Ken McGuire

Tag: kilkenny

  • My Dear Rosencrantz

    My evenings have been occupied this past week with rehearsals for two stage productions. Next month I’ll be stepping onto the Watergate stage in Kilkenny as Eddy in Willy Russell’s Stags And Hens. This weekend, however, is in complete contrast as I, along with some of my fellow deviants, stage a performance called Shakespeare In Bits as part of the Shakespeare In The House festival in Kilkenny.

    The festival, now in its second year, sees Dreamstuff Youth Theatre (the theatre wing of Young Irish Film Makers) perform abridged versions of Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Comedy Of Errors. Cartoon Saloon will be on hand to provide a Shakespearean animation workshop, there’s a 60-second Shakespeare film competition and then there’s our programme, which certain deviates from the norm.

    As part of Shakespeare In Bits were bringing performances from The Tempest, extracts from The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works of William Shakespeare, a monologue or two from Hamlet, The New Yorker’s take on the recent Christian Bale rant (transformed to Shakespearean times), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (above), culminating in a sonnet-off akin to the rap battles of 8-Mile.

    Each day starts around 11am (this Saturday and Sunday) and it all takes place in Rothe House on Parliament Street, Kilkenny. Admission is free.

    For the moment, however, the sun seems to have vacated Kilkenny completely, but hopefully the rain will disappear to make way for the sun once more.

  • The C Word

    One of my alter egos is involved in the running of The Devious Theatre Company in Kilkenny. We write new works, produce and direct in house, run a great rotation system on all of our productions since our launch in 2006 and this weekend we’re getting set to announce the first part of our 2009 program of theatre.

    When things go right, they go very right. When things go wrong, they’re usually followed by “the C word”. At least that used to be the case. The word has lost all meaning and is now a total Devious Theatre term of affection.

    We’ve been plugging a string of videos from a production of Trainspotting we did last year (one of three productions of 2008) over on DeviousTheatre.com and we’ve just released the final video aka The Cunt Cut.

    Needless to say, it was a very popular word in Trainspotting… can you count how many are there?

  • 5th Kilkenny Open Coffee This Morning

    049
    Creative Commons License photo credit: reality-check

    The fifth Kilkenny Open Coffee gathering takes place later this morning. Myself, John Keyes, Keith Bohanna, Frank Bradley and Katherine Nolan have become the regulars there and hopefully will all be there again this morning. Each meeting to date has thrown up a few new faces, people using it as a chance to get out of the house or the office and meet people in a likeminded space, see what others are up to. If you’re in Kilkenny, working from home, working in a web / tech / business background and want to get out of the house or the office and introduce yourself to people in a similar space, do drop down, either today or at any of the Open Coffee mornings down the line.

    We haven’t set a structure on the gathering i.e. no specific themes or guest speakers or anything like that but each morning has thrown up some great topics of conversation and thoughts to get your own moving.

    This morning’s Open Coffee takes place in the Kilkenny Café at Market Cross Shopping Centre (map here) on High Street. For those driving, MCSC has a large multistorey car park, with parking also available in the nearby Dunnes Stores car park. The meet is on at the back of the café where you’ll also find free wifi.

    To keep up to date, check the IGOpeople group here.

  • LocalElections.ie Covering Kilkenny / Carlow

    Ballot paper for the Manchester TIF referendum
    Creative Commons License photo credit: Frankie Roberto

    I stumbled across LocalElections.ie last week via KCLR 96FM, the station running the site as a means to get information to the masses on the local elections in Carlow / Kilkenny for 2009.

    The site itself is heavy on the information side of things with plenty of information available on the structure of the elections, the breakdown of the councils within Carlow and Kilkenny, the power of councillors and lists of all current sitting councillors and those standing for election come June. While the names are there, it might be nice to get some profiles added on the actual councillors themselves – pictures, key election points etc. – something I’m sure will appear on the site before the election date in June.

    One thing that is happening is that they’re getting blogging. Sue Nunn, who heads to Brussels today in advance of a live broadcast tomorrow with the current Ireland East MEPs, is blogging. There’s also two hustings blogs running, the Kilkenny one packing a bit of a no-holds-barred approach to the local elections while the Carlow one has just gotten off the ground.

    Sue’s show is live tomorrow from 10am to 12pm and you can catch the stream via the KCLR website.

