No war please, we're American

Artscape: I'm just back from a week in the States, and while there is much relief that the "war" seems to be over - until, as one cynical friend put it, "we decide to invade another few countries" - there is still plenty of evidence of the mood of the nation.

Flags are everywhere, plus patriotic posters and bumper-stickers supporting the troops in Iraq. Anti-war sentiments are rare, and a French friend noted a certain coolness in shops that were previously friendly.

Particularly noticeable is the way that television news was censored so that hardly a dead body was seen during the conflict. This extraordinary state of affairs was alluded to by the liberal Hollywood actor, Tim Robbins (pictured below), when he gave a keynote speech to the National Press Club in Washington DC last week. Robbins and his wife, Susan Sarandon, have been vilified, especially on right-wing radio and TV shows, for their courageous anti-war stance (many celebrities share their views but are too scared of the networks, studios and record companies to "come out").

As well as talking about the campaign against himself and Sarandon and their family, the challenges facing the US press, and the right to disagree, Robbins was interesting on the blurring of reality and fiction in the American mind.

"Today," he said, "prominent politicians who have decried violence in movies - the 'blame Hollywooders', if you will - recently voted to give our president the power to unleash real violence in our current war. They want us to stop the fictional violence, but are okay with the real kind.

"And these same people that tolerate the real violence of war don't want to see the result of it on the nightly news. Unlike the rest of the world, our news coverage of this war remains sanitised, without a glimpse of the blood and gore inflicted upon our soldiers or the women and children in Iraq . . . As we applaud the hard-edged realism of the opening battle scenes of Saving Private Ryan, we cringe at the thought of seeing the same on the nightly news.We are told it would be pornographic. We want no part of reality in real life.We demand that war be painstakingly realised on screen, but that war remain imagined and conceptualised in real life." For the full speech, go to www.CommonDreams.org

No horse sense at RTE

Good news for Hector, bad news for Gerry. The first shows of their respective series were broadcast back to back on RTÉ 1 last week, with 264,000 watching Ó hEochagáin's Only Fools Buy Horses and 256,000 tuning in to Gerry Ryan's interview with Michael Flatley in Ryan Confidential, writes Shane Hegarty.

Yet Ryan (bottom right) had the advantage of the earlier time slot, while Ó hEochagáin (right) had to wait until 10.40 p.m. despite his status as the rising star of Irish television. It sounds like mixed news for RTÉ, which in this case seems to have backed the, ahem, wrong horse. Not so, according to a Montrose spokesperson.

"The decision was made on the basis that Gerry Ryan is a very well-established personality and has interviewed high-profile people. He's a proven draw on radio and television, regardless of how some may see his programmes. With Hector, it was his début on mainstream television, and it was felt it would be better to ease him in, that it might be over-exposing him by putting him in an earlier slot."

It was also believed that Ryan's celebrity interviews held broader appeal than the subject of training a racehorse. In the event, says RTÉ, some viewers watching Ó hEochagáin in TG4's repeat of Amú i Meiriceá - scheduled against Ryan Confidential - switched directly to RTÉ1 to catch his new series, and a pattern in the ratings will only be discernible as the weeks go on.

So, is there any sense within RTÉ that it over-estimated Ryan's popularity and underestimated Ó hEochagáin's?

"No," says the spokesperson. "We really are thrilled. There will be celebrations over the fact that both are proving popular."

Reaching the keynotes

The newly-formed Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI) has its first conference in Maynooth University next weekend (May 2nd-3rd) in association with the Royal Musical Association (Irish chapter), with keynote speaker Derek Scott, professor of music at the University of Salford.

The SMI was established to promote and foster all forms of musical scholarship and seeks to provide a forum for the practice of musicology, reflecting the gamut of musical research in Ireland, notably in ethno-musicology, historical musicology, analysis, performance practice, textual criticism, archival research, organology, cultural and social history and critical discourse, to name some of the disciplines pursued by musicologists in this country.

Musical research has been healthy in Ireland, especially over the past two decades, as evidenced both by the Irish chapter of the Royal Musical Association, founded in 1987, and by the Maynooth International Musicological Conference (1995), a landmark in the consolidation of musical studies in Ireland. The Council of Heads of Music in Higher Education in Ireland and the significant increase in graduate studies in musicology were also formative in the birth of SMI, which already has 110 members.

The society's council includes Dr Barra Boydell, Dr Paul Everett, Dr Anne Leahy, Dr David Rhodes, Prof Harry White, Dr Gareth Cox, Dr Michael Murphy, Prof Jan Smaczny, Derek Cremin, Dr Sarah McCleave and Dr Nuala McAllister. A new book, Irish Music in the Twentieth Century, edited by Gareth Cox and Axel Klein (Four Courts Press) will be launched at the conference.

SMI website: www.music.ucc.ie/smi/

Looking for ideas

Cork 2005, the European Capital of Culture project, finally seems to be getting going, in terms of idea generation at least. After a shaky start in appointing a director - John Kennedy is now firmly at the helm - and pretty vague indications of plans so far, the team is now in place and the Cork 2005 office has issued a formal call for submissions of further ideas (more than 75 proposals already made are being reviewed). Saying that ideas from the public are a vital part of the project, Cork 2005 indicates that their proposers might include individual arts practitioners and arts organisations, community groups and organisations, private and public sector individuals, agencies and organisations. Submissions are invited by May 30th (with a second round by September 15th), marked IDEAS: CORK 2005 and sent to European Capital of Culture: Cork 2005, Carbery House, 67/69 South Mall, Cork or e-mailed to ideas@cork2005.ie

Though it is not a funding agency, Cork 2005 will invest in cultural activities and also provide promotion and marketing, networking and creative partnerships, advice and project management, as well as technical management.

The team's Statement of Intent says the capital of culture designation is an opportunity "to celebrate the renewal of our city environment, to rekindle our spirit of community, to explore our culture and our identity, and to demonstrate to all our vision of a confident 21st-century city". More details at www.cork2005.ie

And furthermore . . .

How short is a short play? Two to 10 minutes long is how short. Fishamble Theatre Company is presenting Shorts, a season of what it describes as "very short plays", all 14 of them nightly, from May 6th to 17th at Project. The unusual production is a result of the company's playwrighting development initiative and was, logistically, a massive feat, involving eight actors, six directors, five designers and three rehearsal venues, as well as the 14 new writers: Dawn Bradfield, Ciara Considine, Tara Dairman, Bryan Delaney, Talaya Delaney, Aino Dubrawsky, Stella Feehily, Ger Gleeson, James Heaney, Colm Maher, Lorraine McArdle, Tina Reilly, Simon O'Gorman and Mary Portser. In fact, with The Buddhist of Castleknock finishing tonight at Andrew's Lane, the company has about 60 people on the payroll at the moment. Even if it's an organisational nightmare and an expensive undertaking, itsounds a welcome change from current cuts-inspired monologues.

The Fourth Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival starts in Belfast on Thursday and runs until May 11th, with events from a Canadian-Jewish punk accordionist to Scottish salsa supremos and a female Elvis impersonator. The left-field flavour is confirmed by some of the other events: a Pennie Smith photographic exhibition with iconographic shots from the NME, including the famous "London Calling" cover image; NY punk pioneer Patti Smith; Will Moreau, a native American singer and storyteller; Rasta poet Benjamin Zephaniah; singer-songwriter Billy Bragg; and comedian Mark Thomas. Website: www.cqaf.com

Belfast-born concert pianist Barry Douglas joins principal conductor Thierry Fischer for the finish to the orchestra's concert season on Friday, May 16th in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast, with a programme including Sibelius's mighty Fifth Symphony.