Filmed over two years, first released in 2013 and new online, Stuart Bowen’s short about an art mannequin who yearns to play the piano (but lacks the requisite fingers) is a dialogue-free masterclass in lighting, set design and animation technique.
Making-of featurette here.
Behold: the adorable face of the Japanese Racoon Dog or tanuki, bestowed upon the internet by twitter user and tanuki aficionado Chibi Tori.
An actual canine species, neither raccoon nor badger, beloved of Japanese folklore.
MORE to folly
Spotted on irishjobs.ie
K writes:
“The 999 operators who don’t get toilet breaks must be so jealous – a whole day in loo!”
This morning, around 11.
Gandon House, Amiens Street, Dublin 1
Colm Keegan tweetz:
See this? Poster says ‘The Homeless are not just for Christmas’
Previously: Invest in Spikes & Fending For Himself
Staying in Monday?
Jennifer Zamparelli and Bernard O’Shea as Bridget and Eamon in a new clip from the forthcoming series.
The six-episode Bridget & Eamon starts on RTÉ2 this Monday February 1 at 10pm.
Thanks Anne Louise Foley
This afternoon
Comic Fred Cooke and model Fionnula Short celebrate a anear month off the hooch.
Leon writes:
As January draws to a close and ahead of pay-day tomorrow, thousands are cashing in pledges of support after an alcohol-free month of being On The Dry in aid of the Irish Heart Foundation.
Peopl around the country ditched the booze and took part in the On The Dry campaign – a revolution in New Year’s resolutions. Now with the final days in sight, the push is on to flex those fundraising muscles and call in support promises to raise vital funds to prevent heart disease and stroke…
Hic.
Leon Farrell/Rollingnews
Update:
‘sup?
Sober pair Andrew O’Reilly (second right) and Cillian McGregor give it up for On The Dry.
Leon Farrell/Rollingnews
“Tánaiste, over the lifetime of this Government, there have been a number of serious concerns, regarding probity and accountability and today I want to discuss another one that I believe merits scrutiny and that is the awarding of the call centre work for Irish Water to the Cork-based company Abtran. I know you’ll recall that Abtran was the company that got the contract for the SUSI grant system and it came under serious criticism, and rightly so, for its failing and it cost an additional almost €6million. And despite that, it went on to get, it was awarded the property tax contract. And then Revenue had to step in because it failed to cope initially.”
“Yet, after both of those high-profile failings, it was awarded the call centre work for Irish Water. We also know that Abtran has at least 10 other Government and public contracts. Now one of the criteria for the tendering process for the Irish Water contract was that the company had to have a turnover of €20million for the preceding three years. And given that it had a number of lucrative State contracts, prior to the Irish Water contract, the State certainly improved Abtran’s ability to meet the criteria laid down in the process. What’s interesting here is the way it was awarded, the way the contract was awarded and the obvious questions it raises about probity and the awarding of the contract.”
“Now Tánaiste, through Freedom of Information, I’ve established that on the 15th of February, 2012, the then minister [for the Environment] Phil Hogan’s private secretary received a fairly informal email seeking a meeting with Phil in order to lobby on behalf of Abtran. On the same day, at 5pm, an email was sent saying that the minister had agreed to meet the company. On the 27th of February, on the same year, we know that, through the work from Gavin Sheridan’s minister’s diary, that they met, that the minister met both the person who sent the original lobbying email, Mr O’Byrne – the co-owner of Abtran. In March, 2013, that company was then awarded the metering [sic] contract.”
“The Irish Water call centre contract, Tanaiste, as you know, is a very lucrative contract. It’s worth in the region of €50million over four years. And we know through the Freedom of Information that one of the key criteria was that the awarding of the contract, the firm that the contract was awarded to, had to have a proven track record. Now I presume that means a good track record – so the questions I want to ask you are: Are you satisfied that despite a very public failings of Abtran in relation to the SUSI scheme and the property tax scheme that they were still awarded an extremely lucrative contract by the State? Given the criteria? Are you aware that in 2015, late 2015, a State investment vehicle, also invested an undisclosed sum of money into Abtran? Do you know what that money is for? Do you know how much that was? And are you concerned about what appears to be the favouring of Abtran for Government funds?”
Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy for Kildare North speaking in the Dáil during Leaders’ Questions in the last few minutes.
More to follow.
Previously: Contains Impurities
A conceptual revival of the groundbreaking and stylish Citroën DS on the occasion of its sixtieth (well, sixty-first) birthday by French auto designer Jean Louis Bui of Parisian prototype developers Edud Integral.
