Following the great success of its Clinic Mentoring Service in 2012, ArtLinks, in association with the four Local Authority County Council Arts Officers for Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford invites applications for its Clinic Mentoring Programme 2013 for professional and emerging artists living in the South East region.

ArtLinks Clinic Mentoring provides artists of all disciplines the opportunity to discuss their practice and development during a 2–hour face-to-face session with a specialist mentor expert in their specific artform. Clinic mentoring sessions are tailored to suit the artist’s individual needs and can cover a range of topics, as determined by the artist themselves, including such areas as;

• The development of the artist in their practice
• Working in context with the wider artistic community
• Planning and developing a creative business
• Developing awareness and marketing an artistic practice

The mentoring service offers the following benefits to an artist:

• Expert guidance
• Objective, independent advice
• Relevant and practical support
• Confidential assistance on sensitive issues
• A sounding board to help in making decisions

The ArtLinks Clinic Mentoring Programme is open to qualifying artists who are members of ArtLinks. Artists interested in applying for programme support should log on to www.artlinks.ie to download an application form.

The closing date for receipt of Clinic Mentoring Applications is 12 noon on Friday 31st May 2013

Artists must be a member of Artlinks to avail of this support, so registration as a member on www.artlinks.ie website is essential. Membership is free and is open to both Professional and Emerging Artists who are resident within the four Local Authority County Councils of; Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford.

“I recently attended a Mentoring session organised by Artlinks. I can honestly say that this was the most useful two hours I’ve spent in a long time! I left with my head buzzing with ideas and the feeling that I could have done with one of these sessions a long time ago!… I’m looking forward to putting my plans into action.” Mary Cullen, Visual Artist, Carlow

ABOUT ARTLINKS

Established in 2007 ArtLinks provides supports for artists across all disciplines to assist them develop their practice for the future. The programme provides supports including bursaries, mentoring, networking and professional development opportunities for both professional and emerging artists in the region.
ArtLinks is supported by the four Local County Councils of Arts Officers for Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford and the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

EARLY BIRD tickets for this year’s Camden Crawl in Dublin are flying out the door. Tickets went on sale this week for €1 per ticket and all tickets made available at that price are long gone. The super early bird tickets are still on sale, tomorrow they’ll be €6, going up by €1 each day until Monday of next week.

Check CamdenCrawlDublin.com or Entertainment.ie for the latest on tickets.

The Meteor Camden Crawl Dublin 2013 takes place in venues throughout Dublin this coming May Bank Holiday weekend.

Theatre company Talking Shop Ensemble and writer Shaun Dunne collaborate once again to bring the story of Willy, a 54 yr old tradesman feeling the effects of the economic downturn, to the stage. Drawing on real life and relationships, this theatre piece reflects how unemployment and lack of hope can result in shifting roles within the family unit with changing attitudes and the consequences that this brings. Dunne and fellow actor Lauren Larkin perform an emotional, honest and straightforward portrayal of crumbling self respect, humour in the face of adversity and finding hope in desperate situations.

Winners of the 2012 Lir Revival Award, Talking Shop Ensemble are delighted to be bringing this play to The Lir.

The show kicks off on Tuesday coming, 12 February, running at 7.30pm nightly until Saturday 16 February. There will also be a lunchtime performance at 1.00pm on Friday 15 February. Book your tickets here through Ticketsolve.ie.

TWO OF EUROPE’s top dance companies arrive in Dublin this May for the Dublin Dance Festival with the Abbey Theatre playing host to Finland’s Tero Saarinen Company and Belgium’s Ultima Vez between 14-18 May. Tero Saarinen Company present a Stravinsky Evening (14-15 May) while Ultima Vez present What the Body Does Not Remember (16-18 May).

