Planet Limerick

March 10, 2010

Bock the Robber

Indie Limerick

Bob Dylan to play Limerick

Incredible news Bob Dylan is to the 4th artist to perform at the hallowed ground of Thomond park. What great news for the city! To have such an amazing artist play in your own back yard. Bob is here on the 4th of July. Saw him last year at the O2, review here : http://indielimerick.blogspot.com/2009/05/bob-dylan-live-at-02-dublin-050509.html

Tickets are €81.25, €70.70 & €60.00 Euro Seated & €65.70 GA on sale Monday March 15th @ 9am through Ticketmaster and other usual outlets nationwide. Booking Line: 0818 719 300.

by IndieLimerick (noreply@blogger.com) at March 10, 2010 07:24 PM

Bock the Robber

Unfair to Pick on Church Over Child Abuse, Says Bishop Christy Jones

Most of the abuse is committed in the home, says bishop, not by priests.


by Bock at March 10, 2010 06:15 PM

Munster’s Good Friday Rugby Game

Munster - Leinster clash in Limerick set for a day when all the pubs are closed


by Seconds Out at March 10, 2010 05:35 PM

Indie Limerick

Fionn Regan live at Dolans 06/03/2010 REVIEW

I last witnessed Fionn two years ago on a freezing cold November night. The gig was on upstairs, which became way too packed and I was dying with the flu, but despite this I went away from that gig extremely satisfied and in a great mood. If an act can do that to you when you’re feeling utterly miserable, they must have something special. Review here http://indielimerick.blogspot.com/2008/11/fionn-regan-upstairs-dolans-23112008.html

Fionn's debut album "The End of History" is one of those albums that you find yourself returning to at least once a month. You can’t help but fall in love with the songs and stories that he weaves. It’s been a long, anxious wait for his second album for fans - four years to be precise. However, in this time Fionn didn’t just rest on his laurels and twiddle his thumbs, he has been recording feverishly since the debut.
If anything this follow up record is actually his third. The original successor to the debut was recorded by Ethan Johns and subsequently turned down by the record company. This is reminiscent of when Ryan Adams had trouble releasing his 2004 album "Love is Hell", in the end releasing the album on his own independently. Funnily enough, the record company at the centre of both these entanglements was "lost Highway". Also Ryan had worked with Ethan John several times.
Fionn's story is quite similar. He went off to produce a new second album by himself using the labels Heavenly Records (UK) and Universal Records (IE). The result is "Shadow of An Empire", which strikes a stark contrast with the mellow acoustic feel of his debut. The new direction taken by Regan conjures comparisons with ‘Dylan going Electric’ if you like, but there is nobody yelling Judas at this songwriter. This album sees Regan’s meandering storytelling reinforced with the power of a full band. Indeed, the move from solo song-smith to the company of band members seems to have had an impact on the songs themselves, which move from classic acoustic moments to powerful, intensified bursts of electricity. Quite simply, it’s just an amazing album from start to finish which still holds the troubadour’s charm of storytelling and his unique viewpoint on life. Much like the contrast in albums, tonight sees a contrast in gigs as two years on we see Fionn take stage in the warehouse with a full band - the only thing staying the same is the Congregation who have gathered patiently.


The support act, “Danny & The Champions of the World” take to the stage. The five-piece play a lovely foot stomping set of six songs mainly taken from their new release “Streets of our Time”. Throughout the set, the familiarity of the singers voice had me searching for a comparison and then it hits me - A gravely Jon Bon Jovi – had he gone down the folk rock route. Their sound reminds me of Okkervil River mashed with Arcade Fire and a dash of the Gaslight Anthem. I picked up a copy of their latest offering and its well worth checking these guys out for yourself here: http://www.myspace.com/dannyandthechampionsoftheworld1. As they finish their set they tell us they will see us once more in the guise of Fionn’s backing band!

