Roisin Kiberd

Why Karl Keeps His Shades On

Tue, 01 May 2012 07:25:26 -0400

Did I ever actually post the Slideshare of my panel at SXSW?

No. Better late than never, I guess… Enjoy:)

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:26:10 -0400

The Inanimate Carbon Rod. Without a doubt.

A 100 word play: Reverse psychology telemarketing

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:05:15 -0400

‘Hello?’

‘Hi, I’m looking for Dooleybog Regional Insurance, the best service for equine and agricultural vehicle insurance in the Dooleyford region.’

‘Sorry, what?’

‘Dooley Bog Regional Insurance. Tractor insurance.’

‘This is the wrong number.’

‘Oh, alright. I just wanted the best.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Discounted initial payment, wheel combustion insurance, and they cover precipitation, intervention of unhinged cattle… They cover cattle, too, actually. Hoof rot, calf scours, lumpy jaw, grass tetanus…’

‘I don’t need this.’

‘What?’

‘You’re trying to sell me something.’

‘No, I’m just looking for insurance.’

‘Goodbye.’

My AdNews SXSW piece I ended up being part of a series written...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:50:46 -0400

My AdNews SXSW piece

I ended up being part of a series written by iris people taking part in SXSW, and got to write this piece summarizing my panel, ‘Why Karl Keeps his Shades On’. They rather hilariously ended up running my Twitter profile picture alongside.

The rest can be found at the AdNews website, though it has a pay wall so I’m guessing only ad folk and industry types will really get to read it. So it goes, I suppose…

talking to strangers on the Central Line

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:28:00 -0500

So something deeply and amazingly strange happened to me this afternoon. I took the Central Line out to Notting Hill to give some books to the book exchange. It’s been really stormy outside, and I’ve been really busy and stressed, and I was all-round generally pissed off at the Tube and the weather and just about everything else.

I get to the steps, the ones from Notting Hill Gate leading down into the Tube, and someone beside me says ‘It’s really cold.’

My usual approach is to give people the benefit of the doubt and return pleasantries.

‘Yeah’. Smile and nod.

This person continues. I’ve not turned my head to look at them.

‘I mean, i just got back from Japan, and it was warm there, and now I’m back and… brr…’

They’re really going on.

Smile, nod. ‘Yeah, it’s fairly windy today’.

‘Pardon?’

Oh god, this person wants a conversation.

‘I said it’s really windy out.’

‘Oh yes, it is.’

We keep walking, and I am painfully aware that this person is walking directly next to me. This could be some old lunatic trying to follow me home, or the prelude to a really cack-handed mugging.

I’ve decided to just keep walking, and eventually, if he decides to follow me down the escalator too, I can just dart away on the platforms and lose him.

‘You need to be more positive.’

He says this. I look to my right and it’s an old man, Indian, I think. He’s wearing very plain, very normal clothes, and has a beanie hat and a clear plastic bag hanging from one hand, containing a six-tray of eggs.

I look at him. First thought, lunatic. Second thought, cult member looking for converts.

‘Sorry?’

‘You have a lot of positivity, you should do something creative with it.’

‘What?’

‘Yes but you need to avoid the negative thoughts. We all have them. Negative thoughts can be dangerous. It’s like the brain, people only using ten percent of your brain, you know? Keep positive thoughts, because they can be really powerful.’

I’m kind of stunned and all I can say is ‘yes’. And I’m smiling but it’s a lot more genuine now. The strangest part of this whole thing is the guy sounds like he knows exactly what he’s saying. He doesn’t sound even remotely mad.

‘You’re going through a very confused time right now. Very emotionally confused. But stay positive.’

I look at him in the eye. Sane.

‘That’s.. that’s all true.’

I say this. It’s all I can think. It’s true. It could be true of anyone, and right now it’s especially true of me.

We’re silent a while.

‘Thanks’.

‘That’s ok’.

He’s smiling. I smile back and leave and get back on the Central Line, and I feel lightheaded all the way down the escalator, and onto the train where I sit down, and it’s only when that feeling blends into ear popping from being so far under Liverpool Street that I start to make sense of the whole thing.

This guy could be well-known as a madman or a guru or a well-meaning freak. I don’t know the area well enough. And London is full of such people, more than any other place I’ve been. Calcutta has enlightened screaming preachers and eunuchs in pink dresses. Cambridge has hopeless aggressive Big Issue salesmen with tattooed faces. In Dublin, every street has its town drunk.

But London is different, in that the crazies frequently go among us, and it’s only on YouTube that they show up spewing racism in Tube carriages or bursting through bus doors.

Still, I think this was sort of different, in that whether or not this guy was mad, he was speaking a lot of sense. I’ve been very confused, very busy, ever since moving to this city, and I’ve questioned my decision to live here a lot in recent months. And for someone to offer this guidance, wholly un-asked for, at a time when I badly needed it meant a lot to me.

It’s true of everyone. We do need to think positive thoughts, and by practising what he preaches the Notting HIll impromptu guru has won at least one new convert.

I wanted so badly to pass this on. Not that we should speak to every crazy on the Tube. But that we should remember to be understanding of each other, and to be kinder to ourselves.

Will you speak German for me?

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:35:58 -0400

NEIN

My Twitter Was Hacked. Sucks for Me.

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:49:00 -0400

It’s rather a retro experience. And a new one, for me. I’ve never been hacked before. It’s embarrassing and annoying, yes, but at least at the end you’ve learned something and you get a shiny new password.

Ever since I capitulated and bought my darling Macbook I’ve not given much thought to firewalls. But I fail to think about the most obvious things; hacking doesn’t have to be your computer, it’s most often on networks like Twitter and Facebook where the personal damage is less, but the reputation damage is devastating. I think most of us were too clever to fall for the ‘people are viewing your profile, find out who!’ one on Facebook. This one is much more concise and swift-acting. It’s only minutes later you and all your friends have been spammed and you too have become a member of the ‘itwitier’ club for ‘itwits’.

This is the sequence: you’re sent a Twitter direct message, if you’re stupid you click the link, and if you’re really stupid (like me!) you ‘log in’ to a fake-ass Twitter page, itwitier(dot)com. Strictly for the twits, natch. The most embarrassing part is how simple and patently shady the phising page appears. It offers you one of several enticing options; ‘This really had me lmao”, ‘lol is this you in this pic?’ or ‘hey check out this cool band’ (I presume the second option is used on those who have big hair and band shirts in their profile pictures).

If you, like your author, are borderline in-need-of-glasses and barely awake at six in the morning, do not, repeat, DO NOT follow the link your friend just sent you. Ask yourself, does this friend normally send you links at six in the morning? No! Do they even use direct messages at all? Not really. Are they actually, realistically likely to have some scandalous Pippa Middleton-esque photo of you wearing a toga and surrounded by bottles? Naaaaaah! Well.. probably not.

