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Irish Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Are You Dancing? Showbands, Popular Music and Memory in Ireland: who, exactly, had the postcolonial attitude here?
Are You Dancing? Showbands, Popular Music and Memory in Ireland Author : Rebecca S Miller ISBN-13 : 978-0253072368 Publisher : Indianapolis University Press Guideline Price : £27.99 In the course of this excellent account of the showband era in Ireland – roughly the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s – Rebecca Miller quotes John Waters to illustrate what was a common attitude among those alive at the time who disdained the entertainment on offer in the dancehalls. Waters suggests that the 'imitative' approach of the showbands was the result of a postcolonial mentality, an inherited sense of 'inferiority, fatalism and self-hatred'. It was an attitude expressed more succinctly by Bob Geldof in the recent RTÉ series, Ballroom Blitz : the showbands were 'crap'. It might be argued that it is Waters' and Geldof's view that is most suggestive of the postcolonial: the belief that the local must be inferior and that modernity – the good stuff – must be found elsewhere. Irish popular music has always had the distinctly mixed blessing of a powerful neighbour. The proximity, particularly through the 1960s and into the 1970s, of the rapidly changing and inventive pop and rock scene in Britain could not but highlight the apparent shortcomings of the native offering. In fact, it was Britain that was the exception – popular music elsewhere was often as focused on entertainment, on competent reproduction of covers, and on versatility as the showband scene in Ireland. READ MORE Miller, who is American, discovered the showbands long after the fact; when booking a festival of traditional Irish music in New York in 1986, a musician told her he wouldn't be available as he was playing with a showband. She was intrigued, and close to 40 years later this book, the fruit of exhaustive archival research and hundreds of interviews, is an admirable example of the best kind of academic writing: fluent, authoritative, free of either nostalgia or embarrassment – and beautifully illustrated. [ Ballrooms of romance: 'I wasn't the greatest dancer but when we danced together it was like it was meant to be' Opens in new window ] She looks closely at the business side; in a society that was underemployed and lacking in industry, the showband industry was a big fish, even if much of the cash went into, as Eamon Carr puts it 'the biscuit tin', and beyond the reach of the Revenue Commissioners. She is revealing also about the social background of the musicians and on the ways in which the expectations of the wider society regarding gender roles played out on stage, backstage and on the dancefloor. Stan Erraught lectures in music at the University of Leeds and is author of Rebel Notes: Popular Music and Conflict in Ireland (Beyond the Pale)
Time Out
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The best plans to celebrate Pride in Buenos Aires
LGBTIQ+ Cultural Center in Villa Crespo, home to Brandon for Equality. Since 2005, it has been an activist meeting point with shows, films, poetry, books, cycles, and community. They also support projects like Editorial Brandon, Brandon Records, and their queer library. Some of South America's most beloved singers, like Susy Shock, are a stable part of the lineup. Even John Waters shined here, visiting after a BAFICI screening at the 'pink little house.' Casa Brandon is well known to foreigners visiting Buenos Aires who seek that beautiful vibe we have here: good energy, good company, and a feeling of home. Founded by Lisa Kerner, it is an indispensable space for Buenos Aires' queer culture. Fun fact: it's an unclassifiable, affectionate space where there's always something happening.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Jaws' influenced filmmaking, Cape theater attendance. 'Seeing it, loving it'
Killer sharks, then killer bunnies. The movie "Jaws" started a "huge thing that we had never seen before," said film director John Waters. "It became a genre, and it got more and more ridiculous. First it was sharks, then it was killer bunnies." With the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Steven Spielberg's blockbuster on June 20 comes reflections on the movie's influence. It has spawned a genre. It has become a shared love across generations. It has moved viewers from extreme fear to curiosity, according to Cape Codders associated with three independent Cape cinemas. The movie has also revived and boosted cinema attendance 50 years later. "There aren't many movies that you can play again and again and it would still do business," Cape Cinema president Eric Hart said. The Chatham Orpheum Theater will be showing "Jaws" at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. daily from June 27 to July 1, and then at 9 p.m. from July 2 to July 6. The theater will also screen the documentary "Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story" from June 27 through July 1. Cape Cinema in Dennis intends to screen the movie as well. After seeing "Jaws," no one has ever gone swimming and not thought of it, Waters said. "Every time you go in the water you think DUH-nuh," he said, mimicking the famous movie theme in an interview on May 19. "The music's on their mind." Waters, a part-time Provincetown resident, is on the advisory board for the Provincetown Film Society, which is associated with Waters Edge Cinema. He directed films such as "Pink Flamingos" in 1972 and "Cry-Baby" in 1990. He was on the Cape when "Jaws" was released in 1975. "I remember seeing it, loving it and being like the rest of America," he said. Waters said he likes to be scared, but when asked if there was ever a push for him to create films like "Jaws" after the film's success, he said no. "I'm afraid Divine was my shark," he said, of the drag performer and star of "Pink Flamingos." "A lot of people in this community saw it in 1975 in the theater," said Kevin McLain, executive director of the Chatham Orpheum Theater, during a May 23 call. "Now they're bringing their children and grandchildren to the theater to see the movie." The Orpheum, which originally opened in 1916 and reopened in 2013 after more than 20 years of closure, has a close relationship to "Jaws" and director Steven Spielberg, McLain said. The first movie shown at the reopening was "Jaws," McLain said. "We said to the community, 'What do you want us to show first? It's your theater. What do you want to show first?" The answer was resounding. And, a fear of sharks has given way to curiosity, he said. In 1975 when "Jaws" came out and someone yelled "Shark!" on a beach, people ran away — but what's happened since then, "Jaws" has become socially acceptable as a character, McLain said referring to T-shirts and even plush toys for children. "It's kind of been kidified." "Now when you yell 'Shark!' on the beach, people run to the beach! They want to see them!" he said. A boy around seven or eight years old came to see the movie, McLain recalled. "He was a Jaws freak. He had a Jaws T-shirt on. He had a Jaws stuffed animal and he was going with his dad. There was no stopping him. And when he came out of that theater his face was ashen white." That experience of watching the film in theaters has also contributed to why the film is still so popular, according to McLain. "Experiencing the energy, experiencing the drama, experiencing other people's emotional connections to this, it creates an experience that is completely unlike one that you would have sitting in your house and watching 'Jaws.'" "It's an example of why theaters matter and why movies in movie theaters matter," he said. Agreed. The only real way to watch "Jaws" is in theaters, said Hart at the Cape Cinema in Dennis. Hart was also on the Cape when the film premiered in 1975. "It wasn't really something that sort of caught on, it was an instant hit," he said. Since the summer audiences were rotating every two weeks, the film played all summer long, according to Hart. "So it was an even bigger sensation because it stayed incredibly popular for a really long time." Of course, he added, because it was filmed so close to home — just a ferry ride away, to Martha's Vineyard — "Jaws" will always hold a special relationship to Cape Cod. Desiree Nikfardjam is a reporter covering breaking and trending news. She graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. You can reach her at DNikfardjam@ Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans. This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Keeping cinema alive: 'Jaws' continues to be a Cape Cod favorite
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ari Aster and John Waters on the Art of Not Compromising
"He looks normal — but he's not!" John Waters said Saturday night, inviting Ari Aster to the stage. "Get on up here!" So began a spellbinding conversation at the Provincetown International Film Festival between two of the most uncompromising film directors — Waters, the rule-breaking icon who serves as the Cape Cod festival's patron saint, and Aster, who came to Provincetown for the first time to accept the festival's Filmmakers on the Edge award, a month before the release of his latest, Eddington. The two filmmakers — who first met years ago at a party at David Sedaris' house — were deeply complimentary of each other, while self-deprecatingly funny about themselves. Aster, for example, volunteered that none of his subsequent films have been as successful as his 2018 breakout Hereditary, which earned $80 million on a $10 million budget. "It's just