a classical modern hybrid...

Reining from Co. Kildare and Co. Wexford, this musical trio has tendered their debut album described in their ornate biog as ‘classical in waiting’. Indeed. This string-led, contemporary/classical fusion ensemble is in all comprised of vocalist and violinist Joyce O’Leary, her elder sister, violinist Ruth (24) and last but not least, pianist Colm Henry (23).

While individually, each member of this modern-classical hybrid holds a résumé that would impress anyone (having studied at Classical Houses such as The Guildhall School of Music in London and the Royal Irish Academy of Music) one can’t help feeling that there is something distinctly lacking from the end product.

It is difficult to fathom that something so plainly mediocre and lacklustre could have stemmed from three highly trained young musicians who possessed such promising instruction hitherto. Two words spring to mind…‘sell’ and ‘out’.

The delicate yet unconvincing vocals from the elder of the O’Leary sisters at times lacked the conviction, resonance and depth necessary to complement the elegant nuances of the classical background. And all the while, the superficial and clichéd lyrics echo blatantly of something from a Westlife b-side.

That said, despite the questionable “is it the name of the latest Nissan 3-door or is it a WWF wrestler” name, Sephira will no doubt hold pride of place on the coffee table by day and act as the soundtrack to many a polite suburban dinner party by night.

Rating: 2/5

'Believe' is released in Ireland on March 23rd. Check out www.sephira.ie for more information.

Nizlopi take on Whelans...

The Nizlopi duo arrived on stage as though recently dragged off the couch, shoe-less and dishevelled, and slowly meandered into the reasonably large crowd in Whelan’s on Monday last. It was from there that they began to belt out their soon-to-be-released second single Girls without a microphone in sight. And so it began.

It would be a lie to say that the gig was not entertaining. The night itself was littered with some seriously weird moments which ranged from the unusual to the sublime. The most noteworthy of these had to be Suzie, the middle aged mother from Bristol, who climbed onstage mid-gig and demanded a singsong from the slightly perplexed audience. Then there was the token fanatic called Brian, who gave up his job in the UK and ran away with the band to another country. “It’s definitely unusual”, John concedes when I question him on their number one fan, “he has our mobile numbers and everything”.

Post-gig, I asked the band the first logical question that came to mind. ‘What on earth does “Nizlopi” mean? Double bassist and human beat boxer, John Parker promptly gave me that knowing ‘we get asked this all the time’ look and proceeded to explain. “It’s a Hungarian surname”, he began, “When we were younger, there was a gymnast called Nina Nizlopi on the telly all the time. When we heard this name we thought ‘Wow, that’s bizarre – what is a Nina Nizlopi?’ so we named about band after her, really. It was funny because round Christmas, when we became popular all of a sudden, we had to phone her to make sure she was ok with it. I think she was a bit shocked, but in all seems pretty happy.”

“I started playing the double bass when I was pretty young. My brother, Robert, is profoundly deaf and was given a double bass as a child so that he could feel the vibrations from the instrument. When I saw it I thought, ‘hey this is great’, so I stole it off him! It was only when Luke and I were on Richard and Judy or something that Robert text me and reminded me. I suppose he should get a cut of the profits.”

Having met on a bus at the age of thirteen and discovered their mutual appreciation of music, John and his JCB-song-singing mate, Luke Concannon got on like a proverbial house on fire. “Both Luke and I are dyslexic, and were always quite useless at school. When we met on the bus we realised that we both were pretty big into music, so we thought ‘hey let’s form a band!’ I think we wrote our first song about two weeks later.”

Nizlopi shot to fame with their now signature JCB song in during the Christmas number one season of last year. Because of the dates upon which Christmas fell, the singles chart was not compiled until half way through the day. This meant that Nizlopi held the throne for half the day and Simon Cowell’s latest X-factor protégé Shayne Ward for the other. However, when I broached this issue with John, he was quick to set me straight. “We were Christmas No.1 until seven o’clock that evening, so it was more than half a day” he laughs, “Oh, is that a bit petty?”

“But seriously though, it doesn’t really piss me off. I think it was sad that it was ‘that’ song. It would have been great to have been beaten to number one by someone credible. It doesn’t feel good to be beaten by something so terrible, but it wasn’t a surprise. It was like the battle of Tesco and the local green grocer, really. We didn’t stand a chance – Shayne Ward sold something like 700,000 copies and we couldn’t even afford to print that many. Having said that, my family still believes Nizlopi was Christmas number one!”

Christmas number one or not, from the scenes I witnessed in Whelan’s, Nizlopi seem to have accumulated a pretty solid fan base. Despite cancelling the last three dates of their Irish tour (due to Luke’s not-very-rock-n’-roll chest infection) the two promise to return to Ireland just in time for the festival season. [END]

Taken from the album ‘Half these songs are about you’, the second single Girls is released in Ireland March 27th. Check out http://www.nizlopi.com/ for more information.

