How was the film?

To Temple Bar's Meeting House Square on Friday night for the first night of Movies on the Square, one of the main attractions in Temple Bar Cultural Trust's summer programme. Last night was the opening night so there was lots of young beautiful types queueing up to have their photo taken (tilting their heads and dropping their knee the way girls on America's next Top Model do) for The Dubliner and not queueing up to get their hands on free gourmet burgers. After all, the camera adds 10lbs and all that...

The films are being shown in Meeting House Square with a huge canopy protecting the audience from the rain. It was a very wet night but the canopy, a pretty elaborate affair that sprang from one corner of the square to the other making the space feel more like a dome, kept us all dry as the rain came down outside. It couldn't do much about the cold but at least we were dry. Interestingly, I passed by today and ducked into the square for a moment. The canopy was down today so obviously they're just going to put it up every Friday for the night. It looked like a permanent fixture last night but I guess it must go up and down with relative ease. I wouldn't fancy folding it up afterwards though..

As is often the case, the crowd was a bit of a mixed bag - most of whom showed up to see the opening night's film, The Commitments, and not to listen to Republic of Loose, who were there, somewhat reluctantly, to entertain the crowd before the film. At the best of times, they're an entertaining bunch with a sweet line in funky rock and roll. At the worst of times, they're a disinterested bunch of chancers with a belligerent bear of a frontman. You can guess which version showed up last night. I had to laugh at the irony of getting a Dublin band with an oversized charismatic frontman who eventually implode spectacularly to warm up a crowd of people waiting to see The Commitments, a film about a Dublin Band with an oversized charismatic frontman.. ..you get my point. So they plugged away petulantly before miraculously getting some of the crowd to stand up and move about a little. Eventually (it felt like they were up there for hours) they finished up and the film started..

Now I'm sure they were opening night's teething problems but I've got to say that the sound was atrocious. It varied from being slowed down to speeding up and then slowing down again. Very frustrating while it lasted. And then, once it sorted itself out, we were confronted with the worst thing you have to deal with when attending events in a public space - the public. What is it with people (I'm trying to be balanced, but we that more often than not it's girls, right?) who go to gigs and just want to talk all the way through it? That's bad enough but, seriously, what possesses them to go to a film and talk and talk and talk..

"And then i said to him and he looked at me and like I didn't even know what to do but like she was there and I hadn't been there for ages and we walked in and the bar was packed and I saw what she was wearing and she's just a stupid bitch and she was like who do you think you are and I'm like who does she think she is and anyway we were there first and I didn't want to go in the first place and it's not my fault she can't keep her boyfriend and OH MY GOD, HIII!! I didn't know you were going to be here too it's great, isn't it I love this film...."

We said our goodbyes and left. You'd have done the same.

The festival is on for the rest of the summer on Friday nights. Tickets are free and I hope it's a huge success. They're showing some really good comedies every week. And Borat. If you go, bring a midnight feast and sit near the front, in the middle of your row. You'll have a great time.

Is this ok?

On Today FM this week, Ray Darcy has been trying, on behalf of a nurse called 'Roisin', to locate the unknowing father of a 5 month old baby. Is there anything about that sentence that's ok?

Here's what happened: A nurse goes out one night, gets drunk and winds up in Copperface Jacks, a meat-market nightclub on Harcourt Street. Everyone has an idea of what goes on in Copperface Jacks. This story does nothing to contradict it. So Roisin meets a guy in the smoking section and heads on to a party in Rathmines. The guy, who may or may not have been from Birmingham and whose name may or may not begin with the letter 'L' is a bit of a hit with Roisin and the head off to his or her place where L and Roisin (a nurse, remember) enjoy a night of wild, unprotected passion. The following morning they shake hands on it and L goes off to meet his friends for football training. Possibly. Time passes until some weeks later Roisin discovers that she's pregnant. She goes ahead and has the child, all the while trying to find the mysterious L. Just to tell him he has a child, like. You'd think that with all the information at her disposal it wouldn't be too difficult but Roisin struggled and had to resort to hiring a private detective. Who, not surprisingly, also struggled. So Roisin, in despair, did what anyone would do in the same circumstances. She contacted Ray Darcy on Today Fm and asked him, and his 300,000 listeners, to find L. Ray gathered the details and turned it over to the people. And now it's all over the place..

Once again, is this ok?

Roisin's part in all of this is fair enough I suppose - she's in a bind and needs some help. Today FMs part is a little hazier. I don't understand what's a win for the station. How does the story end? Do they find the guy and surprise him on air? Or do they find the guy and quietly pass his details on to Roisin? Of course that's not going to work, is it? 300,000 people want to know who this guy is.. Now the Evening Herald does too. And I suppose, if I'm honest, I want to know how it all ends too. Not that I want to know who L is. I just want to know what Today Fm do when the wheels come off L's wagon. When he denies everything. When his wife leaves him. When he goes crazy on air at 11 o'clock in the morning.. It's going to be interesting.. Personally I don't think they should have gone anywhere near the whole mess but nobody asked me.

