I’m not sure what it is exactly about this song that makes me associate it with lazy Sunday afternoons. Maybe it’s the nostalgic vibes of Sunday radio or imagery of the seaside and watching sunsets reminding me of home.
Whatever it is, it’s one of my Sunday songs and I love it.
In case you haven’t been anywhere within sight of Dublin’s Liberty Hall by night lately, you won’t have seen messages scrolling along its’ facade telling you to go to www.daft.ie/playhouse and animate Liberty Hall.
Playhouse is a project that’s running as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival which takes place in Dublin from September 24th to October 11th, sponsored by Daft.ie.
“Powering the display are 100,000 low-energy LED lights, installed into 330 windows on the south and west faces of the building. These lights can illuminate each window as a solid colour turning it into a tiny pixel that’s part of a giant display.”
The most awesome thing about this project is that you and I can get the creative juices flowing and make an animation that will be brought to life on the face of Liberty Hall. You just need to grab yourself the lovely easy-to-use app from the (sexy) website, animate away to your hearts’ content and submit your creation. There’s even a video importer option and a processing app available if you’re feeling a bit more ambitious! Check them all out there.
I was lucky enough to be at the launch of Playhouse a few weeks ago when we got to see some sample animations brought to life on the building and it looked fabulous. I never thought I’d ever call Liberty Hall “beautiful” but I stand corrected. – for 2 weeks at least it will be a sparkling gem on the Dublin skyline. Simply can’t wait!
Here’s a wee video Darragh took on the night to give you a flavour of what to expect, questionable soundtrack aside 
So the the fabulous Absolut Fringe festival is coming to a close this Sunday the 20th 
I’ve been lucky enough to catch a variety of shows over the past 2 weeks and on a whole they’ve been fantastic, particularly La Clique, Group Therapy for One, Point Blank, Pregnant (review coming later) and Cirque de Legume.
If you’ve yet to sample the delights of the Fringe, here’s some suggestions for the weekend ahead:
See you out there
I ended up at the Sol ‘Sunshine Revolution Party‘ at The Odeon (thanks to Christian) and I was hugely impressed by the event. Some complimentary Sol (naturally) and tapas and kick-ass live bands including The Chapters (above).
The video doesn’t really do them justice and while I have to admit they do sound like a hybrid of Kings of Leon and Republic of Loose, they rocked the place.
They’ve got a new website on the way but for now you can say hi and check them out on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
Last night I caught 2 Absolut Fringe shows at Filmbase, one theatre and one variety. Here’s my thoughts on both:
Broken Croí – Heart Briste
“Manchán Magan is a disillusioned Gaeilge fanatic seeking revenge for the death of the language on his star pupil, a lonely 18 year old dancer. He offers the audience an opportunity to redeem the situation by answering some simple questions.”
Sitting before Gaeilgóir agus múinteor Manchán Maga while the cúpla focail were being thrown at the audience took me right back to my schooldays, back to the dreaded Gaeilge lessons in the seomra ranga. Manchán is fanatical and obsessed with the Irish language which proves to be both a little scary and funny at the same time, much like the teanga Gaeilge itself.
Enter “Cailín” – star pupil, moody teenager & troubled daughter all in one Max Factor-ed package. The Irish class descends into a series of arguments and exchanges between the two characters with Manchán desperately trying to understand the “trína chéile” mind of his teenage daughter.
Eva O’Connor who plays “Cailín” gave a superb performance in what was overall a good show but some aspects of it just didn’t appeal to me. While it posed interesting questions around language, communication and relationships I felt it suffered from what I call the “Tommy Tiernan effect” – just a bit too much unecessary swearing and vulgarity.
It’s at Filmbase every night at 7 until the 19th.
Crash Test Cabaret
“From the glitz of a glitterball to the grain of a security tape, comedy and zeitgeist culture collide in this shiny cabaret lucky-dip. Seasoned performers and virgin talents collaborate to create something you’ve never seen before.”
Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with Crash Test Cabaret. The promise of random cabaret acts, audience participation and on-the-spot creativity somehow made me expect a lot more than I got for my few bucks last night.
The highlight of the show was the act “Red Wine” who came from the audience and provided some light relief in the form of a song set to some rather lovely guitar picking. Two of the lowest points for me included seeing an audience member being made topless and left on stage while a “feminist” treated us to some less than entertaining rap while one of the cast spent the entire show moving around the audience taking photos with his large, annoying and downright painful flash (we were sitting in darkness for crying out loud!!!).
Some seemed to love it, I sadly was not one of those. Crash Test Cabaret = crash and burn.
If you fancy a go, it’s at Filmbase at 9 until the 17th.