The Dubliner Magazine

Louk Sorenson?

Sure he's as Irish as Barmbrack. (Ed - That is Irish right?)

It's been 25 years since an Irish player won a Grand Slam tennis match, and now Sorenson has gone and done it. So well done him.

And well done Reuters for this groantastic headline.

Our Gobshite Sense Is Tingling

During a recession, you can't always get the job you want, right? Sometimes you just gotta take whatever comes your way.

Haiti

How To Help

The rescue effort in Haiti is continuing, even as the death toll goes up. If you want to help, Oxfam Ireland are taking donations - Oxfam has people and supplies on the ground, with more on the way.

You can donate to Oxfam Ireland's appeal by calling 1850 30 40 55 (ROI) and in NI on 0800 0 30 40 55, online at www.oxfamireland.org/donate and at their local Oxfam Ireland shops, 10 shops in Dublin.

Didn't he do well?

Brian and Delta at some fancy do in Melbourne yesterday. Let's just hope Brian never forgets his roots. But this suggests he never will:

Orinoco Whoa

Enya
The Very Best Of Enya ★
Into the mystic

There is a cultural phenomenon I find fascinating, if disturbing: music produced for consumption by people who don’t like music. Now there is no biological need for humans to expose themselves to the combination of sounds that loosely represents what we call music. There is, for many, an emotional need, but others are completely unmoved, irritated even, by almost all musical forms. Just as melody and rhythm pass through us like a nourishing x-ray, these people just hear noise (and not in a good way).

They’re odd folk; not completely human, just soulless bags of meat really. Some are proudly defiant, embracing their handicap, while others mask their condition. Anytime you see someone buying a CD in a petrol station, that’s one of them. It comforts them to emotionally distance themselves from the process, and where are you more distant from your emotions than in a petrol station? So it is no coincidence that every Statoil CD rack contains a copy of Enya’s 1988 album Watermark (yes, that’s the one you’ve heard – the one with ‘Orinoco Flow’ on it). Watermark was a master work which raised insipid to an artform. It identified a lucrative market in music for people who don’t like music.

VoiceBox

An Evening of Chatter in a Box

Chat shows are no longer just in the skinny mits of Ryan Tubridy... they're now democratised and held in nightclubs apparently.

Or so it would seem according to the flyer below from VoiceBox.

It may not be Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien (although they're not themselves either these days), but it will give people the chance to meet the flamboyant James O'Neill of Bitches With Wolves, a treat for any sane person.

Or insane person. Or person with undiagnosed mild mental illness.

Welcome to Dumpsville

Population: All of Us

Every month we ask the good people of Dublin the tough questions. But we want to hear from you too - email your answers to neil@thedubliner.ie and there might even be a prize in it for you.

So, this month, the big question is...

What's your worst dumping story?

We should add, you can be the dumper or the dumpee.

And to get the ball rolling, here's one I still feel guilty for...

Conan vs. Jay

Leno never came to Ireland, so I think we know what side we're on.

The Kings of Queens

Derek Owens kills time with Dublin’s drag royalty.

Midweek nights at the George, the grand old dame of Dublin gay bars, aren’t traditionally hotbeds of activity – when we arrive, the front bar is dominated by the clientele that give it its unkind nickname, Jurassic Park. But by half ten, when Davina Devine takes to the decks, there’s a real buzz and a younger crowd has arrived.

It’s the second night of Davina’s House Party, and she’s roped in Apprentice stars Lucinda Kelly and Geraldine O’Callaghan to make guest appearances. “Clubs in London always have celebrities or random reality TV people turning up – the Big Brother people and all that sort of stuff. We don’t really have that scene in Ireland. I just thought it would be fun to invite them,” Davina explains later. It’s also a smart move, as O’Callaghan has brought an entourage (including Anthony Fitzgerald, a professional middleweight boxer who seems a weensy bit ill-at-ease) and she and Kelly mingle with the crowd.

Devine (aka Dave Redmond) is threatening to join Dublin’s top drag acts at the tender age of 26 as she launches her solo nights in earnest after a few years on the scene. She describes herself as an entertainer, promoter and DJ (“I don’t tend to say ‘drag queen’, because people think of an old fellah in a sequinned dress”); Thursday night’s House Party features a DJ set rather than an all-singing (or lip-synching), all-dancing campstravaganza.

The 2010 Sandwich Awards

Or...The Sambos

Every month for the past year The Dubliner (that's us - hi!) has been sampling some of the city's best sandwiches. In the next issue we'll be putting another office food staple under the spotlight - but for now here are some of the sandwiches that stood out for us.

Best Breakthrough Sandwich
BLT from Juniors

"...the bacon is still crisp, tasty and fried that morning (support our No-to-Pre-Cooked-Bacon campaign), the lettuce has been ditched for some rocket...and it’s all served between one of the nicest crusty rolls we’ve had this year. A generous helping of mustard mayonnaise gives the sandwich a bit of kick and makes this an excellent update on a old classic."
2 Bath Avenue, Dublin 4. 664 3648. juniors.ie