HANDS DOWN #19

In what is the most action packed episode yet, Hands Down returns to blow your mind with super fast, sexy, violent noise of wonderment ALL UP IN YOUR GRILL.

Hold on to your hats folks because you're in for a bumpy ride.

Or, possibly, not. Click the picture to find out!

TDMTLTUT: Ulysses 31

This will be the start of a series of articles I'll be doing on the TV shows of my youth, entitled They Don't Make Them Like They Used To or TDMTLTUT for short. I'll be hoping to focus on two things. 1) The awesome theme tunes and 2) the bat shit insane stories. But mostly the awesome theme tunes. This week, I'm going with the under appreciated classic Ulysses 31.

The show was a French/Japanese cross-over production and is as far-out as you'd imagine one to be. It's a basic retelling of the Greek myths of Ulysses but updated to the 31st century. Zeus (now a big floating head in space) curses Ulysses and his crew because Ulysses saved them from a cyclops. The crew are kept in the creepiest kind of suspended animation (they hung in mid air, like corpses) until Ulysses and his son Telemachus, a robot and a young alien girl make the voyage to Hades. Encountering several problems and challenges along the way, of course.

"That is no way to take a picture"

A couple of years ago I was inspired by a lyric from a Tastydactyls song to start a project; getting people to take pictures of themselves in the mirror. I thought it would be interesting to see people's different take on the same thing and collecting them together might make something profound.

Obviously, I was distracted by something shiny and moved on to the next hokey thought to entertain myself with. However, some lovely people did donate photographs to the cause and I feel bad that I never did anything with them. So, I'm going to make up for it by presenting them to you now.

A feast for your eyes!


Nikki Birdwell / Waco, Texas / Sept 2006

Quit Jiving Me, Turkey.

It's going to be a very quiet few days in Internetland due to Turkey day in America. As a result, I'm using this opportunity to take a well earned blogging break this week. Enjoy the food and time with your families.

I'll catch you back here soon.

PS: This week I hit 1,000 views on the blog. Thank you all for making this little experiment worth doing.

I Need Maleev

I first came across Alex Maleev's work through his incredible run on Daredevil with Brian Michael Bendis (you know, the best thing about Marvel comics for the last 20 years or so). His ability to use shadows in his work is both aesthetically pleasing and genuinely distinctive in his work. And yes, that is the most pretentious sentence I'll ever write... Hopefully.

It was a perfect match for the brooding character and I was hooked instantly. I would buy anything if he does the artwork. And have.

Today I took a trip around his official website and I'd like to share some of my favourite pieces with you.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #13: Ennui

This week, the impending financial doom in Ireland has motivated me to use a particular word. My own feeling of ennui forced me to make the following farce.

If you want to subscribe to my Word-a-Week series, here's that feed link or you can find iTunes here. For the previous episode, click here.

From The Vaults: "I Want To Break Free"

This is one of the first things myself and Brian Fitzpatrick ever collaborated on. Brian had a college project where he had to make a 1 minute video based on a randomly chosen song title. Brian picked out of the hat and got the Queen classic "I Want To Break Free".

The night before he was supposed to shoot his film, he still hadn't chosen his idea yet. I shared an apartment with him at the time and when I came home we brainstormed and came up with the following madness.

I thought that idea-sharing session would be the extent of my participation but when I came into college the next day, Brian asked me to act in it too. Being the attention whore that I am, I said yes. I immediately regretted the previous brainstorming night.

So enjoy! Remember this over 5 years old so please don't judge my choker neck thing.

Two Is The Loneliest Number

Since I've started writing my own webcomic earlier in the year I've been searching out good examples of the medium. I recently gave a little spiel about Axe Cop. Now it's The Loneliest Astronauts' turn... That's a lot of links for a first paragraph!

Written by Kevin Church and illustrated wonderfully by Ming Doyle, The Loneliest Astronauts is of a simple premise. Two guys, Dan and Steve, are stranded on a space station after a disaster wiped out all their crew and communications. Much like Red Dwarf the comedy comes from the fact that these two guys, who are now stuck together indefinitely, hate each other. Despite being in identical space suits (they are only distinguishable by their name tags) Dan and Steve are very different.

