The Sigla Blog

A combination of working in town and being away for a wedding have kept me away from blogging, but That Girl asked what I thought of the recent RTE schedule changes so I’ll do my best to respond in the time I have for lunch.
Anyone would assume that as I’m a regular Rattlebag contributor, that […]

Last week a friend told me that they had seen Flight 93. When I asked if they’d been to the press show or seen it in the US, they told me they’d rented it in X-travision.
Hmmm. I thought wasn’t out until June but it seems I’m not alone in my confusion as Gavin made […]

One of my many current musical distractions is the rather addictive Hot Chip album. I’ve been listening to a lot - and now you can too thanks to the folk at EMI making the album available to listen to online.
Knock yourselves out.

Since Thursday, I’ve also been listening to the new Divine Comedy album, Victory for the Comic Muse. From the first listen, it sounded like something special, proving that Neil Hannon (who also produced it) just hasn’t run out of momentum after so many albums. Apart from the fact that it’s end-to-end fantastic - with […]

Today I had what I can only describe as a unique cinema experience. I went to see Paul Greengrass’ United 93 and I have to say I’m still feeling the effects. When the credits rolled, my stomach did exactly the same thing and for a couple of hours afterwards, I felt queasy and unsettled. […]

I don’t have time today to review Once in a Lifetime but Harry Guerin has a spot-on review over on the RTE site. The documentary charts the ephemeral life of New York soccer team The Cosmos. Built from scratch as a result of the vision of one man - Warner Music boss Steve Ross - […]

After posting a Da Vinci Code review earlier this week, I went trawling to see what other people were saying about the film. I can’t believe Roger Ebert, one of the world’s best known and esteemed film critics actually likes it. He even calls it “preposterously entertaining”. Were we at the same film? A dedicated […]

This week Niall and Padraig have been sharing their new listening pleasures with us (delighted to see they’re both Mice Parade fans) so, I thought I’d do likewise. This week, my ears have been soaking up the following:
* the catchy, can’t-help-but-like-it Hot Chip
* Si Schroder’s excellent debut
* an album from last year I keep […]

As mentioned in my Da Vinci review, Ron Howard makes very particular kinds of films and often surrounds himself with the same personnel. So forgive me if I’m a bit perturbed to hear that Brian Grazer, a producer who has worked with Howard on several films (including the Da Vinci code), is going to be […]

For anyone (including Pete from Slugger) who didn’t make it to Cúirt in Galway last month, Rattlebag will be broadcasting a public interview with Chuck Palahniuk. He’s the author of Fight Club, Invisible Monsters and Haunted, a short story collection containing ‘Guts’, a story that usually gets them fainting in the aisles at readings (last […]

When it comes to film publicity, nothing equals The Da Vinci Code for such a long lead-in PR campaign. Even a year ago, Sony were trotting out almost daily publicity stories of dubious news merit (”Tom Hanks has ham sandwich every day of shooting!”, “Audrey Tautou delighted to ditch that Amelie hairdo for flowing Da […]

I’m back from RTE and the throat held out for our Da Vinci chat on The View. My bladder is now facing payback for all the hot drinks I’ve forced down me to keep the throat shutting down. As fate would have it, Colm has posted an updated version of the image from Father Ted […]