And while I'm at it, isn't it a little unfair that the woman in this situation can is kept anonymous while trying to establish the real name of the man? It reminds me of that case in the US a couple of years ago when a couple met on a first date and never met again. The man paid for the meal but when the girl told him she didn't want to see him again, he petulantly sent her a bill for her half of the meal. She ignored him and he began to leave voicemail and emails demanding the money. Outrageous behavior of course, but wherever it was reported his name was listed but her name, Joanne, was in inverted commas. Just like 'Roisin'. Darren Sherman, the stingy single guy was hung out to dry but Joanne remained unknown. If the girls want to hang these guys, is it ok for them to do it undercover?

Anyway, we'll see what happens with Roisin and L. I've been trying to find out without actually, you know, listening to the damn show or reading the Herald. Perhaps it'll be on the news tonight.

Light Entertainment Heaven!

I've talked before about how good RTE's coverage of life football is. The Giles/Dunphy/Brady combo are always been great value. In fact, I rarely watch live football at all, but I still love to watch the post-game analysis on RTE's website the following day. Sunday night was the last time Liam Brady sat on the panel. He's leaving to hand out bibs and slice oranges for Giovanni Trapatonni with the Irish squad. It's a shame he's going because but at least he managed to witness something remarkable before he went.

On Saturday night the 3 lads and Bill O'Herlihy were on Miriam O'Callaghan's chat show. At the end, Miriam asked Eamon to sing which he seemed only too happy to do. Especially since the great* Phil Coulter was going to play for him. And guess what? He actually has a good voice. All the mumbling and barking we associate with his tv appearances was gone and all that was left was a tender, gentle croon. Quite lovely, actually. Loved the way he didn't wait for an introduction or find a decent place to stand where he could be seen. A true pro! A little less sucessful was Gilesy, who having been cajoled into singing, simply swayed on his chair and attempted to serenade Miriam. All the while he was singing, Eamon was smiling, mouthing the words and generally encouraging him. It's really a sight to see.

I missed it at the time but a helpful punter has put it on youtube - just as Eamon predicted on the night. I could be wrong but I'm guessing that you'd have difficulty convincing Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer to do the same.

*Possibly not true.

As you were..

I know I go on about this all the time but today is the day that new legislation for driving is coming in to place. Provisional drivers, or drivers with learner permits as we know must call them, must have a qualified driver with them at all times in the car. Even drivers on their second provisional licence - sorry, learner permits, must now go along with these pesky road traffic laws..

If they don't have accompaniment, they face fines and points on their licences. And if they decide to throw the police off the scent by not displaying their L plates, they face an on-the-spot fine of €1000.

That's great, of course and it's not a moment too soon. But as always the language used around these things is always interesting. I heard on the news last week, and again in the article, that the police will enforce this legislation just like any other road traffic legislation. That's not really good enough is it? Is it too much to expect the legislation to be enforced consistently and without prejudice. Drivers in Ireland surely know that enforcing driving laws in this country is an arbitrary affair and seems to depend on the guard in question's workload for the day and his (and it's always a male guard) general mood on a given day. Which means that many people don't pay any attention to laws about mobile phones, seat belts, driving with a qualified driver and road tax. I mean why would they? Let's see if all this new legislation changes anything. I'd like to be surprised. I won't hold my breath though.

The Chief Executive of the Road Safety Authority Noel Brett said today: "The best advice we can give to people is to go to a qualified driving instructor, take lessons, identify a suitable person to accompany and mentor you while driving, get practice in and when your instructor thinks you’re ready apply for your test".

Sometimes the best ideas are the most obvious ones.

Free Times

Hurrah! The Irish Times website is, at last, now free and available to one and all.. The site has been available to subscribers only for a long time but, as of today, they're opening up their big hall door and welcoming us inside for a look around.

It's very nice too. Around the office it's been getting the kind of comments that newspaper sites always get - Very clean, easy to navigate etc.. Which is the least you'd expect I suppose.

I wonder how they're going to pay for it though. It was only last year that they had their big colourful relaunch and now they're updating their site and giving it to the world. Will advertising cover it all? Given the bad news we learnt last week (well we knew about it for ages but it's official now, isn't it?) about the economy and what we read about the difficulties facing the newspaper industry worldwide, I imagine all of this could have come at a better time for the Times?

Still - that's their problem, isn't it? We're in a recession and I don't have to pay for my crossword anymore. That's a tenner I've saved this week without even getting up off my chair. This economic downturn is going to b a doddle!

Just in case your microwave isn't working..

I was planning a quiet weekend but now I have to find out if this really works.
Anybody think that it's really possible to make popcorn with your mobile phone? I want to believe it's true!

And on the subject of fun with with mobile phones, have a look at this.
We're undecided in the office. Is it real or fake? Either way, it's very good..

And to think that when they first came on the market, you were able to talk to people with these things.

From the Indos' website this morning..

Call the apostrophe police!

I don't mean to be snooty but I think we can expect more from a national newspaper. Which reminds me of this website which I went to recently for a bit of punctuation advice. Note the error in the topline. Perhaps they were joking.