Archive for 'Entertainment'
Hugh Does it Again
Posted on June 5, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Food.
I think I’ve pretty much seen every TV programme that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has made. The quality/interest has varied over the years but I’m really digging (pun intended) this new series.
The show has the same premise as things like Jamie at Home where the focus is on growing and cooking seasonally. Obviously this is all about Spring and early summer and the first episode focused on lettuce, spinach etc.
You won’t see a huge number of recipes but you will see different approaches to vegetables and produce so that they go centre stage. BBQing Little Gems is something I’m definitely going to try.
Two other aspects of the show are a bit shoe-horned in but still welcome. He’s reprising the smallholding idea from his chicken series and following/helping a group of families in Bristol create an allotment with a few animals (initially pigs). I liked the fact that the kids were far more down to earth about the fact that pigs are lovely animals but they are also meat. Some of the more flighty adults should listen to them!
The “get a vegetarian to eat meat” section was odd but one of my favourite bits. The woman wasn’t a proper vegetarian in the sense that she just decided meat was “icky” when she was younger and stopped eating it rather than having any philosophical issues with it. She was taught how to break down a lamb carcass by Hugh’s butcher which reminded me of him doing the same thing on a pig in Ballymaloe several years ago. They then had lamb burgers which she liked and lamb neck which she didn’t.
Hugh also made dandylion and burdock beer from the local hedgerows. The guy helping him had previously had a bad pint of same many years previously and was very dubious. However, three weeks of brewing and Hugh had a winner on his hands. I’m almost tempted to try.
The honey face-off with the kid from Hackney was great fun and the fact that you can move bees 3 feet or 3 miles but nothing in between was news to me. To move them a few hundred yards, you have to move them a few miles first and then bring them back or they get confused by the landmarks. So bee brains can store landmark information? That’s better than many people 
So an odd mish-mash of ideas and snippets but it all hangs together well. If you are interested in food gardening and cooking, as I am, you should watch it.
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Bandon Music Festival
Posted on May 29, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Entertainment, Family.
The annual festival is on this weekend, starting tomorrow and ending Sunday. Manic Mammy has put together a list of videos from some of the acts. Fingers crossed for good weather!
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Retro Fans Rejoice
Posted on April 27, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Technology.
I just heard about this site yesterday and it’s absolutely wonderful. They have a ton of the old ZX Spectrum games available to play online and your scores are included in various league tables. A perfect 21st Century improvement to 20th Century games.
Most of your old faves are there, I’ve just been playing the ever-brilliant Jet Set Willy. I love just clicking around and being reminded of many happy hours as a teenager in the 80’s.
Sure it’s nostalgic but it’s also bloody good fun. When the graphics were that bad, playability became the number one aim and that hasn’t diminished over the years.
So are you the best ZX Spectrum player in the world?
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Review of The Pressure Cooker (RTE)
Posted on February 4, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Food, Reviews.
The advertising for this programme had me hating its subject before it had even started. It depicted Dylan McGrath, who runs Mint restaurant in Dublin, as an obnoxious Ramsay-knockoff desperate to win a Michelin star. Two minutes into the show I wanted to turn it off. I had no interest in seeing this pompous, arrogant jumped-up little asshole.
Then the rent-a-critics and old men were put to one side and Dylan was allowed to speak. The scales fell from my eyes and I saw a driven, brilliant, witty creator at work. A Ramsay knock-off? You bet - everything that is right about Gordon, I saw in this young guy. Relentless work ethic, constant striving for perfection, inability to suffer fools and a desire to make magical food.
The show focused on his seeming need to win a Michelin star and kept showing clips of other chefs advising him to be patient, build a good business, lose the obsession, stop being so cocky. After a while they got very boring indeed. As Dylan said “this is Ireland after all”. I was thrilled to see the programme-makers really dig into his motivations, demons and formative experiences as a chef. His quips about collecting gooseberries with his Granny spiked the usual nonsense about where a great chef comes from.
