Through the magic of Jazz Biscuit (and the dashing Darragh Doyle) I made it to Vexille tonight. Lette would have been proud - it was animé brilliance with a twisted plot, enough to make Rubber Ritchie wince. Sinéad was there somewhere too - looking forward to reading what she thought of the movie.
Vexille was showing as part of the Cinemagic Festival and there are still some more some great movies lined up for the week. Donnie Darko (Tuesday 29) Toy Story and Last King of Scotland (Wednesday 30) Jaws (Wednesday 30 - I know I’ve done Wednesday already but it’s Jaws!) and a special preview screening of Iron Man on Thursday 1.
The Irish Times and Amnesty International are running a series of short stories to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Published in the Weekend supplement on Saturdays the first story appeared three weeks ago by John Boyne, The Round Hall. It was followed by Colum McCann’s harrowing I just don’t like the screaming and last week saw Roddy Doyle’s Custer never had to go in front of a tribunal take the stand.
It’s a very interesting way of highlighting the anniversary and bringing the short story back into the Irish Times. Unfortunately the stories are behind the paywall on the Times’ site and Jazz Biscuit requires that any mention carries:
related links:
John Boyne | The Round Hall | Read Colum McCann | I just don’t like the screaming | Read Roddy Doyle| Custer never had to go in front of a tribunal | Read
Remember Aoife’s informant? Theyweren’twrong. Just off by a month or so. The editorial in the new issue tells us Mongrel, the sassy pop-culture mag, is indeed leaving the streets. (No phonecalls this time, I’m mourning the loss of the King of Karaoke.)
So who/what is to take up it’s place? What is going to keep the masses entertained now??
Here’s a list of potential alternatives:
Fugger
I found a copy in Tower last week - a slapstick comic with a message (that is a little too obvious), but comes complete with some brilliantly clever lines. The illustrations are simple enough. The highlight has to be the back cover - a detailed cityscape facing out and some hilarious classifieds on the reverse. Including the one for a new religion, going cheap.
Analogue or State magazine
Two different music mags but with the same goal. Spreading the word, musically. Analogue carries Radiohead on the cover - amongst others. And State is landing in our laps on 6 March. (Timely, huh??)
Neil Gaiman is celebrating his seventh blog birthday and his publishers have kindly agreed to a great big online book give awayas part of the celebrations. There’s about a week left to vote for which novel you want to read on your computer screen. So go get yourself voting. (or click here to see the results of the vote at the minute)
Harper Collins are handing out free e-books at the minute. Some interesting titles are up for perusal including Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobelloand Erin Hunter’s Warriors: Into the Wild. (via NYT)
DC/Vertigo are dishing out a free downloadable PDF of Swamp Thing #21 - Alan Moore’s first (technically second) issue. And on the subject of Mr Moore there is a brilliant and surprisingly long documentary on him online at altertube.
Sinead continues the Musical Roomsseries with the Delorentos - interesting insight into how the band work together. There’s a great homemade poster in the background. One for mass production maybe?
ROSS! BANG ME LIKE YOUR DRUMS
Kung Fu Rodeo has a breakdown of the Watchmen movie stills (from ‘extremely reliable source‘ - no more rumour spreading for me). Looking forward to seeing Rorscach’s mask and Doc Manhattan’s clothes (all CGI). A picture is worth a thousand words. More from the Watchmen Official Blog.
Drawn! has the news that Six Word Memoirs book is out and available to the wider world. This is a fantastic idea for a book - collecting snippets of insight from writers. There was a poetry competition a few years ago judged (I think) by Paul Muldoon. He gave the overal prize to a six year old for their poem (of not quite six words):
The Turtle moves movey movey.
And finally a weird and wonderful Vittel ad with the many faces of David Bowie:
Many thanks to Lili Forberg for the title: -soes is the new -sies. (Congratulations on the nomination!)
The 