The url is ‘itwittier’. It sounds like some kind of French, haute startup cousin of Twitter. Perhaps it’s Twitter, the couture edition. I can only speculate what is actually on the other end of that link. Cats? Sexy girls? Sexy girls dressed as cats? I would also quite like to see that amazing band they want us all to check out. Spamson and the Spammers (a rockabilly tribute act). Spamz Mc. Spam-heiser (Nu Spam Metal).

(Oh ok, I’ll stop the puns now)

So, what to do? You can feign ignorance and hope that everyone else, spammed in turn, won’t mention it. You can feign even more ignorance and claim ‘I don’t know what’s wrong, the link worked for me, I was laughing my fucking ass off!’. Or you can freak out, change your password to something marginally less memorable, and issue a few tweets apologizing for your idiocy. And you can learn for next time. Twitter have a handy guide here, or you can report your problems to Twitter @support.

At the very least, you can congratulate yourself on being part of a worldwide community of misfortunates, who’ll know better for next time. I’m off to get my eyes tested.

ps. a brief history of Twitter hacking to be found here and here and here

Interview with the Horror: and interview with Faris Badwan

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:38:00 -0400

After the screeching psychedelia of 2007’s debut Strange House, the Horrors shocked listeners with a luscious and moody follow-up, Primary Colours. They still wore skinny jeans and sported teased hair like Helena Bonham-Carter, but they’d traded in camp organs and ghoulish lyrics for something more thoughtful. Now debuting a third album, the mysteriously-titled Skying, frontman Faris Badwan (né Faris Rotter) talks us through their evolution.

So the new album’s been kept rather secret up till now. Who produced it?

Well, we produced it ourselves. It sort of felt like this was the time to do it, we’d built a lot of equipment and got a studio, so we recorded it there and did the production ourselves.

Did you do the artwork this time around, too?

No, we had this guy called Neil who did the art. Though he turned out to be a huge disappointment. I do like the cover, but it was a bit difficult getting more than that, that’s one way of saying it.

Does it feel odd to be still operating under the name of The Horrors?

Bands invariably transcend the names they pick in the beginning, you always outgrow it. Though it never feels like a ‘reinvention’ at the time, you just get really into what you’re doing. I mean, you alienate just as many people by staying the same. And it’s also about just keeping myself interested, otherwise it would get boring.

You seem to get really gripped by various obsessions. Was there a deciding one for this album, like a theme?

Well, it takes a whole year to write and record the thing, so it’s hard to sum it up in a few bands. You’ll end up listening to over a hundred records in the course of that year, and when there’s five of you as well, it can’t be distilled all that simply. We never aimed to listen to just one decade or even just one genre. I think the main influence on this album was building our own studio.

What’s it like at Horrors HQ?

It’s a big concrete room in London. It’s more like a workshop right now, because Josh is in there shearing metal. I don’t really even know what he’s doing in there. I just don’t know.

After [recent side-project with Italian-Canadian soprano Rachel Zeffira] Cat’s Eyes did you find your yourself singing differently, or wanting the sound more pop?

No it was the opposite. Rachel used Cat’s Eyes as an opportunity to sing in a more natural way than she had done before, and I kind of treated it that way too, just singing in a very natural way.

The old songs were all so much about telling stories, it seems Horrors songs have got a lot more personal recently.

Yes, and it’s a lot more natural. I think bands just have to try to get as much of their personalities into their music as possible. It’s the sound of us, hopefully, getting better at what we’re doing. It’s just more subtle, and some of that subtlety comes from understanding your instruments. What’s the next step from that? I’m not sure.

How did you pull off debuting the album in the Vatican?

That would be telling, wouldn’t it? We wanted to do something we thought no-one else would be able to repeat. Though how we did it I can’t really say. The cardinals didn’t exactly get up and dance, exactly, but they seemed… quietly appreciative.

Ok one last thing, what is ‘Skying’?

It was the name given to phasers at the time when they were invented. They were referred to as ‘the grand skyer’, so we wanted to use that term.

Is it a verb, ‘to sky’?

Well we’re trying to make it one.

Lets see, give me a sample sentence with somebody skying in it…

Hmm. ‘Jenny went Skying down a hill.’

The Horrors third album, Skying, is available from a gazillion retail outlets from July the 11th.

An interview with Mick Hoyle of F-Troupe shoes, London

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:34:00 -0400

‘F-Troop’ was, according to Wikipedia, a ‘satirical army sitcom set in Fort Courage, Kansas’. And though Sergeant Sylvester, Captain Wilton and co. sound like a hoot and a half, we’re far more interested in F-Troupe, the niche London shoemakers who create semi-retro, semi-ironic but wholeheartedly gorgeous designer footwear. Stocked worldwide by Opening Ceremony and Urban Outfitters, the designs are drawn up in a pokey little basement in Soho, underneath their flagship store. We paid a visit to brand founder Mick Hoyle, to talk Monty Python and the specific width of Winkle-Pickers.

First things first, how did F-Troupe start out? Did you already have a background in shoes?
It started more than twenty years ago. I had some of the franchises for a company called Red or Dead, and then I sold them. After that I had a shop in New York. I started thinking about my own collection, looking around for styles I couldn’t find anywhere else. Then around eight years ago I decided to start making my own shoes.

Was it always planned to be a very London thing, a kind of heritage shoe company, to appeal to Dandy Revivalists?
Not really, though we are inspired predominantly by British history. But the line is full of all sorts of reference points. Britain has a great history of shoemaking; around the Midlands and Northampton there’s a major industry. Or there was, rather. It’s fizzled out now. But the core remains, craftspeople making good handmade shoes.

Do you test out the shoes?
Everything gets tested. We test them out ourselves- the samples usually come in my size. Right now they’re the shoes for next summer, so I get to wear them around town for a bit and see what they feel like.

What’s your favourite decade for inspiration?
I’m still really into Victoriana.
The golden age of buttons…
We find ways to put them onto everything. Lots of button shoes. We do Victorian gaiters with buttons on them; originally they were for tucking trousers into, and the military still have them for keeping their socks dry.

Do you look through archives for ideas?
We tend to buy antique shoes and get ideas from looking at those. Yes I have quite a collection at home, it’s pretty intense. It’s an obsession for me; I’ll just buy up anything I like, on the off-chance I can use it for work… We design the shoes ourselves from scratch, though I like to look at vintage shoes for ideas on details, or on the shape of the last. All our shoes are based on a wooden last, with a different shape for every one. When we made winkle-pickers, for instance, we based them on a Victorian style last with a squared toe instead of a really pointed one. They’re very different to modern winkle-pickers, a lot more elongated and with a bit of a heel.

Do the people who buy the shoes always know the work and thought that goes into each model?
Nearly all of our customers find us and come to us because they know what they’re looking for. They tend to be as thoughtful as we are about our shoes. They’re the kind of customer we really like.

