holidays

a few pictures of the hotel room, the party in the village, the beach. the last picture is a quick view of the parque natural da ria formosa. a fantastic nature phenomenom that you can admire when you are flying to Faro.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ria_Formosa)

so here i am

back in Ireland and preparing Hard Working Class Heroes

www.hwch.net

new and Irish bands in several venues around Temple Bar friday, saturday and sunday.

HWCH clubs in ALT after all the gigs are finished if you still want to party!

 

but before that Psycho Fest tonight in the Spiegeltent somewhere in a garden near Harcourt Street for the Fringe Festival

http://dublinfringefest.ticketsolve.com/events/events_for...

 

phantom

gig was good last night

robotnick rocks jumping and singing in the crowd ala dan deacon

new amusement are promising

autamata are good but i wasn't expecting that at all, i mean i thought it was a good rock band and in fact they are a pop band mixing some electro and funk melodies in their songs.

 

clampdown tonight

then off to Faro tomorrow early morning -well more precisely Albufeira- until wednesday.

oh no

remember that field:

 

 

 

 

well they are destroying it, taking off the grass with big tractors and stuff... somebody told me a long time ago they wanted to do a nice park there. i hope so.

please don't be building something there, right in front of my balcony!

 

and my hotel

is class

thanks to my flatmate who works in a kind of a travel agency, except they only deal with hotels, not with the flights.

so she got me that for 3 nights for less than 150 euros (with breakfast):

Residencial Santa Eulalia

The comfort, good value for money, excellent location, high quality service and the friendly and competent staff are some of this hotel's strongest points. Surrounded by rare beauty and decorated in an Arabian and Moorish style, this hotel is one of the pearls of Santa Eulália and the best choice for those who love the beach. This charming, fully air-conditioned hotel has a total of 24 rooms and amenities including a lobby area, hotel safe, breakfast room, WLAN access point and a laundry service.
     The hotel serves a buffet breakfast and other light meals.
     The hotel accepts cash, cheques, debit cards and credit cards such as American Express, MasterCard and VISA as payment methods.

The Hotel Location:
This family-friendly beach resort is located in Santa Eulália, near to the city of Albufeira. Located in a quiet and well-known area it is just 450 metres away from Santa Eulália beach. The famous Oura strip with numerous restaurants, bars and discos, shops and a tourist information point is just 2.5 km from the hotel. Albufeira bullfighting arena, which presents bullfight shows all year round, is also very close to the strip. The marina is just 7 km away, and links to the nearest public transport networks are just 1 km from the resort. The nearest airport is Faro, approximately 40 km away.

 

i'm going

away for a few days

on my own, to relax.

i need holidays, i haven't got a break for... more than two years.

seriously except the holidays in france which are not real holidays as you spent time awake to enjoy your family and visit your friends. last city break was glasgow in february 2007 which was more partying and shopping than relaxing. and before that i went three weeks to chili in... february 2006.

so i have checked the money i have, the money i am going to get, the rent/ loan/ bills i have to pay and decided to spend the rest to book a not too expensive flight and a hotel.

 

here you go

going sunday the 7th of september

coming back wednesday the 10th of september

Faro, Algarve, Portugal.

 

sun, beach, sea, a country/ city i don't know, and a lot of relaxing time.

 

i really need that because believe me, the next weeks up until december are going to be busy. really busy.

the amount of gigs and clubs

coming to ALT in september, october, november and december is huge (compared with the quiet summer we had)

and they keep updating the listings every week!

my agenda is quite busy allright, i might have to quit freelance for a bit... except for the Budrising Winter Festival, there is no way i miss the two big gigs they are putting on!

 

usual Phantom gigs, and Clampdown clubs, and Hard Working Class Heroes, 2 new weekly clubs, Italian Factory monthly clubs, Heavy Trash, Power Solo, Immortal Technique, The Hanson Brothers, Super Extra Bonus Party, Trinity Freshers Ball, Nurse with wound, Mad E.P., Poets of Rhythm, Scratch Perverts, Tilly and The Wall, Marva Whitney, Why?, Hermano, The Thing, Dalek, Wolf Parade, A Place To Bury Strangers, Kerbdog...

and more

jazz, electro, rock, punk- all alternative and experimental.

