Archive for August, 2009

Next to Read’s on Nassau

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

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See here.

Well that was uplifting – Banter

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Last evening I went to Banter, a music-related discussion event and the theme was DIY gigs.

Niall McGuirk spoke about the Hope Collective and how it came about from the punk scene in the 80s. Fascinating stuff. Oh and check out his Vegan Cookbook/Touring Diary.

Dylan Haskins is the youngfella that runs Hide Away house gigs and the record label and now has directed a film about DIY culture called Roll Up Your Sleeves. Well done to Willie Walsh and everyone in Project Arts for encouraging Dylan too on this.

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This is the trailer for it:

Loved the honesty from Niall and Dylan and Jim Carroll was a great host. The whole event was super positive and everyone that ever wanted to do something and couldn’t motivate themselves to do it should chat to Niall and Dylan. Dylan talking about doing a tour of Ireland with five bands using Bus Eireann buses while a van with the gear of all the bands following the buses, loved it.

Niall and Dylan did something that marks them out – they did stuff when they were told they could not or society made it impossible to do. They just routed around the obstacles. When Dylan couldn’t get a space for all-ages gigs, he hosted them in his gaff. Niall routed around MCD and venue owners and organised a Fugazi concert. By thinking differently and being driven they got what they wanted and all because they had a passion and love for music.

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The DVD was for sale after the gig and I got one or two to send to people who are thinking of starting their own businesses as this DVD should be watched by more than those who are involved in the DIY music scene. Every business school should have a copy of this, there are lessons to be learned. Another bit of it I loved was the way that they busked for petrol money to bring them back from the gig and how they worked as a group to promote themselves before and after the gig too. The band makes and sells their own merchandise. I got the sense that people did things for the love of it but knew how to use their creativity to further fund their creativity. Jim Carroll has a good piece on Dylan here.

I also bought two DVDs to give away here on the aul blog to whoever wants one. First come first served with the condition you watch it with at least one other person. Overall, one of the best events I’ve been at in a long time which has added a spring to my step. Well done to Bodytonic et al for putting it together. There are some amazing non-corporate things happening in music and arts in Ireland right now. I think a good future is on the way for those not worrying only about drawing down grants. Interesting times, interesting times.

70 Funded places for unemployed graduates on ICT course at UCD

Friday, August 14th, 2009

via the Mulley inbox:

Seventy funded places for unemployed graduates are available on a Graduate Certificate in Information and Communications Technology at UCD, as part of the announcement by the Minister for Education of 1,000 part-time postgraduate third-level places for unemployed workers. Successful applicants will have €2,500 of the €2,750 fee funded by the Higher Education Authority.

The deadline for receipt of applications is 24 August 2009.

There are also four other Graduate Certificate programmes, in entrepreneurship, information technology, sustainable agriculture, green technologies, or nanobio science. See here.

Princess Bride Twitter evening – live blog

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

The Princess Bride Twitter evening kicks off at 8.01pm tonight. Tag your tweets with #AsYouWish or join the liveblog below. Or click through here.

Fluffy Links – August 13th 2009

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

The Fluffiest Fluffy Link ever. McFluffistan.

New NI Website called Property Pal. Their blog has a great post on Crazy Irish Laws. Some really are plain nutso.

New Blog: LeCunt.

Ghost estates. Housing kaboom. Housing kabust.

What a cool job. Jolt Online are looking for a Games statistician.

Of course it has to be a Paddy that inspired the Labour movement.

Disposable plates that you can feed to birds after.

Big Gay Ice Cream Truck.

Antony and the Johnsons Crazy right now

Hot Chip & Peter Gabriel – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

We have a Print Museum?

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Visited the Print Museum yesterday. It’s in Beggars Bush Barracks, Haddington Road. Hang a left after the Schoolhouse. It’s small but they have some nice machines used in printing history the past few decades.