Dublin City Riots

whipping the Sindo...

Feargal Mc Kee, of Whipping Boy acclaim, stood on the stage of the Olympia Theatre on Sunday night and set alight to a copy of the Sunday Independent screaming, " I want you to become members of the independent media of your own minds!!"

uncanny.

shedding blood for the cause...

oh the lengths some people will go to get out of writing an article...

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that a young martina genockey tried to opt out of the arduous task of finishing an assignment with a fuzzy post-blog "awards" night head on her - by embedding a staple in her finger!

bless.

on a night well earned...

on our newly acquired NUJ cards...

I am somewhat perplexed at the use of the word “temporary” in our NUJ Press Cards.

Is it merely my scepticism, or are they insinuating that we are somewhat unlikely to secure a full time position in the realm of journalism?

Rather than “temporary”, why don’t they use “soon to be highly successful and much cherished member”?

I think I’d like that…

me thinks he doeth protest too much...?

Don’t let the greedy bastards get away with it” screamed one of the hundreds of posters and placards on display during the workers rights protests in Dublin city earlier this afternoon.

The atmosphere outside the black gates of Dáil Éireann was almost unnerving. Journalists and cameramen fumbled with their equipment as the sound got louder, signaling their approach.

From around the corner of Kildare and Nassau Street they came in their thousands. Drums sounded and voices roared defiantly.

Following the collapse of talks between SIPTU and Irish Ferries early this morning an estimated 70,000 people marched from the Garden of Remembrance at Parnell Square to government buildings in protest.

In this powerful shout of solidarity the Irish public openly denounced and condemned Irish Ferries treatment of workers. But somehow this all looked so familiar.

My minds eye brought me back to the protests against the war in Iraq in February of last year.Over 100,000 people came out on the streets and marched on the Dáil that day declaring that they would not allow the government to support the war in Iraq in their name.

There was passion and fervor yet the ultimate impact was minimal. Shannon Airport continues to be used by the American Armed Forces to refuel during their journey to war.

So, when the public shouts, does anyone actually listen? Will the fact that so many people from such a varied myriad of backgrounds and professions made this overt protestation make any difference to the outcome of this war of wills?

Or are Fianna Fail sitting back, safe in the knowledge that the Irish electorate is , en masse, a largely fickle one. Inevitably on Election Day they will come, with their staggeringly short term memory in tow, and vote them back into office.

again.

Just a thought.

Protestation and declaration

First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists
And I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for me –
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

Pastor Niemoeller (victim of the Nazis )

[Taken from a placard at the workers rights
protest in Dublin city earlier today]

an explaination...?

Excerpts from The Donegal Democrat, Friday 6th June 1919 :

“I would suggest to Town Commissioners, Urban Councillors and all others concerned, the erection of receptacles for orange peel, as a paying investment. Quite an amount of potential marmalade goes to loss on our streets every day. ”

indeed.

“Drumholm has lovely women – I know it, and I am giving this tip gratis to any Bachelors outside the boundary line, who need the sight of a pretty figure to make them change their manner of living.

Perhaps the men think I am going to include them in the catalogue labelled ‘purty’. Well, all I can say is that our parish holds the highest percentage of unmarried men, between the ages of thirty and ninety seven, of any in Ulster.

The fair sex will tell me that the men’s dials are responsible for the high bachelor rate; and right enough, some of these ornaments are enough to make a razor go blunt.”

perhaps this may go in the way of explaining the sociological culture of Donegal in some way...?

zzzzz....

The snoring returned last night and brought with it insomnia.

Led into the room by hand, it clambered up onto my bedside locker and it swung its legs like an insolent child ignoring the angry stares from those involved, namely me.

one of these days I will sleep...

on sleep deprivation and its causes...

My signature anxiety has now reached a whole new plateau.

Last night I found something new to hinder my attempts at sleeping…not being able to buy my own house in the future.

I understand that there should in fact be more pressing things for a 21 year old to be worrying about, but when it comes to worrying about things, I am probably not the average 21 year old. The words ‘neurotic’ and ‘irrational’ have been, believe it or not, associated with me before.

This may of course be partly attributable to the fact that I was the only transition year student in my year having anxiety attacks because I was unsure as to what I should put down on my CAO form two years later, but anyways....

It is only now that I realise that my fear of being unable to buy my own house stems, I think, from the general fatigue of rented accommodation that I have acquired of late. Having moved between ELEVEN different rented houses or apartments over the last three years, (excluding Donegal) I have become entirely disenchanted with this renting malarkey.

Not only has this generated a feeling of ‘homelessness’ of sorts, but means that with every move I become entirely susceptible to the habits of new housemates and neighbours.