 

P.S i can't wait for WHY? to come back.

images

the weather was so good at this year E.P that the effort they made into arts was emphasized

look at these pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nialler/sets/721576070763558...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/krivak/sets/7215760707438795...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28619937@N02/sets/7215760707...

Electric Picnic is a great festival for

-the arts: cabaret, theatre, poetry, decorations, scultures, paintings, graffitis, designing... the site looked amazing, in particular arcadia and body and soul.

-music: i didn't see much as i was stuck in the bodytonic village,

reprazent, modeselektor and benga dj were cool,

bernard shaw hosted by david holmes on saturday was good with local bands and djs,

dan deacon and the view of the crowd running in circles and jumping up and down from the lighting desk was brilliant,

the gossip were good but i dont like seeing them outdoors,

my bloody valentine were cool,

sex pistols were too old to be punk and were just laughable on stage.

the lost vagueness artists were crazy and good.

-food was excellent.

an E.P. with no budget

-for technicians: being alone behind a desk on a stage is not enough if you want to get breaks to eat or just go to the toilets

(except if you're lucky enough to have djs on your stage so you can put the lights on auto for a while)

-for local crew: they were few and doing everything, setting up lights, sound and visuals then taking care of the backline over the weekend, then taking off lights, sound and visuals. the poor guys were so tired at the end that it was almost dangerous to lift things for them.

-for security: at night some tents had no security, a sound desk got stolen in a small tent near lost vagueness for example, or there was no security in the bernard shaw on friday night (and when i came back there was two punters talking on stage) etc...

 

 

-some stage managers were a disgrace not staying on stage at all, not taking care of their crew by giving them the specs of the bands, or the start time for the next day, or simply providing bottles of water... luckily it was not the case in the bodytonic village.

-trucks stuck in the mud for the load out shows the chaos it would have been if it had been raining the whole weekend (imagine the problems for bands or backline to arrive on their stages!)

65 hours in 4 days

thursday: 9am to 1am =16 hours

friday: 9am to 2am =17 hours

saturday: 2pm to 2am =12 hours

sunday: 11.30am to 7.30am =20hours

 

electric picnic was intense

finally

i know everything: crew call/ hotel/ line up/ how it looks like on site/ how late they are/ and how i'm going down there.

 

talk to you on monday!!!

p.s usual clampdown club in ALT on saturday night for those not at the picnic, and gigs and clubs in the Village as well. 

no sign

of proper stage times

of where i am staying (hotel? and who's my roomate?)

of when we have to be on site (i think it's thursday... tomorrow! in the morning i presume...)

of a production schedule

 

you have to be patient when you're working at electric picnic, don't you?

 

well i'm going shopping: redbull, alcohol, orange juice, cereal bars, snacks, cigarettes, phone credit...

and then i need to pack: tool bag, converses, wellies, steel toe boots, jumpers, waterproof jacket(s), food, drinks...

by the time i've done that, i might know at what time i have to be on site???!!!

SG at FOWC

some bad pictures of Sergent Garcia

 

 

 

 

salsa and ragga, french and spanish, he likes to mix cultures. it was a great concert: free festival, outdoor, seaside, sun shining, drinking beers, dancing on latin rhythms - a proper summer gig!

and a pleasure to meet some of the lads at the end, nice guys, everyone speaking half spanish half french, it was their first time in Ireland and hopefully they'll come back for their own gig (with the same sunny weather?).

so weird to think that in 2001, i went to a festival in Evreux (near Paris) to celebrate my baccalaureat and saw both Muse and Sergent Garcia for the first time. i went backstage with them -my first backstage experience. and 7 years later, i saw Muse and went to the aftershow and met the drummer, and saw Sergent Garcia and went backstage again to talk to them. but this time i had a pass. because i worked there, backstage, with bands, and musicians. i am now part of this "backstage" area.

