• 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

The Dicks Who Came In From The Cold

  By Anto | January 3, 2013 - 4:21 pm | Comedy, Featured Post, The Culch, The Internet
1 Comment
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
Comments Off

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
Comments Off
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
1 Comment
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
Comments Off
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
Comments Off

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
Comments Off
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
Comments Off
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 →

Competition Closed: Jack L and The 27 Club

  By Darren Byrne | November 28, 2012 - 12:53 pm | Competitions, Featured Post, Gigs, Music, Site News
2 Comments
JackL

*** Congratualtions to Laura Carroll *** *** who has won a pair of tickets to tonight’s show *** I‘ve said it many times before and I’m sure I’ll repeat it again and again – Jack L is incredible. He is my favourite Irish singer and I could listen to him forever. In his latest show, The 27 Club, the work of iconic artists such as Janis Joplin, The Doors, Robert Johnson, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, Echo & The Bunnymen, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana are interpreted. Few musicians set out to become legends, even fewer succeed. Yet by any standard musicians like Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain are legendary. Each left behind a lasting musical legacy, with songs that freeze forever a moment in time, speak for a generation, or simply give voice to the grief and grace of the human heart. In so many ways … There’s more →

Royseven talk Need for Speed Most Wanted, Nerds and X-Factor.

  By David Sheehan | November 28, 2012 - 10:50 am | Celebs, Featured Post, Music, The Culch
Comments Off
Need for Speed Most Wanted

It was in the plush surrounds of the Radisson Hotel Golden Lane that I caught up with the golden boys of the Irish rock scene – Royseven. Still fresh from the success of their album ‘You Say, We Say’, the likeable Dubliners had been invited along to sample EA’s latest release – Need for Speed Most Wanted. Keen gamers, it was something they were only too happy to do, and Culch.ie was only too happy to sit in on some inter-band sparring as lads discussed their console fetishes and plans for the future. Culch: So who is the best gamer? Paul: It’s probably Sam….well, Sam’s probably the most dedicated gamer in that he’s constantly online playing games! Sam: I grew up playing games, I had every console going from C64 to Amiga 500 then on to NES… Lego: My first was an Amstrad and you had to load it up … There’s more →

The Sodshow wins Best Podcast 2012

  By Anto | November 23, 2012 - 11:01 am | Podcasts, The Culch
1 Comment

You’ll forgive us if this entry isn’t an album or event review but we had to mark a big achievement by one of our contributors. The Sodshow, Ireland’s garden radio show and podcast, airs live every Friday at 3pm on Dublin City 103.2 Fm and is available around tea-time that evening in podcast. Winning the Best Irish Podcast at the Blog Awards Ireland 2012 recently, Peter Donegan had this to say: It’s great for Irish gardening and horticulture. The Sodshow is a great Irish-born and bred radio show and podcast for those that are serious about their horticulture as much as it is for those that simply like to sit on their garden bench. Gardening and gardens in whatever format you enjoy them should at a very minimum make you smile. The Sodshow very simply retells that story. We owe a massive note of thanks to The Sodshow sponsors Greensax.ie … There’s more →

My Time At A Festival: Spirit of Folk 2012

  By Peter | November 6, 2012 - 11:55 am | Festivals
Comments Off

I’m gonna have to start my look back on Spirit of Folk 2012 with this piece of audio that was a #soff12 Sodshow special. Textually, it really does save about 4 gizillion paragraphs of what if’s and Aimsir Modh Coinníollach‘s that we who were there in year one wondered about….. pre us getting there. Scroll to 5 mins 52 seconds: listen to ‘A Spirit of Folk Festival 2012 Special ’ on Audioboo Of the gig, the festival, my time there it’s tough to pick highlights. There were gigs and bands and people I heard talk; things I saw and people I met and by the time I realised that I should have recorded that in audio or in picture, that moment was gone and passed. It was that good and so very easy to simply get lost in time. Class example: Bunoscionn doing Trad Side of the Moon – yup, … There’s more →

Album Review: Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man

  By David Sheehan | October 23, 2012 - 10:00 am | Featured Post, Music, The Culch
Comments Off
BatForLashes003

Generally in life, the things that we least understand are the things that intrigue us the most – some of us anyway. David Lynch’s films, Lee Evans’ popularity, Paul Galvin’s dress-sense. I came upon Bat For Lashes – aka Natasha Khan – after the release of her second album, Two Suns. Lead single Daniel received some airplay on Irish commercial radio, providing some welcome respite from hearing Sex On Fire fifty times a day. So, having never been one to ‘wait til I hear the next single’ before deciding to buy an album – a policy which has seen me amass quite a number of duds over the years (The Hives, I’m looking at you) – I rushed out and bought Two Suns, along with its fellow Mercury-nominated predecessor, Fur And Gold. I wasn’t disappointed. Of the above, Two Suns was far more accessible and several tracks (Pearl’s Dream, Daniel, … There’s more →

Album Review: Cat Power’s Sun

  By David Sheehan | October 5, 2012 - 12:00 pm | Featured Post, Music, The Culch
Comments Off
new-image

We live in a world where even the most minor celebrity ‘crisis’ is blown up out of all proportion. I recently spotted the cover of Heat, or some similar publication, fretting about Cheryl (Cole or Tweedy, whatever you’re having yourself) and her 3am dash to McDonalds. Viewed through any prism, Chan Marshall’s story is one of bona fide tragedy and turmoil. Marshall – Cat Power to you and me – has endured a tumultuous life for almost all of her forty years. She grew up with a family heavily immersed in alcoholism, while still living in her native Atlanta in the mid-1990s, her then-boyfriend died. This was the first of a number of setbacks for the some-time actress, model and charity worker. Drug and alcohol addiction and on-stage meltdowns followed. An achingly honest 2006 interview with Spin, done just after Marshall had emerged from a spell in a psychiatric ward, … There’s more →

Games Review: FIFA 13 (Xbox 360)

  By Anto | October 1, 2012 - 9:36 pm | Featured Post, Games, The Culch
1 Comment
fifa-13-2

“Predictable unpredictability”. That’s what FIFA Lead Producer, David Rutter, picked out as the defining feature of FIFA 13 when we interviewed him back in May. It’s got to be difficult for the EA teams working on annual titles like FIFA to give punters something to justify the yearly outlay but, whilst 13 may not be as big a step on as 12 was, the unpredictability and realism is a key strength here. Gameplay There’s been a number of game engine improvements. First up is the revised First Touch mechanic, which is significantly different to previous titles. This means that even particularly talented players are no longer guaranteed to control the ball upon receiving it as it may be a bad pass or they may be under pressure. The attacking AI has also been revised in that players will bend and delay runs to ensure they get the best opportunity to … There’s more →