Bopping with Niall JP O'Leary

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Unfair and Wrong!
2007-09-14 20:06:00
Bertie Ahern tries to rememberThat's what Bertie said of the Mahon Tribunal. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Surely we should be thinking about getting a new Taoiseach given that the current one has so many problems remembering things. Is there anything he recalls from the past two years, let alone the last seventeen! Must be all those 'one-of-the-boys' pints in Fagan's.  And those lawyers he has. Funny how they insist on keeping all those details that would contradict the Tribunal's info to themselves. Perhaps they're saving it for another day, another tribunal. Have to think of the future! (Seeing as the past p...
More About: Wrong , Unfair

Typical!
2007-09-14 00:00:00
I felt woeful on the bus; cold sweating, aches, exhaustion,major discomfort. When I got off though and into the fresh air, and downed a Lucozade (I suspected low blood sugar or something) I rallied a bit. I came home. I have a headache and a temperature and aches all over, but I'm grateful that bus trip ended.  Ironically I had already booked tomorrow off. Now I'll be sick on it. Can't even manage to get a sick day properly! To cap things, the next door barbarians have decided to have a party (the street is crammed with cars). Can't a hypochondriac get some peace around here!  As I suspected, Ahern is getting away with things again. The state of affairs is pretty clear though no one seems to care. The poor old Tribunal. Crushed by the public's attention span.
More About: Pica

Sick
2007-09-13 17:33:00
Feeling pretty ill just now. Something started with me at work, but I've gotten worse on the bus. I might drop into the doctor on O'Connell Street.
More About: Sick

Mr Kolpert
2007-09-13 01:40:00
Bertie Ahern put on the grill at the Mahon TribunalI had heard that 'Mr Kolpert' tends to divide audiences; you either really hate it or really love it. What has surprised me is that I found that I am somewhere in the middle.  Borrowing very heavily from Hithcock's 'Rope', and so from a real life case in the forties, 'Mr Kolpert' puts us in a very unusual dinner party. A young couple, Ralf and Sarah, invite an older couple, Bastian and Edith, over for an evening's entertainment (or as they themselves stress, for their own entertainment). At the outset they claim to their guests that they have murdered the innocuous Mr Kolpert and put his body in a huge trunk that lies at the centre of the stage. The question of have they/haven't they takes up much of the play.  Once again the cast is excellent. Every role provides an opportunity to shine (even a small role like the pizza delivery man gives Peter Daly a good turn) and each actor takes their opportunity gam...
More About: Pert

Waiting for Mr Kolpert's Pizza
2007-09-13 00:43:00
Bertie Ahern with his associates from the building industryIn 'Mr Kolpert', a contemporary German black farce, pizza is delivered. Unfortunately the real pizza - a necessary prop - was not delivered on time, so as I write I am in the foyer fo Smock Alley Theatre waiting for the doors to open. See you after the show.  20 minutes now and no pizza (no coverage either hence this not being posted in real time).  25 mins. The pizza should be free (and so should our tickets). If Jan's out after this, I'll join her for a drink. I'm running the risk of missing my last bus at this stage anyhow.  30 mins. If I'd known I was coming I'd have baked a cake, or my own pizza. At this stage the straight from the freezer variety would be quicker. Or maybe they should have gone for an Indian. Or a Chinese. Or for that matter a Mongolian, actually from Mongolia. I'm starting to get hungry.  35. This is well beyond the farcical.  We're in! 37 mins!
More About: Pizza , Waiting , Wait , Pert