Tero Saarinen is one of Europe’s leading dance makers and has created work for major international companies. His Stravinsky Evening will open the 2013 Dublin Dance Festival. It is presented in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the infamous first performance of Rite of Spring by the Ballets Russes, and will feature two stunning works. HUNT is Saarinen’s heart-stopping solo set to Rite of Spring, in which he is both the hunter and the hunted. The music’s unstoppable rhythms are matched by sinuous movements. Saarinen’s body acts as a canvas for atmospheric lighting created by renowned designer Mikki Kunttu and a kaleidoscope of live multi-media projections by artist Marita Liulia. Saarinen’s Petrushka is a love triangle played out with all the wit of a silent movie comedy and the colour of the fairground. Two classical accordionists play the score live on stage in an extraordinary version of Stravinsky’s ballet.

What the Body Does Not Remember by Ultima Vez stunned audiences when it premiered in 1987, and, like Set and Reset by Trisha Brown Dance Company that featured in Dublin Dance Festival 2012, the work created a new landscape for dance. The New York Times wrote, “Tough, brutal, playful, ironic and terrific. Adjectives seem unduly passive in describing What the Body Does Not Remember”. Bricks are hurled across the stage, bodies collide in mid-air. 25 years on, the revival of this essential, gripping work comes to the Abbey stage for three nights only.

Julia Carruthers of Dublin Dance Festival says, “These choreographers and performances have been specifically chosen because of their influence on the European arts scene. The colour and aesthetic beauty of Saarinen’s re-imagined ballets contrast with the raw athleticism of Ultima Vez’s landmark work. We are excited to share these gems from the European scene with audiences here in Ireland.”

Dublin Dance Festival 2013 will take place from May 14-26. The Festival will announce the full DDF 2013 programme next March. Highlights will feature exciting Australian and Irish elements, including the European premier of Jean Butler’s newest work.

Get Your Dublin Dance Festival Tickets

TICKETING INFORMATION

Tero Saarinen Company (Finland) Stravinsky Evening
7.30pm Tuesday 14 May & Wednesday 15 May 2013
Abbey Theatre, on the Abbey stage
Tickets: Full price: €20-€35 Concession: €18-€32

Ultima Vez (Belgium) What the Body Does Not Remember
7.30 pm Thursday 16, Friday 17 & Saturday 18 May 2013
Abbey Theatre, on the Abbey stage
Tickets: Full price: €20-€35 Concession: €18-€32

Booking & further information: www.dublindancefestival.ie OR via www.abbeytheatre.ie. Phone: + 353 1 878 7222

COISCÉIM DANCE THEATRE, who I last had the opportunity to catch at Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2012 are back with a brand new show, Pageant, opening at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, from 23 February. The full cast for their latest production features Muirne Bloomer, David Bolger, Jen Fleenor, Robert Jackson, Mónica Muñoz Marín, Jonathan Mitchell & Emma O’Kane. Pageant plays Project until 2 March before moving to the Limetree (Limerick), Pavilion (Dun Laoghaire), Civic Theatre (Tallaght), Draíocht (Blanchardstown) and the Town Hall Theatre (Galway) until 19 March.

Nominated for the Total Theatre Award and the Carol Tambor Award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival for KNOTS (2006) and a multiplicity of awards (listed below), CoisCéim’s latest production, PAGEANT, shows dancing at its best enveloped by a powerful score of music featuring tracks from David Bowie to T Rex, right up to the world of classical music featuring work from the most prominent impressionist composer, Ravel. The show’s stellar cast of seven dancers will delight audiences with their passion and pathos as they weave an exhilarating journey from choreographic mayhem through to military precision. Served up with a side order of humour, this show is not to be missed from the award-winning CoisCéim Dance Theatre.

