The Sigla Blog

Am very excited about seeing the new Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield. I spent many an afternoon in its predecessor on Abbey Street, and saw my first films by Jim Jarmusch, Pedro Almodovar, Atom Egoyan, Krzysztof Kieslowski (the Three Colours trilogy) and so many great directors. The Screen Cinema on D’Olier Street could always be relied on to show the odd marginal film, but The Lighthouse showed across the board arthouse, World Cinema and independent films. In its 12 year absence, the IFI has in many ways continued its remit, but nostaligic cineastes will hopefully still make regular trips to its new home in Smithfield.

Today’s programme kicks off with Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky, Honeydripper by John Sayles (I saw a couple of his films in the old venue), XXY, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, My Brother Is An Only Child and Once.

Best of luck to all those involved in resurrecting one of my favourite cinemas.

Link: Lighthouse Cinema

Two film nuggets that might be of interest:

1) Morgan Spurlock will be in Dublin this Saturday for a Q&A about his new film, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?. It takes place at 3.10pm at Cineworld, Parnell Street. Tickets can be bought on the day.

2) You may remember me posting about the film Teeth - a coming of age story about a girl with Vagina Dentata - a while ago. Thank you to Medbh (who has a review) for letting me know that it’s out on DVD this week. Buy it here.

“My favourite space to create music would have to be at home, specifically this tiny room with hardly any space in it to move. Actually, the smaller the room the better the feeling of being creative! Big studios are kind of odd to record in and any experience I’ve had of them has certainly dismantled the idea of being creative. One of the best things I ever bought was an IAUDIO (mp3 voice recorder). After a good feed and having just watched a classic Woody Allen movie, usually I pick up the guitar and play a few silly riffs, then I quickly land on something I like. Years ago I’d be stuck on where to record it, but now I have the IAUDIO always by my side and it’s able to capture the moment instantly. This impulsive way of being creative works best for me.

The room where I record in is full of midi keyboards, cupboards, George Bush masks, synths, six guitars, microphones, a sauce pan, keyboard stands, mic stands, prison uniforms, a drum kit stocked up at the side, trumpets, gorilla puppets, triangles, melodicas, xylophones, slippers, underwear, trousers, harmonicas, spoons, jumpers, socks, speakers, laptop, scrabble, an old wooden chair, a green screen, two amps, tons of percussive instruments and a microwave just in case i get peckish. What I’m trying to say is that it’s tiny, with too much stuff in it! That’s why it’s perfect.

The most important thing to have in this space, apart from the instruments and sound recording gear, is time itself. Having time to relax and go at my own pace is very important. During the recording of my debut album Pleasant Square, I quickly began to spend more and more time in this little room. In the beginning stages of recording the album, I did quite a bit of recording in my engineer’s studio, but soon realised that by being able to record myself, it easily created musical moments that would have been impossible to capture in a normal studio recording setting. So not only was this the place where I chilled out and wrote alot of songs, but it ended up being the room where I recorded most of my first album. Hence, many hours crammed into it.

In regards to writing material, I personally feel there is no schedule for when you write. Maybe some people do that and it works for them, but I never ever think too hard on what I’m going to write about and when I’m going to write it. For example, I use to write a lot of lyrics down, but in the last year or so - usually when I get hooked on a melody for a couple of days and decide to have a go at recording it - the lyrics are the final step in completing the tune. In other words, the free associative method (recording lyrics on the spot) of writing lyrics works perfectly for me. You’ll be happy to know that this method of writing saves on the amount of paper being used.

Working alone is a wonderful environment when being creative. Having said that, some of my fondest memories of being creative are of times when I jammed ’til all hours in the morning with close friends. It’s not about being isolated or surrounded by lots of people. I feel a creative mind is a mind that feels comfortable with oneself in whatever environment they may be in. I could be stuck in a lift for hours and it might be the perfect place to write, yet I could be in a room full of every musical instrument you can imagine and not feel creative simply because I’m not feeling comfortable in my own skin. That’s just me.

Overall, what I like most about my own space is that it has helped me complete the biggest challenge in my life so far, the completion of my first album. Within the four walls of this tiny room, there was a period of time where I didn’t worry about what people thought of me or what they have to say about my music. What was beautiful about recording my album in the room, was that I was very much myself in my own little world.”

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Robotnik released the very catchy single ‘People Walk Away’ (video link in this post) in April, ahead of the release of his debut album Pleasant Square tomorrow, May 9th. He plays Upstairs @ Whelan’s on Saturday May 10th. Tickets are €15 and on sale from the WaV box office now. For more information, gig dates and tracks, visit www.myspace.com/robotnik.

About Musical Rooms
Musical Rooms Full Index

If ever there’s a writer who divides people it’s Michel Houellebecq, and quite often this divide occurs along gender lines, with most women loathing his work, accusing him of misogyny and objectification. I was in bookclub once, and we read Atomised (yet another of his books with a semi-naked, skinny girl on the cover). Two out of seven of us liked it (including me), and five absolutely loathed it. There were simply not enough words to describe how hated the book was, but a spirited debate was had.

