A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Word on the street Bashtag
What it means: At the marketing meeting of a major corporation, some bright young spark comes up with a wizard idea: use Twitter to generate positive stories about the company. All they have to do is start a hashtag, and let the crowdsourced compliments come pouring in.
This was the thinking behind a recent McDonald’s Twitter campaign, but the idea backfired on the fast food corporation faster than you can knock up an Egg McMuffin. The company started a hashtag, #McDstories, to solicit nice, touchy-feely tweets about McDonald’s, but instead, people used it to post horror stories, snarky comments and outrageous insults. The hashtag had turned into a bashtag.
Where it comes from: Big business has been trying to find new ways to inveigle themselves into social networks, sometimes even paying for the privilege, but often their ideas backfire, as savvy users cotton on to the company's transparent attempts to infiltrate the internet conversation.
Following the McDonald’s debacle, Kashmir Hill of Forbes came up with the perfect word: Bashtag.
The McDonald’s experience is a salutary lesson for all corporations hoping to twist social media to their own agenda: when you’re the cuckoo in the chatroom, don’t be surprised if the rest of the flock turns on you.
How to say it:"Gary Glitter on Twitter? Now that's really asking for a bashtag."
Kevin Courtney
Index
WHAT’S HOT
Good news for grown-up women(who don't buy cocktail gear) Banana Republic is coming to Grafton Street. Hoorah
Toss-up Tuesday lunchA new deal at Bloom Brasserie on Baggot Street. Heads you pay . . . tails you don't, simple as that
That extra bit of light in the morningat long last, winter's lifting
ParkasThe buy of the season – cosy since September and still going strong
Telling the truthFind The Death of Honesty by William Damon online
Northern LightsNo, we couldn't see them either, but it was nice to know that they were there.
Your own roll of stampsCosts €55 from An Post, but you'll never be without. Letters will get sent
This American Life goes EuropeanThe famed US podcast has taken on the euro crisis. See thisamericanlife.org
LipstickIf you were in any doubt, Andrea Riseborough's Wallis Simpson has proven for once and for all that lipstick truly maketh the woman
The Greenhousewith Mickael Viljanen as chef director, opening in Dublin mid-March
WHAT’S NOT
The British honours systemHe'll always be Fred The Shred to us
Coffee nerdsWe don't care if the bean tastes of woodland with a hint of orange, or if the milk is organic, just give us our low fat latte
InjectablesThe lovely Cameron Diaz with pillow face, and Simon Callow looking like an inflated life raft. Enough
RetiringUnless you're a civil servant in your 50s
Printed trousersWe can't see this lasting
Enda and SarkozyGet a room. Or a rhum
Loose talk on TwitterCould get you barred from entering the US
BrainstormingScientists say we're better coming up with ideas all on our own
Teaser trailersYes, we're excited about the next season of your award-winning show but can't you save the trailers for the month before?
Exploring the Explorer
Think of early 20th century explorer Tom Crean and you probably won’t think of hot air balloons, helicopter searches, jumping whales and a little boy’s daring adventure across the Arctic to find his father. But in the imagination of Irish illustrator and last year’s Children’s Book of the Year Award winner Chris Judge, anything is possible. Inspired by the tales of the Crean’s expeditions, Judge has written and illustrated a tale full of excitement, mystery and the spirit of discovery.
Following on from his beautifully illustrated debut The Lonely Beast, children’s picture book The Great Explorer follows young Tom as he makes his way to the North Pole in search of his missing dad, overcoming a variety of obstacles along the way. From enormous walruses to scary polar bears, icebergs to hot air balloons, Tom’s exploits are presented in bright, attractive illustrations that will keep younger kids enthralled, while older children can read along as his adventure unfolds.
The Great Explorer, (Andersen Press) £5.99/€7.20, will be launched today from 2-6pm at the Central Hotel in Dublin, all welcome.
Rachel Collins
Snap happy at home
Fashion and portrait photographer Emily Quinn is offering a new studio-in-your-own-home service for parents of newborns and small children. Realising that it is tricky to bring newborns to a photographic studio, she’s bringing her box of tricks to you.
Choose from studio-style portraits shot against white or colourful backgrounds, or cheat and have her take some well-considered shots that you can pretend you took yourself. She will provide you with high-resolution digital images on a disc. The Photo Baby service is available within the greater Dublin area only and costs €80 for an hour-long session. Within seven days you receive a CD in the post with 20-30 high resolution images. Prints cost from €10 each. See emilyquinn.com.
Alanna Gallagher
Songmap
If you’ve ever fancied speeding down the Highway to Hell, taking a stroll down Penny Lane, or driving down the Long and Winding Road to Itchycoo Park, this Song Map will take you where you want to go.