Booking Details For Pageant Tour

PROJECT ARTS CENTRE, Space Upstairs, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Previews Thursday 21 & Friday 22 February | 8.00pm | €15
Opens Saturday 23 February – Saturday 2 March | 8.00pm | €15 – €25
Box Office – 01 881 9613 | www.projectartscentre.ie

LIMETREE THEATRE, Limerick
Runs Tuesday 5 March | 8.00pm | €16 / €14
Box Office – 061 774 774 | www.limetreetheatre.ie

PAVILION THEATRE, Dun Laoghaire
Runs Thursday 7 March | 8.00pm | €18 / €15
Box Office – 01 231 2929 | www.paviliontheatre.ie

CIVIC THEATRE, Tallaght
Runs Tuesday 12 March | 8.00pm | | €20 / €16
Box Office – 01 462 7477 | www.civictheatre.ie

DRAÍOCHT, Blanchardstown
Runs Thursday 14 March | 8.00pm | €18 / €14
Box Office – 01 885 2622 | www.draiocht.ie

TOWN HALL THEATRE, Galway
Runs Tuesday 19 March | 8.00pm | €18 / €14
Box Office – 091 569 777 | www.tht.ie

axis: Ballymun are delighted to welcome Maria Doyle Kennedy for a magical acoustic event on Friday 15th Feburary as part of the venue’s “Home Sessions.”

Maria will perform tracks from her new album Sing, which was described as “Jaw-droppingly beautiful” by R2 Magazine 12/07/12. The 10-song collection was co-written with husband Kieran Kennedy, who will be accompanying Maria at axis. On the night local singers from axis ‘Sing’ project, facilitated by the National Chamber Choir of Ireland, will perform alongside Maria, who will be singing songs from folk to torch song to flamenco. Maria and Kieran have selected two local charities, The Aisling Project in Ballymun and Sonas Housing who will benefit from the concert.

The Clontarf born singer has spent more than two decades performing all over the world before audiences ranging from tens of thousands at Glastonbury, Oxygen and the Cambridge Folk Festival, to hundreds in small, intimate theatres.

Maria’s latest albums have demonstrated her evolving artistry. 2007’s Mutter was inspired by Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Diary, about a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, while The Storms Are On The Ocean (2011) placed her in the Elizabethan world of haunting folk tales and murder ballads. Inarguably Sing is her most accomplished and accessible work yet, a celebration of “the power of the voice, the sound a group of people can make when lifting their voices together – the human act of singing”.

“Playing live gives me more pleasure than almost anything else. Something extra happens when you’re playing live. It’s the best way to share the songs, I think. The expression of them is different and affected by the people who are in the room. You’re sharing the songs with your audience.”

Of course Maria is also well known as an actress, from The Commitments, The Tudors, Dexter, Downton Abbey and Albert Nobbs. But while success as an actress is gratifying, and gives her “the opportunity to wear crown jewels every so often”, it isn’t how she wants to be defined.

“I am definitely a singer first. Singing is the thing, apart from my family, that gives me the most joy in the world. I love acting but I don’t ever miss it when I’m not working. I don’t ever spend a day without singing. I cannot imagine a world without music.”

The Home Sessions at axis, a three day festival of music, will also feature an event with Damien Dempsey (already sold out) and an events under the banner of “Love Song” featuring singers, writers and special guests, on Valentine’s Day.

axis Director Mark O’Brien says, “The Music Room Sessions that we ran in 2012 became so successful that we decided to have a festival and call it ‘Home’. We’re offering audiences the chance to come on in to axis, pull up a chair and hear the best of musical talent in a very special setting.”

Maria Doyle Kennedy Ticket Details

Tickets, priced €15, are available from axis on Main Street, Ballymun, by phone on 01 8832100 or online via axis-ballymun.ie.

ACCLAIMED PIANIST Libor Novacek takes to Castalia Hall in Kilkenny this coming Sunday 3 February at 4pm as part of Music In Kilkenny’s spring series of concerts. Tickets will be available on the day at Castalia Hall and you’ll find full details of the concert series on MusicInKilkenny.com. I’ll be looking ahead to the remaining dates in the series on The Arts Show on KCLR96FM on Tuesday coming (5 Feburary.