Dan is an excitable, friendly, chatty type while Steve is a more diligent, irritable and spiteful sort. Due to this clash in personality it may seem sometimes like Dan is essentially getting bullied but Church has done well to make sure that Steve doesn't dominate in any serious way and at the end of the day the men are still equals. It's more like Steve is taking their situation badly and is acting out.

I Heart Graffiti: Crossword Heart

The last of my current crop of pictures is this Maser piece from Tivoli. It's a nice design but not great in terms of concept. I think the wording needs to be changed for it to be improved. However, I still like it as an image.

Click to see larger image.

I don't know if I can keep the rate of graffiti pictures the same now that the weather has turned ugly. But hopefully I'll be back with more soon. I'm looking forward to any Christmas themed pieces that might pop-up!

Just Say No

This gave me a giggle in work. I guess Heart Candies don't put out like they used to. Remember girls... when you don't have a whistle, give him some sugar.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #12: Nibs

This week's word is the most colloquial I've used yet. It always reminds me of my mother as she often referred to me as "his nibs" growing up.

Special guest presenter this week is... my girlfriend Orla!

Want to subscribe to my Word-a-Week? Here's that feed link or you can find iTunes here. Click my face to watch the video!

HANDS DOWN #18

The latest Hands Down has a bit of a secret to it that I might tell the world about some day but right now I'll just say... "this was planned".

OooOOoo. I love adding a bit of mystery to proceedings. Anyway, if you haven't seen the cartoons we mention in the strip, get your ass to the DVD store and watch them!

Click me to see the whole strip!

Judge An Album By It's Cover

This week sees the release of the new Take That album Progress. Now, while I know nothing of the album other than the current single I am already impressed by the cover. The album sees the return of former member Robbie Williams to the group. This cover, featuring the band members parodying the scale of evolution, is poignant, clever and looks great.



This had me thinking about other album covers that I can just stare at all day. Here's a list of my favourites.

Weekend Justice #90: A Bold New Kind of Lobster

It's rare I get to do two of these over consecutive weeks. I guess I'm just unlucky.
This week's league is more crowded than the last so expect the crazy to go up a notch. We have myself, Widgett Walls, Dindrane, Leigh, Tuffley, Rob, Jon Boutelle and Rox of Spazhouse.

Expect us to say the word "cock" a lot. You have been warned.

To stream the podcast, click Mummy Barbie on the right. To download it directly, click this link.

Make The Bad Men Stop - Bloopers

Ian Cooke, our resident thespian, asked me to put together a blooper reel from the recent Halloween video I did. I feel he may regret that decision. But hopefully you don't! Have a look see.

I Heart Graffiti: Look

This piece is about 2 stories high and greets you as you enter the Tivoli theatre car park. Impressive.

Autumn Day

I'm doing a little photographic scavenger hunt with the lovely folks at the ASiteCalledFred.com forums. One of our tasks this week was to get a photo of the golden leaves before they all fall off for the winter.

So today I took a quick walk around my neighbourhood to get my shot and I got a little carried away with myself. Here are my three favourite ones.

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #11: Grandiloquent

Sometimes when I do these I have to think of a way to make the word interesting, relevant or funny. This week the word makes enough of a statement on it's own. It is kind of beautiful in it's own irony.



If you want to subscribe to the Word-A-Week videos via iTunes click here or if you want to subscribe to my YouTube page go here

Mars Needs Podcasts #82 - Jermaine

Click me to listen


The wonderful JJ Hawkins invited me to guest on his wonderful podcast last week and I wonderfully replied "yes" to this wonderful invitation. It was all quite wonderful, really.

He and I had great fun hanging out at Dragon*Con together but haven't really had a chance to talk since. So you'll probably notice that half of this podcast is us catching up and talking about the projects we've been working on recently.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to the show and check out the back cataologue. I appear in some of the old shows too!

Chromeo. Live in Dublin.

