A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Index
What's hot
One Hundred MorningsDonald Clarke describes Conor Horgan's new feature as "one of the very best Irish films of the past decade"
Wardrobe clearouts that pay backIt's respectable now to flog your sartorial mistakes. Harder to sell books, though
Festival feverArts and music festivals are springing up like wildflowers – fire up the car and start touring the country at weekends. (BTW, we loved Mindfield in Merrion Square, and bid it to return)
AsparagusIrish, of course .In north Co Dublin you can buy direct from producers
Judd TrumpAll smiles after losing in the World Championship final (left), because his moment has now come and he knows it. The prospect of Trump playing an on-form Ronnie O'Sullivan could save snooker once and for all
Galleries in the afternoonStart making your lunch at home and make your hour add up to more than queuing for a ham and cheese sandwich
Lip-readingAn undervalued skill: it came in handy while watching the royals, although they are rather adept at talking behind their rather large teeth
Ireland UnhingedFor a resident American's take on what we've been up to, read David Monagan's new book and laugh (or blush)
What's not
Donald TrumpCan he survive that barracking? We hope not
DroughtIt's not just gardens that are in need of a drink. No new grass means milk yields are down too. A farming and growing crisis could be around the corner
Sun guiltOutside the sun is splitting the stones but sometimes all we want to do is read or watch a DVD inside – and as for not making the most of the weekends, well that fridge wasn't going to clean itself
MothsThey're back . . . and they're hungry
Water ratesWill they give us a refund when we are cut off in next winter's cold snap?
Fox will be FoxInevitably, the US News station referred to the death of "Obama Bin Laden"
Reader wine-tasting offer
We are delighted to announce the next in our Irish Timesreader wine-tasting evenings with John Wilson. Iconic Australian winery Tahbilk was established in 1860. It has built a formidable reputation as a producer of some of Australia's finest, most long-lived wines, both red and white. Alister Purbrick, winemaker and manager of Tahbilk, will visit Dublin to show Irish Timesreaders a selection of this estate's finest wines, which will be served with a tasty selection of canapes. The event takes places on May 19th, from 7.30pm, at Ely, Custom House Quay, Dublin 1. Places are extremely limited and offered on a first come, first served basis. Register your place at irishtimes.com/winetasting. Tickets cost €25 per person, plus booking fee, with all proceeds going to St Francis Hospice, Raheny and Blanchardstown.
TV beckons for crafters
Do you fancy yourself as a potter, weaver, blacksmith or wood turner? Have you already tried your hand at one of these crafts and would like to learn more? If so, you could be a candidate for a new craft apprentice series on TV. Big Mountain Productions is looking for 15 apprentices who will take part in – and be filmed during – an intensive two-week residential course in ceramics, glass, blacksmithing, weaving or wood turning. The best apprentices from each discipline will compete for the title, Mastercrafter 2011. The deadline for applications is Monday, May 16th. Email info@bigmountainproductions.com, or tel: 042-9370351.
Sylvia Thompson
Get the Milanese look
THOSE WHO COULDN’T get to the mega Milan furniture fair this year can get the key trends from Carmel Allen (right), creative and marketing director of the Conran Shop, who is giving a talk on May 14th at 4pm at at the Interior Design and Art Fair (May 12th-15th) at the RDS, Dublin.
There is so much on show at Milan’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile – from traditional pieces to stalwarts and ground-breaking new furniture – that you can come away with masses of ideas, but Allen has picked three key trends: chemical colour; relaxed living; and material honesty. The last two tally with the Conran ethos and the first would fit into its moveable, quirky, fun ranges.
“The Conran Shop works on trying to get a core range of relaxed, modern pieces of furniture that feel part of family,” says Allen. “Our core range doesn’t change as fast as the seasonal and hero products around the edge: those that get the press excited. The style is very much about mixing traditional family hand-downs with something modern. People have their own personal style.”
That penchant for mixing is part of a very long-running trend that includes the move away from having the parlours our grandparents had, in which they used their best china and glass, to a place in which the lines are blurred. The new way is to mix tableware: perhaps having a key, tasteful, simple core range and then layering colour in with it, says Allen.
Interior design follows both seasonal and long-term trends. Seasonally, interiors can keep pace with clothing fashions by updating cushions and china. Longer-term, it is our lifestyles and interests that inform what trends evolve, and the recession is having an impact.
One trend that has been evolving, perhaps as we look towards nature and away from surface bling, is that of material honesty. “It was really nice to see that,” says Allen. “Really deep-grain wood – not raw, still polished – but absolutely beautiful.” There is, though, still a trend for the raw look, with no cover-ups or embellishments. Stemming from this are the vogues for webbing, wirework, big stitching, raised piping and exposed seams.
But even in recession we want wit, which is where the trend for chemical colours comes in. This too has evolved. Last year primary colours were big and now shades are just as vibrant, but have switched to the lab, with copper sulphate, red oxide and sulphur yellow chairs brightening up the fair.
While these trends herald what’s coming at the end of next year, the ideas are already emerging, including that for relaxed living: “Next spring we are working a lot on texture,” says Allen, “and how things feel. We have beautiful buttery leathers, sensual textures, delicious fabrics. There are sofas you can really snuggle up on, rugs to go barefoot on, duvets to snuggle down under. We seek comfort when times are tough and we are spending more time at home. When something physically feels good it makes us feel good inside too.”
