The Sigla Blog

* Who’s going? I’d like to know if anyone who links here, I link to, reads this blog, comments here or even lurks occasionally will be heading along. You may also want to take up That Girl’s suggestion of cocktails in the Merrion.
* We all know Twenty Major should, and will, win ‘Best Blog’. But […]

Today is International Women’s Day and Suzy has an excellent riposte to another post suggesting that in order to help women get top jobs they should be encouraged to take up public speaking or stand-up comedy.
The original post - which has a bit of a ‘lovely girls’ vibe about it - also advocates women setting […]

From one winner that didn’t deserve an Oscar to another who certainly did. Irish film journalist John Maguire has an excellent film blog at Maguires Movies and recently interviewed George Clooney in London. You can read how George has the ability to make girls (and boys) smile for no reason in this post.

It seems like the Orange Prize has been around forever, but the women’s fiction prize is a mere 11 years old. This year’s 20-strong list of hopefuls sees 10 British, seven American and two Australian writers longlisted. Tahitian writer Célestine Hitiura is also included. There are five first novels nominated alongside big names like Hilary […]

Ok, so I stole the title from his debut album, but the spirit of Frank Zappa is set to visit Dublin.
Dweezil Zappa, his brother Ahmet and The Zappa Family Trust will present Frank Zappa’s music in a gig at Vicar Street on June 4th. Apparently it’s the first ‘official’ gig of the legend’s music since […]

Thank goodness my brother has Sky Movies 1. He duly taped the Oscars and dropped the tape in this morning. That way, I got to see the show before it’s edited to shreds and fast forward through the boring bits. If I’m honest, I think this was actually one of the most tedious Oscars. One […]

Seeing as there’s been so much book chatter over the last couple of days, let me point you in the direction of a new discovery. Belfast-based Susan Tomaselli runs Dogmatika, a literary zine that includes book reviews, features, interviews and a blog that’s updated daily. It’s like a cross between the book section of the […]

Great to see that I’m not alone in my bookish obsession. Richard at Sicilian Notes, Colm, Fiona, Simon, Pete at Slugger, Treasa and Auds have all declared their bibliophilia. I love the quote Kevin offers from Gabriel Zaid as justification for book hoarding.

The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing […]

When it comes to books, I’m obsessive. Whether I’m broke, in a rush or sworn off accumulating more stuff to clog up my house, I can’t pass a bookshop without going in. I can spend hours poking around dusty corners scouring the mottled spines for something of interest. If there’s an upcoming Sale of Work […]

In the light of last week’s riots in Dublin, I thought it might be worth posting an article I recently wrote. The idea was to take a stroll through Dublin’s city centre on a Saturday afternoon to seek out people engaged in protests. I asked them about their various causes, their motivations and if […]