Totally Dublin 77

February 2011 // FREE // totallydublin.ie

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With JDIFF 2011 James Blake Twin Shadow Flann O’Brien Rothar Luke Vibert

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it’s what’s inside that counts

contents 77

8 Entry Level Bitches brew

66 Barfly More cocktails than you can shake a tiny umbrella at

10 Roadmap WITHDRAW. WITHDRAW. WITHDRAW. 16 Threads Case clothed

68 Gastro Thai’d up 76 Film Winner of the Academy Award for Most Pro-Nicolas Cage Agenda 2011

18 A Sentimental Education At school, two birds 26 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2011 The citywide celebration of backrow naggin-in-the-baggin returns 32 Rothar Super duper rescue squad!

34 Listings With Twin Shadow, Blue Raincoat, and Justin Bieber. Maybe.

77 Audio As listened to through Beats By Souljah Boy headphones.

78 Games h, f, g, h, h, g, ,, B, A, Start...

79 DNA Test Swabbing James Blake’s pouty cheeks

62 Stage Rights La Bela Russia

credits where credit’s due This month’s planned editorial took in Flann O’Brien, tram-scutting, and an examination of the cultural implications of West Coast hyphy, but the presses were pulled to a lurching halt at the arrival of far more important news: my moms just did her first piercing.

Now, a career-change from drug rehabilitation counseling to punching holes in people’s noses and filling them with steel hooks in the basement of Miss Fantasia’s at age 40 is pretty cool in and of itself, but the moms deserves a shoutout for being one of the bravest, baddestass Dubliners in town. Just half a year ago, a banjaxed artery in the front of her brain went bust and nearly put her out of business. Instead of succumbing to the temptation of a lifetime having her only son quit his job and feed her sherry trifle and read her Cosmo from a bedside, she bought a brand new wardrobe, got inked with two arms-worth of new tattoos, procured a killer hairdo, and, shudder, even went out on a date with a total stranger WHO’LL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH FOR HER (seriously though, guys, good luck). So really this issue of Totally Dublin wouldn’t be with you without her balls. Go introduce your tragus to her.

Daniel Gray

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first things first

Totally Dublin 56 Upper Leeson St. Dublin 4 (01) 687 0695

Food Editor Katie Gilroy 087 7551533 food@hkm.ie

Publisher Stefan Hallenius stefan@hkm.ie (01) 687 0695 087 327 1732

Arts Editor Rosa Abbott rosa.abbott@gmail.com

Editorial Director Peter Steen-Christensen peter@hkm.ie (01) 687 0695 Editor and Web Editor Daniel Gray editor@totallydublin.ie (01) 687 0695

Advertising Stefan Hallenius stefan@hkm.ie (01) 687 0695 087 327 1732 Distribution Kamil Zok kamil@hkm.ie

Contributors André (1994) Eoin Beglin Emma Brereton Myles na gCopaleen Ollie Dowling Ciaran Gaynor Renato Ghiazza John Hyland Zoe Jellicoe Roisin Kiberd Ian Lamont Eoin Lynch Fuchsia Macaree Daniel Martin Karl McDonald Oisín Murphy Paddy O’Mahoney Conor O’Toole

Art Director Lauren Kavanagh lauren@hkm.ie (01) 687 0695

All advertising enquiries contact (01) 668 8185 Read more at www.totallydublin.ie Totally Dublin is a monthly HKM Media publication and is distributed from 500 selected distribution points.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the permission from the publishers. The views expressed in Totally Dublin are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. The magazine welcomes ideas and new contributors but can assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations.

Totally Dublin ISSN 1649-511X

Cover image: Renato Ghiazza

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Homebrew Words and picture Eoin Beglin

‘Homebrew’ covers a plethora of homemade alcoholic concoctions, from perennial favourites like beers and ciders, to the (sometimes deservedly) lesser-known brews: onion and potato wine would be a typical example of something that Diageo won’t be diversifying into anytime soon.

There are a load of good things that might entice you into making your own booze, and also a few pitfalls, but thankfully, unless you try to distill poitín, these do not include blindness or death (Fermentation and distillation are two very different things, but more anon).

Firstly, making your own sauce is generally quite a bit more cost-effective than buying the stuff. The initial once-off costs will set you back a few euros, but if you master some basic tricks you will soon be enjoying drunkenness at unparalleled value. Of course, cost-effectiveness is not the only reason: Making alcohol can become nearly as addictive as drinking it.

With wine (my chosen creation) the choice of things you can make it from is endless.

Blackberries, sloes (fruit of the blackthorn tree), crab apples, elderflowers, onions and spuds have all worked wonderfully as ingredients in wines I’ve made. In fact you could make wine from almost anything, “even an old boot” as me ma often says.

All you really need is water, sugar and, your best friend in the fermentation process: yeast.

Basically, some yeast goes into some warmish water that has sugar in it and starts eating. This feasting-yeast produces alcohol and CO2 and as it gorges itself on warm sugar, and all you have to do is wait for it to die so you can drink it. However, unless you’re partial to the taste of the space between your toes, fruit is an important ingredient. Wild fruit fills this role honourably since it’s free and gives you a reason to cycle into the countryside and have your arms ripped to shreds by thorns as you stand in a ditch picking it. Once you get it home, the fruit (a few kilos) gets put into a big bucket (sterilised) and cov-

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ered with a gallon of boiling water (that’s eight pints or five-ish litres).

Yeast is all around, floating through the air (many people seem to find this unsettling) and so if you leave the bucket of fledgling wine (or ‘wort’) exposed in a warm place for a few days yeast will be more than happy to take up residence.

This is the most risky method of yeastifying your brew since there are so many other things floating about as well, not all of them good. Luckily you can buy special yeast compounds containing strains specifically bred for wine making (along with everything else) quite cheaply from the internet.

Unfortunately, outside of cyberspace there aren’t many shops that stock the equipment, but do keep your eyes peeled for demijohns, stoppers, airlocks and syphons in hardware and charity shops.

So go out and get yourself some yeast.

The one I use is called “Super wine yeast compound: specially formulated for high alcohol”. Sounds good.

Irish websites like thehomebrewcompany.ie will supply you with everything you need to get started. Adverts and gumtree.ie are also good. The Book ‘Wild and Free’ by Cyril and Kit Ó Céirín is a really good guide to wine making, though it’s probably out of print.

Ask the internet about it. Beer is a bit more involved, but some friends of mine make really nice Ales and Stouts without too much effort using a book called ‘The Joy of Homebrewing’ by Charlie Papazian.

Fermenting beer and wine for your own consumption is perfectly legal, but distillation without a license is not. This doesn’t stop people doing it however, and poitín (a very high alcohol, potato or grain-based spirit) does make the occasional appearance at sessions.

For a comprehensive and wonderfully depressing explanation of poitín, see Bob Quinn’s 1978 film Poitín.

DON’T drink your homebrew after a few weeks because it always tastes manky. Give it a good six months to age. When you do finally drink it, it’s important to remember that because you’ve nursed it through infancy, watched it happily bubble and foam, and bottled it after months of patient waiting, you’ll probably think it’s great. Just don’t be surprised if your friends grimace and choke on the same stuff that you’re happily swilling.

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A warm and very funny tale about our secret selves, directed by Wayne Jordan.

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Words Daniel Gray

Put down the box of Roses. Toss that Moore St. bouquet in a skip. Valentine’s Day is upon us, and there’s no sharper nail to your relationship’s coffin than an unimaginative present.

TD’s here to help you seperate the neat from the naff.

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Definite Article

Wrapped Up In Books

Our personal Valentine’s love is going out this year to Powerscourt Centre’s Article, who’ve furnished the TD dungeon with more than one swank homeware since opening last year - we might even send them one of their own cards. We particularly like The Temptations-quoting number above (€2.99).

Powerscourt Centre, South William St.

Books are the perfect way to show a potential soul-person you totally identify with their personality, interests, and philosophy - Cow’s Lane’s Gutter Bookshop not only have an exemplary range with hand-written staff recommendations, but sweet add-ons like ‘I’d Rather Be With You’-emblazoned teacups (€7.99) and nobby stationery. Just don’t buy them the Hobbit.

1 Cow’s Lane, Temple Bar

Ella-Ella-Ey

You Fox

Pizza My Heart

If they’re romantic enough for Rihanna...

Copper Alley’s design den My Spot boasts an exemplary array of coloured, patterned umbrellas at €40-59.95, which you can totally milk a few lines from Umbrella out of for your greeting card.

Apart from that, spring shower functionality means your other half will be eternally reminded of your considerateness right through ‘til summer.

James Fox’s is a one-stop shop for your gentleman or gentlelady. Aside from its admirable spread of cigars and spirits, Fox’s offers a useful ‘gifts’ section, from which you can cherrypick a 4-cigar humidor at €31.96, an Ashtray Set with Cutter & Punch at €54.75, or some of Churchill’s Favourites for €112 for the King’s Speech fans among you.

119 Grafton St., Dublin 2

It’s difficult to feel like you’re the only girl/boy in the world when your restaurant choice for the evening is packed to the jacks with every other only girl/boy in the world. This year, why not try the take-out option? Credo Pizza offer not only the freshest, fanciest pizzas in town, but an extensive wine list and the option to get an Amaretti Pear Tartlet brought to your door. Tight. www.credo.ie

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Mention Totally Dublin at our Donnybrook store.

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6 Morehampton Rd, Donnybrook, D4 Phone - 01 260 2404

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Words Daniel Gray

Peep Show

Photographer Eoin Moylan didn’t realize when he sent on some samples of his quite excellent photography project ‘Goldfish’ that I’d been snapped by his camera skulling Jack Daniels under my kitchen table. Residents of Portobello, fear not: Moylan is no peeping tom. He has sent out over 500 letters to the neighbourhood in the past year asking locals to allow window-access to his camera as part of his project. He capture those willing to open their home to his lens in their most relaxed environment, eating dinner, smoking, sewing, skulling Jack Daniels under the table, whatever the inhabitant might be getting up to on a normal evening. The resulting images are warm, compelling, attractive insights into the area’s population at their most comfortable - and now he’s looking for more volunteers.

Mail him at moylaneoin@gmail.com and you might even get to meet his deadly dog.

Tea-Totally

One Portobello window Eoin Moylan might do well to point his SLR through is the recently-rehabilitated Wall and Keogh, an empire of bespoke leaf teas.

The premises have been dormant since its late 60s heyday as a wallpaper shop - proprieter Oliver T. Cunningham liked the shopfront so much he decided to retain its former name. Inside, apart from a motherlode of tea varieties, the redecoration has taken in a garden area furnished with old beds to sip on, while downstairs is set-up perfectly for planned cultural events throughout the year. Mr. Cunningham’s goal is to ‘bring tea houses into the 21st century... take out the stuffiness and make it funky, comfortable and a nice substitute for the pub in the evening.’ Guess what? He’s succeeded.

Brewing early until 8pm weekdays, and 6pm weekend nights. www.wallandkeogh.com

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Email your name, address and phone number to: thetotallydublincard@hkm.ie

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Words Daniel Gray

You Silly Sausage

Now that pop-up shops are ten a penny around town, it takes something with a bit more meat to get us adventurous. In a marketing coup, Clonakilty are promoting their piggy goods with Dublin’s first flash restaurant. For six nights in a secret location somewhere around the city, there’ll be a platter of sausages, rashers and pudding waiting at the dinnertable for your belly - if you happen to get yourself on the breakfast-food guestlist.

What? How can you get on it? Well, we happen to know a guy who knows a guy. Be really nice to us and tell us a pork-based joke at www.twitter.com/ totallydublin or www.totallydublin.com/ blog and we’ll see if we can’t sort you out. www.facebook.com/ clonakiltyblackpudding

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Quarter Inch Collective have been superbusy these last couple of months putting together the very first Quompilation, which happens to be more than just an ace neologism. A selection of some of Dublin’s rapidest new bands, each act was briefed to paste together a cover version of any song released in the last year. The number of Irish bands choosing Irishwritten songs (in particular Patrick Kelleher’s re-up of Squarehead’s stillinspired Fake Blood) is a sound reflection of the depth of diversity the current crop of bands is typified by, but all the more compelling are the reimaginings of mainstream pop acts across the boards Cloud Castle Lake’s (pictured) epic Kanye love-in Lost In The World is the tape’s highlight, while Kid Karate somehow rehabilitate their reputation after their spot as Fade Street token-indie-boys with a frantic version of Tinie Tempah’s Pass Out. There are probably only as many tapes available as there are musicians involved (especially thanks to No Monster Club’s all-inclusive indie-pop orgy, Bombona y Farola), so you’ll have to settle on the Bandcamp download. Which you should completely check out right now at: quarterinchcollective.bandcamp.com

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Cait Fahey

Quomprophenia

As the Crow Flies

Taking the place of that comic book shop which pumped out dance-hall on the weekends, 9 Crow Street is a vintage shop with a fresh new take on selling beautiful old things. With almost everything refreshingly priced around the €20 mark, the stock is a mix of fabulously kitsch eighties sportswear and denim, and a good number of wafty, Lux Lisbon-esque dresses. Our new port-of-call for pre-loved sartorial gems.

Stardigans

Men, do you harbour the desire to dress like the psychedelic still point of the turning world? Sure you do. Christopher Kane’s menswear for Spring/ Summer takes the Astral Plane as its theme, with a series of hoodies, tshirts, and even cardigans screen-printed with starscapes and constellations, with fabrics used including leather and cashmere. Sure to please Trekkies, stylesetters and Wizard Rock fans alike. www.net-a-porter.com/Shop/Designers/Christopher_Kane

JPG for La Senza

Before he lit up our TV screens with that paragon of high-quality viewing, Eurotrash, Jean Paul Gaultier was best known for dressing Madonna in conical corsetry on her Blond Ambition tour, and launching thousands of ill-advised Halloween party costumes in the process. The French design maestro re-visits his iconic work in a new collaboration with highstreet lingerie shop La Senza. While close to the originals, the designs are a covetable, surprisingly wearable blend of 1950s ‘upholstery’ underwear with a more modern, curvy silhouette. Material girls, the queue starts here. www.lasenza.com

BIFF! SOCK! KA-POW!

The new line from MAC packs a real graphic punch, inspired as it is by superheroine and sometime feminist icon Wonder Woman. All fire-engine red and taxi cab yellow, the collection reinterprets vivid colours found in the original comics, including hyper-pigmented green mascara, and a navy blue nail polish which we predict will steal the show. New colourways of MAC classics like Mineralize Skinfinish also feature, only served-up supersize in vibrant blue and red packaging. Oh and there’s a special edition line of brushes in a metallic belt-case, because every superheroine needs her utility belt. http://www.maccosmetics.co.uk/

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A Slice of Flann One of the country’s foremost literary critics and walking Joyce encyclopedia Declan Kiberd considers the importance of Flann O’Brien on the author, satirist, and devoted civil servant’s centenary.

Words Declan Kiberd Picture Corbis

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Brian Ó Nualláin departed this world on (appropriately enough) April 1, 1966. The licensed jester not only of Ireland (whose readers he has amused for years with his Cruiskeen Lawn column in the Irish Times) but of the modernist literary elite (for whom Joyce spoke in calling him a real writer with the true comic spirit). Yet he only achieved a truly global fame in the years immediately following his death, becoming a kind of cult writer on American and European university campuses. In many ways, he was the inventor of what is now called post-modernism. By using multiple pseudonyms, he liked to throw his own authorship of books into doubt, while at the same time inserting fictional versions of himself in walk-on roles in the novels. He believed that every creative text was also a work of literary criticism, saying that a novel should be ‘a self-evident sham, to which the reader could regulate at will the degree of his own credulity’. His books are filled with stories, constantly interrupted by other stories, as if he were trying to evolve an artistic version of the competing narratives told by drinkers in a noisy pub on a Saturday night.

He loosened the form of the traditional

novel, while growing ever more steely, precise and exact in his use of each individual word. He wrote English at times as if it were a dead language, like Latin, available now for use only by a literary elite of super-educated authors who saw every work of literature as an encyclopedia of references. And, of course, he wrote the funniest of all satires in the modern Irish language, An Béal Bocht, known in English as The Poor Mouth.

That book stands alongside Gabriel García Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude as a fantastic, magic-realist account of the circular, repetitive lives of the rural poor, whose struggles it recounts with a hilarity that is never condescending. In mocking so brilliantly many other classic texts of Gaelic literature, it showed that modern Irish, far from being moribund, was a language capable of expressing the full range of human emotion and thought. Unlike most of the other great Irish modernists, Ó Nualláin remained in his native country – something which may have delayed his recognition in the outside world. But now he is revered by authors of all continents and is up there with Yeats, Joyce, Beckett and Wilde.

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DISCOUNTS

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Clockwise from top: Sound of Noise; Morgen; Submarino; Nostalgia for the Light; In the City of Sylvia

JDIFF 2011 words OisĂ­n Murphy

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Sound of Noise

Ola Simonsson & Johannes Stjärne Nilsson Tue 22nd at 8:40 // Cineworld

Submarino

Thomas Vinterberg Mon 21st at 4:20 // Screen Co-signatory, along with Lars von Trier, of the Dogme 95 manifesto now permanently ingrained in art-cinema folklore, Thomas Vinterberg’s output since the masterpiece that was Dogme #1: Festen, in 1998, has had a mixed reception on the international scene. Submarino is a return to familial themes through an anguished, social realist approach, and has earned the filmmaker wide acclaim following its premiere at Berlin last spring. Based on a Jonas T. Bengtsson novel from 2007, Vinterberg chooses this time to examine the lives of two extremely marginalised young men in Denmark with a distinct and remarkable lack of sentimentality which perhaps holds parallels with the recently released Neds (Peter Mullan, 2010). Regardless, the prospect of a Vintenberg project being screened on these shores is positively mouth-watering.

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It is with trepidation that I recommend a Swedish musical comedy helmed by a directorial team I have never heard of, though the plot of Sound of Noise is so preposterous it would be a shame to miss out on: tone-deaf, music-hating policeman Amadeus Warnebring pursues a gang of six ‘guerilla percussionists’ notorious for their anarchic, impromptu public performances through a scandalised city environment. The trailer (available on Youtube) suggests an absurd, ironic comedy aware of the established conventions of European crime romps, while an improvised musical performance in which the gang utilise the anaesthetised body of an elderly man in an operating theatre as percussion instrument could well be one of the more ludicrous images on offer at this year’s festival. A charming ‘Warnebring dislikes this video’ lies atop the comments section (at the time of writing, 111 likes vs. 1 dislike).

Nostalgia for the Light Patricio Guzmán Mon 21st at 6:45 // Screen Screening directly after Vinterberg’s latest is veteran documentary filmmaker Patricio Guzmán’s project on Chile’s Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth. From there, due to its altitude and remoteness, astronomers conduct studies on the origins of the universe, while its lack of humidity provides the perfect environment for the preservation of historical artefacts, attracting the interest of archaeologists also. Guzmán questions the function of memory, of the past, for a Chilean society so traumatised by the brutal dictatorship of Pinochet and its attendant violence.

Coming from one of the world’s most respected filmmakers, this contemplative documentary is bound to touch and illuminate audiences while providing a

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Left: In the City of Sylvia Below: Essential Killing

woman struggling with Alzheimer’s has been praised for its near-comprehensive flouting of convention. Wholly unsentimental and resistant to the cheap dramaturgy that might be expected of a film with such a focus, Lee’s film is by all accounts an emotionally engaging and rigorous investigation of language and its human application, as sexagenarian Mija begins to lose her grip on the vocabulary that is so crucial to her love of poetry.

Korean cinema’s return to international prominence is no accident, with a slew of extremely talented and original filmmakers having emerged from the region in the last decade or so. Poetry represents the country’s most esteemed offering of 2010 (via its Grand Bell awards) and will no doubt be an elegiac and provocative addition to the JDIFF schedule.

Morgen

Marian Crisan Thurs 24th at 6:15 // The Lighthouse Marian Crisan, winner of a Palme d’Or for best short film (Megatron in 2008), investigates the human significance of national borders in this Romanian/ French/Hungarian co-production.

Described by the director as ‘an immigrant story not from the immigrant point of view, but of the point of view of the people he meets on the way’, Morgen aims at a poetic but buoyant examination of an issue which has been so contentious and widely-explored in European cinema over the last two decades. Border cinema continues to thrive in the arthouse market, and the curious subject matter: a Romanian security guard fishes out of the water a Turkish immigrant on his way to Germany, bears particular relevance at present, when immigration policies in western Europe are being so hotly debated.

Holy Wars

Stephen Marshall Fri 25th at 6:15 // The Lighthouse Though its reception has been largely

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mixed, Holy Wars’ uniform focus on religious fundamentalism has been uniformly provocative, inciting both lively debate and furious denunciations from audiences and critics, commonly accusing the film of being ‘pro-Christian’. Centred around Khalid Kelly, Ireland’s most famous (extremely partisan) Muslim-convert, and Aaron Taylor, an evangelical Christian from Missouri, Marshall’s documentary is a rare opportunity to see two people of such contrasting religious and political opinions given celluloid space, and then placed into conversation with one another - whether accusations of bias or glibness prove to be founded or not, Holy Wars’ notoriety merits your audience, and must certainly be ‘food for thought’.