Danny & The Champions of the World Set List :
Henry the Van
Restless Feet
Lose These Rags
Red Tree Song
These Days
Follow the River

On comes Mr.Regan to rousing applause. The perennially quirky singer is oozing an air of kookiness that comes with the territory, sporting a winter hat not out of place outside a ski lodge aloft his now trademark bowl haircut. He is also fashioning what looks like an extravagant pearl necklace.
The first song is one from his debut album. However, all these songs are getting a big band make-over as the previous acoustic “Hey Rabbit” is now met with sweeping drums, keyboards and tambourine. This happens throughout the night as all the debut albums songs get mini make-overs. The new album sounds absolutely brilliant live. The first from the new offering being showcased was that of “Coathook”, this was my instant favourite from “The Shadow of an Empire”. It boldly hits you hard and really shows how Mr-Regan can be excellently diverse. The big band progression has worked so well and the potential of this album has truly been realised on stage. Fionn interweaves both albums in the set, five songs in and he opts to play solo for “Put a Penny In the Slot” before being joined by the band once again and blasting into “Violent Demenour” - another massive song from the new album with an infectious chorus that will have you singing it in your head for days. Another five songs later they retire back stage before returning for a two song encore. The set list billed “Shadow of an Empire” as the first of the two but a member of the crowd requests the delightful “Little Nancy” as she herself has one of her own at home. The band leaves fionn to play an almost tear jerking version of “Be Good or be gone”. He turned off the amps to play the last few lines acoustically with the whole crowd joining in. There was not a hair lying down on anyone’s neck I reckon. He is surely one of the best home grown talents that Ireland has ever had. Thank you for such a great night.


Fionn Regan's Set List
Hey Rabbit
House Detective
Coat Hook
Catacombs
Lines Written In Winter
The Underwood Typewriter
Put A Penny In The Slot
Violent Demeanour
Hunters Map
Protection Racket
Genocide Matinee
Lord Help My Poor Soul
Encore:
Little Nancy
Be Good Or Be Gone







by IndieLimerick (noreply@blogger.com) at March 10, 2010 03:20 PM

Theatre of Noise

Open Letter To Ken Rockwell

Hey Ken:

In your "review" of the Pentax 645D you come across as a right old sour-puss who can't even get his facts straight. So I'm writing you this open letter in an attempt to penetrate your smug armour.

Several times you mention the "small" sensor as a problem, apparently not aware that the 645D has a similar crop to the other digital 645 bodies out there, 80% as large as film 645.

So why is Pentax worse?

I am not sure why all of a sudden you hate multi-zone metering, since you seem to be happy with it on your digital full-frame cameras. Perhaps if this camera had a Nikon or Canon brand you'd be glad of it.

You do realise you can spot meter, centre meter or do anything else you like, huh? No one is forcing you to use features you don't want to use.

As for them "distracting" the real photographer, are you distracted by your X-Sync outlet when not using flash? Are you distracted by the film rewind when not rewinding film? Do you have some sort of a disorder we should know about?

You also talk rubbish like "amateur 3:2 aspect ratio". I guess no pros use full-frame digital then? I suppose your darling Canon 5D is strictly for the chimps?

Besides, to be truly elitist you should be stating that square frame is the pro format.

You complain about the Live View but nowhere in the specs do I see mention that it even has such a thing. I think you're making that up.

Nowhere do you mention one of the major benefits of the camera, the full weather, dust and cold sealing, also to be found in the companion normal lens. This is going to be a great landscape camera.

As to the lack of direct control over shutter speed and aperture, yes there are no knobs marked as such. But see that front dial? See that back dial? There you go. There is absolutely no need to adjust these in a menu, as you imply.

Really, you couldn't be any more incoherent, inconsistent or misleading if you tried.

The Pentax 645D has benefits and disadvantages like any photographic tool. Your inability to be anything other than bitter is likely tied to your perceived inability to flog any through your website. It seems all about making money for you... most of your articles are excuses for begging from your readers.

Might I suggest you get out there and sell photos instead?

Oh yes, I've written this as if I too do not understand how to use paragraphs. But it's so difficult; sometimes I have even put two sentences together or, God forbid, used a semi-colon.

