The Sigla Blog

After picking up the Guardian yesterday for the third installment of The Great Poets series (Sylvia Plath, with a wonderful intro from Margaret Drabble), I spotted this this story:

“For men across Europe there is now an alternative to waiting in line, wrestling with a telephone operator or double-, triple-, quadruple-clicking on an unresponsive website. Yes, […]

One of the bands that remind me most of my time in college are Stereolab. Everyone was listening to them obsessively and fawning over their gorgeous skewed rhythms, all Gallic flourishes and breathy vocals. Well, most of the boys were fawning over singer Laetitia Sadier, but she wasn’t just a pretty face. A great lyricist, […]

Dreadful Thoughts kicked off on Monday and was lots of fun (we’re looking for suggestions for the next ghost story to discuss, so please get in touch). No one tells a creepy tale like MR James and this week I discovered that his collection The Haunted Doll’s House has been co-opted into an interesting […]

Starting today, for the next seven days, the Guardian is giving away free booklets on The Great Poets of the 20th Century. Each booklet features several works by each poet, an introduction by a literary figure, archive reviews and reproductions of original manuscripts.
Today it’s TS Eliot, and the other featured poets are Auden, Plath, […]

“I mostly get the best ideas while walking, traveling by train, or in an elevator. Therefore I always have something to write with with me and I whistle or sing sketches on my mobile phone. I even had situations in a supermarket kneeling in the floor and making very fast sketches of a score for […]

Don’t forget that Dreadful Thoughts kicks off tonight at 8pm. All you have to do is read M.R. James’ ghost story ‘Whistle and I’ll Come To You, My Lad’ (online here:) and join us over on Fústar later to share your thoughts.

The lovely people at Tripod have stumped up a fantastic prize to give away - a double pass to see not one, but FOUR gigs taking place over St. Patrick’s Weekend.
Gig 1: Felix Kubin - Friday March 14th, Crawdaddy, 11.30pm
Gig 2: The Fall - Sunday March 16th, 7.30pm
Gig 3: The Flaws - Monday March […]

The Arts Show on RTE Radio 1 has been on a roll this past week. On Monday there was an interview with Junot Diaz about his new book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao . I can’t remember the last time a book was so hyped in the US before hitting these shores, […]

Hilarious stuff from Harry Enfield’s Television Programme, partly inspired by:
a) today is International Women’s Day. Celebrate it.
b) the kind of spam mail that pops in Shane’s letterbox. Did you know that empowerment can be yours for an IWD discounted rate of €125?
c) many conversations about women, men, motherhood, mothers, feminism, blogging etc I had with […]

Should there be a women-only music award? Read Anthea McTiernan’s article in today’s Ticket and join the debate on Jim’s blog.
My comments posted over yonder:
“In literary terms it’s been done with the Orange Prize, and while I think there is much merit in women-only spaces/events, I don’t know if a lot of women are comfortable […]

Today is World Book Day so here are 10 random book-related links:
1) You’ve watched the TV programme, now read the book: Boy A has won the inaugural Books to Talk About award announced to coincide with WBD.
2) Eloise Miller reminds me how much I loved Lolly Willowes. Must dig that out and reread it.
3) […]

This morning’s post brought a couple of packages that were sent to The Irish Times for me. One is from a US Management company and concerns a young singer/songwriter they would like to bring to my attention. Having gone to the trouble to get a journalist’s name rather than sending in a CD randomly and […]