Bouts – new EP – lovely stuff

Meaty music.

Bouts 2.0 - Daniel, Barry, Colin agus Niall

So my old band have a new EP out. We Tried, which is a better song than The Script’s We Cry, is the lead “single” from it. It sounds massive.

As briefly explained in this introductory tumblr post, aptly titled “EP RECORDING“, I left, there was a brief period of stagnation and mourning (I think it was about 40 minutes or so), and Barry and Daniel recruited two of my favourite people – Niall Jackson and Colin Boylan. Niall being the everyman’s stupidly solid bass man and Colin being Sunburnt Jets who occasionally dry heaves into my dreams.

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Cru-ou-ou-ou-el // a short post about St. Vincent and All Saints Day

That was then…

A bad photograph of St. Vincent supporting Sufjan Stevens, November 1st 2006, Dublin's Olympia theatre. Pic by wheatln2

And this is now…
[disclaimer – “Cruel” is a potential video and song of the year candidate, it will lodge itself in your consciousness]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTfiOuoAF20

So I talked before about my favourite ever show – Sufjan Stevens in Dublin’s Olympia theatre, November 1st – but another thing that made it such a good night was the unknown support act. A member of Sufjan’s touring band, Annie Clark, who called herself “St. Vincent”, looked as sweet as sugar but played some guitar like an animal. Since then we’ve had a bit of thing going on…

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Gandhi. Some fellah.

You think you know Gandhi? My arse you do.

Gandhi drawing from flickr user Nigil Vazquez, all rights reserved

So the tenuous lead-in before the funny facts… Great South Africans was a 2004 TV show that looked to count down the country’s most important figures but was cancelled due to controversy for featuring too many apartheid figures and mis-representing what it meant to be a “great South African”. The fact you only had to have lived there for a time qualified people like Lord of the Rings scribe JRR Tolkien who was born in Bloemfontein but left when he was 3, and the focus of this piece, Mohandas Gandhi, who was born in India but worked there from 1893 to 1915.

While number one was no surprise – anyone else and there would have been uproar – the televised countdown only got down to number 11 before being cancelled. This meant the people at numbers 2-10 only got placed alphabetically… Continue reading

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Ah!! Jessica Chastain is EVERYWHERE!

SEVEN films in 6 months?!

And she gets to hang out with Al Pacino and his 'surehecouldbehergrandad' girlfriend!

So a year ago at TIFF, I saw The Debt (Aug 31). It was fine, but the fact it’s taken a year to see the light of day with a general release in North America just last week tells you all you need to know. But at the time I thought the unknown red-head charged with playing the young Helen Mirren was one of the best things about it. I didn’t write that in my review, but you trust me when I say there wasn’t a whole lot else to take away from the picture. The director John Madden said he was looking for a fresh faced unknown for the role but now admits “that strategy seems to have been blown out of the water” as, by accident or design, it’s now impossible to escape Jessica Chastain. Continue reading

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Only steers and queers come from Texas

I’ll be watching you!!

Stumbled across this video today, can’t help but share. It’s all great, though no big surprise to see what they put at the top…

worth watching a bit more of the scene…

12 fun facts about R Lee Ermey

1. He broke his arm in a jeep accident while filming Full Metal Jacket. In some scenes in the movie, he does not move his left arm at all.

2. He voiced Sarge in all three Toy Story movies.

3. He is a candidate for the National Rifle Association (NRA) board of directors. And is damn good with a sniper rifle.

4. He voiced a prison warden in Spongebob Squarepants.

5. He played the janitor’s dad in Scrubs.

6. He has promoted Glock firearms, Coors Light and Tupperware.

7. He has a Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross and a National Defense Service Medal, amongst others awards.

8. He was in Apocalypse Now, Mississippi Burning, Naked Gun 33â…“ and Se7en.

9. He gets to be called “The Gunny”.

10. He reckons army tattoos are awesome.

11. He thinks Obama is a socialist who is destroying America.

12. He played Gregory House’s father in HouseS05E04, “Birthmarks”.

Ronald Lee Emery. Hates Obama. Like Tupperware.

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My TIFF 2011 movie schedule!

336 films. 11 days.

