The sign posted on the entrance to the Dun laoghaire Baths says swim in every Sunday noon. This is a bathing place for the public not a bedding place for the elite.
Anyone know any more about the swim in? Get in touch.
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The sign posted on the entrance to the Dun laoghaire Baths says swim in every Sunday noon. This is a bathing place for the public not a bedding place for the elite.
Anyone know any more about the swim in? Get in touch.
It's that time of year again with graduate exhibitions at NCAD, Dun Laoghaire IADT and DIT
Some MP3s to download from a Emiliana Torrini live session on Planet Claire, also check out the Cat Power and Mary Timony sessions from their archive.
As I mentioned earlier I attended a presentation by the Architects and planners behind the new development proposal for Dun Laoghaire Baths. After seeing the plans in more detail and hearing them address people's concerns I am now more concerned then I was before. Following are a few of the issues I find troubling.
1. The scale of the development with the eight storey apartment block is huge and will dominate the landscape blocking the view from Dun Laoghaire over to Sandycove and vice versa, it is completely inappropriate for this area. The architect's response to concerns about height was that 8 stories is not high and he went on to give many examples of 27 storey waterside developments in the north of England. I didn't find this reassuring.
2. The 5 acre infill is extensive and very little thought appears to have been given to the hydrological consequences of an infill that size. It was presented as the only solution to the problem of coastal erosion in the area between the baths and the back of the East Pier. Of course this area has fallen into disrepair in the last few years because the Council has failed to maintain it. With an infill this size the area to maintain will increase and it too will fall into disrepair if neglected.
3. The public amenities and public space proposed were very attractive but had an unrealistic air to them. Questions about how this amenities would be funded once built went unanswered. The Council can hardly afford to maintain what it has now. There was also a lack of clarity on who exactly would own the land the new seawall and the water facilities.
4. Credibility. Recent developments in Dun Laoghaire such as the Pavilion promised public amenities which were never delivered. The childrens library was even demolished to make way for a new carpark with the promise of a new state of the art library. The carpark was built but the children of Dun laoghaire never got their library. The Council can not be trusted to force developers to deliver on their promises and are quite expert at discovering loopholes to let them get away with it.There is considerable doubt as to whether any amenities will ever be built
5.Precedent. At the moment the seafront has no residential or commercial developments, there is a worry that this will open the floodgates.
6. Privatisation of the Seafront. Much was made of the fact that a public-private partnership was the only way to fund this development and that the alternative is for the baths to continue to deteriorate. But local TD Eamonn Gilmore, the Labour Party's spokesman on the Environment, who is against this proposal is proposing a smaller scale public amenity funded by the development levy which has now been widened to include the provision of community and recreational amenities. Click here to read his full statement.
More information about the Public display of the plans here and here for the Save Our Seafront campaign of action
An interview I did with Pau Waelder while at the Metanarratives conference at Fundacio La Caixa in Barcelona has been published in Spanish art magazine A Minima. In the interview I talk about my work in progress and the advantages and difficulties of working in series and in particular of creating work based on Ulysses, a shortened version of the interview is available online at Furtherfield.
Voyager has officially crossed the "termination shock", the region where the speed of the solar wind drops abruptly from supersonic to subsonic, and has entered the shell of dense solar wind called the heliosheath that separates our solar system from interstellar space and has begun it's interstellar mission.
Eyebeam's contagious media showdown is now open for voting, includes many classics you've heard of already like crying while eating, ringtone dancer and goodbye bitch
Nouvelle Vague are a French collective with eight chanteuses who do cover versions of late 70s early 80s new wave songs, download this version of the Clash's The Guns of Brixton (direct mp3 link) from Insound sung by the latest French singing sensation Camille , you'll either love it or hate it, I love it.
link via fingertips Music weekly finds
An eye opening RTE Primetime investigation ( real video stream of the entire program)into how Ireland's super rich pay no tax thanks to 'non residency' and other legal tax breaks. My favourite is the yacht Christina O which was famously owned by Aristotle Onassis where he entertained the likes of Jackie Kennedy, Maria Callas and Princess Grace. It is now owned by Irish investors who charter it for €70k/day and are able to claim tax breaks under 'plant and machinery'. The lenient non residency provisions (in the US to be tax non-resident you have to give up your citizenship) are all thanks to the Bertie's changes to the tax law when Minister of Finance.
