Category Archives: The Culch

Spark and Line Exhibition @ Gallery Zozimus

  By Peter | June 5, 2013 - 7:08 pm | Featured Post, The Arts
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heidi wickham, michael budd

Spark and Line, says sculptor Michael Budd is a joint exhibitionism with the illustrator Heidi Wickham that opened at Gallery Zozimus, Frances Street, Dublin, on the 23rd of May at 6pm and runs to the 7th of June. Heidi has based her work around images of the forge and my work in a response to how I feel working as an artist in Ireland today. This is the first time Heidi and I have worked together on a project and it has been extremely enjoyable. I love Heidi’s evocative, playful work. Attached are photos of Heidi and myself at the opening and one piece of Heidi’s work and acrylic painting called Blacksmith’s block. Also a photo of one of my sculptures, The Gift that keeps on oppressing, which is 500mm square and has over 30 meters of forged steel in it. 30 metres. Three. Zero. That’s wider than your house. … There’s more →

Feel the power(boating)

  By Anto | May 25, 2013 - 6:20 pm | Featured Post, The Culch
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cisne-branco-tallship

I was looking for an alternative gift for a friend last Christmas and came across a deal for powerboating with Adventure Training Ireland. The lads run city kayaking, powerboating and sailing from their base at North Wall Quay by the Jeanie Johnston. We booked in for last Saturday morning and on the stroke of 11am, made our way out onto the river for the two hour experience. Jonathan, our guide, ran us through the basics of powerboating and then handed the controls over to us. We cruised up the Liffey as far as the Ha’penny, getting to see a few bridges as we went but the low tide wouldn’t allow us to venture further. Turning around and heading for the harbour, we got some practice at slaloming through the dolphins that protect the Samuel Beckett bridge and passed the Lauren L luxury yaucht moored by Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. The … There’s more →

Competition: Tickets to Gardiner St Gospel Choir in concert

  By Anto | May 22, 2013 - 9:31 pm | Events, Featured Post, Gigs, Music, The Culch
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GSGC - Lift Your Voice

Peter posted about Gardiner St Gospel Choir’s upcoming gig in the O’Reilly Theatre and they’ve been in touch to offer us a pair of tickets to Friday’s gig (8pm, €15 with tickets here). As you know, the choir are launching their album Raise Your Voice, and raising much needed funds for Headway and Temple Street Children’s Hospital. They’ve also got some fantastic raffle prizes including; tickets to Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Delorentos, Robbie Williams, a digital camera, dinner vouchers, craft goods and lots more. COMPETITION CLOSED: Congrats to Hugh Fahey! Enjoy So, how do you win tickets? All you need to do is send us an email to competitions[at]culch.ie with the name of one of the album tracks (you’ll find them here) and make sure to include your name. We’ll choose a random winner tomorrow (23rd May) at 7pm. Best of luck!

A Good Day to avoid Die Hard

  By Darren Byrne | February 18, 2013 - 9:35 pm | Featured Post, Movies & TV, The Culch
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AGoodDayToDieHard002

This will be short. The film was so poor, it doesn’t deserve many words. However, I do feel the need to warn you off it. Bruce Willis’s latest visit to John McClane’s insane life is A Good Day to Die Hard. Presumably they couldn’t fit Sam Jackson or Justin Long into the budget, so this time McClane is joined by his son, poorly acted by Jai Courtney. There is no plot. No really, I looked and couldn’t find one. I did however find plenty of explosions and car chases and explosions and fire and jumping through CG windows and explosions. There was also a shed load of awful dialogue. If McClane said “I’m on vacation” one more time, I was going to hurl my overpriced Maltesers at the oversized IMAX screen. Life of Pi belongs in IMAX, The Dark Knight Rises belongs in IMAX, Prometheus, The Hobbit, Ghost Protocol, they … There’s more →

Tech: Microsoft Office 365

  By Culch.ie | February 4, 2013 - 11:37 am | The Culch, The Internet
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As part of the launch of Microsoft 365, Microsoft are talking about how technology in general helps people to save time and spend it with their families, relaxing or doing other worthwhile things. Not too sure about the marathons, housework or the social calendar for that matter. Of note also…. Surface Windows RT will be available from 14th February in Ireland as well as in twelve other European countries. With that Microsoft has more than doubled the number of countries in which Surface RT is sold and it can be purchased from Feb 14, 2013 in the Microsoft Store online www.microsoftstore.ie  Surface Windows RT will also be available in the coming weeks through retail in Ireland.