Libor Novacek Performance Programme

Sonata in C major Op. 2 No. 3 [Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)]
Allegro con brio
Adagio
Scherzo: Allegro
Allegro Assai

Phantasien Op. 116 [Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)]
Capriccio in D minor – presto energico
Intermezzo in A minor – andante
Capriccio in G minor – allegro passionato
Intermezzo in E major – adagio
Intermezzo in E minor – andante con grazia
Intermezzo in E major – andantino teneramente
Capriccio in D minor – allegro agitato

Interval

Sonata in B minor S.178 [Franz Liszt (1811-1886)]
lento assai/allegro energico/grandioso/
andante sostenuto/allegro energico
/andante sostenuto allegro moderato/lento assai

Who Is Libor Novacek?

Libor Novacek enjoys a long-term recording contract with Landor Records (UK). He released four CDs since 2006 to outstanding reviews in the classical music press including BBC Music Magazine, International Record Review, Pianonews and others. The CD featuring Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage – Italie and Mephisto Waltz was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine, and in October 2007 was awarded the ’Diplôme d’Honneur’ by the Liszt Society in Budapest. His third recording of music by Brahms marked him as an ‘artist of vision and phenomenal sound control, offering readings of radiant sensitivity’. It was highly praised in the Guardian, Gramophone and International Record Review and was selected as the BBC Magazine’s ‘Instrumental Choice’ in August 2008. Libor’s latest CD, released in October 2009 and again featuring works by Liszt (Années de Pèlerinage- Suisse and Consolations), continues to receive the greatest critical acclaim, including five stars in the Guardian, International Record Review and Pianonews, amongst others.

His concerts and tours have taken him to major festivals and venues worldwide: these include regular appearances at the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican in London, and the Brighton, Three Choirs and Mostly Mozart festivals, and the Prague Spring Festival and Strings of Autumn Festival in Prague. He has also played in the USA, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, India, South Africa and most of the European Union. Recent engagements have included performances throughout Europe, including a European tour celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of Franz Liszt.

Libor works regularly with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with the Prague Philharmonia, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, English Sinfonia, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also recorded for Czech Radio and BBC Radio 3.

Music in Kilkenny is supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, Music Network, The Cultural Fund for the E.U. Presidency, Kilkenny Corporation and the Camphill Community of Ballytobin.

Details of the 2013 Meteor Camden Crawl Dublin have been announced as the May Bank Holiday weekend inner city music fest returns with over 150 acts promised this year. Full lineup details are expected at the end of the month but for now, here’s the lowdown.

The UK sibling event, Camden Crawl London, has been packing in punters since 1995 and pioneered the UK’s first metropolitan festival ten years later in Spring 2005. Now, having bagged the Best Metropolitan Festival gong for the third time at the 2012 UK Festival Awards and feeling the need for something fresh, London’s Crawl is set to shake things up with a move out of the hectic summer schedule into a standalone spot in October 2013. Full details of this special edition event are to be announced in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Meteor Camden Crawl Dublin will pack an even greater punch this springtime, taking the sole responsibility of introducing the brand new acts that will have you sweating beads of pure delight in 2013.

Over three days from May 3rd to 5th, Dublin’s fair city will come alive with the sounds of over 150 groundbreaking acts both Irish and International, a score of special guests, and the stomp of the faithful ‘Crawlers’ as they march their way through music Mecca!

The event will take place across more than 15 of Dublin’s finest venues from Camden Street to Temple Bar with each of the venues curated by a panel of the best tastemakers in the Irish Music Industry featuring DJ’s, independent promoters, media and household names such as Whelan’s Live, Hidden Agenda, Other Voices, Strange Brew, Young Hearts Run Free, State Magazine, Mother Club, Ruby Sessions, Dan Hegarty (2fm), entertainment.ie, Sweet Oblivion, Nialler9, Totally Dublin and Paul McLoone (Today FM).

