The Great Gatsby for NES - that's right, for NES

http://greatgatsbygame.com/

Fitzgerald's classic Great Gatsby turned into hilarious fun filled NES style adventure. Play it now! Peopled with flappers, drunks hurling champagne bottles, butlers, mad hobos, and old sports - you are Nick Carraway and your task is to find Gatsby and outwit the giant eyes behind spectacles shooting lasers at you.

LOOP LOOP! In praise of the Volkswagen Lupo.

A trio of Lupos in what is known as a Lupo Troupe

The Volkswagen Lupo is an underappreciated car, especially in Ireland, where few were sold (relative to the popularity of Polos and Golfs) and where they are mostly associated with old ladies. I want to banish this myth of Lupo-granny-dom. They are an excellent car, vastly cooler than their Micra, Fiesta, and Ka counterparts. They zoom, they come in hilarious colours, they have giant windows - not like these new-fangled cars with their small windows, and, they have round headlights and round front indicator lights giving them the appearance of having impish faces. They are in short, the craic.

In Ireland they are most commonly found with one litre engines, but in their German homeland you can find 1.4 and even 1.6 GTI models. The thought of a 1.6 GTI Lupo is mildly terrifying. I can only presume it goes like a rocket and is apparently regarded as a true successor to the Mk1 Golf, one of the first true 'hot hatches'. As they were cruelly done away with in 2005, after only six years in production, there are not that many around. Succeeded by the bland and uninspiring Fox, Lupos are gradually attaining cult status, with Lupo owners clubs around the world, mainly filled with crazy people who pimp their Lupos and even race them. Specualtion is rife that VW are to launch a new Lupo this summer, slightly bigger with very low emissions. Few photos are available and so far it's a bit strange looking...

2007 prototype

LOOP LOOP LOOP LOOP!

1999 GTI  model

Hedi Slimane's 'Anthology of A Decade 2000-2010'

One of the last decade's most influential men's designers, Hedi Slimane has just released an anthology of his photography. As a man who defined the skinny look of the last decade in fashion houses such as YSL and Christian Dior no one seems to be in a better position to have documented the time. After a meteoric rise in 1996 when Yves Saint Laurent found the unknown 28 year old and made him their cheif designer; his linear and uncompromisingly slender tailoring came to the fore with a new wave of rock n' roll bands in the middle of the last decade. He came to define the look of a new kind of male; artistic and lithe. He retired from fashion in 2007 at his peak to persue his passion for photography. He has shot a wide spectrum of subjects, from punks on the streets of Berlin to Robert Pattinson. He has had many high profile exibitions and several books published. This anthology is a selection of his favourite shots from 2000 when he was still working in the fashion industry right through his photographic career to the present day. Amid rumours that he will be replacing John Galliano at Dior, it's good to be given a chance to see the last decade of fashion and faces through the lense of a man who was so much a part of it.

YES!

Riding out at Ballydoyle

I was right! The Queen IS going to visit Coolmore Stud, it was confirmed in the Irish Times yesterday. Maybe she'll go and watch the early morning exercise at Coolmore's racing arm - Ballydoyle. (...this is just an excuse to use this photo...)

The REAL reason the Queen is visiting Ireland

Sea The Stars, at the head of the pack, doing what he does best - winning.

Invincible Spirit, a fine figure of a horse

So the Queen is coming to visit us tomorrow, historic event, security nightmare, juvenile-minded republicans still annoyed etc etc etc. Buzzcats have uncovered the real reason she's coming. She's going to view some stallions. It's well known that the Queen is an avid racegoer, racehorse owner and breeder. Many of the worlds best thoroughbred stallions stand here and she's obviously decided that enough is enough, she'd like to come and have a look at them, thankyouverymuch, don't mind if I do, and have a bit of an historic occasion thrown in while we're at it. She's going to see former Champion Sprinter Invincible Spirit at The National Stud, superstar, record beater Sea The Stars at Gilltown, and I suspect she'll swing via Coolmore, home of several of the world's top stallions, on the way to Cork. The way it looks sometimes, it seems like the racing industry is the only thing holding this country together.

We're not mad.

Hi...

Dear Buzzcateers, we're very sorry for our lack of posting lately, we've been up to no good in other parts of the internet, and the real world. Among other things we've been getting our faces in The Irish Times music supplement, The Ticket, for our folk music endeavours under the moniker The Alpaca Jamboree...there we are:

We'll be making an effort to post more regularly from now on, upcoming posts include why Johnny Depp just isn't cool anymore, more of Rocco's Weird Stuff, and more places to go in Dublin.

Thank you to all of you who have been reading our blog so far and we hope you keep coming back!

Fade street is shit.

When the people at RTE decided Dublin needed their own answer to MTV's show the Hills no one could have predicted how awful it would be. Fade Street followed "the main characters Louise, Danielle, Cici and Vogue as they make their way, and survive the challenges of career, love, family and friendships while living in Dublin." The result was an often cringe worthy and laughable farce of a show. The young people of Ireland hung our heads in shame as the national broadcaster made our city and it's young inhabitants look like a bunch of brain dead tools. Luckily in the last 24 hours I have watched the show and enjoyed it. Hypocrisy? No, some fine and humorous people have made a YouTube video where they have entertainingly redubbed the show. It's aptly called "Fade Street is Shit" and it's hilarious. They have other videos which are good, but I am hoping they continue with this. Enjoy.

