The Judge’s ‘War Is God’ monologue from McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, rendered in the look-upon-my-works-ye-mighty-and-weep tones of Mr Richard Poe, one-time Star Trek actor and Vietnam veteran.

Looking forward to Nick Kent’s memoir Apathy For the Devil. Here’s a quote from Karl Whitney’s interview at 3am magazine.

“Keith Richards, Jerry Lee Lewis, Iggy Pop: big tough men. Let’s see how tough they really are. What is a real tough man: is it someone who goes out and can drink and drug more than anyone else, but who doesn’t really look after their own children? Or is it someone like Neil Young, who has two children — one in particular — who suffers chronically from cerebral palsy. And he has devoted his life to making his son the centre of his life; to making him as loved and as wanted as possible. He’s tried to create things to help his son communicate with other children. There’s a big difference. That’s what a man is, to me; that’s what a fucking man is.”

 http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/like-dilu…

Ladies and gentlemen, the amazing Merry Clayton reprising her role in the Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’ in 1970. That’s some funky apocalypse.

Th’ View from t’other night. On the slab: Clint Eastwood’s Invictus; Margaret Corkery’s Eamon; Brian Dillon’s Tormented Hope; and The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly at The Ark.

 http://www.rte.ie/tv/theview/archive/201…

Welcome to Tara Brady’s carnival of souls. We can’t wait.

The Orphanage happens at the Greenhouse, 17 St. Andrew Street, Dublin 2, as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, February 18th - 28th, 2010.

 http://theorphange.weebly.com/

“One man’s tat is another man’s treasure. In that spirit, we bring you The Orphanage, a place where concepts like copyright and ownership have no meaning. Far away from the grown up world’s slavish adherence to shiny new products, this Neverland of freebies, object d’art and orphan films is made from 100% recycled materials; the decor is cobbled together from free trade pieces, dustbin contents and clutter from other people’s attics, the movies have been retrieved from darkest recesses.

“Come join us on our couch for a marathon of foundling films including the Brazilian remake of Star Wars, a Turkish Wizard of Oz, the North Korean Godzilla (made to order for Kim Jong-il) and Plan 9 from Outer Space retold through the fine medium of Mexican wrestling.”

Tom Waits
Glitter & Doom Live
(Anti)

Call it steampunk roots music or Brechtian blues or Chautauqua hall performance art or whatever the hell you want. Anyone who caught the tour will tell you Glitter & Doom Live is about three stops beyond the terminus est of pop music, and could just as easily be reviewed as theatrical event.

Spin the wheel and take your pick. The opening ‘Lucinda/Ain’t Goin’ Down’ is Pantera trapped in Angola State Pen. ‘Singapore’ has Electric Picnic-thick muck on its boots. ‘Such A Scream’ and ‘Metropolitan Glide’ are recast with add-on James Brown guitar parts and spin-on-a-dime dynamics. ‘Fannin Street’ is a stray dog Ironweed yowl, ‘I’ll Shoot The Moon’ a Fassbinder ballad.

More? Well, there’s the Saki mortality parable ‘Dirt In The Ground’ (”Hell is boiling over/And heaven is full/We’re chained to the world/And we all gotta pull”). ‘Fallin’ Down’ is Otis soul transmitted through a tracheotomy box. And what ‘Goin’ Out West’ has lost in designer distortion, it’s gained in switching yard grit.

Tom doesn’t spare the horses, or the throat. Throughout the set he utilises a a one-size-fits all Cookie Monster growl that puts chain-mail and seven league boots on tunes like the furious foxhole prayer ‘Make It Rain’, while the house band – Casey and Sullivan Waits and Omar Torez and Seth Ford-Young and all the gang – sound like they last served time in The City of Lost Children. This is, you may have guessed, an autotune free zone.

For your shillings you also get an extra disc of Tom Tales, an oral anthology of short stories, tall tales, confession box riffs and rural myths.
Behold the latest greatest show on earth.

…and the infinite sadness. Gorecki’s holocaust poetry. An excerpt from the master’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

We interviewed the venerable Willy Vlautin this week about his beautiful new book Lean On Pete. Here’s the trailer.

And we’re back!!!

All aboard the Black Diamond Express to Hell, as driven by Rev AW Nix…

We are pleased and proud to report that John the Revelator has been nominated for the Costa First Novel Award.

RTE news report, 19 mins in:

 http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1060911

Irish Times report:

 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/irel…