In the City of Sylvia

José Luis Guerín Sun 22nd at 4:00 // The Lighthouse A cult favourite on the festival circuit in 2007, Guerín’s minimalistic tale of love and obsession follows a young man returning to the city of Strasbourg in search of a woman who captured his imagination six years previously. His needle-in-a-haystack quest is shared by

the audience through a near-total immersion in the seemingly banal, quotidian cityscape. The scarcity of dialogue and character identification explore a dichotomous relationship between the city and the individual, allied with an attentionto-detail in composition which testifies to a great visual talent, with the majority of Guerín’s output up to this point having been in documentary. Such a formally inventive film is rare to behold on the big screen and this screening surely represents one’s final chance to experience the film in such a capacity.

An exceptionally important event in Dublin’s cultural calendar, JDIFF is Ireland’s biggest and best film festival, now in its eighth year. A selection of ‘classic’ films will also be screened over the course of the festival, the merits of which are manifest by virtue of their status and are certainly worth watching if you haven’t seen them already. The films listed above represent merely a fraction of the festival’s offerings, a microcosm of its broad scope, both commercially and geographically, and go some way to illustrating the wide range of brilliant films that have been attracted to Irish shores in 2011. Early booking is advised for all features. ■

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FixieUppies words Zoe Jellicoe photos Mark Carroll

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“I worked alone before that, in my backyard for a good six months, trying to find and sell bikes, mostly to friends and colleagues. I was still working part-time” Anne Bedos is the creator and managing director of Rothar. The not-for-profit bicycle shop has just opened its new premises, a training centre, behind the old Wax Works museum near the Rotunda.

Anne intends for it to become the first accredited bicycle mechanic training centre in Ireland.

Rothar works entirely by receiving donations of old bicycles from people’s sheds or skips, and even abandoned ones cut off bike racks in universities or by Dublin City Council. So instead of going into landfill, these bicycles are repaired where possible or stripped for parts if they’re beyond help. The refurbished bicycles are then sold, and that money is re-injected into the company to cover overheads, to pay the salaries of the two jobs that it has created, and to fund its social inclusion projects.

Though the idea of Rothar started in Anne’s back garden with two bikes that were passed on by work colleagues, things have moved on. The company proper began in a garage behind Blessington Basin in Phibsborough, with only Anne and her first volunteer, Peter, reclaiming and repairing whatever broken bicycles they could get their soon-to-bevery-greasy hands on.

“I tried for about four months to get a place from Dublin City Council but to no avail, so I just looked on Daft and found the place after two or three months. I got the place in March 2008 and Peter started in April, so I wasn’t alone for too long.”

Rothar now has about 15 regular volunteers, each giving a few days of the week to help with the project. This meant that they could move their premises to a shop on Phibsborough Road in November 2009.

Gareth, now Rothar’s head mechanic, cuts an impressive figure: dreadlocks down to his waist, and hands bigger than my head. He was a bicycle messenger for twelve years, until he got on the wrong side of a lorry that subsequently left him out of work for two years, and on crutches for about nine months. A couple of years after the accident, Anne met Gareth in The Globe. Seven months later, he began volunteering in Rothar and eventually became its first paid employee.

I ask Anne if Rothar had always been her plan, but she says that she didn’t really have any idea of what would happen when she moved from France to Ireland. Her then boyfriend wanted to try something new, and suggested Dublin on a whim. At that point, in 2003, Anne was a receptionist in Lille, and her boyfriend was a banker in Paris. They moved to Blackrock and both took up jobs in the financial sector.

Although Anne had cycled for many years in Paris, she only began learning about bike mechanics when she started teaching bicycle maintenance and lob-

www.totallydublin.ie

bying for Droit Au Vélo, a not-for-profit organisation in Lille where she worked for seven years, two of which were spent teaching in Sweden. A bit of a shock then, to arrive in a country where cyclists seem to occupy the lowest rung on the Dublin streets food chain and are frequently abused by motorists, after learning to cycle back home on what are basically designated roads for cyclists.

I ask Anne why she cycles.

“As for the enjoyment of bikes, it is split between pleasure (nothing better than putting yourself on the saddle when you feel blue and riding like a mad person for 20 minutes to feel better) and the political aspect of it. By political, I mean that we actually make a stand by having a clean, cheap and independent from oil mode of transport in our modern, consumerist lifestyles. It also makes sense to get from one place to another on something that doesn’t damage the roads and people’s lungs, and that encourages people to communicate. You can talk to a fellow cyclist at traffic-lights – it’s a bit more difficult in a 4x4)”.

Chatting about new creative spaces in Dublin like the Exchange in Temple Bar and Block-T in Smithfield leads us onto Seomra Spraoi, a non-hierarchical, anticapitalist collective who run their own bicycle workshop. While it might seem that a shared love of bicycles would be an easy way to become friendly, Anne admits that it feels like Seomra Spraoi look down on Rothar for being a business. It was, Anne says, a difficult decision for her – though still actively liberal, when she was younger Anne describes herself as more radical in her left-wing convictions. By this point, Anne admits to being almost as irritated by militant lefties as by überconservatives. It brings us back to talking about one of Rothar’s most important ethos: that of social inclusion.

Apart from job creation, Rothar runs social inclusion projects, providing training to those in long-term unemployment, ex-offenders, and at-risk youth. In university Anne studied English Literature, did a masters in Political Science, and finally a PhD in Gender Studies. Throughout this impressive academic career Anne has remained dedicated to community development projects, an interest it seems might be more easily satisfied somewhere like Berlin, where most buildings are actually being used, rather than, as in Ireland, standing empty as a stark testament of the idiocy of property developers. Berlin, though, is chock-a-block with eclectic not-for-profit organisations. Their importance in Dublin is only just beginning to be appreciated.

Rothar takes a straightforward approach to cycling: if you’re interested in cycling or repairing bicycles, they’re interested in you. There’s often a definite feeling of exclusiveness to Dublin’s cycling culture, an elitism often propagated (either consciously or unconsciously) by hipsters or couriers. Anne’s goal is simple: she really just wants to get more people on bikes. She really couldn’t

give a toss whether they cycle a fixie, three-speed, or mountain bike, and she understands that not everyone cycles for the same reasons that she does. Instead of creating further divisions, she sees cycling as an excellent way to better communicate with those around you, and offering a chance to talk to people you might not normally approach.

It’s certainly too soon to say what the future holds, Anne insists. The one thing that is certain is that when Anne began Rothar, the company would, if it succeeded, eventually take on a life of its own, leaving Anne free to create something new.

After Rothar is fully able to find its feet, Anne will go on to try something else - but until then, she is knee-deep in squeaky brakes and seized bottom brackets. ■

TOTALLY DUBLIN

33

Words Ian Lamont George Lewis, Jr. has a shady past, for a suave new wave Pitchfork icon at least.

Before plumping for the Twin Shadow moniker, he had previous in the Chili Peppers-inspired band Mad Man Films while based in Boston in the early noughties and then working in musical theatre in Copenhagen. No wonder he was so tightlipped.

His record Forget has garnered quite a bit of praise and turned up on many of 2010’s best of the year lists last December.

Forget was produced with Grizzly Bear’s bassist Chris Taylor (who was also responsible for the production on Dirty Projectors’ awesome Rise Above) and mines a rich seam of 80s synth-pop in the vein of OMD and Depeche Mode with some Morrisseyesque vocal inflections thrown in for good measure.

I believe that you worked on this album a lot on your own on a laptop – was it a relief to be free from working in band situations and be totally in control?

Yes, it was, but it wasn’t easy, I grew up playing music with other people.

How did you come to work with Chris Taylor and what was his input on Forget?

He heard some demos and approached me about doing a 7-inch on his label.

Chris cleaned up the record a lot, and he really put his touch on the mixing, making the music really move around and take the shape I had hoped it would take.

Describe your favourite piece of musical equipment and why it is your favourite?

My yellow [Fender] Telecaster. I’ve had it for ten years now and I owe it some gratitude.

You have somewhat of an itinerant past – Berlin, Copenhagen, Boston, Brooklyn: Do you find any particular place particularly inspiring to write and create music in?

I find people inspiring, the people are what make the places what they are.

Is Forget an intentionally nostalgiathemed record?

No, nostalgia is quite boring in my opinion. I don’t consider this music to be nostalgic.

What (new and old) records are you listening to these days?

Mmmm, just some friends’ records that have yet to come out, and some Barry

34

TOTALLY DUBLIN

Tyrant Destroyer Twin Shadow White, Gap Band... recently I have just been listening to the radio a lot again, letting someone else decide.

After touring, what comes next from Twin Shadow? You’ve changed styles a lot – do you think you will continue to do so or do you think you’ll commit to developing this conception of your music with your current live band?

Twin Shadow is all I ever wanted. I’ll do it ‘til I’m a world-renowned painter.

Would you like to do another record with Chris Taylor, or do you have any other collaborators you’d like to work with?

Chris and I are going to work on music together for a long time. We love working together, he will be a part of my future for sure. I want to work with other people too.

What would you like to do differently on your next record?

I don’t know that I’ll do anything too

different. I guess I’ll get some help this go round.

Pick a book and a film that relate to Twin Shadow’s music.

On The Water Front – the book and the movie.

Give Totally Dublin some badly needed fashion tips for the coming year.

Most important tip: “Do whatever you feel like doing, and if it gets you laid, or gets you a job, or makes someone jealous, or makes someone blush, or makes you feel like God, or makes you feel at peace, or makes you want to live life like a movie, then do that thing over and over again.” If you are bored, change your clothes.

Wise words, mate.

Twin Shadow plays Crawdaddy on February 19th. Win a pair of tickets at www.totallydublin.ie.

www.totallydublin.ie

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

77

Words Rosa Abbott

Diarmait Grogan at the Severed Head The photography gallery Severed Head on Mount Street puts on consistently good exhibitions, and this monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s offering, opening on the 11th, is no exception.

Eschewing colour for the ever-poignant simplicity of the black and white image, Diarmait Groganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works often border on abstract. Undefined, hazy forms intrude the space, or vaguely lurk in shadowy frames. This lack of clarity and certainty lends his images an ethereal and supernatural quality, yet the action suggested by the blurred movements of his figures points to a specific time and place, rooting them in the here and now; the everyday.

Titled New Way Home, the collection is the result of two yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work exploring the human condition. Following on from the success of previous projects, this is Groganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first solo exhibition, aptly taking place on the Dublin-born photographerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s native soil. Transient, intuitive and subjective, his monochrome images are at once ghostly and brimming with the essence and energy of life. Swing by at 2pm on closing day, the 26th, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll catch the artist in conversation with fellow photographer, lecturer and writer Adrian Reilly.

William McKeown at the Hugh Lane Sir James Frazer outlines the unlikely link between kings and adolescent girls in his seminal work The Golden Bough.

In many cultures throughout history, and around the world, he explains, both were frequently forbidden from either placing their feet upon the bare earth, or standing unshielded beneath the rays of the sun.

Thus, in a bizarre consequence of social taboo, both the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kings and puberty-stricken young ladies were â&#x20AC;&#x153;suspended, so to say, between heaven and earthâ&#x20AC;?. It is this chapter of Frazerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s infamous and controversial work that the Tyrone-born artist William McKeown has chosen to explore in the next installment of the Golden Bough series at the Hugh Lane.

Perhaps more well known for his twodimensional works (paintings, drawings

and watercolours), McKeown will be creating an installation for this exhibition, which will be on display from February 3rd until May 1st. The philosophical, spiritual and anthropological themes prescribed by the Golden Bough topic are perfectly suited to McKeownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work.

His subtle and understated pieces are the product of great contemplation, and are usually inspired by nature, air, light, and humanityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationships with such concepts. With his characteristic delicate, meticulous approach, this exhibition is set to explore that which is - like ancient kings and girls on the cusp of womanhood - suspended, somewhere between heaven and earth.

Neil Carroll at Joinery At first, one might think Neil Carrollâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works are about the structures. However this is not the case - his sculptural installations are more concerned with space; the space created by his structures. Think about it. When an architect plans a building, he should design the structural elements around the spaces he wants them to contain; not vice-versa.

Carrollâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works ask us to take this concept as a metaphor for our thought processes: like an architectural structure, our thoughts are a â&#x20AC;&#x153;mechanical response to a given environmentâ&#x20AC;?. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, these automatically generated thoughts, determined by societal values, can contain or restrict us like the walls of the buildings in which we sit.

In this light, his upcoming exhibition at the Joinery - running from February 17th until the 26th - could be seen as an attempt to break down these constraining structures placed on our thought processes. In it, Carroll manipulates his usual constructionrelated materials of wood, paint and blocks to push the boundaries of architecture, structures, space.... and yo mind. Whoa.

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

39

It became really quite simple in the end, with At Swim; the idea was to transpose the conceit of a writer writing a book about a guy writing a book, who in turn writes about another guy… this became our vehicle for all the colours and textures of Flann’s view. This chain of writers became a theatrical gag.

Was it fun bringing to life all the more theatrical aspects of the book, like the Ringsend Cowboys and the Leprechaun and the Pooka?

The Pooka is there! The story is all there, because the story is the trick as well, the intertwining of all those ideas. I mean, my daughter is just turning three right now, and it’s that age at which, telling her stories, the more surreal they become, the more she’s fascinated. And the more linear and fucking boring the story is, the more she gets bored! Flann O’Brien starts off with a couple of threads, then starts playing around with them and goes completely mad. And somehow it all ends up tied up into a whole. It takes on this extremely exciting and imaginative quality, which is theatrical in itself.

Flanntasm At Swim-Two-Birds Words Roisín Kiberd

Take a play with no beginning and no end, featuring three narrators, a leprechaun, a mythical king and some cowboys from Ringsend, and you are left with one of Ireland’s best-loved literary masterpieces. By turns anarchic satire and experiment in literary form, Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds has long been called impossible to stage. That is, until one acclaimed Irish theatre company got their hands on it. Here we talk with Niall Henry, director of Blue Raincoat’s upcoming production, about the perils of staging the unstageable.

How did the production come about?

A friend of mine had done a dissertation on him, and we just got talking a lot about his work. This was around the time we were working on the Ionesco plays.

Now we’ve done three Ionescos and are developing our third Flann play. It’s funny how, over twenty years in theatre, maybe more, you just seem to find yourself drifting towards things you have an affinity with. With our company, there seems to be a pattern emerging of things surreal and dark. Maybe it’s to do with personalities down in the west of Ireland.

So, lots of excitement for this, especially since you got there before the film! Is this the first ever adaptation of At Swim-TwoBirds?

Not exactly; we first toured it a couple years ago, opened in Sligo in 2009, toured it in the summer last year. We went to Edinburgh and Glasgow with The Third Policeman, and we’re taking it to New York next year.

With The Third Policeman the plot is much more linear, but did you find yourself approaching At Swim, with all its found objects and meta-textual jokes, with a little trepidation?

Well, theatre is always going to be about doing theatrical things, it’ll never succeed at those very literary elements. What we took from The Third Policeman was kind of ‘Third Man’, Orson Welles-ish.

There’s so much pretension and speculation over Flann, so many misguided attempts to interpret him when at the end of the day it was always about fun.

I know and it’s not really my field; I mean, it gets to the point where you ask, do I go beyond my limitations to please academics, or do I go with instincts instead? One of the things about theatre is that you get your five or four weeks of rehearsal, and then you have the show.

It’s not like you give it in to publishers when it feels finished. There are certain things which must be respected, and one of those is that we must be clear.

Did you feel the urge to update the social satire, to make it a Celtic Tiger parable or the like?

You’re going to hate me, but I’d find that a really Dublin-centric thing to do. People do that kind of thing and it just bores me to tears. I mean, good art is good art, there’s no need to update it. What Flann O’Brien wrote about is the mind of an Irish person, I think his whole body of work is about that, and more importantly about how the Irish person perceives himself. He’s among the best satirists of the twentieth century. It’s all about making fun of over-interpretation, and that’s the joy in his work.

Blue Raincoat’s production of At SwimTwo-Birds hits the Project Arts Centre between 22 Feb-5 Mar. Tickets priced €18/20.

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

Burritos & Blues

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www.totallydublin.ie

festivals

Words Zoe Jellicoe Building upon the success of such SinoIrish events as the 2010 project Chinese Voices Dublin Lives, shown at the Irish Pavilion in the World Exposition in Shanghai, the Dublin Chinese New Years Festival is this year celebrating the 4709th year of the Chinese calendar, the year of the Rabbit. Apparently that means the times we face this year will be overseen by the calm and loving energy of ‘the Rabbit’. Sure, well, we’ll see how that goes.

Kicking off on Saturday, 5th February, with their opening festival carnival, the Chinese New Year festival group is in its fourth year of partnership with Dublin City Council. Running throughout the first two weeks of February, the festival this year is branching out into film. This new aspect of the festival will be launched with the world-premiere of Stephen Shin’s epic Blood Oath.

Taking place at different locations all over Dublin, the festival aims to nur-

jazz

40

Words Ollie Dowling

TOTALLY DUBLIN

Rabbit In A Hat Chinese New Year Festival ture the complex relationship between Chinese and Irish cultures and promote interest and understanding. The IFI and Screen cinemas will both be showing the best of Chinese films, including Ip Man, Aftershock, and Apart Together.

This year’s festival looks especially promising; thanks to the addition of Chinese film into the already impressive mix of cultural exhibitions, the weekend carnival, the inter-cultural lecture series, and the arts and crafts workshops. www.dublin.ie/arts-culture/chinese-newyear-2010

The New Year has brought news of some casualties in our small but perfectly-forming jazz scene in the city. The Hampton Hotel, Donnybrook and the Queen’s, Dalkey have ended their jazz sessions and the Louis Stewart Trio are no longer at the Stag’s Head on Sundays (hopefully back in March) due to these poverty-ridden early months of the year, but as I say to everyone, if fans of jazz would only come out and support these events more, then they would not be axed by cost cutting venues, and to go to see the likes of Louis Stewart playing on a Sunday somewhere beats sitting on the sofa at home, watching all the gloom on TV. Two big shows come into town this month, with Somewhere under the Rainbow - The Liza Minnelli story featuring Sharon Sexton at the Olympia Theatre on Sunday February 6th for one night only. The show starts at 8pm, and will include a full band and a troupe of cabaret dancers, which will feature the hits Mein Herr, Cabaret and New York, New York so definitely worth dressing up for the occasion.

The other big show is brought to you by Pat Egan Promotions, and is at the National Concert Hall on Tuesday February 15th and is Stephen Triffitt performing Frank Sinatra with a 16 piece orchestra on the night. Stephen is the world’s greatest Sinatra impersonator and will perform all of Frank’s biggest tunes including Under my Skin, Come Fly with Me, Mack the Knife and many more.

I’ve got one pair of tickets to give away for the show, and to enter the competition, just tell me the name of any album recorded by Frank during his reign as

the king of Swing, and send your entry to jazzindublin@gmail.com to reach me before 6pm on Sunday February 13th.

More details for this concert can be found at www.nch.ie.

Broadcaster Sean Brophy (formerly Jazz Fm and 4FM) contacted me to say that he can now be heard on Dublin’s airwaves, presenting jazz in it’s many forms on Tuesdays at 2pm on Dublin South 93.9 FM www.dublinsouthfm. ie and on Wednesdays at 11.30am on Dublin City 103.2FM www.dublincityfm.ie. Worth tuning in for. The great news this month is that two places have opened their doors to a touch of jazz, and first up is Harry’s on the Green, South King Street. They have jazz/swing outfits every Friday for the after-work crowd from 6-8.30pm and a Sunday jazz brunch with live jazz from 2-4.30pm and Latin jazz on Thursday nights from 9pm.

Check www.harrysonthegreen.ie for all updates. The other spot is La Dolce Vita on Cow’s Lane, which has been open a year now, and has just started jazz sessions every Friday night from 9-11.30pm in Temple Bar’s coolest Italian wine bar and restaurant. This place has already got a reputation for playing great jazz in the background while you dine, and the added experience of classic Italian movies being shown on the large screen, and put to that the genial host of proprietor/chef Ricardo and you have one of the best nights in town for jazz. Tables can be booked at (01) 7079786. Highly Recommended for St.Valentine’s weekend. jazzindublin@gmail.com

www.totallydublin.ie

Can you talk about Former Ghosts, your project with Freddy Rupert and Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart?

It’s amazing. It’s basically Freddy’s project, and I will just sing on things and Jamie will help out sometimes. But Freddy is such an incredible person and an incredible musician that comes up with such good ideas. I love working with him and collaborating with him is a lot of fun.

Did you see Freddy’s blog post after his Dublin gig where he considered giving up forever?