New Irish RADIO: 8Radio.com

  By niallok | January 31, 2013 - 10:32 am | Featured Post, Music, Radio, The Culch
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Simon Maher (2nd from right) with northern rockers "Therapy?"

That’s right, yes indeed, while there may be a veritable articulated truck-load of radio stations already populating the Irish FM and digital airwaves, vying for the attention of your poor, confused and battered ears, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for one more… does it?

New Irish Music: Superstar Tradesmen

  By Peter | January 15, 2013 - 9:56 am | Featured Post, Music, The Culch
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superstar tradesmen

Superstar Trademen are a Dublin based rock/ indie band made up of Connor Quinn, Brian Donnelly and Paul Moran. With gigs already under their belt in venues such as Whelans, the Academy, The Tara Rocks Festival and support to none other than Damian Dempsey, they are I think its fair to say [quite obviously] making fine tracks in the Irish music scene. Keep Writing by Superstar Tradesmen  That said, new Irish music is the title and that pretty much leaves the next bit over to you. In the go forth and listen department and highly recommended is the bands soundcloud page where you’ll find the likes of my favourite track Keep Writing and others like One Night Stand. More than that, the big Q has always been would I spend my hard earned dollars on their first album [?]: you’re damn right I would. Wanna find out more: Superstar Tradesmen … There’s more →

The Dicks Who Came In From The Cold

  By Anto | January 3, 2013 - 4:21 pm | Comedy, Featured Post, The Culch, The Internet
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Vultures_InTheNickOfTime3

As you may have read before, we’re fans of Irish internet sitcom ‘Vultures PI’, and the lads rounded out the final season with “The Dicks Who Came In From The Cold” last week. This series has dealt with the lads and their mundane lifestyles after retirement but are they about to be pulled back together to fight crime once again? This episode sees Janine Drew finally going through with her promise to quit college. After watching Janine’s detective documentary, crime novelist Kate Marple hires the ambitious young sleuth to help her write an expose of rumoured crime boss Johnny Curragh (guy you shouldn’t mess with). In the meantime, former dicks McGrain, Vultour and Tennyson have been brought together for a Christmas reunion by an unknown party. Everything comes to a head in this festive finale which should answer the question posed by the first episode of the new series ‘Where … There’s more →

Meeting Windows 8

  By Peter | December 18, 2012 - 6:18 pm | Gadgets, Podcasts, The Culch
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Meet Patrick Ward, Windows Business Group Lead for Microsoft Ireland. listen to ‘Patrick Ward, Windows8 lead, Microsoft Ireland’ on Audioboo Disclaimer of the blog world and etc’s come first and on that note my meet last week did not come via Culch.ie. Also Windows/ PCWorld gifted me a brand spanking new fandango Samsung All-in-one PC. And yes it is very lovely. Also very highly recommended. That aside and out of the way, if you wanna know about Windows8 – what better man to talk to than this fellow. Maybe of interest, I first trialed Windows8 well before its launch, with a demo first from Patrick and I was then left to my own devices on a Samsung Slate for a period of about 4 days. The Slate is pictured above top. Not much more required to type. Apart from a big thank you to PC World Jervis Street for the … There’s more →

5 Christmas Covers We’d Like To See…

  By David Sheehan | December 14, 2012 - 11:30 am | Featured Post, Music, The Culch
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ChristmasMusic

It’s that time of year again, the same old – mostly dire – collection of Christmas songs being played to death on the radio. What we really need is some reworking of these tired old tunes by some of those who made headlines in 2012… 1. Crystal Harris – All I Want For Christmas Is Hugh (Original by Mariah Carey) Or to give it its full title “All I Want For Christmas Is Hugh…Hefner’s Fortune”. It’s easy to make fun of the 86 year old’s planned marriage to someone 60 (SIXTY) years his junior….which is probably why so many media outlets have done just that. The old “So Debbie Magee, what first attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?” chestnut certainly springs to mind. Each new fiancée must feel like a slot on a roulette wheel, hoping Hef pops his clogs just after they tie the knot. All that being said, … There’s more →

