The Sigla Blog

It’s bad enough that United’s abyssmal performance last Saturday put them out of the FA Cup. Worse still, was that it was to Liverpool and that Alan Smith suffered a horrific broken leg and dislocated ankle which even hard-boiled Alex Ferguson described as “some of the worst I’ve ever seen”. Not only will these injuries […]

I’m a bit confused. I’ve been shortlisted in three categories in the Irish Blog Awards. I know from the feedback I got (via comments and especially emails) that the Anatomy as Destiny post struck a chord with a lot of people. As for Arts and Culture, I think I’m only in there because up until […]

Having missed Broken Social Scene at the weekend, I’m all geared up for a frenzy of great gigs in April. They’re all acts I’ve seen before but I’m really looking forward to seeing them all again. First up, on the 2nd are The Blue Aeroplanes, a much over-looked band of the last two decades. They’ve […]

Today is the last day to vote in the Irish Blog Awards. I’m nominated in three categories and toyed with the idea of blatantly including a blog awards banner here but thanks to my confounded un-techieness, I didn’t know how to. Colm Bracken has gone one further with his charming, but shameless electioneering but […]

Possibly in response to a Daily Record story that claims ‘Bond Plot Mirrors 7/7 Killing’, Sony Pictures Ireland have just issued a press release stating the following:

“James Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, categorically deny reports that the script of CASINO ROYALE bears any resemblance to the tragic death of the innocent […]

It may have taken Dick Cheney nearly 24 hours to disclose that he accidentally shot a friend while out on a hunting trip in Texas, but Cracked.com have been quicker off the mark with their ‘Dick Cheney:
A History of Violence’ photo cartoons.
I particularly like the one above.

It seems like no time at all since John Banville won the Booker Prize but the head of the 2006 judging panel has already been announced. It’s in the very capable hands of Hermione Lee, who first chaired the judging panel in 1981 when one of my favourite books of all time, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s […]

As promised in my mini anti-Valentine’s rant, here’s a piece a wrote for the current issue of Food and Wine Magazine called ‘Chocolate: The lore, the legend, the lies’.
Valentine’s Day, depending on your viewpoint, is either the most romantic day of the year or a bumper bonanza for florists and card-manufacturers. While some of us […]

Grizzly Man
****
In Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, a tousled blonde eccentric (Klaus Kinski) sets off into the heart of darkness on what becomes a journey of self-exploration. His quest to build an opera house in the South American jungle marks him as an idealist who is ridiculed and misunderstood. This equally applies to the subject of […]

Having already committed the wonderful Law by Wisconsin band Cougar to my premature albums of 2006 list, I’ve discovered another gem. Hot on the heels of the impressive Sun Sun Sun by The Elected comes another Sub Pop gem. Kelley Stoltz is a Michigan-born, San-Franciso dweller who favours piano and reminds me of The Beach […]

I don’t know whether it’s because of the James Frey/literary fakers post or because I’m a John Banville fan, but writer Kenneth J. Harvey emailed me his wry take on Banville’s Booker winnerThe Sea. It appeared in last Saturday’s (UK) Times and ponders whether “too much fact in Banville’s book raises questions about its authenticity […]

Ok, forgive the sensationalist title, but it’s not wholly inappropriate. Doesn’t a massacre involve an excess of red stuff? Well so does the once religious feast that is Valentine’s Day because every shop and newsagents is splattered with scarlet, dripping with vermillion. From red cuddly toys to shiny foil heart balloons, the feast […]