughties fell flat, but with fans such as Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, it was only a matter of time before we would see them bring it to the big screen.

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Interviews: All in Good Time – Nigel Cole and Cast

When you look at the poster for All in Good Time after viewing the film, you will genuinely feel that this heartwarming tale is being sold short as a comedy in its tagline.  The latest film from director Nigel Cole of Saving Grace and Made in Dagenham fame, a reworking of the play written by Bill Naughton, will charm you far more than you will expect.  And that twist?  Yes, it’s definitely a game changer.  We were lucky enough to catch up with the cast and crew last week in London ahead of their 11^th of May release date.

On entering the room Nigel Cole enquires, “are you going to ask me why did I decide to make a film that was a play?” Me: No. Nigel “Ah yes you have ten minutes then”.

 Your background was strongly grounded in documentary and current affairs, why the move into feature film?  Was this something you have always wanted to do?

 Nigel Cole:  All I have ever wanted to do is tell stories and work with actors.  I had worked in the theatre a little bit; I wanted to be an actor.  I just wasn’t very good.  (Laughs)  It seemed like a small thing but you know…  I don’t think I looked like a movie star.  That was a bit disappointing.  I spent a long long time failing to tell stories with actors.  I didn’t mind if it was television drama or what it was.  My aim had always been to make good TV drama.  I got out of university thinking this is what I will do.  Ten years later, I still hadn’t achieved it.  I had done everything!  Location manager, Assistant Director, Driver, Producer, Production Manager, I had every bloody job in the film industry!  I had not persuaded anyone to let me direct.  I was almost close to giving up.  I had been doing commercials, I had done these documentaries, nothing quite got me any closer.  One day I managed to persuade a wonderful woman called Michelle Butler to let me direct an episode of Peak Practice and although it was series six of a very long running TV series, it was like I had King Lear!  Somebody died in the episode and people cried!  I approached it like it was a movie, like it was my life’s ambition to make it great.  I got spotted just from this one episode of Peak Practice and by the end of the year I was doing the first series of Cold Feet. 

 I loved Cold Feet…

 NC:  It was a gift!  It was one of those great shows.  It was beautifully written and had a great cast.  I always wanted to be a storyteller and I was well into my 30’s before I achieved it.  And out of Cold Feet, I got this TV film for Sky Television called Saving Grace.  I didn’t even think of it as a movie, it was a full length TV film.  20^th Century Fox decided to release it in cinemas here.  We took it to Sundance and at the time I didn’t even know what Sundance was!  Within 48 hours the movie was a hit.  We sold it for a fortune, I can’t remember how much.  Several million dollars, I think.  And then we win a prize!  Overnight, I went from completely unknown TV director to an international movie director overnight.  It’s like someone just said, “you’re in.”  I went straight from Sundance to L.A. and hung out in Hollywood for a few months.  I couldn’t quite believe that. 

…Click here to read more…

Competition Closed: Jeff-fah-fah Dunham in the O2 Dublin

*** Competition Closed – Winners will be notified shortly ***

*** Congratulations to Colin, Gary, Dave and Caroline ***

I am a huge fan of Jeff Dunham. Yes, like everyone else, I fell in love with that cookie little go-getter, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, long before I knew that Jeff Dunham likes to stick his hand up a variety of characters, but he has grown to become one of my all time favourite comedians. I love his Comedy Central specials, I own the DVDs and I even have an Achmed doll. Yeah, I’m that guy.

So…I was thrilled to hear he’ll be in the O2 Dublin this Saturday on his Controlled Chaos tour with all of his usual friends Walter, Bubba J, Achmed, Peanut and José the Jalapeño on a Steeeek and a few more besides. I can’t wait.

If you fancy joining us on Saturday, I have a few pairs of tickets to give away. Just drop us an email to competition@culch.ie with your full name and a contact number. The competition closes on Thursday, so spread the word swiftly. We’re also on Facebook and Twitter.

If you don’t win, tickets are still available on Ticketmaster.ie at €49.50.