There’s a guided or unguided tour. In fairness the place is quite small, you can look around in 30 minutes or so but it’s still worth a journey. They also do what look like very interesting workshops that I never have time to get to.

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This is the plate for the last edition for the Sunday Press:
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Also outside, we have cannons spiked into the ground:
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Fluffy Links – Wednesday August 12th 2009

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Soundcheck getting in on the Princess Bride online Tweetathon. If you’re heading there you can see PB on the screen and also see the Twitter interactions. We also have a Liveblog for those not on Twitter.

A night of the claws out. Feminists and proto-feminists talk Lisbon. DeBurca versus McKenna and Marylou demanding to be let finish. Her. Sentences.

WhoseView (a client) has people putting up reviews on eeerything and anything. Some witty feller has reviewed the Winding Stair and it’s quite fun. Take that Amazon three wolf t-shirt reviews.

David Byrne allows you to play a building. Wonder should I head back to London just for this? Only around for a few weeks.

Closer than you think. Mapping remoteness.

less than 10 per cent of the world’s land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city

Neil Armstrong really was a tough mofo. They don’t build them like they used to.

Via Unarocks is a vid of Anne and Barry today. Jam!:

Fluffy Links – Tuesday August 11th 2009

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

The Realex Payments Web Awards 09 are open for business. Guess who the new main sponsor is? Get your nominations in for the categories too. Press release went out today and yes it’s true, turn up in Ireland soccer gear (they play the same night) and you can get in for free.

Online campaign to get Rap as Gaeilge into Irish charts. And the track disses Peig!
Track sample:

I wish I was in Galway for this: Turning the right brain left and keeping it right. Art + Business + Creativity, with Lynda Cookson and Allan Cavanagh!

BarCamp Derry is on in October.

Event:
Exchange Dublin in association with Temple Bar Cultural Trust are calling on citizens, funders, public representatives, artists and more to take part in ‘Culture and the City – the Debate’, a masked anonymous debate and theatrical event where invited guests and audience members will respond to broad questions about Culture and the City Meeting House Square, Temple Bar on Wednesday August 19th at 6.30pm (gates open at 6pm)

Shame I’m otherwise engaged: SymbioticA’s BioTech Art Workshop is an introduction to biological techniques and issues surrounding the manipulation of living systems. Artists and researchers from various disciplines engage in the biological science lab to utilise language and techniques into their practice and research.

Grow your own footbridge.

Peter Gabriel & Youssou N’Dour – In Your Eyes

Fluffy Links – Monday August 10th 2009

Monday, August 10th, 2009

In and around Dundrum today? Seems the newest Leo Burdocks’s store there is giving away free Fish and Chips all day. Found via Bargain Alerts.

If you want to partake in the Princess Bride Twitter evening, there’s now a Facebook Event so you can note your attending. The Princess Bride LiveBlog is here.

The Tuesday Push is taking some time off, it must think it’s a TD or something but in the mean time can you fill out this survey for them?

Bloggers and Twitters in the Irish Times and writing for the Sunday Times too!

It’s the small things. Via Ewan’s delicious, Microcopy is vital for web apps.

# When signing up for a newsletter, say “this low-volume newsletter”
# When people add their emails, say “we hate spam as much as you do”

Tape Art. Wow. Portraits using audiotape.

Via Buildings and Food Fergus the Forager – blog of a guy that just survives on foraged food for a year.

Arcade Fire – No cars go

Javier Mariscal exhibition in the London Design Museum

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Visited the Design Museum in London this week. They had two exhibitions on, Super Contemporary and one on Javier Marsical.

There was a great timeline about design in the UK that contained a huge amount of information and jump points into lots of areas. One that really interested me was the design of the roadsigns in the UK. One single design to unite them all and they left real genuine designers design them. Civil service working well.

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Javier Mariscal is the guy that you might know more as the guy that designed the mascot for the Barcelona Olympics but is famous in design for so much more. Here are some photos and videos from that exhibition:

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