A round-up of today's other stories in brief
WORD ON THE STREET: iBabies
What it means: Be afraid, be very afraid. Parents are making the shock discovery that their cute little bundles of joy are not what they seem. They're iBabies, and they're smarter than you'll ever be. If you thought teenagers were tech-savvy, wait till you meet the new generation of tech-toddlers. Not only can they play games on your iPhone, they can also download the latest Apps, text their friends at playschool and post clips of their parents dancing to old Wham CDs on YouTube.
Where it comes from: When any new technology comes in, it's always the young folk who embrace it first. Our mums and dads needed us to show them how to set the timer on the VCR so they could record Only Fools and Horses. When it came to video games, teenagers had the fastest thumbs, but now we've created the ultimate early adapters, who can operate a smartphone before they can even talk. In response, developers are falling over themselves to create Apps especially for tots, but look at the upside – your iPhone can keep your little darlings amused for hours while you try and work out how to set the Sky Plus box.
How to say it: "OK, this iBaby thing has gone too far – little Emily has subscribed to ratemynanny.com."
Kevin Courtney
True Characters Willie White, theatre director
The first theatre experience that stands out in my memory is . .. a production of Home is the Heroin the Macra na Feirme hall in Abbeyleix when I was quite young. I marvelled at seeing people from the town that I knew pretending to be someone else and that it worked.
I get inspired by . . .Dublin. On my 20-minute walk to work I pass through so much culture and history and watch the new city taking shape.
I have acted in . . .lots of plays, while I was a member of UCD Dramsoc in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I also inveigled my way into a "cycle-on" role in Fair Citywhen I worked at RTÉ. More recently, I played the role of a straw man in a re-enactment of the Cabaret Voltaire, as part of an exhibition at Project Arts Centre.
I will be doing a lot of travelling . . .over the next few years as I am leaving Project Arts Centre, where I have worked since 2002, to take up a new job with Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival.
The best piece of work I ever saw . . .changes all the time. If put on the spot I'd say it was Pina Bausch's Nelkenin Edinburgh in 1996. I had never imagined that it was possible to do something like that on a stage.
And the worst . . .It wouldn't be fair to single out any one piece, as the bad ones were all terrible in their own unique way. It is said that the opposite of good (art) is good intention.
My guilty pleasure is. . . watching The Inbetweeners.
The funniest line I ever heard in the theatre . . .is in Samuel Beckett's Endgame. Clov asks "What is there to keep me here?" and Hamm replies "The dialogue".
If I wasn't working in theatre . . .I'd be trying to make films.
The effect of the recession on the arts . .. has been to cause us to reflect deeply on the value and the purpose of what we're doing and as a result to become stronger and more assured in communicating these.
The person who had the biggest influence on me. . . is my parents.
I have been moved to tears . . .watching people who have been previously denied a voice telling their story in the theatre.
My favourite thing to do after a night at the theatre is . .. to go home, as it has usually been a long day. The 7.30pm start time has helped a bit but there still aren't many places open late night other than bars. When I am going for dinner after a show I very occasionally visit the Trocadero, otherwise it's one of the many new Asian restaurants on Capel Street, Moore Street or Parnell Street. When I get home I might play the Wii to wind down, as I'm finished with The Wire.
The best theatre haunt in Dublin is. . . the bar at Project Arts Centre! Given that we host so many shows each year and that I see most of them, the bar is a great place to catch up with artists and friends and there's a good mix of people from art, theatre, dance and music. Our foyer, with its free coffee and free wifi, is also a big daytime haunt. Otherwise I've been a fan of the Sackville Lounge ever since Project relocated to the Northside for a few years in the late 1990s.
The next generation of Irish playwrights . . .I prefer not to think in terms of playwrights but theatre makers, some of whom may indeed write plays. Irish theatre is enjoying a renaissance at the moment with lots of exciting young companies like Brokentalkers, The Company, Theatre Club and Thisispopbaby making great work and reaching new audiences . As well as the next generation, I'll always be looking forward to a new Tom Murphy play.
2012 will be. . . even better.
Willie White programmes the theatre tent for Project Arts Centre at Mindfield at the Electric Picnic. He will take up his new role as artistic director of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival in September
In conversation with Sinéad Gleeson
Then & Now
HE WAS ONE half of the most successful pop duo of the 1980s, but while his former partner went on to become one of pop’s biggest solo stars, Andrew Ridgeley’s musical career stalled before it could even get started again. He wanted to go out with a Wham!, but instead he faded away with hardly a whimper.
