Jennifer Evans live at the Tripod, Dublin

Jennifer Evans and her band "The Ripe Intent" played a couple of amazing songs as support for Nouvelle Vague at the Tripod last night (January 21st). Was a pretty neat start for the main show - just was sad to see that much of the songs got drowned out a bit by the chatter of the crowd.


More about Jennifer Evans and the band can be found on their website (http://jenniferevans.ie/) or their Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/jenevansvia)

Here's a video from the concert with the song "Empire" - Enjoy! :)

Spill it on!

With the media seeming to more and more abandon reporting on the BP oil spill, it's nice to see some alternative sources painting a much more complete (and saddening) picture.
Using this post to link to an excellent post on the oil spill.

Trip to Dalkey Island

Recently I took the chance to visit Dalkey Island, not far from Dublin.
As you can see in this picture done from Sorrento Park in Dalkey (more on that park in a later post), Dalkey Island is pretty small but still offers some interesting landmarks in the form of the ruins of St. Begnet's church, a Martello Tower and an old ruined fort.


For 10€ you can ship over to the Island from Coliemore Harbour with a ferry service some locals provide.
First view after climbing up a little hill after getting out of the boat:


Ruins of St. Begnet's church looking towards Dublin:


Herd of wild goats who are the only permanent residents of Dalkey Island:


Couple of close-ups taken inside the ruined fort on the southeastern part of the Island:






Another view of St. Begnet's church with lots of sailboats:


Some grass with a fuzzy Howth in the background:



Finally here are a bunch of videos showing a further glimpse on Dalkey Island. The seagulls in the 2nd video don't seem too happy about the human visitors, though ;)

Cancelled show and usability win

A couple of days ago I wanted to check out the Grand Canal Theatre for the first time and decided to go see the Ute Lemper concert "Ultimo Tango". When I arrived at the venue, it seemed eerily empty and from far away one could spot a suspicious little paper at the doors:


Closer inspection revealed the following, somewhat disappointing statement:

Press Release from Ute Lemper's Agent:
It is with great regret we are forced to cancel Ute Lemper’s show that was scheduled on June 22nd 2010 at the Grand Canal Theatre Dublin. The promoters organising this event have failed to fulfil their contractual obligations, making it impossible for Ute to go ahead with the show.
Ute assures her fans that she will be back in the near future.

Well, so far so bad. While trotting back home I started thinking about the ticket refund. Never having experienced a cancelled event before, I wasn't immediately familiar with how the refund process would work (having bought the ticket online at ticketmaster).

So, that's where the usability win comes in :)
After going to the ticketmaster website it took me only 2 clicks to effortlessly find a message about the cancelled event with helpful tips on the refund. That really brightened my mood since it's always an awesome feeling if something just works!

The Irish Times has a neat story about the promoter that failed with this event - and, funnily, quite some others more.

Snoop Dogg at Olympia Theatre Dublin

Snoop Dogg was performing in front of a pretty enthusiastic crowd at the Olympia Theatre yesterday (July 6th) and even though I'm not the greatest Hip-Hop/Rap fan out there it felt like nothing to miss :)

Supporting was DJ Frank Jez with a bunch of other amazing DJs (can't remember the names).
Was a fantastic show, though I feel it could have worked even better with a slightly lower sound volume - guess I'm getting too old for that shit :)

Here are two short clips from the event and a bunch of crappy pics.

DJ Frank Jez with buddies getting everybody ready:


Snoop Dogg seems to know what he's doing!


The stage before:


Some nice gear :)


Starting nicely:


And the master arrived:


Snoop Dogg vs. photo blur:

Tegan and Sara at the Olympia Theatre Dublin

While it's now almost a month ago, I don't want to miss posting about the amazing Tegan and Sara show at the Olympia Theatre recently (June 15th). Learning about this gig rather too late, I was left with what one could only describe as not exactly the best spot - but still: even having a crappy spot was totally worth it since the show was awesome from start to finish!
Starting off was Dublin based Oliver Cole playing some neat stuff from his new album "We Albatri".


Here are some more pics from Tegan and Sara and 2 short clips from that event. Hope they make a stop in Dublin again some time :)

first

First post here - so what to expect?
Well, nothing much & random stuff.

That's it. Good night!