Yeah I saw that. I confronted him about that. Definitely he goes back and forth about whether it’s something he wants to do for a career. But at the end of the day, he realises the impact he has on people and what his music does for people and for himself. So I don’t think he’s going to give up.

So you recently started to record in higher fidelity than your earlier stuff. What was the reasoning behind that?

It was a conscious decision but at the same time I kind of miss it because I accessed so many textures when I was working with a lower fidelity and working with distortion and things like that.

I miss those frequencies a lot. I’m trying to find a way to bring that back but still have cleaner production. It’s even a better challenge. I guess it’s time to step up.

Holy Jaysis Zola Jesus

Is image an important part of Zola Jesus?

To the extent that I hope that it reflects who I am, but not to the extent that it distracts people from the music itself.

Sometimes when I write music I have a certain vision for how I want it to be performed and how I want it to be absorbed on a sensuous level. And that includes the visual. The visual is always really important to me.

Words Karl McDonald

Nika Roza Daniklova has been bringing goth back with lo-fi textures taken from the pallid, eyeliner crews of the 80s and the subsequent industrial movement. It’s an important job, and as Zola Jesus, she is the one to do it. With side projects featuring depressive music power players Xiu Xiu and This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, the twenty-one year old has all the co-signs necessary to bring her trained vocals and ethereal, drum heavy music to the glum masses.

People often mention that you were classically trained as a singer. Do you think it’s that important?

I’m not sure, I go back and forth. I think it is important because it shaped me as an artist in a way. But it doesn’t drive me.

I think when you’re learning things on a

www.totallydublin.ie

classical level, not only do you have the seriousness and the intensity of the study, but also what you study, and the way musicians and composers approached music especially back then, because classical music is so different now. It’s all very indirect. I just think it’s something that’s unusual these days. It’s something that most young people don’t listen to and don’t study. And I think it’s important that more people do listen to it.

Your music is really rhythmic though, despite the classical training. Why is that?

I really love big, huge beats. And I like when they’re minimal because you can build so much from that. It’s the most intrinsic thing, it sounds almost like a heartbeat. The bigger and the more it sounds like an earthquake the better.

Was it strange still being in college as your music started to get noticed?

Yeah, it was really tough, because I had to take off school a lot to go play shows and to do things, and I really had to ask a lot of favours of my professors. They didn’t believe me mostly. I never really had that much of a social life in college because I was gone so much. It was definitely hard.

Did anyone ever come up to you in class?

Yeah, sometimes in class people would come up to me. But it didn’t happen that much, I’m not Madonna.

Zola Jesus isn’t playing here just yet (wagon), but you can buy her fantastic Stridulum II and LA Vampires & Zola Jesus in any record shop that knows what’s good for them right now.

TOTALLY DUBLIN

41

Live gigs February Tue 1st Feb Broken Records and Freelancer Crawdaddy, €14, 8pm Featuring MC Kriss Akabusi Funeral Party Academy 2, €13.50, 7.30pm Loud enough to wake you up Imelda May Vicar Street, 8.30pm

The Modern Times Event: Sweet Jane Crawdaddy €tbc, 8pm Support from The Novas, Soundproof and Hooligan Wire Academy 2 €20, 7.30pm Gritty investigative post-punk

Kid Karate, A Plastic Rose & My Pilot Upstairs at Whelans €10, 8pm The real stars of Fade Street Nile Button Factory 7:30pm A river in Egypt Sat 12th Feb

Wed 2nd Feb Melanie Pain Workman’s Club €12, 8pm Breadly! (She’s French)

Feeder Academy €31.50, 7.30pm Welsh gluttons

Magazine Gap Academy 2 €7, 7pm

Ryan Sheridan Whelans €12, 8pm Singer-songwriter

Ham Sandwich Whelans €15, 8pm On ciabatta

Mon 7th Feb

Sun 13th Feb

Hurts Academy, €19.50, 7.30pm Brothers Mega, Kila and Giga

Ocean Colour Scene Olympia Theatre €30, 8pm Still dad rockin

Thu 3rd Feb Good Charlotte The Academy €25, 7.30pm Blink 182 minus redeeming features Kerrang! Tour Academy €25, 7pm Metal up yer ass

Dublin City Jazz Orchestra Button Factory, €10, 8.30pm Monthly appearance Wed 9th Feb

Bitches With Wolves Whelans €tbc, 8pm Brought to you by American Apparel Fri 4th Feb Good Charlotte The Academy €25, 7.30pm Blink 182 minus redeeming features Kerrang! Tour Academy €25, 7pm Junip feat. Jose Gonzalez Whelans €19, 8pm Reformed Swedish post-rockers Della Mannion Upstairs at Whelans €tbc, 8pm

Master & Dog (Formerly John, Shelly and the Creatures) Whelans €8, 8pm Throwing us a bone

Battle For 2nd Place Upstairs at Whelans €10, 8pm Between Arsenal and City?

Mon 14th Feb Jimmy Webb The Sugar Club €28, 7.30pm And I’ll never have that recipe again… oh no!

Thu 10th Feb Tue 15th Feb Joan As Policewoman The Button Factory €22.50, 8pm Halloween was months ago Joan The Hold Steady Academy €27.50, 7.30pm Oscillate wildly Fri 11th Feb The Flaws Crawdaddy €12.50, 8pm Waiter, there’s a flaw in my soup

Seanie Vaughan Mogwai

Mogwai Olympia Theatre €29, 8pm Fear Santa Wed 16th Feb My Chemical Romance The O2 from €33.60, 7pm Their physical bromance Thu 17th Feb British Sea Power Academy €20, 7.30pm Green energy enthusiasts Wayne Brennan The Sugar Club €tbc, 8pm Offaly talented Thin Lizzy Olympia Theatre from €33.60 Tonight there’s gonna be a guitar solo

Button Factory €11.80, 7.30pm Wish his surname was Vaughie Syphor & Special Guests Academy 2 €11.80, 7pm Sold out Sat 5th Feb

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

Cocophone Academy 2 €12, 7.30pm As much use as a chocolate teapot Dean Wareham plays Galaxie 500 Workman’s Club €18, 7pm Classic dream pop hits

The Rubberbandits …ring, are you listenin’?

Sat 19th Feb The Rubberbandits Tripod €17/20, 9pm They’re artists, but they love money Twin Shadow Crawdaddy €14, 8pm Looks a little bit like Kat from Red Dwarf Citizen Cope Academy 2 €15, 7.30pm Featured in The Washington Post weekend section in 1997 The Christians The Village €20, 8pm Usually play on Sundays Sun 20th Feb Lifehouse Olympia Theatre €25, 8pm Bogey Who concept album Francesqa Academy 2 €12.50, 7.30pm U will not me missed

Futures Academy €13, 7pm Trading well Maroon 5 Grand Canal Theatre €39.20, 7.30pm Chartreuse six Fri 25th Feb Fox Avenue The Academy €14.50 Fade Street beckons Chapel Club Academy 2 €13.50 The mystery solving church folk group Harmonic Presents: Vessels & Enemies Workman’s Club €12.50, 8pm Hope this isn’t empty Scratch Perverts The Village €12.50, 11pm Hotel, Motel, Johnny McGlynn The Cast Of Cheers Whelans €14, 8pm Kelsey Grammer et al

That omnipotent guy from Star Trek Dave Couse Whelans €tbc, 8pm Of A House Sun 27th Feb Ben Ottewell The Academy €19.50 Growly one out of Gomez Plan B Olympia Theatre €33.60, 8pm Difficult second letter Mon 28th Feb Plan B Olympia Theatre €33.60 Tue 1st Mar The Whigs The Academy €20, 8pm Non Afghan variety All Time Low Olympia Theatre €25, 8pm Strung out on heaven’s highs Wed 2nd Mar

Mon 21st Feb Sat 26th Feb

Mona Whelans €12, 8pm Monkeying around

KT Tunstall Olympia Theatre from €25, 8pm Dons her Tiger Suit

Fri 18th Feb

Wed 23rd Feb

Example Academy €23.50, 7pm We should all see this

Mike Posner Academy €14.50 A member of Sigma Nu, frat fans

Lir Workman’s Club €12.50, 8pm Swanning around town

Anna Calvi Workman’s Club €15, 8pm Jezebel

Sleigh Bells Whelans €16.50, 8pm

Thu 24th Feb

Mary Coughlan The Academy €26 Jazzer

The Saturdays Olympia Theatre from €29.50, 8pm Do they look that good on Sunday?

Thu 3rd Mar

Florrie The Academy €13.50 Join the queue behind Pixie Lott Lighthouse Family Olympia Theatre from €33.60, 8pm Reunion tour Q Upstairs at Whelans €tbc, 8pm

The Levellers The Academy €28, 8pm Their career has plateaued Fri 4th Mar Ray Lamontagne & The Pariah Dogs Olympia Theatre from €44.20 Mountain man

www.totallydublin.ie

Cut Copy – Zonoscope A melting pot of ideas streaming from a collective of music fanatics, Zonoscope is Cut Copy boiled down to their purest form.

Released February 4th

The Low Anthem – Smart Flesh Q Magazine **** Mojo **** Uncut ****

Released February 18th

Available from Tower Records – Wicklow Street and Tower Records in Eason’s – O’Connell Street.

Available from Tower Records – Wicklow Street and Tower Records in Eason’s – O’Connell Street.

www.gourmetburgercompany.ie

www.gourmetburgercompany.ie

Trad January Wed Feb 2nd

€5, 9pm

Dick Gaughan & Andy Irvine Whelans €tbc, 8pm Scottish Folkster with Planxty’s kinda Scot

Paddy Keenan & Tommy O’Sullivan Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €16, 7.30pm Sun Feb 6th

Maeve Brady Cobblestone €5, 9pm Caladh Nua Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €16, 7.30pm

Fri Feb 18th Stephen Young & The Union Cobblestone €tba, 9pm

Cobblestone €7, 9pm Piper In The Parlour Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €5, 2.30pm

Sat Feb 19th

Thu Feb 3rd

Fri Feb 25th

Holy Bleedin’ Jaysus Ball Alley, Lucan Free, 8pm Ballads and booze every Thursday Fri Feb 4th Sat Feb 5th Sharon Reid & The Attic Knighs Cobblestone

Holy Bleedin’ Jaysus The Pint, Eden Quay Free, 7pm Ballads and booze every Sunday Mon Feb 7th

Sat Feb 12th

Tue Feb 8th Wed Feb 9th Thu Feb 10th

Sun Feb 13th

Fri Feb 11th

Joy Kills Sorrow Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €16, 7.30pm

The Keepers Cobblestone €7, 9pm No Crows Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €16, 7.30pm

Slow Session Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €5, 7.30pm

Sun Feb 20th

Wednesdays

9pm, Free

Live Jazz O’Reillys Bar, Seafort Ave. Sandymount 8pm, Free

Fridays

Fiach and Colm Lynch Cobblestone €7, 9pm Cara Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €16, 7.30pm

Marc O’Reilly Cobblestone €10, 9pm Support from Elder Roche Canadian Corner Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €16, 7.30pm Featuring Ron Hynes, Dave Gunning, Rose Cousins & Catherine MacLellan Sun Feb 27th Clanntraí Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €5, 2.30pm

Sat Feb 26th Bon Ton Rouler and Sub Rosa

Jazz February Sundays

Town Bar and Grill, Kildare St 7pm, Free

The Merrion Gates Fitzpatricks Castle, Killiney 12.30pm, Free Stella Bass Trio Cafe en Seine, Dawson St. 2pm, Free Live Jazz Harrys on the Green, South King St. D2 2pm, Free Jazz Globetrotters Purty Kitchen, Temple Bar 6pm, Free

Globetrotter Quartet Shebeen Chic, South Great Georges St 10.30pm, Free Mondays Hot House Big Band The Mercantile Bar, Dame St. 9.15pm, e8 18 Piece Big Band Essential Big Band Grainger’s Pub, Malahide Rd. 9.30pm, e5 17 Piece Swing Orchestra

Max Greenwood

Jam Session Centre for Creative Practices, 15 Lwr. Pembroke St. 8pm, e7

Live Jazz La Dolce Vita, Cow’s Lane, Temple bar 9pm, Free Daniel Jacobson (Jazz Guitar) La Strada, 3 Cumberland St. Dun Laoghaire 7.30pm, Free

Thursdays Isotope JJ Smyths, Aungier St. 9pm, e10

Live Jazz Harrys on the Green, South King St. D2 6pm, Free

Mespil Bar, Burlington Hotel, D4 7.30pm, Free Daniel Jacobson (Jazz Guitar) La Strada, 3 Cumberland St. Dun Laoghaire 7.30pm, Free FEBRUARY (ONE OFFS) Somewhere under the Rainbow The Liza Minnelli story feat. Sharon Sexton The Olympia Theatre, Dame St. Sun Feb 6th 8pm, e25

with a 16 piece Orchestra National Concert Hall Tues Feb 15th 8pm, e32.50 Edel Meade’s Swoo-Beh Project The Bernard Shaw, Portobello Thurs Feb 17th 9pm, Free Edel Meade’s Swoo-Beh Project Kevin Barry Room, National Concert Hall Sun Feb 20th 8.30pm, e12

Saturdays Alex Mathias Quartet International Bar, Wicklow St.

Kevin Morrow Quartet

Stephen Triffitt performs Frank Sinatra

Classical February Tue Feb 1st

€29-49.50, 3.15pm, 8pm

King David

Music of Rachmaninov and others

IRFU Charitable Trust Gala Concert National Concert Hall €35, 8pm Presented by George Hook with An Garda Siochana Band

Mon Feb 7th

Sat Feb 19th

Sat Feb 26th

Spring Festival Gala Performance National Concert Hall €5, 8pm Featuring Xiao Hong Art Troupe

The Merry Widow National Concert Hall €20-48, 7.30pm Franz Lehár’s opera sung in English

Do Re Mi National Concert Hall, Kevin Barry Room 10.30am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm An opportunity for children from ages 3-8 to learn about the orchestra

Wed Feb 2nd

Sun Feb 20th Wed Feb 9th

Kaleidoscope Night Odessa Club €8, 8.30pm Featuring contemporary composers Fri Feb 4th Pigalle – The Life and Music of Edith Piaf National Concert Hall, John Field Room €18, 1.05pm Derby Brown & French Cafe Ensemble present a tribute to Piaf RTE National Symphony Orchestra 2010-2011 Season National Concert Hall €18-35, 8pm Soundtracks, featuring Lambert, Rachmaninov & Vaughan Williams

RTÉ Concert Orchestra Music To Be Murdered By National Concert Hall €11-38, 8pm Music of Bernard Hermann film scores & more

National Chamber Choir of Ireland National Concert Hall, Kevin Barry Room €14, 7.30pm Songs For Spring, including Benjamin Britten John O’Conor & Fighin Collins National Concert Hall €15-35, 8pm Great music for two pianos

Sat Feb 5th

Sun Feb 6th Anton & Erin “Puttin on the Ritz” National Concert Hall

44

TOTALLY DUBLIN

Tue Feb 22nd RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Horizons National Concert Hall Free, 1.05pm Featured composer is Piers Hellawell

Thu Feb 10th

Fri Feb 11th Anton & Erin “Puttin on the Ritz” National Concert Hall €29-49.50, 3.15pm, 8pm Music of Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter

The Merry Widow National Concert Hall €20-48, 7.30pm

Anthony Byrne plays Liszt National Concert Hall, John Field Room €13, 1.05pm Lisztomania!

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra: East Meets West National Concert Hall €10-35, 8pm Featuring music of Ives, Dvorák, and Bartók Sat Feb 12th

Fionnuala Moynihan Irish Association of Youth Orchestra National Concert Hall €15, 3pm, 8pm 16th Festival of Youth Orchestras Mon Feb 14th RTÉ Concert Orchestra: As Time Goes By National Concert Hall €20-40, 8pm A Valentine’s evening of lounge and swing Tue Feb 15th Stephen Triffitt perform’s Sinatra’s Live at The Sands Concert National Concert Hall €20-38.50, 8pm

The world’s greatest Sinatra impersonator

The Merry Widow National Concert Hall €20-48, 7.30pm

Thu Feb 17th

Wed Feb 23rd

Murray Perahia National Concert Hall €30-60, 8pm Celebrated American pianist

European Masterworks National Concert Hall €20, 8pm Hugh Tinney plays Mozart, Raymond, Hadyn and Beethoven

Fri Feb 18th

Fri Feb 25th

Love Is The Strangest Thing National Concert Hall, John Field Room €12, 1.05pm Jack Morrissey, Brian McIvor & Liz Ryan present love songs

Fionnuala Moynihan National Concert Hall, John Field Room €13, 1.05pm A recital of John Field’s works

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra: Royal Blood National Conert Hall €18-35, 8pm Present works of Milhaud and Honegger’s

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra: Russian Roulette National Concert Hall €10-35, 8pm

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse National Concert Hall €25-35, 8pm Part of JDIFF, film screened with rousing live score Wed Mar 2nd Academy of St Martin-in-theFields National Concert Hall €45-70, 8pm Violinist Joshua Bell with cellist Steven Isserlis & chamber orchestra Kaleidoscope: A Night Of Music Odessa Club €8, 8.30pm A monthly night of contemporary music Fri Mar 4th Time To Blossom National Concert Hall, John Field Room €15, 1.05pm Hip lunchtime jazz tunes RTÉ National Concert Orchestra: Fire and Foreboding National Concert Hall €10-35, 8pm Playing Rachmaninov and Shostakovich

www.totallydublin.ie

Clubbing weekly February Mondays

Chart, pop, and dance with a twist

Upbeat Generation @ Think Tank Think Tank, Temple Bar, D2 Pop, Rock and Soul 11pm

Piss-up with Peaches The George, George’s St., D2 Free, 9pm All drinks €4 or less 3 Jagerbombs for €10

Sound Mondays The Turk’s Head, Parliament St & Essex Gate, Temple Bar, D1 Indie, Rock, Garage and Post Punk 11pm, Free

Tuesdays

Island Culture South William, 52 Sth William St, D2 Caribbean cocktail party Free Dice Sessions The Dice Bar, Queen St, Smithfield, D7 DJ Alley Free King Kong Club The Village, 26 Wexford St, D2 Musical game show 9pm, Free Soap Marathon Monday/ Mashed Up Monday The George, Sth. Great Georges St, D2 Chill out with a bowl of mash and catch up with all the soaps 6.30pm, Free The Industry Night Break for the Border, 2 Johnstons Place, Lr Stephens Street, D2 Pool competition, Karaoke & DJ 8pm Make and Do-Do with Panti Panti Bar, 7-8 Capel Street, D1 Gay arts and crafts night 10pm DJ Ken Halford Buskers, Temple Bar, D2 Chart Pop, Indie, Rock 10pm Euro Saver Mondays Twentyone Club and Lounge, D’Olier St, D2 DJ Al Redmond 11pm, €1 with flyer Recess Ruaille Buaille, South King St, D2 Student night 11pm, €8/6 Therapy Club M, Blooms Hotel, D2 Funky House, R‘n’B 11pm, €5 Lounge Lizards Solas Bar, 31 Wexford St, D2 Soul music 8pm, Free

C U Next Tuesday Crawdaddy, Old Harcourt St Station, D2 A mix every type of genre guaranteed to keep you dancing until the wee small hours.

11pm, €5 Play with DJ’s Dany Doll & Eddie Bolton Pravda, Lower Liffey Street, D1 Soul/Pop/Indie/Alternative.

8.30pm - 11.30pm.

Taste Solas Bar, 31 Wexford St, D2 Lady Jane with soul classics and more 8pm, Free Rap Ireland The Pint, 28 Eden Quay, D1 A showcase of electro and hip hop beats 9pm, Free Groovilisation South William, Sth. William St. D2 8pm, Free DJs Izem, Marina Diniz & Lex Woo Tarantula Tuesdays The Turk’s Head, Parliament St & Essex Gate, Temple Bar, D2 Disco, House, Breaks 11pm Sugarfree Ri-Ra, Dame Court, D2 Soul, Ska, Indie, Disco, Reggae 11pm, Free Le Nouveau Wasteland The Dice Bar, Queen St, Smithfield, D7 Laid back French Hip Hop and Groove Free Star DJs Sin, Sycamore St, Temple Bar, D2 Disco, House, R’n’B 9pm Juicy Beats The Village, 26 Wexford St, D2 Indie, Rock, Classic Pop, Electro 10.30pm, Free Jezabelle The Purty Kitchen, 34/35 East Essex St, Temple Bar, D2 Live Classic Rock 7pm, Free before 11pm

n Dolly Does Dragon, The Dragon, South Georges St, D2 Cocktails, Candy and Classic Tunes 10pm, Free

The DRAG Inn The Dragon, Sth Great Georges St, D2 Davina Devine presents open mic night with prizes, naked twister, go-go boys and makeovers.