Spicing up the ingredients this year, Meteor Camden Crawl Dublin is set to showcase a range of cutting edge comedy acts throughout it’s fringe festival, so ‘Crawlers’ will be free to roam between banging beats and belly laughs to their hearts content. The fringe festival will also play host to a multitude of interactive club nights and an additional mix of local live acts.

Commenting on this announcement, Lisa Comerford, Meteor’s Head of Brand and Communications said

Meteor’s vision is to showcase and reward new and emerging Irish and International music talent. This year’s Crawl will once again give our customers access to exclusive and intimate music experiences with the acts they love, and the opportunity to discover fresh new talent for themselves.

The Crawl will continue to feature its one pass system, making it accessible and affordable for all music fans to discover the cream of the crop of emerging talent in 2013. Tickets for Meteor Camden Crawl Dublin will be available as a weekend pass or standard day pass: €55.00 Weekend /1 Day €35 (excluding booking fee). These along with a limited quantity of Early Bird Weekend Tickets available at €40.00 and all-inclusive travel packages will be on sale from 9.00am Monday, February 11th from thecamdencrawl.com, entertainment.ie and all the usual outlets.

Additionally, a very limited amount of super discounted weekend tickets priced €1 – 10.00 will be made available only to members of the Camden Crawl Dublin and Meteor data bases and social networks as well as to the festival’s previous ticket buyers via a special link. Small quantities of these exclusive tickets will be released each day from 1st February in a 10 day pre-sale countdown to 11th February.

Tickets are to be exchanged for wristbands which allow full access to each of the participating venues throughout the festival as individual capacities permit. Wristbands and free programme guides announcing the full line ups and timings for the event are obtainable from 4pm – 10pm each day at the ticket exchange points located at Whelan’s, Wexford Street, Dublin 2 and Film Base, Curved Street, Dublin 2.

Full details of the lineup will be revealed at the end of the month.

The game’s afoot! After the ex boyfriend stalking, sandwich stealing and unsuccessful stakeouts of the second series so far, our former detective heroes have now been met head on by a dangerous foe: former IRA spymaster, alleged master criminal and all round mystery bastard Johnny Curragh and his gang of deadly lady agents known as the Blades. Janine, Vultour and Tennyson have been kidnapped by Curragh’s hench lady Maeve Munroe and only Dan McGrain can save them!

But why were they kidnapped? How punctual can McGrain be? And does this adventure mean that the detectives are back in business?

Dan McGrain In The Nick Of Time is the fourth and penultimate episode of season two of Vultures, the detective series web comedy filmed in Kilkenny. On the go since 2005, series two began hitting the web earlier this year and will conclude with the fifth and final episode airing next Sunday night – an episode which also marks the final installment of Vultures as a web comedy series.

I’ll be chatting with creator and actor John Morton on The Arts Show on KCLR96FM this coming Tuesday from 8pm. You can listen to the interview live online between 8pm and 9pm via KCLR96FM.com.

Richie Cody, who I’ve had the pleasure of working with on numerous projects over the past few years, has been filming of late and in September this year produced this short film, All Made Up, focusing on the topic of self harm. All Made Up was filmed over the course of one day and is shot entirely on a Canon 60D. Kilkenny actress Connie Walsh (Night Of The Living Dead, Devious Theatre) plays ‘The Girl’. Music featured is by Dublin post-rock outfit 3epkano.

John Owen-Jones wowed audiences when he played to over 75,000 people this summer in the lead role of Phantom in The Phantom Of The Opera at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.

The welsh tenor speaking from his London home today said… “I can’t wait to be back in Dublin there is always something very special about Irish audiences and the way they welcome you and make you feel at the end of a performance. I so much wanted to return to Dublin and when I was asked to sing some numbers in the Movies & Musicals show… as soon as I heard the word Dublin it was a done deal!”

The show features much loved smash hits and well known themes and signature tunes from the movies and musicals.