Do you think there’s a more general move towards fashion nostalgia, with people going for old-fashioned, proper handmade shoes as part of that?
That’s true; we do a Made in England collection that’s our kind of Heritage Line, with the shoes made in Northampton. It’s very much part of a recession, that people go for something that will last, that they can wear more. We also get people every so often doing costumes for a show. They come in and buy ten pairs at a time. Some of the stuff is so relevant, for instance right now we’re very closely inspired by Victoriana, and it’s easier for them to buy from us than to remake period shoes.

‘F-Troupe’ was the name of an American sitcom in the sixties, right?
It was spelled ‘F-Troop’, like a cavalry troop, so we wanted to play on that and make it into a dancing troupe. It’s a combination of the two. The font on the inside of the shoe is kind of Germanic or Russian, industrial age-inspired.

Was building the brand planned out in your head from the start, British heritage with a bit of Monty python thrown in?
Oh the website is totally Monty Python! The hardest part was sourcing things; with the shoes just about anything can be recreated in this day and age, but for the shop how do you even begin to track town thirty Victorian tiles for the fireplace, or antique wood to make the counter out of? Though I’ve a got a great collection of Victorian bric-a-brac and curiosities and things in the shop, it was quite fun assembling it all.

Like the two-headed cat!
I got him in America from somebody who used to run a circus side show. I don’t think he’s actually real, though. We were going to have a competition to name him- right now we’re calling him Tintin…

Are you really the ‘Cobblers to Her Majesty’? (It says so on their shop sign)
Haha no! That was a bit of a naughty joke. An innuendo. You might have to be British -or maybe Irish- to get it, though…

Baha’i and Conscious Bling: Fashion Wednesday Interviews Melody Ehsani

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:29:00 -0400

If you’ve seen videos by Nicki Minaj, Keri Hilson or the new Rihanna video for ‘S&M’, then you’ve seen Melody Ehsani’s eye-poppingly fabulous work. Coveted by the hip-hop and high fashion worlds alike, her designs draw on religious iconry and hip-hop heritage, a dazzling, tongue-in-cheek mix of girly, Swarovski-studded detail and oversized Mr T excess. Law school nearly claimed her, but luckily these days Ehsani is firmly fixed on a more creative path. Donating a portion of her profits to women’s educational causes, Ehsani aims to empower the wearer with designs embodying modern female paradoxes; grace, thoughtfulness and the kind of brash self-confidence that comes with rocking some serious bling.

You’ve spoken about starting out in Law school (wow, intimidating much?!); when was it you knew you wanted to switch? Was there a point where you knew going into fashion would be rewarding and worthwhile, or was it all a gamble?

That’s a great question. The way the education system is set up in the United States is such that once you decide on a certain career like law, you have to spend so much money just to complete schooling and all things associated with it, that by the time your done, the ONLY way you can pay back your student loans to your law school would be to practice law. I think I was stuck in the middle because I had already spent so much money just to apply and get accepted, that I felt bad leaving. However, that little voice inside of me continued to get louder and louder throughout this process, and I finally decided to take the risk and drop everything that I had spent most of my college years working towards and follow my heart into a field that I was drawn to, SOLELY based on intuition. There was a part of me that felt that fashion was superficial and the business was too cut throat. However, at a certain point I realized that my innate desire that was drawing me to this field was based on the way my Creator designed me, and if I wanted to be happy and serve the world, I had to follow my divine design. It was then that I realized the value in fashion and art and most importantly my self.

Are you in rebellion against, or influenced by your Persian Baha’i upbringing?

Persian culture and Baha’i culture are two very different things. The Baha’i side of my culture is probably what saved my life. Its what I most strongly identified with and still continue to. The

Baha’i Faith made sense to me and the Writings of Baha’u’llah connected with me in a very special way.

Persian culture is what I had a little trouble with. Of course in all cultures there are beautiful, amazing parts to them, and then there are historic, traditional elements that keep people stuck and in their history. I continually found myself rebelling against those parts of my culture. For example, in Persian culture, a woman’s value is determined by who she marries. Clearly, this is a belief that I had to break with and have faced much opposition because of my beliefs from certain family members, etc.

You’ve done a lot of really interesting collabs; lately the Keri Hilson necklace was especially big- who’s left on your list of dream collaborators?

Yes, I’ve had the privilege to work with a variety of different artists, and its been a pleasure! I loved working with Keri, aside from being talented, she’s also a wonderful person on the inside. It always makes work special when your able to have a deeper, personal connection to those you collaborate with. I haven’t done a collaboration with Disney Couture, although Id love to. I’m currently working on some pieces for Rihanna for her S & M video. I’m looking forward to that project, she’s another artist that I really love.

Nicki Minaj wearing Ehsani’s ‘Crane’ earrings in the video for Massive Attack

Your designs are so vivid, oversized, exuberant- they demand wearers with attitude! This, added to the fact that a portion of profit goes towards women’s eduction- made me wonder do you design pieces to embolden the wearer, like a kind of bling ‘Girl Armour’?

I like pieces that have meaning and that demand attention. I have so many women who write me and boast how they’ve become ambassadors of the M.E. brand because they cant walk down

the street without having to write down my website information for someone or tell them about the collection. I get so much joy from that, a.) because my work is different and identifiable. Its’ not just another piece of generic jewellery you can buy from any corner spot. and b.) because it brings people together. When you wear an M.E. piece, you are wearing a conversation piece. I love that! Its such a service for me to know that in my small special way I’m bringing people together.

Your Tumblr is prolific to say the least- where do you go for inspiration?

I constantly need visual inspiration. So, I’m always at the bookstore, a museum, the movies, etc. I have so many interests and passions that what you see on my blog is just a small mish mosh of what my brain thinks or what I come across that inspired me or moved me in some way that day.

Your work and you yourself seem to be very steeped in the hip-hop world- who are your favourite artists to listen to? And who would you like to see in Melody Ehsani designs?

That’s a tough question. Hip Hop is definitely my first love, but I enjoy all kinds of music. Id love to see Lauryn Hill in my pieces, I’m hoping that will happen this year. She too is one of my favourites to listen to.

Rap talks a lot about ’swag’ and a kind of personal, bling-enforced brand. And Keri Hilson very much makes it her own in her Soulja Boy cover! What would you define as ‘Swag for Girls’?

I don’t really like that word to tell you the truth. However for all necessary purposes, I will say that I think swag and all things associated come from the inside. Its really sad when you see people who have all the “right” clothing, jewelry, shoes, cars, whatever….and still feel like a hamster running on a wheel. “Swag” is not something you can purchase or adopt. Its knowing who you are, having an authentic opinion and being unapologetic about it. There’s nothing more magnetic than a person, man or woman, who has an authentic sense of self, that creates their own path without trying to reinvent the wheel.

