Archive for May, 2007
Have your say on election count day!
Posted on May 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Ireland, Politics.
All details over at IrishElection.com. Well worth checking out.
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Annnnnnd, the Bandon Show is on this Sunday
Posted on May 18, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Family.
It really is a fun day out. Most of the town seems to head up.
Fionn will love the animals, Sibéal will screech at the dogs and the eldest boys will demand ice-cream from the second they arrive.
I’ll take more pictures of huge cows which impress me every time. Hope to catch some show-jumping too.
Head towards Clon, turn right for Dunmanway/Recycling facility, right again about half a mile down and you hit it after another mile or two.
6 Comments
New Bandon Blog.
Posted on May 18, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Blogging.
Just discovered that the bandon.ie folks now have a blog. Excellent!
Of course they should have used Wordpress.com from the fair Donncha of Blarney instead of Blogger but we won’t hold that against them 
Subscribed.
No Comments
Bandon Music Festival June bank Holiday Weekend
Posted on May 18, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cork, Entertainment, Ireland.
Get yer dancing shoes on because they really do have a line-up to suit everyone this year.
As with previous years the Bandon Music Festival will consist of two free outdoor concerts on Saturday and Sunday. In addition, the Music Trail will take place each night of the festival in local pubs. These sessions will consist of trad, folk and rock. Added to this, there will be street entertainment throughout the weekend, with live music at the Farmers’ Market and the Red Patrollers appearing in Riverview Shopping Centre on Saturday afternoon. Sunday will see “Rubicon” play on Oliver Plunkett Street joined by set dancers.
This year will see Director and Duke Special perform live outdoors on Sat 2nd June. Then on Sun 3rd June, Mary Black will headline the outdoor concert, supported by Jennifer Lomasney
There has been a lot of buzz around Director recently so it’s a real coup for the organisers to get them.
The official web-site is here.
UPDATE 1: To be honest, I’d never heard of Jennifer Lomasney. She’s seriously good!
6 Comments
Great new Art Gallery in West Cork
Posted on May 15, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Pictures, Technology.
Haydn Shaughnessy is opening a new art gallery in the Pink Elephant in Harbour View overlooking the sea. As its name suggests it is dedicated to Innovative Contemporary Art.
The official launch is on May 31st but you can see some of the exhibitors over at the web-site which is really beautifully designed. Haydn has blogged it here and mentions that two of my favourite photo-bloggers, Ryan and Donncha should be exhibiting there soon.
I love what Haydn is trying to do with the gallery - highlighting those who are trying push things forward and use new technologies and tools in art.
Great art in a breathtaking location, what more could you ask for?
You’ll find it on the coast road from Kinsale to Clonakilty near Kilbrittain.
5 Comments
Review of Capote (Movie)
Posted on May 7, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon.
Superb acting and gripping story. Now have to go out and buy “In Cold Blood”
Rated as /5 on May 07 2007 by Conor O’Neill
I used to read lots but don’t find the time any more. I’ve always tended to avoid “literature”. Either non-fiction or pulp thrillers are my staples. I’m one of those people who read “Catcher In The Rye” and thought “so what? tosser”.
For this reason, whilst I’d obviously heard of Truman Capote and knew the basic story of In Cold Blood, I’ve never had any desire to read it and had no intention of watching “Capote” the movie. However I think Philip Seymour Hoffman is incredible and I could find nothing else to watch on Sky Movies last Saturday so I gave it a go.
I’m so glad I did. Capote was obviously a very strange man, utterly manipulative and obsessed with fame but that cannot take away from what he achieved with his novel. As he said himself, this was the book he was born to write.
In case you don’t know, quick synopsis: Capote worked for The New Yorker magazine. In 1959 he spotted a story about the murder of an entire family of farmers in Kansas and decides to go there to cover it. He befriends many of the people involved and decides there is a book in it. They catch the perpetrators and he starts interviewing them, focusing on the more “sensitive” one. His empathy with them is quite disturbing. He released “In Cold Blood” to worldwide acclaim becoming America’s most famous author and never finished another book.
I don’t know if he invented a new genre or not but I realised watching the movie that he was writing the sort of book that would appeal to me. More than straight non-fiction and more important than fiction.
As the movie progressed, I was worried that we would never hear about the night of the murders from the killers (as was Capote) but eventually we did and it felt authentic. At least one of them deserved the death penalty and they both got it which finally enabled Capote to publish. Of course the implication is that he wanted the execution to happen or he would never have a complete book.
The acting throughout is superb and I was disappointed that Catherine Keener didn’t get more screen time and that her character of Harper Lee who wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird?” was not explored more. His partner remained oddly anonymous throughout too.
Apart from that, a superb film for which Hoffman fully deserved the Oscar.
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