8pm, Free

Oldies but Goldies Ri-Ra, Dame Court, D2 Blooming Good Tunes 11pm, Free

Glitz Break for the Border, Lwr Stephens Street, D2 Gay club night with Annie, Davina and DJ Fluffy 11pm

Austin Carter + Company B + DJ Dexy Fitzsimons Bar, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2 Free, 9pm – 1.30am

DJ Stephen James Buskers, Temple Bar, D2 Chart Pop, Indie 10pm

DJ Darren C Fitzsimons Club, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2 Free, 11pm

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

Funky Sourz Club M, Temple Bar, D2 DJ Andy Preston (FM104) 11pm, €5

Hed-Dandi Dandelion, St. Stephens Green West, D2 DJs Dave McGuire & Steve O Takeover Twentyone Club and Lounge, D’Olier St, D2 Electro, Techno 11pm, €5 John Fitz + The K9s + DJ Mick B Fitzsimons Bar, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2 Free, 9 – 1.30am DJ Keith P Fitzsimons Club, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2 Free, 11pm Classic hits & party pop Wednesdays Songs of Praise The Village, 26 Wexford St., D2 The city’s rock and roll karaoke institution enters its fifth year.

9pm, Free Hump Pravda, Lower Liffey Street, D1 DJ’s Niall James Holohan & Megan Fox. Indie/ rock/alt/hiphop & Subpop 8.30pm - 11.30 pm Dublin Beat Club Sin è Bar, 14 Upr Ormond Quay, D Showcase live music night 8pm, Free

The Song Room The Globe, 11 Sth Great Georges St, D2 Live music 8.30pm, Free First Taste Crawdaddy, Old Harcourt St Station, D 2 A new weekly party playing all new and advance music in The Lobby Bar 7pm, Free Unplugged @ The Purty The Purty Kitchen, 34/35 East Essex St, Temple Bar, D2 Live acoustic set with Gavin Edwards 7pm, Free before 11pm Space ‘N’ Veda The George, Sth Great Georges St, D2 Performance and dance. Retro 50s, 60s, 70s 9pm, Free before 10pm, after 10pm €8/€4 with student ID DJ Alan Healy Buskers, Temple Bar, D2 Chart Pop, Current Indie and Rock Music 10pm Mud The Twisted Pepper, 54 Middle Abbey St, D2 Bass, Dubstep, Dancehall 11pm, €10 (varies if guest) Sexy Salsa Dandelion Café Bar Club, St. Stephens Green West, D2 Latin, Salsa 8pm, Free

Galactic Beat Club The Turk’s Head, Parliament St & Essex Gate, Temple Bar, D1 Disco, Boogie, House, Funk and Balearic 11pm, Free

Rob Reid + EZ Singles + DJ Karen G Fitzsimons Bar, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2 Free, 9pm – 1.30am DJ Darren C

Blasphemy Spy, Powerscourt Town Centre, South William St, D2 Upstairs Indie and pop, downstairs Electro 11pm, €5

DJ Darren C Fitzsimons Club, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2 Chart, pop & dance with a twist Free, 11pm

Beatdown Disco South William, Sth. William St. D2 Stylus DJs Peter Cosgrove & Michael McKenna - disco, soul, house 8pm, Free

Space N’Veda The George, George’s St., D2 Free, 11pm Exquisite Mayhem with Veda, Davina & Guests

Wild Wednesdays Twentyone Club and Lounge, D’Olier St, D2 Frat Party €5 entry, first drink free

Thursdays

Shaker The Academy, Middle Abbey St, D2 11pm, €8/6 A Twisted Disco Ri-Ra, Dame Crt, D1 80s, Indie, and Electro 11pm, Free Synergy Solas Bar, 31 Wexford St, D2 All kinds of eclectic beats for midweek shenanigans 8pm, Free Dean Sherry Sin, Sycamore St, Temple Bar, D2 Underground House, Techno, Funk 9pm 1957 The Dice Bar, Queen St, Smithfield, D7 Blues, Ska Free Soup Bitchin’ Panti Bar, 7-8 Capel St, D1 Gay student night

Sounds@Solas Solas, Wexford St, D2 9pm-1am, Free Soul @ Solas Solas Bar, 31 Wexford St, D2 Mr Razor plays the best in Soulful beats and beyond. International guests too!

8pm, Free CBGB Pygmalion, Powerscourt Centre, D2 Megan Fox & Niall James Holohan 9pm, Free Extra Club M, Blooms Hotel, D2 Kick start the weekend with a little extra 11pm, €5, Free with flyer Sidetracked Crawdaddy, Old Harcourt St Station, D2 Indie, Disco, Loungey House 8pm, Free Off the Charts Twentyone Club and Lounge, D’Olier St, D2 R&B with Frank Jez and DJ Ahmed 11pm, €5 Muzik

The Button Factory, Curved St, Temple Bar, D2 Up-Beat Indie, New Wave, Bouncy Electro 11pm

Bar, D2 Free, 9pm – 1.30am

Noize Andrews Lane Theatre, Andrews Lane, D2 Student night with live bands, Indie and Electro 9.30pm, €5 or €8 for two people with flyer

The Bionic Rats The Turk’s Head, Parliament St & Essex Gate, Temple Bar, D1 Dance, Jump and Skii to Reggae and Ska Free, 10pm

Thursdays at Café En Seine Café En Seine, 39 Dawson St., D2 DJs and dancing until 2.30am. Cocktail promotions.

8pm, Free

DJ Dexy Fitzsimons Bar, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2 Energetic blend of dancefloor fillers Free, 11pm

CBGB Pygmalion, South William St, Dublin 2 Crackity Jones & Readers Wives on the decks Free

Eamonn Barrett 4 Dame Lane, D2 Electro Indie Free, 10pm

Guateque Party Bia Bar, 28-30 Lwr Stephens St, D2 Domingo Sanchez and friends play an eclectic mix 8.30pm

Global Zoo Hogans, 35 Sth Gt Georges St, D2 Groovalizacion bringing their infectious and tropical selection including Cumbia, Samba, Dub, Reggae, Balkan, Latin and Oriental Sound 9pm, Free

The LITTLE Big Party Ri-Ra, Dame Crt, D1 Indie music night with DJ Brendan Conroy 11pm, Free Mr. Jones & Salt The Twisted Pepper, 54 Middle Abbey Street, D2 House, Electro, Bassline 11pm, €8/5 Alternative Grunge Night Peader Kearney’s, 64 Dame St, D2 Alternative grunge 11pm, €5/3 Eamonn Sweeney The Village, 26 Wexford St, D2 10pm Jason Mackay Sin, Sycamore St, Temple Bar, D2 Dance, R’n’B, House 9pm Fromage The Dice Bar, Queen St, Smithfield, D7 Motown Soul, Rock Free Bad Kids Crawdaddy Indie night extraordinaire 10.30pm, Free Control/Delete Andrews Lane Theatre, Andrews Lane, D2 Indie and Electro 11pm, €3/4 Davina’s House Party The George, Sth Great Georges St, D2 Drinks Promos, Killer Tunes and Hardcore Glamour 9pm, Free before 11pm, €4 with flyer After Work Party The Purty Kitchen, 34/35 East Essex St, Temple Bar, D2 Live Rock with Totally Wired.

6pm, Free before 11pm Big Time!

The Bernard Shaw, 11 - 12 Sth Richmond St, Portobello, D2 You Tube nights, hat partys... make and do for grown ups! With a DJ. The Panti Show Panti Bar, 7-8 Capel St, D1 Gay cabaret.

10pm n Mofo + One By One + DJ Jenny T Fitzsimons Bar, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple

DJ Jim Kenny Buskers, Temple Bar, D2 Chart Pop, Current Indie and Rock Music 10pm The Beauty Spot Dakota Bar, 8 South William Street, Dublin 2.

A new night of Fashion, Beauty, Shopping and Drinks in association with Style Nation and sponsored by Smirnoff.

7pm, Free The Odeon Movie Club The Odeon, Old Harcourt St. Station, D2 Classic Movies on the Big Screen at 8pm. Full waiter service and cocktails from €5. June Dark Comedy.

8pm, Free Tanked-Up Tramco Nightclub, Rathmines Student Night, Drinks From €2 10:30pm, €5 Jugs Rock O’Reillys, Tara St. Late Rock Bar, All Pints €3.20, Pitchers €8 9pm, €5 Thirsty Student Purty Loft, Dun Laoghaire Student Night, All Drinks €3.50 10pm, €5 entry Davina’s Club Party The George, George’s St., D2 Free, 11pm Davina Divine hosts with Peaches Queen, Bare Buff Butlers & Special Guests Fridays Housemusicweekends Pygmalion, Sth. William St., D2 House music magnet with special guests each week 12pm, Free NoDisko Pravda, Lower Liffey Street, D1 Indie/Rock N Roll/ Dance 10pm – 2.30pm.

T.P.I. Fridays Pygmalion, South William St, D2 Pyg residents Beanstalk, Larry David Jr. + guests play an eclectic warm-up leading up to a guest house set every week.

9pm, Free Hustle The Odeon, Old Harcourt St. Station, D2 Dance floor Disco, Funk and favourites. All Cocktails €5/. Pints, Shorts & Shots €4

www.totallydublin.ie

Downtown Searsons, 42-44 Baggot St. Upper, D4 Indie, Soul, Chart 10pm, Free Strictly Handbag Bodega Club, Pavilion Centre, Marine Rd, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin 80s with DJ Mark Kelly 10pm, €10 Toejam The Bernard Shaw, 11 - 12 Sth Richmond St, Portobello, D2 Afternoon: Car boot sales, film clubs, music lectures, t-shirt making etc.

Later on: Resident DJs playing Soul, Funk, House, Electro Sidesteppin’ Bia Bar, 28/30 Lwr Stephens St, D2 Old School Hip Hop, Funk 45s, Reggae 8pm, Free Saturday @ The Village The Village, 26 Wexford St, D2 Pete Pamf, Morgan, Dave Redsetta & Special Guests 11pm Whigfield Pygmalion, Sth. William St., D2 House and techno til late, with special guests each week 10pm, Free DJ Karen @ The Dragon

The Dragon, Sth Great Georges St, D2 House music 10pm n Beauty Spot Karaoke The George, Sth Great Georges St, D2 Karaoke and DJ Miguel Gonzelez playing super sexy Spanish House.

9pm, Free before 10pm, €10 after Basement Club Panti Bar, 7-8 Capel St, D1 Pop and Electro Saturday @ The Wright Venue The Wright Venue, South Quarter, Airside Business Park, Swords, Co Dublin Rock, Pop, Hip-hop, Dance 10pm Punch The Good Bits Indie/Disco in one room and Techno/House and Electro in the main room 11pm, €2 between 11-11:30 Saturdays @ 4 Dame Lane 4 Dame Lane, D2 Goldy mixes beats/breaks/hip hop and funk in the bar and Gaviscon plays everything under the sun in the club 10pm, Free Eardrum Buzz Hogans, 35 Sth Gt Georges St, D2 House party vibes with Thatboytim playing mix of dance floor classics with of hip hop, reggae,

ska, rock, electro and teenage memories.

10pm, Free DJ Stephen James Buskers, Temple Bar, D2 Chart Pop, Current Indie and Rock Music 10pm Rocked O Reillys, Tara St. Launching 9th October with LLUTHER, Rock DJ,All pints €3.20, Pitchers €9 9pm, €5 Saturdays @ Purty Loft Purty Loft Nightclub, Dun Laoghaire Funky House & RnB DJs, 10pm, €10 Late Night Live Gaiety Theatre Live music 11pm, €TBC Sundays Ear Candy Solas Bar, 31 Wexford St, D2 Disco tunes and Funk Classics to finish the weekend.

8pm, Free Jitterbop The Grand Social, Lwr. Liffey St, D1 DJ Oona Fortune. Rockabilly/Swinging Sounds.

8pm - 11pm. (2.30am on bank holidays)

The Odeon, Old Harcourt St. Station, D2 Super family friendly brunch club. Kids movies on the big screen 3PM. 12pm – 6pm, Free Sundown Bia Bar, Lwr. Stephen’s St., D2 Chill-out house, funk, electronics and acoustic 10pm, Free The Latin Beat The Odeon, Old Harcourt St. Station, D2 Learn to dance Salsa & Samba from some of the best instructors in Ireland.

Classes from 6pm, club from 8pm - late, Free Dancehall Styles The Button Factory, Curved St, Temple Bar, D2 International dance hall style 11pm, €5 The Workers Party Sin, Sycamore St, Temple Bar, D2 With DJ Ilk 9pm Session Pygmalion, Powerscourt Centre, D2 40% off all the booze all day & Mr. Ronan spinning only the best Indie, Rock & Roll.

Free in before 4pm, €5 after.

Hang the DJ The Globe, 11 Sth Great Georges St, D2 Rock, Indie, Funk, Soul 9pm, Free

The Matinee Brunch Club

Gay Cabaret The Purty Kitchen, 34/35 East Essex St, Temple Bar, D2 Gay cabaret show 9pm, Free before 11pm

Power FM curates a night of sights & sounds with Dublin based Arts collective Tinderbox providing visuals and Power FM’s DJ’s playing Soul to Rock n Roll to Punk 7pm, Free

12 Sundays The Bernard Shaw, 11 - 12 Sth Richmond St, Portobello, D2 Funk, Disco, House 6pm – 12am, Free

Get Over Your Weekend Panti Bar, 7-8 Capel St, D1 Lounge around with Penny the Hound. All drinks half plrice all day.

1pm, Free

DJ Karen The George, Sth Great Georges St, D2 Pop Commercial and Funky House Free before 11pm, €5 with flyer, €8 without

DJ Paul Manning Buskers, Temple Bar, D2 Chart Pop, Current Indie and Rock Music 10pm

The George Bingo with Shirley Temple Bar The George, Sth Great Georges St, D2 Bingo & Cabaret with Shirley Temple Bar 8.30pm, Free

Sunday Roast The Globe, Georges St, D2 9pm, Free

Elbow Room South William, 52 Sth William St, D2 Jazz, Soul, Disc & Latin 8pm, Free

Magnificent 7’s 4 Dame Lane, D2 The Ultimate Single’s Night Free, 7pm

Alan Keegan + One By One + DJ Darren C Fitzsimons Bar, 21-22 Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2 9pm, Free M.A.S.S (music/arts/sights/ sounds) Hogans, 35 Sth Gt Georges St, D2

Clubbing once-offs February Friday February 4 Lunar Disko Records Party The Sweeney Mongrel, 32 Dame Street Lerosa, Automatic Tasty, and Kenny Hanlon are on hand to celebrate the release of the new House Expressions ep. You won’ t find a better night of free music this month.

11pm, Free Afrobass The South William, 52 South William Street Afrobeat, jungle, dancehall, dubstep and funky, featuring Lex Woo, MC Little Tree & MC Leroy Culture 9pm, Free John Digweed Tripod, 21 Harcourt St, Dublin The Progressive House legend takes over Tripod for a 5-hour stint.

11pm, €20 Saturday February 5 Fever The South William basement, 52 South William Street Billy Scurry and monthly guests 9pm, Free Gary Beck The Twisted Pepper, 54 Middle Abbey St, D2 Colourtv welcome the born and bred Glaswegian for a night of rough and tumble techno.

10:30 pm, €10 Ramadanman and Mosca The Underground, 31 Westland Row, D2 Despite the stupid name Ramdanman was Dubstep’ s finest advocate in 2010. Another stellar booking from ignored Playaz.

11pm, € 6/12 Leon The Pod, 21 Harcourt St, Dublin Up and coming Italian House Dj takes over Pod’ s new Podium night. David De Valera on support duty.

11pm

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

Mr Scruff

Friday February 11 Family The South William, 52 South William Street DJ Dave Salacious and friends play disco and house.

9pm, Free

Tripod, 21 Harcourt St, Dublin Seems to play Dublin every other weekend, but Mr Scruff’ s ability to play absolutely everything in the best way possible draws a crowd every time. Consummate professional.

10pm, €22.50 Saturday February 12

Luke Vibert and Nathan Fake The Button Factory, Curved St, Temple Bar, D2 Nightflight and Big Dish Go start as they mean to go on in 2011 with One of the finest double headers to grace these shores in quite some time; expect the finest in acidy electronica.

Mr Scruff

Pow Wow The South William, 52 South William Street Djs Mark Kelly and Brian Cuddy 9pm, Free Sander Kleinenberg Tripod, 21 Harcourt St, Dublin A Card carrying member of the Bland, Dutch,

Progressive trance brotherhood.

11pm, € 20 Friday February 18th Juicebox The South William, 52 South William Street Chewy and co play all sorts.

9pm, Free

Saturday February 19

Friday February 25

Best Foot Forward The South William, 52 South William Street Choice Cuts’ DJ Rizm hooks up with Colm K to play hip-hop, afrobeat, funk, disco & house.

9pm, Free

Zombie Circus The South William, 52 South William Street Live electronic acts, guest DJs and ‘Plug Artists’ residents 9pm, Free Saturday February 26

Thursday February 24 Loco Dice Tripod, 21 Harcourt St, Dublin Big name house jock who moves in the upper echelon of Berlin circles. Plunging Vnecks and arrogant fist pumping are definitely on the cards for this one.

11pm, €22

Marco Carola The Twisted Pepper, 54 Middle Abbey St, D2 Bodytonic welcome the Italian stallion to the Twisted Pepper Basement 10pm, Price TBC

Mr Whippy Sound System The South William, 52 South William Street Mr Whippy plays disco, house, and funk 9pm, Free

www.totallydublin.ie

• • • Monday Nights at 10pm • • • UPC 107 City Channel

• • • Presented by Joe Kearney Gay Nation’s line up for 2011 is as it should be, new, fun, fresh and filled with resolution. First up it’s the new reigning King of Gays Mr Gay Ireland 2011 Baz Goldsbury, joining him in the same show it’s the lovely Ladies from Bolt Magazine and we also have a touch of Love and Joy to make boys look pretty. What does that mean? Tune in to see. We are proud to have our our teeny tiny sofa the very man of GCN HQ Head Honchoness himself hunky handsome Brian Finnegan. The young and oh so cutee Riyadh Khalaf is on hand to talk shop about being on telly and we even found time for two of Dublin’s funniest women it’s Sonya Kelly and Niamh Marron. As always theres some banging tunes, a bit of hot totty in Joe Kearney himself and lots of New Year Cheer.

Gay Nation, Gay telly, tailored to you!

www.totallydublin.ie

TOTALLY DUBLIN

13

Visual Art February The Bernard Shaw 11-12 Richmond Street, Portobello, D8 Blind Elephant Illustration Collective New work from the Dublin illustration collective whose members are: Fan Sissoko, Tarsila Kruse, Niall Dooley, Killian Dunne, Jessica Tobin, Kevin Bohan, Paula McGloin, Sarah Tobin, and Caomhan Mac Con Lomaire.

January 14 - February 11 Chester Beatty Dublin Castle, D2 Heroes and Kings of the Shahnama The Shahnama (Book of Kings) is one of the great classics of world literature. Frequently referred to as the Iranian national epic, it relates the glorious tales of the heroes and kings of Iran, from the dawn of time until the Islamic conquest in the mid-seventh century.

This epic poem of some 60,000 verses was completed in the year 1010 by the poet Firdawsi and to mark the 1000th anniversary of this great event, the Chester Beatty Library is presenting a major exhibition of some 150 paintings, all drawn from it own important Shahnama collection.

November 19 - March 20 Cross Gallery An Elsewhere World by Mary Rose Binchy The new paintings of Mary Rose Binchy trace the visual journey of a year through the seasons and are essentially about ‘looking and seeing’ the world. They celebrate a sense of being and paying attention to a moment.

The images that emerge are emotional and intuitive. They draw from nature - the colour of flowers, stones, shells, sky, sea, and mountains. They are abstractions of a real world. They describe nature with a minimal amount of expression in paint. Poetry, which influences the artist, describes a scene or emotion in a similar fashion by being sparing with the words it uses. In this way a non Western approach is taken by the artist in describing the natural world and its simple glories of colour and texture.

January 13 - February 5 Douglas Hyde Gallery Between Honey and Ashes S.I. Witkiewicz, born in Warsaw in 1885, died in 1939 on the day that Poland was invaded by Russia. His father was also an artist. ‘Witkacy’, as he became known, is mainly remembered in his homeland as a painter, novelist, and playwright; his photographs are only one aspect of his art. Witkiewicz was an intense and troubled man who believed that Western culture was decadent, degenerate, and undermined by the collapse of ethical and philosophical certainties; trapped between a decaying past and an uncertain future, he used photography, perhaps more than other art forms, as a way to explore his existential anxiety. Mirosław Bałka needs little introduction to Irish audiences, as he exhibited at this gallery in 2003 and at IMMA in 2007. (He has also shown widely all around the world, perhaps most notably in 2009 at the Turbine Hall in London’s Tate Modern). His work, usually made with industrial materials and such elemental things as ash, soap, and salt, deals poetically with issues related to history and memory. In this exhibition, Bałka will show a video entitled apple T. January 21 - March 23

Surfacing by Nuala O’Sullivan Nuala O’Sullivan’s interest in the aesthetic and culture of the 1950’s period and the friction between outward appearance and hidden restriction, come together in this current series of paintings. These works take inspiration from Super 8 movies and photographs from the period. Many thin layers of paint are used in the work to allow some of the light from the canvas to remain, reminiscent of movie images and old celluloid film. Found black and white photographs are recreated in colours associated with the 1950’s. The unknown people in these photographs allow for the imagining of their lives and the possibility for the artist and viewer to create their own back story for them.