For example, any chances I had of actually falling asleep last night were hampered by the accumulative din of noises coming through the cheap, paper-thin walls of my Kilmainham apartment. The most palpable noise was undoubtedly the snoring pulsating from the room next door to mine.

But what was frustrating was that the noise was in fact being produced by my housemates father, who is staying with us while on business in Dublin, so I couldn’t walk into the room and gag my housemate in that half-messing, half-serious kind of way.

But this was not the only interruption of my much needed beauty sleep. At the other side of my room came the unmistakable noise of puppy love (and not the canine kind), above the snoring was the hovering (entirely logical at 2am in the morning of course) and I was serenaded a myriad of ambulance sirens and shouting from our local gang of young boys from outside my window.

So, it was at some stage during the night that my quasi-awake mind and warped sleepy logic made the random connection between rented accommodation and the inability to get a good night sleep. Queue panic.

Cup O'Cheer all year round....

I am pleased to announce that as a direct result of the lobbying and petitioning carried out by the “Cup O’Cheer Retention Society”, those lovely people at Java City have developed and released a full Cup O’Cheer range so as to ensure a festive feeling all year round!

Mr. J. City, CEO of the Cup O’Cheer Directive spoke earlier to day of the revelations. “We were conscious of the impact our Cup O’Cheer cup holders had on our customers, and are delighted to announce the launch of the Cup O’Cheer range 2005.”

The range includes a cappuccino set; a travel mug; a new coffee variety called the Cup O’Cheer Holiday Blend and a limited edition “Merrimint White Mocha” Coffee.

The Cup O’Cheer Holiday blend has been described as “a blend of African beans which bring a jolly, bright, citrus-like aroma, perfectly complemented by the delicate notes and smooth, creamy finish of Central American coffees.”

delightful.

on our future employment prospects....

LOST

...my motivation and inspiration.

answers to the name of 'bob'.

If found, please contact me as soon as possible.

Cup O'Cheer....?

This blog is written in response to a blog posted by my good friend, David White on the topic of the “Cup O’Cheer” craze currently sweeping the DIT campus. (http://speis.blogspot.com/)

Despite my initial glee upon encountering the “Cup O’Cheer” provided by Java City, I would, at this point, like to draw attention to the sporadic nature at how these festive coffee cups are in fact distributed.

May I suggest that perhaps those directly responsible for the circulation of the “Cup O’Cheer” fail to fully realise the implications surrounding this irregular and plainly erratic distribution.

I beleive it to be both reckless and unjust to introduce the paying public to such a festive entity and then to deprive them of this item in such a haphazard manner.

I call upon those afforded with this duty to rectify this at once, so as to avoid any further distress.

[with many thanks to David White for the use of his photograph]

Disclaimer...

Libel, v. A permanent misrepresentation such as writing the effect of which is to injure a person's good name by holding him up to public ridicule, hatred or contempt.

My learned friend has informed me that due to the content of this blog, that I may in fact be vulnerable to libel under the Defamation Act (1961) under Bunreacht na hÉireann 1937.

I would henceforth like to renounce and relinquish any legal responsibility for the content of this blog, and furthermore to issue a permanent publication which states the contents of this blog to hold no thread of truth and are intended in a satirical manner.

phew....

the i-pod generation

I would henceforth like to welcome music back into my life. Following the untimely demise of my somewhat old skool, but much loved CD walkman, I have unwillingly adhered to the stereotype of my generation and bought an i-pod. A lime green one at that. Yet when I returned home with my new found toy, I felt a wave of what I can only describe as GUILT.

My small rented room has become somewhat overwhelmed with electronic gizmos and gadgets. In the last year alone I have acquired, in one way or another, a new laptop, colour printer, digital camera, i-pod mini, professional Sennheiser headphones, a Sony minidisk recorder, a professional microphone and countless CDs and DVDs.

Granted, the only reason that I have these items in the first place is a huge combination of birthday, Christmas, graduation and anniversary presents teamed with a summer of working shitty low-paid jobs in order to save up for them, but still.

But what struck me most what that aside from actually owning these items, I was in fact too busy to give each of them the attention and use that they deserve.

My minidisk recorder, along with the microphone, remains unused to date, still wrapped up in their plastic and cardboard packaging.

While the laptop is currently used for i-pod related downloading etc, and some Microsoft Word, it has not yet been given the opportunity to stretch its legs and get up to the debauchery that other laptops of this spec do. It hasn’t even been hooked up to broadband for Christ sake.

As for the printer, I haven’t even had the time to open the box and up-load whatever relevant software that comes with it. What a waste.

Am I a bad person, interested only in exorbitant and materialistic things? Personally, I don’t think so, or perhaps hope I’m not…

[P.S. for any potential burglars out there whose eyes have gone all wide and glassy at the prospect of a veritable treasure chest of electronic goods – don’t bother. That professional microphone is in fact a serious weapon, and I’m sure that no one would miss you if I were to decide to enforce my angry female wrath upon you…]

Kidnapped and tortured by Iarnród Éireann

And so I sat. Wearing the entire contents of my suitcase, clutching to an icicle to keep warm...and all because the lady loves paying €39.00 to be treated like cattle on a train to the 'big schmoke'.