The Irish Philharmonic Orchestra will also be joined by the Halleluia Gospel Choir, Irish Musical Stars, Robert Vickers from Wicklow who is currently starring in Les Misérables in London’s West End and the stunning voice of Wexford’s Maria Fitzgerald.

The concert also features music from the big screen that includes ET, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Forrest Gump and of course how could we forget the Christmas movies music such as Home Alone and Miracle on 34th Street.

This night of Musical Theatre and some of the best film scores ever written is a wonderful magical night for all the family and takes place this coming Monday, 17 December at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin.

There will be many performances of the glorious Handel’s Messiah this Christmas, but only one in the magnificent and inspiring settings of Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. With a stunning line up conducted by David Brophy – Celine Byrne, Sharon Carty, Dean Power, and John Molloy – will be accompanied by the Irish Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.

Internationally renowned and Ireland’s favorite soprano Celine Byrne makes a welcome return to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre at the end of a wonderful year which saw her make her Covent Garden début in addition to other notable performances throughout Europe, North America and Mexico

Celine speaking last night from Bulgaria where she was special guest with the great Jose Carreras said… “I can’t wait to be back at this theatre, I love love love that venue so much, we see these performances in the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre as a huge highlight for everyone’s Christmas”.

Handel’s Messiah was first performed in Fishamble Street in Dublin on April 13th 1742 and is an essential part of the Christmas festivities. Audiences will have an opportunity to enjoy this magnificent music with the Irish Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and world class soloists all under the baton of the ever charismatic David Brophy. This will be the perfect way for family and friends to get into the festive spirit.

Performances for Handel’s Messiah are 3pm & 8pm, Sunday December 23rd 2012.

The age-old subjects of love and communication are the common threads that link three short operas performed in one night at The Lir from 3-5 December by students of the Royal Irish Academy of Music working in collaboration with their Stage Management and Technical Theatre peers from The Lir, The National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College Dublin. This exciting co-production of Monteverdi’s tragic Combattimento di Clorinda e Tancredi, Menotti’s high-spirited The Telephone and Barber’s A Hand of Bridge which explores the intricacies and struggles of married life, will afford Irish audiences the opportunity to experience first-hand the next generation of Irish opera singers and stage technicians.

Opera Briefs, a collaboration between Trinity College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy of Music, builds on each institution’s expertise for the benefit of the performing arts, with students engaging with full scale professional productions under the guidance of a selection of Ireland’s most renowned theatre practitioners.

The show is directed by Conor Hanratty (FLATPACK the Opera, Dublin Fringe Festival 2012. Mirror,Mirror Drogheda Arts Festival 2012) with award-winning designers Joe Vanek (Dubliners, Dublin Theatre Festival 2012. The Speckled People, The Gate Theatre) and Sinéad McKenna (Improbable Frequency, Rough Magic) leading the costume realisation and set and lighting design.

The cast for the first Opera Briefs presentation is: Sarah Bass, Seán Óg Boylan, Brian Gilligan, Ciarán Kelly, Maria Kelly, Cormac Lawlor, Sarah McCourt, Rory Musgrave, Gyula Nagy, Gemma Ní Bhríain, Ioana Pipelea, Rebecca Rodgers and Sarah Shine.

Tickets are available via Ticketsolve priced €15/€10 (concessions) with nightly performances kicking off at 8pm.

On Saturday 1st December Kilkenny County Council Arts Office will host The Market, an event certainly not to be missed.

For one day only, the Kilkenny County Council Arts Office at 76 John Street will play host to a number of amazing artists, illustrators and makers who will be selling exceptional, original, unique, quirky, and exquisite creations.

The range on the day will include jewellery, ceramics, paintings and drawings, t-shirts, fine art prints, origami accessories, pill boxes, crocheted collars, hats and vintage inspired headbands and plenty more besides. Of course no market would be complete without offering sustenance to visitors to the Arts Office so there will also be artisan foods including brownies, mince pies, breads and cakes to keep shoppers energies up.