See more of Melody Ehsani’s incredible designs here!

All the Jewellery I Never Got: An interview with Natalie B Coleman

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 02:02:33 -0400

Not many people can claim to have designed clothes worn by Lily Allen. And even fewer people display this information on their website next to a framed image of severed plait of hair. That first introduction on Natalie B Coleman’s website serves as a statement of intent; the designer creates pieces out of the ordinary, meticulously crafted and made with off-beat humour.

Having studied at Limerick School of Art and Design, she progressed to Central Saint Martins and later sojourns working in New York and Iceland, and with Joanne Hynes in Dublin. Coleman’s most recent collection, entitled ‘All the Jewellery I never Got’, pits new romance against old, playing on the idea of the It Girl lavished with jewels by her suitors. Here she explains the story of her work, and the business know-how necessary to back up her artistic side.

So All the Jewellery I never Got is your first seasonal ‘collection’ as such..

Yes, it leads on from the last one. I kind of felt the story was incomplete, and now I’m getting to develop it, doing scarves, making things up in a wider range of sizes. Like, previously, I never kept pieces that I had made. With the first collection (called Damaged Goods) I just wanted to sell as much of it as I could. But each line is like a story, and it’s nice to see it get to the end and wind up, seeing the pieces being sold. And I’m getting things made up all over the place. This year so far I’ve been taking around two flights every week, before going back home to Monaghan… It sounds a lot more exciting than it is.

What’s the story behind the collection?

‘All the Jewelry I never Got’ came from me inheriting all my mothers jewelry, a while back. It’s all the jewelry I’ve ever owned, except for maybe one or two pieces I’d bought myself, and I started thinking about how you grow up thinking you’ll be bought jewelry by men when you’re older, this glamorous romantic idea. I’d been in a relationship with someone at the time for seven years, and received nothing! It just struck me as really funny, that it was all I’d ever got.

And then how did Lily Allen end up buying your stuff?

I met her at a festival through some of my flatmates in Monaghan, and she bought a few pieces. I’d love to get some photos of her wearing them, though!

Since you’re handling all of the business, do you get to meet the people who are buying your work? Do they realize the amount of time that goes into every item?

I’m kind of the higher end of the middle market, so I sell to people looking for something a little bit different, who are aware of what goes into each piece. I’m starting to sell all over the world, in Germany, Denmark, in HongKong, and now I’ll be in Bow Boutique in Dublin. I go over fairly frequently to Denmark- all the European fashion buyers are at Copenhagan fashion week. This will be my first year doing a show there- it’s a good place to find one’s feet. And I’m selling in Japan, now, though I can’t afford the flight over to see where I’m being sold!

So much talent has come out of Saint Martins- what was it like to go there from Limerick?

St Martins was mad. But I loved Limerick; there wasn’t much else to do in the city, so everyone was really focused. It was great environment. Saint Martins was crazy; people crying all the time, all the cliches are true. But when you’re in the middle of that college bubble.. it’s not like you’re doing heart surgery, but it can get very emotional. Or at least, it did for me.

What was it like going from New York to Iceland, after college?

In New York I was in the East Village, in this big silver-painted loft full of designers, really funny people from around the world. We’d be in there at midnight, working away, but there were also loads of parties.. And then in Iceland it was so different, working only on textiles. But I liked getting a bit of both sides of fashion, the creativity and as a business. And I already had a background in traditional textiles, I’d worked previously at Inis Meain Knitwear in the Arann Islands.

Textiles seem to play a big part in your work.

Yes so much history and ethnic identity gets carried around in fabric. Ireland has a great tradition of it- I mean, the company I was with produced tweed for Chanel and Dior! The different knots in Arran sweaters for each family really interests me. It’s a part of Irelands identity. And I think irish people have a good eye for colour. Even years ago I used to do markets, and I’d notice how peopler went for the colours. They didn’t even seem to care about the cut or the shape of the clothes, just the colour. But then, Irish people can be very strange dressers. The pajama thing is really funny, girls who have their sleeping pajamas and their going-out pajamas! I saw a girl out at night wearing them, and was just like, ‘why don’t you put a nice dress on instead?’. I felt like her mother.

For more information, lookbooks and a list of stockiest visit www.nataliebcoleman.com/

Originally published in Totally Dublin

Momsen's the Word: An Interview with Taylor Momsen

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 01:57:55 -0400

Let it be said, Taylor Momsen did not bring up Courtney Love. Nor did she have anything to say on Miley Cyrus. In interview, the panda-eyed Lost Girl and prolific wearer of over-the-knee socks comes across as disconcertingly sweet, hardworking and focused to a degree that would sicken her Leaving Cert-aged contemporaries.. The eighteen-year-old has racked up an impressive CV of acting work, including working with Gus Van Sant on Paranoid Park and a long-running role as Jenny on series Gossip Girl, a role from which she only departed earlier this year. Not that she’s taking a break; having fronted her band The Pretty Reckless since 2008, this summer sees take to the road, landing at Oxegen in July to promote their debut album, Light Me Up. Croaky and melodious, and full of adolescent insouciance and despair, it’s an impressive body of work, leading one to believe Momsen is perhaps not so much a Bad Girl as a good girl misconstrued for wanting to do things her own way. Still, we interviewed her to find out for sure, and to talk tampon strings, insomnia and tabloid intrusion .

Oi there Taylor! First things first; is the album title ‘Light Me Up’ a response to critics saying that you need to lighten up?

(Giggles) No, no.. it’s more of a thing we decided on early on. Naming the record was probably the easiest part of the whole process. Someone just threw the title out early and it just fit. It seemed a good name for our very first record, like we’re only just lighting up the fire, just starting out.

Heidi Montag famously recorded a song that you wrote when you were eight years old- does the album have any more (very) early efforts on it?

I was never even aware of her recording my song. It had been recorded and released by the time someone told me. And I was like, I never wrote Heidi Montag a song!’ I’d written the thing forever ago. It’s hard to keep track of cover version, though of course it’s great to hear other artists singing my songs. But for Light Me Up its all new, none of my old stuff.

You’ve achieved a ridiculous amount for someone so young! How are you managing to do it all and stay sane at the same time?

Oh I don’t know if i am sane. But I love what I do, and that’s really the only way I could do it. I don’t know if people realize, I work twenty four hours a day, everyday. It doesn’t stop. But loving what you do makes it all worthwhile. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t write songs.

Do execs ever question the fact that you’re in control of all thins and you’re so young? Or is it just a matter of ploughing ahead and not thinking about it?

It’s only really hitting me now how I’m lucky to be so in control of my own music. Whereas with acting and modeling, I got put into them at a very young age. And while I do enjoy them, they’re very much jobs to me. Not to look down on either, but it’s just not the same.

Are your songs a reaction against that lack of control? The song ‘Zombie’ seems to be about getting too deep into something..