The fashionable world is stirred up about the same nonsense; society is still concerned about Monsieur X's sleeping with Madame Z. The stupid political scene, manipulated by the same idiots, goes from rut to rut, and every day solemn-looking gentlemen write innumerable columns about the same subjects, which the simpleminded discuss heatedly, unaware that they have already read the same thing hundreds of times!
thanks Artrift
A fascinating photo essay by Jonas Bendiksen about the people who live under the flight paths from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan who have to contend with flaming spacejunk falling from the sky several times each month.
via
Just to be very parochial for a moment. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council have launched a major redevelopment proposal for the Dun Laoghaire baths. No surprises it's an eight storey complex with 180 apartments with retail units and will involve reclaiming 5 acres of the sea. Needless to say there is huge opposition to the proposal which is effectively a privatisation of one of the most special areas of seafront in Dublin. There are, of course, many sweetners but experience has taught us in Dun Laoghaire that developers tend to promise the world and when the apartments are built they find some reason not to deliver those extras which made it seem so attractive in the first place.
Still the proposals are going on display and you can have your say at the following dates:
County Hall,Marine Road (Monday – Friday 9.00am – 7.00pm) and the
Council's Dundrum Office (Monday – Friday 9.30am - 12.30 pm and 1.30pm – 4.30pm).
Members of the Design Team will be available in County Hall at
3.00pm and 6.30pm on Wednesday 25 th May, 1st June, 8th June.
I'm attending a presentation on the proposal tomorrow evening and I suspect I'll be mentioning this again.
Scenestars are streaming all of Get Behind Me Satan the new album from the White Stripes
Depending on your point of view this is an amusing or horrific article on The Museum of Earth History in Arkansas, it's a little different to those you'd find here in old Europe, it presents the biblical account of early history and presents the three epic periods of ancient history often overlooked by modern historians: life before the fall, the post-fall world, and life after the devastating effects of the great Genesis Flood. - in other words they've got dinosaurs in the garden of eden with adam and eve.
All based on the calculations of Archbishop Ussher, Dublin born Ussher (A Trinity man) calculated from the bible that the Earth was created on Sunday 23 October 4004 BC he went on to make a biblical chronology; Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on Monday 10 November 4004 BC and the ark touched down on Mt Ararat on 5 May 2348 BC on a Wednesday. He didn't, however, give the time of creation as 9am as popularly thought (that was John Lightfoot). Ussher at least had the excuse of doing it in 1650. Recent Gallup surveys have shown that about 45% of Americans believe the Earth was created by God within the past 10,000 years and in 2000, a People for the American Way poll found that:
20% of Americans believe public schools should teach evolution only;
17% of Americans believe that only evolution should be taught in science classes — religious explanations should be taught in another class;
29% of Americans believe that Creationism should be discussed in science class as a 'belief,' not a scientific theory;
13% of Americans believe that Creationism and evolution should be taught as 'scientific theories' in science class;
16% of Americans believe that only Creationism should be taught;
A lot of people think you should argue it point by point but quite frankly I can see advantages of an America that teaches Creation 'Science', somehow I think a military-industrial complex based on faith based 'science' will be a little less scary then the current one based on the real thing.
The breakup letter generator, is there nothing the interweb can't do for us?
via eyebeam
Watch the rather excellent trailer for the Flaming Lips documentary The Fearless Freaks, I've said it before and I'll say it again probably the best live band today.
This image of Che Guevara is one of the iconic images of the 20th century, it was taken by Alberto Korda in 1960, he claimed no copyright on the image until 2000 when he was so appalled when Smirnoff used it in a advert that he sued for copyright infringement. One of the beneficiaries of his enlightened view on copyright was our own Jim Fitzpatrick here in conversation about his famous poster made from Korda's photo and his attitude to the copyright of the image.
On a related note Alberto Granado on his friendship with Che Guevara - you may remember him as Che's travelling companion in The Motorcycle Diaries.
Billy Pumpkin's rehabilitation continues online as he writes his autobiography chapter by chapter, and it's pretty interesting. He also has a great download page with many free MP3s and videos of live and rare recordings, guitar tabs, nintendo ROMs(Billy as Mario), fonts and some pretty scary wallpapers. Keep it up, Billy, and we may even forgive you those last few pumpkin's albums.
The BBC have a video of George Galloway's testimony in front of the US Senate subcommittee for homeland security and governmental affairs, I've got to admit that I'm not a big fan of Galloway but I found it quite extraordinary that they would make such a serious accusation against him with evidence that couldn't even be called flimsy with glaring factual errors and to do so without even asking him to defend himself. Well he's well able to defend himself and demolished their case against him, watch the video and judge for yourself.
While you're at it have a look at these documents about Donald Rumsfeld's meeting with Saddam. The documents show that during this period of renewed U.S. support for Saddam, he had invaded his neighbor (Iran), had long-range nuclear aspirations that would "probably" include "an eventual nuclear weapon capability," harbored known terrorists in Baghdad, abused the human rights of his citizens, and possessed and used chemical weapons on Iranians and his own people. The U.S. response was to renew ties, to provide intelligence and aid to ensure Iraq would not be defeated by Iran, and to send a high-level presidential envoy named Donald Rumsfeld to shake hands with Saddam (20 December 1983). All declassified US Government documents obtained by George Washington University under the freedom of information act.
