Variety Reviews 'Colony'

Variety magazine reviews the Irish produced Doc 'Colony' (as mentioned previously on this blog) after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941057.html?categoryid=2863&cs=1&query=Colony

Here's another preview of the film:

Dance on brother, dance on...

RIP Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze - Chippendale
Uploaded by tressage. -

By the way, you can watch Mr. Swayze in a previous entry here: The Greatest Story Ever Rolled

Dublin Bikes are HERE!

The new public bike scheme has finally hit Dublin... The Press Release goes something like this:

"Cosmopolitan cities such as Paris, Lyon, Vienna, and Montreal all offer a public bike scheme. Dublin now joins this elite list. On 13th September 2009 dublinbikes will offer locals and visitors a non-polluting, traffic jam-beating form of transport to get around our capital city."

The concept is brilliant: there are 40 stations around the city centre - you pay 10 bucks a year for membership, have a €150 deposit to cover the cost of lost/stolen bikes and the first 30 minutes of rental are free - which basically covers you for taking the bikes most places within the city centre radius. Beware of keeping the bike longer than 24 hours though, or the full €150 will be deducted from your account.

Whether the International capital of binge drinking can cope with the responsibility remains to be seen. The organizers behind the scheme have the right ideas, such as keeping the 40 bike stations in well lit and publicly placed areas, and not allowing the bikes to be taken out after 12:30am (avoiding the inevitable 3am drunk ride home). But I know the nearest station to my house (Mountjoy Sqaure) is often desolate and dark after sunset. Erp.

Any scheme that's trying to reduce pollution, fuel costs and traffic, places high in my "good list"... I just hope it doesn't result in any injuries (or God-forbid fatalities) from numerous inexperienced cyclists on the road.

Aside from their website, I haven't actually checked out the look & feel of the bikes or kiosks, so definitely a full report to come soonish...

For full info about the program, visit their website:
http://www.dublinbikes.ie/

BACON IS GOOD FOR ME!

This is what happens when you bring "the good" into someone else's home. Proof that trying to bring the good is not appreciated by eveyone.

The Earth Does Not Like Your Party

It's no secret that party decorations are not only expensive... but also have a terrible habit for ending up in trash piles. A new recycling site has just come to my attention via the Thrillist list

www.eventleftovers.com

It doesn't market itself as a "recycling" site, but rather an online marketplace to buy and sell new and gently used party supplies. It does however hint at its subtle green-ness with the catch-phrase of "Saving the Planet One Event at a Time"... so there. I find the idea particularly interesting as not too long ago I was chatting to my cousin about this very subject. He works on big corporate events and mentioned the amount of waste after the party ends is actually a bit disturbing. Swathes of fabric and flowers and bowls with nowhere to go but the dump.

The brilliance of the idea is in its subtlety: all sorts of people are likely to go here for deals, or to make up for the cost of their big aul party rather than simply to be eco-friendly... extra points for slyly getting people to green up whether they realize it or not. Suh-weet.

How perfect is this? I'm giving it three outta five - considering it looks quite pricey to add an item to the site:

Guerilla Gardening

Hello again after a busy and extended weekend... My joints are still feeling it as I sit here at the computer. Oooh erg.

I just came across the idea of guerilla gardening of which several groups are popping up in cities worldwide. Thanks to these groups, gardens are slowly emerging in some amazing places. Check it out! http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

These folks find bits of disused/abandoned urban earth and transform it into garden space... illegally! Huzzah for that. Considering helping community groups and spaces seems the last thing on politician's minds these days, it's nice to know there are people taking things into their own hands. I particularly love the idea of the plant donation/recycling - for example, if you're changing your garden and have unwanted healthy plants, they are perfect for inclusion in the guerilla gardens rather than ending up in landfill. Genius points for that.

And don't even get me started on some of the fun and hilarious tools these guerilla gardeners are developing to create their gardens secretly. I'm especially loving the "His 'n' Hers Subversive Gardener Attache Case."

It looks like I'm late to the party and there is already a small guerilla gardening community in Ireland, I'd love to get in touch and start a few of our own digs. Ooooh I feel a documentary coming on. I did recently have the idea that I wanted to convert a large-ish cement patch in my neighborhood into alotments for locals, but knowing all the red-tape that would be involved scared me off a bit. Guerilla gardening could be an interesting alternative.

Who's with me?

My "good person" rating below is definitely on the side of "really liked it" as it's good for community, nature and urban good person projects!

Goin' Green at Leccy Piccy

"Growing" interest in sustainable culture, food & GIY rears its head at Ireland's fav Summer Fest.

Ireland's Electric Picnic Festival takes place this weekend, the last major festival of the summer on this lil Island of ours. I've always loved the fact that there is a "green" aspect to the festival, with their Eco Cup policy, Bin Your Empties Stations and and Energy Efficiency policy amongst loads of other eco-friendly areas, art, stages etc.

This year it seems they're taking it even further with their "Global Green" area, which will be made up of stalls from groups like Cultivate, ReDress, WEEE Ireland, Slow Food and more. There is also going to be something called the "Rethink Tank" which they say includes Sustainability talks & discussions. Perhaps considering the lineup leaves a little to be desired, this will be a nice area to spend the weekend - especially for me, as this year I am actually feeling my age and not half as excited about the festival as I have been previous years.

Some other brilliant things listed on their "Green Map":

• Bicycle Powered Cinema
• Body & Soul Stage made from recycled wood sourced onsite
• Compost Toilets
• Tents made from recycled cardboard
• Solar Powered & Pedal Powered Phone Recharging
• and MORE!

Check out the Electric Picnic's Eco Policy here: http://www.electricpicnic.ie/html/sustain.html
and you can also download their "Green Map" by clicking here.

I also heard some of the folks from Grow Your Own Ireland speaking on the radio today. They will also be at the picnic to give more talks about getting your hands dirty with planting food. I'm yet to check it out myself, but their website can be found at http://giyireland.com/

See yizzal at the picnic! I'll be the difficult-to-age person attempting to clutch on to my youth while watching bands that were around before my youth. And that there is the EP in a nutshell eh?

And now, a word from our correspondent

My bezzie mate Susie is also owner of a blog with a very similar slant to mine - we have often stated that we share a brain, in fact, I believe we said just those exact words in a Film Board application (shockingly, that film wasn't selected for funding...erm). We've even spoken about her possibly contributing to this blog from time to time. In the meantime I wanted to link to her latest post I discovered a moment ago as it truly fits the remit of this blog...

onwards & upwards - farming in the sky

and Sue... Woolly Pockets? Ummm... Gimme some of those bad boys! That could truly be the solution for mini concrete patches like ours. Imagine a wall full of flowers and lettuces! Imagine how happy that would make the bees!