Mad Men Episode Reviews: A Little Kiss (5; 1)

Mad Men returned to our shores (albeit courtesy of an imported UK channel) this week and I now find myself with a week in between to mull the complexities of the episodes. In the spirit of embracing US TV terminology, the season premiere took a moment to catch on; I felt uneasy reacquainting myself with the characters, worrying for a minute that in Season 4 the sheen might slip. I was always catching-up, courtesy of box sets and had inhaled the episodes at pace and re-watched with anyone willing to road test the series. There were never any suggestions that quality had faded – what if now that I was to watch and discover along with the rest of the baiting TV audience and find the stories were stretched, the characters exhausted. The pace seemed off in early scenes – period details are being observed, civil rights are on queue to offer various highs, lows and parallels as the season progresses and life had continued for all, but where was the significance, the early sweep of foot that heralded back Mad Men with a bang? It didn’t come but I was silly to look for it, I should have known better than to think we would have some easily spoon-fed season opener and as events progressed, the episode swelled to a wonderful re-visiting of all the dynamics at play and affirmation that their story is far from through. 

Harking back to the close of Season 4 I couldn’t but wonder whether history was repeating itself in how Don’s latest engagement and presumed marriage was coming to be; Melanie was hopeful, charming and appealed to Don is ways that probably even he can’t explain but that certainly put him at ease – had Betty been this type of person when they first met, did she seem the perfect role-model wife which Don thought might fit the life he wanted to construct? What had gone wrong and would the same fate befall Melanie? Getting to know Melanie this episode, now recently the third Mrs. Draper, she seems no less complex than any of the women she shares screen time with by virtue of being at odds with them in their thinking and problems, but she is distinguishable from Betty by attaching herself to a liberating future to come, rather than the constrained strictures and maternal shadow Betty has always struggled with. Don has put his trust in her, revealing some if not all of his Dick Whitman past, and while they are instinctively drawn to each and do work, there is still an uncertainty when at peace and in conflict as to how to engage with each other. The outright highlight of the episode, in one full of many lights, is a moment between the two, after a surprise birthday party of mixed results where Don refers to his Whitman self and Melanie asserts, not in an intentionally hurtful way, that no one loves Dick Whitman. The sudden change to Jon Hamm’s face is masterful; it exposes Drapers unending ability to process the ties to his past , his new wife’s words telling his story in a nutshell, the man he was, at ease with in California looking for jobs to fix cars and re-paint living rooms and nobody loves this version of him. 

The full treatment of all characters in the opening episode is a prime grounds to suggest this show belongs to more than Draper: Joan is out of her depth as a single mother, missing a husband not all that pleasant to be around, Pete has all the pieces of his life in place, akin to Don 4 seasons earlier yet still can’t command the control he wants, Peggy is at her best in the confines of the office and Lane is circling the liberty a State-side existence offers him. A wonderful sequence sees Joan re-visiting the office, helming baby but looking to reassure herself that she has a part to play in the office. All the interplays work; Pete and Peggy awkwardly left with a buggy; Joan letting down her defences in conversation with Lane and of course Roger, king of the quip, dropping either knowing or unknowing clunkers about his baby. The histories these people share is prime for more story and Mad Men has made a sure-footed return. 

Some thoughts:

What of Betty? Can she find relevance (and fans) being so disconnected from events on Madison Avenue?;

How strong a theme will the issue of race play in the episodes to come?;

Can Lane please do a silly dance every episode?;

Peggy: “I don’t recognize that man. He’s kind and he’s patient.” – where two for Peggy and Don and their camraderie with Melanie now under Peggy’s stewardship. 

Sea Sessions 2012 Non-music, Fun bits!

So, we’ve been looking up the treats on offer ahead of our summer trip to Bundoran, and if you thought Sea Sessions was purely the choons and the sandy sambos you were dead wrong! The festival also incorporates surf and sports events to boot and will host the UK and Ireland’s only Association of Surfing Professionals European specialty event. The more we hear about it, the more we can’t wait to get to Donegal this June to experience the likes of this stuff. Take a look, because a lot of requires advance booking.

