Almost there

7 more days to the greatest day in Irish cinema history.

This

And this

Roll on March 23rd!!

Climate Change

The EPA on foot of research into the implications of climate change for Ireland have released a report of their findings

The report predicts that a global temperature rise of up to 2° Celsius would result in negative changes include the following:

• Increased likelihood and magnitude of river and coastal flooding;
• Water shortages in summer in the east, increased need for irrigation of crops;
• Negative impacts on water quality;
• Changes in the distribution of species, and possible extinction of vulnerable species requiring cooler conditions, e.g., the Arctic Char;
• Effects on fisheries, which are sensitive to small changes in temperature, e.g., Cod; Increased frequency of wild fires and pest infestation. Find a link here to the EPA statement and report.

15 minutes of Youtube

Strictly speaking this is from god tube but same thing. Clowns for Christ.Hat tip Washingtonrox

Riverdance. 13 years since this people.

WIth Ireland starting the Cricket World Cup so here is how you play

Here is Ireland bowling West Indies out for 25. Seemingly that is good maybe we can repeat that next week.

This 15 minutes of dossing was brought to you by the Dossing Times.

Online Mourning

A funeral director based in Co. Down will be among the first in the world to broadcast funerals live online. Using a password provided by the funeral director, relatives and friends who cannot make the funeral, may log on and aided by cameras and microphones installed in the church attached to the funeral home may watch proceedings. The company also hope to begin filming burials soon. On reading that the service is restricted and not open for general viewing I felt a bit more at ease with it and maybe this is an example of one of the services saturating the marketplace that have in some way a noble intention.

Link to article: Undertaker offers 'world's first' live internet funerals

15 minutes of Youtube, David Lynch

I've just returned from David Lynch's new movie, INLAND EMPIRE. Like the vast majority of his work it was brain scrambling stuff.

To mark the occassion, some David Lynch related clips from Youtube

To begin a parody scene from the Simpsons. This is from the "Who shot Mr Burns?" episode

Kudos to the person who can spot what parts of this next clip, from Twin Peaks, is parodied above. Answers on a postcard please

A scene from Eraserhead. "Just cut them up like regular chickens."

A cigarette commercial by Mr Lynch

Next, a scene from the Elephant Man.

I'll finish where I began, with the Simpsons. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Homer watching Twin Peaks (and a little bit extra).

This 15 minutes of dossing was brought to you by the Dossing Times.

Buffy turns 10

This week 10 years ago, a little show, based on the premise of a failed movie was among the original line up of the new WB channel in the US. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer went on to be the flagship programme for the station, made a star of Sarah Michelle Gellar and ultimately gained a huge cult, bordering on mass following. Unique and compelling, the show was a revelation with critics naming it one of the shows of the year and never let up on their praise of the show throughout its run.

The show was a mix of humour and drama, touching on wide ranging issues such as morality, death, sex, bullying and parenting all filtered through the hell a high school experience can be, especially when you character is a reversal of the traditional blonde bimbo victim, now turned slayer, destined to protect the world from demons and vampires.

I came late to the show, accidentally watching the finale of the 2nd series, intrigued by this girl in love with a vampire, her simple wish to be a normal girl suffocated by huge obligations, forced into killing her fella to save the world. I don’t know how hammy that premise sounds but the episode was outstanding, a bank of rich characters filled out the story and the ending left my jaw on the floor.

The show was brave, so often Joss Whedon has had his visions stifled by studios, he has just left the Wonderwoman project and his script was butchered to turn Alien Resurrection into the mess it was. It is hardly new now but it was the first show I’d seen that had series long arcs, at times scenes dropped hints of events that would unfold two years later. Every episode, even the poorer episodes of which bettered anything churned out by the pretenders to follow (Charmed, Smallville) were littered with twists and were endlessly funny and equally poignant all in the space of 50 minutes. There were benchmark episodes when you knew you were watching something special, episodes totally devoid of dialogue or with no backing music, with plot developments turning everything on its head, no character was safe, the story telling was real and determined. To watch the development of the show, the themes to each series and see the attention paid to evolving the main players as well as supporters is a testament to the talent at play. I could go on: favourite episodes, scenes, characters, running gags, pop culture references. You get the idea. Buffy is currently being shown weekdays on Channel 6 and Sky 1.

IMDB kindly lists some of the best dialogue of the show here, and there is no end to the fan-sites on offer, everything from philosophical debates to examinations of Sarah Michelle Gellars diminishing waistline throughout the series.