Another year has rolled around. It’s been 12 months since I kinda kick-started my blog for the first time after a hiatus and wrote My TIFF 2010 movie schedule! and TIFF thoughts & 123 movie reviews.

So in case you were in any doubt, I love film festivals. While TIFF is far from perfect, when you’re dealing with something of this scale (HALF A MILLION TICKETS?!), I guess it’s easy enough to fuck up a little. So lets forgive the wacky lottery ticketing system,the number busy buuup buuup I kept getting for 90 minutes on Saturday morning and the inevitable late showings and lineups. Instead, let’s focus on what matters – the films. Because when it comes to putting together a festival program, they do pretty damn well.

This year I didn’t get my act together in time and so missed out on the 10-ticket packs, which meant I was left to fend off thousands of other enthusiastic punters on “Single Ticket Saturday”. Instead of pitching a tent for an overnight stay on King Street, I opted for the phone and email option. Took 90 minutes (should really just have set the alarm for 8am instead of 6.45am) but eventually the website started playing along and I’m delighted with the ten I got.

Picking what you want to see is a combination of a guessing game, logistical planning and plain old blind luck. Last year The King’s Speech won the audience award and didn’t lose any momentum before taking home the Best Picture oscar last February. Before the festival it hadn’t even registered on my radar and I was more excited about seeing eventual duds like The Debt and Bang Bang Club.

Anyway, onward…

The shortlist:  INTO THE ABYSS,  ELLES,  TWIXT,  SHAME,  MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE,  THE KID WITH A BIKE,  WUTHERING HEIGHTS,  JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME,  THE DEEP BLUE SEA,  KILL LIST

/
~  INTO THE ABYSS  ~

Director: Werner Herzog | Country: USA | Year: 2011 | Language: English | Runtime: 106 minutes | Format: HDCAM

TIFF description/tickets
Official site
Variety – Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, a Tale of Life
New York Times – A Bounty of Documentaries at Toronto Festival

“We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.”

What more can I saw about Werner? One of the most interesting and passionate film-makers working today, equally adept with drama or documentary. If the Bavarian beauty (trademark wheatln2) were to film himself sitting on the toilet narrating his morning bowel movement I would still pay top dollar to see it as soon as possible. I was lucky enough to see Cave of Forgotten Dreams at the festival last year and whether it was the fact it started at something like 11pm or the 3D glasses, it all swept over me like a nice dream.

Herzog’s new documentary Into the Abyss is an insight into one of my favourite things. The American prison and judiciary system. Whether it’s network television’s serialised cesspit Prison Break or Louis Theroux’s Behind Bars, I’m hooked.

 

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Cyber Security in Ubuntu

Cyber attackers are always looking for different ways to gain access to your systems. For instance, some are exploiting open ports and unpatched systems. This often requires a level of sophistication to bypass some of the most protective firewalls available today.

The good news is that it’s a lot easier than in the past to set up a simple firewall with no knowledge of hacking and cyber security, since attackers use malicious tools as malware to destroy your systems. This tutorial will walk you through the basics of setting up a simple firewall.

Step 1: Install Ubuntu

For this tutorial we will be using a 64 bit Ubuntu. Installing Ubuntu 16.04 on a 64 bit PC will result in a 64 bit operating system. However, installing a 64 bit operating system on a 32 bit system does not have any significant advantages over a 32 bit operating system. Installing the 64 bit version of Ubuntu on a 64 bit PC will only get you a 64 bit operating system.

Step 2: Install Firewall
Now that we have our Ubuntu installed, it is time to install its firewall. I will be using the most popular open source firewall, the one bundled in the openSUSE project. If you need help installing an alternative firewall, I suggest you start with this guide. Once you have installed the firewall, go ahead and install the following applications: apt-get install netfilter-utils libnat-net-vpnc-perl net-pf-3-perl net-pptp-perl net-p2p-tools net-snmp-perl The next steps are optional, but you may want to add a few more packages, such as:

apt-get install dnsmasq-base

apt-get install sshfs

apt-get install udisks2

apt-get install libdns

apt-get install wpasupplicant

apt-get install nginx

apt-get install git

Then, we need to add our new system to our package list. Open a terminal, and navigate to the /etc/apt/sources.list file that you created in the last section. Paste the following line in this file, and save the file. # Debian 6.0 deb http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch main deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch main You should see a line that looks something like this: # Debian 6.0 deb http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch main deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch main # Debian 6.0.1 deb http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main Then run the following command to install a new deb from the backports server. apt-get update # apt-get install deb http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main You can also add additional backports repositories from the command line. In this case the –repository option is mandatory. # apt-get update # apt-get install –repository=http://backports.debian.org/debian stretch-backports # apt-get install –repository=http://backports.debian.org/debian stretch main # apt-get install –repository=http://backports.debian.org/debian