Jan 27 - March 26 Recent Work by Sarah O’Brien Sarah O’Brien’s practice is a process based one, focusing on drawing and installation.

O’Brien is currently developing a more diverse interaction with specific spaces expanding into a more sculptural language. The work is intended as a series of spatial and tactile suggestions. Using lo fi materials and working with specific spaces and architecture she hopes to achieve theatrical drawing/sculptural installations.

The simultaneous independence and co dependence of the work within its surrounding environment raises questions of homage and equally of futility. The materiality strives to imbue the viewer with a sense of the tension between light and weight, coloured and black.

Jan 27 - March 26 Goethe Institut 37 Merrion Square, D2 Tine Melzer Tine Melzer, born 1978 in Nuremberg, studied in Amsterdam and now lives there and in Zurich. She uses language as material. The amazement and enchantment of language and its mechanisms between humans is the nucleus of all of her art work; it is situated on the edge of theory and practice, knowing and seeing, describing and showing, text and image. The work aims to host concepts on language in order to give language sensory tactility and spacial visual dimensions. Melzer can be looked at as a ‘translator’ from theoretical aspects on language – and our own experience within it – into visual perception.

The work wants to visualize questions about our lives with verbal language in the context of visual art.

January 13 - February 26 Hello Operator 12 Rutland Place, D1 Screwed: lightbox works by Elaine Hoey We eat it, sleep it, breathe it everyday….the lie… until we only know the convenient truth which we tell ourselves as individuals and our function in society… artist Elaine Hoey’s series of work titled “Screwed” explores some of the ugly truths through a series of large constructed montage images in lightboxes. She examines such themes as dualism, shame, denial through a dramatic fusion of images and light, which seems to act as internal spotlight, allowing glimpses of ideas to emerge through darkness.

January 14 - February 14 Hillsboro Fine Art 49 Parnell Square West, D2 George Warren: Paintings January 13 - Feb

Draiocht

Hugh Lane Gallery

Blanchardstown

Charlemont House, Parnell Square North, D1

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

Spaces and Places: Imagined Spaces by Mary Burke

Richard Tuttle Richard Tuttle ‘Triumphs’ at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane is a site specific exhibition and collaboration with the artist. Responding to the local as encountered in the early Georgian architecture of the main gallery Charelmont House (designed by Sir William Chambers in 1765) and to the Hugh Lane collection (established in 1908), Richard Tuttle will install a Polysemous multipart horizontal installation in the galley’s new wing (2006). In works such as the shaped plywood wall reliefs of the 1990’s to recent handmade printed paper assemblages, Richard Tuttle will configure his artworks in new forms that have emblematic meaning to his interest the Augustan era and its polysemous aesthetics.

November 19 - April 10

The current economic crisis bequeathed to Dublin a legacy of half finished projects, undeveloped lands in inappropriate locations and ghost estates, complete but unoccupied. With the support of the European Forum for Architectural Policies, The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and critic Petar Zaklanovic, the three architects of the WISH-team have spent a good deal of time in Ireland over the past six months looking at what they have come to term Shadowlands - empty spaces, half finished building sites and neighbourhoods. This exhibition is a photographic record of what they found in the greater Dublin area, in particular the edges and hinterland of Dublin.

January - Feburary

architecture, which is designed around a specific set of predetermined needs. The thought process too, could be seen as systematised, structured and quantifiable – a learnt and mechanical response to a given environment. These types of systematised structures enclose the figure, limiting their experience and preventing further psychological expansion. Neil Carroll’s new work is a multi-directional map that provides the viewer with a means to re-negotiate the structured space. He endeavours to achieve this by utilising the materials of construction (block, wood and paint) and restructuring the framework of conventional architectural techniques. Familiar architectural formations are interfered with to form a new ‘provisional architecture.’

February 17 - 26

January 28 - February 26 Mill Theatre Gallery Dundrum

Working my way back to you Stephen McGlynn’s work utilizes the processes of printmaking, printed matter and lens-based media. Predominantly narrative led, his work often takes the guise of sitespecific installation, and usually incorporates textiles, print, or appropriated objects.

Bláthnaid Ní Mhurchú‘s work develops out of the process of working through assembling or disassembling of found objects, photographs and drawings. Architecture and spatial relations play a role in her work. Working my way back to you is a collaboration between Ní Mhurchú and McGlynn. Beginning with the idea of a journey, Ní Mhurchú and McGlynn have shared a constant exchange of ideas and criticism of one another’s work over the course of a number of years. Both artists have dedicated many months to a series of exchanges through text, work and ideas.

Working my way back to youmarks a point of convergence along a greater, dialogic process.

February 3 - 7

Kerlin Gallery

Sweetheart Anne McManus’s new exhibition SWEETHEART is a celebration of love in 50 small paintings of the heart. Popular culture fortunately supports and nudges us to proclaim our joy , declare our love and express our gratitude on valentines day - with gushing revelrous openhearted abandon. These exquisite cameos are a visually poetic homage to this chance we get to feel positive and uplifted, squidgy and warm by telling the sentiments of our hearts to our cherished beloveds on a day when LOVE is in the air.

February 5 - March 11

South Anne Street, D2

Mothers Tankstation

Someone Else’s Life Works by Liam Gillick, Siobhan Hapaska, Callum Innes, Jaki Irvine.

January 14 - February 19

41-43 Walting Street, Usher’s Island, D8

Paul Seawright - Volunteer Paul Seawright’s new photographic works bring together the two major themes of his practice, contemporary cities and the representation of conflict. Volunteer extends his previous work, interrogating how contemporary conflict might be represented and discussed beyond the battlefield, without recourse to drama-centric imagery. He presents the landscape of the American city as a type of battlefield where the spectre of war in the Middle East is tangible on every street corner, college campus, town square and front yard.

February 25 - April 2

David Sherry February 23 - March 26

Kevin Kavanagh Gallery

45 Merrion Square, D2

Little changes: Colm Rooney Little changes is an exhibition of new paintings by Irish artist Colm Rooney. Rooney uses painting and photography to modulate and distort one another, oscillating between stenciled imagery and re-imagined realities. The work, influenced by Caspar David Friedrich, Anslem Kiefer and Samuel Becket, is on a physically diminutive scale and thematically it draws on Ireland’s many perspectives, vicissitudes and mythologies.

February 9 - 14

Converging Territories: Dublin Shadowlands

Neil Carroll Space is harnessed and manifested through

Golden Bough: William McKeown William McKeown is highly regarded for his paintings, drawings, watercolours and constructions/installations that express his concern about humanity’s ongoing relationship with nature both outside and within. For The Golden Bough Mckeown will create a new installation focusing on the chapter between Heaven and Earth. Originally from Tyrone, Northern Ireland, McKeown now lives and works in Edinburgh.

February 3 - May 1 IMMA Royal Hospital, Military Road, Kilmainham, D8 Post-War American Art: The Novak/O’Doherty Collection This exhibition marks the generous gift of works by art historian Barbara Novak and artist Brian O’Doherty / Patrick Ireland to the IMMA Collection.

September 8 – February 27 The Moderns In celebration of the 20th anniversary of IMMA’s foundation in 2011 the Museum is presenting The Moderns, a major exhibition from its Collection which occupies almost the entire Museum.

October 20 - February 13 Irish Architectural Archive

The Joinery

Declan Clarke January 12 - February 12

Oliver Sears Gallery Molesworth Street Sean Hillen The first solo exhibition from Irish artist Sean Hillen, famed for his politcial photomontages and collages.

February 3 Project Arts Centre Temple Bar, D2

Chancery Lane, D8 Sinead Ni Mhaonaigh February 3 - 27 The LAB Foley Street, D1 The Geneva Windows The exhibition is curated by Isobel Harbison featuring works on video by Elodie Pong, Dara Birnbaum, Mark Leckey and Steve Claydon.

The Repetition Festival Show Exhibition bringing together four film installations and a selection of artworks by Clemens von Wedemeyer. In his films Clemens von Wedemeyer addresses the critical issues that form our daily realities – migration, diaspora, social isolation – whilst constantly probing the relationship between film and its consumers. Von Wedemeyer often employs the conventions of documentary filmmaking (although his films are not documentaries), and includes a behind the scenes component to some of his films to underscore the fictional or subjective realities of the moving image.

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November 25 - February 19 RHA 15 Ely Place, D2

include Maarten Baas, Deborah Browne, Bonnie Camplin, Charlie Hammond, Sarah Iremonger, Gert Jan Kocken, Gene Lambert, Sean Lynch, Daniel MacDonald (attr.) and Tony Millionaire.

January 14 - February 27

Robert O’Connor, Control The series titled Control represents important new developments in O’Connor’s current studio practice. The ever-expanding sea of images that exists in the public domain and on the internet has influenced this change in approach. A box of 35mm slides purchased at a flea market in Berlin became the fuse for a new project in 2009. Titled Lenins Ideen wurden Wirklichkeit (Lenin’s ideas became reality), the slides document a number of projects completed by national workers and observed by their communist representatives against carefully staged backdrops and settings. The photographs selected, which have been appropriated, focus on political representations, industrial architecture and propaganda from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) 1949 – 1990.

January 14 - February 27

Eilís O’Connell, Haptic Haptic, an exhibition of 38 works by the well known and established sculptor Eilís O’Connell RHA, will include works made from 2007 to present. Haptic refers to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulating of objects (from the Greek haptikos able to touch, grasp, fasten onto).

Having worked in a rural location for the last five years, O’Connell’s work has profoundly changed, it appears less urban and relates more to the natural environment. O’Connell explains “surrounded by fields and the activity of agriculture, the urgency of growth fuels my imagination. After the growing season I collect dried out stalks and husks and they have become a new source of material in the studio.”

January 14 - February 27

Artists Curate: When Flanders Failed When Flanders Failed is an exhibition featuring artists that deliberately point to a world of afflictions and mishaps. Besides contemporary works of painting, sculpture, photography and video, the exhibition will also include historical artworks that have suffered unwittingly through circumstances and accident. Artists

Pat Collins, Last Daylight In and around the mid-eighties Patrick Collins started to experiment with shaping the canvas by cutting them into irregular shapes using a scissors. Collins had always shown an acute awareness of how the painted image related to the edge of the picture plane. He usually created an inner painted frame that emphasised the atmosphere of the depicted

image. This more brutal strategy of the ‘cut outs’ divided his supporters at the time, some seeing it as radical breakthrough others as a novelty, a conceit. Now nearly twenty years on since Collin’s created this last series of works we are re-presenting them for consideration - to see if time has rendered this suite as important a seam in Collin’s oeuvre as his other work. We are indebted to a private collection for making his work available for exhibition.

January 14 - March 27 Abigail O’Brien, Temperance In 2007, Abigail O’Brien RHA spent a three month residency in the Oatfield Sweet Factory in Letterkenny County Donegal as part of a Percent for Art Scheme of Donegal County Council. O’Brien was determined that the work produced there would have a metaphorical reach far beyond the documenting of the sweet making process and for that ambition she took the Cardinal Virtue of Temperance as her guide and theme. Temperance can most simply be defined as ‘self-restraint in the face of temptation or desire’ and in these sumptuous photographs of the manufacture of confectionary’s desire the artist succeeds in moving us into the moral realm.

January 14 - April 25

Spaces by Mary Burke Spaces and Places is a project in two parts; Imagined Spaces’ is a series of paintings by artist Mary Burke, which have developed from collages made from the disassembling and reassembling of photographic studies, combined with found materials from magazines and other mass-produced print material. The finished paintings evoke childhood memories or dreams, incorporating familiar details such as windows, steps, and pathways, which help to create a sense of interior and exterior. The end result is a series of imagined spaces.

January 20 - February 19 Science Gallery Pearse Street, D2

Spaces and Places: Imagined

Visceral VISCERAL will confront audiences with the delicate processes of modern biology to explore our changing understandings and perceptions of life in the light of rapid developments in the life sciences and their applied technologies. A range of award-winning work from 17 different artists will challenge visitors to consider the tension between art and science and the cultural, economic and ethical implications of biosciences today. The exhibition will explore and provoke questions about scientific truths, what constitutes living and the ethical and artistic implications of life manipulation. The exhibition also marks ten years of intensive and challenging work

From €25

Four Told

Richard III Pavilion Theatre Ben Kidd’s modern dress production dramatises the life of one of the most diabolical yet charming and witty villains in Shakespeare’s canon.

8 – 9 Feb €15 – 23

Project Arts Centre A single tale drawn from many angles. Four dancers seize and release control to weave together a rich tapestry of movement and beauty, uncovering a unique exploration of ownership and identity, as each dancer surrenders to a rich tale told by four.

8 - 12 Feb €16/12

Beckett x 3

Connected

Pavilion Theatre Featuring Rough For Theatre 1, Play, and Not I. 25 – 26 Feb €15.20 - 21

Project Arts Centre (Space Upstairs) The daily routine of using the Internet’s infinite possibilities to escape the drudgery of the Accounts Department is beginning to get Simon down. He decides it’s time for a change but an online encounter turns everything on its head.

8 – 19 Feb €15/12

Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre, Tallaght, D24

carried out at SymbioticA. January 28 - February 25 Severed Head 16 Lower Mount Street, D2 Diarmait Grogan: New Way Home At their most basic, Diarmait Grogan’s photographs are concerned with the poetic qualities of everyday life. ‘New Way Home’ incorporates autobiographical elements into a non-linear narrative on longing, loss, joy, intimacy and vulnerability. The result is a highly subjective reflection on the human condition. Disparate experiences coalesce in a body of work that is ultimately concerned less with an external reality than with highlighting ‘fragmentary moments of interior significance’.

February 11 - 26 Temple Bar Gallery & Studios 5-9 Temple Bar, D2 From the community hall: Annika Strom At Temple Bar Gallery and Studios Dublin, Annika Ström presents a black stage for an event: a performance or a talk. It is built out of basic wood and is adorned with textile works from Sweden. The piece is functional as a stage, the kind we know is used to announce, act out or to express emotions to the public.

But this platform is also reminiscent of a piece of furniture, for a private space. The stage sits out from the wall as a sculptural work, and before the opening begins, it looks onto the empty gallery, and is commenting on the stillness of the room. What is the artwork?

Who is the artist? What is this event about and when is it going to start?

December 11 - February 4 Luke Fowler: Pilgrimage from Scattered Points Luke Fowler’s exhibition in Temple Bar Gallery will include his film piece Pilgrimage from Scattered Points (2006), a documentary based film work on the English composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981) and The Scratch Orchestra (1968-1973). The piece follows the ethos of the Scratch Orchestra’s musical and social experiment as it is deconstructed by its members and founders. The film is divided into sections that track the history of The Scratch Orchestra from its conception and its published constitution that was printed in The Musical Times in June, 1969 through to its end point. The film lays bare the ideological differences that ultimately divided the group and the complexities of sustaining such principles. Mary Cremin is current curator in residence at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, and also a member of the new curatorial panel at TBG&S. February 17 - March 26

Theatre February Raoul God of Carnage Abbey Theatre In this solo show, acrobat, poet, and magician James Thiérrée is Raoul, a man without beginning or end, who tumbles through a series of utopian fantasies in which acrobatics, mysterious transformations, music and dance collide – a world which is at once recognisable and yet utterly alien.

18 - 26 Feb €15 – 38 The Sit

Gate Theatre Two sets of parents meet to resolve a conflict between their two children. What is supposed to be a civilised meeting turns into a barrage of name calling, tantrums and tears. A hysterical comedy when the gloves come off, dirty laundry is aired and the grownups find themselves in their own playground.

3 Feb – 26 March €20 – 35 All’s Fair In Love and War

Bewley’s Café Theatre A new play about corporate intrigue, by Gavin Kostick, with Caitriona Ni Mhurchu and John Cronin, directed by Anabelle Comyn.

21 Feb – 12 March €TBC Love in Dublin

Mill Theatre ‘thelatinsphere theatre’ presents two short one - act plays dealing with love and relationships 7 – 11 Feb €14 According to Sydney

Focus Theatre Two new plays about life,love and desire in contemporary Dublin. ‘Be My Love in the Rain’ deals with a young woman who falls in love with the wrong man. Down by the River’ deals with a married man in his forties, caught up in his own world, doesn’t see the danger signs of his wife’s dissatisfaction with their marriage. The human condition comes under the spotlight in these observations of people’s lives and relationships.

21 Feb – 5 March €TBC

Mill Theatre A bitter sweet new play by Gerry Lynch, featuring Rose Henderson 14 – 25 Feb €14

No Romance Mill Theatre A fresh new production from Stillorgan Musical Company, based on the hit 1980s movie.

Grumpy Old Women Gaiety Theatre Three of Ireland’s top grumps get menopausal for your viewing delight.

1 – 19 Feb €TBC

Mill Theatre Lunchtime theatre – Listen With Mother, and The Rules, directed by Caroline Fitzgerald and written by Isobel Mahon.

28 Feb – 12 March €14

The Cripple of Inishmaan

The Field

Gaiety Theatre Directed by Garry Hynes. This Druid production is on a major 21 week tour of Ireland and the USA including Los Angeles, Washington DC and Chicago.

21 Feb – 6 March

Olympia Theatre Directed by Joe Dowling with Brian Dennehy performing the iconic role of ‘The Bull’ McCabe.

Until 12th February

TOTALLY DUBLIN

Pavilion Theatre Dario Fo’s play concerns the case of anarchist railway worker Giuseppe Pinelli who, it was claimed, ‘fell’ to his death from a police headquarters window in 1969.

10 – 12 Feb €15 - 23

Footloose

Ghost Stories

52

Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Peacock Theatre A tale about our secret selves, and an observation on the search for connection in a fractured world, starring Conor Mullen, Janet Moran, and directed by Wayne Jordan.

23 Feb – 2 April €13 – 25 Batshit Project Arts Centre (Cube) Inspired by the classic text Woyzech, Batsh*t explores the lives of a group of young people and the challenges they face, exploring themes of mental illness, social hierarchy and violence as a response to social pressures.

Featuring original writing, original music, multi media and highly physical performances.

1 – 5 Feb €15/12/10

Scratcher Project Arts Centre Scratcher is a farce about a farce that gets even more farcical by the day. On a rainy Tuesday morning in a non descript social welfare office, six twenty somethings step out from behind the statistics and bring the live registrar to life.

17 Feb €10 At Swim Two Birds Project Arts Centre (Space Upstairs) Following their acclaimed production of Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman, Blue Raincoat return with O’Brien’s acknowledged masterpiece, At Swim Two Birds.

A story with three beginnings and an indeterminable number of endings ... welcome to the world of a lay-about student writer and his fictional creations including Pooka MacPhellimey - “a member of the devil class”, Dermot Trellis - a cynical writer of westerns and a host of Irish legends including Finn MacCool and the mad King Sweeney.

22 Feb - 5 Mar €20/18

At Swim Two Birds

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Festivals February Dublin Chinese New Year Festival 1st– 14th February Cultural exhibitions, a weekend carnival, a lecture series, arts and crafts workshops, films, and Chinese opera will all be taking place in the city centre. The rabbit is coming…

Chinese State Circus 14th – 15th February The Mahony Hall Tickets: €30, €25, €20 Concessions: €25, €20, €15 Book online: http://www.thehelix.ie From the land of Shaolin warrior monks comes the new Chinese State Circus production – the “live acrobatic spectacular” – Mulan, will incorporate acrobatics, Shaolin martial arts, and characters from

Peking Opera into “physical theatre”.

Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 17th– 27th February JDIFF Season Ticket: €235 (Includes entry to all films, invitations to priority events, and priority booking) Bringing outstanding cinema to the people, the Jameson Film Festival is coming to a Dublin theatre near you. Keep an eye out for Colin Firth, it’s said he is usually in attendance.

For more information see: http://www.jdiff. com/index.php/home/ The Repetition Festival Show

collision of documentary, fictional, staged, scripted, and dramatised tensions, an accumulation of many of the attitudes and forms to be found in Clemens von Wedemeyer’s previous works.

Dublin Book Festival 2nd – 6th March The festival has this year been extended to five days. Though activities will still centre in Dublin’s City Hall, events will also be hosted in the National Library of Ireland and Project Arts Centre.

All events in City Hall will be free, and a small donation system will be in operation at the other venues.