The iconic keyboard-legs.
(taken from my phone)

Last night I got the opportunity to see Chromeo play a live show in the Tripod venue, Dublin. I had been a fan since Brian Fitzpatrick gave me a copy of Fancy Footwork a few years ago. The Montreal duo are a remarkably funky electronic dance/pop infusion. If that last sentence sounded incredibly pretentious it's because I have always found Chromeo hard to describe to people.

I've often used the phrase "80s' Prince" but recently I've also been told "a modern day Hall & Oates" is just as accurate. Their inability to be pinned into one genre is a good thing though. Nothing worse than a typical band of any kind and luckily Chromeo are anything but.

The gig was a fun affair. Good crowd and a decent venue. All the hits we were hoping would get played, did. Highlights included a bra getting thrown on stage (that got a good laugh from everyone), P-Thugg messing up his intro to Mama's Boy and thus getting whipped by Dave1 (with the previously mentioned bra) and then at the end when Dave1 came out to the crowd to sing, we all got to give him a good pat on the back for his troubles. He left through a fire exit in the crowd but a crazy female fan managed to wrestle with security for a couple of minutes (again, that got a good laugh from everyone).

The only downside to the night was after the crowd constantly chanted "Chro-me-o... oooooooh" I now can't get it out of my head. It's driving me nuts in the office! So maybe if I share one of their new songs with you I might be able to change the tune. Enjoy!

Weekend Justice #89: The Webby Episode (Not the Award)

Due to daylight savings time, for one precious week I could do a Weekend Justice without staying up ridiculously late. But, of course, I managed to still stay up quite late. It's the nature of the beast.

This episode stars Widgett Walls, Rox Of Spazhouse, Leigh, Jon Boutelle, myself and a brief cameo from Rob. We discuss such wide ranging subjects as The Walking Dead pilot episode, unusual names for your genitals and Sarah Palin.

To download the episode directly, go here. Or to stream it directly from NeedCoffee, whack Moliere!

From The Vaults: Shoot Like Apes: The 100 Camera Video

NOTE: This article is old (17/6/09). In fact it's so old it refers to a podcast I'm not on anymore and a site that goes by a completely different name now. However, I won't change the original text so if I confuse you with some information, ignore it. If you prefer to read the original post in it's original place, go here.

When someone asks you what you do for a living the answer is often simple. "I'm a postman", "I'm a computer programmer" "I scrounge off tax payer's money" etc. When I'm asked it usually results in a sigh of breath and a response of "It's kind of complicated."

I co-host a mostly unknown podcast on QuickStopEntertainment.com called Cabin Fever. I'm also a desk monkey in an office for ten hour shifts a day to earn some money and have the joy of taking calls from angry members of the public. But neither feel like they make the statement of who I really am.

I studied for three years in college to get a Higher National Diploma in Television production. I once directed a documentary that took me to Zambia. And despite all the failed attempts to make a wage off of it and all the rejection letters of application, when people ask me what I do for a living my gut reaction is still "I'm a director."

I'm really not, but it may help you understand why the following excited me so much when I first found out about it.

I Heart Graffiti: Dog's Life

The Tivoli theatre car park seriously gave me so much stuff to post. I didn't even take pictures featuring all of it so I'm sure I'll end up back there for more at some point. This week, I thought I'd feature two that are very different in style.

The first below is a real show piece. Lots going on and a fun hood-rat dog as a mascot in the middle of all the tags. That's a big wall it takes up too.

Click to see larger image

The second then is much simpler but just as quirky. This was very high up which made for the dodgy angle you see below. It's message is also far too true for my liking.

Click to see larger image

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #10: Ensconce

This week's Word-A-Week is dedicated to all those other people who chose to do absolutely nothing on Halloween. I decided that leaving the house was a bad idea.

My hangover may have had a part in this decision.

Hands Down #17

This week is probably my most "timely" strip because it talks about something that only happened yesterday. Very rarely have I the foresight to do that sort of thing. I often write these months before they actually go online. Hopefully, this has made this week's a little bit more interesting. I personally think the artwork is a bit special.

Click the picture below to see the full thing!