The Barefoot Wine Expression Session: 29^th June–1^st July

Taking place during the festival weekend the ‘Barefoot Wine Expression Session with Billabong’ has €3000 worth of prizes including an 11 day sumatrian ‘Surf-cruise’ worth €2200 for best Irish Surfer. The main event will feature an event of Europe’s Top Waveriders! The event will be captured on video and posted online. But the event itself has very limited entry. You don’t just rock in folks so if you’ll be at Sea Sessions and are interested in getting involved drop them an email at seasessionssurf@gmail.com.

Barefoot Retro Surf: 30^th June

Retro Surf is on the Saturday of the festival weekend and is free for all surfers to take part in regardless of proficiency. The emphasis here is more on style than substance and capturing the sixties vibe of surf parties on the beach. There’ll be lots of prizes so it’s definitely worth checking out, even for the non-pros. You do have to request entry via email though their gmail address seasessionssurf@gmail.com

Now I’m no surfer but the Retro Surf event sounds like something I’d definitely don a floral shirt, grab a few cold drinks and head down to the beach to catch. Sounds like a perfect spectacle to entertain a slightly tender festival goer the morning after the opening night?

Barefoot Beach Olympics

Ah, now here’s something that’s more my bag. Maybe yours too, if you’re not too adept at that surfing lark. The Beach Olympics are Bundoran’s answer to London 2012. Held across the weekend the 2012 Sea Sessions Barefoot Beach Olympics will feature spot prizes and the title of Sea Sessions 2012 Olympian. Which leads us on nicely to…

Barefoot Beach Sports

Run by local clubs there’s €500 on offer for the winning beach soccer, beach tag rugby and (new to this year) beach handball teams! Definitely worthwhile entering if you’re heading up to Bundoran with a few mates from your team of whatever your chosen sport. And as we all know sand makes the fun, well, sandier… This is always hugely popular part of the weekend so register your team or your team place by emailing the lads on seasessionsbeachsports@gmail.com.

 If the line-up hadn’t already convinced you, we reckon the sports-related craic should. See you on the beach!

Weekend tickets for Sea Sessions 2012 are just €88.50. Day tickets Fri/Sat/Sun are €50.

Livesets

Sometimes Culch/the Format collaborator Gerard Walsh has been working away on a side project for some time that he calls ‘Livesets’. The premise is simple he solicits local bands and song writers looking for a video to be made of them performing acoustically outdoors around Dublin – Temple Bar, Grand Canal etc. Busking to you, the viewer.

The result is roughly three minute, single shot performances. Filmed in HD the post-production is gorgeous with subtle colouring and focus blur. I like them. Then again I may be biased because I happen to think Mr Walsh is pretty insanely talented. I’ll let you decide. So far there have been a total of eight Livesets videos from five different musicians / musical groups and Gerard is always on the hunt for more. See below for my top 3 fave.

The Youtube channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/LIVESETSWMM/videos with a combined total of hits for all the videos of over 10k this is definitely something to consider getting in touch with Gerard about if you’re a Dublin-based band interested in getting some exposure.

Twitter – @gertgwtc

Champion Jim – A Party of Our Own

Seán Riddick – We Had The Snow

Diana Baciu and Vanessa O’Reilly – Your Love Never Fails

Event: Dr. Sketchy’s Dublin and Molly Crabapple

Molly Crabapple is an award-winning New York artist, author and all round kickass lady whose Victoriana-steampunk-Rococo work has appeared in places like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Marvel comics. Forever finding ways to fund and create personally fulfilling art projects, in September of last year she locked herself into a hotel room for a week, covered the walls in paper and filled every available square foot with her gorgeous, intricate brand of art. The project was called Molly Crabapple’s Week In Hell, it was funded by myriad backers on Kickstarter, and has since been turned into a book. Not one to stay idle for long, right now she’s in the middle of Shell Game, another Kickstarter-funded project, this time an art show inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the assorted global economic disasters, which will result in nine huge paintings that will deal with themes such as Greece, Anonymous, bankers and the American healthcare system.