His food is highly stylised and for a short while I was reminded of the infamous Conrad Gallagher. I was surprised the naysayers didn’t mention his name in fact. But the thing that struck me about the plates they showed was that they seemed unique and they looked gorgeous. The trip to his salad guy in the UK was a joy. Two obsessives discussing baby salad leaves in the shape of butterflies. Dylan mentioned that the guy had gone bust a few times. You could see why.
And then the highlight of the programme. After little more than a year and a half running Mint, he got his star. A lesser programme would have cut to scenes of the old bluffers looking bashful and apologetic. They didn’t need to, the message came across loud and clear; this guy is going to be huge.
Please please please RTE, make more programmes like this. The desires I expressed in my last review were all fulfilled by this show. Please tell me why it’s only a once off. I guess it is costly to make deep, incisive, educational, moving television. So dump the fluff and make more of these. Now, where’s the telephone number for Mint……
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Review of Guerrilla Gourmet (Ep 02)
Posted on January 29, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Cooking, Entertainment.
After the first travesty of an episode I swore I’d never watch another but the lure of Denis Cotter in Bandon was too much. This is Gimmicky Garbage TV with a half decent programme buried somewhere far far underneath.
In the first episode they send Kevin Dundon to cook a gourmet meal in a boxing club in poor area of Waterford. If you thought that was crass, in this one Denis Cotter set up a vegetarian restaurant in the middle of cattle pens in Bandon Mart!
What drives me insane about the programme is that Denis is interesting, his food is interesting, his walkabout with a botanist eating wild greens was interesting (albeit very Hugh FW) and getting average people to try vegetarian food is interesting. Setting it in a cattle mart is retarded. Whatever “right-on” TV exec came up with this whiz-bang idea should have a pile of cow scutter dumped on his desk because that’s what this whole series is.
Take all those great chefs, get them to cook from the heart, find out what motivates them, explain their influences and where they trained and you could have a legendary TV series instead of this steaming pile of crap.
Next week Kevin Thornton cooks pork in a Mosque. Or something.
7 Comments
How to render me speechless
Posted on December 13, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment.
Hand me this receipt in a bar in Paris after I order four bottles of beer:
Next time I’ll order wine.
Full review of the worst service I’ve encountered in 39 years coming soon.
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Clonakilty International Guitarfest
Posted on September 7, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Entertainment, Ireland.
Ray in deBarras in Clon mailed me to tell me about the Guitarfest starting on September 20th. I’m glad he did since it looks fantastic. Lots of details on their very cool site. MySpacers should check them out here.
The line-up has a very rich mix of styles but the one that caught my eye has to be Eric Bell, the Thin Lizzy founding member who is responsible for the classic Whiskey in the Jar!
If you are anywhere near West Cork from 20th-23rd, you owe it to yourself to get to Clon.
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Craic Pack Invades Dundrum
Posted on July 17, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Humour.
Just got a mail from old college buddy Niamh Shaw. She has taken the oft-travelled path of Degree in Engineering, PhD in Engineering, Gaiety School of Acting, Fair City, comedy troupe and is now part of the Craic Pack in Dublin.
They’ve been doing comedy improv every Wed & Friday in The Bankers Bar, Trinity St in Dublin for a long time and they’ve just announced that on Saturday, July 28th, they’re going to do an ever bigger and funnier show in the Mill Theatre, in Dundrum Shopping Centre. Watch as the Drummy Mummies scatter in fear
If she is even 10% as funny as she was all those years ago in Earlsfort Terrace then you’ll be expelling snot at high velocity during this gig. You can find out lots more at www.myspace.com/thecraicpack
On a vaguely related topic, we’re now up to 16,598 views of the Steorn Video on YouTube. Head on over and try to get us to 20,000!
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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!
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Vote for your county in All-Ireland Monopoly
Posted on April 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Humour, Ireland.
