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Martin Finnegan
For those outside either outside the motor-racing scene or its heartland areas, the death of Martin Finnegan at the Tandragee 100 last weekend may not really register. To get a sense of how big a figure he was in a sport that gets little coverage despite its popularity here, I’m posting a couple of videos of the convoy that brought him home to Lusk on Monday.
It takes a full five minutes for the convoy to pass in the first clip. The second shows the reception given to him by the people of his home town, Lusk.
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Next up, Bosco does Bertie…
This is brilliant mash-up between Rainbow and Newsnight’s London mayoral candidates’ debate.
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Microsoft destroys Springsteen’s legacy
Brock Landers has pointed us towards this Microsoft internal video about how great Vista SP1 is. The payoff lines:
“Wow, Microsoft’s sales team rocks!”
“And we’re gonna keep rockin’ with SP1″Dress down Fridays must be a hoot in there.
Be warned, many PC users may feel a sudden urge to throw their computer out of the nearest window.
UPDATE: Microsoft says that it is a spoof aimed at “building staff morale”. Not sure where the news is in this, as it’s clearly a spoof. Just a terrible one.
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Blowing up Dublin. Again.
As Jazz Biscuit spotted already, there’s been a full follow up to the teaser on YouTube which showed Poolbeg power station being flown into by a plane. It’s made by Luke Leslie and David Lester. If you’re in an office, be warned. As the continuity announcers say, there is bad language in heavy southside accents from the start.
The short posted after it is also by DLMFilms. Defending Chavez does not blow anything up. In fact it’s only two people arguing about Hugo Chavez.
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Mayo: tucked away in a corner of civilization
In 2003, a Danish film-maker identified a Co Mayo village as one of the three places in Europe farthest from an airport, and made a film about it and the two others towns (in Serbia and Sweden).
All sounds good, until you realise that he doesn’t seem to have counted Knock International Airport as an airport. Whoops. Didn’t he realise that the Virgin Mary wouldn’t put in a promotional appearance for nothing?
Anyway, the resulting film – a gentle affair – has popped up on YouTube. Warning: this film features occasional clichés.
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Anchor vs Reporter
Here’s a clip from a few years ago in which a New York news anchor and the on-the-spot reporter have something of a disagreement live on air.
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Something for the weekend: JJ Abrams’ Mystery Box
This week, I posted about TED.com and I posted about Lost. So here’s JJ Abrams, creator of Lost, giving a lecture to TED. (It’s called synergy, folks.)
He talks about why he loves mystery, how much easier it now is to throw someone into an airplane jet engine, and why the best scene in Jaws doesn’t have a shark in it.
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Bertie hangs on; satire attempts to keep pace
The one thing that can be said for the epic saga of the Tribunals is that it’s filling YouTube with content (well, 0.0034% of YouTube anyway).
Because satire is dead on Irish television and radio, here’s the latest online attempt at summing it all up in a snappy tune.
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Blowing up Dublin
This video is obviously going for the Cloverfield factor in a big way, and it could be accused of lacking taste, but, whatever it’s selling, the novelty value comes from blowing up a bit of Dublin. Next up, a giant monster demolishes Liberty Hall.
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“Hey McCoille, where’s your pot o’gold?”
Some observations from the US primaries:
- Cathal McCoille must have wanted to slap down the American chap this morning who told him on Morning Ireland that he knew a lot for an Irish man. “Hey, aren’t you a clever little leprechaun. Do a jig.” This guy had already arrived on the show by saying hello to the “emerald isle”.
- The New York Times cuts to the chase on its website and just gives its readers the results first.
- Of the many US campaign ads, this has the oddest catchline. It’s like something off a low-calorie chocolate bar (“Choconums: surprisingly moist”). Although, it would be fun to see an ad of this type on Irish television. “Willie O’Dea: surprisingly bitey.” “Enda Kenny: surprisingly evil.” etc.
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Vote for what’s-his-name!
This video from Ron Paul Supporters in Ireland popped up on YouTube this week. If you don’t know who Ron Paul is, this attempts to point out why. It complains that the US presidential candidate has got little coverage here; that you would assume there were only two candidates in the race.
It has a point, although this video isn’t interested in examining the context. This isn’t the Irish election, in which the media follows rules about bias. Instead, the Irish media concentrates on the stories that interest them and – they presume – the public. Still, even in its blunt way, it raises an interesting issue.
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Lorcan, meet Corey
Brock gets in touch to say, “Just when I began to despair for the youth of today, after watching Lorcan from Dundalk, I think I’ve found a new hero”.
And here is that hero. An Australian kid whose party got so out of control, his parents face a fine of €20,000 when they get home from holiday. His name is Corey, and he has confidence. He also has “famous glasses”.
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Selection box
1. The latest Dublin Review of Books is online.
2. Curry Chips is back. But the Dolores O’Riordan fans are not amused. (more…)
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Journalism class: Day one, lesson one
When you interview John Cusack, don’t confuse him with Kevin Spacey.
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Selection box
The questions that Slate’s ‘Explainer’ didn’t answer this year.
Shock news: some, but not all, people Google themselves, and other people
The Onion cuts to the chase on the whole Harry Potter nonsense.
P Diddy’s perfume is called Unforgivable Woman. Rejected alternatives: “Fallen Woman” and “Harlot”.
Time may be running out. Literally.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have had enough of the writers’ strike and are going back on air.
Will Smith’s next movie is I Am Legend (read the book, it’s brilliant). Then it’s a “homeless superhero” flick that’s likely to be pretty terrible.
Dublin looks very well today and this makes it look positively funky (I posted it in July, but I can show it now, so up it goes).
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The Simpsons: still beautiful
OK, so it’ll never be as great as it used to be, but the episode aired in the US this week proved that it can still have its great moments. Here, it parodies the “picture a day” guy.
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Ronald Jenkees
The web’s man of the moment is Ronald Jenkees, who Nat King Coleslaw points out
initially looks and sounds like Benny Hill does Deliverance
Which makes him an unlikely funk icon – but that’s what he’s become. Nat has posted his riff on the Rocky tune.
Is he real? His first video blogs, over a year ago, suggest he’s developed his “character” since. Whatever the truth of it, he’s on iTunes and blogs are all-a-twitter, so he’s funking all the way to the bank.
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