Stuff, Wotsits and Thingies

Archive for July, 2007

Mannequin

// July 26th, 2007 // No Comments » // Chirico, Metaphysical, art, design, painting, waffle

This post would probably be more at home on homebug – but I’ll take the conch on this one – every morning I walk by Clerys on O’Connel street and wonder WTF are they thinking!? D’you ever see a big company do something very wrong and you can’t figure out why no one has told them yet? Or even more likely is that every body knows the blunder yet some middle-mismanagement or office politico prevents it from happening. So here’s the thing; they gutted the inside of the shop and got the decoraters in. Grand. Paid a small fortune no doubt. Yet Jo-walking-by-Soap wouldn’t know any different because their shop windows look like they’re still being decorated by the same dusty old window dresser for the last 30 years. They need to take a walk up Grafton street or rent a copy of Mannequin!

I spy with my little eye an opportunity to BIG UP one of my favourite dead artists, Giorgio de Chirico. He had a thing for mannequins you see. De Chirico is one of the few surreal artists who managed to capture the essence of dreams. People say that about Dali but his paintings were way too polished and detailed to vaguely resemble any dream. Chirico was a big influence to Dali, as well as Max Ernst, and Magritte to name a few, and some of them directly copied his Metaphysical style. Every time I see that tower from the LUAS, (somewhere between Windy Arbour and Cowper ), I’m reminded of his Nostalgia of the Infinite (below) even though they’re nothing alike. Actually I think every time I see a tower I’m reminded of it.

PSST! Pass it on.

// July 22nd, 2007 // No Comments » // art, design, films

Love this. Can you remember that childhood game you used to play where you’d fold a piece of paper in three, and one of you would draw the legs, then another the body, another the head? (Child hood game? Pretty sure I played that recently!)Well here’s a video version. PSST! Pass it on is a collaboration between different teams of designers, animators, directors and 3D artists. I love the end of the clip below.

Well worth going to the Pass it on website to see the new batch in hi res.

Paddy’s Day on April Fools

// July 19th, 2007 // 3 Comments » // atheism, waffle

St Patrick wears a dunces hat

So you’ve heard about this dilemma that the Catholic church are facing? It’s a clash of dates between between an early Easter bunny day and Paddy’s day (2008). The next available day for Pat was April 1st, but they’ve decided that isn’t suitable either. If you ask me, April Fools day is spot on. I don’t know why we celebrate a man who was one of the first missionaries to come over to us fine pagans, and infect us with such heavy-handed Christianity. He was one of the first bishops in a church that continues to interfere with our lives in these seemingly dark dark ages.

I know I hold some unpopular views, and this collection of thoughts is right up there; I’ve never been very patriotic, it’s all just random birth. The weight that some people give to that random event is beyond me but the more I think about Paddy’s day, the more I think how much of a farce the whole thing is. There’s such an anti-English attitude in this country because the ruling classes of England invaded our country many moons ago, yet when an Englishman comes over and tells us what to believe, what do we do? We make it our official day to celebrate being Irish!

I’ll take my day off work thank’s very much, but personally I won’t be celebrating Patrick’s day. I’m sure junior will get to enjoy the parade. Just like he’ll get an Easter egg and Christmas presents. Until he’s old enough to decide for himself, I won’t be spoiling the better things that come with all this religious mumbo jumbo, by forcing my beliefs on him, unlike the children of the brainwashed who continue to brainwash their own, in billions all over the world.

Nice web design blog – The Designed Tree

// July 16th, 2007 // 2 Comments » // inspiration, web, web design

I’m liking the latest addition to my Google reader; The Designed Tree. It’s a frequently updated blog, with every post featuring a well designed site, hilighting the sites best features. It’s also an Irish based site and seems to be ran by a guy called Keith Donnegan. Some daily inspiration, nice.

Creation Party 2007

// July 16th, 2007 // No Comments » // music, photos, rave

All worked out pretty well for me. Was dissapointed to be on first, at first but because of bus times etc a good crowd arrived pretty early. I mean good in both senses; friendly, up for it lively crowd. And because I was on first I got a half hour more than any other DJ, which still went by very quickly. Location was great too, I love the woods! And they had some sound system. I’m talking about a seperate tent just for the equipment and a seperate mixing desk with sound engineer kind of sound system. Apparently it was called to a halt at about 4am but I was back in Dublin by then after a generous offer of a lift, cheers Dor! It’s a pity the bizzies came because the place would probably have been properly cleaned up, if they weren’t forced out in a hurry.

Update/Edit: If you can’t see the photo slide show above, you can look at the photos on flickr. Also, turns out the place was left spotless anway. Good stuff!