25th November 2010 – 19th February 2011 The video installation/film festival heads into its grand finale. Part four, Clemens von Wedemeyer’s From the Opposite Side (2007) is a

JDIFF

Comedy weekly February The International

walk into a bar Stand up & improv night Mondays, 9.00pm, Free

Improv night Mondays,8.45pm, €8/€10

Pygmalion Andrew Stanley’s Comedy Mish Mash There’s free biscuits Tuesdays, 8.45pm, €5

South William St., D2 Hugh Cooney’s I Don’t Like Mondays Experimental video humour show 9.00pm, Free

The Comedy Cellar with Andrew Stanley Ireland’s longest running comedy night Wednesdays, 9pm, €8/€10

Anseo

The International Comedy Club Resident MC Aidan Bishop Thursdays & Fridays, 8.45pm, €8/€10

Camden St., D2 Laugh Out Loud Resident MC Aidan Killian Wednesdays, 8.30pm, €5/€7

The International Comedy Club Early and late shows Saturday, 8pm and 10.30pm, €8/10

Sweeney’s Bar Dame St., D2

What’s New at The International New material night Sunday, 8.45pm, €5 Ha’penny Bridge Inn

Comedy HaHa Free shot on the door Wednesdays, 8.30pm, €5

Wellington Quay, Temple Bar, D2

Trinity St., D2

Battle of the Axe Dublin’s long standing open mic night Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9.00pm, €9

Comedy improv with The Craic Pack Thursdays & Fridays, 9.00pm, €8/€10

Capital Comedy Club Hosted by Simon O’Keeffe Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9.30pm, €7/€5

Stand Up at The Bankers Resident MC Peter O’Byrne Saturdays, 9.00pm, €8/€10

The Wool Shed Baa & Grill

Shebeen Chic

Parnell Street, D1

South Great George’s St., D2

The Comedy Shed Resident MC Damien Clarke Mondays, 9.00pm, €5

Comedy Crunch Stand-up comedy Sundays & one man Mondays Sundays & Mondays, 9.00pm, Free

The Bankers

Pantibar

COMEDY ONCE-OFFS Capel Street, D1 A bear, a bull and a chicken

Inn Jokes with Colm O’Regan

Eric Lalor, Jim Elliot and Simon O’Keeffe Patriots Inn Pub, Kilmainham, D8 Wednesday 16th February 9.00pm, Free Des Bishop My Dad was nearly James Bond Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire 1st – 5th February 8.00pm, €20/€25 Voicebox Hosted by Cian Hallinan Twisted Pepper, Middle Abbey St, D1 4th February 9.00pm, €5 Chairman LMAO’s Comedy Blah Blah With David ‘Pagliacci’ Reilly Twisted Pepper, Middle Abbey St, D1 11th February 7.30pm, €5 Auntie’s Establishment Alternative comedy w/ Damon Blake & George Fox Twisted Pepper, Middle Abbey St, D1 18th February 8.00pm, €5 The Rubberbandits Tripod, D2 19th February 9.00pm, €17/20 Comedy at the Step Inn Andrew Stanley, Chris Kent & Simon O’Keeffe Stepaside, Co. Dublin 24th February 8.30pm, €10/€24 with 3 course meal David O’Doherty The Helicopters and Smoothies Tour An Draiocht, Blanchardstown, D15 25th February 8.00pm, €16

Poker February Fitzwilliam Card Club

Online booking www.fitzwilliamcardclub.com

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Mon €75+5 Texas Holdem Freezeout 8:30pm

Wed €20+5 Texas Holdem Rebuy 8:30pm

Fri €55+5 Texas Holdem Scalps 8:30pm

Sun €50+5 Texas Holdem Freezeout 8:30pm

Tue €50+5 Texas Holdem Double Chance 8:30pm

Thur €95+5 Texas Holdem Double Chance 8:30pm

Sat €120+5 Texas Holdem Freezeout 8:30pm

Special Event Last Thursday of every Month - €250+20 Freezeout. Biggest regular poker tournament in Dublin

with 140+ players. 8:30pm

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52.1km from the Spire

57.6km from the Spire

Newgrange Only an hour’s drive from Dublin and older than Stonehenge (take that, sasanachs) Newgrange is somewhere everyone should visit. Reconstructed in the 1970s, the mound was originally built by stone age farmers as a temple and burial ground (probably not for human sacrifice, would make a good Nic Cage film though). Access is strictly by guided tour only (€6) and a small number of tickets are available each day, so getting there early is advised. If you miss all the Newgrange tickets you’re relegated to visiting Nowth, a neighbouring tomb, although the guides there will profess its superiority. Intricately carved stones flank the small dark entrance to the long passage that makes Newgrange so famous.

This passage is freaky at the best of times, and more so around the winter solstice when the rising sun shines through a small lightbox over the door and down the passage. This event, five days a year, is highly sought after with a lottery for the 100 tickets available. Although this is the best chance of witnessing some new-age druidic practises, visiting Newgrange at any time of the year is definitely worth the trip.

Directions: N up N51 g Take the M1 g Hit the N51, Drogheda Exit, Followed by Slane Exit g Turn left at Newgrange Exit

Boyne Historical Sites Detour through Drogheda on your way back from Newgrange. If you’re more interested in recent happenings (i.e. bloodshed), stop on the way at the site of The Battle of the Boyne. Go to the visitors centre to see the original replica weapons from the battle. Fought between James II and William of Orange (who had shacked up with James’ daughter, Mary).

Meander along the river Boyne which runs right through the city, taking a peek at the Magdalene Tower, a 14th Century relic which is just inside where the northern walls of the town stood.

If you want to go look at something really weird in Drogheda itself, there’s always the shrine to Oliver Plunkett on West Street, in Saint Peter’s Church. As far as shrines go, this one is quite special, it housing the mummified head of Saint Oliver Plunkett, on display in an ornate glass box to scare the heathens (and now children). Plunkett was the last Roman Catholic to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and his body was initially housed in two tin boxes, before his head was brought first to Rome, then Armagh, and eventually Drogheda, if a little the worse for wear.

54.5 km

Directions: N51 g Drogheda Town g Donore Road

from the Spire

Drogheda Town Eats If all that history has given you a whopper appetite then Drogheda will provide. If you just want something snackish then hit up Stockwell Artisan Foods on Stockwell Street. The two cuties here serve sandwiches, soups and salads at reasonable prices.

And if you want something to take home their chutney is a good choice. If your hunger runs deeper head over to The Salthouse cafe and restaurant on John Street. Big servings at sensible prices always please, and they do a barbecue on the terrace overlooking the river in the summer months.

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Wash it all down with a quiet pint in Patrick Clarke’s on Peter’s Street. Or if you want a less quiet pint, try Cairbre’s on the North Strand – the trad sessions on Monday and Tuesday nights and Sunday lunchtime are lively to say the least. This very old school pub (read: no heating) is as traditional as it gets with plenty of cool old posters on the walls. Be warned, though, speaking English may be frowned upon, so at least try your cúpla focail when ordering your drinks.

Directions: Donore Road g Drogheda Town g Upper Glenageary Rd.

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While You’re There: Pubs

Gibneys

New Street Malahide’s Gibneys has been in business since 1937 – they wisely removed the inhouse piggery, and filled it with casks of whiskey and a healthy range of libations.

Malahide Castle

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There are a hundred day-out opportunities both well-known and well-hidden in Fingal, but Malahide Castle manages to combine both the familiar and clandestine in one picturesque package.

Malahide estate is as old as Methuselah – it’s been standing since 1185, the historical demesne of the Talbot family (who managed to hold on to their real estate for an impressive 791 years, apart from an Oliver Cromwell-helmed eviction in the 17th century), and stands now as one of North Dublin’s most important historical items.

The castle is more than just a tourguide stop though – it offers opportunities to engage with history itself. Its Great Hall offers 6-course banquets for visitors with lordly ambitions – take a seat at the head of their 60-foot long Oak table, Crystal Glass in your right hand, serenaded by the Castle’s resident harpist and try not feel like the Earl of Everything.

Resident chef Brian Beattie is one of the most hallowed names in Irish restaurant legend, and the Castle is discerning enough to have him on their books.

A feast a little out of your price range?

Thankfully the Castle is home to one of the sweetest tea-rooms in town, based in the old kitchen of the building. Fops and dandies amongst you can take a stroll in the handsome botanical gardens with an Earl Grey visit the Fry Model Railway, and spy on some on-site golf matches. Or learn how to play boules.

And then there’s the ghosts. The place is crawling with them. The Malahide Historical Society lists five on-site spooks – Lord Galtrim, Lady Maud Plunkett, Miles Corbet, Puck, and the White Lady (there’s always a White Lady). So bring your ghost-hunting kit.

Duffy’s

Main Street Spit-and-sawdust at its finest, Duffy’s is a pub to play darts and back horses in - however, we’ve heard it’s to undergo a major renovation very soon, so should be one of Malahide’s shiniest new spots before long.

Cruzzo Bar

Malahide Marina The downstairs bar of Malahide’s flashy Cruzzo Restaurant is all about the view – get some champagne, comandeer a yacht from the Marina, and pretend you’re in Duran Duran.

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What makes Dublin Dublin? TD’s new guide to the best bits of the city...

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Shelbourne Park

IMMA

Once home to the migratory Shelbourne FC, Shelbourne Park has since, quite literally, gone to the dogs. A Ringsend institution, the greyhound track’s environs have changed over time from working class core to Dublin’s tech quarter - its adapted suitably, but there’s still few more old school Dublin thrills.

South Lotts Road, Dublin 4

Kilmainham’s Royal Hospital has been the home of Irish modern art since 1991, but it stands as the country’s most spectacular 17th century building. Indebted Paris Les Invalides, IMMA’s sprawling grounds and super-maintained cloisters and courtyard are as fascinating as the art contained within.

Military Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8

The Shelbourne Hotel

Leo Burdocks

Mulligans

One of the city’s classiest hotels, the Shelbourne has been puffing up pillows since 1824. Home to the drafting of the Irish constitution, the Shelbourne also boasts some non-historical attractions in its Horseshoe and Oyster bars, and steak-lovers paradise The Saddle Room.

Or just go and stare at the building from Stephen’s Green.

27 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2

If you like some history with your chips, Leo Burdocks has as much backstory as it does salt and vinegar. Its Werburgh St. branch has been chopping potatoes for almost a hundred years now, and the chips are only getting better. Pay a visit, and ask about their celebrity fans.

2 Werburgh Street, Christchurch, Dublin 8

A magnet for both tourist and native, traditional pub and sometime Bachelor’s Walk set Mulligans is as renowned as watering holes in town come. Mulligans perfects the basics and in the grand Irish tradition avoids ‘yer fancy stuff’. It’s nonetheless a welcoming refuge for all patrons.

8 Poolbeg Street, Dublin 2

James Fox

Bewley’s Grafton St.

Teddy’s Ice-Cream

For over 125 years, James Fox has been Dublin’s premier stockist of cigars and cigar paraphernalia - when added to its beautiful interior, and discerning range of whiskeys it’s no wonder it has a long line of famous patrons. Sealed with rare James Joyce seal of approval.

119 Grafton St, 01 6770533

Not the first Bewley’s built, but certainly the most famous, the tea dynasty’s Grafton St. branch is an architectural polyglot, with Parisian, Viennese, Egyptian and Oriental influences to match the company’s far-reaching range of teas.

78/79 Grafton Street, Dublin 2

Satisfying the sweet teeth of South Dublin since 1950, Teddy’s Ice Cream hasn’t had to change its formula an iota. A red, white, and blue must for ice-cream eaters of all seasons.

1a Windsor Terrace, Dún Laoghaire

TOTALLY DUBLIN

www.totallydublin.ie

GUINNESS BREWERY It’s been in St. James Gate since 1759, and potential natural disasters aside, it’ll be there for the rest of eternity. The cheapest lease in town, you’ll smell the country’s alcohol-brewing institution a mile off - you can see the black stuff being born yourself in the tourist-friendly Storehouse.

109 James’s Street, Dublin 8

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

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Early on the morning of December 21 last year, Belarusian Special Forces raided the Minsk apartment of Nikolai Khalezin, a founding member and Artistic Director of the Belarus Free Theatre (BFT). He was brutally beaten and thrown into a cell with his wife Natalia Kolyada (a company co-founder), and company manager Artiom Zheleznia both of who had been arrested the previous evening.

This took place in the wake of massive street demonstrations, approximately ten thousand Belarusian citizens marched to oppose the election results which declared Alexander Lukashenko the democratically elected President of Belarus, ushering in his fifth term in office. During their detention the members of the BFT were badly beaten, starved of drink and food, and verbally abused by Special Forces and police staff with threats such as “it is our dream to kill you”, thrown at them.

Both Khalezin and Kalyada were released on bail and have since gone into hiding.

Zheleznia has been tried and convicted of charges of illegal assembly.

Founded in 2005 the Belarus Free Theatre has arguably become the most significant European theatre company of the past decade, an ironic accomplishment considering the foundering members were not exactly theatre enthusiasts to begin with. Nikolai Khalezin was originally a journalist when the three independent newspapers that he worked for were systematically shut down and their presses destroyed by Lukashenko’s Special Forces. It quickly became clear to Khalezin and Kolyada that they needed a versatile weapon to fight the regime and that “theatre seemed the most practical way”. Khalezin, an avid football fan, took the unlikely inspiration of Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels’s Total Football and applied the model to theatre using the principles of “ensemble play, fast switch from attack to defence and pressing all-around the field. This model allows us to perform under any circumstances” says Khalezin, “with any kind of lighting, even if it is out in the woods, the main thing is that there is us and there are the spectators”.

This ideology and the circumstances under which the company make theatre has won them the patronage of such notable figures as Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter and Vaclav Havel. Some argue that the attention bestowed on this company comes from a romantic and nostalgic point-of-view when theatre actually had the ability to change societies.

However what becomes immediately apparent to anyone fortunate enough to see their work performed in Belarus, is that by standing in front of an audience and speaking freely and openly, this group of people are challenging the very core of the regime they are fighting against - “We are talking about the things that people are afraid to talk about,” says Kolyada, “a dialogue that starts between us and the audience and when the performance is over that dialogue continues onto the streets, into the homes, across

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Stage Rights Theatre in chains under the Belarusian dictatorship words Eoin Lynch photos Nikolai Khalezin

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TOTALLY DUBLIN

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borders, but in Belarus to be heard you have to shout very loudly”.

If Khalezin and Kolyada are the ideologists of the company then surely the craft and technique of making such engaging theatre comes from the company’s director Vladimir Scherban and the highly skilled group of actors that the company has attracted. Scherban like many of the company actors spent a number of years working in state run theatres. One day he approached the artistic director of one such theatre with the collected works of Sarah Kane, - as much, he admits, to see what the reaction would be. “I think he was shocked that I had the book in my hand, when I asked if the theatre would consider programming something by her (Kane), he got very angry”. The next day Schreban was out of a job. All of the BFT members are now black-listed from working in any of the state theatres; it is not an inconvenience that seems to bother them. However, Schreban does worry about the students who are part of the Free Theatre’s Fortinbras Academy, these students attend weekly discussion groups and classes at the company house on the outskirts of Minsk. All of the students also attend the state university, if they are discovered to be connected with the BFT they will be immediately expelled.

The Fortinbras Academy has been designed to instil a confidence and knowledge in the students, so that they continue the BFT should anything happen to the current members. In 1994 Alexander Lukashenko became the first democratically elected president in the history of Belarus. Two years later Lukashenko amended the country’s constitution, effectively turning his presidency into a dictatorship. It was also around this time that he lifted the limit on the number of terms that he is allowed to serve as president. The vast majority of outside observers, such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, agree that each of Lukashenko’s election victories has been “fundamentally flawed and illegal in international law”. However in the elections of December 20 last year, the man who likes to be known as Bats’ka (Little Father) a name he adopted from his hero Joseph Stalin, sank to a new and more blatant low. In total nine opposition candidates stood, Lukashenko won by an apparent 79% leaving the opposing nine candidates with an average of 1.4% of the vote, the nine were arrested in the post election protests, two of whom were severely beaten. It is impossible to put an exact figure on how many people have disappeared during the sixteen years of Lukashenkos reign, but sources put the figure in the thousands, many of whom are believed to be buried in the woodlands that surround Minsk.

The E.U and United States are considering implementing a visa ban on Lukashenko in the wake of the recent elections. Realistically what this shows is that while both the E.U and U.S clearly recognise the injustices and human rights

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atrocities being carried out in Belarus, neither is willing to take any significant action to stop Lukashenko. The motivation for the BFT’s Eurepica, a production that will hopefully be touring Europe this year (and Ireland, if one of our festival programmers sees fit to invite them over!), came to them as they began to travel more widely through Europe.

In doing so they became aware of the intensity of airport security and the sense of fear of an attack from the outside, in stark contrast Belarusian’s fear an attack from within their own country and not from foreign terrorists.

As they toured Europe, the company realised that most of the fears expressed

by European countries come from misunderstandings and stereotypes that countries hold of outsiders. “On the border between Germany and Poland”, explains Kolyada “the people in Germany don’t really know what is happening in Poland, stereotypes have been built up and that is what perceptions are based on, we need to destroy all stereotypes”.

The BFT invited writers from twelve countries to “give new perspectives on the most urgent challenges facing their societies”. The audience are invited onto

Eurepica Airlines where they are lifted high into the skies above Europe, over three hours the plane drops into twelve different countries where the audience is given an insight into each nations psyche.

In Germany, a young farm worker is kidnapped by four environmental activists.

In Turkey the audience are introduced to three sock puppets, each a teenager drugaddict. Each story is darkly funny with a common theme of violence running throughout.

What is apparent from Eurepica is that the BFT are once again sharing their personal experiences with the audience.

The company who travel clandestinely in and out of Belarus on a regular basis are bringing something of the reality of Europe to their home audience; they are letting them know that when their freedom comes from the tyranny of Lukashenko, they must be careful with it. Kolyada keenly points that the performance was produced with more than just the Belarusian audience in mind; “the main challenge to Europe today is Belarus, because this is the last dictatorship in Europe, and if we were free of this it would be the first time in history that there is no dictatorship in Europe”. ■

www.totallydublin.ie

DFCI8@M GDCBGCF98 6M

Morgan Enough Fleet Street Cocktails

Words Róisín Kiberd Picture Emma Brereton

It’s rare enough that I find a Dublin cocktail bar that is known and respected and yet not so intimidatingly glossy as to send me running for a dive bar. Where does the common, albeit aspiring customer go to slowly and expensively get obliterated?

The Morgan Bar could quite possibly offer an answer.

Known for its never-ending menu and the kind of sleek but adventurous décor often damningly called ‘funky’, The Morgan Bar is everything you’d expect of a drinking spot attached to a ‘boutique’ hotel (another backhanded label conveying unconventional décor). The staff are hot, just as cocktail waiters should be.

The walls are lumbered with a series of gilt mirrors, and a passage constructed of billowing white curtains leads you to the cloakroom, Arabian Night stylee.

But unlike the showy - and now defunct - Cocoon, and the downright terrifying Krystle, The Morgan Bar is designed with a sense of humour. A terrace features several day beds - yes, you read it, beds - with stylized metalwork and commendably clean white sheets, on which guests are encouraged to loll like Roman nobility, basking in heated lamps and gorging on Mojitos before exiting to the vomitorium that is Temple Bar.

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Thankfully no such orgy ensues; the drinks don’t come cheap here, and my bank balance limits me, but between the presentation and the all-round polish of this place, it’s difficult not to get caught up in ostentation. I lack the balls - or, possibly, implants - to order a Porn Star Martini, but a Nationale with rum and a pineapple jammed on the side is more than kitschy enough. The Boy gets the slightly more masculine-sounding Jamaican Yellowbird, which turns out to be an anything but - concoction of Crème de Banane and Spiced Rum, the kind of gorgeously immobilizing gloop you have to wade through only to find you are too drink-steeped to turn back.

The clientèle here are expensive looking and almost preternaturally wellgroomed, leading me to believe that most of them are hairdressers. Either that or a night-time incarnation of ladies who lunch, the Girly hordes on Girly nights out, an innocent-sounding cover for what is essentially upmarket binge drinking.

Despite being young and female and more than able to pronounce the word ‘daiquiri’, I have yet to buy into this idea of the girl’s overpriced night out, but Fade Street and its ilk would have you believe we like to do it all the time. If you

and your Fun Fearless Female buddies are indeed in the habit, then you’ll find the Morgan ideal.

You can also pick from a menu of tapas and stylized bar food (though I shudder to think what some errant Steak sandwich might do to the sheets on those daybeds). Between Temple Bar traffic and visitors passing through from the hotel, the people-watching potential here will entertain for hours. Pink lights and shiny surfaces seem to bring out the flamboyance in people; those polished floors were made for the clatter of heels, and you’ll feel under-dressed if you don’t wear something at least a little incapacitating.

I suspect that The Morgan is that little bit too slick to take a first date to (the sight of the day beds and the slushy background music might send out unwanted messages), but for anyone else looking to soak up the glamour and a hell of a lot of rum, this is your first stop.

For all its polish and the worrying ‘funky’ label, the Morgan transcends any pretension by sheer fun and charm alone.