As George Michael prepares to return to the stage (he's in Dublin's O2 in November), thoughts turn to his old sidekick, whose name in recent years has become synonymous with "the less charismatic one" or "the back-up guy for the real talent". "Cowen is the Andrew Ridgeley to Bertie's George Michael," one might have carelessly whispered at a Fianna Fáil think thank. "Arsene Wenger could have been George Michael and Pat Rice his Andrew Ridgeley," wrote an Arsenal blogger recently. Ridgeley, however, doesn't seem to mind being regarded as the lucky sod who rode the sidecar to superstardom in the 1980s. When Wham! burst on the scene with such hits as Young Guns (Go For It), Club Tropicanaand Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, they tapped into a dream world of sunny beaches, pool parties and sexy young things. The duo sold millions of records, toured the world (including becoming the first Western pop band to play China), and were all over MTV – usually wearing nothing but tight-fitting swim shorts. Ridgeley was parodied by Spitting Imageas a pair of dancing buttocks.
The party came to an end in 1986, when Michael decided it was time to ditch the bubblegum pop for a more adult contemporary sound. His debut solo album, Faith, became a worldwide smash, but Ridgeley's debut (and only) solo album, Son of Albert, was panned by the critics (one reviewer said his voice was as distinctive as "a loaf of bread"), and stalled in the very lowest reaches of the charts.
By that stage, though, Ridgeley was racing ahead with his other career – as a Formula 3 race car driver. He moved to Monaco, the mecca of racing, but his lack of success on the track led some to suggest that he was more interested in the sport's glamorous lifestyle than racing. But although he'd trousered a few bob from his time with Wham! (he still receives a substantial annual royalty from Careless Whisper, one of the few Wham songs he co-wrote), it was clear his playboy lifestyle couldn't last. In 1994, Ridgeley hooked up with a friend he'd met through George Michael – former Bananarama star Keren Woodward. The couple settled in a converted 15th-century farm in Wadebridge in Cornwall, along with Woodward's son Thomas from a previous relationship. Ridgeley took up golf and surfing, became a partner in a surf-equipment business, and enjoyed his new-found anonymity. After he and his brother became ill from raw sewage while surfing, he took up the cause of environmentalism, joining Surfers Against Sewage.
In recent years, Woodward has taken part in a Bananarama reunion, but when Ridgeley was invited to join George Michael onstage at his Wembley Arena shows in December 2006, he backed out at the last minute. He also turned down an offer to display those buttocks on Strictly Come Dancing.
Kevin Courtney
Whaddya know?
We hear of a number of restaurants open to the idea of BYOB . . . with minuscule corkage or sometimes no corkage at all. Next week we’ll list some of the brave souls making this brave gesture to lure us out of our lairs for companionable nights out. If you know of such a place, please let us know
Index
WHAT'S HOTRidiculed and derided by most of the pundits, the Connaught champions came to Croke Park and dispatched All-Ireland champions (and 11/2 favourites) Cork with a minimum of fuss. Were you watching Pat Spillane?
The Mayo football team
Dublin's fruit and veg marketIt's to get an artisan face-lift a la Cork's English Market. About time, too
Gay Byrne and Christy MooreBoth men are still at the height of their powers, as their recent seisún proved. We're all loving For One Night Only . . .
Hip DIY nailsFrom stripes to leopard patterns and "newsprint nails", US site Jezebel.com has great photo workshops to show you how
Sally HansenAir Brush Legs Cheap, it makes you look smart and you can get it in the supermarket. The can works upside down, somehow. What did we do without it?
'The Hour'Not quite Mad Men, but the BBC's 1950s TV show series makes us want blouses and pencil skirts even more
MetallicsIt's not quite autumn, but slashes of gold, bronze and silver are essential for your post-summer wardrobe
Kilkenny Arts FestivalTheatre, arts, music, books and all in one of our favourite cities
EdinburghYou don't need the Fringe as an excuse to visit. Go, go, go
Beastie Boys Action FiguresOwn your very own MCA, Mike D or Mike Yauch in miniature. Not cheap, but the money goes to children's cancer charities. From shop.beastieboys.com
WHAT'S NOTThe show featuring Dermot O'Leary and celebs giving marriage advice to the public has been axed from UTV
‘The Marriage Ref’
Kenny in cycling modeHe's the first Taoiseach since Jack Lynch capable of wearing cycling shorts, and he's not going to let us forget it
El BulliAdios, legendary Spanish restaurant, which closed its doors last weekend and will reopen in 2014 as a "creative centre"
Electric Picnic clashesPulp and The Family Stone are both playing Sunday at this year's festival. There will be tantrums if they're on at the same time
iPhone 5 rumoursIt'll be available in September. No wait, October! No hold on, that's only in the US. Just hurry up already, Apple
Natural gems
“Daragh Muldowney’s exquisite images speak first to the thrill of discovery shared by anyone whose childhood included rock pools – the first encounter with a truly wild world.” So begins Michael Viney’s introduction to Jewellery Box – Ireland’s Hidden Gems, a glistening book of photographs taken in 17 coastal counties, which includes the image on the right. Muldowney, who provides photography workshops for beginners and aficionados, is donating a portion of the profits from this book to Friends of the Earth, and is a perfectionist worth watching (see dulraphotography.com).
