http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear Just another irishtimes.com weblog Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:46:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So, Offset has already kicked off and I'm only getting to post about it now. What can I tell you? It's been that kind of week. It may already be too late to attend this three-day conference in Liberty Hall bringing together illustrators, graphic designers, street artists and the like, among them ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/11/06/offset-your-weekend-and-your-carbon-footprint-will-follow/ No surprise to see Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol topping the list of Amazon.co.uk's 100 Bestselling New Releases for 2009, but what's this? Grow Your Own Drugs at number three? Not the recreational kind, mind, but still, it's a turn-up for the books (shocking pun intended) to find an ethnobotanist ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/11/03/amazons-top-100/ Well, there's the Impact longlist published, and with 156 titles on it, it's hard to know why they bothered. Eileen Battersby gives her summation of the lot here, though I think I'll wait till the shortlist appears myself. Meanwhile, there's my interview with Marsha Hunt, whose show Brown Sugar on ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/11/02/the-weekend-and-things-resulting-therefrom/ Feeling competitive AND creative? Why, look no further! Because Some Blind Alleys is running a banner competition, with €500 up gor grabs. Meanwhile, the entry window is closing for this Fish Publishing competition, with a first prize of €3,000. Poets have a little longer to submit their entry for this , ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/10/30/win-win-win/ Finally got to see Conor Horgan's exceptional debut feature, One Hundred Mornings, last night. Though set in a post-apocalyptic Ireland, this subtle, intelligent film focuses on the human drama played out among its four central characters rather than the science fiction future of a Western world that has somehow fallen ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/10/29/one-hundred-mornings/ As Gate Theatre Manager Michael Colgan once told me, the most important thing about running a theatre is getting bums on seats, not just for financial reasons, but "for the unfortunate, vulnerable, naked, worrying, getting sick before a performance, nervous, knee-knocking performers". Which is likely the impetus behind Take Your Seat, ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/10/27/bums-on-seats-and-other-poetics/ I'm away on me holiers, so won't be posting for a week or so, and I'm fierce glad about it, except for the fact that it means I miss the launch of Some Blind Alleys by Booker-winner Anne Enright tonight (strange how you only have to win that prize once to ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/10/16/some-blind-alleys-are-worth-a-diversion/ Whether you believe in the power of music to make political change or not,  tomorrow's concert, through a live-link to Gaza city where it will be broadcast on a big screen, is doing something else: letting those living in the beleaguered city know that they have not been forgotten, even ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/10/15/dublin-to-gaza-one-concert-two-cities/ Illustrationist Annie West gives Nobel prize winner Seamus Heaney the treatment (via Very Hungry Caterpillar) in this piece entitled Laureate. . . Because I'm Worth It. Share This http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/10/13/line-and-ink-literary-luminaries/ Darklight kicked off last night and the Court Yard in Smithfield was jammers - even William Blake made an appearance, in the heartfelt and inspiring words from head of the Canadian Film Board Tom Perlmutter. Did I mention there's plenty on, including this, which will be grappling with the question: ... http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2009/10/09/darklights-and-red-elves/