…Click here to read more…

Game Review: FIFA Street

If there’s one sport franchise that was well overdue a reboot, it was FIFA Street. The original game, released in 2005, and it’s subsequent titles weren’t really taken seriously and they were quite cartoonish. The past five years has seen a major shift in football games with the rise of FIFA as the dominant, accurate simulation (for my money anyway). The advances they’ve made in terms of player models, game engine, variety and depth are really something to be admired and they’ve brought that passion to the reboot of Street.

The focus here is all about individual ball skills, trick dribbling, faking out opponents and building up fluid momentum while moving the ball up pitch. The controls are similar to the main FIFA franchise and the left-stick, for example, is used for flicking the ball around to produce heel-chops, feints and step-overs. Some practice and rotating it in set patterns produces pirouette moves, rainbow flicks and a host of other nifty tricks. When you get a flowing move together and score, it’s a fantastic feeling as everything is tight and contained. Defending isn’t easy either and you’ll need to stick to your opposing number like glue. There’s no slide tackles but you can execute standing tackles to barge and put them off balance. Street has inherited the tactical defending system plugged into FIFA 12 so players under AI will contain and jockey too.

This isn’t a shallow game and has the type of depth we’ve come to expect from its big brother. The World Tour mode offers a mixture of challenges and tournaments and lets you build a team as you go, levelling up and it blurs the line between online and offline too, downloading the real teams of other players to fill out your campaign. There’s multiplayer with online divisions and cups (I’ve had some crackingly close games) so you’ll spend many an hour there. There’s also different types of games. There’s basic 5-a-side and 6-a-side options in walled arenas, Futsal (no walls, bigger goals and fouls are penalised – they never are elsewhere), Last Man Standing (each time you score you lose a player and the winner is the team reduced to zero first), and Panna, a 2-on-2 mode where you earn points each time you beat an opponent and then bank them by scoring in a small net.

There’s no doubt that this is the street football title we’ve been waiting for. It’s got all the polish and panache of FIFA 12 and erases the memory of the shallow past attempts at providing a companion for the 11-a-side titles. Highly recommended.

Festival: Spirit of Folk launch 2012

Myself and Peter popped along to the Spirit of Folk festival launch last week in Whelans. We were treated to a brilliants night of entertainment with TRAZ, Bunoscionn, The Young Folk and The Hot Sprockets. We had a chat to Martin & Natasha Duffy who are behind the festival on what they have in store for 2012:

Tickets are on sale now with day tickets for €35 and a weekend one for €65/family €120. You can find them at spiritoffolk.com, on Facebook here and Twitter at: @spirit_of_folk

The Format: Sea Sessions Launch 2012

We recently headed down to the Workman’s Club for the launch of this year’s Sea Sessions Surf & Music festival. The Bundoran beach fest takes place from June 29th to July 1st and this year features one of its best line-up’s to date. Complete with must-see recommendations from the likes of Phantom’s Derek Byrne, Goldenplec‘s Aidan Cuffe and the Indo’s Aidan Coughlan, here’s our festival preview.

Comedy: Vultures

You like to laugh don’t you? Of course you do, you dirty bitch. Well pay attention because this may make you do just that. If it doesn’t? Well we don’t know what to tell you.

Irish detective web-series Vultures returns with a new series to your local computer screen. Probably the one you are looking at right now. Aye, we see ye.

We at Culch.ie love a good detective story particularly one with the word ‘dicks’ in the title. The new episode features student detective Janine Drew as she makes a documentary about unemployed detectives in Ireland and tries to find out what happened to the former dicks of Vultures Private Investigations. Starring Suzanne O’Brien (Janine Drew), Sean Hackett (Niall Tennyson), John Morton (Jim Vultour) and David Thompson (Dan McGrain) it’s worth a look. The first of four; episodes will go online monthly between now and June.

Produced by Mycrofilms, Vultures has been widely acclaimed since its online debut in late 2007. One of the first Irish webcoms produced, it frequently rests at the top of the comedy video podcasts chart on iTunes. The team have been shortlisted for the Digital Comedy Lab. Rest assured this is a big deal. The winning projects (one from Ireland and one from the UK) will be announced at Cannes Film Festival this year and will receive a budget of €50,000 to make their own original ‘mockumentary’ feature film. Get them.