Some recommended blogs covering the Cannes film festival Indiewire, Cinematical and Greencine
38 Ways to Win an Argument from Schopenhauer's "The Art of Controversy"
via del.icio.us
A nice interface which takes the techniques on how to find MP3s with Google and incorporates them into a single search box which does all the work for you.
On reaching the sound barrier, breaking the Sound Barrier, flying at transonic speeds – varying near and at the speed of
sound (supersonic) – can generate impressive condensation clouds caused by the Prandtl-Glauert Singularity. A fantastic gallery of images of this phenomena.
via Apothecary's Drawer
In Japan popular myths about the influence of bloodtypes on personality are coming under attack with accusations of abuse and discrimination as critics claim it is being used to assign jobs, match couples, even pigeonhole schoolchildren.
The meaning of blood types is usefully explained in this Sailor Moon fan site and apparently I (bloodgroup A+) am perfectionist, orderly, detail-oriented, industrious, idealistic, soft-spoken, careful, fashionable and law abiding suitable careers for me include accountant, librarian, economist, novelist, computer programmer or gossip columnist. Well they've got me pegged.
via can't remember sorry!
A few nice lessons in french slang with real audio from the Université du Québec via those nice people at Eyebeam reblog who've reblogged quite a few Stunned items recently.
An interview I did with Pau Waelder in Barcelona at the Metanarratives Conference is published today at Furtherfield. In the interview I talk about my internet art projects Cyclops & Proteus the first two episodes of a large scale work in progress about Dublin structurally based on Joyce's Ulysses.
Someone in every generation has to be held up as a shining example of what is wrong with current art
How Jeff Koons has emerged from being a modestly priced middle ranking artist to the point where he now sells at auction for $5.6 million.
The Bootleg browser is a one stop shop for live bootleg recordings with 526 performances from over 351 bands including some great Sonic Youth - one of my favourite live bands - My Bloody Valentine and even an extensive catalogue of The Frames. This is what bootlegs should be free for fans!
Is there any web-site you wanna take off the web using a highly subversive method?
The Injunktion Generator from ubermorgen.com provides an entertaining public service by automating and making available to the layperson a method for sending baseless legal threats to the corporation or entity of his or her choice, the same way that corporations routinely threaten individuals simply to paralyze them.
Hmmm I can think of a few. But how does it work tell me more..
you auto-generate an "INJUNCTION" [.pdf/.rtf format], a standard court-order, claiming the target-website to operate on an illegal basis. this document will then be sent to the appropriate dns-registrar [dns=domain name service], to the owner of the web-site and possibly to some journalists for legal and public processing. all you have to do is to simply fill out a form and send it off, it will take you not more than 15 minutes. if the web-site is taken down we will inform you via email.
Scream is a software application to facilitate screaming.
Scream sits quietly in your computer's system tray and automatically springs into action when it detects a scream. Scream can be used in private. Or public. It can be used at home, at work, or on the street; at a Fluxus-style Scream-in; at the mall or at your favorite cafe. When your throat gets tired, Scream can double as an unusual music visualizer - or as a new approach to digital filmmaking. Use Scream to start a meme. Or simply as a random act of deprogramming.
Art in America's 1995 cover story on internet art. Unfortunatly in Ireland the artworld is still back in 1995.
via Iconoduel
A Japanese monster blog which makes no sense unless you've Japanese characters enables and read Japanese but the pics are cool.
via we-make-money-not-art
The photography of Roberta Bayley the photographer responsible for this iconic image of the Ramones, in my unbiased opinion probably the best band photo ever, her site photographs 1975-1984 documents punk and new wave music from the period and includes many of the most memorable images of Debbie Harry and Blondie.
On a related note check out this Russian tribute to the Ramones site with many MP3s of cover versions and originals to download, in particular try dante koma's Havana Affair.
Epitonic top mp3 free and legal downloads from a huge variety of music particularly strong on indie and electronic with a large 20th century composers section. In addition to the top download list if you browse the categories every band has at least one free sample mp3. Even better is the Epitonic Radio player which lets you select from 50 music categories and make a streaming playlist of 20-500 tracks or stream entire albums or even select a band and automatically generate a similar band playlist. I can't think of a better way to discover new music.
RSS feed (copy link) of the Amazon top 200 free MP3s
Hidden Beck track from his website via
Even more MP3s from the Hype Machine archive of blog audio
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generator blog
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lifehacker
makezine
monochrom
networked performance
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Modern Art Notes
new media fix
pixelsumo
rhizome
selectparks
trendbeheer
Vvork
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wfmu