It’s a great chance to get out and support artists working locally in the area, and those who have worked alongside the Arts Office in Kilkenny over the past number of years. Kick off is 10.30am with doors open until 6.30pm that evening.

For any further information or to find out how you can get involved, drop Niamh Finn an email on niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie.

A lot of arts and culture-related design work comes across the desk in work, the latest being this promo image I was asked to put together for Spark Productions in Graiguenamanagh, Kilkenny, who are presenting Roddy Doyle’s Brownbread at the Abbey Hall, Graiguenamanagh, from 12-15 December nightly.

So what’s it all about? Essentially, it’s a play about three unemployed young lads, set in Barrytown, Dublin. Previous work by Spark Productions include the original productions One For The Road and Bittersweet Graffiti.

On a day with nothing better to do Ado, Johnner and Donkey are off playing golf in a field, when the ball goes flying off the boys set off to find it, but instead stumble across a gun. With no Derek & Thelma on the T.V or Blockbusters the boys decide to kidnap a bishop and hold him hostage.7

This appears to be the greatest idea the boys ever have, but they are about to realise they are in bigger trouble than they imagined. The boys are Brownbread. With the guards, the parents and the American army all arriving to get the boys out alive along with the Bishop.

The action takes place in ‘Donkey’s’ mother’s upstairs bedroom a corporation house in Barrytown. With the parents and the Guards all on the outside wall begging and pleading with the young lads to give the bishop up, let him go free and most importantly not to shoot the bishop.

This latest production by Spark Productions also sees members of the Duiske Players return to the stage since they have disbanded eight years ago. This mix of old and new blood to the stage is something the company has been hugely excited about from the time they have started work on the production at the beginning of September.

Starring James Kilbride, Thomas Drennan, Adrian Kavanagh, David Behan, Mark Bolger, Edel Bolger, Jim Kielty, Jackie Douglas, Eoin McNamara and with Paul Hickey as the Bishop.

Brownbread is Directed by Kelly-Ann Whelan and runs in the Abbey Hall Graiguenamanagh December 12th to 15th. Tickets are 7 euro and can be booked on 087-9439979. Doors 7.30pm, show start 8pm. Keep up with Spark Productions on Facebook.

IT HAS BEEN a long road for the Vultures crew, the web comedy produced in Kilkenny first hitting the web in December 2007. Almost five years on, it’s about to come to a close and the latest episode, Dan McGrain In The Nick Of Time is almost set for release. With talk of a Christmas special on the way, that would make the new episode the penultimate of the second season.

Watch the trailer for episode four below, which will be released in full at the start of next month. You can also check out Vultures on iTunes. Filming for the fifth and final installment of the current series is slated for early December with the episode due for release before the end of the year.

If you’re interested in volunteering to work on the shoot over the first weekend in December, drop me a line and I’ll pass your details along to the series producers.

Vultures Season 2 Episode 4 Trailer

Dublin folksters JUNAH draw things to a close at The Grand Social in Dublin tomorrow night. Following their release of debut EP On Waves in April of this year, the band have decided to call things a day with their latest mailer saying that things have just run their course.

As a parting release, the band have just uploaded ‘Sad Song’ by John Jones, taken from On Waves.

Check out JUNAH.com or BreakingTunes.com.

Take a listen to what would have been the new single, Copybook, on YouTube, and the b-side Antic Disposition.

Nickos Dervisis was born in the island of Lefkada. His self-taught relationship with music started in his high school years. At times he had participated in punk and indie bands as a bass player, until in December 2006 started creating ambient-noise soundscapes under the name “Flight36-B”.