  • Tinkering With Muzu.tv

    I’ve been enjoying some downtime since Friday afternoon and until Wednesday I’m on self-imposed exile from the office, something that doesn’t come along or take place all that often. I endured a long drive to Sligo on Friday, sang my head off at a gig on Saturday, listening to all the Premier League action on Newstalk on the drive home on Sunday and today has been spent dedicating some much-needed time to extending the arms of Kilkenny Music.

    There’s a lot coming up for KKM in the coming weeks and months, including the launch of a busking competition we’re running, with over €3,000 in cash up for grabs. Before the weekend, the One Take Sessions kicked off for 2009 and while the first of the videos hit YouTube from a McDonalds at the Kilmartin N6 centre outside Athlone on Friday, today saw some tinkering with Muzu.tv.

    I’ve been doing a lot of viewing on the site, in terms of videos, but have only now gotten around to shifting content onto Muzu. I must upload the videos in a higher quality (mental note) next time around but I’m liking it so far and hope to use it as another strong portal for the artists and acts we’re putting through the ‘Sessions for 2009. Also, you won’t have any problem watching “official” music videos on Muzu, unlike the news hanging over Youtube in the last few days.

    By the way, if you’re looking for some free music from some great independent Irish acts in April, join us in Cleere’s Theatre in Kilkenny on Thursday April 2nd at 9:30pm.

  • New Online Newspaper For Kilkenny Launches This Week

    The Times are Changing
    Creative Commons License photo credit: Edgar Zuniga Jr.

    “The countdown has begun to February 18, 2009 – A historic day for Kilkenny which will then boast Ireland’s first on-line provincial news paper.”

    Kilkenny Alive, a new online newspaper for Kilkenny city and county is set to launch this week. The paper, or site in this case, is being managed by Jimmy Rhatigan, former editor of the recently collapsed Kilkenny Voice along with Sean Hurley, both cornerstones of Kilkenny print media. I missed the launch of the newspaper on Saturday evening but caught up with Mark Brennan, who will look after the day-to-day running of the site, via email.

    The site itself should “keep a nice flow of content” while every Wednesday will see a new “edition” posted to the site. You can also get a PDF download of the weekly edition which will contain everything one would expect in a newspaper with news, sport, theatre, arts updates etc. There’s also talk of some “nice surprises” which I’m sure will be revealed from this Wednesday onwards. The site is being designed and run inhouse and will launch at KilkennyAlive.com.

    Given the loss of the Kilkenny Voice and some noticable content-shifts of late at the Kilkenny Advertiser (bring back your business section, please!), it will be interesting to see where Kilkenny Alive will go and what gaps it can fill in local media.

  • Kilkenny Open Coffee Today (Wednesday)

    Just a reminder to folks that the second Kilkenny Open Coffee takes place at 11:30am this morning in the Kilkenny Cafe at Market Cross Shopping Centre, High Street, Kilkenny.

    There’s a “meeting room” space at the back of Kilkenny Cafe that offers up free wifi, some couches and the likes. Last (and first) time around there seven of us there and we’ve contacted a few more people this time around, locally, to let them know what’s going on.

    If you’re in Kilkenny this morning, involved in the internet or tech space and want to drop in for a tea / coffee / scone / demo / yarn then feel free to join us from 11:30am. Last time I checked they were also running an offer of two scones and two coffees for a fiver, plenty to keep one going!

    See the map here or follow the crowd over on IGOpeople.com

  • More Online Comedy Coming February 1st

    The next helping of Vultures, an online comedy filmed and produced here in Kilkenny, is set to debut online on Sunday February 1st over at VulturesPI.com. ‘The Case of the Poisoned Dates’ is the fourth installment of a six-part series, filming of which is set to wrap late next month.

    Those who attended CreativeCamp in March, PodCamp in September or are regular readers of the blog will be away of Vultures, written by good friends of mine John Morton and Paddy Dunne, directed by another great friend in Ross Costigan (you’ll also find his blog nominated in the Best Photoblog category) and produced by Kilkenny’s video genius that is Alan Slattery. We all work together in different capacities with the likes of The Devious Theatre Company (since 2006) and Kilkenny Music (since 2005) and it’s fantastic to see how far Vultures (under the Mycrofilms banner) has come since the series debut back in December 2007.

    I spent some time on set (third episode I’ve worked on in some capacity) on the last day of filming for episode four and by all accounts, we’re in for a right treat when the episode is released next week. There will be a cast and crew screening in advance of the release (which I’m going to miss) and I’ll be catching up with the filming again next month as I get to work on my Scottish accent for another character.