You can watch Vultures on www.vulturesPI.com, you can subscribe to their feed via iTunes and you can follow their YouTube channel www.youtube.com/VulturesPI.

Jacob’s Creek ‘Wine & Dine Experience’ Roadshow

Fancy joining the Jacob’s Creek ‘Wine & Dine Experience’ Roadshow for free dinner and matched wines? It takes place take over the following dates: Dublin 27th March (myself and Darren will be there), Cork 4th April, Galway 19th April and Waterford 26th April. To request a reservation at these special culinary events, logon to facebook.com/jacobscreekireland and enter your details on the ‘The Wine and Dine Experience’ tab or email jacobscreek@idl.ie with Jacob’s Creek ‘Wine & Dine Experience’ in the subject line, your name, date of birth (as drinks will be served), and contact details for you and a guest. Also please include which county event you would like to attend. Places are limited and guests will be chosen at random.

Do Over: Big

One of the most confusing things about Big is Josh’s wish.

“I wish I were big”

Not “I wish I was an adult” or “I wish I looked like that bloke from Splash! – his face is exceptional”. No. He wants to be ‘big’.

Of course they had to work the movie title in somewhere but it’s an odd choice of words. “I wish I were big” could easily be interpreted as “I wish my underpants were a little tighter” but one would doubt that would merit a PG rating. Perhaps Josh meant “I wish I was 7ft 11” which makes more sense since Josh was turned away from a theme park ride because he was too short. I digress.

Big (1988), if you somehow managed to skip childhood, tells the story of young Josh Baskin. Whilst at a funfair, Josh makes the aforementioned wish at a machine called ‘Zoltar Speaks’. It is scary beyond all reason. The next morning, Josh awakes as a 30 year old Tom Hanks. His mother is absolutely horrified that Tom Hanks is in her house and naturally assumes that he has kidnapped her son and put on his pyjamas as a symbol of victory. Josh, with the help of his best mate Billy, rents a shitty hotel room and gets a data entry job at MacMillan Toy Company. Because apparently getting a job is that easy. Being the child that he is, Josh demonstrates to the MacMillan boss his knowledge of toys and enthusiasm for the products and subsequently gets promoted to company toy tester. Meanwhile, Josh attracts the attention of Susan, a toy executive with a large stick rammed up her bottom and an icky romance between the two blossoms. Hilarity ensues. At the end, having confessed to Susan that he is not actually Tom Hanks after all, Josh suggests that Susan wish to become a child herself. Susan says no. No doubt Josh made a very sad diary entry that night.

…Click here to read more…

Festivals: Titanic Lockdown 2012

We won’t lie. News of the Titanic Lockdown Festival made us genuinely concerned we’d piss ourselves with excitement.

Launching Belfast’s Titanic celebrations on the 31st of March; Titanic Lockdown is billed as a ‘boutique’ festival in the heart of the docks. The (FREE!) daytime programme will feature an indoor village with street art, urban sports demos, fashion & jewellery making workshops, ‘Stare Wars’ (Que?), Wii Olympics, Magic, Face painting, Fire & Light Shows, DJ sets, live performances from leading local acts and a continental food market.

The day events are taking place between 12pm and 6pm at T13, the enormous skate park/cultural space building in the Titanic Quarter. Come 7pm, ticket holders can see performances from Roots Manuva, Gilles Peterson, London’s Soul Jazz Sound System and many more to be announced. That’s not bad for £25 eh?

The outdoor events take place under the great big yellow Harland & Wolff cranes, Samson & Goliath, on the 1st and 2nd June 2012. With confirmed acts including Happy Mondays, Anna Calvi, Ghostpoet, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Error, Factory Floor and NEW effin ORDER (hence the aforementioned excitement); this will be a unique concert experience for all who can be arsed to make the trip.

Early bird passes for the dates in June will be exclusively available at the March 31st Launch Festival. Weekend passes for June will go on general release on Monday 2nd April via www.titanic-lockdown.com and Ticketmaster.

We’ll see you there – you’ll know it’s us as we’ll be the ones with faces covered in sauce having ate so much we’re ashamed of ourselves.