Donncha O’Caoimh, an old schoolfriend of mine, and his wife Jacinta came to see the ‘Importance of Being Earnest’ last night. Donncha brought a camera, and has put some great shots up on his photography blog ‘InPhotos’.

So despite my originally saying you would have to buy a ticket to see the moustache, you can now see it over at InPhotos.org

Donncha gave us a lovely review, saying:

We spent the whole time either laughing or engrossed in the twists and characters of the plot.

As Donncha points out, the show only runs until Saturday (10th March 2007) which means there’s only three more performances… the number to book tickets is The Cork Arts Theatre 021-4505624.

More details about the show on my previous post.

Ireland will be having elections sometime between now and the Summer, I am registered to vote but know nothing about politics - so I have two questions.

• Where can one find a dummies guide to how government & elections actually work in Ireland?
• Who the hell should I vote for?

When it comes to question 2, please bear in mind that my absolute ideal candidates are as below:

Hunter S Thompson

In 1970 Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado on the “Freak Power” ticket promoting the decriminalization of drugs (for personal use only, not trafficking, as he disapproved of profiteering), tearing up the streets and turning them into grassy pedestrian malls, banning any building so tall as to obscure the view of the mountains, and renaming Aspen, Colorado “Fat City.” The incumbent Republican sheriff whom he ran against had a crew cut, prompting him to refer to his opponent as “my long-haired opponent,” as Thompson had had an “incident” with an electric razor (see the Gonzo Papers vol. 3).

With polls actually showing him with a slight lead in the race, Thompson appeared at Rolling Stone magazine headquarters in San Francisco with a six-pack of beer in hand and declared to editor Jann Wenner that he was about to be elected the next sheriff of Aspen, Colorado and wished to write about it. Thus, Thompson’s first article in Rolling Stone was published as The Battle of Aspen with the byline “By: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Candidate for Sheriff).” Despite the publicity, Thompson ended up narrowly losing the election.

Jello Biafra

In the fall of 1979, Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco as a prank, using the Jello ad campaign catchphrase, “There’s always room for Jello”, as his campaign slogan. Having entered the race before creating a campaign platform, Biafra later wrote his platform on a napkin while attending a Pere Ubu concert. As he campaigned, Biafra wore campaign t-shirts from his opponent Quentin Kopp’s previous campaign and at one point vacuumed leaves off the front lawn of another opponent, current U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, to mock her publicity stunt of sweeping streets in downtown San Francisco for a few hours.
Supporters committed equally odd actions; two well known signs held by supporters said “If he doesn’t win I’ll kill myself” and “What if he does win?” His platform included unconventional points such as forcing businessmen to wear clown suits within city limits and a citywide ban on cars (although the latter point was not considered abnormal by many voters at the time, as the city was suffering from serious pollution problems).

Biafra has expressed irritation that these parts of his platform attained such notoriety, preferring instead to be remembered for serious proposals such as legalizing squatting in vacant, tax-delinquent buildings and requiring police officers to keep their jobs by running for election voted on by the people of the neighborhoods they patrol.

During a TV interview (reproduced on The Early Years home video and DVD), he had this to say to those who thought less of him running for mayor: “For those of them who have seen my candidacy as a publicity stunt or a joke, they should keep in mind that it is no more of a joke, and no less of a joke than anyone else they care to name.�

He finished fourth out of a field of ten, receiving 3.5% of the vote (6,591 votes); the election ended in a runoff that did not involve him (Feinstein was declared the winner). In reaction to his campaign (and that of Sister Boom-Boom, a drag queen who also ran for mayor and handily won the third place spot above Biafra), San Francisco passed a resolution stating that no candidate could run under any name other than their given name.

My Canadian cousin and her boyfriend Gabriel (both pictured) visited recently, and Gabe played us a few songs on the guitar (and piano), one of which was Death Cab for Cuties ‘I Will Follow You Into the Dark’.

I was really struck by the song, and so I looked it up… and was a small bit disappointed. I preferred Gabe’s version - he brought a sincerity and a sweetness to the song which I then felt was missing from the original.

Then I found the video to the song on YouTube and I realised that I had seen it before - which only reinforced that Gabe had done a better job of it, I hadn’t paid much attention to it when I saw this video of it.

However, I did find another video for it on YouTube, which was simpler and as a result worked better - I’ll embed it at the end of this post.

Gabe also did a great cover of ‘The General’ by Dispatch, who again I had never heard of. I found an unofficial video of the song which I will also embed at the end of this post, and there is a live version by Dispatch on YouTube too.

Again, I prefer Gabe’s version, I suppose he did have the advantage of being live in my kitchen - if either Death Cab for Cutie or Dispatch wish to perform live in my kitchen for more favourable comparison it can be arranged.

So before I get to the videos, I will direct you to Gabe’s own site, which has some mp3’s on it, however - and I hope Gabe won’t mind this constructive criticism - Gabe’s voice sounds somewhat forced on the mp3’s on his site. I would highly recommend Gabe doing some late night impromptu recordings at 1, 2 or 3am to capture the chilled out, easy going sound he so easily performed for us here in my kitchen!

Oh, and I also think he should record ‘I Will Follow You Into the Dark’, just so I can have my favourite version of it

Chattyboo productions presents Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, at the Cork Arts Theatre, Cork, Ireland (I seem to be on a roll with Theatre-related posts at the moment).

I mentioned this already, due to the fact that I am in it myself, sporting a wonderful moustache which is worth the ticket price to see in itself (moustache not pictured - you have to buy a ticket to see it).

Directed by Tony Canniffe, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ has a great cast, it’s been a real pleasure working with them all… here is the cast list (in order of appearance) - Corkonians will no doubt recognise several of the names:

Lane - Alf McCarthy
Algernon Moncrieff - Ian McGuirk
John Worthington JP - Frank Prendergast (me!)
Lady Bracknell - Aine O’Leary
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax - Angela Newman
Cecily Cardew - Roisin Donovan
Miss Prism - Mary Canniffe
Merriman - Charlie Ruxton
Rev. Canon Chasuble, DD - Jim Queally

If you haven’t been to the Cork Arts Theatre - also known as ‘the CAT Club’, it has been fairly recently completely revamped. There’s a map available on their site.

If you’re wondering about the production company name, Chattyboo, it’s a piece of Cork slang which I had never heard of - but it’s in the official Cork slang dictionary. It means ‘Whatchamacallit’.

This is very late notice, I’ve been so busy that I forgot to post this. This is for those of us based in Cork, Ireland who have either an audience or a participatory interest in Theatre.

Fast Theatre has it’s final outing today in the Triskel Arts Center.

What is Fast Theatre? Well, it’s brought to you by the Theatre Makers Working Actor’s Workshop and is an experiment in improvised theatre.

If you’re like me, you might be wary of terms such as ‘improvisation’, but take it from me it’s essentially a big load of fun. Drop in and see what it’s all about from 3.00pm - 4.30pm at the Triskel Arts Centre, today, Sunday the 4th of March!

You don’t have to know anything about anything to drop in and have a look, it should be of interest both to a general audience and to those involved in the theatre.

Sure what else would you be doing on a Sunday?

Oh and also, admire the Theatre Makers logo because I designed it, and the Fast Theatre Poster.

I would link to a map to get to the Triskel but they have a really annoying Flash site which you can’t easily navigate or link to stuff in… go to their site and click contact, and then click map if you don’t know where it is! See you there!