The Sigla Blog

Birthdays rock. As someone who generally forgets to take days off, being “another year older and deeper in debt” is no greater reason to bunk off for a birthday lunch with some friends. This year’s actual birthday (today) was preceeded by a Friday night out (who wants to tackle town on a Monday night?) to […]

First things first - there are two reasons this post will be short:
1) I started it on Monday and have been working like a Dickensian chimney sweep so abandoned it at a couple of lines intending to get back to it.
2) Today, after notching up lots of links, posts and general natter on the […]

Tuppenceworth takes up the story of MCD, Oxegen and libel. Even though the Irish Independent published an article last weekend entitled “How we feared for our lives at Oxegen . . . festival-goers relive their nightmare” and various other sources have reported on the alleged downside of the festival, it seems that

Confound whoever started this trend for ‘best albums by the middle of the year’ list stuff. I’m happy enough with end of year polls, but now even the esteemed allmusic.com is getting in on the act.
Some genuine lists have popped up in the last couple of weeks. The UK album chart is 50 years old […]

Maya Jaggi discusses The African Novel after her experience as a judge of this year’s Caine Prize for fiction, which is seen as the African equivalent of the Booker Prize. One of Jaggi’s favourite stories (which wasn’t the winner) was The Last Trip by Nigerian author Sefi Atta, about a Ugandan drug mule. Needless […]

For all the flak RTE has taken recently for axing John Kelly’s Mystery Train and Rattlebag, there is one thing it has consistently gotten right and is still way ahead of its competitors on - archiving shows. Admittedly not every show is archived but you can listen to two years worth of Rattlebag […]

What the hell was going on with yesterday’s Observer Food Monthly? Last week I got the Observermail (which gives you a sneak preview of what’s coming up in Sunday’s paper), and it mentioned the Food mag would feature Nigel Slater’s ‘Taste of Summer’. Good stuff, I thought to myself, already looking forward to lots of […]

I’ve just started Irvine Welsh’s new book which opens at a Clash gig and after last week’s writers & musicians piece about Brian Eno and Michael Faber, I spotted a piece in the UK Independent during the week about music in literature. The article namechecks Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Vikram Seth’ s An Equal Music, Ann […]

The Guardian has some fantastic book stuff today including an extract from John Updike’s new novel, Terrorist, Granta’s Ian Jack mourns the demise of a book that always fires his imagination - The National Rail Timetable. It also has an essay by George Saunders on his first trip to Britain. I […]

What ever happened to Kevin Smith? Now, I haven’t seen Clerks 2, but I have to admit I’m not optimistic about it. I loved the first Clerks, Mallrats and even Chasing Amy (tolerable mostly thanks to Jason Lee) had its moments, but Dogma was a disaster and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was joke-free […]

Given the fact that quality radio shows (especially music ones) are dropping like flies lately, the imminent arrival of Phantom is a source of much anticipation around these parts.
Although no one knows exactly when the station will launch, there are plans afoot to ask music fans what they’d like to listen to. On Monday […]

For anyone who didn’t get to see Sufjan Stephens in the Village last year, fear not. Now you catch him in a proper venue, The Olympia, on November 1st. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning but be warned, it’ll probably sell out thanks to Ray Darcy playing Chicago from Illnoise to death of late on […]