    The fourth episode sees the arrival of TY student, Janine Drew, in the V.P.I. office for work experience. Played by Suzanne O’Brien (a cousin of mine), Janine is brash, ambitious and has the distinct features of what is commonly known as a ‘chav.’

    Janine Drew’s arrival coincides with a series of errant romantic entanglements that degenerate into a potential powder keg of social embarrassment, messy divorce cases and extreme comic violence.

    The new episode sees the return of David Thompson, John Morton and Sean Hackett as McGrain, Vultour and Tennyson, the hapless gentleman detectives of V.P.I. They are joined by a familiar supporting cast of characters; Inspector Leeson (Paul Young), Isabelle Vultour (Liadain Kaminska), Tom Moriarty (Stephen Colfer), Jack Street (Ross Costigan), Sarah Black (Niamh Moroney) and a few new faces.

    Shooting has already begun, in and around Kilkenny, on the final two episodes of the series with the production due to conclude in March. Episodes 5 & 6 will then be released online by summer 2009.

    For the moment though, stick February 1st in your diary to check VulturesPI.com and grab the new episode when it hits the web.

  • Rhyme Rag, New Poetry Blog In Kilkenny

    Testament that including blog links in your email signatures work, I stumbled onto Rhyme Rag earlier this morning.

    Rhyme Rag is a young poetry publication issued by the Kilkenny Arts Office, directed by local arts officer Mary Butler.

    You can also follow the artist-in-residency blog for No 72 John Street here where Gypsy Ray has recently commenced a four week residency.

  • Kilkenny Open Coffee? It’s A Possibility, It’s This Week

    Hot Cup Of Clay
    Creative Commons License photo credit: Gary Denness

    Having an Open Coffee morning in Kilkenny has long been whispered and suggested amongst Kilkenny-heads. I spoke to a few people about it at PodCamp and the whispers appeared again before Christmas on Twitter.

    Over on IGOPeople.com, Keith has set up a Kilkenny Open Coffee Group where a few of us have agreed to a first meeting at the Kilkenny Cafe tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:30am. You’ll find the Kilkenny Cafe located downstairs in Market Cross Shopping Centre and The Meeting Room is up at the back of the cafe. There’s plenty of tables, chairs, big seats, power points for laptops and free wifi as well.

    If you’re in the Kilkenny area, drop in, have a coffee, let’s see what happens.

  • Anti Pinkertons Campaign Commences

    Christmas Eve (or possibly Christmas Day) saw a new online helping from the Vultures crew in Kilkenny as the next-in-line trailer for episode four, The Case Of The Poisoned Dates, hit the web.

    View the trailer above, or click here to visit the Vultures site.

    Remember kids, say “no” to Pinkertons.

  • ArtLinks Reaches The 1,000 Member Milestone

    ArtLinksArtLinks, a growing online community for artists of all walks of life, based in the South East (here in Kilkenny) celebrated a nice milestone yesterday as they’ve reached the 1,000 member mark.

    I’ve been a member of and following the prior to its official launch in November 2007 and for the site to gain the ground it has since last November is largely down to the drive of the organisations director, Cathy Fitzgerald.

    Cathy was an attendee of PodCamp Ireland in Kilkenny in September 2007, moving up to be a speaker at CreativeCamp (March 2008), PodCamp Ireland II (September 2008) and more recently the Arts Council’s new media conference (November 2008). You can view the presentation here.

    Online and offline ArtLinks has come a long way since its launch. Born out of ideas generated at a fantastic Artists Exchange day I attended in May 2006, ArtLinks operates as a partnership between the arts offices of Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford County. By engaging with ArtLinks I’ve been able to open up new doors for theatre and music in Kilkenny as well as connect with some great creative-minded people in the region.

    If you’re a involved in the arts in any way in the south east of Ireland, be it film, drama, music, writing, sculpture, painting – anything goes – drop along and register for free. Best of luck to Cathy and all the arts officers in 2009.


    Disclaimer: I have worked as a consultant and advisor on ArtLinks, and have delivered a number of real-world courses for them.

  • Devious Theatre Do Online Video With Trainspotting

    First came the podcast of The War Of The Worlds, now we’ve started to release clips from our production of Trainspotting in Kilkenny in 2008.

    We put a lot of effort into the visual side of our productions. We hire a great video team for each show who will come in and do a two or three camera shoot. We also had a documentary produced a few months ago giving a fly-on-the-wall look at one of the nights of Trainspotting. However, we also understand and appreciate the power and the reach of the web for the arts and as such I’m expecting 2009 to be a great online year for The Devious Theatre Company.