Zombie is about something very specific; I was at this place in my life where I was just working all the time and not sleeping. I was an insomniac and couldn’t sleep even if I had the time..I went a little bit mad, and the song is definitely a reflection of that, of being on autopilot and not even knowing what your doing anymore. But you have to break free of that. Though we made the record at least, so in the end it turned out well. But for at least a year I was a fucking walking zombie. I’d get about one hour a night.

You managed to look well rested, at least!

I was exhausted, I think that would be the right word. It definitely added to the all madness around the creation of the album. It contributed to the mood.

It’s weird, you’re the opposite of the old cliché of the actress checking into rehab for exhaustion, when it’s for because of your own work ethic and creativity.. else’s vision..

It works out rewarding in the end. The record is very much a reflection of my outlook on life, and to have people hear it and respond to it -and actually like it- is the best feeling on the planet. It’s different to anything I’ve ever done; with films and TV shows you’re conveying someone else’s vision, I never had any say in the scripts. So to have that creative control was it felt pretty awesome. It’s incomparable, really.

Has the reaction to The Pretty Reckless been different outside of America?

Absolutely. We love touring in Europe and the UK. The record has been out there far longer than it has been in America. I think America is only just starting to even realize I have a band. It’s only just in its starting stages in the States, while in Europe we’ve just sold out a tour, and people are able to sing every word back at me.

Which do you find more scary or exciting, acting for camera or performing in front of a crowd?

I never think of either of them as scary, I don’t really get stage fright. But performing, without a doubt, is a lot more exciting. Weirdly enough the stage is one of my comfort zones. I’m quite a shy person, but I feel at home on stage, and in the studio as it’s a small place with only people I know.

I doubt people expect you to be shy. A cursory Google shows you have a bit of a record for outraging people..

The tabloids like to take the smallest thing and spin it way out of proportion so its fun to read. It’s more like fictional entertainment than journalism, though I think people know that its fake and just for effect. I don’t even read what people say because its just not real, and what can I do about it? Nothing really shocks me anymore. I always joke that once there’s a picture of your tampon string on the internet, you have to just give up and not care anymore.

Or you can manipulate it to your advantage, like one Courtney Love..

That’s another of those things! I mean, I never said I was a fan of Hole. My influences are a lot of things, but they’re not Hole. I mean I love Nirvana, but I also like the Beatles, Soundgarden, Pink Floyd, Oasis… I’m a big classic rock fan. but Hole is something that other people came up with.

What was it like working with Madonna for her Material Girl line?

I got to work very closely with her and her daughter on set and on the day of the launch, but it was all over one very busy, very work-orientated day. We had one day to get the entire campaign shot. But it was a great experience, and she really was one of the first to push boundaries and make outraging people a part of her career.

You also modeled for Galliano Girl; it must have been disappointing when the whole thing was called off after Galliano’s public meltdown.

Its weird, we’re always on the road- I don’t even have a computer- so I never really know what’s going on in the outside world. So I never even know about the whole thing till afterwards. I’ve not even seen the video or had the chance to even form an opinion on the incident.

As this is our America Issue, we wanted know: what’s the best and worst thing about being an American?

Oh I don’t know.. I love New York City. I’ve been a lot of places- not all the places, so it’s hard to say it’s the best place in the world when you’ve not seen them all properly, but I really do love it. It really is raw, it has an energy different to other cities. I think of New York as the polar opposite to LA, dark instead of sunny, with all those tall buildings and darkness and shadows New York is one of the best things about America. With the worst.. I can’t really say. It’ll be different for every person.

Let’s just say Miley Cyrus..

I have to go now.

Alright.

Originally published in Totally Dublin, June 2011

A Year Without TV (without even noticing)

Sat, 28 May 2011 15:36:00 -0400

It”s only in retrospect that I realize how hard it must be for school teachers to retain so completely the illusion of having no live outside of their jobs. They can’t give away any of their actual interests, the clothes they wear, the places they go at night, the people they spend their time with. Not only do various PC by-laws forbid them from acting too like genuine extra-professional human beings, but also, should they let any details slip, they risk relentless teasing by the students. Such a thing happened once in a geography class, so long ago that I’ve forgotten all but the difference between metamorphic rock and..uh..the other kind of rock. But anyhow, our beleaguered, bearded ex-hippie teacher Mr Fizgibbon let slip that he didn’t own a TV. ‘But how do you live?” somebody asked. ‘How do you watch the news?’ (we assumed, being vaguely adult-world conscious at fourteen years old, that even teachers watched TV sometimes, if only for the news). He replied that he’d watch the things he wanted to on his computer. This was enough to shut us up, and we went back to metamorphic loadstone and its ilk.

And now I find I’m older, beginning to work, and in possession of a Macbook Pro, the biggest and most ‘responsible’ purchase of my twenty-two years. And I’ve become one of those people. The people who don’t watch TV. I didn’t mean to let it happen, but it did, largely across my three years at college in England. The BBC’s delicious iPlayer went some way in occasionally showing me what I was missing, but largely it was left alone except for about once a week or so when I’d catch up on talked-about episodes of Come Dine With Me and The Apprentice, when it ran through exam term. The combination of a slow broadband, a slow netbook with a shitty graphics card, and the effects of living and working alongside studious, pop-culture starved contemporaries all combined. I didn’t miss TV. It never so much as entered my mind that TV was a part of the what modern college experience was about.

And now I’m graduated a year, and even though both computer and wireless are significantly better, I’m still not bothered. There’s even a TV downstairs; my brother uses it to watch sports, my dad used it to get the news. But I don’t have the patience for it. Its just a source of irritating noise from downstairs. I feel bad for whoever it is who writes the TV guide everyday in the papers; it must be the most thankless task, knowing that the only people taking their queues from you are luddite grannies in the country.

Am I obnoxious? Yes. Speaking too soon? Probably. Have the effects of a shiny new high-minded computer gone to my skull, giving me a superiority complex and a closeted addiction to Megavideo? Definitely. But I can safely say I feel no attachment to the TV, and would venture to say that most of my generation feel the same. It will always mean something to us; an old-fashioned surrogate for both parents and computer. The TV occupies a venerable, dusty place both in my home and in memory,as a nostalgic friend from childhood (Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men) up until Junior Cert-era after school specials (Two of a Kind, Moesha and Kenan and Kel). But that’s all in the past. Now I have better uses for my time, like aimlessly clicking through Gawker. Or Megavideo-ing Kenan and Kel.

A Night (in a barn) at the Opera

Thu, 26 May 2011 20:57:17 -0400

What a joy it is to dance and sing! So Angela Carter begins her theatrical, musical novel, Wise Children. But its rare enough we see music elevated to an art-form, something timeless and spirit-lifting. Not in the Snow Patrol piped in over X-Factor triumph sense, with the subsequent single piped in over a thousand shop sound systems. Genuinely moving. Stirring. Dramatic. Worth dressing up in a ballgown to go and watch.