Competition: NYE Dublin – This is what you should be doing

  By Darren Byrne | December 11, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Featured Post, Festivals, Gigs, Music, The Culch
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NYE Dublin Festival 2011 concert

I am mad about New Year (far more than Christmas itself). I buy into the symbolism of it – out with the old and in with the new. So, I love to mark each one differently. This year, now that I’ve returned to city centre living, I’m embracing the New Year in Dublin. NYE Dublin, Dublin’s New Year’s Festival, marks the start of The Gathering Ireland 2013! To celebrate, we’re offering 5 pairs of tickets to the NYE Dublin Countdown Concert, featuring the delicious Imelda May and the brilliant Bell X1. Dublin’s New Year Festival is even bigger this year and now that I’m living in city centre, there will be no better place than Dublin’s city centre streets to celebrate the arrival of 2013. Even Lonely Planet has named Dublin as one of the Top 5 places in the world to spend New Year, so you don’t want to … There’s more →

The Lion King Is Coming!

  By Micheál Murphy | December 10, 2012 - 4:45 pm | Featured Post, Performance Art, The Culch, Theatre
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TheLionKing001

Whether it’s Disney’s animated blockbuster or the world-renowned stage musical, everyone is familiar with the story and characters of The Lion King, as well as Elton John’s soundtrack with such memorable songs as ‘Circle of Life’, and ‘Can You feel the Love tonight’. The success story is such that 15 years later the stage musical is still running on both Broadway and the West End, and boasts being the highest grossing Broadway show of all time. AND IT’S COMING TO DUBLIN! Being a lover of musicals, I’ve tried to get tickets whenever I’m in London but it’s always sold out, which is a testament to its success and popularity. So when the tour comes to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre you can expect to find me begging, borrowing or stealing (albeit unlikely) a ticket from whatever source I can manage. If worst comes to worst, I might even buy one. … There’s more →

Spirit of Folk Festival 2012

  By Culch.ie | December 7, 2012 - 2:00 pm | Festivals, Music, The Culch
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As we come to the cold end of a very hectic year, a few of us are looking back over the highlight of our Summer season – anyone who has read culch regularly will know how much we loved Spirit of Folk. It’s a small festival with a big heart and, this year they managed to keep the same atmosphere and sense of community amongst the festival goers. Anto, Peter and Brian, who were there last year, were joined by Blots, Darren, Elly, Phillip and Sarah so this post will contain contributions from a few of us. A SOFF megapost if you will. Anto: I’d been in two minds about attending SOF last year. I didn’t know a lot about it and I wasn’t really up for a weekend of camping. In hindsight, I’m so glad I went and I’d been looking forward to the second year for months. This … There’s more →

Christmas FM 2012 is here

  By niallok | December 7, 2012 - 1:24 pm | Featured Post, Music, Music Videos, Radio
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christmas fm

It’s that time of year again… Christmas FM, the hugely popular Christmas music themed radio station which raises thousands of euros for charity every year is returning for another run this year – and this year they’re covering more of the country than ever before! New Culch.ie writer Niall O’Keeffe (that’s me!) will be presenting on the station (starting tonight!), which is based in the O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel in Dublin city centre and can be heard on FM in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Kildare and the South-East region as well as online via the web site & smartphone apps. This year, it’s sponsored by the EBS and Clothing.ie and will feature over 60 radio stars who are once again giving their time for free in order to help out a great cause – ISPCC Childline. Those presenting shows include old favourites such as Mike Moloney and Gerry Wilson, Keith Shanley and … There’s more →

Stars Come Out for Medal of Honor Launch

  By David Sheehan | November 28, 2012 - 3:30 pm | Games, The Culch
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Neil and Eamon McGee

The worlds of GAA and rugby collided in the Sky Suite on the seventh floor of the Radisson Blu in Dublin as one set of sporting brothers pitted their wits against another. All-Ireland winners Neil and Eamon McGee went head-to-head with Rob and Dave Kearney at the launch of EA’s Medal of Honor Warfighter. With all four men being keen gamers, testing out the latest addition to the Medal of Honor family was something they were only two happy to do. “Part of our job is that you’ve a lot of downtime, you can’t be out every night. There’s a lot of time spent on the couch resting up and just looking after yourself, so what better way to spend it than playing some EA games” said Rob Kearney. The McGee’s for their part also admitted a liking for the games. “Eamon would be more into the war games than … There’s more →