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Implementing SEO can lead to more conversions

Implementing SEO can lead to more conversions. There are no shortcuts! If you want to grow your business or gain an edge in Google search results, you need to put in the time, effort, and knowledge required to do SEO effectively. I highly recommend checking out the Google’s own content marketing manual for information on how to promote your website and create awesome content, that way you’ll know what
SEO services are the right ones for you.

SEO company Dubai - aesell - IT Design & Web

How do I find out how many visitors I get on my website each month?

You can check Google Analytics by going to Google Analytics Website All Traffic , then selecting ‘all traffic’, and the Traffic from Page section. If you are not seeing any traffic, then you may have issues with your hosting. Go to host.google.com and click on your ‘Hosted Site’ link to check your website’s status. What is the purpose of the Google Webmaster Tools’ Keyword Planner? Google Webmaster Tools’ Keyword Planner helps you to understand the trends in search. If you are interested in how search is trending for your terms, you can use the Keyword Planner to generate relevant keywords that are relevant to you and that will help you gain more traffic. We will also help you find new keywords and keyword ideas to implement. To begin, just type in your keywords, and you will get a list of related keywords. If you click on any of the results you will get a preview of the keyword, its popularity and a report of the keyword’s competition. You can also create your own keywords by using the Advanced Search and the Advanced Search Box.

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Sunburnt Jets – retreat // out of here // blood brick

retreat. retreat. retreat.

the new sunburntjets.com. Tilted slightly you don't think it's a propah webpage. There aint no iframe shit goin on here either.

So last Friday, Sunburnt Jets aka Colin Boylan aka mybrotherfromanothermother (and father) released a batch of 3 new songs. This retreat // out of here // blood brick EP follows on from his Low Flying Crow LP which was released last August.

I was delighted to be asked (or told?) to do the artwork, blurbs and a site refresh at sunburntjets.com, like I did last summer for the album release. It was nice to be involved from afar as the EP also features a few other familiar faces from the glory days of the Green Lights dynasty.

We’re not going to win the grammy for best artwork (yes grammies 87 and 88 are given out for packaging…), but I like it. Likewise the web “site” is just a web “page”, so no webby award for me. The cover shot is a photo Colin took on his recent holliers to California and Las Vegas. What he was doing down a seedy back alley in Santa Cruz I’ll never know but it made for a great shot.

Anyway I’m not going to embed a stream, video or bandcamp link here as you can just head on over to sunburntjets.com for all that. Click this rainbow-riffic pic to make all your dreams come true.

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Imagine an alternative version of The Sound of Music…

The hills are alive…

Spot the difference...

I really love The Sound of Music. Visiting the sets in Salzburg and taking the coach tour around the mountains was one of the highlights of my 2003 inter-railing experience. Most people would probably say getting sick on the streets of Krakow or trying to write their name on the Brandenburg gate would have been their favourite memory but I quite enjoyed getting to see the famous gazebo where Liezl and Rolf sang Sixteen Going on Seventeen.

What?

But imagine seeing this movie with terrifying Mia Farrow as Liesl, the eh, “lead-kid” eventually played by goody-two-shoes unknown Charmian Carr. Talk about a completely different movie…

instead of…

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I’m a scatman… // Scatman Crothers 1910-1986

It’s a scoobie oobie doobie scoobie doobie melody.

So if I said to you one of my favourite actors is famous for appearing in two of cinema’s best-loved celebrations of madness, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and The Shining (1980), you’d think Jack Nicholson right? Well you’d be wrong.

