Ladies and gents, we are pleased to announce that this very here blog has been officially shortlisted in the best Pop-Culture blog category. We’d like to thanks anyone who voted for us, and we will of course be seeing ya’ll at the Irish Blog Awards on March 27th in Galway

This cool badge was designed by Steph, I’ll have to update mine to say shortlisted

Hey Guys

Came across some seriously funny COD related vids on youtube

Have a gander

Peace

The Annual “Game Developers Conference”(GDC) is on this week in San Francisco.

Traditionally the event has always served as a networking and demonstrating opportunity for Software and Hardware developers.

With a lot of mystery surrounding the motion control solutions of Microsoft and Sony, a lot of people expected to receive some further details about the technologies.

So breaking news, Sony are first out of the gate and have revealed the name for their motion controller

“The Playstation Move”

Get Moving

The name gives me a general “meh” feeling

What do you think??

We will update the site with any breaking news as we hear it.

Thanks for reading

So I’ve not had a chance this week to post the many cool things that I’ve come across, so instead, I’m going to collect them in a single post which I have lazily named ‘The Corner of Cool’. Feel free to kick my ass for being just a little bit lame with it.

Film trailers that have me very excited

Excitement begins with an obvious choice, the Iron Man 2 trailer. I’m sure most of you have already seen it, but for those that haven’t, the movie is gonna rock:

Next up is a trailer that caught me by surprise. I’ve never seen the original Tron, I am ashamed to say. I am rectifying that this week. But I loved the new Tron: Legacy trailer. The movie focusing on Kevin Flynn’s kid finding out where his Dad has been all these years. It looks stunning, the soundtrack sounds awesome and it’s really tweaked my interest.

In terms of some film news:

Apparently one of my favourite TV actors, The Office’s John Krasinski, is close to signing on the dotted line for Captain America. Who’d of thunk it, huh?

And we have some fairly interesting casting news for MIB3

If I had ridiculous amounts of money I’d buy:

I know, I’m one big kid…but this toy…It does everything. Check out the link here for what it can do. It includes moveable eyes, changeable head’s and eyes that light up…like in the movie. Gulp.

Arty Farty

Finally, I loves a bitta pop-art I does. Particularly when it’s a Zombie re-imagination of Star Wars. Zombie Wars if you will. Found this thanks to Think Hero. See my favourite below:

Also thought I’d point out the Wired special post on variations of the Inglourious Basterd’s theme. Find it here. There’s some amazing stuff like this one to be found:

That is all

I had no idea what was in store when I arrived at “The Star Wars In Concert” at the O2, and apparently neither did anyone else. Speaking to people after the event, the general consensus was that they had been “blown away” and that it was “even better than expected”. And I must say that I completely agree.

Dynamic and highly entertaining, the show was a breathtaking display of image and sound from start to finish, and a true celebration of John Williams’ music.

The event was presented by the inimitable Anthony Daniels, better known as C-3PO, who brought wit and charm to the occasion. With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir honouring the composer’s work and a huge three-story-tall, high-definition LED super-screen – one of the largest ever brought on tour – displaying specially edited film footage, the concert can be said to encapsulate the Star Wars experience: a cultural phenomenon that started with “A New Hope” over thirty years ago and has crossed borders and generations, remaining one of the most popular and best-loved film franchises of all time.

The first stop on its European Tour, the Dublin show took advantage of the refitting of the old Point Depot to maximise the sound and lighting potential. The interior was rearranged in an amphitheatre and the natural acoustics of the venue were expertly augmented by the sound system. The lasers and lighting were also exceptional, with dark washes of red for the Imperial themes and white and blue signifying the heroes and their associated characters. Outside the concert hall was a display of various Star Wars props, costumes and artwork that fans clamoured around, getting photographs with models of Chewbacca and various official and unofficial costumed Darth Vaders.

Some of the people I spoke to had never been fans of Star Wars before, but after experiencing this presentation would “absolutely go again, even if it were on tomorrow night”. The only criticism I can make is that the show might be a bit much for younger fans. I know the boy sitting to my left was disappointed that he was seeing clips and not a whole movie, and on several occasions he whined to his dad that he was bored. Whether other children under ten would have the same opinion of course depends entirely on the individual.

Everyone else was just as delighted as I was with the spectacular visuals and glorious audio. The show had clearly been crafted to give fans and newcomers an exhilarating and astounding display of fantasy art, and I can say with great satisfaction that it certainly succeeded.

Another year of great movies!! We, as a cinema going audience were lucky enough to be mostly spoilt for choice this year when it came to cinema trips. As much as I can nitpick about the decisions of the Academy, I always await their verdicts at the Oscars with great anticipation.

Go Kathryn

There are going to be a myriad of “Should’ve won” lists and as gratifying as it would be to poke holes in the decisions of the Academy, this year I have decided to take the results on board and examine the nominations with a fresh perspective.

