I Am Steph » volunteering

Summer Sensational festival hits Temple Bar this weekend

Steph — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:50:42 +0000

One of the best little festivals of the year hits Dublin city centre from Thursday until Sunday, the 8th to 11th of July. The Summer Sensational will be bringing all sorts of fun for all age groups to various venues in Temple Bar including circus acts, outdoor movie screenings, creative workshops for kiddies, walking tours, storytelling, photography exhibitions and more.

It’s a pretty busy programme so here’s a rough outline of what’s on for the weekend that I’ve put together.

You can click here to download it as a PDF or big JPG if that’s your persuasion. The full festival website is here and programme PDF here.

One of the best things about the festival is that most events are FREE. Some are ticketed however so check the website or get in touch with the box office in advance to find out. You can get them at:

Temple Bar Cultural Trust Box Office (TBCT)
TBCT Box Office opens on 17th June
12 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.
01 677 2255
info@templebar.ie

You can keep an eye on what’s happening via Twitter at @tbct or even give me a shout at @cloudsteph.

For all the shutterbugs there’s a photo competition happening too. Here’s the details:

Capture culture in Temple Bar during The Summer Sensational and be in with a chance to win a four course dinner for two at La Dolce Vita, a delicious Italian wine bar in the heart of the Old City area of Temple Bar. Competition guidelines available on www.flickr.com/groups/templebarphotocompetition

Despite being a lover of all things artsy, creative and festivals (especially the free sort) it’s probably important to point out that I’ve agreed to help TBCT out with spreading the word about the festival this year best I can. Over the next few days I’ll be blogging, tweeting and telling whoever I meet what I think they might enjoy going along to but don’t worry, my judgement isn’t clouded by the chance of bagging a free phone. If I do win it, it’s a bonus and will be going to a good home.

Hopefully see you around Temple Bar this weekend!

Let’s break a world record at SPWC Dublin this weekend

Steph — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:41:09 +0000

They say pictures can paint a thousand words. I agree. The photo on the right sums up the awesomeness SPWC Cork perfectly! If you’d like to be similarly shocked, awed and amazed then you should get your ass into Merrion Square this weekend for the Dublin leg of the biggest yet Street Performance World Championships.

While you’re there (and speaking of asses) you might also fancy a go at getting into the Guinness Book of World Records. The SPWC crew and 1500 hopping mad people from all over come to take part in our attempt to break the world record for the most people on simultaneously hopping on space hoppers.

Up for it? Then just send your name and email to worldrecord@spwc.ie. It’s all happening on Sunday at 2pm on Upper Mount Street. More info available here.

It’s going to be a super fun and busy weekend for kids of all ages, from 5 to 95. Bring your camera, maybe something to sit on and soak up the atmosphere in Merrion Square over the weekend. Full timetables and info on who’s performing is available on the blog at spwc.wordpress.com/dublin.

See you there!

Dolly Mixture 15.06.10 – THEATREClub, People of the Year & good Cork grub

Steph — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:00:21 +0000

So yeah, my love affair with THEATREClub continues so much so I wish to inform the good people of Cork of the arrival of THEATRECLUB STOLE YOUR CLOCK RADIO WHAT THE F*CK YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT this weekend at the Cork Arts Centre at 2pm on Saturday on Sunday as part of a double-bill for the Midsummer Festival.

ALSO – they’re looking for people to work with them including lighting and stage people, actors etc. Check the spec here.

Today is the last day to nominate someone for a People of the Year award. Yes it is an X Comms website but being so I get to read about the superb work that some extraordinary people are doing every day of their lives and it’s great to see them get some recognition for it. If you know someone why not nominate them?

I was in Cork at the weekend volunteering for the first leg of the annual SPWC and once again I had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the city after being exposed to some amazing food. And that was even *before* I got to Café Gusto on Washington Street. Thanks Sabrina & John for the introduction and the smashing vino (nice one Café Gusto on the BYO option).

New to WordPress development? Now is a great time to be getting to grips with it with version 3.0 in the pipe and set to bring WordPress from a blog-engine-cum-CMS to a proper CMS option. Yoast is doing a nifty series of posts on using WordPress as a CMS that’s worth a look.

Ogilvy PR Worldwide are looking for a junior web dev. Info is here.

Dolly Mix 04.05.10 – HTML5, Absolut Gay Theatre, Solsbury Hill etc

Steph — Tue, 04 May 2010 10:25:00 +0000

DrupalCamp takes place at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare on May 15th and 16th. See www.drupalwest.com/ for info.