Morgan Bar 10 Fleet St. Dublin 2 Phone: 01 6437000

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4TEPPIN° 6P

Cape Japes Captain America’s 40th Birthday In Grafton Street’s age of shop closures, full-building protest billboards against rent prices, and globalized homogeny, Captain America’s perseverance is impressive. While conceptually an extension of the endemic attraction towards American tropes, history and cuisine (hamburgers, comic book heroes, signed guitars from classic rock gods adorning the walls - their eponymous superhero was in fact created as a patriotic bulwark who fought the Nazis in WWII), Captain A’s is certainly no Burger King. Upstairs in 44 Grafton Street, marked out by its pulsing neon street-sign, is forty years of well-established cultural identity. And seriously good value cocktails.

Captain America’s normal-dude identity is Steve Rogers, who fittingly was born in Manhattan to Irish immigrants. After years of fighting Axis forces and spreading the loving glow of American democracy, we assume, he got tired of the superhero biz and followed his lifelong dream of feeding burgers to his Famine-torn progenitors. It was 1971, and we had the three-square meals a day down pat, but Captain America’s caught Dublin’s imagination. As with the Captain America/ Steve Rogers duality there are two sides to this eatery-cum-watering-hole - by day it’s the family meal venue of choice, with kid-friendly food and reliable cuisine for ma’s and da’s, by night, thanks to its obscenely generous student deals, it’s

www.totallydublin.ie

Words Daniel Gray Picture Emma Brereton

Performance group rehearsals for Smooth jive and Smooth swing Starting in March.

SoDaNet.pdf

Dance House, Foley Street, Dublin 1 M

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Captain America’s 44 Grafton Street Dublin 2 www.captainamericas.com

11:15:53

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taken over by college students as a sort of up-scale pre-drinks option. In both capacities it succeeds - by ten o’clock, particularly on karaoke night (Wednesdays, with Games on Monday and Live Music on Tuesday), tables are packed with pitcherswilling and cocktail-sipping twentysomethings. A third front is opened by tourists looking for familiar belly-fillers without the gaudiness of a fast-food chain.

In the diner tradition, staff are chipper and effusive in their hospitality, and booths and bar seats are cosy enough enclaves to set up in for a couple of hours. The plethora of wall-bound memorabilia makes the interior visually busy, without the overwhelming corporate vibe of the evil Hard Rock/Thunder Road axis. My own personal fortieth celebrations will most probably feature a Ferrero Rocher-style pyramid built of Valium tabs and whatever prematurely-greying friends I still have left discussing ticket prices for a Kings of Leon reunion tour - I trust Captain America’s have a lot more fireworks planned.

11/08/2010

CY

Contact alan@danceclub.ie or 085-8434071 for more details

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Meet the Brewer!

Every Friday from 7pm 4th Feb Dungarvan Brewery 11th Feb Bay Brewery 18th Feb Franciscan Well Brewery 25th Feb Carlow Brewing Co. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter 11 Wexford Street, Dublin 2 T: 01 4705100 www.winefoodbeer.com TOTALLY DUBLIN

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gastro

Swell Gibson Gibson’s Deli and Bakery Words Katie Gilroy Picture Emma Brereton

The seasons are changing and I’ve got a spring in my step (courtesy of Gucci and my mother whose knee high leather boots are my footwear of choice for the evening). Propelling me into oxygenstarved parts of the stratosphere, my five inchers are almost as high as my expectations for the latest addition to Wicklow Street, Gibson’s Deli and Bakery. At least my companion – a towering Corkonian chef turned cheesemonger - dwells at a similar altitude or we’d have a Katie Holmes/Tom Cruise situation on our hands.

On paper, Gibson’s has a lot going for it.

Smack bang in the middle of town and only a hop away from Grafton Street, its location couldn’t be better. Plus there’s a bit of pedigree lurking in the background since Nick Munier and Stephen Gibson of Pichet fame acted as consultants on the development of this project. Now that it’s up and running however, it is only Gibson, along with a consortium of financiers, that holds a stake in the business but to what extent I’m not sure.

My entrance into the petite wallpapered room is marked by the sudden sense that I’m an overgrown toddler in a tiny dollhouse. The dainty décor fuses traditional elements of design with modern details to create a chic yet homelike vibe and I think I recognise the metal ‘Tolix’ café chairs from that trendy vintage store, Industry, in

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Temple Bar. Photos and images that evoke nostalgia for traditional French food culture adorn the walls, and my bull-ina-china-shop complex is solidified when I remove one for a closer look and it comes crashing to the floor with embarrassing and destructive results.

In between epic tales of a self-described bogger’s seafaring in the South Pacific, we manage to slip in our order. To start, two salads - one Caesar (€7) and the other a Lyonnaise (€6) variety with saucisson sec substituting the Morteau sausage usually used in the dish.

Having never been a fan of ‘Caesar salad’, I now know why; I’d never before experienced a true representation of this classic dish. Gibson’s Caesar is an excellent version of this restaurant staple.

Including delicious salty lardons of bacon and a perfectly soft-boiled egg, any previous misconceptions I may have had regarding Caesar or his salad were dispelled at once. My only complaint was that it was served with strips of toast instead of croutons. However, as my Cork bogger/ sailor friend put it- “Life is too short for making croutons” and the toast soldiers go well with the soft-boiled egg.

Equally well-assembled, the salad Lyonnaise (€6) was composed of crunchy green beans, a well balanced vinaigrette, herby salad leaves and the substituted

saucisson making a perfect impact on the dish. With both salads showing off the important skill of getting the basics right, we were very much looking forward to the mains - a rabbit and ham pie (€12) and a Toulouse cassoulet (€14) with duck leg, sausage and white beans.

Sometimes it can be the case that one indulges in the first plate with such vigour as to exhaust one’s appetite slightly. It has been said that hunger is the best sauce and in the absence of any exciting flavours, perhaps more hunger was needed. The cassoulet was a little dry and insipid, with a duck leg simply placed on top. There was no garnish, no flair and no points for presentation. A cassoulet should be a rich, slow-cooked, warming amalgam of deep flavours, so succulent that you can’t stop eating it even after you’ve popped the top three buttons of your jeans. Unfortunately Gibson’s offering didn’t rise to the occasion and the plate returned to the kitchen only half-eaten.

The rabbit and ham pie was closer to the mark but the pastry was a tad flat and the piping hot filling a little gloopy for my liking. While both the ham and the rabbit were nice and tender, I would have liked a bit more bunny, as I felt it was somewhat lost in the dish. The accompanying potatoes though were creamy, soft and swiftly ravished.

If hunger can make things taste better, then so can price. The value for money at Gibson’s cannot be beaten. Portions are generous and prices range between €5-7 for starters and €12-21 for mains. With two starters, two mains and one dessert (an ambrosial not-too-sweet vanilla panacotta (€5.50) with mixed berry compote) the bill (which we hadn’t asked for but nevertheless appeared before us at 10.30pm) came to a total of €68.50. This included an espresso (€2) and a bottle of Shiraz (€22) for good (and it was good) measure.

17 Wicklow Street Dublin 2 t: 01 6717331

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bitesize

Words Katie Gilroy Pictures Emma Brereton

What an earful With the music industry in dire straits in this digital era, the closure of much loved independent record stores (RIP Road Records) and the advent of streaming sites like WE7 and Spotify, it’s nice to see that Tower Records has diversified somewhat, introducing a lovely little café to its Wicklow Street premises. We all know the way to music lovers’ hearts isn’t just through their ears but also through their stomachs.

Rummaging through the entire Frank Zappa back catalogue is hungry work; listening to five minutes of the latest Fight Like Apes album will prompt an urgent need for caffeine and well, the slightest mention of Cake (the band) sends me on a wild hunt for baked goods. Handy then that one floor above the madness is a resting stop in which to chill out, delve into delicious homemade grub or dive into a frothy cappuccino while watching shoppers dodge Oxfam campaigners like bullets on the street below. Run by Siobhan Manuel formerly of Gruel, the menu at Sound Bites, while it changes daily, always features wholesome dishes along the lines of vegetable tagine with cous cous, hearty beef stew and Yorkshire puds and a quiche or tart with a selection of salads. Half a sambo made with home baked bread and a half bowl of soup is €6.30 and afternoon delight comes cheap at €9.50 for two and includes a pot of tea, focaccia and dips plus a pair of cinnamon and apple cupcakes. Open seven days and serving brunch on the weekend, this retro chic eatery is bound to be a hit with everyone, not just the headphone-donning masses.

6-8 Wicklow Street Dublin 2 t: 01 6713250

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Love Blooms Pól Ó hEannraich’s theme tune should be that one from the IKEA ad, sung by a choir of six foot tall angels batting their eyelids to the melodious hook ‘You will always find him in the kitchen at parties…’ Because since taking up residence as chef proprietor in the Baggot Street basement, the owner of Bloom Brasserie has barely set foot outside his cooking quarters so dedicated is he to his customers’ enjoyment not only of his exquisite food but of the overall Bloom experience. While the corporate folk are in for lunch, Pól’s finest toothcomb is out, ensuring every dish is of the highest standard whether it be moules frites (€12.90), a hearty helping of Irish lamb stew (€11.50), the brie and cranberry filled ‘chicken in bloom’ sambo (€6.95) or just a bowl of warming, homemade soup (€4.95). After 5pm as gossip girls gather in the underground eatery for tapas and a catch up, Pól adds his magic garnish to a charcuterie and cheese plate (€18) or sautés some chicken livers on toast (€4.95) with about as much care as if they were the queen’s vital organs. And at dinnertime, when the party is in full swing with diners revelling in the latest addition to the menu – a 32 day dry aged rib eye steak on the bone with hand cut chips, a gambas starter and a glass of wine for €44, Pól may as well be rearing the cow himself his cuts of meat are so tender

and lovingly selected. Match days just got a whole lot better too since Bloom’s doors are now open on rugby Sundays; handy seeing as the Aviva Stadium is just a stone’s throw away. For Valentine’s weekend (Sat 12 Feb & Mon 14 Feb), a 4 course meal with a half bottle of wine and complimentary cocktail on arrival is just €40 per person and is sure to score you big points with your doe-eyed loved one.

All you have to do is book early.

Bonus points for Totally Dublin readers: Bloom have kindly offered us a table for two love-birds. Set your browsers to the TD Twitter or Facebook before February 9th and tell us, in 140 characters, the very best thing about your other half. The wittiest wins.

11 Upper Baggot Street Dublin 4 t: 01 6687170

www.totallydublin.ie

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SOME THINGS JUST DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T WORK IN PRINT FOR ALL YOUR ROLL-OVER, CLICKY, DOWNLOADY, TURN-UP THE VOLUME NEEDS, GO TO WWW.TOTALLYDUBLIN.IE www.totallydublin.ie

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It’s no longer a case of remaining loyal to one of two camps – Barry’s or Lyon’s.

The last few years have shown remarkable growth in small independent tea and coffee specialists with a real passion for their trade. Under the name of Clement & Pekoe (Pope Clement VIII is claimed to be responsible for introducing coffee into Europe and ‘Pekoe’ is an historical, complex way of grading tea), Dairine Keogh supplies some of Dublin’s best cafes with her fabulous blends of loose leaf tea and freshly roasted beans. Here, the Dalkeyborn business woman delves into our nation’s unquenchable thirst for the eh, red stuff. Better stick the kettle on.

There seems to be a great thirst for speciality teas in Ireland nowadays but when you set up in 2008 this was hardly the case…

Actually, I believe we have a great taste in tea as a nation. We have always demanded a really good Assam or Ceylon blend as our everyday tea when we drank loose tea before the advent of the tea bag which has a lower quality content. Clement & Pekoe tea is all quality loose leaf. Yes, we have definitely noticed that people are reverting back to loose tea and are delighted with that. People are also drinking a more diverse range of teas. I think this is driven by the awareness of health benefits of quality tea and perhaps from travelling, where they may have been introduced to the everyday tea of another country or even gone to visit a tea plantation that has stirred an interest.

What drew you to get involved in this business and what were you doing previously?

My background is in sales and retail.

I gave up my job in financial services in 2006 to start up my own business but kind of stumbled into my area of specialty. Since then I have been working with coffee as a barista and learning the mastery of tea and have never looked back. I am very passionate about what I do and believe that there is a market for fine tea & coffee in Ireland.

You’ve got such a lovely array of tea blends, which one do you drink most often?

I drink according to my mood and like the majority of Irish people, I like a strong black tea so I drink our beautiful Assam ‘Corramore’ throughout the day. During the recent cold temperatures, I have been drinking the Indian tea, Chai, with milk and honey which definitely warms you

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Beans and Leaves Clement & Pekoe Words Katie Gilroy Picture Emma Brereton

from inside out. In the summer, I drink mostly green tea and our homemade iced teas. I probably only drink two or three cups of coffee a day but have high expectations, so I make a filter coffee at home made with freshly roasted beans.

Given that you source your tea leaves from around the world, does your job involve much travelling?

Not as much as I would like. The wonder of technology allows us to keep in close contact with our suppliers but as we grow, I would like to step up our visits to the producing countries and farms. It will increase our understanding of the incredible work they do which will hopefully broaden our knowledge and that of our customers who enjoy the fruits of their labours.

Your black and gold packaging radiates a real sense of luxury…

Yes, a lot of thought went into our packaging. I really wanted to combine the traditions of tea and coffee into our name and even into how we present our prod-

ucts. We were trying to capture luxury and tradition with a modern take. I am delighted with the outcome and believe aesthetic is very important.

Where is your range stocked?

Bibi’s Cafe, Dublin 8; Clodagh McKenna’s Village at Lyons; Science Gallery, Trinity; 3Fe, Middle Abbey Street; to name but a few. We tailor a tea menu for each cafe or restaurant and sell directly to customers through our online store. Our organic range is available at the Organic Supermarket, Blackrock and Melt Spa, Temple Bar. What does 2011 have in store for Clement & Pekoe?

Steady has been the name of game so far, so we would like to continue that pace of growth and look forward to working with great cafes and restaurants out there.

I am a retailer at heart, so have ambitions to have a venue one day showcasing the wonders of tea and coffee... www.clementandpekoe.com

www.totallydublin.ie

Y L L A T O T

FOOD

Restaurant Guide

Kafka

Odessa

Le Bon Crubeen

On the doorstep of the Swan Centre lies one of Rathmines’ best kept secrets. Kafka offers affordable, wholesome, and well-made brasserie fare at a reassuringly reasonable cost. The sparse, minimal décor goes hand in hand with the delicious diner-style food; free of pretence and fuss. With a varied but not overstretched menu, Kafka touches enough bases to cover most tastes.

Appetizers range from delicious chicken wings to golden breaded brie, while the main menu offers up anything from hearty bangers and mash, to porcini mushroom risotto. While their prices are easy on the pocket, Kafka cuts no corners with quality of their food.

Odessa is Dublin’s original dining lounge, a mesh of style and substance. Thanks to its newly-popular Fivers menu, its defining quality has become offering affordable sophistication. The restaurant offers a mouth-watering menu renowned for its tapas-style offerings and an unparalleled cocktail menu, all in a chilled-out atmosphere.

A relative new comer to Dublin’s restaurant scene, Le Bon Crubeen is a refined yet unpretentious brasserie. With food quality at the forefront of their philosophy, the people behind this Talbot Street establishment serve up honest, well sourced, brasserie fare. Impressive rotations of weekly specials accompany a menu that offers up among other things, pork belly, and Steak frite, the benchmarks of any brasserie worth its salt.

236 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6

14 Dame Court, Dublin 2

t: 01 670 7634 www.odessa.ie

81- 82 Talbot Street, Dublin 1

www.leboncrubeen.ie t: 01 704 0126

t: 01 497 7057

The Best Western Dublin Skylon Hotel

Upper Drumcondra Road

The Rendezvous Room Restaurant is open for both breakfast and dinner. Enjoy a delicious meal in the relaxing and pleasant surroundings, with both A La Carte and Table d’Hote Menus available. The Skylon also boasts a superb selection of wines to choose from. Enjoy a drink or a meal in the Cosmopolitan Bar, newly decorated in traditional Irish style. This is the ideal meeting point for any occasion and is a favourite with locals and visitors alike. Evening menu is also available.

Eddie Rocket’s City Diner

Zen

Eddie’s manages to escape the trappings of restaurant franchising - its 100% fresh Irish beef burgers are consistently as excellent as most designer burger joints in town, and its (brilliantly-designed) menu diversifies seemingly by the day, making it the perfect stop for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night munchies, parties, and family days out - we couldn’t hope for a whole lot more from an Irish-owned business.

Celebrating its 20th year of serving imaginative, authentic Sichuan food in the unique setting of an old church hall. Real Sichuan cooking is unlike Cantonese, eastern or northern Chinese styles, and unlike any other outside China. Zen is the only Chinese restaurant in Ireland listed in the MICHELIN Guide. Using only the finest ingredients, favorites such as prawns with wild Sichuan pepper and fresh chilli and fillet of beef in hot bean sauce with broccoli have maintained a very loyal following. An early bird menu from Sunday to Thursday, 5:30 to 7:30 offers excellent choice and incredible value.

Citywide

www.eddierockets.ie

t: 01 808 4418

Mexico to Rome

Teddy’s Ice-Cream & Grill

Salamanca Tapas Bars and restaurants, offer fantastic value, great quality food, service and atmosphere.

They pride themselves on a wide variety of menus and great value deals, that offer creative, innovative, delicious dishes. Visit either Salamanca and be prepared to be whisked away from the mundane to the excitement of the warm continent ,in either of two prime city centre locations. Salamanca Dame street offers the €10 lunch and the €15 early bird 7 days, Salamanca Andrew st offers the €11 lunch and the Tapas tower early bird menu. Exciting new Tapas launches in both restaurants in Feb 2011.

Mexico To Rome restaurant over looks the historic cobbles of Temple Bar, and is ideallly situated across from the world wide known Temple bar pub. It’s renowned for its combination of Mexican and Italian dishes and its newly introduced grill menu adds to its popularity. At Mexico to Rome they boast friendly, efficient and extremely helpful service. Their unique dishes are prepared in full view of the customer, which adds to the attraction of the restaurant. Great for a group reservation or an intimate meal for two. Best lunch deal around, starter, main + glass of wine or soft drink all for €8.95.The Early bird menu is a starter, main + dessert all for €14.95.

99-cone institution for nearly 60 years in Dun Laoghaire, Teddy’s Dundrum Grill offers another side to one of Dublin’s most-loved establishments – Teddy’s offers steak, spare ribs, and burgers par excellence, without destroying your wallet in the run-up to Christmas. And yes, they still do the best ice cream in town.

t 01 6774799 f 01 6774795 email info@salamanca.ie

t: 01 6772727 f: 01 6774795 mexico2rome@hotmail.com www.salamanca.ie

Eden

Venu

Anne’s Lane, off South Anne St, Dublin 2

63 - 64 O’Connell Street, Dublin 1

The acclaimed, award-winning Eden restaurant serves contemporary food with a distinctive Irish flavour, overlooking the vibrant Meeting House Square in Temple Bar. With a set of mouthwatering dishes available for mains, from mushroom tarts to duck confit, and a stunning location, Eden is one of Dublin’s must-eat experiences.

Venu has enjoyed a loyal following since it opened in 2006 and it has been renowned for its well-executed, varied food menu and for its award-winning cocktail bar. If you are looking for a vibrant place that serves great cocktails and quality ‘home-made’ dishes at reasonable prices it is hard to look much further than Venu Brasserie.

Tues - Sat: Dinner 5.30 til late Saturday Brunch: 12pm til 4pm

The relaxed and intimate setting of Café Carlo, coupled with its high-quality, reasonably priced food and friendly, attentive staff has made this restaurant a huge favourite with Dublin diners. Not only is it a popular choice with visitors to our fair city, it's also found a place in the hearts of the discerning locals, who return time and again to soak up the Cafe Carlo atmosphere and enjoy some genuinely delicious food. Free glass of wine with every main course when mentioning this ad!

Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

t: 01 670 5372 www.edenrestaurant.ie

TOTALLY DUBLIN

t: 01 4979428 www.zenrestaurant.ie

Salamanca

1 St Andrew st, Dublin 2

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89 Upper Rathmines Road, Rathmines

23 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

t: 01 67 06755 www.venu.ie charles@venubrasserie.com

Dundrum Town Centre

t: 01 2964799 ek@teddys.ie

Café Carlo

t: 01 888 0856 www.cafecarlo.net

www.totallydublin.ie

The Butcher Grill

Coppinger Row

Bloom Brasserie

The Gravediggers

A new venture from the successful Dillinger’s of Ranelagh, the butcher Grill is a more meaty affair than its sister restaurant. The Butcher Grill offers a wide spread of carnivorous meals cooked on wood-smoked grills, from veal striploin to grilled halibut. With an excellent starters menu featuring oysters, beef carpaccio and Irish rabbit, the Butcher Grill excels in its variety - but don’t worry, the dessert menu is decidedly meat-free. A new jewel in the Ranelagh culinary crown.