Conran Shop is in Arnotts, Dublin 1.
WORD ON THE STREET
What it means:Are you one of those kids who never got detention at school, and always got a pass, no matter how little study you did? Did you walk into a plumb job, past 50 better-qualified candidates, and rise to the top without actually having to do much work? Ever wondered why your life has always been so easy and hassle-free? The answer is that you have lawnmower parents, who have been running ahead of you every step of the way, smoothing out the path ahead, and making sure there are no bumpy bits to trip you up. They've worked hard to eliminate every possible obstacle that may await you, leaving you with a clear run at a happy, secure future.
Where it comes from:Time was when kids were smothered by their helicopter parents, hovering over them and closely monitoring their every move through life. Lately, though, helicopter parents have been replaced by lawnmower parents. After all, goes the logic, if you clear away all possible dangers and hazards, then there's no need to hover.
Only trouble is, say experts, smoothing out the path for your precious ones doesn’t do them any favours – in fact, it increases their anxiety. Well, if you had nothing but a flat, featureless expanse of well-tended lawn lying metaphorically before you, you’d go a bit doolally
How to say it:She's such a lawnmower parent – she got Uri Geller to bend the other kids' spoons so her kid could win the egg-and-spoon race.
Kevin Courtney
First, make your table
On Saturday, June 25th, a table-making event and al fresco dinner will be held at the home of distinguished garden designer Arthur Shackleton and his wife Carol Booth in Fruitlawn, Co Laois. Based on the successful Naked Table Project in Vermont (right), founded by his furniture-maker brother Charles Shackleton, who will teach Irish participants how to make a table, the day will also include a trip to the local forest where the wood for the tables was harvested, and a talk by Matthew Jebb, director of the Botantic Gardens on the origins of Irish oak. At the end of the day, all the tables will be lined up under a remarkable 100ft hornbeam arch in the garden, where chef Sarah Webb of the Gallic Kitchen will provide a meal prepared from locally grown produce. The cost per person for the day is €850, which includes the table (which seats six), and a ticket to the dinner. Extra meal tickets are €35. Further information from Arthur Shackleton or Carol Booth at 057-8730146.
Deirdre McQuillan
What on earth are we eating?
PHILIP BOUCHER-HAYES is no stranger to the countryside. "I grew up on a farm in Kildare; I just didn't make the connection between farming and supermarket shopping until much more recently. Who does?"
Tomorrow, Boucher-Hayes's documentary
What's Ireland Eatingairs on RTÉ television, launching a week of radio and TV programmes examining life in rural Ireland in the 21st century. "Most media coverage of food is centred on a tiny part of the story; food on the plate. For the documentary we went back to the beginning of the journey, looking at how food is produced, what we are putting in our supermarket trolley, how it's affecting both our health and the future of rural Ireland."
Filmed over two months, the project took Boucher-Hayes and the crew countrywide, down small rutted lanes and into the homes of those who grow our food. "We had some heartbreaking days listening to farmers who are essentially working for free. It's an uncomfortable truth that the choices we make in the supermarket aisles are largely responsible for that."
To properly rummage through our supermarket bags, the documentary team commissioned its own research – following 3,000 households and their buying habits. The groceries bought by each household were rescanned once they arrived home, giving an interesting picture of what we are really eating.
"What surprised me is that we are the biggest consumers of breakfast cereals in the world , and seven out of 10 of our most popular ones hit the high-sugar mark.
"We also found that food made on TV stays on TV," says Boucher-Hayes, who is puzzled by the contradiction between the amount of cookery programmes we watch versus the amount of cooking we actually do.
The team also discovered that about half of the food we eat is highly processed. "There's a very alarming sequence in the programme where I visit a food lab and show the manipulation that goes into processing meat. It's astonishing what can be done to make food do things it was never designed to do in the first place."
While the programme reveals what's going into our mouths, it also examines who sells us our food and at what price. "Supermarkets really are the tail that wags the dog. There's very little they don't control." Boucher-Hayes feels that this imbalance needs to addressed. "It's quite helpful to think of food as being a lot like the banking sector before the financial meltdown. There's a lot of influence in the hands of very few people, accountable only to their shareholders. Regulation is conducted with the lightest of touches."
If that sounds ominously familiar, Boucher-Hayes's investigation could be a warning shot across the boughs of our shopping trolleys.
What's Ireland Eating, RTÉ 1, 9.30pm, Sunday, May 8th.
Dancing in the streets of Dublin
The Dublin Dance Festival is kicking off its shoes next weekend, with 21 artists from 10 countries calling Dublin home from May 13th to 28th. All talk is of the headline show, Songs of The Wanderers, a 1994 work by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, although we're equally intrigued by Bell by Yasuko Yokoshi. This show features a classical Japanese dance reputed to be the most complex dance work in Kabuki theatre. Jérôme Bel from France is bringing one of his documentary-style works to the festival, and if you can't resist getting your won groove on, check out the Bumper 2 Bumper Headphone Disco at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. See dublindancefestival.ie for details.
Laurence Mackin
