. . . readingChristy O'Connor's The Club. You'll never look at your local GAA club in the same way again. A tale of parish-pump love, sweat and tears.
...reporting
The three-year link up between Druid and NUI Galway, a novel and innovative approach for both an Irish theatre company and university. “NUIG will contribute to the development of Druid’s next major theatre event in 2012-13,” wrote Lorna Siggins. “Druid will develop a range of practice-led workshops and seminars at the university in turn, including a series of masterclasses for BA and MA students. Garry Hynes will become adjunct professor at the university which influenced Druid’s formation way back in 1975.”
...gobsmackedBy the Rubberbandits phenomenon. They're heading towards two million views on YouTube and went from cult act to mainstream hit in a weekend. The best moment came with the Liveline row on Wednesday that featured Blindboy of The Rubberbandits, Willie O'Dea TD and some ban-this-Limerick-baiting-filth callers. "It's art, Joe," proclaimed the supportive O'Dea. He also quoted The Rubberbandits' first song, a tribute to the politician: "Swearing on my tache that its good hash." It was radio gold.
....downloadingThe incredibly disturbing but utterly brilliant re-creation of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, as played out by Boobooand Yogi Bear. Do not show it to your children unless you want to rob them of a piece of their youth.
...listening toThe new album (out in February) from Jessica Lea Mayfield; produced by Black Keys' Dan Auerbach. A sizzler.
The forthcoming EP Special Offers, by the Dublin duo Cocophone: sheer aural bliss in a dreary week.
...happy we went toThe is-it-real-or-is-it-fake? documentary Catfishat the IFI on Tuesday night. Its either a heartbreaking cautionary tale about the internet or an exploitative piece of work by New York hipsters. At the Q and A after the screening there was a live video link-up to London where Nev Schulman, one of the film-makers, was being interviewed. Schulman was also taking questions via Twitter from people in Dublin at the screening. Great idea? Excellent idea. The only problem was, this time, the technology let them down and the feed kept crashing.
...watchingEastbound Down, our new TV-on-DVD fix about a down-on-his-luck baseball pitcher turned teacher.
Shakira, Shakira!
Looking like Mother Teresa reimagined as a Barbie doll, Shakira emerged from within the 02's audience at the start of her show in Dublin on Thursday. Dressed in headgear and dispensing healing handshakes to outstretched arms, she inched towards the stage before being carried aloft for the last part of her mobbed journey – an extraordinary beginning to a show that was a mix of a lap-dancing masterclass, Riverdanceand a heavy-metal concert, with the odd overwrought teary Latino ballad thrown in for good measure.
Since her breakthrough 2001 album, Laundry Service, the bilingual Colombian singer has shifted more than 60 million units and sashayed her way to a global appeal. More robust than Britney, more talented than Christina and making Madonna look like a mad old aunt, she's a superb performer who knows how to present a music show.
Wearing unfeasibly tight trousers (which, handily, the big-screen cameras focused in on a few hundred times) and appearing to be double – if not triple – jointed in all the right places, she put her sculpted body to good use.
The oddity about Shakira is that, unlike so many of her peer group, she has a hard-rock background and at times sounds for all the world like a slightly poppier version of Metallica – she even does a tremendous cover of that band's Nothing Else Matters.
One moment she’s dragging some young women up to the stage for a collective pelvic-thrust workout, the next she’s out in the middle of the audience, on an extended stage, fiddling with an acoustic guitar and running through emotive reflections on life and love. Then she gets a bit Nine Inch Nails on us with crunching guitars and powerhouse drums.
And even her clunky lyrics sound great in this setting: "Lucky that my breasts are small and humble; so you don't confuse them with mountains" (from Whenever, Wherever).
Shove her into Croke Park next time and let more people see this magnificent spectacle. Brian Boyd