The Bereen brothers from the South William Urban Lounge have created an exciting new option for dining out in Dublin: fresh, simple Mediterranean dishes, perfect for diving in and sharing with friends, family and work colleagues alie, in the funky laid-back atmosphere of Coppinger Row, slap-bang in the middle of the coolest quarter of south city Dublin

Bloom Brasserie is a restaurant with lofty ambitions. With an excellent head chef well versed in the traditions of French cuisine, Bloom’s offers up accessible cuisine that accentuates their quality local ingredients. Head chef Pól Ó hÉannraich has lovingly assembled a menu that sees Angus Beef carpaccio alongside Caramelised King Scallops, and Roast Seabass. All dishes are freshly prepared and cooked to perfection.

John Kavanaghs, The Gravediggers is a part of Dublin since 1833. One of Dublins finest and genuine bars, and best pint of plain, now offers fine food in their lounge. Lunch, Monday - Saturday 12 - 3pm, evening tapas, Tuesday - Friday 6pm 8.30pm. Tapas start from €2.50 to €7.50, all freshly made to order. Fresh oysters every Friday evening, €5.00 for half a dozen, a true dublin tradition. Still in the Kavanagh family today, you’ll often find three generations working together in this Dublin hidden treasure.

92 Ranelagh Village, Dublin 6

t: 01 498 1805

Off South William St, Dublin 2

Mon - Sat Lunch Menu 12 - 3pm Afternoon Menu 3 - 6pm Dinner 6 - 11pm Sunday Brunch 12.30 - 4pm Evening 6 -9pm

11 Upper Baggot Street, Dublin 4

www.bloombrasserie.ie t: 01 668 7170

t: 01 672 9884 www.coppingerrow.com

Tante Zoe’s

Prospect Square, Glasnevin, D9

t: 087 2963713 thegravediggersdublin@gmail.com

Diep Noodle Bar

1 Crow Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Ranelagh Village, Dublin 6 Thai and Vietnamese food experts, Diep, offer a great value noodle-based menu with an exciting and exotic range of dishes including soups, salads and stir-fries. Diep Noodle Bar’s Bangkok Street Food menu is a steal and includes three courses of soup, appetiser and main course for €16 available Monday to Sunday until 7pm. With it’s fresh and genuine approach to cooking alongside it’s popular cocktail bar, warm hospitality and it’s releaxed but vibrant atmosphere. Diep Noodle Bar is a firm local favourite.

Temple Bar, Dublin’s own French Quarter - is an appropriate home for this lively Cajun/Creole restaurant where great music meets great food. Try the gumbos, Jambalayas and blackened dishes...

You won’t find better this side of the Mississippi.

Originated from Louisiana, and is a combination of American Indian, African, French and Spanish cuisines - and it’s Tante Zoe’s speciality.

Tante Zoe’s also has private rooms to cater for parties of 20, 40 and 100 people.

t: 01 497 6550 www.diep.net

t: 01 6794407 www.tantezoes.com

The Chili Club

The Counter

Salamanca

Just shy of its 20th birthday Dublin’s Chili Club has had a welcome restyling and is now under new management. Quietly hidden away in Anne’s Lane opposite Kehoe’s Pub, the Chili Club was Dublin’s first Thai restaurant and has since its heyday been consistently serving, delicious, authentic Thai food.

A recent makeover of cool greens and vibrant fuschia, along with a new bar breathes fresh life into the premises. It has long been a popular spot with local stockbrokers and visiting celebrities and continues to draw an eclectic clientele. A two course lunch is €9.95, three course €12.95 and a recessionary early bird menu is priced at a tempting €14.95.

Combine these reasonable prices with cool tunes, friendly staff and a carefully selected wine list, this makes the Chili Club an ideal place for after work supper or a great night out.

Counter’s two outposts in Dublin represent an alternative dining future - patrons are offered complete control over their burger’s fillings. The variety of options is bewildering - you’re in safe hands with the expanded menu of Counter’s own recipes. Their shakes, beer and wine menu is nicely expansive too - if you want to make sure you never eat the same meal twice, Counter’s your Mecca.

Salamanca Tapas Bars and restaurants, offer fantastic value, great quality food, service and atmosphere.

They pride themselves on a wide variety of menus and great value deals, that offer creative, innovative, delicious dishes. Visit either Salamanca and be prepared to be whisked away from the mundane to the excitement of the warm continent ,in either of two prime city centre locations. Salamanca Dame street offers the €10 lunch and the €15 early bird 7 days, Salamanca Andrew st offers the €11 lunch and the Tapas tower early bird menu. Exciting new Tapas launches in both restaurants in Feb 2011.

1 Anne’s Lane, South Anne Street, D2

Suffolk Street/Dundrum Shopping Centre

38 - 40 Parliament St, Dublin 2

www.thecounterburger.com Suffolk St: 01 611 1689 Dundrum: 01 2164 929

t 01 6719308 f 01 6774795 email salamancadamest@salamanca.ie

t: 01 677 3721 info@chiliclub.ie

Pacino’s

Il Primo

The Farm

For over 15 years Pacino’s has been a family-run restaurant known for its delicious ‘Classic & Gourmet’ pizzas and pastas, steaks and salads. It serves traditional, fresh, quality Italian cuisine. Its beef is 100% Irish, and sourced from reputable suppliers, and its pizza dough made fresh, inhouse, daily.

Pacino’s offers a modern dining experience, with an old world vibe – stylish brickwork, wooden floors and soft lighting all combine to create a relaxed, rustic, informal atmosphere.

Il Primo is one of the longest-established Italian restaurants in Dublin’s city centre. For over a decade, Il Primo has been serving rustic Italian food paired with some of the best wines that Tuscany has to offer. Most of its wines are imported directly to Il Primo and cannot be found anywhere else in Ireland.

The restaurant is located in a romantic period house, which has been converted into a lively, homely bar area and a cosy and intimate dining room, located five minutes from St. Stephen’s Green. The emphasis throughout Il Primo is on providing some of the finest wines from Tuscany with a range of simple and delicious Italian dishes in the heart of Dublin.

The Farm is about tasty homemade locally sourced free range, organic and fresh food. Healthy vegetables and fresh herbs. All their food is freshly prepared and cooked to order.

18 Suffolk St., Dublin 2

t: 01 677 5651 www.pacinos.ie

16 Montague Street, Dublin 2

t: 01 478 3373 Email: info@ilprimo.ie

www.totallydublin.ie

3 Dawson St, Dublin 2

11 am to 11 pm 7 days a week

t: 01 671 8654 hello@thefarmfood.ie

Le Cafe Des Irlandais

12-13 South Great Georges Street, Dublin 2 Located in one of Dublins oldest and most beautiful dining rooms, Le Cafe Des Irlandais serves French style rotisserie food using the best of Irish ingredients. Open from 8am for a delicious Irish breakfast and brunch at weekends. Lunch from 12-5 serving reasonably prices soups and roast sandwiches. Our a la carte dinner served nightly from 6 with fresh fish and vegetarian specials.

Open Tuesday- Saturday 8am-11pm. Sunday 11am to 10pm.

t: 01 677 1584. www.lecafedesirlandais.com

TOTALLY DUBLIN

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True Grit

Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Talent: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld Released: 11th February

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Neds

Director: Peter Mullan Talent: Conor McCarron Released: Out now The value of a truly bleak, de-romanticised film about juvenile delinquency (indeed, delinquency of any kind) in British society cannot be underestimated.

Emerging from an established ‘canon’ of aspirational, formulaic cinema ranging from the irresponsible (The Football Factory), the disingenuous (Kidulthood) to the superficial and, seemingly, fashion-propelled (This Is England), Neds stands alone as a film which approaches its subject matter sincerely, with equal parts compassion and despair. The transition of an intellectually-gifted boy from aspiring journalist to street-fighting loafer (amongst other things) is treated with nuance and skill by director Peter Mullan, who also features as a terrifyingly inscrutable, abusive patriarch. One’s viewing experience sidles between uneasy laughter, sheer horror and cloying disgust, as Mullan refuses to shy away from the complex causality or shocking violence necessitated by the narrative, while remaining resolutely a humanity of approach, poignant also in its occasional absence from the diegesis. There is scarcely any pleasure to be derived from the comprehensive destruction of a young man’s life (by his own hand) depicted on-screen, but the film neither marginalises its subjects nor resorts to clumsy mollification in dealing with issues of such personal (Mullan acknowledges the text as ‘semi-autobiographical’) and controversial nature. It is the honesty with which the film progresses that is so shocking, with Scottish cinema often tending towards self-awareness and condescension when the camera is ‘pointed inwards’.

The universality of theme is contrasted by unmistakably Caledonian form and delivery, with Frankie Boyle’s absence from proceedings warmly welcomed. And, while I earlier described Neds as a film about juvenile delinquency, it is (to dip into cliché) so much more than that: while it is a distressing and grim experience, it is also hauntingly honest and brutally real. Most importantly, it will scarcely be co-opted as pure spectacle or equivocal blood-pornography for mass-consumption. In this regard, it is no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most important British films in years.

Oisín Murphy

Brighton Rock

Director: Rowan Joffe Talent: John Hurt, Helen Mirren and Andy Serkis Released: February 4th

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On the surface, Brighton Rock is a fast-paced, grimy, noirish British gangster flick that makes a healthy attempt at repossessing the genre from the cheeky-chappy nonsense of Guy Ritchie and reinstating a kind of hard-boiled chic. Brighton Rock is the second adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel of the same name and first-time director Rowan Joffe chose to temporally relocate the action to the 1960s, in an act of blatant Quadrophenia-sploitation in order to cash in on the iconic imagery and setting or the youth riots between rival gangs of mods and rockers.

Whilst this works in one way (it is extremely evocative and plunders a cache timeless Brit cool), it’s also indicative of the ultimate flimsiness of the film.

Thespian big hitters in the form of Helen Mirren and John Hurt lend little outstanding to the proceedings, though Mirren’s turn as Ida provides the closest thing to a sympathetic character that the film can provide.

Superficially enjoyable for its stylized violence and breakneck tempo but at the cost of more satisfying subtlety, Brighton Rock is unlikely to enthuse fans of either the book or John Boulting’s 1946 noir classic. - IL

Rabbit Hole

Biutiful

Eight months after the death of their four year old son, we’re introduced to married couple Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) as they struggle with their differing and mutating grief. Kidman has the more complex role of the two as a character forced to endure everybody around her, trying to convince them in frustration that she doesn’t need their help or warrant their concern, feeling patronised, but whose underlying trauma is painfully visceral.

Becca’s intelligence and self-awareness make her difficult to comfort particularly when offered religious advice. Film narratives demand a resolution of the inner-dilemmas of its protagonists, but dealing with the death of a child the film can’t satisfyingly produce a dramatic finale. It could be to the filmmakers credit that it deliberately falls short as a film and instead exists as an honest, sensitive and compassionate representation of the complexity of grief.

The film is directed by John Cameron Mitchell who previously helmed the cult camp musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) and the XXX rated Shortbus (2006), but is without his usual hallmarks. Rabbit Hole is a film of restraint and focused strorytelling and is to be credited for dealing in sadness without the sacrifice of a great deal of humour, creatively and generously scattered everywhere. - DM

For anyone who has sat through Amores Perros, Babel or 21 Grams, you will be previously aware of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s tendency to clumsily adhere a sort of broad, sociopolitical relevance to his cinematic projects.

Perhaps the use of ‘clumsily’ is a bit guiding as far as adverbs go, suffice to say the same things that were unpalatable about his films up to this point remain as prominent as ever. Skilled though he is in depicting human drama (and Javier Bardem certainly deserves all the praise he has thus far received for a fine performance as a cancer-riddled hustler-cum-medium), it is the strained social commentary pertaining to immigration which sticks in one’s throat.

Though Iñárritu is undoubtedly a skilled director, the ends to which he labours are often indulgent and fraught with caprice. A beautiful film, yes, but beyond the occasionally astounding cinematography, there is little to warrant commendation. - OM

Director: John Cameron Mitchell Talent: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart Released: 4th February

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Despite having all the makings of a modern classic and, indeed, promotion from every corner of the film industry: critical, commercial or otherwise, the Coens’ True Grit feels strangely under-wrought. It is a competent re-imagining of the 1969 John Wayne vehicle of the same name (an extremely well-regarded Western in its own right) but little more, visibly struggling to add moral gravity to a well-worn narrative trajectory which engages superficially but rarely on a transcendent plane as, say, 2009’s A Serious Man. Josh Brolin is outstanding as the enigmatic villain Tom Chaney, while Jeff Bridges gives exactly the performance you’re expecting him to give, sparring with an unprecedentedly bombastic Matt Damon for the custom and affinity of Hailee Steinfeld, one of the least irritating child actors you’ll see this year. It is engaging and occasionally exhilarating, but lacks the nuance and profundity of the Coens’ finest work. - OM

Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Talent: Javier Bardem, Maricel Alvarez Released: Out now

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DM - Daniel Martin IL - Ian Lamont OM - Oisín Murphy

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For more album reviews, videos, mp3s, single reviews, live previews, interviews, music news and comprehensive gig listings throughout the month, visit our new website www.totallydublin.ie

games Cave Story

Nicalis – Wii Ware

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Released as a freeware game in 2004, Cave Story feels like the best NES game you never played.

Originally written, designed, scored and coded by just one man, this instant neo-retro classic has now been updated for release on a Nintendo system – arguably where it should have been all along. Pixel, the creator, didn’t make this game with selling it in mind, it was made purely for the love of it, and this shows. Nicalis has reworked the soundtrack, added cleaner graphics and the option to play as a different character – but the main gameplay remains unchanged. Deliciously floaty platforming and fast combat make it a joy to play, and the open exploration gives a great sense of adventure. The story is better than most big budget games and knows not to butt in too often. Cave Story is proof that good ideas make the best games, not just technological advances. If encouraging Pixel to make more games isn’t enough to make you part with your money for a game you can download free, then all the updates and extras should be. Buy this game. - JH

Donkey Kong Country Returns Retro Studios – Wii

Gender Games ■■■■■ Words Zoe Jellicoe Unsexualized female heroes are incredibly rare in video games. For the most part, they play sexy side-kicks to the macho male hero. Most important characters in video games tend to be male, perhaps because boys seem to be more likely to play mainstream video games than girls are. Nevertheless, rising numbers of girl gamers means that the issue of credible heroines is an increasingly pertinent one.

Lara Croft is one of the typical female heroines in video games. In the early Tomb Raider games blocky graphics meant that players spent less time looking at her ass and more time concentrating on actual game-play. Once glossy graphics kicked in Lara was propelled to the exaggerated sexiness of Jessica Rabbit. Lara may be a tough cookie, but she is less a champion for gender equality than simply an object of desire for teenage boys.

Although some girl gamers may want powerful heroines like Lara, kicking ass and looking hot doing it, this seems indulgent. A more subversive move might be to make gender a non-issue. Equality may be more important than the “girl power” school of feminism – especially in video games, a territory still popularly considered inhabited only by boys and man-children.

Samus Aran, the hero of the Metroid series, is a girl but players hardly notice – in the first game most players assume she is a man until the ending credits. The character of Samus recalls that of Ripley in Alien: both were originally intended to be male. The strength of their success and

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fanbase is partly attributable to the fact that both turn out to be women, subverting conventional expectations. Like the nameless protagonist in Portal, Samus’s gender is not part of the game. Unlike Lara Croft, these are real feminist heroes: all we knew was that they were strong, capable characters that happened to be girls.

Unfortunately, those silly sausages behind Other M have now reduced Samus to a sappy, submissive female. Possibly a blundering attempt to make it easier for girls to identify with Samus by making her “girly”. Unrequited love and following orders by not using her special abilities insults the intelligence of male and female gamers alike. Turning a female lead character into an archetypal blockbuster-style love interest is lazy and boring.

Not that female characters must be sexless, or that a romantic relationship automatically makes the girl a sap. In The Zelda series, Princess Zelda, though elfin and attractive, and almost certainly Link’s object of affection, is nevertheless an interesting character in her own right, and not just a passive plot tool. Her various iterations throughout the series show her as an independent subject.

Filling the void of heroines with Lara Crofts is a childish response to the problem. While some girls think that the hot/ tough combo heroine puts boys ‘in their place’, they’re really just conforming to the stereotype. The truly progressive heroines are the ones who do the same jobs as the heroes, without tits in your face and hackneyed sass.

Donkey Kong and his simian sidekick Diddy are back in glorious 2.5D to leap, swing and roll their way to thousands of delicious bananas. A band of Tiki musical instruments have hypnotised the denizens of DK Island convincing them to steal the banana hoard – and Donkey dispenses jungle justice. DK aficionados will find a lot familiar here, with mine carts and blast barrels much in evidence.

Donkey Kong Country was a leader in its time, and fans of the series won’t be disappointed with this installment. DKCR has a lot to recommend it – tense music, cute characters, challenging platformingbased puzzles – but the visuals are where it really shines. The levels are beautiful – the jazzy silhouette one and the conga pirate crabs are particularly memorable. Crazy difficulty at points and some derivative boss battles are minor complaints in a solid eight hour game. New Super Mario Bros style co-op play and unlockable levels give DKCR even more replay value. - JH

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit EA – Xbox360, PS3, PC

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A stylish throwback to arcade racers, Hot Pursuit shuns realism and aims for fun over simulation.

True to the name of the series, the first impressions of this game are of speed. Levels don’t begin from a start line, rather we’re thrown behind the wheel of a car already doing ninety; and the cars feel fast, too. Detailed scenery zooms past at an alarming rate, not that you’ll want to concentrate on anything other than drifting around the next hairpin. Some levels are simple A-to-B races, but others are more interesting. As a racer you sometimes have to avoid the police while still winning the race; and as a cop you have to “arrest” racers by ramming them off cliffs. The addition of weapons like spikes to drop and an EMP blaster give these missions a slightly kart racer feel. This shows that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously and adds more depth to a sometimes shallow genre. Unrelenting product placement and car stats begin to bore, but I suppose they’re inevitable. - JH

JH - John Hyland

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Words Karl McDonald

James Blake For a guy who still just about fits into the type of ‘dubstep producer’, a lot of people know James Blake’s face. With no pseudonym or contrived anonymity to shield him, he peppered all manner of 2010 lists before settling at second on BBC’s generally fairly accurate Sound of 2011 in advance of his sparse, vocal-driven debut album. “I just wanted to be honest. Sometimes going under loads of different pseudonyms might not be the best reflection of what you do. I feel like it makes it more identifiably me.”

Haunted by Digital Mystikz I started producing dubstep tunes when I was 19. A lot of people in my Uni would listen to dubstep with me, a lot of my friends. We got into that music together, and I had stuff to play them because I was writing it as well. Some of the early Mala records were big, Hunter and lean Forward. Haunted by Digital Mystikz was a big track. A lot of DMZ records were really influencing me. I was listening to a lot of Skream, and a lot of Benga as well, although Benga was more electro, but I later realised how good he was. I haven’t actually met Skream or Benga yet, but I’ve met Mala and Coki and they’re both lovely guys.

The World of Arthur Russell by Arthur Russell He’s avant-garde, but accessible. And he plays the cello, which I think is a beautiful instrument. He’s got a beautiful voice, which is strange sounding and bang on point at the same time. Sometimes it seems like he’s not tuning right, but then he is. He’s got a strange way of tuning his voice that’s unique and great. I think it comes from playing the cello. It’s a loose form of melody. So it’s captivating really.

Voodoo by D’Angelo I love the way he wrote, and he did everything on it. That was a big influence.

It’s the same with Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book. He had a bass player but I think he played almost everything else. And he could actually have played the bass if he wanted to. I thought that was interesting.

And I think he played a big part in production too, I’m not quite sure.

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Peace Be Still by Reverend James Cleveland I think gospel’s absolutely amazing. It’s one of the most heartfelt genres there is. I know every genre’s kind of heartfelt. But I think gospel’s spiritual in a way that I don’t connect to religiously, because I’m not religious, but it just does something to me. I don’t want to talk about souls.

I don’t think that’s really relevant, but emotionally it brings something out in me. This track is just an exercise in tension and release. It’s just an amazing record, amazing singing, amazing choir.

But it’s the recording of that record that’s special to me. The atmosphere’s just electric, it must be a church. The people are just swooning and screaming. It’s unbelievable.

Say My Name by Destiny’s Child Sometimes listening to a Destiny’s Child track is what I’m in the mood for. But I think some of those tunes, like this for example, have incredibly melodic writing.

Or Rihanna’s Only Girl In The World.

That’s an amazing bit of pop writing.

Timbaland’s production was pretty forward thinking for its time. And it sounds great on club systems, so it’s interesting from a production perspective as well. I think some of the 90s R’n’B is incredibly throwaway. It’s today’s pop of its generation. It’s not any less throwaway than some of the stuff you get at the moment.

Those songs are classics because they’re good songs and not just because of the genre.

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