Enter opera stage left, with its booming vibratos and arias, its popping eyeballs and inflated chests, its Italian courtly intrigues. Opera is very much alive in Ireland, though performances that little bit off the beaten track. Like, try a two-and-a-half hour drive from Dublin, in the Waterford town of Lismore. Now in its second year, May 2011 sees the festival host a Chamber Orchestra as well as a full production of Don Giovanni staged in the barn at Lismore Castle. A quite thoroughly different kind of music festival, and certainly demanding a more interesting dress code, there’s a deliciously contradictory quality to it all; a venerable opera updated, the highbrow pursuit transplanted to a barn. But that’s how opera adapts itself, while holding on to its original, true aim. That being.. to entertain.
Jennifer O’Connell is organiser of the Lismore festival, along with conductor and director Dieter Kaegi. Having entered the world of opera by chance, helping out with press for Opera Ireland, she ended up steeped in it’s high-drama world for the past six years. ‘I have so much admiration for everyone involved in getting a show up on the stage,’ she exclaims. ‘It’s inspiring to see them bring the whole thing together’. She also believes in opera’s validity as more than a musical curiosity: ‘Opera does have that tendency to fade into obscurity in current times. But what makes Lismore so inspiring is that it goes against what opera’s detractors might believe, that it isn’t meant be profitable, and can’t be. It is tricky looking at opera from that corporate side, pitching the festival to sponsors, but we’ve succeeded in outting this on witout any state involvment. People are happy to sign up and sponsor us- House of Waterford Crystal, Failte Ireland, Waterford County Council, and a local jeweller, Johnathan Accord have all kindly offered support. As have the Burlingtons (the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire) who own the castle and who act as festival patrons.’
Last year’s festival won over opera and locals in equal part: ‘One of the locals called it ‘a little miracle’- a little mircale that took a lkot of work!’She continues, ‘When people arrive here, it’s like they’ve been spirited away to another world. In Summer the place feels like you’re in the South of France. They just get enchanted. Even when Dieter, the artistic director, first saw the castle and the square wit the barn, he said it reminded him of a square in Seville. Which led to us coming up with a ‘Seville Trilogy’ for the festival- Carmen, Don Giovanni and next year The Barber of Seville.’
‘What we’re doing is a fresh take on classical opera, making new arrangements to suit a smaller setting, adapting them to the environment of Lismore..’. The festival is an enjoyable, accessible chance to see works in an outdoor setting, with the odd modern update made along the way (last year’s production of Carmen featured a vintage car driven onstage through the barn, a hard set piece to follow for this year’s Don Giovanni..).

At the centre of any production, be it in a theatre or a barn, there’s a dedicated cast of singers. And yet more central to an opera is its Diva, the resident limelight-absorber, consummate musician, actress, centrepiece and star. Sopranos Cara O’Sullivan and Fiona Murphy are among our county’s greatest and loudest talents, but in person they are surprisingly down-to-earth. They get endearingly giddy about the dresses for the shoot, something that plays a fairly important role in every recital. The glamorous part of the job is also something of a chore; ‘you have to find something that you know no-one in the audience has’, Murphy explains (apart from natural star quality and a voice-box marked for glory?). ‘It can be a glamorous and exciting career, with amazing costumes and great ideas from directors. But there’s a lot of travel and devotion and sacrifice required, which means you really have to love it to keep that up. It’s competitive, but I make it a rule, as I am very hard on myself, to only compete with myself.’

‘I’ve sung the role of Donna Anna many times before,’ says Cara O’Sullivan of Mozart’s heroine, whose part she’ll sing again at Lismore.’But each time it’s been quite different. Each director has had a different view of Anna and I absorb their ideas like a sponge. It helps to take any element of repetitiveness out of the role.’ Aside from her role as ‘sponge’ and blank slate, the opera singer is tasked with bringing to life a libretto in the same way an actor puts their stamp on a script. ‘It’s a\ story, real or imaginary, that’s put to music’, O’Sullivan continues. ‘As an art form I believe it withstands becoming dated through the imagination of directors and designers. Opera should be funny, annoying, thought provoking, uplifting, moving.. certainly Don Giovanni is all these things’.

No-one could call what Cora Venus Lunny does with classical music boring. The prodigiously gifted violinist famously picked up her instrument at age three, and hasn’t stopped playing since. Her intense, expressive performances are as spellbinding to watch as they are to listen to. And she doesn’t shy away from the more far-flung peripheries of what is termed ‘classical music’, currently playing with ‘wild Balkan folk group’ Yurodny, who have a residency at Dublin venue The Grand Social. Other pieces in her recent repertoire include Vivaldi, Bartók and a concert celebrating the life of Jimi Hendrix. It’s classical violin, but not as we know it.

‘Lismore would definitely rank among the higher end of glamour, as far as my usual concerts go,’ she says of the festival. ‘Opera is for everyone, but the audiences here sure do dress well!’ Leading the chamber orchestra on the festival’s second day, Lunny will be taking her three-hundred-year-old violin outdoors. Does playing in a garden instead of a hall make a difference? ‘I’m not a huge fan of outdoor gigs from a practical standpoint, especially in Ireland. For a violinist, it’s hard to dress appropriately, even without taking into account how you look. You need to keep your muscles warm, but not constrict your body to the point that you can’t play. However, it’s so lovely playing in real daylight and seeing the sun go down, and being outside in nature, that of course it’s all worth it!’ It can’t help that Lunny is five months pregnant, in May, with her first child (though she’s glowy and as elf-like as ever!).

In any orchestra, the lead violinist is both manic worker and reigning Queen Bee, elbowing away while setting the pace for the rest of the musicians. And they stand in one place for hours on end; how is she -quite literally- shouldering the duty? ‘Being pregnant has so far been quite fun and not impeded my playing at all, though you do get tired out quite a bit more easily. I keep waiting for my sound to go down the drain as all my tone production essentially comes from my core muscles..’ It seems unthinkable for her to even temporarily halt a career that has spanned a lifetime..’I’m definitely taking time out afterward, and also in the last couple of months of the pregnancy. I’d love to be a superwoman who can do everything at once, but I’m trying to be realistic; I give every last bit of my energy and then some when I’m performing, which is not something I’m prepared to change.’

This might be one of the last chances you get to see her live for some time, but another reason to make the Lismore pilgrimage. An hour’s drive from Cork and two and half hours from Dublin (give or take a traffic jam and getting lost on a hillside), Lismore was founded as a monastic settlement, a ‘Lios Mór’ (literally a ‘big fort’) which later became the castle, dominating the town. It is now owned by the Duke of Devonshire, who loans out the building and maintains the fantastical gardens in which our photographs were taken, all Alice-in-Wonderland topiary, gnarly-rooted trees and views of the turrets. Off to one side are the barns, which during our visit are being frantically made over in time for the festival. There are corridors of hedges and supernaturally vibrant flowers.. there’s a surreality to the place which lends itself to opera. To reach Lismore one must drive along the kind of mountain roads that scare the wits out of city drivers, through blocks of mist and strange, burnt-looking red fields, more Mordor than rural Waterford.