At the beginning of 2011 he salutes “Flight36-B” and renames his project “Kid Flicks”, after a long period searching his childhood memories, many of which were connected to 90s obscure family flicks, video games and tv shows. As he saw many of them again, he noticed that his remembrance of them as “funny”, “scary” or “atmospheric” was not exactly as he remembered it, when recovering his memories. Starting from that point on he tried to create songs that would capture that stage of memory, between the actual event and the recovery of it, when you have a blurry image, mixed with your experiences and feelings.

Experimenting with sounds, electronics, exotic instruments and pop-song structures, he usually uses many layers of sounds, to let the listener decide which interactions of sounds and grooves will he remember and each time he comes back, he may discover new interactions.

To the question “say something that characterizes him”, some of his friends’ responses are: he draws and takes notes all the time, but at the same time has his mind on what is happening around him, he tries clothes that would never buy, he makes up stories about people and situations of his entourage, he makes trip arrangements and travels on the same day, he screams without warning when he finds himself at places that nobody can hear, when looking at books and records he loses contact with his surrounding.

He has released two full-length albums through Inner Ear Records, a CD-r through Somehow Ecstatic and a digital EP through Bad Panda Records. He lives and works as an illustrator in Athens, Greece.

Take a listen to ‘The Dirty Utopians’ below or check out the album in full, By Typing “I Talk”, You Don’t Talk over at Bandcamp.

Bad Breaks is the solo project of drummer Chuck Kerr, a fixture on the San Antonio music scene. Kerr took up the drums at the age of 3, following in his dad’s footsteps. A music lover from an early age, Kerr grew up studying jazz and also listening to his favorite pop, rock, and indie records — all of which have a direct influence on Bad Breaks’ eclectic sound.

As an in-demand drummer, Kerr has racked up an impressive number of credits and an impressive number of credits and collaborators (including Strokes/Regina Spektor producer Gordon Raphael), but Bad Breaks is the first project that is entirely Kerr’s “baby.” Kerr writes and arranges all Bad Breaks material on piano, eventually creating complete demos that he then brings to the band.

Bad Breaks features 11 genre-straddling originals ranging from spiky new wave (“Seppuku,” “Chapter and Verse”), rhythmic meditations (“Won’t Come Home,” “Only Distance”), soulful rock ‘n’ roll in the vein of Austin rockers Spoon (“Get it Right,” “Victoria”), and even moody late-’70s yacht rock (“The Way Things Are”). But all of it is linked by Kerr’s uncanny rhythmic feel and an ear for pop hooks.

Kerr’s collaborators in Bad Breaks are among San Antonio’s top talent, often pulling double duty in some of the city’s best bands: Alex Wash on keys (Black Magic and the Full Exposé), Ryan Teter on bass and trombone (Mission Complete!), and Jackson Floyd on guitar (Ronald Ray Gun).

Kerr is also endorsed by C&C Custom Drums, joining a roster of drummers from bands such as Spoon, Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear, The National, Beach House, Beck, Modest Mouse, and others.

Check out Bad Breaks on BandCamp and take a listen to Won’t Come Home below.

Across the English-speaking world a storm of words has been written about the apparently terminal decline in academic values and standards in today’s colleges and universities. For many insiders, the inherent worth of Higher Education has been entirely subordinated to business objectives and market forces. Is this so? And if it is, who gains and who loses?

Academic Armageddon reports on this global storm. It explains why the more Higher Education is re–formatted along commercial rather than academic lines, the greater the risk that – eventually – the only truly ‘high’ or elevated thing about it will be its price.

The commercialist pressuring of academic principles has spread from the USA and the UK to Irish Higher Education. Mary Gallagher argues that – far more deeply and irreversibly than economic duress – the educational bankruptcy of the corporate model risks undoing the integrity and reputation of the ‘Isle of Saints and Scholars’. Academic Armageddon provides trenchant reading for educators, students, graduates, policymakers, parents and anyone who cares about the principles and standards that colleges and universities should stand.

Acadaemic Armageddon launches this coming Tuesday night at 7.30pm in the Irish Writer’s Centre.