The Absolut Gay Theatre Festival Dublin is on until May 16th. I saw an amazing production last night at The New Theatre called Whore Works which runs until the 8th. Check out the programme here.

Innocent Drinks Consumer Cam.

iPhone and Android app builder and CMS that integrates with YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter in one neat looking package – MobileRoadie.

Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 for Web Designers looks tasty.

Solsbury Hill gets the Scala treatment in Cork:

My favourite moment of the Cork International Choral Festival

Steph — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:53:54 +0000

The UST Singers (University of Santo Tomas Singers) performing Bohemian Rhapsody completely a cappella last night at the Closing Gala Concert. Absolutely stunning, as were their other performances over the festival. If you ever get the opportunity, go hear them live.

Keeping track the Cork International Choral Festival 2010

Steph — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:52:03 +0000

So I’m down in the fair city of Cork lapping up some wonderful, diverse choral performances from choirs that have travelled from as far afield as Singapore and Japan and loving it.

I enjoyed the festival so much last year I decided to get stuck in and volunteer this year. If you can’t make it down to catch any of the live music you might like to keep track of things including results of the various national and international competitions via these channels:

Cork International Choral Festival page on Facebook
YouTube channel
Blog on Posterous
On Twitter at @corkchoralfest

Here’s one of the most amazing performances I’ve seen so far – really looking forward to hearing them again later on this weekend. The University of Santo Tomas Singers from the Philippines:

Dolly Mixture 26.01.10 – Eurotrip, The Seafarer, The Semantic Web…

Steph — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:28:46 +0000

Fancy an all expenses paid trip around 16 European countries in 20 days? Have a clue as to what social media is? Want to win some stuff? You should really take a look at the ‘Talk to EU Eurotrip’.

The Seafarer at The Abbey Theatre had me in stitches last night. Don Wycherley is outstanding and almost completely stole the show for me. This is the last week of it so do try and catch it if you can. Never seen a full house at the Abbey on a Monday so that says it all.

Book launched in NUI Galway by John Breslin, Alexandre Passant and Stefan Decker - ‘The Social and Semantic Web‘.

How Metro News in Canada are hooking up with FourSquare.

Volunteering Ireland are on Twitter – @volunteeringirl.

Tickets for TedFest 4 are currently on sale – demand is so great there’s ’2 sittings’ of it this year.

Happy Tuesday, hope it’s kind to you

Aida – here we go!

Steph — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:05:09 +0000

So we had dress rehearsals for Aida last night at the O2. To be honest, I’ve got mixed feelings going into tonight’s performance but I won’t go into that right now.

Here’s the O2 stage with both the male and female choirs giving it socks to the sweet orchestral accompaniment from below. The sound in there is fantastic.

Darragh & Ruairi (I think!) before going on stage:

If you’re going, well myself and Niamh will do our best to wave our lovely palm leaves at you from front left of the stage while trying to fall off and into the orchestra.

Oh and hopefully, you’re not too sensitive to the aroma of horse manure. I’ll leave you with that thought.

Aida – I’m in it

Steph — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:34:27 +0000

As an extra for a little bit.

At the O2. And then off to the Odyssey in Belfast to do my little bit on Saturday night.

Looking at Darragh’s post about it, the enormity of the production is starting to sink in.

I’m ridiculously excited and nervous all at once.

Not a bad way to spend a weekend though, eh?

Anam Cara – buy a balloon to remember

Steph — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:49:14 +0000

I just heard a rather moving interview on Newstalk between Tom Dunne, Jimmy Magee and Gráinne (forgive me, didn’t catch her surname) one of the founding members of Anam Cara. Jimmy lost his son to Motor Neuron Disease and has got involved with Anam Cara since his passing.

Anam Cara is a new organisation that offers support to parents who have lost a child.

It is a harsh and tragic fact that each year approximately 1,900 families in Ireland will lose a son or daughter (cite)

On November 2nd, Anam Cara will be releasing helium balloons as part of their ‘A Balloon to Remember‘ campaign in Tullamore, Co.Offaly. The aims of the campaign are:

To raise awareness of Anam Cara
To raise funds for the organisation
To remember lost loved ones

You can help them out by sponsoring a balloon via the website, volunteer to help them or one of their satellite groups around the country or make a donation.