The 22nd Bond movie has been launched. Quantum of Solace is based on a short story by Ian Flemming that appeared in his collection For Your Eyes Only. For the first time ever it is a direct sequel to a Bond movie, in that it picks up where Casino Royal left off, with Bond chasing the killers of his love. The title is an odd one. Quantum meaning a required or allowed amount and Solace meaning comfort or consolation in a time of distress or sadness. At the launch Daniel Craig said “”At the end of the last movie his [Bond] heart’s been broken and he doesn’t have that quantum of solace, he doesn’t have that … closure on what happened in his life and he needs to find out.” [Thanks to RTÉ for the quote.]

Directing duties will this time be handed to Marc Forster who directed Monster’s Ball and Stranger Than Fiction. I find it a slightly odd choice and would have loved to see Martin Campbell continues at the helm, but I’ll hold off on any judgment until I see the film as at least Robert Wade and Paul Haggis are returning for the screenplay.

Here’s an on set report from ITV;

Bond is due on our screens on November 7th.

The nominations for the 80th Academy Awards were announced yesterday and there was a health smattering of Irish nominees.

Daniel Day-Lewis got the expected Best Actor nomination for There Will Be Blood and is now the favourite to win, Saoirse Ronan got a nomination for her part in Atonement but it’s hard to see past Cate Blanchet for this year’s Best Supporting Actress award. Most surprising of all was Glen Hansard getting nominated for Falling Slowly from Once in Best Original Song. He was tipped to get a nomination but didn’t feature in the Golden Globes. Well he has the Oscar nomination now and will be performing Falling Slowly as part of the ceremony (if it goes ahead!). He might yet walk away with the little bald statue come February 24th. They won a Sundance award after all.

Sabrian Dent has launched Two Tits and a Vote. Two Tits and a Vote is:

an online Irish Women’s Health Campaign empowering you to advocate for better women’s healthcare in Ireland. You can be part of improving Irish women’s health care from the comfort of your very own chair.

Sabrina on her own site states…

It’s built around the concept of “armchair activism.” Armchair activism enjoys reasonable take-up online, but is often decried as ultimately being rather useless because it rarely translates into the real world. I started to think a lot about how to merge all of the good stuff about armchair activism - it’s fast, it’s accessible, it’s not a big ask, and it delivers a feel-good factor to the participant - with actions that could actually take form in the real world.

Anything at all that keeps a focus on the sorry state of women’s healthcare, and healthcare in general, in this country is good in my book. Sorry to all those who in a couple of weeks time arrive here from google expecting some kind of political porn.

Eoin texted me last night to say there were rumours that Heath Ledger had died, and it seems the rumours are true. Heath Ledger has died at the age of 28, leaving a young daughter behind him. Rumours are that it may have been an overdose as sleeping pills were allegedly found scattered around his bedside where he was found.

The internet is mourning him it would seem, this site got hammered due to some old posts mentioning him, many thanks to our hosting provider Blacknight for keeping it all under control!

It’s ages since I just posted something creative I had done, and while looking for something else completely I came across an illustration I did for a poster for Dracula, which wasn’t used in the end - it wasn’t really liked and we went in a whole new direction.You can check out the final poster if you want. Anyway, I messed around with the original illustration a bit tonight and thought I would share it with you. Why not eh? I like the up close detail too…