I was generally happy with the choices of the Academy this year. I was glad that they extended the number of nominees to better pay respect to all potential nominees. Despite their best efforts however, it very quickly became common knowledge that this was a two horse race between ‘Avatar’ and ‘Hurt Locker’. I thoroughly enjoyed both movies and am delighted for the crew of the ‘Hurt Locker’ for its win and as a fan of ‘Point Break’ and thrilled for Kathryn Bigelow to win the best director award. I had however held out hope that some of the other cinema delights such as ‘Up’, ‘Up in the Air’ and ‘District 9’ may have been the ‘Crash’ of 2010.

Examining the list though, it is easy to understand why “The Hurt Locker’ won. The topic of the Iraq war is still very prevalent in American society, so it is hardly surprising that the Academy saw fit to praise the unique portrayal of modern war as depicted in ‘The Hurt Locker’.

The acting awards turned out almost exactly as most mainstream media had predicted. Jeff Bridges was ready to dance his way onto stage, Christolph Waltz was the undeniable star of ‘Inglorious Basterds’, Mo’nique was terrifying in ‘Precious’ and ‘Sandra Bullock’……had to win sometime.

My first reaction was initially surprise that Bridges had taken home the best actor award. I really felt this was Clooney or Renner for the win particularly because I was very disappointed with ‘Crazy Heart’. I then felt comfort in ‘Christolph Waltz’ securing the award and delivering a very soft and eloquent speech. When it came to the ladies, I had no such strong feelings except for slight disappointment that Vera Farmiga or Anna Kendrick failed to win.

But if there is one thing we should know as a film viewing audience, it’s that a performance is not mathematical. The best performances evoke feelings of understanding and compassion whilst all the while securing our investment in the picture. It is undeniable that all of the nominees here were obviously top of their game and in many ways these are the nominations I will review again because I want find those evocative moments which obviously drew the academy in.

So, what have I taken from this years awards? This is entertainment. We are constantly looking for new ways to push the boundaries and bring the audience somewhere they have never been before. I approached the Oscars as I always do, with a very strong opinion. It was only upon reflecting on the film making process that I realised, every work of art deserves its chance with an audience and this awards show is just another means to showcase and award these artists. We can make skeptical judgments about the intentions and bias of the academy but I think we can all agree that no matter what the result, some very talented people are getting their work shown to a new audience.

So Happy

So please allow me to extend my congratulations to every single nominee. Thank you for bringing the medium of film to new levels of excellence.

As a nice addition, movie fans were treated to brand new trailer for Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2. If the idea of War Machine, Whiplash and Nick Fury excites you click here

Another week, and another Venntertainment Show.

Download the podcast here.

We welcome back Anthony Doyle this week who’s just back from his travels in Australia.

• We chat about Biorhythm, the new Science Gallery flagship show.
• Twitter and celebrities – which may also include a chat about Crystal Swing, the new Irish sensation.
• Tim Burton and his art.
• Films that we don’t want to see.

Our play list was as follows:

• Gorillaz – Superfast Jellyfish
• Jape – I Was A Man
• And So I Watch You From Afar – Set Guitars To Kill
• Editors – Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool
• Hole – Skinny Little Bitch

Failte Ireland have announced details for its brand new advertising campaign to promote holidaying at home within Ireland.

It’s probably quite obvious that people are taking fewer holidays in these times due to financial constraint, but research has shown that whilst we are holding off on foreign holidays, we are still veering towards Ireland in big numbers.

Ireland has been a consistently popular destination for us to take short breaks and with our current financial restrictions, more people are beginning to turn to Ireland as a versatile and exciting destination that won’t break the bank.

Failte Ireland have noticed this and plan to make us all more aware of what our fair country has to offer.

The new campaign launched on March 5^th and includes video and radio advertisements.

I had the pleasure of catching a preview of their flagship video advertisement and I was very impressed.

The 90 second ad is very well produced and seems to accentuate the strengths of Ireland as a holiday destination very well. I particularly like the soundtrack (Heathers) by the way .

I hope very much that this campaign is successful for Failte Ireland. Thousands of small and medium businesses depend on tourism for their livelihood. This new push could see a greatly increasing number of people considering breaks in Ireland this year.

Bundoran anyone??

For more info or to start planning your trip visit: www.discoverireland.ie

Well we talked about Twitter on the show this week, as evidenced on the podcast, which is a topic close to my heart. Because you see I’m obsessed with Twitter. It’s my fave thing in the world. Where else can I catch up on what some dope from the Hills is doing, who is tweeting what they’ve had for breakfast AND keep abreast of the breaking new stories? Nowhere else!