The litho print street map, made entirely from song titles, has been created by design collective – and self-confessed music nerds – Dorothy.
With all the usual landmarks you’d expect to see on a map – streets (Positively 4th Street), suburbs (Town Called Malice), parks (Strawberry Fields Forever), hotels (Heartbreak Hotel), lakes (Oxbow Lakes) and even churches (Church of Noise) – originating in a song title, you will spend hours finding (and humming) the ones you know, and even longer puzzling over the ones you don’t.
Luckily, there’s an A-Z key at the bottom listing the titles and bands that sang them . . . even the ones you wish you’d never heard, like Roxette’s Church of your Heart.
Irish entries include U2's Where the Streets Have no Name, Boomtown Rats' House on Fire and Van Morrison's Cyprus Avenue. There are 100 signed and stamped first edition prints at £100 each and open editions prints for £20 plus pp, both available for international delivery from wearedorothy.com/buy
Rachel Collins
Secret stash
The Secret Laboratory is the intriguing title of an exhibition of architects’ sketchbooks at the Dublin Civic Offices in Wood Quay.
Curated by Paul Clarke, a lecturer at the University of Ulster, it features the jottings of several well-known architects such as Tom de Paor, Gerry Cahill and O’Donnell + Tuomey, and reveals the hidden world of what captures their imagination. One woman who saw it remarked,
“My son wants to do architecture and I have done my best to talk him out of it, but now I have seen this ... it’s such an interesting life”. Runs until February 17th.
Frank McDonald
Ring the Chimes
Fancy celebrating two anniversaries in one? Head to your local record shop and snap up a copy of Chimes of Freedom, a four-CD collection of Bob Dylan songs released yesterday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International. The human rights organisation was established in 1962, the same year Bob Dylan released his debut album, so what better way to celebrate than by bringing the two together in one 76-song set? Chimes of Freedom sees 80 artists tackling the great man’s vast oeuvre, including Adele, Joan Baez, Elvis Costello, Kesha, Kris Kristofferson, Ziggy Marley, Patti Smith, My Chemical Romance, Sting, Mark Knopfler and Sinead O’Connor.
“We didn’t go for the usual suspects this time round,” says Bill Shipsey, the founder of Art for Amnesty. “But I think the range of artists is incredible – we have everybody from Miley Cyrus aged 19, to Pete Seeger aged 92. And Dylan’s got such a varied repertoire, there’s something for everybody.”
Shipsey, from Dunmore East in Co Waterford, joined Amnesty in 1977, partly inspired by seeing John Cleese in Amnesty’s inaugural Secret Policeman’s Ball. This year, as part of the anniversary activities, the Secret Policeman’s Ball will be staged in New York’s Radio City Music Hall on March 4th, featuring Jon Stewart, Steve Colbert and Coldplay among others.
Kevin Courtney
Leather weather
Is a payday purchase free from buyer’s remorse too much to ask for in these frugal times? Apparently not, at Fluorescent Elephant at least.
Popping in to pick up a birthday present (it stocks a great, affordable range of vintage scarves and bags), a rack of fitted 1980s leather skirts catches the eye.
Now if that sounds either hideous or impossible to wear, bear with us . . . Sinéad, who started the vintage shop online before moving to bricks-and-mortar premises on Crow Street in Temple Bar, spends hours altering each skirt before they reach the rail, so each one is up-to-the-minute stylish and also a surprisingly flattering fit. And at €50, it’s the most guilt-free purchase we’ve made in a long time.
Emma Somers
Make your own wedding rings
If you’re the romantic sort and are about to get married, you and your intended might like the idea of forging your wedding rings together. A course run by jewellery designers Clare Grennan and Laura Caffrey, the duo behind the Irish Design Shop, will teach you the skills to make simple wedding bands.
The weekend course, limited to one couple, starts with an introduction to jewellery-making where you learn to construct two silver rings which are used to test finger sizes and metal finishes.
Couples can incorporate family heirloom rings into their creations, adding sentimental value and saving on costs. The gold used to make a set of rings costs upwards of €400. The course takes place adjacent to the Irish Design Shop’s Bow Lane premises and costs €500 per couple.
The rings pictured are the work of a probation officer and an IT technician. The finished rings can also be inscribed professionally and a cost of approximately €30. Call 01-4752222 to book.
Make a statement
Statement, a Drury Street hair salon, is offering classes to customers who would like to learn how to style their hair themselves. Courses run thrice fortnightly on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 6.45pm to 9.45pm and cover essentials such as the perfect blowdry, styling for a special occasion and how to wear your hair – an all-encompassing look at styling. The introductory price is just €35. See statement.ie or tel 01-6363990.
Rosemary Mac Cabe
