David Byrne has started an internet radio station so you too can listen to his current playlists, at the moment he’s listening to Cat Power
The voting for the Rhizome commissions starts, I have a project called SIRENS up for consideration so any Rhizome members out there vote for me, vote for me! I’ve never done this before but after seeing the layout I think that if I do it again my project will be called aaaaardvark.
Thw Wooster Collective has all the pics from Banksy’s exploits in the New York museum world. Can’t be long now before he gets a show.
Emiliana Torrini has a new album out called Fisherman’s Woman a very belated followup to 1999′s brilliantLove in the Time of Science. This one is a wholly different album, stripped down, very sombre in mood but lifted by her incredible voice. You can download a free track -Lifesaver -here and she’s playing Dublin’s Sugarclub on Tuesday the 5th.
This Way Up is a graphic magazine/publication where multiple artists interpret a single story through Dublin’s streets. The story follows four separate characters and the Joycean parallels are obvious, 14 artists contributed to the first issue which is free and can be picked up at Anthology Books or Crow Corner comic shop. The entire magazine is also available online. It’s highly recommended, I’m certainly looking forward to the next edition.
A u-turn from the minister and Olunkunle is to be brought back and to be allowed to finish his studies. The incredible protests from the students at Palmerstown Community School seemed to have made the difference.
As the deportation of Dublin schoolboy Olunkunle Eluhanla continues to dominate the news with protests outside the Dail and teacher’s union the TUI adding their voice in support of Olunkunle, Minister McDowell is beginning to show his true colours with his outrageous implications that Olunkunle is a liar – does he really think that ANYONE being deported would turn down an offer to collect their belongings? Does he think the Irish public are all fools? I think though that the minister’s mean spirited approach goes against the Irish publics’ sense of fair play and the contrast between the minister’s approach and the general mood is becoming starker by the day. As for his argument that to make exceptions in exceptional cases would lead to chaos I can only refer you once more to those Dail debates from 1987 & ’88 when no exception was too great when it came to illegal Irish immigrants.
With the deportation of leaving cert student Olunkunle Eluhanla (real audio) in his school uniform last week Michael McDowell has hit a new low and I think the public is finally beginning to wake up to what the minister and the Department of Justice are doing in their name. The Irish Independent carries a story today about a family in hiding in Athlone because of fear of deportation, and Morning Ireland covered both stories at length.
To add insult to injury Olunkunle and many others were deported while most of the government was attending St Patrick’s Day celebrations all over the world in the annual celebration of the Irish diaspora, a diaspora born of economic migration. Of course McDowell and the government are suffering from collective amnesia when they say exceptions can’t be made. In 1987 the then Fianna Fail government (which included Bertie Ahern) sent Foreign Minister Brian Lenihan to the USA to stop the US government from deporting an estimated 60,000 plus illegal Irish emmigrants , click here for the full text of his responses to Dail questions (D
My flickr album of Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day parade, good weather and despite what you might hear in the media lots of good humoured fun.
No surprises here but still an interesting insight into what makes him tick, Tom Waits’ top 20 albums
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WalkSpace for the iPhone is an alternative walking app to let you navigate the city in a new and unexpected way.
