Streaming: The Show ,the groundbreaking (and hilarious) video podcast by Ze Frank, which he is revisiting with notes and commentary five years on. It's the internet equivalent of a special-edition BluRay with added commentary, proving that it's not all ephemeral tat out there.
Reading:Tea Obrecht's fantastical Balkan-war debut, The Tiger's Wife, which has been shortlisted for the Orange prize.
Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz, her latest novel, about love and secrets, is published on April 28th. She is also at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, at 6pm today as part of Cúirt International Festival of Literature.
Looking forward to:Wim Wenders's Pina, a powerful look at the work of modern dance's greatest choreographer. A remarkable 3D experience.
Hanna, in which Saoirse Ronan acts the assassin. It topped the US box office last week; critics found her performance the best thing about an often troubling premise.
The coming together of CIT Cork School of Music Symphony Orchestra and the Fleischmann Choir for Puccini's Messa de Gloriatonight at Cork City Hall.
Watching Beady Eye at the Olympia
When Noel Gallagher left Oasis did little brother Liam just lay down and die? Oh no, not him: he and the remaining band members renamed themselves Beady Eye and wrote a new bunch of retro rock anthems. Without the stadium-filling brand name, however, Beady Eye have to set their sights on smaller venues, such as their two performances at the Olympia, in Dublin, on Thursday and last night. But Liam doesn’t seem to mind what size gaff he plays, as long as he’s still the centre of attention.
On Thursday night a cheer goes up when Gallagher’s mum, Peggy, takes her seat in one of the boxes, and her son swaggers out in his trademark parka, thousand-yard stare still intact. Gem Archer has stepped adroitly into Noel’s old slot, while Andy Bell moves from bass to trading guitar lines with Archer. Drummer Chris Sharrock, bassist Jeff Wootton and keyboard player Matt Jones complete the six-pack of beery rock heaven.
There are no Oasis songs, but that’s all right, because the new songs draw from the same mother lode of 1960s and 1970s classic rock. There’s the one that sounds like Lennon’s Instant Karma (The Roller), the one that sounds like The Who’s My Generation (er, Beatles And Stones) and, of course, the several ones that sound like Oasis.
But there’s a difference – Gallagher’s gang sound mean, lean and hungrier than Oasis did all this century. And the songs are less plodding – a different gear with a bit of acceleration. All they need now are the kind of terrace anthems that Noel used to knock off on his tea break, and the world is their lobster (Kill For a Dream and Morning Son come close but don’t quite have the arena-lifting heft).
Newasis? Definitely maybe.
Kevin Courtney
Amazed once again byThe standard of work in the Texaco Children's Art Competition. They say it gets higher every year, but it has looked consistently brilliant to us for a long time.
And also by the quality of the writing coming from the young people at Dublin's Fighting Words, as printed in the special supplement in The Irish Timeslast Wednesday.
A little exhausted byThe literary shortlists. The Orange prize and Impac came this week (with several Irish nominees). The winners of the Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards were also announced, although it's hard to quibble with a prize that remains valuable to fresh writers.
