I’ve posted about Danny McAskill’s insane bike skills before but his new video, filmed on Isle of Skye in Scotland, is truly something to behold. He returns to his home to take on a death-defying ride along the notorious Cuillin Ridgeline. Wow.
Another excellent video from the first in the second season of The Verge’s Detours outlines the work that New York is putting in to flood defense.
Spirit of Folk Festival 2014 took place a couple of weeks ago and I’ve just got around to uploading my photos. It’s a small trad, indie and craft festival that takes place each year in Dunderry, Co. Meath. I’ve been at 3 of the 4 they’ve put on and can honestly say that I’ve had some of the best days of my life there. The crew are fantastic, the music is brilliant and the craic is unreal. Peter has done a full review over on culch so check that out for music and links to the artists etc. A definite for 2015.
I’m coming to this one quite late in that Guinness Amplify is about to kick off the live events. Irish musicians submitted their applications earlier this year and an expert panel has chosen acts to both perform live around the country and receive studio time, mentoring, workshops etc. The chosen acts will get the opportunity to perform in hundreds of pubs all over Ireland (along with a few surprises!) from Thursday through to Sunday across 5 weekends, kicking off on the 11th September in Leinster and will rotating around the country, focusing on a different region each week over the course of the five weekends.
Those surprise acts include: Hozier, London Grammar, Rudimental, Duke Dumont, Kodaline, Ellie Goulding, George Ezra, Dan Croll, Daithi, Bastille, Disclosure, Walking On Cars and Jess Glynne. Of course the pubs in which they’ll be playing will be kept secret but that’s an amazing lineup in my opinion. I’ve been listening to the artists chosen by the panel this evening on the Amplify web site and the standard is really high. You can log on to the web site to see when and where gigs are taking place. I’ll definitely be attempting to catch a couple of these gigs when they roll into Dublin from the 9th to the 11th of October.
RIP. 1951-2014.