Burn Out
2007-09-12 01:18:00
You know it's a bad day when your pc cd drive refuses to open; when the web server you work with stops; when that bloody website that that bloody school set up remains sabotaged by Frontpage; when you have to turn voicemail on just so that you can get some work done. Yes, one of those days when as Karen puts it (sung in singsong), 'Somebody needs a hug!' Hugs are not too common in my line and wouldn't help much anyway. The foul adversary is that by which we live, that which pays my salary, that which allows me to write to you this moment: COMPUTER! Destroy the digital demon! Oh, for the days of tin cans and string! I jest, of course (...of course, of course, of course). Mighty hail the ubermachine! I just wish I wasn't so intimately involved. Sometimes anyhow.  Bertie Ahern at the Mahon TribunalSpeaking of foul adversaries, Ahern looks like getting away with all that money business. Yes, Mr Wall, of course you don't remember how much you gave him (of course, o...
More About: Burn , Burn out

Two Days In Paris
2007-09-09 18:57:00
Following on the heels of 'Paris Je T'Aime', 'Two Days in Paris' is another chance to savour the best of things French. Several times throughout the credits we are reminded that this is a Julie Delpy movie, and never has a truer word been spoken given that she directs, writes, edits, scores and stars in the movie. She even writes and performs some of the songs. I imagine she would have liked to play all the parts too, but must settle with a role for her father.  It's a slight story. A young couple, an American man (Adam Goldberg) and a French woman (Julie Delpy), returning to New York after a trip to Italy, stop off to visit her Parisian parents. As Delpy meets old friends and lovers, Goldberg, alienated by the French from the outset, begins to question how well he actually knows his partner. Will their love survive?  Slight or not, Delpy does a great job with the script, and manages to give Goldberg lines that would do Woody Allen proud. Given the pervasi...

Shock Proof!
2007-09-08 18:24:00
Can you believe I only discovered today that Tarantino will be in Dublin on September 14th for the premiere of 'Death Proof '! It appears the Dublin Film Festival is bringing him over for a Q&A, a mighty coup for the new organiser, and my old classmate, Grainne Humphries. Given that the Festival won't be on until January, it's probably stretching things a little to be claiming it as a festival event, but good luck to you Grainne! Now can I have a ticket?
More About: Shock

Did I mention...
2007-09-08 17:59:00
...I have a bottle of Jaeger in my bag?

Canned!
2007-09-08 17:56:00
I went into the local off-license to buy my party cans. Carlsberg seemed fine, so I reached for the tempting six-pack. I tugged, but they resisted. I tugged again and this time they eased out. I was home free! Then one exploded!  My arm drenched, right now I smell like a bum, which is what I am. (That's an alcoholic bum, by the way.)  After that it was par for the course when I got short changed by a quid (actually by an American) buying my bus ticket. How's them apples for omens! The party's shaping up well.

Tin the Spammers!
2007-09-08 16:10:00
I've had to start deleting and reposting old posts because of spam 'comments' for some marketing thing. I really don't want to start moderating comments, but I'll probably have to start if this continues.I noticed today a big piece on the Rep Experiment's experiment in the Irish Times. No reviews yet though.The other night after 'Platonov', I joined cast and crew for a drink in Sin E. A good, and late (for a school night), night, but, though I had relatively little to drink, I suffered the next day (I still have a residual headache). Surely a sign of age. That or bad beer. To compound matters, in an hour or two I head off to Will from work's house for a rugby party. An opportunity for him to show off his HD tv, it should be a good night. I dread my head in the morning though.Earlier I was reading about upcoming movies and discovered my anti-remake fervour growing. What right has Rob Zombie, a man of impeccably bad taste (I am not a fan of his torture porn rubbish),...
More About: Spammers

Platonov!
2007-09-08 16:07:00
Thursday night it was the first preview of the Rep Experiment's , 'Plato nov'. With respect to everyone involved, I'd been expecting the worst from this the very earliest Chekhov play. This was the first night for the show too, so hiccups should have been expected. I was more than pleasantly surprised. This holds together, and together very well! I know there has been a lot of paring down of the original 4 and a half hour play, but one has to wonder what could be added. The story is fairly basic. Platon ov, a once promising intellectual, winds up as a teacher in a small town. He enjoys a certain imposed celebrity in the community and women tend to find him irresistible. He's not averse to taking advantage of his charm and when an old flame appears on the scene married to his friend, trouble looms. Steadily he tangles himself up in a dramatic web of passion and betrayal. It's not revealing to much to say that Chekhov's infamous gun gets an outing. Platonov is his own nemesis, a ...