P.S. I will not link to your site to drive you more traffic.

by robin (noreply@blogger.com) at March 10, 2010 03:17 PM

NewsWire

Taxi drivers to stage protest Wednesday

Taxi drivers in Limerick are set to stage an all day protest Wednesday in solidarity with two men, including a Limerick taxi driver, who had been taking part in the sit-in protest at the office of the Taxi Regulator in Dublin sine Monday.

A large amount of Taxi’s assembled a Pery Square Tuesday for an impromptu meeting where it was decided they will stage a work stoppage from 9am Wednesday morning. They intend to block city Taxi ranks from being used by part time drivers.

“The protest will end when the 2 ITC members who are peacefully protesting at the regulators office in Dublin are allowed to use a toilet, get some food and come off a forced hunger strike,” The Irish Taxi Council said in a statement. It was reported late Tuesday that the sit-in had ended.

The Council are seeking a meeting with Transport Minister Noel Dempsey.

A spokesperson had said the drivers taking part in the sit-in had not eaten or taken fluids or been allowed to use the bathroom for a considerable number of  hours. A High Court injunction was granted ordering the protestors to stop occupying the regulator’s offices however both men still refused to leave.

Drivers have been claiming for years regulations are crippling their industry.

by Newswire Editor at March 10, 2010 09:03 AM

Theatre of Noise

Pentax 645 Digital No Myth - It's Here!

Some of you scoffed when I wrote that the Pentax 645 Digital was On The Horizon, not being able to read the signs that denoted the difference between project development and product release. But those folk can be forgiven their scepticism, as it has certainly been a long road for those waiting for a medium format digital camera from Pentax. Now it is here, I can only image what the ripples are going to be like in the little pond of photographers that need and care about MF.

Units are due on the Japanese market in May, at a price that converts to US$9400. Depending on if and when the camera comes to Europe and North America, that could be a breakthrough price. After all, this is a 40MP (7264 x 5440) camera with a 44x33mm sensor, significantly larger than full-frame. (This spec different from that in my prediction article.)

Just to compare, the Mamiya DM40 and Hasselblad H4D-40 are both twice that price.

This is going to be a very full-featured and usable camera. Pentax is throwing in almost everything we have come to love in the APS-C sensor K-7 camera, namely:
  • strong composite metal body

  • dust-proof, weather-resistant and cold-resistant

  • dust removal system

  • 11-point AF sensor

  • 77-segment multi-pattern metering

  • 98% field of view optical viewfinder

  • custom image function

  • Hyper-Program mode

  • Shutter/Aperture-Priority (TAv) and Sensitivity-Priority (Sv) modes

  • the magical green button

  • digital level

  • automatic compensation of distortion and lateral CA

  • hot shoe and X-Sync socket for flash

  • extended bracketing

  • HDR built-in

  • dynamic-range expansion

  • intervalometer

  • multiple exposure mode


The camera has a large 3 inch LCD with 921k pixels. better yet the top panel and back LCD are covered in glass and treated to prevent reflections.

We get a 1/4000 second shutter and exposure compensation in a large +/-5 EV range. The ISO support is 200-1000. While I would not expect high ISO in this type of camera, I am disappointed not to see 100 available. But the real proof will be to see what images look like at 200.

The camera has dual SDHC memory card slots that can be configured for auto-backup or to save RAW files to one and JPGs to the other. Nice one!

And of course, in true Pentax tradition, the camera is backwards compatible with all previous 645 lenses. Which are astonishingly good and cost nothing like the competition.

Best yet: there will be no anti-aliasing filter, so every bit of detail captured by the lens will be preserved on the sensor. But what about a switchable AA filter? Wouldn't that be cool?