Used to a career that involves constant travel (including performing with the English National Opera and at the Hollywood Bowl in front of 18,000 people!), Murphy is thrilled to have the chance to perform at an Irish venue. ‘Opera always means traveling for work so it’s lovely to come back to Ireland to sing…I performed last year in the inaugural festival, so it’s very special to be invited back again’. The staging in a barn doesn’t phase her: ‘It’s not so strange performing in the barn, ironically it turned out to be a perfect setting for Carmen. The acoustic was hilariously good! It’s brilliant to think that we can perform a full scale opera anywhere. Bring it on!’

Potential opera-goers might ask, why drive all the way to distant Lismore? Because it’s worth it, and the journey only builds anticipation. The festival is out-of-the-way, genuinely alternative, but that’s the domain of modern opera. Lunny considers whether festivals like Lismore confirm or break with opera’s elitist reputation: ‘I don’t think it’s quite as simple as that, especially nowadays with the internet making even the most niche, obscure music and art available to those who enjoy it. Thanks to the care and attention to detail that go into it, a boutique festival like Lismore ticks the right boxes for a certain opera audience.’

Opera remains a rare enough occurrence, standing apart from modern entertainment. There could never be an ‘Opera Idol’ that would accurately reflect the glamour and hard graft and ceremony that go into it. Reality TV couldn’t fathom opera, because opera is nowhere near reality. It’s reality’s inflated-to-bursting, campy, overwrought-but-dignified counterpart. Maybe an opera about opera could reflect it best, but surely that would defeat the purpose..
Clothes credits:Cara O’Sullivan wears dress by Gianfranco Ferre, available to rent from Covet, ‘Atlas’ court shoes, €135 by Carvela, earrings Cara’s own
Cora Venus Lunny wears dress by Bottega Veneta, available to rent from Covet, feather capelet, €147 by Biba at House of Fraser, ‘Alpha’ court shoes, €180 by Carvela
Fiona Murphy wears dress by Phi, available to rent from Covet, maribou shrug by Biba from House of Fraser, €147, ‘Eveline’ platform shoes, €225 by Kurt Geiger, diamante bangle, €49 and earrings, €70, by Crystals and Co (http://crystalsandco.com/ )

Originally published in The Gloss

Blue Valentine: A review

Thu, 26 May 2011 20:49:47 -0400

Please don’t consider going to see this with your spouse of ten years, the one with the crows feet, the stressful job and the flagging libido. Because this might just hammer the nail in your relationship.
It’s a timeworn and cynical ploy, the dismembered-relationship film, complete with weddings scenes and fight scenes juxtaposed over a luscious, wrenchingly pensive Grizzly Bear soundtrack. But for all its hype, Blue Valentine delivers on plot, downbeat tone and dreamy but realistic aesthetics. Uglied-up stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams make it convincingly through endless quarrels and wincingly real sex scenes, though they are sometimes failed by their characters clichéed aspirations and flaws (man gets drunk, woman longs to be taken seriously at work, man gets drunk again..). Director Derek Cianfrance interprets their faltering marriage as one of Hollywood extremes; when we’re not watching a glowing, sunshiny Williams in white lace at the registry office, we’re witnessing her breakdown, unkempt and dressed in medical scrubs, as an inebriated Gosling charges into her workplace. Still, this writer defies you not to be moved to tears by the sight of Ryan Gosling playing a banjo.

Director: Derek Cianfrance
Talent: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka
Release Date: january 14th
Originally published in Totally Dublin

At Swim-Two-Birds at the Project Arts Centre: A review

Thu, 26 May 2011 20:47:39 -0400

How do you stage three plays at once? A company is faced with such a question adapting Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds for stage, a labyrinthine, some might say proto-postmodern work (though the renownedly no-Bullshit author might not have liked this name…) with as many levels of narrative disorder as it has unruly characters. Blue Raincoat’s production succeeds in every aspect; in wringing every last moment of hilarity and suspense from O’Brien’s dense, flamboyantly convoluted plot, and in capturing a voice that delighted in wordplay, bureaucratic confusion and high philosophical irreverence. The author’s presence looms over this shadowy, burlesque-inflected production, present in every detail down to the proliferation of long coats and fedora hats used as costumes.
Though this Flann-obsessed writer cannot talk, the play is slapstick and frighteningly familiar enough (Irish ‘cuteness’ and pedantry comes under particular attack) that even audience members completely unacquainted with the novel will find humour in the shady rural shysters, the outraged Good Fairy and criminally lazy ‘author’ Dermot Trellis, whose pragmatic -yet meta-textually dazzling- approach to his art involves hiring out characters from other novels and putting them to new, unlikely purposes. When these characters revolt, separate levels of plot start to collapse in on eachother, and the stylishly bare stage of the Project becomes loud and chaotic with dancing, raving forms in frock coats and red plastic noses.
Blue Raincoat have superior writing and direction on their side- director Niall Henry is schooled in absurdism, having spent recent years touring Ionesco with the company, while writer Jocelyn Clarke previously adapted O’Brien’s The Third Policeman, as well as Alice in Wonderland. But the infectious, unflagging energy of the play is down to its impressive cast, who tackle O’Brien’s distinctly text-based brand of humour with aplomb. The female-heavy group animate every extravagant syllable of the novels tongue-twisting prose, from the earthy natterings of Jem Casey and co in a Rathgar pub, to the loftier bardic verse of legendary king Cuchulainn and the tale of Sweeney Astray. It takes a very dynamic production to bring to life such pronouncements as ‘It is a popular fallacy that all spirits are accomplished instrumentalists’. But Blue Raincoat do it like no other. Take in their manic brilliance while you can; surely their like shall never be around again (not til the film adaptation, at least, which we hope to be even half as good as this one!).

Bow Selecta: Beaux Bows boutique

Thu, 26 May 2011 20:45:19 -0400

The Georges Street Arcade has long been the domain of Dublin’s young folk, with stalls selling temporary green hair dye, Bettie Page postcards and rockabilly shoes. So it makes perfect sense as the site for a 24-year-old style queen and entrepreneur to open her very first shop. But how has Ailbhe Stafford, boutique Beaux Bows, pulled the whole thing off? The answer is a curious mix of grown-up business talk, party dresses and one-of-a-kind designer hobby horses. We sit her down for a chat to find out more..

