Down the stairs we go. Dark lights. Funky music. Cool dudes. Still shaking the wet from their clothes, they arrive in from New York, Berlin, Malta, Donegal. They've come to party on down, man. Weather notwithstanding, we want to wet the head of a newly-arrived entertainment and listings magazine, The Ticket.
The Morrison Hotel begins to sway to the beat as Gerry Godley, of the Improvised Music Company, jets in from Berlin, where WOMEX, the World Music Expo was in full swing. "Tuvan throat singing is the next big thing," he tells PR woman, Kate Bowe. This little-known country near Mongolia is creating a stir, he says, although he's unable to demonstrate this particular type of singing. "You've got to live it," he explains. Ah. "And you've got to gargle green Chartreuse." Ah. Honey and lemon doesn't quite work, it seems. And, "Cuba is still hot and Balkan music is coming in a big way." Meanwhile, playing rare groove at this gig is our DJ tonight, businessman Fergus Murphy, who seems to know the right tracks to play and the best threads to wear. In a red polo-neck and sporting a neat moustache, he spins D'Angelo on the turntable. Murphy runs Velure on South William Street with Paul Rooney and Colm Walsh, who are also here. Michael McHugh, the head of Corporate Sports and Leisure is here with his son, David McHugh, of Gaffney McHugh Advertising.
Hugh Linehan, editor of the new magazine, calls us to attention. We rally round. The new magazine will be "covering everything from theatre in Donegal to clubbing in Cork," he says. "Cultural activity, which means everything from grand opera to garage bands and from Shakespeare to slasher movies, is central to our lives," he tells us. It is. We nod. We are converts. Like a silent prayer we chant the chant - culture is central to our lives. "Let the canapes be served," says Linehan. There is great cheering and applause. Culture is like . . . champagne, but Ali Curran, director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, is missing her partner, actor Lalor Roddy, who's away in Belfast's Crumlin Road Courthouse doing Convictions, a series of playlets written by a series of writers. She is at the "cleaning up" stage of the festival, she says. The DFF's next project is a visual arts piece "which is our gift to the city", to be unveiled coming up to Christmas.
The Ticket is a new supplement to be included with The Irish Times every Wednesday. According to entertainment editor, Linehan, its overall aim is to improve the paper's service to readers "whom research has shown are the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience in the country for arts and entertainment in their many and varied forms." Really?
Linehan's wife, Janette Hamill, a Glenties woman and manager of UCD's audio visual centre, is here too. Hugh's brother, Fergus Linehan, director of the Dublin Theatre Festival, has also come along to join in the party. And just back from Donegal are Linehan's parents, Rosaleen and Fergus Linehan, where the revue, Rosie and Des Ride Again, has just finished a tour. "We had a ball," says Rosaleen.
Culture is central to our lives. There are culture vultures in every corner as the R 'n' B grooves wiggle themselves around the room. Justin Green, of MCD, is off to Stockholm to work on the MTV Awards shortly. In the meantime, Westlife are keeping him busy at home as they celebrate their seventh successive number-one single in the British charts. Niamh Barrett and Catherine O'Flaherty, two producers with Little Bird Films, are discussing the filming of Seven Days in the Summer, a documentary about the Brazilian writer, Paulo Coelho. O'Flaherty, in a plaid Moschino suit, who will produce it, is off to Lisbon to meet the man himself soon and begin the shoot. Culture! Sure isn't Kinky Friedman, the Texas Jewboy, playing in Vicar Street this week, as Barry Hartigan points out. What more could you want?