The colourful Pat Kenny

One of the joys of sitting in on a Friday Night is experiencing the joy that is Pat Kenny on The Late Late Show. This week, he has a bit of a Black and White minstrels moment with the young All Ireland Talent Show breakdancer, Jack Lynch. Personally I paled.

The last L Word ever!

It's 3 days to the airing of the last ever episode of The L Word. Every season of the L Word has been different, and this final season plays out like a murder mystery. Looking at this video I realised how many changes have happened the characters, especially Jenny throught the last six years. What a show, I'm going to miss all these characters sooo much.

Talent? Depends on what your wearing.

Last night on The All Ireland Talent Show, Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh wss in Kilkenny to look for the greatest entertainers that the east has to offer. "I'M concerned about your age" she said to a seven year old, who had clearly been allowed enter so....? Later she wondered alloud if a mother of 3 would be able to handle the commitment of taking part in the show, eh Blathnaid, lots of people have kids, you included, and then go to RTE and watch the 25th January show from 38.55, she asks the guys with the football freestyle skills if they would be willing to do it with their shirts off? They said no. Blathnaid! Taking off your clothes is hardly a talent!!

A bleeding nostril, Perfect.

There are a whole bunch of these ads about Pablo The Drug Mule Dog, online and on TV at the moment as part of an anti drugs campaign in Britain. They're really cool but I don't know how much of an affect they are having.
Check out the Frank website, and the basement where poor Pablo gets slit open.

Interesting TV on the way

Stephen Spielberg had an idea for a TV show and got screenwriter Diablo Cody, of Juno fame, to write it. The United States Of Tara premieres soon on Showtime and looks pretty cool. Toni Collette starring can't hurt.

Bye Bye Russell

Russell Brand is one of the few comedians/pundits that I think can get away with saying the most outrageous stuff without causing the kind of offense that would happen if, say, I said the same things, I took the time to listen to the whole silly broadcast that has been all over the news, and while I thought it was less than radio gold, , in context I don't really see the big deal, they went too far. It happens. Move on.

Andrew Sachs seems Okay with it.

Katherine Lynch's Wonderwomen etc.

Last night we gave Katherine Lynch's Wonderwomen a shot on RTE 2. I wanted to like this, I think it's cool that people are getting a chance to try things out and push the boat out a bit on RTE. Unfortunately we thought it was appalling, unwatchable rubbish, so bad that we only hung in there for about 3 minutes (and I'd like them back). Jesus, what is it with the notion that people wandering around with fake "Dobelin" accents acting like "eejits" are somehow automatically hilarious and entertaining?? Fail.
We flicked over to Seacht on BBC2 which is an Irish language teen soap that would be better suited to 6pm but nonetheless was a pretty good effort at college drama, pity RTE hadn't picked that up instead. Pass.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin strikes again

Took this from Una, Tina Fey has reprised her role as Sarah Palin in this Saturday Night Live spoof interview. Amy Poehlers Katie Couric is just as funny as Tina Feys Palin

Darklight? F*** Me.

The Darklight Film Festival, taking place in Dublin next week (seem to ) have created this video to, umm, I dunno, like, go viral on them or something. I say seem to because although Darklight branding is used, there is no mention of the video on the Darklight site.
For a festival that is so cutting edge, this is grim and disappointing fare indeed. The idea seems to be that vox popping people saying F**K is hilarious, hell, what do I know, maybe it is. Suffice to say my boat is not floated.
It's not that I'm against the F word mind you, and to prove it I'm posting a truly ingenious and hilarious scene from The Wire that uses the F word in all it's glory.




UPDATE - IF YOU CLICK ON THE LINK NOW YOU GET THE MESSAGE "This video has been removed by the user."

Hmmmmm....I wonder who had second thoughts?

Ellen talks about the elephant in the room.

Ellen had John Mc Cain on her show and asked him about that oh so thorny issue Gay Marriage (insert appropriate scary music here)

I love her final comeback!



PS I'm still rooting for Hill Dog, but any democrat will do!

Tuesday Miscellany

I went up the Sugarloaf yesterday, Monkey took some shots to prove it on the iPhone.


I don't think you can tell how windy it was in these photos, but what you can see are my amazing Electric Picnic '07 gaiters, which, thankfully I didn't need at the time. I'm glad they eventually got an outing,

Speaking of the Electric Picnic, according to Ticketmaster tickets go on sale on Friday for €240, a big wedge of cash to lay down considering the Line Up isn't being released until the following Wednesday. Keep your eye on their psychedelic website for details. 

There is an internet presale of the tickets from tomorrow morning so if you're dedicated to going, you can get in there ahead of the posse.

Being the mac fiend that I am, I got an iPhone, and mostly I am loving it but I'm kind of suprised it doesn't support MMS, I hadn't realised how often I sent and recieved photos until I couldn't. Pretty much everything else about it is perfect though.

I am now up to West Wing 4 in my DVD box set binge, it's all becoming a bit of a blur.

Writers strike ends

The Hollywood writers strike is over, though not all shows are going back in to production.

If you are used to watching your favourite shows on RTE this won't make any difference to you as they tend to be pretty random about what they show and when.

I heard on Newstalk this morning that Irish Cinema owners have been experiencing a bumper time and have suggested that the strike is actually helping them, (though what they planned to do if the movies ran out I have no clue, silly people)

It will be a while before production returns to normal so in the meantime I think I am going to start watching The Wire, from Season One on DVD.

Irish Music Television

I went along to the Irish Music Television launch in 4 Dame Lane last night. Although there was plenty of Tiger Beer on offer I had to opt for the Red Bull as I had my wheels with me. Note to self - don't EVER drink 4 Red Bulls again, know the one that's one too many.

Entertainment for the evening featured a selection of bands from the Eircom Unsigned Bands competition, (check out Cirrus by Saccade, sounds a little like Silverchair do these days)

IMTV offers a fairly good selection of Irish music videos and plan to create all kinds of new programmes for and about the Irish music scene, made available on whatever techie gadget you prefer to use for your viewing pleasure. So far they're using the Joost platform, and you can also check them out on myspace.

The quite brilliant Dark Room Notes have a few of their videos included, including Shake Shake My Ceiling. I used to play Love Like Nicotine a lot on the show, and I love this track too.

Ellen is 50

OMG what age does that make me??!!!



Ellen Degeneres (who does a nice line in runners)reached a half century and marked it with a TV Special.

This is an karaoke style video that features a collection of celebrities singing I Will Survive by way of saying Happy Birthday to Ellen or some such thing, it features Posh Spice, Paris Hilton and Jake Gyllenhaal, among others but the most notable thing about it for me is how much Celine Dion looks like Jennifer Aniston.

The Writers Strike

As the Writers Strike continues with no real sign of an end, here's something to watch.