Patsey Murphy
Cafe society
Stephen Pearce’s studio, down a leafy avenue in Shanagarry, Co Cork, has a new cafe in situ where you will find homemade soups, toasties, cakes and cookies while you browse through the racks of terracotta and black and white earthenware pottery have been made for more than 50 years. Alongside the more familiar bowls, mugs, jugs and lamps is a range of contemporary tableware; his square plates perfect for tapas and other celebratory foods. Great to see this family business pottering on.
Depth of fields
Although the PhotoIreland Festival theoretically drew to a close last weekend, some excellent shows rumble on into this month.
In addition, the Belfast Photo Festival got underway on Thursday with Attention Seekers by Miriam O’Connor one of the highlights.
Meanwhile back in the capital, shows that linger and are recommended include the superb Marín retrospective at the Instituto Cervantes; Out of the Dark Room: The David Kronn Collection at Imma; Sommes-nous? by Tendance Floue Collective, at the Alliance Française; Blindschleiche und Riesenblatt by Anne Schwalbe at the Severed Head Gallery; and Versions and Diversions, curated by Karen Downey at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios.
The Long View, a show by established Irish photographers, continues also at the Gallery of Photography until August 28th.
Besides these mainstream shows are some very worthwhile smaller exhibitions – Sean Hillen’s show Ghost Shops continues until August 14th in its pop-up space above Base Camp, 108 Middle Abbey Street. Hillen’s take on the empty spaces left by closed retail units and the reflected streetscape behind (pictured above right) is clever and effective.
And in Dún Laoghaire’s Ferry Terminal, Sea Shift, a sensitive exploration of the relationship between the town and the sea by Christine Redmond (pictured far right), Margaret Brown (pictured right) and Dara Lawless is well worth seeing as it draws to a close this weekend.
The entrepreneur Bobby Kerr, a keen amateur photographer in his spare time, has a show called Africa – The Experience which has received a good reaction and continues until September 30th at Barista Cafe in Sandyford. Proceeds from print sales go to Habitat for Humanity and Crumlin Children’s Hospital. For full details of venues and times see photoireland.org.
Frank Millar
Let there be light . . . and space
It has an urban feel, this new interiors shop in Dublin city centre, in the style of a classic New York loft or Berlin apartment. Two Irish online businesses have joined forces to open Design Classics Lighting Living in what was the Sofa Factory premises in Mill Street, D8. Key pieces from Design Classics include reproductions by the likes of Le Corbusier, Eames, Mies van der Rohe, Eileen Grey, Jacobsen and Bertoia. Some “new classics” will be on show too, as well as carpets from Milliken.
David Cahill, who ran Spa Lighting from his base in Kerry, decided that sustained demand from the Dublin area justified opening a showroom to compliment his online business. He’ll be offering a range of designer lighting “for all budgets”. The street artist Solus was commissioned to create a piece for the showroom: it depicts a boy sitting on an upturned retro TV with the caption “Dopo Tutto . . . it’s only a bleedin’ chair’. He recently had an exhibition in Temple Bar called “Mis-spent Youth’.
Opening hours at Design Classics and Lighting and Living are 9.30am-5pm on weekdays, 10am-5pm on Saturday and 1pm-5pm on Sundays. Good to hear of an opening in these make-do times.
Patsey Murphy
Merci
Thanks indeed. The stylish simplicity of this paper carrier bag from Parisian concept store Merci, on boulevard Beaumarchais, meant that we couldn’t bear to throw it away. If you plan on visiting the shop, a treasure trove of all sorts of quirky and effortlessly cool fashions, accessories, interiors pieces and jewellery, note that unlike shops in the neighbouring Marais, it doesn’t open on Sundays. The proceeds from Merci, which was established by the Cohen family, founders of the Bonpoint children’s wear chain, go to children’s charities in Madagascar.
Marie-Claire Digby
