SOME of my old articles for virginmega.com are online again I've found. They can be viewed and read right here! http://www.virginmegamagazine.com/default.asp?p=29&cid=12

Portland and Seattle Film Festival

This week is nuts. A whirlwind trip to meet producers and Oregon film office folk in Portland, only to return to Seattle in time for opening night of the Seattle Film Festival. My boss, Don Jensen received an award from the mayor of Seattle for his work in getting film production back into Washington state (and to help stop the flood of work going north to Vancouver BC). Ed Norton's new film The Illusionist premiered followed by coctails and rushing home to the baby-sitter. Now, I have screenings and meetings seven days a week until June 19th. How I love to work weekends!

Happy Birthday Shano!My first birthday in Seattle. 36 years young today! I took off out of work and got home to my beautiful girls who had baked me a 'death-by-chocolate' birthday cake. They each gave me a home made card. Seeing the excitement on Muirenn and Aislinn's faces is what this day is all about from now on. We went out for a curry where Imistakenly tried the hottest thing on the menu - a five star chicken vindaloo. I have to say it is the first time a curry has been too hot for me. Still, I'm not sure if was the right choice to have as I'm getting up at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow for a 3 hour drive to Portland with my boss!

Six Feet Under - the final moments
Here it is, live and direct via You Tube. The song by the way is "Breathe Me" by Sia. Has anyone got a ARC?

Drive-By Truckers and Son Volt at The Showbox
The Drive-By Truckers are fast becoming one of the best bands to come out of the states in many a year. They've just returned from a European tour including a date at Whelan's in Dublin. The fact that Son Volt and frontman, Jay Fahrer, the godfather of 'No Depression' / 'Americana' (from his days as co-lead singer in Uncle Tupelo sharing vocal duties with Jeff Tweedy now of Wilco fame), supported the 'Truckers' - says it all. Just a few months ago it could easily have been the other way round.
The night opened up with Kirk Kirkwood, formely of the infamous Meat Puppets. I'm ashamed to say I missed him entirely due to an extremely comfortable bar stool across the street and some frosty pints of Alaskan Amber.... It was my first time in the Showbox, and I was impressed mightily. It reminded me some what of the Tivoli in Dublin, but with a bit more depth and a total of four bars. I guess you'd fit a thousand in there easy enough. Son Volt came on and were predictably subdued until about half way through when they began to get into it. Their new stuff is pretty good but still not up to the standard of their classis debut 'Trace'. After a rendition of one of my favourite songs ever, 'Tear Stained Eye', they finished with a new number that can only be dubbed as Sonic Country. Awesome.
The 'Truckers' came on and completely ruled. These guys (and gal on bass) are the real deal. From the South, hard living, with songs about living on welfare and getting trucks out of ditches. Yeah, we've heard it all before - but not quite like this. For the uninitiated their sound is something between Willy Nelson, AC/DC, Johnny Cash and Crazy Horse. They rocked for about an hour and a half and put on one of the best shows I've seen since... Bob Mould actually. Point is, these guys are great and after their tour with The Black Crowes this summer, destined for great things.

Bob Mould at Neumos
This gig was a while a go. Found this pic on my phone. What a show though. More than half of the set consisted of Husker Du and Sugar songs. Amazing night of good old rock and roll.

Six Feet Under - Final Episode

I'm a year late with this one, but with the move and all that we never got to see the last season of my favourite t.v. show. Last night Lisa and I finally made it to the last episode after renting the final season on Netflix. This may come as old news to some, but I have never seen a more powerful and moving piece of television. I literally can not stop thinking about it. The t.v. show built around death, that explored the complicated (and often comical) lives of it's characters, finally ends with absolute finality for everyone involved. The final scene is the most moving piece of television I have ever seen and am ever likely to see. If I wasn't such a man I'd admit to balling my eyes out!

For those of you that haven't seen this show, rent Six Feet Under from the beginning. Nothing comes close.

Tribeca Film Festival - NY

My first jaunt in the film festival world found me in New York at the Tribeca Festival. As Alpha Cine was one of the sponsors, Tribeca put me up in a super swanky hotel - the Millenium Hilton. My room was on the 33rd floor. I got there as the sun was setting and marvelled at the view out my window for a couple of minutes. Something didn't feel quite right at the time, as if something was missing. Sure enough I looked down and below me was 'the pit', Ground Zero itself. Like a gaping hole in a giants gums (click picture above). The Tribeca film festival came about directly after 9/11 in order to bring back a sense of community to that part of New York that was hit so hard.

My days were filled trudging from screening to screening and from meetings to film launch party's all over Manhattan. As we go primarily for documentaries I got to see a number of really good films. I started the ball rolling on a deal for us and the film "The War Tapes". This will be a great score if we get it as this film is going to do really well.

New York is such a great city, especially Manhattan. There was a massive war protest last Saturday. It brought the city to a standstill. If only the rest of the world could see the passion and resentment towards the current regime. It's a shame the media won't show you the real story. Okay, I'll stop before I go off on a rant!