Courtesy of Jonathan Hill. Get your county into the top spot in Monopoly! It looks like the entire population of Leitrim and Roscommon has voted with 296 and 258 votes respectively. Cork floundering with 31 and Kilkenny with 26.
Note to Hasbro - maybe get a custom PollDaddy widget created that we could all put on our blogs? It’s viral baby!
28 Comments
Sign the RTE Digital Free-to-Air Petition
Posted on April 22, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Ireland, Technology.
As a lot of you know, you can get a Digital version of RTÉ (including Widescreen) on Sky Digital and NTL. However you must have a Sky/NTL subscription to see it. Many people, including myself, believe this is fundamentally wrong as we already support RTÉ through the mandatory TV licence.
Please sign the petition from Brian Greene demanding that RTE make digital broadcasts of their programming available for “free”. If you are a blogger, consider adding the badge in support.
Whilst I’m at it, maybe someone can tell me why I was talking to RTE about Digital Terrestrial TV in 1998 and we still don’t have it? RTÉ is another taxpayer funded organisation in dire need of a good kicking.
24 Comments
Sometimes you forget
Posted on February 6, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment.
That Prince is a Music God. And then you see this:
Superbowl XLI half-time show.
Technorati Tags: Superbowl, Superbowl+XLI, Prince
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Exciting reads for 7-year olds in Irish?
Posted on January 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Family, Kids.
Oscar is a bright kid who loves to read. His favourite novel is Le Catalogue d’Argos. In fact he loves the Horrid Henry series (and other similar ones). The only subject he is weak in is, surprise surprise, Irish. Unlike Oisín and Sibéal, he never went to Naoinra so started on it cold in junior infants. We’re hoping to get him into Irish as a bit of a challenge but the books have to engage him.
Anyone out there have recommendations for good exciting reads in Irish for kids aged around 7? Catherine found this site but most of those descriptions sound a bit boring e.g. where is Mamo’s tooth? Does something old fashioned like the equivalent of The Secret Seven or Famous Five even exist in Irish?
Technorati Tags: Irish, Books, Gaeilge, Adventure, Kids+Books
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I didn’t even know they had split up
Posted on January 25, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment.
Just spotted on the BBC that The Jesus and Mary Chain are re-forming to do some festival. I bloody loved that band. Psychocandy is in my top ten albums of all time. I remember playing it to my friends in 1985 and they all laughed at me. “But it’s just noise Conor”. “Wait, just wait, you’ll see. This is genius”.
Any movie that uses their music gets an instant thumbs up from me. I think that’s why I have a soft spot for “Lost in Translation” - they played “Just Like Honey” in the closing scene.
One of my favourite lines from a song:”Sometimes I walk sideways to avoid you, when I’ve annoyed you”
Now I’m just going to have to go off and listen to Psychocandy for the 4 billionth time. Gonna be hard to get any work done.
Technorati Tags: The+Jesus+And+Mary+Chain, Psychocandy, Lost+In+Translation, Just+Like+Honey
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Your Sinclair Rock n Roll Years 1987 is out!
Posted on January 6, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Technology.
As with all the previous episodes, this one is a zinger even if you were a C64 or (god forbid) Dragon user. I had stopped my involvement with home computers by 1987, what with being in college and discovering drink instead. So I found it particularly interesting that they mention a game called “Head Over Heels” which was considered by many to be the greatest example of its genre ever created.
I’d never heard of it so I’ve just grabbed it from World of Spectrum to play on ZX Spin and they weren’t joking. They did this with 48K of RAM. I think my watch has more than that. Never a huge fan of the 3-D isometric games but this is bloody good.
Download it here or view on Google Video:
Technorati Tags: YSRNRY, Your+Sinclair+Rock+n+Roll+Years, Head+Over+Heels, 1987, ZX+Spectrum, ZX+Spin, World+Of+Spectrum
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There goes another icon of my yoof
Posted on December 19, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment.