    To the end of December and into January and February (our quiet real-world months) we’re going to be releasing clips from our shows (recorded in HD), the documentary and much more.

    To start with, here’s the first clip, as mentioned above it’s the opening scene from the Friday night of Trainspotting in Kilkenny. The crowd were already on their feet before the curtain opened – won’t be forgetting that feeling in a hurry.

  • Have You Met Janine Drew Yet?

    Filming for Vultures episode four here in Kilkenny, The Case Of The Poisoned Dates, is almost complete and in advance of the episode’s release, the Mycrofilms bunch recently released a new promo for the episode.

    As far back as she can remember, Janine Drew always wanted to be a private detective. And now that she’s in Transition Year, there’s only one place she wants to go on work experience: Vulture Private Investigations. And no one’s going to stop her: not Mrs. Curtin, not her parents and especially not the detectives of V.P.I. Janine Drew is all about ambition. She is smart, focused, highly intelligent and can actually smoke and chew gum at the same time.

    What she isn’t however is discreet. It can be easily deduced that Janine is what is known as a ‘chav.’ She likes to wear lots of pink, is fond of her bling, is loud and gossipy and adorns her feet with those monstrosities known as UGG boots. She is Dan McGrain’s worst nightmare come to life: an obnoxiously modern female. And she will break your face if you keep staring at her.

    For more on the episode, check here, or play the trailer above.

  • Watch Now: The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse

    On Saturday night I went along to the premiere screening of The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse, the latest episode in the current series of Vultures. I almost laughed my ass off in parts (seriously) and the lads have done another great job in producing this episode, something which couldn’t be done without the terrific assistance from the Kilkenny County Council Arts Office who also support the activities of The Devious Theatre Company and KilkennyMusic.com.

    While I’ve been cast to appear in episode six there’s a possibility I’ll be making a third cameo in four episodes when shooting resumes for episode four later this month.

    Filmed and produced entirely on location in Kilkenny (well, sort-of, for this episode), you can now watch or download the third episode for free online. Visit VulturesPI.com or start playing the video above.

  • Another Helping Of Online Comedy From Vultures

    VULTURES, the online sitcom produced here in Kilkenny sees its third episode premiered this coming Saturday in the back room in Ryan’s on Friary Street for 8pm.

    Vultures is a comedy about three private detectives who run a moderately successful private investigation agency called Vulture Private Investigations. They specialise in divorce cases, fraud, missing persons, animals or plants and occasionally, just occasionally, they’ll be served up something that approximates a mystery. Written, produced and directed by Mycrofilms here in Kilkenny, The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse (the third episode) will also be available online at VulturesPI.com from this Sunday, November 9th.

    The story sees the gentlemen detectives of V.P.I procuring new offices, only to find that someone is illegally dumping rubbish outside. When ball busting rubbish warden Ned Savage (John Doran) shows them evidence that the rubbish is theirs and issues them a fine, Tennyson, Vultour and McGrain realise that someone is trying to push them out of business. But what fiend would do such a thing? And is it safe to inspect manky bags of rubbish in a contained area? And what does Eddie Hobbs have to do with all this?

    The fourth episode is currently in filming in Kilkenny with a view to being released before the end of the year (or I would hope anyway).

    Production on the entire series will have concluded by next summer.

    Keep an eye on VulturesPI.com for the latest installment this weekend.

  • I’m Going To Destroy Kilkenny And Carlow

    Alone
    Creative Commons License photo credit: fdecomite

    As Damien mentioned earlier this morning and I blurted out on Twitter yesterday, I’ve finally been able to announce my current project, albeit almost a week past my original October 1st deadline.

    Myself and a few of the other deviants are taking on HG Wells’ sci-fi classic ‘The War Of The Worlds’ in a production to be broadcast between 9pm and 10pm, Thursday October 30th this year on KCLR 96FM. While we won’t be doing an actual live performance, we’re taking on all the production (as usual), both pre and post for the show. Just when I thought my evenings were coming back to me and all…

    If you want to listen in online, you’ll be able to do so by visiting the KCLR 96FM website. For those who miss the live broadcast, we’re going to look at making a podcast series out of the production (perhaps four mini chapters as well as a full-length release) for release from DeviousTheatre.com in the day or two after broadcast.

    I did manage to squeeze off a QIK of the announcement yesterday, in doing show highlighting the new DeviousTheatre.com (relaunched) along with matching top and pants for the MySpace and Bebo.

