There was a little girl
And she had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead,
When she was good,
She was very, very good,
And when she was bad she was horrid.
This nursery rhyme popped straight into my mind when I started to write this review. It applies so aptly to Steven Patrick Morrissey’s live performances. Whispers [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Morrissey, New York Dolls | 8 Comments »
It means fasten your seat belt Dorothy, ’cause Kansas is going bye-bye.
Yes, I am beginning a review of this latest Hollywood blockbuster with a quote from arguably the best sci-fi action movie of them all. It serves two purposes though. Firstly, it recognises how much this son of Matrix film has borrowed from it parent. [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, The Matrix, Wanted | 4 Comments »
Hailing from New York, Vampire Weekend were one of the earliest “hype” bands of 2008 thanks to the release of their eponymous debut album. Oxford Comma below is their latest single.
Have a great weekend folks!
Filed under: Music, Videos | Tagged: That Friday Feeling, Vampire Weekend | 5 Comments »
I first listened to Berlin in my mid- to late-teens. It was surprisingly stark. It was subversively sinister. However, above all, it was stunningly seminal. Along with Transformer and Velvet Underground and Nico, it formed a triumvirate of Lou Reed albums that were part of an enormous re-shaping of my musical interests at the time. [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Lou Reed | 8 Comments »
It is important to say, right from the very outset, that this film is not overly concerned with plot. Why so? Well, it is essentially a 150-minute story about a laid-off shipyard worker opening a floating restaurant against the odds, with unsurprising first-night mishaps thanks to his somewhat dysfunctional family. Yes, it does sound a [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Abdel Kechiche, Alice Houri, Couscous, Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi | 5 Comments »
After today, I, hereby, do solemnly vow not to make further reference to the Lisbon Treaty in a blog article for one whole month… then preparations for Lisbon II shall commence in earnest!
However, the past two weeks or so have been fascinating for me. I have learned some new things about myself and [...]
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Lisbon Treaty | 6 Comments »
January, as you may know, derives its name from the Ancient Roman god Janus. This particular deity was known for having two heads - a feat which he apparently managed to achieve without imbibing alcohol the night before. Anyway, I digress, as the point was that these heads always looked in opposite directions. Hence, he [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Alex Holdridge, In Search of a Midnight Kiss, Sara Simmonds, Scoot McNairy | No Comments »
Despite its inception all of those, well…, eh, days ago, No Ordinary Fool has yet to bring you back a gig report from a foreign land. Given all of the European bonhomie kicking about the place these days, it is high time that this got put to rights. That said, I am off to a [...]
Filed under: Music, Videos | Tagged: Against Me!, That Friday Feeling | 2 Comments »
This directorial debut of Ben Affleck has drawn comparisons with the work of fellow Hollywood star-turned-director Clint Eastwood. For me, this is high praise, as Eastwood is one of the few major Hollywood directors that I always look forward to the next movie offering of. As it turns out, the good and somewhat surprising news [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, Clint Eastwood, Dennis Lehane, Gone Baby Gone | 2 Comments »
You run with the Devil.
This one gets chalked down as a “hell, yeah” – plain and simple. These hairy gentlemen from Seattle produced a spellbinding set of harmonies and guitar playing last Saturday night that added whole new dimensions and excitement to their tidily impressive eponymous debut album, not to mention the earlier Sun Giant [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Fleet Foxes | 3 Comments »
If the rejection of Lisbon has been good for one thing, it has knocked me out of the fairly apathetic state that I have fallen into for the last number of years. There is something about the seemingly unconstrained use of so many false and distorted arguments by extremist and unaccountable individuals to influence how we [...]
Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Democracy, Lisbon Treaty | 29 Comments »
Baltimore duo Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, aka Beach House opened last Saturday night’s proceedings with a slow-burner of a set that was partially due to the poor sound quality on the first song. However, the following numbers of You Came To Me and Wedding Bell went much better and the show built from there [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Beach House, Fleet Foxes | No Comments »
This is an idea that I first mooted over on Grandad’s blog. However, if you missed it there, with more than 60% of the voters in the neighbouring constituencies of Dun Laoghaire, Dublin South, and Dublin South-East voting once more in favour of closer relationships with our European neighbours, the time has come to set [...]
Filed under: Humour, Politics | Tagged: Lisbon Treaty, Dun Laoghaire, Posh People's Liberation Front | 8 Comments »
Energy. It is as simple as that really. Perform like you mean it and reap the rewards for it. Lykke Li understands this in spades. Indeed, the last time that I was at the Sugar Club, I witnessed a similar performance from Annie-Claude of Duchess Says (review here). Both are precociously exuberant in terms of [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Duchess Says, El Perro del Mar, Lykke Li | 1 Comment »
The last time that I checked, sea dogs were crusty old tars smoking foul-smelling pipes and not leggy, blonde Swedes playing acoustic guitar. However, that’s female liberation for you! Anyway, I only came across Sarah Assbring’s music for the first time earlier this year and it has been slowly growing on me ever since. Last [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: El Perro del Mar, Sarah Assbring | 1 Comment »
