music

Jedward Candy Bar

Things that make you go humm.

Folks, Jedward has come out with a candy bar. It just makes me want to cry, because it’s so painfully pop culture, punny, laughable and sad all at the same time. Someone else bought it for me as a gift, and my first thought was that I *Had* to blog about it and post pictures, because this is something that is lost in translation (and I’m sure didn’t make it across the pond). So here they are.

Jeward candy bar 4 (Jedward Twin Bars - Popping Chocolate Bars)
Jedward candy bar – twin “popping” chocolate bars

Jedward "popping" candy bar 3 (Full on, Crazy, Jeadly!)
(yes, it says that it’s FULL ON, Crazy, JEADLY)

Jeward "poppin" candy bar 2 (want to Meet Jedward?)
Want to Meet Jedward? Get the golden ticket! (Thank Goodness I didn’t get the ticket.)

For those of you who don’t know who Jedward is, let me explain (although I’m not sure there is any explanation for these two). They were twin contestants on “x factor”, which is basically the “American Idol” for Britain and Ireland. They’re 17 year old blonde teenagers who, for lack of a better word, are stupid – and famous for it. They can’t really sing, and they (like Bieber fever) are everywhere here in Ireland and one doesn’t really know why. You can’t get them gone. They’re on TV (doing ads for a local cell phone company), starring in Celeb Big Brother House, and earlier this year – were Ireland’s entry for the Eurovision song contest (please don’t get me started on the contest).

They’re voted one of the year 2011’s most annoying…

and deservedly so.

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Mardi Gras for Charity

Voodoo Mardi Gras for Charity Poster

Last Saturday, March 5, I worked with Fibbers on Ormond Quay to put together a New Orleans Style Voodoo Mardi Gras Party. The goal was to have some fun, and raise some money for Our Lady’s Children’s hospital (Crumlin) here in Dublin. For my friends in the US, they are essentially the equivalent of Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake, or Eggleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta.

The Bar Servers

Jason, (Above center) the bar manager of Fibbers put together a great night – he organized the raffle, he got a fabulous band called T-bone, and printed off the poster and flyers for the event.

Mardi Gras Queen

Meanwhile, I did the poster (top) out of a bunch of creative commons images and some of my own from Mardi Gras, made the No Sew Voodoo dolls, and created the bar decorations including a pair of huge poster sized theater masks in frames, decorations to hang from the ceiling (about 20 violet music notes on yellow and green curved backgrounds), and purchased a bunch of masks that were supposed to arrive in time to decorate and sell with the price of admission. It was a lot of work, but in the end, it was worth it – we raised about 500 Euros – despite the hiccups. (The 80 masks and about half the beads didn’t come in time for the party, so we wound up raising all of the money solely through the raffle. Also, not all of the decorations got hung up because there wasn’t enough time in between the underage gig and our fund-raising event.)

Most of the pictures are up here in my Mardi Gras set.

I do have some video of the band to upload if I can get my video media maker working again, but it’s a bit dark, so it may not work. Otherwise, by the time I got home and to bed (nearly 4am Sunday morning) I was completely wrecked. Apparently, so was my Mardi Gras dog.

Tuckered Out

Here’s hoping your Mardi Gras was as successful and fun as mine!

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Temple Bar Trad Fest

Back the end of January, I went up to the Market in Temple bar. As luck would have it, while searching for the new market location (the city is putting an awning over Meeting place square) I suddenly heard the wail of a dying cat very distinct instrument called a Bagpipe. Following my ears up Essex Street, I found a sign to discover that it was the weekend of the Temple Bar traditional Music Festival. Luckily the tortured goose *cough* music from the bagpipes didn’t last long – and I had my camera (with internal video camera) with me.

This means that while I couldn’t record the entire thing – I was able to record some of the variety of performances and music to share with those of you out there. One thing I will note that was consistent – Almost every performance had someone in the audience participating – clapping, dancing, foot tapping or singing along. That made the experience that is the Temple Bar Trad fest that much more enjoyable.

I do hope you enjoy the video.

P.S. No Cats or Geese were tortured in the making of this blog post…

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