This camera could be the one to open up medium format to a new crop of photographers.

by robin (noreply@blogger.com) at March 10, 2010 02:52 AM

Bock the Robber

Bishops and Backhanders

How to suck money out of the education system


by Bock at March 10, 2010 01:13 AM

March 09, 2010

Bock the Robber

Val's Kitchen

Me reviewing for Truvo



Writng a blog I get sent lots of press releases from PR companies asking me to feature their stuff on my site. I never do, because they don’t pay me any money. This one tme however something caught my eye, a new online show called the Review Show were looking fro new presenters so I thought I’d send them in something, all for the good cause that is Limerick. I sent them a link to a piece I’d done for Ilovelimerick, and they said I was good for the job and would be down to Limerick in a few weeks do do some filming with me. That was all well and good until the filmig was scheduled to be on the day after our Haiti extravaganza and I would have to be at the crack of dawn. No bother, I says to myself, I’ll go to bed early. As if. The Haiti gig was so good and all the boxes were ticked. I was actually at home in bed at 10.30, jober as a sudge, reading the papers and planning on eight hours of beauty sleep. I knew though, that there was a huge party on just down the street with my name on it. Sure, if I was at home reading the papers wouldn’t my time be better spent dancing at a really good gig. I jumped out of bed and shoved on my clothes and the fastest bit of eye make up ever, called my next door neighbour who babysits for me at the drop of a hat, hopped in the car and was back in the door of the bustling crowd. The fab Funk Junkies were playing my favourite song Valerie so I forced the crowd to endure the sight of me dancing to my song on stage alone. I was then very happy, all my egos boxes ticked I wnt home to bed.

Next morning the few hours sleep I missed showed a bit, luckily a lack of alcohol can make you all the more human looking. The lovely girl who was doing my make up t 8.30am didn’t get home from a party till 7.30am and, being 25 you’d never know it, she still did a great job. I met the crew at the Hunt Museum and we began filming the segments. I have zero profesional experience in this field so I was a tad nervous, which I think shows. I repeat myself, it’s true. I have to say it’s not as easy as it looks to say stuff seamlessly with lots of people staring at you, no pressure like. Anyway the way I see it is , we all want to get home so I take the Krusty the Clown approach to these things. When it came to choosing what places to feature it wasn’t an easy one, there are so many and hopefully the Truvo team will come back to do a pub crawl.

The Hunt was featured as a good place to visit for the cultural and historical stuff, plus they have the est view from acoffee shop anywhere in town. Sequoia Lane is a fab shop full of individuality and fun things that won’t break the bank. We all know the Sage cafe, good grub, yummy bread and a nice place to go with yer Ma. The Truvo team were very nice, easy to work with and all that and they reckon they would like to come back to do more stuff, my stylie which would be pretty much the sam places but with a few pubs thrown in and some of the live music that Limerick is so knowen for. The weather was freezing as you can see from the outside stuff and only two messers walked by the camera shouting “Oi, you ye doing this for yooooo tube?”.  

by Valerie O'Connor at March 09, 2010 04:35 PM

Indie Limerick

The Great Friday Festival 2010

Limericks best underground festival is back for another year of greatness. What started as a small house party back in 2003 has escalated into now an annual festival in a random field in county limerick. The line up seems to improve with age, this years sees the brilliant "Brad Pitt light Orchestra" take to the field. As always the festival takes place on good Friday(2nd of April).
With all the hub bub about the hassle with no drink on good Friday in Limerick for the rugby match between Munster and the ladyboys, The festival will show the Match and the booze will be provided by the festival goers themselves as always.
Tickets are going fast . check out more here
http://greatfriday.ie/


2010 Line up so far:

DJ’s:
Jamie Behan
Kevin Blake
Deadly Buzz
Dan Sykes
Unsafe Girl
P-hocto
Deego
Decorum
Ruan Flood
Tokin white boy
Jonezy
Gordon Agnew

Acoustic Artists:
Andy Mooney
Benoit
Yvonne McCarthy

Main Stage:
Funzo
Heirs to Nothing
Secret Police
Acoustra
Brad Pitt Light Orchestra
Tidal Minds
Yukina
Fewer the Better
Heliopause
Grades of Shade

by IndieLimerick (noreply@blogger.com) at March 09, 2010 03:19 PM

Bock the Robber

Monica Leech

Not being attracted isn't a crime, is it?


by Bock at March 09, 2010 12:13 AM

March 08, 2010

Bock the Robber

Limerick Music

Wandering around town listening to music


by Bock at March 08, 2010 09:50 PM