Classic vintage

Vintage covers

Lovely red Vintage spines

Fans as we are of lovely book covers here at Buzzcats, it was a great delight to us to see that Hodges Figgis of Dawson Street are having a three for the price of two sale on Vintage Classics. We bought the six above.

I particularly like the Yates cover - it conveys quite a sense of what sort of book it might be, and the time it's set. Not so fond of the cover for the Greene book, but it's one I haven't read so had to have it.

Here are some more...

You used to be cool Nick Valensi.

I remember being at Oxegen music festival in 2004. I was a teenager. I had made my way to the front of the crowd to see The Strokes. They were the reason I had gone. When they walked on stage guitarist Nick Valensi was dressed in white jeans, a sleeveless denim jacket and hoodie. He looked cool, not many people could have pulled that off. He spent most of the gig with his hood up and just pulling riffs out of his guitar. I haven't forgotten it and I don't think I will for a while.

In a previous post I reported on the fraught nature of the recording sessions for The Strokes fourth album Angles. Lead singer and sole songwriter Julian Casablancas was banned from recording sessions, the rest of the band contributed to the songwriting process and rumours that they were only doing it for the money. Particularly outspoken during the whole process was Nick Valensi. As the only member of The Strokes who had not released a solo album during their five year gap between records, he felt he had a large creative contribution to offer during the Angles sessions. He was quite outspoken about the fractious nature of the sessions and the relationships in the band. Despite this, the record was completed and released to a mild reception. Lead single Under The Cover Of Darkness appeared to have "promising return to form" written all over it. Very little of what followed on the full album matched this, it was a disjointed and somewhat indulgent affair.

Shortly afterward it was announced that the band had started working on their follow up. It was then announced that Julian Casablancas had scrapped the sessions. In an interview with the band in this months Q magazine, Valensi stated that Julian kept stopping the sessions. In a phone interview with Casablancas, he said that Valensi had tried to use unfinished Strokes songs for a solo album he wanted to release. This breached their contract and led to Casablancas cancelling the sessions. Valensi also pointed the finger at guitarist Albert Hammond Jr's former drug problem as a big factor in the bands troubled relationship since their last record, it allegedly "started the whole thing off." He was also consuming drugs during the same period but was "having a great time...different people took it in different directions."

When The Strokes first appeared Valensi was probably considered the coolest and most understated member of the group. He was an excellent guitarist who played some of their most memorable riffs, he was handsome and he had mystique due to his brooding stage presence. In the time since then he appears to have bought into the idea that he is a rock legend. His performances reek of wannabe Slash posing and his image has grown to match it. All of this wouldn't really matter though if he hadn't started acting the way he has. It is small, petty and destructive. He has shown no ability to exist in the music world without the rest of the band and is seemingly fueling the destruction of it.

When he was cool.

...Now...

New Buddy Holly Tribute Album.

On June 28th a Buddy Holly tribute album featuring some of music's biggest names will be released. Rave On Buddy Holly will feature interpretations of his classics by the likes of Lou Reed, Julian Casablancas, Sir Paul McCartney, Patti Smith and Florence Welch among others. Buddy Holly died at the age of 22 in 1959 in a plane crash. He left a legacy that still influences rock and roll music to this day. As a big Buddy Holly fan I can't wait to hear some of the interpretations on this record. Here's the full track listing.

‘Dearest’ - The Black Keys
‘Every Day’ - Fiona Apple & Jon Brion
‘It’s So Easy’ - Paul McCartney
‘Not Fade Away’ - Florence + The Machine
‘(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care’ - Cee Lo Green
‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’ - Karen Elson
‘Rave On’ - Julian Casablancas
‘I’m Gonna Love You Too’ - Jenny O.
‘Maybe Baby’ - Justin Townes Earle
‘Oh Boy’ - She & Him
‘Changing All Those Changes’ - Nick Lowe
‘Words Of Love’ - Patti Smith
‘True Love Ways’ - My Morning Jacket
‘That’ll Be The Day’ - Modest Mouse
‘Well… All Right’ - Kid Rock
‘Heartbeat’ - The Detroit Cobras
‘Peggy Sue’ - Lou Reed
‘Peggy Sue Got Married’ - John Doe
‘Raining In My Heart’ - Graham Nash

Bin Laden, Neo-Cons, and politics of fear

We spent a few hours yesterday re-watching Adam Curtis's documentary 'The Power of Nightmares'. Dealing with the rise of the Neo-Conservative movement in the US and the parallel rise of radical Islam, Curtis argues that governments, specifically the powerful Neo-Con thinkers behind the Bush administration, exaggerate threats in order to more effectively control and unite their people.

Osama Bin Laden who was finally killed last night in Pakistan features in these three films, and they make especially interesting viewing in light of the closing of this chapter in the current global powerplay.

If you haven't seen the films, you can watch them here:

http://thoughtmaybe.com/video/the-power-of-nightmares

Saw this stuck on the door of Eddie Rocket's on Dame Street, seems like a novel approach to waiting staff.