Random Tuesday #2

The Train Ride
Irony, thy name is IrishRail.

I planned last Friday with military precision. I was heading home for the weekend so I wanted to get the earliest train possible. I got into work 15 minutes early and only took 30 minutes for lunch when I was entitled to 60. With 45 minutes in hand I left work early and rushed back to the apartment, discarded my blasted suit and got the Dart-Luas combo that would bring me to Heuston.

Success!! I managed to get there in plenty of time for the 1840 hours train to Thurles. There was another train 20 minutes later, at 1900 hours, but I took great satisfaction in having slickly executed my meticulous escape plan.

You can imagine my disgust when my 1840 hours train pulled over in Ballybrophy for 25 minutes to let the 1900 hours train past. This meant that by rushing to get the earlier train I was, in fact, 15 minutes later getting to Thurles.

That’s public transport for you.

The Match
I watched the match at home, in the comfort of my own sofa. I generally dislike going to pubs for matches. Sure the atmosphere is sometimes better but is it really worth having an invariably crappy view and all the mobility of the M50 at rush hour? I think not. Far better to get a few cans and head to a mates house where you can get the thoughts of Hook, Popey and Sheasy or switch to BBC to hear what they’re saying.

That said, I suspect I’ll make an effort next weekend alright. Good on you England…Swing Low and so forth.

As for the Ireland-Scotland match itself, well that’s Ireland as overwhelming favourites for you. Way too close for comfort. The only thing worse than the prospect of defeat is the prospect of an embarrassing defeat . Not defeat by a huge margin but a defeat at the hands of second rate incompetent opponents who should be swatted aside with the minimum of fuss.

After Saturday, the entire country now knows how Bertie Ahern must be feeling.

The Movies
Lately I’ve faltered in terms of seeing movies I want to see. So, having returned to Dublin on Sunday evening, I made sure to stop in to the nearest cinema on my walk back to the apartment. I had the good fortune of seeing Venus, a delight of a movie boasting a seismic performance from Peter the Great.

The closest cinema to where I live is Screen Cinema on D’Olier St. It’s a charming little cinema that screens charming little movies and, most importantly, provides ample leg room for my 6’3” frame. Furthermore, having now seen a good half dozen movies there I can happily report that its patrons do not include the chatterboxes and gigglers who have the annoying habit of sitting directly behind me.

The only negative is the curious pre-show routine. If you take your seat a little early you’ll be greeted with some soothing music. Lately this has been Norah Jones’ debut album, Come Away With Me. The adverts and trailers start at the advertised time just like everywhere else. However once the trailers are over Norah is resurrected and the audience sits there for 10 minutes with nothing on screen before the movie actually starts.

The 10 minute wait is as irritating as you would expect and doesn't half kill the mood. Following testosterone in celluloid form, A.K.A the trailer for 300, with Ms. Jones is like having the under 10 exhibition game follow Amhran na bhFiann on All Ireland Final day in Croke Park.

The truth about Rum
Thanks to Disney and Captain Jack Sparrow, rum is now a world famous drink. Typical of Disney though, it’s all fun and games when it comes to the characters drinking the stuff. All sing songs, with ‘Yo Ho Ho’ this and ‘A pirates life for me’ that. Where’s the realism? Where are the consequences of Jack losing his sobriety in a bottle of rum?

As we all know, things work a little differently in the real world. In reality, Capt’n Jack would have taken out his Nokia at random intervals during the night and sent nonsensical text-jibberish to a mate of his at home in bed. His groggy friend, haven been woken from his slumber, would have been able to establish that Ol’ Jack was drinking rum, lots of it, and having fun somewhere, but not much else.

That little fact of life ‘came’ to me as I lay in bed over the course of Saturday night/Sunday morning.

You’ll be happy to hear my rum guzzling, text happy friend suffered all day Sunday with a monster hangover. So I guess, like all good Disney movies, my story this week has a happy ending.

At the Movies

It’s the quiet before the storm at the cinema at the moment, we have time to get to see Oscar contenders that have reached Irish screens and see what the fuss was about but otherwise studios are holding out to launch an onslaught on our senses, firstly around Easter and then of course come May. In the mean time, here are 5 cinematic developments for you to consider. That done, go see ‘Venus’, Irish audiences have shamefully neglected to go see this fine film, it’s wonderful.

