• May Kay: Rip It Off and Start Again

    July 9, 2016 - By 

    Fight Like Apes‘ frontwoman May Kay tackles the age-old thin line separating homage and unwitting imitation. It’s an extremely distressing situation. You’ve spent weeks, maybe months on a song. You started off with a devilishly catchy riff (if you don’t say so yourself). You built everything around that, you scrapped some things and started again, still with the same riff, determined to make it work. You put some lyrics on there. Scrap some. Add some new ones. Eventually you finish it. It is the most exciting thing. It really is like all your Christmas’ have come at once. That is,…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Boundaries

    June 27, 2016 - By 

    Boundaries as a theme is present in the four shows in this week’s Picture This – don’t worry we here at The Thin Air are not talking about Brexit. We mean boundaries in the sense of where something can be pushed to and expanded beyond, rather than the traditional sense of landmass and exclusion. Boundaries come with preconceptions, limitations and a sense of where something should stop or where you should stop exploring. The shows this week in Dublin, Belfast, Sligo and Cork alter, expand and shatter these while housing engaging and thought provoking exhibitions. We see a reexamination of…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Education

    June 13, 2016 - By 

    The three shows that make up this week’s edition of Picture This are as diverse and seemingly contrasting as the come. One features the retrospective of an Irish painter born a hundred years ago (Ulster Museum in Belfast), another is a graduation show of 16 photographers (Gallery of Photography in Dublin), while the third (Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda) takes a look at an altogether more national subject – The 1916 Rising. While the dates of 1916 and 2016, as both departure and reflection points, feature in each exhibition it’s the themes of education and understanding the ring out loudest from these four…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Retrospective Viewpoints

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    Merlin James, Fence, 2002 The themes of retrospectives and viewpoints, in terms of personal, institutional and national culture, resonate in the shows from Dublin, Carlow and Limerick chosen in this edition of Picture This. In Dublin, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios’ latest exhibition looks at the last 100 years history of Trinity College and casts a light on some of the institution’s lesser known fables. A more critical look at the role of educational institutions can be found in Limerick and Ormston House, this show also looks at the cultural appropriation of languages in Ireland and further afield. Cultural appropriation…

  • Hyperbolex with Ray Wingnut: We Are The Migrants

    May 25, 2016 - By 

    A few months back I had an idea for a radio piece. It was an odd one but I had ample inspiration to follow through on it. The subject was a little tricky to talk about and I didn’t take it on lightly. If anything I concerned myself with how to treat the subject. I knew that I needed to get the tone right and the discussion open-ended. The piece is about Irish music created by a generation of so-called ‘new migrants‘. I guess my personal inspiration was no mystery. I have been a huge admirer of groups like Bisect,…

  • “You’re Tearing Me Apart Lisa!?!”: How Not To Make A Music Video

    May 23, 2016 - By 

    Citóg Records is a relatively new indie label based out of Galway City. Being involved with Citóg Records is something I hold and respect dearly. Unlike other traditional labels, Citóg Records is a collective of West of Ireland musicians who have come together under an imprint to share their knowledge, experience and ideas with one another. In my opinion, they have become a type of resource that every artist in this country could do with being a part of, regardless of one’s artistic discipline or strength in the industry. It is something I wish I was more a part of…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Bank Holiday Weekend

    May 1, 2016 - By 

    Paul Seawright – News Operations III Ah the summer. Will it come? Shall we be teased again for another few months? This weekend’s Bank Holiday is scheduled to be a washout around the country. Needless to say we here at The Thin Air strongly hope this prediction is wrong, but if not there are plenty of exhibitions happening around the country to keep you entertained – and dry! Community, environment and reflection form common themes across the exhibitions highlighted in this edition of Picture This. Environment, in both the natural sense and as a habitat, from the structure of Neomorph…

  • TV Eye: Horace and Pete

    April 5, 2016 - By 

    The tenth and final episode of Louis CK’s experimental online-self-distributed series, Horace and Pete, arrived in subscribers’ inboxes on Saturday to no fanfare or announcement of the series’ conclusion – simply an email from CK saying he had nothing clever to say about it. It was written, filmed and directed by Louie in the week prior to each release, evidenced by the highly topical barroom discussion, with even Hulk Hogan’s Gawker sex tape discussed. In its finest moments, Horace & Pete feels like zeitgeist-capturing cult television event, and for anyone into it, the personal email from Louis was the highlight…

  • Cinema 16 For 16: Victoria

    April 4, 2016 - By 

    An alternative guide to this year’s cinematic offerings, we trawl through the dilapidated rows of seats in the back alley ‘art’ cinemas and crumbling picture palaces so you don’t have to. Rescuing gummy Venus de Milos from sticky crevices and fishing midget gems out of cold cups of tea. Diaries at the ready cinephiles. One city. One night. One take. So reads the tagline for Victoria, the new film from relatively unknown director Sebastian Schipper that has cinephiles the world over going all googly eyed. It’s the ‘one take’ from the tagline that is especially capturing attention- with the film…

  • Picture This: Your National Visual Arts Guide – Fool’s Weekend

    April 1, 2016 - By 

    The biggest cultural and historical weekend these shores have ever seen may have passed but there are still a treasure trove of exhibitions and events on nationally to continue the cultural outpouring. In this installment of Picture This, following on from visual and musical spectacles of last weekend, we’re throwing light on video and music themed shows on nationwide. From personal accounts of childhood, to comments on city architect and pieces about relationships these is something on for all to enjoy. Words by Aidan Kelly Murphy. Belfast: “An exploration of the mythologies of past events and relationships.” What: Other &…