Houellebecq’s portrayal of women is undoubtedly negative, and and now it seems that there might be an explanation, albeit a very Freudian one. In today’s Guardian, Houellebecq’s mother Lucie Ceccaldi is interviewed about her new memoir, and the fact that she abandoned her son as a child. No coincidence then, that the mother in Atomised who neglects her child in favour of a free love commune is called Ceccaldi.

Houellebecq’s mother disputes his claims of abandonment and calls him an “evil, stupid little bastard” and “a liar, an imposter, a parasite and above all - above all - a petit arriviste ready to do absolutely anything for money and fame.” He in turn has called her an “old slut of a mother”.

Ceccaldi is also Algerian, which makes you wonder if this could be a possible motivation for her son’s outspoken anti-Islamism.

Apart from one other woman (from aforementioned bookclub), I don’t know any other women who like his work. Is he just a man’s writer?

“I like any space that is void of other people and most furniture. But I like the option to sit, stand, or lay down while playing guitar. Since we are on tour much more than we are stationary, I don’t have much leeway to be specific, but the most I can hope for is that there is access to hot water for tea. And a bathroom. I like dim lighting in any situation, creative or otherwise. The last place I worked on a song was in a hotel in Carmel, California. Quality Inn. It was fantastic.

I always have my Gibson (acoustic) with me, as well as, my notebook and several good pens, because I lose them. And lots of guitar picks, for the same reason. Only when I feel a song is pretty complete will I borrow somebody’s Mac book and record it in Garageband to send to the fellows. What’s most important for me when I’m working is no clutter, no people, fresh fruit, hot tea. And wine sometimes. And a cigarette very rarely. And whiskey. Less rare than cigarette but still pretty rare.

I only write when I feel compelled to do so. I wish I wasn’t one of those people. The new record should be underway and I’m lying around in hotel rooms eating pistachiaos. I write all the songs alone and then present them to the band for their contributions and we work out arrangements. All my songs are quite autobiographical, so probably the writing starts when some shit has gone down. The songs dictate themselves - some refuse to be completed, some refuse to be good. If I do finish one, I play it over and over again, and then I walk away from it and if I still hum the melody or feel the urge to hear it again, I keep it. Then I demo the song`, or play it for the band, and we start to build it up from there. I’ll also send rough demos to Tucker our producer so he can start marinating as well.

To record, I use a borrowed Mac because I use Garageband minimally. I also use my guitar, my voice, my memory, but that is fading fast.”

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US folk singer songwriter Thao Nguyen released her second album We Brave Beestings And All earlier this year on Kill Rock Stars. She plays Dublin’s Crawdaddy tomorrow, Sunday May 4th. For more information, gig dates and tracks, visit www.myspace.com/thaomusic.

About Musical Rooms
Musical Rooms Full Index

From today, I’m delighted to say that the Musical Rooms will appear as an occasional column in The Ticket, in The Irish Times. People have been very supportive of the series since it started on the blog back in November. As I said in a comment yesterday, musicians who read it confess that it’s a bit like Through the Keyhole for them, without the nasally guided tour by Lloyd Grossman of course. Here’s some background on how it all started, and a full index of all 23 contributing acts to date.

Particularly recommended are Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip’s toilet, the
kitchen antics of this year’s Choice Music Prize winners Super Extra Bonus Party, James Yorkson and his stuffed heron, Adrian Crowley’s attic hideout and Dawn Landes’ New York recording studio.

The first Musical Rooms piece, featuring The Jimmy Cake, can found here in today’s Ticket.

“The only place I like to create music is always my house in New York - I’ve never been one of those folks who’s able to pick up a guitar and write music in a moving vehicle. The room itself is compact and small, it’s recently been painted the colour purple, and it’s tucked in at the edge of my house, with one window - the sunlight can take a while to make its way round the building, so it’s a fair bit darker than the rest of my home.

For a while there, it was all white walls, and it had nothing in it other than piles of random, small items and some instruments - but lately, I’ve felt the need to start working on it, getting it filled up with more things to bring in the warmth. A while ago, the most important thing to have in that space would have been candles, because the ceiling lights went out… but last month, my friend bought in a lamp.

I use a public internet connection from one of the cafe’s downstairs, which is next to my building - right now, that room is the only area in my house where my airport picks it up, so I’m in there a lot on the computer. My guitar has been staring at me lately, complaining that I don’t give it enough attention, which is true. I’ve always found myself writing music in the middle of the night -
there is something quite strange in the air during those hours that I like being a part of. Sometimes you can truly, only do the work alone, and sometimes you really need other people to be there with you, to bring their characters into your world. I think it depends on where you are at any given moment.

