Just when you thought sillyness had left our shores for another summer, the Paddy Games comes along. It takes place on August 14th in Cork city and is open for registration.
The common man’s games, Paddy Games founding principle is taking silliness very seriously.
Events include Retro Running (i.e. Backwards running), Irish Dancing Hurdles and Mobile Phone throwing.
Fancy free entry to this year’s Electric Picnic in exchange with raising some cash for Temple Street Children’s Hospital? Check out the ‘Tour de Picnic‘ – essentially it’s a 90km charity cycle from Dublin to EP in Stradbally, Co. Laois. Raise €500 and you’re in. Info is available here.
The text shadow is becoming the glossy button effect of old in the web design world at the moment. More and more designers and developers are dabbling in the visual gems that CSS 3 affords despite the fact that CSS 2.1 spec has yet to be signed off. An article on A List Apart today highlights the dangers of ‘forking’ that this adoption of these proposes and offers the solution of a new JavaScript library called eCSStender.
I don’t know how I feel about this. While I agree that forking isn’t ideal I don’t think that loading pages with yet more JS libraries is the acceptable path to take either. What do you think? Will you be using eCSStender? Are you using CSS 2.1 and 3.0 properties yet?
So I’m down in the fair city of Cork lapping up some wonderful, diverse choral performances from choirs that have travelled from as far afield as Singapore and Japan and loving it.
I enjoyed the festival so much last year I decided to get stuck in and volunteer this year. If you can’t make it down to catch any of the live music you might like to keep track of things including results of the various national and international competitions via these channels:
Cork International Choral Festival page on Facebook
Here’s one of the most amazing performances I’ve seen so far – really looking forward to hearing them again later on this weekend. The University of Santo Tomas Singers from the Philippines:
Tomorrow afternoon I’m hitting the road to Cork for the choral festival. Yes I’ve been harping on about it here for a while but I love my choral music in all shapes and sizes and my ears will be completely spoiled this weekend.
I’ll be down there until Monday morning and getting as much of the festival in as possible. Thankfully, I have access to a much better camera than last year and will hopefully get some video clips up over the next few days as the performances roll on .
I can hardly believe that the May bank holiday and the Cork International Choral Festivalis upon us once again but it is and what a weekend it’s going to be!
The festival is in it’s 56th year and runs from Wednesday to Sunday next with a huge variety of choral styles and performances from all over the world taking part. A few weeks ago one or two people who were interested in going along this year asked me to give a heads up for what I think are the highlights and events worth going along to so now that the programme is out and tickets on sale here’s my quick guide to the cream of the crop for 2010:
Opening Gala Concert – A Tribute to Aloys Fleischmann
When: Wednesday 28th April 2010, 8pm, City Hall, Cork
Volalists from Cork (Fleischmann Choir) and Dachau (Liedertafel) join forces with the Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra for a spectacular performance at City Hall as part of the continuing Fleischmann Centenary celebrations. Read more about the programme here.
Scala
When: Thursday 29th April 2010, 8pm, City Hall
Scala are a 200-strong girls choir (ranging in age from 16 to 26) from Belgium who have gained huge popularity since their foundation by the Kolacny brothers in 1996. What started out as some vocal experimentation has given the choir a huge international reputation and fame as one of the world’s most popular “rock choirs”. The last time that Scala performed in Ireland was at the 2006 festival so don’t miss out on your opportunity to hear this wonderful contemporary, edgy and youthful sound!
The National Chamber Choir of Ireland : To Music
When: Friday 30th April 2010, 7.30pm, St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork
One of the country’s most distinguished and highly regarded choirs The National Chamber Choir of Ireland are attending this year’s festival as the Choir in Residence. They will be performing ‘To Music’ – the first of two cathedral shows on the bill for Friday evening – in the beautiful surroundings of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral. The programme will also feature two world première performances. More information on the evening’s repertoire is available here.
Evocations: Anuna
When: Friday 30th April, 10.30pm at the Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne (North Cathedral), Cork
One of Ireland’s most celebrated and internationally successful choirs will be giving the second of the cathedral performances on Friday night when they perform ‘Evocations’ – a collection of medieval and Celtic song.
Fleischmann International Trophy Competition
Where: Saturday 1st May, 3pm & 8pm, City Hall, Cork
At the heart of the festival is the prestigious Fleischmann International TrophyCompetition which is held in two parts on Saturday. The competition this year will feature choirs from Norway, The Philippines, Finland, The Czech Republic, Germany, Singapore, Japan and Ireland! If that doesn’t guarantee a fantastic array of choral performances and styles I don’t know what will! The Choir in Residence (The National Chamber Choir of Ireland) will also be performing on the day along with other international choirs. You can hear samples of each choir in action as well as review the running order of both heats of the competition here.
Closing Gala Concert
Where: Sunday 2nd May 2010, 8pm, City Hall, Cork
This event is probably the most fun, entertaining and enjoyable of all the programme as the choirs and conductors relax and let their hair down after with competition now behind them. Last year’s closing concert featured some of the most jaw-dropping choral performances I have ever heard so fingers crossed that this year will be just as spectacular. Find out more about who is taking part here.
So there you have it – my recommendations for a busy choral weekend in Cork city. There’s absolutely loads of events including public performances, seminars and workshops on all over Cork city and the suburbs so take a look at the day by day guide here to see what’s on.
Go grab your tickets so you don’t end up disappointed & hopefully see you there!
JDIFF kicks off this Thursday the 18th with Neil Jordan’s latest movie ‘Ondine’ setting the ball rolling on a very packed schedule of international film screenings.
The festival programme boasts over 120 movie screenings between February 18th and 28th including a special selection of films under the umbrella of ‘Michael Dwyer Season‘ as a tribute to the late co-founder of the festival. Other special highlights include a Kristin Scott Thomas Tribute, a Kenneth Anger Retrospective, the 2nd Annual Library Film Quiz, Celebrating VooDooDog and the Volta Awards.
It’s quite a hectic schedule but nicely laid out in their day-by-day programme on page 9 of the supplement which you can grab here.
Here’s a selection of the stuff that tickled my fancy:
I was delighted to see that Moore Street Masala is included in the Irish Film Board shorts screenings – my 30 seconds of Bollywood fame from a most gorgeous April morning last year rides again
Tickets are getting snapped up very quickly so hot foot it to the ticket office at Curved St, Temple Bar, buzz the ticket sales people on 016877974 or get them online at www.jdiff.com to sort your fix.
Just when you thought sillyness had left our shores for another summer, the Paddy Games comes along. It takes place on August 14th in Cork city and is open for registration.
