"What Are You Looking At?" by Will Gompertz

I'm halfway through reading this great book that I picked up when I was away on a short break. Purchased from the most excellent Liber Bookshop in Sligo Town, Will Gompertz's book What Are You Looking At? 150 Years of Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye is a purchase anyone interested in art will not regret.

  
Gompertz's writing style is informative and accessible without mystifying the reader with all the arty-farty bull that often emerges when art is being discussed. Gompertz is the first to admit that the industry is guilty of this fault, with its wealth of highly qualified museum and gallery staff writing exhibition brochures and wall plaques that need to inform the public but at the same time will be seen and judged by the higher echelons of the art world.

It is an art book that sets each major movement starting with the Impressionists in their own place in history and the influences and events that sparked off the changes in approach and thought. Their are colour plates of works from the major artists discussed and black and white prints interspersed throughout to further illustrate Gompertz' text. It is the type of book that makes you want to go away and explore further about specific artists or places that they worked in. These books to me are the best, those that spring board onto other books or websites or even to visiting the gallery where a particular artwork is shown. It encourages further thought and exploration where Gompertz has skirted the surface to give just enough detail to make one feel knowledgeable and to understand the roots of the art movement but not so saturated that there is not  more to discover. His very cleverly designed timeline of the Modern Art movements at the front of the book is laid out like the London underground map- a familiar iconic design that we are used to interpreting but here presenting a sometimes confusing pattern of development in a very clear and manageable way.



The Guardian is quoted as saying that "Will Gompertz is the best teacher that you never had" and I will second that statement. This is the type of book that you will return to again and again as the read about influences are recognised in new artworks that are produced and seen by the critical public.

Retro Sweets

I'm a sweet lover- let me state that fact now. By that I mean sweeties; gums, toffee bonbons, chewy fruit sweets, you get the picture. Chocolate is nice, especially that lime Áine plain chocolate, but I'm not going to get excited about a Mars bar. Sweets mean those ones that come in swing bags and you seem to be able to scoff in huge quantities without coming over all sick like you do with chocolate. So now we are straight on that let me get to the point.

I recently bought a pack of four sherbet fountains. Ooh, the anticipation of opening them was immense. The thought of the lovely stiff stick of licorice, the sherbet sticking with each re-dip. The reality was just one big disappointment. You see if you are going to re-introduce sweets they have to be as they were, and this sherbet fountain was not as it was.

 Exhibit 1- new sherbet fountain

  Exhibit 2 - old sherbet fountain

Now, the subtle differences between these two fountains are all important. As a result I suppose of some type of health and safety food regulation the licorice is now inside a hermetically sealed plastic container with a fakey looking black plastic tip to mimic the licorice that used to stick out the top. This issue overcome and the lid twisted off, the licorice stick is kind of thinner and more bendy, not up to repeated sucking and dipping into the sherbet. Complaint number three is the supposedly improved plastic tube. Half the fun of eating a sherbet fountain was when the top paper got all soggy with the constant repeated dips and tinged with black goo. This resulted in a tearing off of half the cardboard to reveal the sherbet stuck in the bottom so that you could have a good ole prod and dig at it. This is no longer possible in the rigid plastic tube and you end up either tipping it out and risking choking as the dust shoots down your throat or just abandoning the project halfway.

So, new design of sherbet fountain - "nil point" as they say in Eurovision. So glad I got that out of my system!

   

DVD's- 'End of Watch' and Jo Nesbo's 'Jackpot'

Does anybody rent DVDs these days? With the closure of 20 of Xtravision's 152 stores across Ireland earlier this May and the company going into receivership I guess the facts speak for themselves. Viewing has changed; we stream films and TV series, subscribe to Netflix for all its faults and have Sky or other cable networks. So I guess the answer to my first question is "No". Despite this my local DVD rental store is always busy with browsing public who leave with a couple of discs and for the bank holiday weekend we rented '3 for the price of 2' of which we have viewed two.

  

End of Watch starring Jake Gyllenhall and Michael Pena as two South Central California cops is a very real and sometimes disturbing journey as the two cops with an extremely close 'brother in arms' relationship patrol the neighbourhood holding their own camcorder to document their watch. The success of their busts is their ultimate downfall as they mess with a big Mexican cartel involved in drugs and human trafficking. Sometimes hard to watch it is violent, rough and disturbing as the gangs pitch themselves against their enforcers but it is the relationship between Gyllenhall and Pena as Brian and Mike, the cop car banter and the more personal exchanges that carries the story. A very rewarding rental.

 

Jackpot, based on the Jo Nesbo story was an unexpected joy. Violent, rough, disturbing and .....funny, it was one of the funniest black humour movies I have seen for a while. The arrest of Oscar Svenson played by Kyrre Hellum in a strip joint/sex shop after a violent shoot out allows the detective in charge, Solor to question him and get to the bottom of the event. Oscar works with ex-offenders and is roped into getting into a football betting pool as the fourth person. The unexpected win leads to a chain of events carefully explained by the innocent Svenson. The four main characters, Svenson, Thor Eggen, Billy and Dan Treschow work perfectly together as the combination of psych vs innocent vs stupid vs the loyal con. All of this is balanced out by the cool questioning by Solor whom we never quite know whether he is being serious or sarcastic. The outcome is most satisfying.

Two dvd rentals recommended should you wish to support an ailing industry!
  
 

Festivals and Rock - Summer 2013

For festival goers the summer of 2013 looks set to be a great one. They are a great place to see up and coming bands being given the opportunity to play to a big audience and also to see some of the big names. Oxegen (David Getta, Rizzle Kicks, Rita Orra, Snoop Dogg) and Electric Picnic (Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, Fatboy Slim, Franz Ferdinand) have announced their line up to add to Kasabian, Primal Scream, James Blake and Chic at Forbidden Fruit and Vampire Weekend, The Maccabees, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kraftwerk at Longitude.



For the rockers out there Ireland is being spoiled. First up, this June, following their great performance at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, The Who arrive in Dublin to perform "Quadrophenia and More". They will play their 1973 album Quadrophenia in its entirety to be followed by a greatest hits selection. To fans of this particular album this is the music event of the year. Anyone who grew up during the 1979 mod revival will be familiar with this album and the film with Phil Daniels as the tragic male lead Jimmy and Sting as the miscast too-old-for-the-role Ace face.
  

Next on the rock list is the visit of the old Canadian rock god Neil Young and Crazy Horse to the RDS. With a history of working together since the late 60s this is a group of musicians so used to playing with each other you wonder have they become one machine. Frank "Poncho" Sampedo has played with Young for 40 years and at 64 is the baby of the band. Reputed to be playing unexpected tracks and shaking the band up, expect the unexpected and prepare yourself for some long guitar jams.


The final rock show not to be missed is the Boomtown Rats reunion at The Marquee in Cork. What we expect we just don't know but we want to be there to find out! It's 26 years since their final show was performed in 1986 after becoming one of the biggest bands of the late 70s/80s and were the first Irish band to have a number one UK hit. Geldof is quoted as saying; "we fancied getting up there and playing those songs again for the sheer joy of it and we hope some of you would like to hear them from the band that made them. Anyway it'll be good to be back and better to see everyone again!"