been a declension ever since," Aster laughed. He joked that when Hereditary was a huge hit, "I took it for granted. I was like, 'Well, that's how it's gonna be.'" Waters countered by noting the intense critical praise for Hereditary, then shared one of his own reviews, Janet Maslin's takedown of his 1977 film Desperate Living: "You could look far and wide to find a more pointlessly ugly movie ... but why would you bother?" From there, the two shared a series of amusing gripes about the state of movies, though their love of filmmaking shined through. "The movie business, as I know it, is over," Waters said at one point, asking Aster if he felt the same. "Well, you know, it's feeling bad," said Aster. "And I'm very lucky. I'm making the films I want to make. But just, you know, the culture at large is feeling just... it's horrible. I don't know. Everything feels bad." In true artistic fashion, he's processing that frustration through storytelling. In Eddington, a Covid horror film set in 2020, Joaquin Phoenix's small-town New Mexico sheriff faces off with Pedro Pascal's mayor, as paranoia and conspiracy theories run rampant. The film addresses American distrust and division. Waters said of Eddington: "There are no heroes. There's no one to root for. That's why I like this so much. The left and the right are both so horrible. Is it possible to have nostalgia for Covid?" The audience roared, though Aster clarified, "I don't know how nostalgic it is." Aster is perhaps the most revered genre filmmaker of recent years, and Waters is a patron saint not just of the Provincetown festival but of bold filmmakers everywhere: Best known for the 1988 hit Hairspray, he broke out in the 1970s with shocking films like 1972's Pink Flamingos and 1974's Female Trouble. He is loved both for his films and for freely speaking his mind. In 2023, for example, after Aster's 179-minute, surrealistic tragicomedy Beau is Afraid failed at the box office and received divisive reviews, Waters delightedly named it the best film of the year. Though Waters and Aster joked about their occasional bad reviews, Waters said he sort of misses the era when critics had more influence. "It used to be, in the old days, if you had an art film and you got a ringing review in The New York Times, it was a hit, and if you got a bad review, it definitely failed," Waters said. "Now, a rave review doesn't make any difference, but if there's a bad review, it still fails. So I don't know. I miss the power of the critics in a way." Waters and Aster shared amusement and frustration with all the forces pushing them toward compromise, including focus groups (which Waters calls "fuck-us groups," because of how their input can dilute a filmmaker's vision). Waters noted that A24, which distributes Aster's films, is like a modern version of Harvey Weinstein's Miramax, without Weinstein's baggage. He also told Aster that Weinstein once offered to release his 1998 film Pecker — if he would change a key location. "If it's not a gay bar and it's a titty bar, I'll do it," Waters quoted Weinstein telling him. (Waters passed.) Aster, meanwhile, talked about studio executives who always ask him to shorten his films. "That's always a big fight while I'm editing," he said. "But how do you win?" asked Waters. "It's just a long negotiation," said Aster. "I've never been pushed to in any way compromise the films at all. It's always just, get them shorter. Which, you know, if anybody were in the room hearing the arguments, they would not be on my side." Asked if he'd ever had trouble with the ratings board, he noted that his 2019 film Midsommar briefly had an NC-17, before he ultimately got an R. Waters recalled that at one point, he was told he couldn't use the title Pecker: "I said, 'How about Shaft? How about Free Willy?" The Q&A ended on a sincere note as Aster told Waters how much his films have meant to him. "It's really an honor to receive this from you, John," Aster said as he accepted the Filmmaker on the Edge award. "You're one of my heroes, and when I was growing up, your films were a real North Star for me." Main image: Ari Aster and John Waters. MovieMaker. Related Headlines 12 Shameful Movies That Glamorize the Devil Goldfinger: 12 Behind the Scenes Photos of James Bond at His Best Kites Director Walter Thompson-Hernandez on Violence the Poetry in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro
Irish Independent
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Shane Coleman on Golfgate: ‘Do you remember the insanity of that story? Everyone went ballistic. Five years later, I look back and think: Mob hysteria'
There was a time, not so long ago, when contrarians were a big part of mainstream Irish media. John Waters, Kevin Myers, George Hook, Eoghan Harris and Eamon Dunphy were some who – for better or worse – specialised in riling people up.
