Posted on Saturday, 30 August 2008 by Longman Oz
This French film begins with a 75th birthday party and ends with a teenage girl taking some tentative steps into adulthood. In between, the relentless cycle of life is explored through the prism of three generations of the same family.
The elegant Hélène (Edith Scob) is the matriarch of a family scattered to the four winds [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Alice de Lencquesaing, Charles Berling, Dominique Reymond, Edith Scob, Isabelle Sadoyan, Jérémie Renier, Juliette Binoche, L'Heure d'été, Musée d'Orsay, Olivier Assayas, Summer Hours, Valérie Bonneton | No Comments »
Posted on Friday, 29 August 2008 by Longman Oz
So, honchos, has it been a good week for you? Around these here parts, the past seven days have gone by in a blur so there is a strong sense of déjà-vu all over again to be writing this weekly wrap-up so soon after the last one.
As a habitually poor sleeper, I listened to the [...]
Filed under: Music, Videos | Tagged: Barack Obama, M83, That Friday Feeling, US Presidency | 17 Comments »
Posted on Thursday, 28 August 2008 by Longman Oz
British film directors and coming-of-age dramas do seem to go hand-in-hand, do they not? Last year’s This is England by Shane Meadows stands out amongst them, though, for its originality, humour, and colour, as well its ultimately dark themes. He returns now with this simple social portrait of life in and around St. Pancras train [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Somers Town, Shane Meadows, Thomas Turgoose, Piotr Jagiello, Elisa Lasowski, Ireneusz Czop, Perry Benson, EuroStar | 1 Comment »
Posted on Wednesday, 27 August 2008 by Longman Oz
It turns out that Cork has the highest rate of absenteeism in the country, according to a report published yesterday. Back pain and stress were cited as the two biggest causes of the problem.
Who would have guessed just how much Cork people were labouring under the weight of that chip on their shoulder?
Image: Cork chips
Filed under: Humour | Tagged: Cork, Absenteeism | 1 Comment »
Posted on Tuesday, 26 August 2008 by Longman Oz
There you have it. You wait six years for a successor to the excellent City of God and two come along at once. While Elite Squad provides a brutal external insight into life inside of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, City of Men seeks to portray a more intimate aspect of it.
Indeed, this film is from [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Cidade dos Homens, City of Men, Darlan Cunha, Douglas Silva, Paulo Morelli | No Comments »
Posted on Monday, 25 August 2008 by Longman Oz
In the first of several plodding sequels to the magnificent Dirty Harry, Callaghan takes on a team of vigilante motorcycle cops who are intent on administering violent summary justice. In one scene, he is told by one of these cops that his no-nonsense approach to crime-fighting was their inspiration. Callaghan is then given the chance [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Elite Squad, José Padilh, André Ramiro, Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, Tropa de Elite | No Comments »
Posted on Saturday, 23 August 2008 by Longman Oz
Alright, I will be honest, I only watched this because I am a huge fan of how director Guillermo del Toro brings such great imagination and colour to his work. While I do not have a clock counting down to the release of the first of his two Hobbit films, I am giving the matter [...]
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Anna Walton, Doug Jones, Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy, Hellboy II, Luke Goss, Peter Jackson, Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Seth MacFarlane | 4 Comments »
Posted on Friday, 22 August 2008 by Longman Oz
Reports are coming in to the news desk of No Ordinary Fool that The Killers only put on a 75-minute gig at Marlay Park last night! Seeing as the total cost of a ticket was around €80, that smacks of an astonishing rip-off.
One way of thinking about it is that this worked out at €1 a minute per [...]
Filed under: Music, News | Tagged: The Killers | No Comments »
Posted on Friday, 22 August 2008 by Longman Oz
By me forty coats and me fifty pockets, if it is not Friday come around again!
Yet once more the wonderful world of the slightly bonkers Irish offered up some gems this week - we had politicians wanting to segregate schoolchildren from their classmates, we had a drugged-up horse hoofed out of the Olympics (although the [...]
Filed under: Music, Videos | Tagged: bon iver, Bowerbirds, Justin Vernon, That Friday Feeling | 4 Comments »
Posted on Thursday, 21 August 2008 by Longman Oz
For the final part of this mini-series looking back on moments of great drama in Olympics track & field history, there is a veritable queue around the corner of possible contenders - be it Abele Bikila setting a world best time for the marathon in 1960, whilst running in bare feet, or Paavo Nurmi winning [...]
Filed under: Sport | Tagged: Moments In Time, Olympic Games, Wilma Rudolph | No Comments »
Posted on Wednesday, 20 August 2008 by Longman Oz
Brian Hayes, the Fine Gael spokesman on education, is clearly not going to be outdone by Mad Merv up the North. The genius proposal of this highly-remunerated parliamentarian would be to segregate the children of migrants from the rest of their classmates until they can speaka de English properly. This, apparently, would be for their [...]
Filed under: Ireland, Politics, Society | Tagged: Brian Hayes, Education, Fine Gael, Immigration, Ireland, Irish Politics, Multiculturalism, Segregation | No Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, 19 August 2008 by Longman Oz
For most casual fans of the Olympics, there is understandably nothing more thrilling than two 100 metres gladiators going head-to head in the final, with the wearer of the laurel wreath being decided by who’s hair is the longest when they dip for the line. It is simply unadulterated chest-thumping, alpha-male drama at its finest.
For [...]
Filed under: Sport | Tagged: Haile Gebrselassie, Moments In Time, Olympic Games, Paul Tergat | No Comments »
Posted on Monday, 18 August 2008 by Longman Oz
The land, the sea, and the coast that divides them are frequently recurring references on Wagonwheel Blues, the debut album of Philadelphian quintet The War On Drugs. Last night, the three-axe assault felt like a naval bombardment of shoreline defences. POUND, POUND, POUND, boomed the guitars. It was bordering on the brutal.
Now do not get me [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: Adam Granduciel, The War On Drugs | 2 Comments »
Posted on Saturday, 16 August 2008 by Longman Oz
Some time ago, I remember reading online reviews of a garage band performing in Dublin. The writers were complaining about being verbally abused and spat upon by a guy who could not sing. They were watching an old-school punk band so!
I was reminded of this incident last night with The Death Set.
They set up on [...]
Filed under: Gigs, Music | Tagged: The Death Set | 6 Comments »
Posted on Friday, 15 August 2008 by Longman Oz
What was all the fuss about really? Okay, so a few jobs may have been lost, there was a touch of the old negative equity, inflation lost the run of itself for a time, and the Social Partners ended up having a bit of a spat over trifles such as wages. Yet it has all proved to be nothing more than a [...]
Filed under: Humour, Music, News | Tagged: Duffy, MCD, Irish Economy, Rip-Off Ireland | No Comments »