 

Que Palique, Sergent Garcia- Live at Dun Laoghaire Festival Of World Cultures 2008

 

Birdy Nam Nam in ALT

it was in June and it was an excellent gig. i was just checking some videos on youtube:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9jLYGATb_U

(like a summary of the gig)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRDMg1e8MJ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3atzgCA2h4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47bU8ZfD3MU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9t2iHQDCIc

from Reading/Leeds festival

check out this band

http://www.myspace.com/thegaslightanthem

cut short

looks like the stage manager was not doing a really good job on the NME/Radio 1 stage at Leeds festival

either they took way too much time to do the changeovers/ or started late from the beginning of the day?

either way it's not cool for the bands/ for the crowd and for the techies who are hated by the crowd but can't really do anything as they have to respect the time schedule

yes they just have to, otherwise they will have to cancel the main act (as there is always a strict curfew for stages) and no one really wants that, or just tell one band not to play so they can be on time again -and no one wants that either.

 

http://www.nme.com/news/mystery-jets/39227

http://www.nme.com/news/foals/39240

 

 

 

US candidates playlists

BARACK OBAMA
1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What's Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I'm On Fire Bruce Springsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You'd Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can will.i.am

JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We MakeIt Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I've Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters

 

http://www.lesinrocks.com/actu/actualite/ipod-battle-pour...

 

 

the weekend

was busy but very good

work in ALT on friday night then woke up kinda early to go to dun laoghaire

it was raining so much when i arrived but i took shelter besides the lighting desk in front of the main stage (and sandy showed me how this new desk was working at the same time, i love touch screens desks! they are so easy to use)

saw Bridgy and then Senses (good musicians but not my thing)

then sun came out as Tiken Jah Fakoly came on stage, not a big fan of reggae but i certainly admire his message for the freedom of speech (this man has been in exile for years)

it started raining again as soon as he went off stage. i went back to work. i got a text from a friend saying "my stage just got shut down, the tent became loose and the wind was too strong for it to stay up and they had to evacuate the tent just before gorillaz came on stage." so yeah that's what happened in marlay park for lovebox.

ALT was fun with excellent djs. then we stayed a bit late for a few drinks

i came back home at 8am. slept for 5 hours and went back to dun laoghaire- i just had to go there early when i saw the fantastic weather outside!

a great day with a fantastic Ukrainian band to start DakhaBrakha (great drummers and energy)

then Sergent Garcia came on stage, and here i was dancing cuban salsa again (i learned to dance salsa in france with cuban teachers for 3 years). such a pleasure i am now determined to take the time to go dancing salsa again (and learning a few new steps) hopefully i can find good cuban teachers in dublin.

special post on sergent garcia with pictures and a video and special backstage review to come!

i can't wait

for Budrising winter festival

i saw some headliners' names and it's gonna be deadly!

i can't tell you the actual names though but be patient and you're gonna be as happy as i am right now!

dance

apparently i will be in the bodytonic village for the picnic

i don't mind dance music, what bother me is the distance between the bodytonic village and the rest of the stages! what's up with that?

-number 13, on the left, next to the oscar wilde campsite http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/ep/#map

theatre

if you get a chance, go and see Harold Pinter's No Man's Land in the Gate Theatre.

the actors are brilliant, and the last part of the play is fantastic, funny and witty!

(i saw it a couple of times in rehearsals and i could remember almost all the words!)

 

'Let's change the subject, for the last time...

What did i say?"

"You say let's change the subject for the last time."

"What does that mean?"

"That means forever."

"But what does that mean? What does it mean?"