I’m actually talking about Scatman Crothers. The gentleman getting his ear burnt off by Jack’s tales of drug-addled debauchery in the photo above. Or maybe he’s explaining that some white guy will steal his name and have a hit single in the mid 1990s, Scatman finds it hilarious…

Benjamin Sherman Crothers was born in Indiana in 1910 and died of cancer at the tender age of 76. He would have been 101 last month. And the fact he died 25 years ago last month is also worthy of note and motivation for those people who only like to acknowledge people due to a big landmark. (*cough* Bob Dylan at 70 *cough*)

As with a lot of things I draw strange comparisons between things so I’ve always ended up associating Scatman Crothers with Scatman John, born John Paul Larkin.

His big hit, Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop) was an Attention Bebe (16 piece 1990s cover band I tactlessly rocked the glockenspiel in) staple for a while, and is worth a quick listen.

Now wasn’t that nice.

But I don’t really want to talk about Scatman John. That was only to lure you in. This is really about one of the finest voices of the 20th century…

Onward as we go through some hastily-compiled chunks of text about the late great Scatman Crothers!
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Nice Winter! // Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Five dollar casio.

The new Bon Iver album, “Bon Iver, Bon Iver“, is fantabulous and worthy member of my “best of the year so far” top 5.

I think there are a number of reasons I feel this way.

The man

No matter what I see or hear Justin Vernon do he comes across as the smartest, loveliest fellow in the world. Can he be my older brother please?

It’s like a giant metaphor for high school– people think or say certain things, and those ideas get amplified via telephone and, all of a sudden, somebody’s a dick or a racist. I just want to know that, no matter what the perception of me as a person is, I can live with who I actually am. But I find it funny that the stories are wrong. It goes to show that even the indie rock world– which is supposed to be about truth and independence from corporate mindfulness or something– is totally subject to the paraphernalia of celebrity. [Pitchfork: Interviews: Bon Iver]

“I think in that way I was emboldened by seeing how Bryce and Aaron [Dessner, of the National] work in their life,” he says, “and also how Kanye worked: ‘I want that – get that. I want an 80-piece orchestra – get it.’ And I guess I just was like: ‘Oh, I can see now! I know my two favourite saxophone players in the whole world, so why don’t I get them in the same room?'” [Bon Iver: ‘I’m really confused right now’ – guardian.co.uk]

Equally at ease on video in the last few weeks he’s been on the late night talk show circuit, talking as well as performing. A sign for anyone thinking he’s not on the verge of being a mainstream superstar is a fool. Here he is a few weeks ago chatting to Jimmy Fallon….

“Bon Iver, Bon Iver. So nice you said it twice.”

…and here is a sit-down from last night’s Colbert Report. Stephen is obviously a pretty big fan but doing his best to keep it in character as always.

“What is Bon short for, Bonathon?”

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Gail from Corrie looks really like Kermit the Frog

It’s uncanny right?

Jim Henson and his right-hand man, Kermit the Frog

Martin Platt and his right-hand woman Gail Tilsley, soon to be leather jawed battle-axe Gail Platt. Later to become Gail Hillman. Currently Gail McIntyre.

And I’m not the only one to think this either, check out the Facebook group “gail platt looks an awful lot like kermit the frog???“. For once, 50 people agree with me.

So this silly revelation does give me a good excuse to post the a link to a great Time article I read on the train to and from Ottawa over the weekend.

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I AM ONE // Happy birthday blog

Birthday Bumps!!!

So a year ago I was just arriving in South Africa for the 2010 FIFA world cup and figured it would be useful to have an online depository for travel writing, videos, photos and your typical self-effacing and yet self-indulgent schtuff.

And here we are. Now one year later. Got out of South Africa alive, got to Canada, got a tan, saw some films, got a job, got snowed on, got another job, got a haircut and am now working on another tan.

Or at least that’s the short version. The longer version is messier but I don’t think anyone needs to read that right now. Got to keep something for the book deal right!

Bottom line I’m happy to be here in Toronto for another year. But before that… I get to go home for half of July (8th-25th)… Isle of Man, Whelans, Wicklow, Connemara, Inis Meain, Tesco Donore Rd, Dundalk train station, Cineworld Dublin, my roland synth, the atlas piano, bus windows, vintage cars… here I come!

In the mean time here are some noted posts and awards. Unsurprisingly some kid called Nigel wins all of them.

 

First ever post (#1 of 56)

Cape Town is, eh, “ready” for the World Cup [June 8 2010] (and didn’t it do well!)

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