First up, find here a link to ‘The Simpsons Movie’ website. The most recent trailer, a choppy mix of a lot of actions and characters isn’t the best and is too busy for my liking but there is still plenty to enjoy in the earlier trailers.

To the left is the face of Shia LeBeof, the actor in final talks to play Indiana Jones' son. I don’t need to go into a diatribe about how this one piece of casting could be the ruination of a classic trilogy or should we put faith in Spielberg and Lucas? Let’s remember one of these men created Jar Jar Binks.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is set to replace Katie Holmes on the Batman Begins sequel, ‘The Dark Knight’, playing the same character rather than a new love interest. Aaron Eckhart will play Harvey Dent, the man who eventually becomes Two-Face. It has already been announced that Heath Ledger will play The Joker. I for one am much more excited about the line up of Robert Downey Jnr., Gywneth Paltrow and Terence Stamp for Iron Man.

Here is a link to the website for ‘Sunshine’, the new film from Danny Boyle (Trainspotting). With Cillian Murphy on leading man duties and the premise of a mission to reignite the sun, this could be the thinking mans blockbuster of the summer.

Finally a link to the Grindhouse website, the result of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s putting their heads together. An homage to exploitation B-movie thrillers that combines two feature-length segments into one double-bill designed to replicate the grind house theatergoing experience of the 70s and 80s. In "Death Proof," a psycho named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) stalks and kills beautiful women with his car. In "Planet Terror," a small-town sheriffs' department has to deal with an outbreak of murderous, infected people called "sickos." A gun-legged woman named Cherry (Rose McGowan) and her martial arts-wielding partner (Freddy Rodriguez) take on the zombie army. The two films will be fused together by fake movie trailers. The possibilities here are limitless but will undoubtedly be surreal.

Just a thought

Early this morning My Google desktop ‘Quote of the Day’ informed me that Maggie Thatcher once said that “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you say you are, you aren’t”.

With a dry cool wit like that, she could have been an action-hero, instead of the super villain we remember.

'I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan'

The most intriguing premise for a movie since, Being John Malcovich or maybe Memento has to be the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic filmed by Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven, Velvet Goldmine). The film will not follow normal narrative structure but will instead be inspired by Dylan's poetic music. The singer will be portrayed by six different actors, playing him at various stages in his life. The line up includes Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw (Perfume: Story of a Murderer), Christian Bale and most surprisingly Cate Blanchett. The only thing stranger than Blanchett having a role is that originally Pink auditioned for her part and was seriously considered.

I've also wondered in reading about this film, how many people have biopics made of their lives while they are still living them? The premise clearly suggests it will try to encompass many phases in the man's life rather than a single period so I wonder will it not untimately feel incomplete.

15 minutes of Youtube

Daily Show on Religious Video games

Nothing but the Blues

50 States and Capitals in Aamerica by Wacko warner.

Fight at the end of the Valencia Inter Milan match

A new Numa Video

This 15 minutes of Dossing brought to you by the Dossing Times

'euro'

Why is that we were amongst the nations of the EU that most proactively embraced the euro, adapting with little difficulty to the change in currency and we have to tarnish the transition by failing to call it by its proper name? I am no pedant but the fact is euro must be up there with the most use words in the vernacular and it frustrates the hell out of me that we repeatedly get it's name wrong. On three occasions last night, Joe Higgins on Questions and Answers, an ad for a DVD sale and unsurprisingly Glenda Gilson on Rodge and Podge it was Euros, Euros, Euros. Note I've used capital letters as I'm sure if they were to spell the word they would use the upper case which is also wrong. How simple can it be, a short 4 letter word, no need for capitilisation or a plural and yet we give out about the price of an item and so forth talking about a currency that does not exist. How can advertisers be so reckless as to let such an inaccuracy go into their output, this type of laziness will seep into kids fragile little minds and before we know it we'll be talking in Euros. We are already on the slippery slope of txt speak, lets get this right. It's euro.

15 minutes of Youtube. Tipperary Special

The Dossing Times is 2/3rd's Tipp. So here is 15 minutes of All thing tipp. It's along way to Tipperary by some strange guy

Tipperary vs All-stars 1990 in Toronto

Iggy Pop at Feile 1993

And ash for good meaure

Eddie Moroney Legend

Random Tuesday

The Job

I’ve recently moved to the big smoke that is Dublin. See, at the start of the year I went looking for a job but my aim was a little off and I landed myself a career instead. I’m surrounded by eager young go-getters. You know the type, living for work instead of working for a living. I need to run to stand still and all that jazz. I’m having to compromise on values I’ve long held dear. I wear a suit to work everyday, even Fridays. I often eat my lunch at my computer, something I promised myself I’d never do. For somebody who considers a t-shirt, jeans and converse ideal for every occasion and whose goal in life is to be a librarian, albeit a well paid one, this isn’t good.

