SUDOKU TOILET ROLL
IT took the world by storm when it first came on the scene, but thankfully the Sudoku craze has started to wean.
I hated it when it first came out and I still hate it now, largely because I never could get the hang of it. Sudoku for me is the most annoyingly brain taxing numbers game I have ever come across. 'You can't have two fives in a row and you already have a nine in that line, so that must be wrong'.
Who cares I ask? It's a game, not the Da Vinci Code nor does it hold some mystical magical secret to the universe. But that's just me. For millions Sudungu as I christened it has brought hours of pleasure, so fair play.
Rant over, this week's gadget isn't so much a gadget as a novelty. It's Sudoku toilet paper so you can play while your own the throne. Just where the game belongs if you ask me. At the bottom of the toilet.
GONNA MAKE MY MOVE
I know I've been harping on about this guy for a while now, but he is the real deal and deserves all the coverage he can get.
David Oliver and his band Barba Papa released their debut album Gonna Make My Move last week. If you don't know who he is yet, well he's the guy with the Sideshow Bob hair who has been on just every radio station in Ireland for the past three months, with his single I Will be your Man. And a cracker it is too.
Well take a load of crackers and stick them together on a CD and you have Gonna Make My Move. From start to finish this stands out a mile from the general pap that passes for music these days.
If you haven't caught them live yet, you should, soon, and get the autographs too, because shortly this boy and the brilliant Barba Papa are going to be huge.
TRANSATLANTIC SESSIONS
A host of the biggest names in Irish music will be gracing our screens over the next few weeks in RTE's brilliant Transatlantic Sessions 3.
Names such as Paul Brady, Sharon Shannon, Eddi Reader and Donal Lunny gathered recently to make this six part programme, lauded by one critic as "a unique insight into the sheer joy of making music". And who could argue?
An old farm converted into a small concert/studio space at Strathgarry House near Killiecrankie in the Perthshire Highlands was chosen and top vocal and instrumental exponents of the country and Celtic traditions from both sides of the Atlantic gathered to rehearse and play together with no audience bar themselves and a resident house-band of their peers. The way music should be.
Translantic Sessions 3 goes out tomorrow night (Friday) at 7.30pm.
SAW IV
Halloween is haunted by the arrival of a new Saw movie as killer trap mastermind Jigsaw terrorises victims from beyond the grave....Yadda, yadda, yadda.
It's hard to believe that it's been three years since the first Saw movie hit our screens and granted, it was a tad bit scary. Not only that, but to it's credit, it spawned a thousand other gore flicks like the The Hostel or Grindhouse. But surely - three sequals in three years? Fair enough, there must be a market out there for it and no doubt horror movie fans will be rushing to the cinema to catch up on a fresh batch of grisly pain-or-death games.
The first official clip release shows two men with their necks tied by opposite ends of a chain: one with his eyes sewed shut, the other his mouth. As a machine in the middle of the room pulls the pair towards a potential double strangulation, they fight as the one who cannot see gets increasingly frustrated by the lack of communication from the one who cannot talk. It ends with a rather vicious bout in tune with previous Saw outings.
THE POGUES
The boys are back in town....well Belfast to be exact, on Decemeber 22.
Shane, Spider, Andrew and the boys will play Belfast's Nugent Hall as part of their 25th anniversary tour.
While currently bringing their unique talent and attitude to places like Boston and Las Vegas, the Pogues recently announced a series of UK and Republic of Ireland dates.
If you've never been to a Pogues gig, make sure you get to this one, because sadly it could well be the last tour. Shane turns 50 on Christmas day, while no doubt his internal organs resemble those of a 100 year old. Meanwhile Phil Chevron was recently diagnosed with throat cancer. So it appears that after this landmark reunion tour, the lads may just call it a day.
Still, you get one more opportunity to sing, swing, drink and fling along to the greatest Irish band of all time. And what better way to kick start the Christmas holidays?
Tickets on sale now from all Ticketmaster outlets.
PETER KAY
Peter Kay's unerring gift for observing the absurdities and eccentricities of family life has earned himself a widespread, everyman appeal. These vivid observations coupled with a kind of nostalgia that never fails to grab his audience's shared understanding, have earned him comparisons with Alan Bennett and Ronnie Barker. In his award winning TV series', he creates worlds populated by degenerate, bitter, useless, endearing and always recognisable characters which have attracted a huge and loyal following. In many ways, he's an old fashioned kind of comedian and the scope and enormity of his fanbase reflects this. He doesn't tell jokes about politics or sex, but rather rejoices in the far funnier areas of life: elderly relatives and answering machines, dads dancing badly at weddings, garlic bread and of course cheesecake......
Peter Kay - The Sound of Laughter is out now, priced £18.99.
