Monthly Archives: May 2013
Kinky
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Ferg Flannery writes:
Finger lasers and mankinis! Interesting Penneys new direction into soft-fetish?
Now all we need is a pint of custard and a loofah.
OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s world happiness league is out.
We’re 15th.
Why no higher?
In Ireland, the average household net-adjusted disposable income is $24,104 a year, more than the OECD average of $23, 047 a year.
But there is a considerable gap between the richest and poorest – the top 20% of the population earn five times as much as the bottom 20%.
Five times.
Australia the world’s happiest nation: OECD (The Age)
Thanks Mark Geary
Anchored – The culmination of UK sculptor Thomas Wrightman’s interpretation of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Sez he:
For my major project I wanted to create a campaign in the form of an installation for young people who suffer from OCD. A theme that became a prominent facet of my work was that of being lost at sea – drowning from obsession. The final graphic sculpture draws on this notion of being helpless against the elements, unable to regain control over the mental disorders. My sculpture Anchored, aims to do as my title suggests: providing a lifeline that helps OCD sufferers stopping the tide and disruption that is associated with the obsessions and anxiety related with the illness.
The acrylic waves themselves represent the episodes that occur during obsessive compupulsive disorder where they each have the title of a specific element of OCD which disrupts the boats journey. It also shows that the boat has become splinched and broken apart due to the battle with these anxious and troublesome periods. The bitmap typographic style chosen to again shows type being distressed and disrupted to again reflect this theme.
The use of the flies was to convey one of the most common forms of OCD, the fear of the spread of germs and contamination. Inside the hull of the boat shows a web of type to convey the hidden aspect of the illness where these worries usually remain secret.
Previously: Derailling My Train Of Thought
(Phil Lynott, Maria Osmond and Van Morrison, London, 1980)
That jukebox in the corner blasting out my favorite song/ The nights are getting warmer, it won’t be long/ Won’t be long ’til summer comes/ Now that the boys are here again ...
The Boys Are Back In Town, Thin Lizzy
The metrical elasticity of these lines and their easy sensation of transport, poetic lift-off, has a lot to do with Van Morrison.
For Philip, as for Bruce Springsteen (from whose “Kitty’s Back” the guitar riff of “The Boys Are Back in Town” was apparently nicked or adapted), Van’s Astral Weeks was a wellspring, and his street-bardic gabble a pure energy.
“The Boys Are Back in Town” shares a three-in-a-row rhyme scheme with “Madame George”—you could put Van’s lines, actually, right into Philip’s song without disturbing the meter or even (much) the meaning: ‘And outside they’re making all the stops/ The kids out in the street collecting bottle-tops/ Gone for cigarettes and matches in the shops …’
There you go now.
Guess Who Just Back Today? (James Parker, The Slate)
Pic; Melody Maker
Thanks annebxis
Meanwhile
Outside Bruxelles, Harry Street, Dublin, this afternoon.
Previously: He Broke The Mould
Thanks Neil Dorgan
Strange Passion: SM Corporation, Chant Chant Chant!, Choice @ The Grand Social, Liffey Street, Dublin. €12/€10, 8pm
Nialler9 writes:
Before Forbidden Fruit festival’s lineup in the grounds of IMMA with Chic, Primal Scream, Four Tet, James Blake happens at the weekend, there’s an opportunity to see three bands from the early ’80s come out of retirement.
Darren McCreesh‘s Strange Passion compilation released last year on Finders Keeps explored the post-punk music that happened in Ireland from 1980 – 83 with extensive liner notes and great once-neglected tunes.
Friday’s gig in the Grand Social will be the first time in around 30 years that three bands featured on the compilation: Chant Chant Chant!, SM Corporation and Choice will play live.
And when you’re finished there head on over to the Button Factory [Curved Street, Temple Bar] for the disco-themed Nialler9 Forbidden Fruit Opening party with Gramme, Ships and TR One.
Nialler 9’s Gig Guide – June Bank Holiday Weekend (Nialler9)
Sup?
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A sample of the abuse hurler Dónal Óg Cusack got this morning for posting a picture of his well-behaved Lab (top).
(Hat tip: David Cochrane)
Jaysus.
We were the first country to introduce the smoking ban in workplaces in 2004.
Now we’re set to become the second country to introduce ‘plain pack’ cigarettes, above, after Australia.
Ireland set to become second country in the world to introduce plain pack cigarettes (Fine Gael)
Glass puffballs? Compound insect eyes? Nope.
Amazon’s proposed high rise HQ complex in the Denny Triangle of Seattle, plans for which were released this week:. Five floors of ‘flexible work space’ inside three domes capable of accommodating mature trees and ‘plants from high-elevation climates around the world.’
MORE: the full proposal as presented to a Seattle review board by the project architect NBBJ.
Amazon’s plan for giant spheres gets mixed reaction (Seattle Times)