I like the fact that this room is not finished yet - and I get to make it into whatever it’s becoming.”

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Essie Jain released her debut album We Made This Ourselves on the reknowned Leaf label last month. Her soft, tapered vocals have been compared to Vashti Bunyan and the album consists of sparse pianos and percussion by Jim White (PJ Harvey, Dirty Three, Will Oldham). London-born, but based in New York, Jain has already completed a second album, The InBetween, due for release this month in the US. For more information, gig dates and tracks, visit http://www.myspace.com/essiejain.

About Musical Rooms
Musical Rooms Full Index

Thank you Paul Scholes for that magnificent goal (clip here, You tube have pulled lots of the good quality ones). It may have been his only Champion’s League goal this season, but Christ did it count. No thanks to United for causing me a mild coronary for the last 10 minutes of the match, when I was convinced Messi would nip in and score in the 93rd minute. Or worse, like Liverpool last week, that one of United’s own players would stick one in their own net.

It more than made up for last Saturday’s disappointing result. What a game though. Managed to get a ticket in with the United fans at Stamford Bridge, who never stopped singing. It was short sleeve weather and at least the United goal was scored at the end I was sitting.

Roll on the final on May 21st. Chelsea would be the lesser of two evils, but I think we’ll be meeting Liverpool after tonight’s game. I’m pre-ordering my Valium online as we speak.

I have it on very good authority that Stevie Wonder is playing some London dates later this year. Jim usually has advance gig news before anyone, so maybe he’s heard some insider whispering on whether the great man himself might stop off in Dublin for a gig?

My dad saw Stevie play the RDS in the early 1980s. He had either a 15 or 25 piece brass section with him, played for almost four hours and was apparently unbelievable. I’d love to see him live. More Songs in the Key of Life, and less ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’, of course.

In the meantime, here he is doing an incredible version of ‘Superstition’ on Sesame Street. They don’t make children’s TV like this anymore.

My my, it feels like 2005 around here. Why? I’ve just been tagged in a meme and I didn’t even know they existed any more. And you’d think Declan, with a brand new nipper on his hands, wouldn’t have time for this nonsense. In the spirit of randomness and nosily finding out things about six other bloggers, I’m in.

Here’s how it works:

Link to the person that tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about you in a blog post.
Tag six people in your post.
Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the taggee know your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

* I am a total geek for crosswords, puzzles, word games and Countdown. It’s me getting in touch with my inner granny.
* At some point in the future, I need to have my hip replaced. Long story.
* My one and only encounter with Bertie Ahern was interviewing him on Bloomsday in 2000. He pretended he’d read Ulysses, until eventually confessing he’d only read a bit of Dubliners. I was clad in 1904-era clothes at the time (borrowed from wardrobe in RTE).
* The first thing I ever got published (apart from Pat Ingoldsby reading out one of my poems on Pat’s Chat and I didn’t see it) was a letter to the United magazine railing against all the girls that wrote in asking what Lee Sharpe’s starsign was. I signed off huffily with “Most female fans are watching what players are doing with their legs, not their arses”. Harumph. It won star letter and a United jersey.
* There is very little foodwise that I won’t eat, but I have a virulent hatred of celery.
* I’ve physically felt the presence of people I know who are dead. With one person, it happened several times and felt like someone kneeling on my back. It never happened again after their Month’s Mind mass. NB. I once worked with a freaky guy who told me I had a gift around “newly dead people”. I haven’t been to many fortune tellers, but every one I’ve gone to tells me that I’m psychic and should tap into it. My great granny used to predict the future with playing cards and my granny used to see ghosts.

So I tag Aoife, Shane, Mish, Medbh, Grandad and Red.

Apologies if you’ve already done it/hate these things etc.

Last night on BBC Radio 3 Samantha Morton featured in a programme that might be of interest to anyone participating in Dreadful Thoughts. Words and Music examined various poems that have been inspired by the supernatural, with readings by Morton and Dominic West from The Wire. Poems by Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost are interspersed with music that also has ghostly associations, including Debussy, Kate Bush and Native American spirit flutes. Two other famous ghosts feature: Banquo from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the terrifying figure of Peter Quint from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.

It’s well worth a listen. More details on the show (including the music playlist) are available here.

The third Irish Book Awards were held last night, and there were some very worthy winners. Anne Enright picked up Novel of the Year for The Gathering and I was delighted to see Julia Kelly win Best Newcomer for her book With My Lazy Eye. Dermot Ferriter picked up three gongs for his book, Judging Dev, and William Trevor was deservedly awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Link: Irish Book Awards

Update: This week, Anne Enright was also entered into the Hennessy Literary Awards Hall of Fame. The winners of this year’s Hennessy New Writing Award for short story and poetry were announced last Monday at the same ceremony - not that anyone would know as they’re so badly publicised. Emerging Writer was on the shortlist and has a list (and some links to) the winners.