    So why destroy Kilkenny and Carlow? Well, we figured the station Orson Welles so gracefully attacked back in 1938 has already been done and given we’re getting nice airtime on local radio, we thought we’d localise the production, also coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the original broadcast that rocked the US at the time of its release.

    Castlecomer will fall, Kilkenny City will lay in ruins and poor Carlow just won’t know what hit it.

    Is this a first for Irish theatre as well? Podcasting productions in that manner? I’d like to think it is but should really do a bit more looking into the subject.

    That’s enough coming up for air… back to the real world for my Tuesday evening.

  • Slow Down, Go Further, Share A Car?

    G-Wiz London #002 28 07 2007
    Creative Commons License photo credit: thingermejig

    I met Paul Brennan, the man behind Future Proof Kilkenny some months ago and I always meant to slip a note into the blog about the events Future Proof run here in town.

    This week, coinciding with EU Mobility Week, Future Proof Kilkenny are hosting a seminar on Sustainable Transport. While some of the talks will look at Kilkenny’s plans for cycling, the future of city motoring and more, one of the talks will come from Mike Newham of GoCar, a new pay-as-you-go car-sharing business launching in Cork this Friday.

    I’m particularly interested myself in how GoCar will do in Cork and if there’s a possibility we’ll see something like it happen elsewhere in the country (as opposed to something like DublinTraffic.ie).

    Following a light lunch there will also be a demo of the REVA electric car in Butler House carpark. The event (half day) takes place in Butler House, is priced €15 and you can grab all the details here.

    Note: Trying the Photo Dropper plugin for WordPress 2.5+ to grab Creative Commons licensed images for the blog posts. Another thing I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time.

  • Wifi Breakfast Gives Food For Thought

    Wifi Breakfast In Kilkenny

    For the last six weeks or so, maybe a little more, I’ve been making more time to get out of the office when it comes to planning on projects, dealing with client emails or any of the music and theatre related activities.

    I’ll either pencil a morning in at home or I’ll take to a coffee shop in Kilkenny. During the recent Smitten run with The Devious Theatre Company I spent some time working from a corner of ‘The Barn’ (theatre venue), Crotty’s coffee shop on Kieran Street, The Field on High Street (great grub) and now the Kilkenny Cafe at Market Cross.

    While the O2 broadband connection in my bag here beside me will allow me to work online from relatively anywhere in Kilkenny, the Kilkenny Cafe (as I mentioned in this video this morning) offer a ‘Meeting Room’ facility, having changed the upper level of the cafe to provide free wifi access (you don’t need a card or key) and powerpoints for your laptop / mobile phone.

    So twice in two weeks I’ve found myself sitting here, breakfast on one side, laptop on the other, plenty of food for thought.

    When you spend as long in the office as I tend to do, it does good get out of there every now and again and take the work with me.

    Plus, the tea isn’t too bad either.

    Note: The Asus EEE PC above isn’t mine, but I did have the joy of setting it up and getting to tinker around with it for a while. Works well in a wire-free environment.

  • PodCamp Ireland Set For September 27th 2008

    As the dust settles on 3DCamp in Limerick and bulk orders for sun cream, mustard, burgers and sausages start hitting the shops in Terryglass ahead of OpenCoffee Club BBQ in July, myself, Bernie Goldbach and Krishna De (at present) are putting the wheels in motion behind the second PodCamp Ireland.

    What we can tell you at this early stage is that the day will be bigger than last year, it will be held in Kilkenny again, and PodCamp Ireland will take place on Saturday September 27th (same weekend as last year).

    For the first themed BarCamp event of it’s type (towards podcasting and new media), we enjoyed a successful day in Kilkenny last September, opening the unconference doors to a host of new faces from the world of the arts, music, design and more.

    Bolstering content on the day through new areas of discussion and development in audio, video, podcasting, blogging and catering for complete newcomers to experienced hands, we’ll be hoping to repeat the success of last year’s inaugural event.

    If you are interested in getting involved in steering the day, lending ahead at any possible point, do get in touch with any of us. Blogging should resume on PodCampIreland.com over the coming days and weeks as we rejig the 2007 signup process to fall in line with the current system enjoyed by 3DCamp and CreativeCamp (i.e. there will be no wiki signup process as there was last year).

    You can track PodCamp Ireland developments on Jaiku by visiting the PodCamp Ireland channel, or over on Twitter track the #pci tag.