After being left out in the cold, physically and metaphorically, for three quarters of an hour, the illuminous-coated ones from Iarnród Éireann informed those of us who were waiting for the train to the capital that a 'maintenance problem' would prevent ANY heating on the 09:35am scheduled train from Galway to Dublin.

During what had to be one of the coldest days of the year, we were given the option of boarding the train and travelling for at least two and a half hours in a carriage that could not provide heat in any form, never mind bum warming capabilities.

Our alternative? To wait for an hour for a cramped bus that would arrive two and a half hours later than we had planned. I went for the faster option.

But in making that decision, myself and the 60-odd other passengers failed to predict exactly how cold it was going to be onboard. There were shards of ice along the inside of the windows and my breath vaporised as it hit the air. An elderly lady who sat across from me complained she was actually unable to feel her feet and fingertips.

Amidst this obvious encumbrance, it genuinely baffled me that the lovely people at Iarnród Éireann were unable to exercise the most basic of tasks and provide a cup of tea to thaw the belly. When asked if we would be able get off at Athenry to buy one in the station there, we were refused.

In an attempt to keep the shivers at bay, I started pulling on extra jumpers from my suitcase. Despite wearing three t-shirts, two jumpers, a huge coat and a hat and scarf, the cold still managed to filter through.

An arctic penguin sitting beside me skoffed at my flimsy runners and suggested seal skin. Note to self...penguins have warped ethics and make somewhat unorthodox decisions concerning footwear and travel arrangements.

The prospect of loosing my toes and as a result all ability to maintain my balance (even when sober) was all too much and in an attempt to save them from frostbite and/or amputation, I pulled my entire weekend supply of socks onto my already numb feet.

And when we arrived, having undergone and successfully completed this test of endurance, somewhat unsurprisingly, there were no representatives from the company available/willing to speak to us and certainly no prospect of a refund.

Echoing the sentiments of a fellow passinger, this is the kind of monumental, yet presumably regular f*ck up that would only happen in Ireland.

Fine Gael bribe students with beer...

Unconfirmed reports have suggested that a Fine Gael representative attempted to "buy votes" from students of DIT at Dail Eireann earlier this week.

During a tour of government buildings, the students were approached by an unidentified TD in and his male 'secretary' in the welcoming hall of the Dail and lured into the visitors bar.

It was in the bar that the students were allegedly bribed with alcohol.

"It was unbelievable really. A man in his position should know that students are unable to turn down a free pint. I think he took advantage of this."

The students were then left unattended in the bar, faced with the prospect of staying there for the night. One student described the events as "potentially disastrous" and akin to "luring donkeys into a barn with a carrot."

When questioned as to whether or not the politicians ploy was successful, reactions varied. While some of the students felt powerless as they were unable to vote in the TD's consituency, one student was quoted as saying "Fine Gael? One pint is not enough...."

The politicians involved were not contacted during the writing of this article.

a note on blogs

Oxford English Dictionary: blog, v

"To blog is to be part of a community of smart, tech-savvy people who want to be on the forefront of a new literary undertaking"

quite.

Robyn G Shiels

Album Review – Robyn G Shiels A Lifetime of Midnights
Release Date: November 14
Rating: “Excellent”/ four stars out of five

Hailing from Co. Derry, Robyn G Shiels has been a somewhat notorious entity in the Northern Ireland music scene for many a year. Yet it is only now, with the release of his debut album A Lifetime of Midnights that Shiels must step to the fore and take responsibility for this talent of his.

What has been described as ‘possibly the most beautifully bleak albums to come out of Belfast’, A Lifetime of Midnights undoubtedly emits a poignant beauty which permeates through every track.

Shiels’ adept use of simple melody and markedly emotive lyrics displays a notable maturity for what is his debut album. In all he delivers a captivating melancholic honesty in his music, which is unlikely to go unnoticed.

The eleven track album also features his debut single, ‘Two nights in June’, which received critical acclaim last summer from cogs in the music industry machine such as Playlouder and Drowned in Sound.

Released on Belfast based indie label, No Dancing Records – headed by Jimmy Devlin and Terry Lavery – A Lifetime of Midnights is also the first CD format release to be announced by two of the hardest working men in the Northern Irish music scene.

But in saying all of the above, I feel obligated to warn you. Do not listen to this album if you feel you may be teetering on the edge of sanity and/or an all-encompassing depression. Doing so may act as the impetus for your inevitable psychological decline.

For more info: http://www.robyngshiels.com/ or http://www.nodancing.co.uk/