The Silver lining

Of course with every cloud there is a silver lining and in my case two silver linings. The first is pay day, that glorious day once a month when you remember why you put up with it all. I’ve recently celebrated my first pay day in quiet a while. Little can compare to the feeling you get on the invariable sunny morning that heralds your first pay day in a new job. Satisfying.

The Silver lining 2

Satisfying is how I would also describe the second rock I cling to at work, the paper shredder. Ahh, the paper shredder. The machine we use to tear paper. When you say it like that it doesn’t sound like much, does it? But if I just take these few pages here and….yep, satisfying. I don’t need to understand why, but that beautifully dreadful sound never fails to lighten my day. Thank you A.A. Low

Comfort food

Simon was over for the Irish blog awards last weekend. A great weekend was had by all and, once again, kudos to him and Cian for Irish Elections success. Sorry to rain on their parade but for me the best thing about the weekend was my introduction to Weet-a-bix and honey. Where have you been all my life? In terms of comfort foods this one takes some beating.

A forest of Spars

I’ll finish where I began, with my move to Dublin. The first thing somebody learns when the move to a new spot is where to buy your food. Whilst there are plenty of suitable establishments near my apartment I’m not exactly spoilt for choice. When I leave the apartment block I can take any one of 3 roads. Within 200 metres, no matter what road I take, I’ll meet a Spar.

My walk to work takes me roughly 25 minutes and I pass 4 Spars and not a single one of their competitors.

Recently I was waiting for a friend at Connelly station. I had a few minutes to spare so I decided to walk up Talbot st towards O’Connell St. On the corner of Talbot St. and Amiens St there was a Spar. I walked 100 metres up Talbot and there was another one! On the other side of the street!

Spars are everywhere in Dublin. Everywhere. When the hell did this happen? Its great that I have shops close to home but a little variety would be welcome. Have Spar signed a pact with the devil? Are they Irelands Walmart or Starbucks?

15 minutes of Youtube

Remember when Levi's did the most iconic adds.

Will Ferrell as Neil Diamond

The third man is one of my favourite films. Watched it the other day. Here is one of the finest moments in the film. Beware Spoilers. The famous Ferris Ride seen. And my favourite film line at the end of the scene

From the sublime to the well 90's If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe I'ld been married long time ago Where did you come from where did you go Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe If it hadn't been...

The Hindenburg Disaster

This 15 minnutes of Dossing is brought to you by the Dossing Times.

15 minutes of Youtube

Freestyle Hurling.

Award winning short with Martin Freeman

.This 15 minutes of Dossing was brought to you by the Dossing Times.

Congratulations to Simon!

Congratulations to Simon on his success at last nights Irish Blog Awards.

IrishElection .com took home Best News/Current Affairs Blog and Best Political Blog.

Much deserved.

Red Moon Rising over Irish Blog Awards

A lunar eclipse begins tonight at 11. 15 and will continue for approximately an hour during which time the moon will have a red hue.

Put simply the Earth, Moon and Sun will each be aligned so that we will block the light which the Moon usually reflects to light out night sky.

Here is a news articles on the eclipse for the sake of it.

Met Eireann tells us that weather will permit and we can expect a clear sky to enjoy the view.

Reports that the eclipse is occuring due to the impending destruction of the planet or so many bloggers convening on one location cannot be confirmed at this time.

15 minutes (ish) of Youtube

Dogtanian Theme this is how TV should be.

Craig Ferguson of CBS. When I watch this guy and then Letterman I have to wonder what makes letterman bigger then this guy. Funny and in this clip amazingly honest.

Deeply Dippy Right said fred

.This 15 minutes of Dossing was brought to you by the Dossing Times.

Unlawful Accommodation of Donkeys Act 1837

From Galway First.

A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised “to get out and meet people,” the local court heard last week. Thomas Aloysius McCarney with an address in south Galway was charged with cruelty to animals, lewd and obscene behaviour, and with being a danger to himself when he appeared before the court on Friday. He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage.

Read on.