The Dubliner Magazine

Pagliacci - two for one!

Roll up! Roll up!

Two-for-one preview tickets for Pagliacci the opera at Bewley's Cafe Theatre!

One of the world's best-loved operas, the story for Pagliacci was inspired by an actual murder the composer, Leoncavallo, witnessed as a young boy.

It is being performed at Bewleys Cafe Theatre by Wonderland, whose Moliere's The Miser was one of the biggest hits of last year's Fringe. Stars Rhys Jenkins, Simon Morgan, Joan O’Malley, Colm Lalor, Wojciech Smarkala & Ralph Stehle.

The two-for-one offer is for next Monday, March 3rd and Tuesday March 4th. If you can't make it along on those days, it'll be running as normal from March 10th-29th.

We love Bewleys Cafe Theatre - such a swell way to spend your lunch hour. Pagliacci in particular is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Bookings: 086 878 4001 or info@bewleyscafetheatre.com

Yesterday’s slut, today’s heroine

Bridget Houricane reviews Norma Clarke's Queen of the Wits – A Life of Laetitia Pilkington

I thought ‘misery memoirs’  were a modern phenomenon, but as the prophet in Ecclesiastes remarked (in 970BC), “There is nothing new under the sun.” Readers have always had an appetite for others’ misfortunes; the difference being that where now we read, commiserate and congratulate the author for coming through, in the 18th Century they read, censured and condemned the author as depraved. Mrs Pilkington wrote some of the best-selling memoirs of the 18th Century, but they sullied her reputation. Her friend, Samuel Richardson, author of the unbearably moralistic  , cut her off, terming her “a wretch, who wished to perpetuate her infamy” (which is, by the way, an excellent description of all B-list celebrities).

Marketa has picked up more than a Dublin accent...

Jon Stewart reveals the real story behind Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's Oscars triumph

Another Eurovision Turkey

Dustin Makes the Belgrade

It's official - the Eurovision has finally sunk into absolute and utter absurdity. Dustin will be representing the old sod at the next kitsch fest in Belgrade in May.

If Finnish monsters and Israeli pre-op transexuals can win, surely a Northside fowl should romp home. Ronnie Drew must be pissed off though - Dustin's completely ripped off his schtick.

Dustin is beginning to seem like a Shakespearean clown - a vital Falstaffian figure who points out the increasingly ridiculous elements of Irish public life. Just take a look at this laying into Westlife on The Late Late...

Thank god for puppets...

Jeremy Paxman vs. Gerry Adams

Satirising the Good Old, Bad Old Days

Chris Morris is best known as the anarchic satirist who got in trouble for satirising media hysteria around paedophilia. More recently, he has been seen in an utterly forgettable role on Channel 4’s The IT Crowd.

However this clip is vintage Moris, having a go at Sinn Fein, Paxman and the broadcasting ban.

‘Rory O'Connor’ who bears a striking resemblance to another bearded Sinn Fein leader, is played here by Steve Coogan. Coogan went on to star as Alan Partridge, before moving into films such as 24 Hour Party People, Around the World in 80 Days and Tristram Shandy.

Grooverider in a Storm

An eye for an eye, four years for a toot

It's not all sun, sea and artificial islands over in the world's favourite emirate; it's also got some pretty draconian laws.

Radio 1 drum and bass DJ Grooverider has learned that the very hard way after receiving a four year sentence for drug trafficking in Dubai. Was the Londoner bringing in shipments of cocaine? Bales of methamphetamines? Bags of heroin?

Nope, simply 2.16g of cannabis which he claims he just forgot. Bad place for bad memory obviously.

But if you think that's harsh, spare a thought for 43-year old Keith Brown who was arrested at Dubai airport for possessing a microscopic amount of hashish in his luggage. Weighing less than a grain of sugar and invisible to the naked eye, the infinitesimally small amount landed old Browny with a similar four year iron vacation.

Well, if you can't do the crime, don't kinda vaguely do the crime.

Murder Ballads and Sexual Chemistry

Reflections on a Valentine’s Weekend Spent Watching Old Music Videos on YouTube

From the archives, these two shoots illustrate a timeless truth about romance – there's no substitute for natural chemistry.

Both of these videos feature murder ballads by undisputed master of the genre, Nick Cave. The first features Cave, singing with Kylie Minogue, on location, with lots of artsy cut-aways, hair dye and soft-focus.

It flat-lines.

The second features Cave with PJ Harvey, in a studio, in a single take.

Despite the humble budget, the intensity and intimacy are undeniable.

It goes to show that there’s no substitute for chemistry. Also that there are still musicians whose careers last more than 10 minutes. Remarkably, over 10 years after these videos were made, all of the performers are still big draws. Except the snake.

Same time next year?

In Defense of Cosmetic Surgery

Once they were born with it. Then it was Maybelline, and now it’s the surgeon’s scalpel that Dubliners use to attract each other. One million euro is spent on cosmetic surgery every week in Ireland. But just as the surgeon sharpens his scalpel, so society sharpens its claws, ready to tear strips off the men and women who have made survival of the fittest a double entendre for our times. By Caomhan Keane and Leah Sullivan

Is dying your hair any more moral than boosting your bust? Is lifting your face so different from shedding your waist? In a world that pushes us to put our best foot forward, shouldn’t we applaud, rather than mock or envy, those who wish to take the next step?

Dubliner in The New York Times

The New York Times and International Herald Tribune have picked up on a story in this month's Dubliner...

The Pakistani adventures of Dubliner columnist Abie Philbin Bowman (whose controversial comedy Jesus The Guantanamo Years travelled to Lahore during the recent state of emergency) featured today in an IHT and NYT assessment of the cultural responses to Guantanamo Bay.

Click here or here to read their story. But remember where you read it first.

You can sample part of the original show below.

GUBU 2.0

Max McGuinness on Bertie's Banana Republic.

Bertie Ahern's staggering attempt this week to subvert the Mahon Tribunal (not to mention common sense) is a stroke worthy of an African dictator.

The taoiseach's bizarre insistence that comments he made in the Dáil in 2006 are somehow off limits to those investigating his financial affairs contradicts the legislature's basic reason for existing.

Parliament provides a means by which all citizens of the state (not excluding lawyers!) can supervise the workings of government. His argument implies that parliamentary privilege makes the Dáil a sort of black hole and that nothing that is ever said there should have wider repercussions. By the same line of reasoning, if a TD admitted to committing fraud in the chamber, the Gardaí would be obliged to ignore the crime . It is true that the TD's statement to the Dáil would itself be inadmissible as evidence but this does not stop the Gardaí using the information it contains as the basis for an investigation. Once Gardaí had uncovered other evidence, they would naturally bring a prosecution against the deputy. Anything else would be unacceptable.