Joe Barbera has died aged 95. I wonder how many re-runs he saw over the years? That man is responsible for a huge number of my favourite TV memories from childhood (and now with Boomerang, as an immature adult):
- Tom and Jerry
- The Flintstones
- Scooby Doo
- The Huckleberry Hound Show
- The Yogi Bear Show
- Quick Draw McGraw
- Top Cat
- Wacky Races
- Banana Splits
And not forgetting the greatest cartoon ever: Hong Kong Phooey! De de de de de de daaaa.
Technorati Tags: Joseph+Barbera, Hanna+Barbera
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Mmm Trebor Fruit Salad
Posted on November 23, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Drink, Entertainment.
Just as I start grumping that there is nothing on the telly, a chunk of genius appears in the shape of Oz Clarke and James May with “Oz and James’ Big Wine Adventure” (Wednesdays 8pm BBC2). I used to watch Oz and Jilly for laughs back in the old Food and Drink days. They were so off the wall I don’t think I ever learned anything. James is of course Captain Slow on Top Gear and knows absolutely nothing about wine. The pair of them head off on a tour of France in a Jag XJS so Oz can teach James all about wine.
Sure it’s a standard “Odd Couple” bickering idea but it works soooo well. James is a big kid and Oz is desperately pompous so the sparks fly constantly. The scene of the two of them in disposable thongs getting into a bath of grape extract together at a Wine Spa is indelibly burned on my brain.
I’m of the James persuasion. He wants to learn enough to be able to buy good bottles of £5.99 French wine in his supermarket. Poor Oz wants to “educate” him. The word terroir hasn’t come up yet but it’s bound to at which point James will blow his whistle called the Ozillator to stop Oz being a wine bore.
James makes some wine by crushing grapes with a dirty hoe, adding sugar and yeast and leaving it in the boot of the car for a week. He then does a taste test of three wines including his own at a French Market. One poor muppet picks James’ as the best!
At Château Pichon-Longueville-Comtesse-de-Lalande I was reminded why Aussie wine with “Shiraz” on the bottle sells better. C’mon, that name’s up there with Tarquin Lim Tim Bim Fim Bim Ole Ftang Ftang Biscuit Barrel. They went into the cellars with Grand Dame Madame May-Elaine de Lencquesaing and discussed ancient wine. James was chomping at the bit “but they are just looking at it, what’s the point of that?”. Madame showed wines from 1817 and 1940. No mention of how they managed to make wine in 1940, cough, don’t mention the war, cough.
But the absolute highlight of the programme was the taste test they did at Château Pichon-Baron, in front of one of the wine industry’s biggest players, Englishman Christian Seely. They gave James three wines to get his opinion of their bouquet. The first was a young white bordeaux which should have peaches, apricots etc. James sniffed, thought, sniffed again and came up with “Dope”. If the ground could have swallowed Oz whole. Next up a £120 Grand Cru which should have smelled of blackcurrants. James interpretation of this - “Trebor Fruit Salad”. Ozes face was frozen in horror. And finally, another Red which should smell of tobacco. James does much better on this “Bonfire, BBQ sausage, Pork”. Oz looks ready to kill him, Then magically “and a hint of Virginia tobacco”. Hurrah, reputation recovered.
Very very funny TV but Oz is failing in one area that James himself mentions several times and that is in the actual education about wine. Oz is so obsessed with the culture and history he forgets simple things - like what grape is white bordeaux made from? I had to Google it as my knowledge of French wines stretches from Sancerre to Pouilly Fumé which is a distance of approximately 400 yards on the Loire I think. Ah, it’s also Sauvignon Blanc with some Semillion and other optionals. Might give that a go.
If you want a giggle and to learn a bit about wine in the process, you cannot miss this programme.
Technorati Tags: Oz+and+James+Big+Wine+Adventure, Oz+Clarke, James+May
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Heston Blumenthal - tickling multiple bones
Posted on November 7, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Cooking, Entertainment, Food, Restaurants.