First off, when did the idea of Beaux Bows take shape? Did years of working in retail not put you off?
The idea of Beaux Bows came about last October. I suppose working in retail for a couple of years didn’t really put me off, it actually drove me. I learned so much and really developed who I was and what I loved doing, and that was being surrounded by pretty things and like minded people! I wanted to have something I could call my own and it seemed a logical step for me to open my own boutique.
What obstacles did you encounter in setting the shop up, and how did you overcome them?
My age was probably the biggest obstacle. As I’m twenty four, people immediately think that I’m too young and therefore don’t have anything to offer. With certain letting agents, I’d call for information and they’d turn their noses up at me. Eventually my Dad suggested that he stand in for me. It’s sad that people still think like this, young people should be encouraged to take the leap of entrepreneurship.
Is Beaux Bows an extension of your personal style? What do you look to for inspiration? Is there a distinct Beaux Bows kind of girl?
I’m most comfortable in a pretty dress, so in a way it is an extension of myself. Bows have always been my trademark, I feel a bit naked when I don’t have one in my hair! I’m really inspired by the fashion and music of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, eras that seem to be so full of glamour but also have major historical importance. I guess, a Beaux Bows girl isn’t afraid to be feminine, pop a bow in her hair and take pride in her own style.
You stock some really great pieces by upcoming (or, in Chupi’s case, quite established) young Irish designers. Do you know most of the designers themselves?

Dublin is so small you’re always meeting people who enjoy the same things as you do. I’ve known Chupi for a while, as a good friend of mine worked for her in Topshop and I always loved her stuff. Salty Philip is another brand I also stock. Her stuff is amazing; all of her cottons are organic and her beautiful dresses are recycled chiffon. I really admire her vision and it’s very reasonable as well! The day the shop opened I was introduced to her by friends of mine. Canter Canter is the other label I stock. These hobby horses are the only non-clothes thing I sell, they’re all handmade by one girl and have their own names and identities. People fall in love with them and I’m always really sad to say goodbye!
The Georges St Arcade is such a well-loved landmark; was being part of Dublin’s subculture heritage important to choosing a location? Were you intimidated opening up shop there?
I also hold a very special place in my heart for the Arcade! I remember going there when I was fifteen with my friends, spending hours in Simon’s Café with one cup of tea between five of us! It’s so beautiful during the Summer, too, it’s so laid back. The area was constantly in the back of my mind, so when the spot became available in the Arcade I was very enthusiastic about it. I was quite lucky because I’ve worked there before and have close friends who work there too, so the transition from working in the Arcade to actually having a shop there was quite easy.
Where do you see the shop heading in future? Will the style change, or the stock vary?
Ooh hard question! But it makes me really excited too- I have so many plans for Beaux Bows! The next step will be opening upstairs, which will hopefully happen after the Summer. The shop changes and evolves every day, it’s all very exciting but I’m just taking each day as it comes and enjoying every experience that comes with it!

Join http://www.facebook.com/BeauxBows, or visit the shop at 21/22 George’s Street Arcade
Originally published in Totally Dublin

Cracked: A review of Crack magazine

Thu, 26 May 2011 20:41:00 -0400

God bless the guileless dreamers who buy British Lotto tickets, for their impulse-bought scratchcards fund the likes of Crack… A year-old freesheet for the city of Bristol, Crack has quietly persevered its combination of local and international art, scoring interviews with everyone from James Murphy to a deranged local agony aunt named Mavis (offering advice on ‘how to survive this mean game called life’). Filmmakers, artists and dudes with undercuts peek out from photo-stories, between the featured artworks and an elegant, spare design.
Crack does a thoughtful take on hipsterdom; the pages are marked by the melancholia and urban grime which has characterised Bristol’s art scene in the past. To their great credit, the writers manage to take obscure music and the yet more obscure art and make it accessible. The magazine seems engineered to suit the short attention-span of the average Wikipedia-raised reader; image-heavy art and music features are punctuated with a strange little array of journalistic crudités, kicking off with the ‘Playlist to this issue’ (Mogwai and Wu-Tang Clan) and ending on a rather inventive take on the backpage Horoscope (‘Pisceans, you will have sex this month. A true highlight.’)
Recession has not been good to Arts mags, but Crack has subverted a shitty economy by being free to begin with, and by taking an altogether grown-up approach to what is often zine-y and amateur. Crack sets its values high; their very grown-up and sceptical set of writers strike a balance between irreverence and Dubstep-evangelising authority. Their dedication to small-time art is what sets them apart; whole A3 pages are given over to the kind of luscious art reproductions you want to tear out and blu-tack to your wall like a teenage geek. Forget Berlin, we want in with Bristol.
Free to all Bristol-dwellers, but you can satisfy your Crack habit by subscribing at http://www.youlovecrack.com/

Originally published in Totally Dublin

Catfish: A review

Thu, 26 May 2011 20:38:37 -0400

Tech-phobes left cold by The Social Network will find vindication in Catfish, a slow-burning documentary about the online friendship between a documentary filmmaker, Nev, and a young artist named Ali. Nev begins as flippant, smugly requesting art from the precocious nine-year-old who contacts him out of the blue as well as forging curiously close online ties with her family. If shooting a documentary about the young artist through the perspective of her much-older male friend seems curious, things later take a far stranger turn. Catfish’s dull production disappoints, and the moral of the film is one already known to anyone raised on Net Nanny and Comic Chat. However, what emerges is a genuinely perturbing study of just how much we give of ourselves to the online ether, a limbo plane on which truth lacks a concrete definition. Catfish terrifies by spinning a narrative from these personal details, available for free to anyone on any of us. It is open-access horror, the definitive anti-Facebook movie.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams: A review

Thu, 26 May 2011 20:37:00 -0400

Granted unprecedented access to the oldest artworks on Earth, Herzog finds ample fuel for favourite themes- man amongst the elements, inhospitable landscapes and the odd close-up of a particularly photogenic reptile. The Chauvet Cave is explored, first from the outside with an extraordinary crane shot soaring along the mountain face, then later by handheld cameras inside the cave’s clammy tunnels, severely restricted not only by low ceilings and narrow walkways, but by the fact that a even one step out of place, or the condensation of a single breath, might alter the cave’s sensitive environment. Queasy and hypnotic in equal measure, the 3D camerawork is at times irritating, another gratuitous Herzog challenge, but it does make an event of what might otherwise be just a rather idiosyncratic nature film. Art becomes nature becomes art again, in a cycle spanning 32,000 years yet newly experimental every time. Science and speculation sit side-by-side, and the Platonic cave becomes a ‘landscape of the mind’, a testing ground for spirituality and ritual. Informative, yet brimming over with unanswerable questions (‘we will never know’, Herzog opines in his soft, umlaut-ed voice), Cave of Forgotten Dreams is glittering, rare and slow-moving as a stalactite.

Director: Werner Herzog
Talent: Bison, Oxen, Homo Sapiens Sapiens
Release Date: March 25th
Originally published in Totally Dublin