"That means forever and for all. That means that absolutely anything deemed to be or have been the subject, Winter, for example, will never more change. If the topic, changed, for the last time, was Winter, then, it follows there will be no Spring. It will remain forever Winter."

 etc...

now for something completely different

you should all go out this weekend, august is almost over and so september is almost there -and the kids back to school, the parents back to being stressed, the city back to being noisy and busy, here are a couple of things to do:

 

friday (tonight)

launch of a gay club night in ALT

Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures (The Purty Kitchen, Orchestre National de Barbes at 10.30)

 

saturday (tomorrow)

lovebox in Marlay Park

Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures (main stage Tiken Jah Fakoly at 5.45)

lovebox after party in ALT with splitloop, arveene, timmy stewart, detboi, al keegan, mark allton 

 

sunday

if you are still alive Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures (main stage Sergent Garcia at 5.45!!! yay!)

 

he is ok

but has difficulties speaking as during the operation they touched one of his vocal chords

they removed his right lung where the tumour was. and the swollen ganglions next to the vocal chords.

he started to eat liquid food again, and drink a bit. he is still in intensive care as the doctors are waiting for the scan results to transfer him.

 

cancer is a bitch.

one of my colleagues got diagnosed with bone cancer 6 months ago.

my father got diagnosed 3 months ago.

both of my parents' neighbours got diagnosed with breast and throat cancer a month ago.

and a friend just told me her grandmother and her stepmother got respectively pancreas and breast cancer.

 

?

 

 

 

video clip

one of the Radiohead contest winner

http://www.aniboom.com/video/235299/Reckoner-v2/

 

from: http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

Thu, 14 August

Video Competition Winners

Here are the four winners chosen by Radiohead for the AniBoom In Rainbows Music Video contest:

    15 Step V2.0 by Kota Totori, Japan, for the song “15 Step”.

    16 Tracks Vs. Videotape 2.0 by Wolfgang Jaiser and Claus Winter, Germany, for the song “Videotape”.

    Reckoner V2 by Clement Picon, France, for the song ”Reckoner”.

    Transmutation by Tobias Stretch, U.S.A., for the song “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi”.

Congratulations to all four winners!

 

 

support a friend

right click and save as:

http://entertainment.ie/hwch/tracks/the_rags_razors_and_r...

NIFW

http://noisforwimps.blogspot.com/

it's production week again!

in The Gate

(David Walliams- Little Britain- is in it, should be... interesting)

 

No Man’s Land
by Harold Pinter

Opens Tuesday 26th August
Low Price Previews from Thursday 21st August

“…a rare theatrical event, and a unique manifestation of a towering genius”
Sunday Independent

“Those who have seen the honed perfection of the Gate’s Pinter Festival will wish to confirm for themselves…that ‘No Man’s Land’ is the best.”
Irish Times

From the pen of one of the greatest living playwrights, comes Nobel Prize laureate Harold Pinter’s superb tragicomic gem, about two aging writers who, after meeting on Hampstead Heath, return home for a late-night session of witty banter, sinister power games, and the worship of alcohol. No Man’s Land was first produced at the Gate in 1997 to great acclaim as part of the Gate’s 1997 Pinter Festival. Including an all star cast, lead by an award winning director, this unique and haunting play is part mystery drama, part homage to the ghosts of the past and the fiction of memory.

Starring: David Bradley · Nick Dunning · Michael Gambon · David Walliams
Director: Rupert Goold
Designer: Giles Cadle
Lighting Designer: Neil Austin
Composer and Sound Designer: Adam Cork

Muse tech stuff

this is the NME review of their V Festival gig (same lighting show-production than Marlay Park, though the setlist seems to have been longer in Marlay Park and the journalist doesn't talk about lasers so i'm wondering if they used them at V? concerning the "smoke" bursts it is in fact haze which is absolutely not dangerous for health-breathing and stuff)

http://www.nme.com/news/muse/38982

 

this is the website of the man creating Matt Bellamy's guitar:

http://www.mansonguitars.co.uk/Muse%20gallery/index.htm

 

this is 30 things you never knew about Muse:

http://www.nme.com/photos/535/1/30-things-you-never-knew-...

 

 

p.s this blog is turning into a Muse fan site, i have to stop blogging about them...! but their production is so fascinating for me, i have to meet Oli their lighting tech.