I do not plan on writing many personal entries here, but Donagh’s blog entry today put me in mind of this story for the first time in ages.
My brother, who was a pre-schooler at the time, had been having difficulties with pronounciation. My parents were concerned that this was an indication of a more deeply-rooted learning [...]
Filed under: Humour | 2 Comments »
Shot almost entirely using hand-drawn black and white images, Persepolis is an ambitious coming-of-age drama set against the backdrop of revolution, war, and the suppression of individual freedoms. Persepolis first appeared in France as a graphic novel in 2000. It was written by Marjane Satrapi about her experiences growing up in Tehran and Vienna during [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | 2 Comments »
Mola, which some may know as being an item of traditional clothing worn by Panamanian women, also happen to be a four-piece Dublin band that will have their debut album One Year In the Asylum out shortly. They were on the Revolver Presents… bill on Saturday night at Radio City.
While strip-mining the seventies and eighties [...]
Filed under: Humour, Music | Tagged: Mola | 2 Comments »
Mike Leigh’s comic film tells the tale of a month in the life of Poppy (Sally Hawkins), a 30-year old London woman. By day, she is a primary school teacher. By night, she takes trampolining and flamenco classes. At the weekend, she has driving lessons and hangs out with her girl friends. So far, so [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh, Sally Hawkins, Alexis Zegerman, Stanley Townsend, Karina Fernandez, Eddie Marsan, Samuel Roukin | 3 Comments »
Every Friday, No Ordinary Fool shall look to bring you a recent music video from an alternative artist that it likes. First to step up to the plate are The Constantines from Ontario, Canada with this single from their fourth album Kensington Heights. It is called “Hard Feelings”. Enjoy!
Filed under: Music, Videos | Tagged: That Friday Feeling, The Constantines | Leave a Comment »
Elbow came onto the stage on Monday evening armed with trumpets and an all-female trio of strings and backing vocals. My immediate thought was “why is everyone saying that there is a recession looming if a band from Bury can afford to go all hoity-toity on us (the big Jessies)?” Fortunately, order was restored when they [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Elbow, Guy Garvey, Thurston Moore | 4 Comments »
I am unlikely to go see Three And Out, as anything flagged as an “uneven British slapstick comedy” is rarely my thing. Why I draw attention to it is that it uses the horror of railway suicides as one of its main plot devices.
As a train driver, it must be painfully distressing to see someone [...]
Filed under: Cinema | 6 Comments »
First up, a big thank you to the IFI for screening these two films in the double-bill format that they were originally meant to be shown in. It was three hours plus of ridiculously good fun.
A brief recap of the concept is that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez collaborated together on a double-bill feature called [...]
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Sun Giant is an album that made me feel a bit queasy upon first listen. Indeed, it seemed like the musical equivalent of the type of boy that a long-suffering mother must hope that her daughter will eventually bring home after after a succession of punks, goths, and grungers. You know the type – tidy [...]
Filed under: Albums, Music | Tagged: Fleet Foxes | Leave a Comment »
When Liars pulled out of Thumping Thursday next month (some rot about supporting Radiohead’s tour of the US), the promoters promised an equally good replacement. To be fair, they have delivered with the announcement yesterday that Chrome Hoof will be joining Redneck Manifesto in supporting Battles.
Shoots and scores!
Filed under: Music, News | Tagged: Battles, Chrome Hoof, Redneck Manifesto | Leave a Comment »
I was referring to Desert Island Discs choices the other day on the excellent Extreme Listening Mode music blog. The BBC Radio 4 idea is to choose eight pieces of music to spend your days as a castaway listening to. Seeing as the programme has run for over sixty years in that format, I am [...]
Filed under: Music | 7 Comments »
Ça, c’est une vie?
This line is delivered twice with considerable force and anger by Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) early on in the film. The only difficulty is that they are spoken in his mind, as he can no longer use his paralysed mouth.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a powerful and faithful cinematic representation [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Jean-Dominique Bauby, Mathieu Amalric, Max von Sydow, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly | 1 Comment »
Hard to believe that over three months has past since I saw the FLAs ring in the New Year at The Village. However, enough for now about why this blog is a public means of supporting my defective memory! Arriving a tad too early, as it turned out, I was momentarily startled that the band [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Fight Like Apes, Future of the Left | 8 Comments »
Apologies in advance for the Schadenfreude, but this joke is rather clever:
There are two sides to the UBS balance sheet – the left-hand side and the right-hand side. On the left-hand side, there is nothing right. On the right-hand side, there is nothing left.
Had to get this gag in now, as the bank’s CEO was quoted over [...]
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The son of an immigrant pickpocket and an unknown father, Alex grows up in a foster home following his mother’s arrest and decision to surrender legal custody of him. Her arrest, witnessed by her son, is shown in a silent, slow-moving, dreamlike prologue. The audience is then introduced to the older Alex, who is now [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | 5 Comments »