I saw the first episode of Heston’s cookery series on TV this evening. He simultaneously tickled my foodie and engineering fancies with some of the things he showed. He deconstructed the classic Black Forest Gateau, found out what the real essence of it was and then rebuilt it using some awesome techniques.
Watching him aerate chocolate using a Tupperware container, a vacuum-bag for storing clothes and a vacuum cleaner was a 2006 TV highlight for me.
Before I die I want to eat once in The Fat Duck and once in elBulli. This new business had better work out or that’ll remain a dream!
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My first mention in a national newspaper does not include the phrase "the accused"
Posted on November 7, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Blogging, Entertainment, Food, Ireland.
When Haydn asked the question recently on the BarCamp Ireland blog if anybody had any favourite Irish entertainment sites/blogs and I replied, little did I know that he was going to quote me more than once in The Irish Times. I thought it would be just part of a ”Conor likes this”, “Mick likes that” “Mary like these” list. Chuffed? Hell I grinned from Bandon to Dublin yesterday.
That has to be one of the best newspaper articles I have read in a long time. Not only was it almost entirely non-Dublin-centric, it talked about exciting things which are still outside the mainstream and reminded me how dull most mainstream media has become. My gut (big as it is) tells me that there is a major opportunity just bubbling under the surface here and I can’t wait to see who grabs it and runs with it.
Swearing Lady deserves a huge readership and I’m thrilled he gave her so much coverage. Haydn called her “arguably the most talented writer at work today in Ireland” and I completely agree. I may be an RSS addict with my 350 feeds but of all of them, her writing is something I actively look forward to every day. I’m sure HarperCollins will be banging down her door soon to add her to their pedigree stable as an understudy to Cecelia 
Haydn himself has a few superb blogs with Mediangler (no not Media Langer) being the main one and I particularly love his new site that he runs with his wife called My Diet Friends. This is a site about diet rather than dieting and if you have any interest in healthy eating and food, it is a must read.
Recently both CNET and Yahoo have launched food sites and I find myself bristling just thinking about them. In both cases I just feel like tech/media companies have spotted another valuable demographic with monetizable eyeballs rather than really giving a damn about food. They are not, as Seth Godin would say, telling authentic stories. Have a look over at what PodChef Neal is doing on YouTube to see how passion and knowledge count for far more than slick design.
I’ll stick with Podchef, My Diet Friends, eGullet, Elise Bauer, Bibliocook and the handful of other sites/blogs run by people who are genuinely passionate about food.
10 Comments
CBBC, CBeebies and UTV on Sky Digital
Posted on October 30, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Entertainment, Technology.
I don’t know why it is so hard to find this info so I thought I’d post it here to solve that problem.
A lot of Sky customers don’t know that there are many other free channels accessible on the various Astra satellites (like the good old analogue days) which you can programme into your Sky Digibox. From talking to other parents, by far the most popular of these has to be CBBC and CBeebies. In fact, Channel 4 is now the only remaining mainstream station that you cannot get on Sky in Ireland.
In order to get the two kiddies stations, do the following:
- On your Sky remote, go to Services->System Setup->Add Channels
- In the Frequnecy box, enter 10773
- In the Polarisation box, select H
- In the Symbol Rate box, select 22
- In the FEC box, select 5/6
- Select “Find Channels”
- It will return a list of BBC Channels including CBBC and CBeebies
- Scroll down to each one of interest and press the yellow button to select them
- When you are done press the “Select” button
- Those channels are now available in Services->Other Channels
Unfortunately you cannot record those stations if you have a Sky+ box. There are more regional BBC stations available at “Freq=10802″ (with all other settings the same as above).
UTV can be found on: Freq=10906, Pol=V, Symb=22, FEC=5/6
Lyngsat, the best satellite info web-site has tons of others.
Technorati Tags: CBeebies, CBBC, UTV, Sky, Sky+Digital, Lyngsat