With that in mind I thought about all the amazing celebs both low rent and A list that are using the oul’ Twitter these days. I’ve had a few “famous” types tweet me back (oh I won’t name drop, I won’t!) but I decided to list five people on Twitter who are famous and who I would like to send me some kind of fleeting internet greeting. Is that really too much to ask?

Lauren Conrad

Wise woman

Former Hills star, author and icon for our times. I would love Lauren to tweet me one of the pearls of wisdom she used to spout on the Hills.”Love is not a maybe thing, you know when you love someone” for example. If Lauren could tweet something like that my way I’d be chuffed. Because it’s the kind of advice that I need. Honestly.

Madonna

Exercise advice anyone?

She’s not officially on Twitter but she took to her manager’s awhile back last year and it was amazing. I’d love Madonna to tweet my some exercise advice so my arms can bit that sinew-y. Or to give me tips on how to do a fake English accent. Or how best to wear a leotard in your 50s. Just the practical advice I’ll need to get through my week.

P Diddy

"Let's Go"

Or Diddy. Or Puff Daddy. Or whatever. I just want the secret to having that much self belief and the idea that you can tweet LET’S GO and people will listen. Seriously. I’d bet he’d tweet to me. Honest.

Demi Moore

Twitter-famous

I just want a tweet from Demi because I’m jealous that she is now doing absolutely nothing (apart from being beautiful and being married to Ashton Kutcher which is kind of a full time job) and yet has used Twitter to give herself a higher profile than ever. I’m a bit jealous. I won’t lie.

Lily Allen

Wanna fight?

I want to have a Twitter feud with Lily because it would (A) amazing and (B) get me in the papers. And honestly what could be better? To join the ranks of Courtney Love, Cheryl Cole and Katy Perry in the we’ve feuded with Lily stakes would be fantastic. It’d be liking winning an Oscar. But better.

There you have it, thanks to this lot I’ll have an increased public profile, exercise advice and million of twitter followers I’m sure.

17^th February will forever be remembered, I’d imagine, as the day the flame went out. Not just on Capel Street after the head shop’s fire was extinguished, but also for head shops getting away with selling the so-called legal highs in the first place. Since then, there was another fire at the ‘Happy Hippy’ head shop (I have to give it to them, they are pretty imaginative with the names I guess) and rather than wonder why it’s happening or see if the same person is especially targeting head shops out of a dislike for them, the Government have quickly given in and introduced legislation that’ll put a stop to the fun. It’s funny actually, whenever I’ve heard of a fire happening at a shop, the last thing they normally do is try to outlaw the goods, but that seems to be definitely the case here. Labour TD Joe Costello for example quite rightly reckoned that ‘It certainly seems too much of a coincidence that there has been two such fires within days, and there is a real concern that these shops are being targeted, and there is a worry that not enough action is being taken either to stop the selling of these products or to protect people living near head shops who could be hurt in a fire’. Quite right, I remember hearing about the old Pickled Pig pub in Bray catching fire years ago and one of my primary concerns had definitely been that not enough action had been taken to stop selling pints.

Ah flake...the creamiest chocolate and ALSO, the most 'invigorating bath salt' apparently...

Not that it genuinely bothers me – I wouldn’t actually know my party pill spice from actual spice, so it’s not like I can be pinned down as a regular (or even occasional) frequenter of such an outlet, just I have a sneaking suspicion that the Government, as they often do, might be about to make a much bigger problem for themselves. For example, when I worked out at the airport, I used to work with a guy who gleefully announced to me one day that before every music festival, every gig, hell, even every night out more or less, he drove down to the head shop in Bray and stocked up on all the ‘essentials’ for a crazy night out. He’d take them all, have a crazy night, have no idea what happened, but let everything wear off and be back to work a few days later. Essentially, he was taking party pills as often as he could purely to make a particular night crazy. The obvious question then is, if they’re illegal and so are proper drugs, well what are people going to pick? If you’re going to get nicked for possession, you might as well go the whole hog and be caught for something a bit more hardcore than something that was legal only days before.

More importantly, what are we supposed to do in the meantime about the near-comical burnings of head shops? If people don’t like party pills, then does that mean petrol stations selling cigarettes, off-licences and possibly churches will have to go too? There’s absolutely no doubt, in my mind anyway, that letting the whole head shop thing go on for as long as it has was a silly idea, but now they’re being burned down – real people’s businesses burnt to the ground, seemingly because it appears they’re being specifically ‘targeted’ as Detective Inspector Costello has quite correctly surmised. The way I see it, everyone has some sort of vice, be it the obvious drinking or smoking, to other stuff like my hookah pipe, or people taking party pills or whatever. But something tells me in the back of my mind, somehow, that far less money is wasted cleaning up the streets and hospitalizing angry party-pill takers as it is on drinkers, or even helping smokers with lung cancer. But I better keep quiet, otherwise there won’t be a pub or petrol station left un-charred by Monday…