Paris Je T'Aime
2007-09-06 19:34:00
This entry was written last night hence the skewed references to 'tonight' etc..  Only getting one screening a day, I suspect 'Paris Je T'Aime' will finish its run tomorrow. I thought then that I'd take the opportunity to finally see it tonight.  It's an anthology piece, comprised of many (short) short films directed by and starring a mixture of European and American talent, form directors like Tom Twyker and the Coen Brothers, to stars like Americans, Nathalie Portman and Nick Nolte, and Frenchies like Fanny Ardant and Juliette Binoche.  Shorts can either be anecdotes or mood pieces and there is a predominance of the former here, with tales like the Coen Brothers's film with Steve Buscemi or Gus Van Sant's weak language joke coming down firmly on the anecdote side. Anecdotes entertain, but rarely go deeper. Some tales here do carry some weight though, examples being Walter Salles' tale of a child minder, and Oliver Schmidt's piece on an immigrant...

No Bugs in this 'Metamorphosis'
2007-09-05 19:10:00
I awoke today to find I'd turned into an enormous insect. Sorry, wrong blog.  The Dublin Fringe Theatre Festival is upon us. Janet's featuring ina bold experiment to stage three plays with three directors, but featuring the one cast and crew. The three plays include an early work by Chekhov, 'Platonev'; a black farce with more than a hint of Hitchcock's 'Rope' called, 'Mr Kolpert'; and 'Metamorpho sis ', an adaptation of Kafka's classic story by Stephen Berkoff. Previews for all three are currently on, and last night (after a better than expected meal in Tante Zoe's), I took myself along to 'Metamorphosis'.  The venue, Smock Alley Studio, is also the former church where I was christened. I must confess, nostalgic though this made me, I couldn't say the place had changed much, given that I couldn't remember how it once was to begin with. Certainly the basement, with its crumbling brick walls, suited the play well. The sparse design (stools and subd...
More About: Bugs , Tamo , Morph

Breach
2007-09-05 18:37:00
Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction.   'Brea ch ' tells the story of how the biggest security breach in U.S. history was finally plugged. For 22 years senior FBI agent, Robert Hanssen, passed secrets to the Russians, informing them, among many other things, of the identity of U.S. spies in their midst. This led to deaths and untold damage to the U.S. intelligence agencies.  Writer/director, Billy Ray, is no stranger to true life tales, nor plausible cheats, having last tackled the scandal of a reporter making up his own stories for <em>The New Republican</em> in the excellent 'Shattered Glass'. 'Breach' is just as robust. With an excellent cast anchored by a magnificent Chris Cooper (even Ryan Phillippe shakes most of his Keanu Reeves mannerisms), Ray paints a picture of American 'Intel' that seems real, and for this reason it is never less than interesting. However, it is probably because of this that the audience never gets really revved up...

1408
2007-09-04 19:13:00
When reviewing a new Stephen King adaptation, the standard thing to do is point out the hit and miss nature of the many adaptations that have gone before. That's the extent of my bowing to tradition on that score; point given. The latest addition to this canon, '1408', is the tale of a debunker of the paranormal staying in a purportedly haunted hotel. Received wisdom (and something King himself often agrees with) is that King takes standard tropes of the horror genre 6 vampires in 'Salem's Lot', a haunted house/hotel in 'The Shining' - and injects new blood into them. Here is another case in point.The tale of the sceptic spending a night in a haunted room is an old one ( tales by W.W. Jacobs, Sir Walter Scott, and W. H. Hodgeson immediately come to mind). However, this is a gross simplification of King's work, and he has come up with more than his fair share of original stories too - a possessed car in 'Christine', a rabid St Bernard in 'Cujo'. His haunted places ...