50% off signage & marketing materials*

FORAS na GAELIGE is offering match-funding* to all Small & Medium Business (SMEs) through two new schemes to promote the use of Irish language.

The scheme will launch in Jan 2009.

Signage Scheme - External:
- Includes new and replacement signage
- Sample signage includes Shop-Front Signs; Business Livery; External Directional Signs, etc
- There is no need to translate the business brand name
- Both text in English and Irish should be the same size

Business Materials' Scheme:
- Includes new and replacment materials.
- Includes general branding, letterheads, e-mail scripts, business cards, memos, receipts
- invoices, HR adverts, publications, Websites,
- Packaging (product naming, labelling, design, etc)
- Internal Signage (direction signs, safety & security signs, automated in-store displays etc);
- Advertising Materials (exhibition stands, brochures, posters, flyers, leaflets, etc).
- Bilingual materials will treat English and Irish equally - this is best practice

* funding is limited to €2000 on external signage and €1000 on various marketing materials. To avail of assistance simply forward your company details on appropriate form along with an estimate to:

aseoighe@forasnagaeilge.ie
or
Áine Seoighe
Foras na Gaeilge
7 Cearnóg Mhuirfean
Baile Átha Cliath 2

SEXTON+ branding will be happy to help you in your application and text/translations:
Contact Kevin or Valentina: +353_1_670_3100

Official Opening of Twisted Pepper by BodyTonicMusic

Off to the grand opening of the TWISTED PEPPER (another venture form the BODYTONIC CREW) this weekend Thurs-Sat (13-15 Nov). See below for full line-ups & details.

Thanks for the passes lads!

Loads of cool stuff coming up including Theo Parrish next week and Carl Craig & Ben Klock week after. Just confirmed: Modeselektor for Mr Jones for a full live & VJ show on 18 Dec. Doors will be at 8pm and tickets are available from www.tickets.ie.


TWISTED PEPPER - OPENING WEEKENDER

THURS 13 NOV - MR JONES
FAKE BLOOD (www.myspace.com/welovefakeblood)
SHORTIE
+ "We Got Your Fashion Right Here" - Mr Jones' Fashion Show

Doors 9pm (free 'til 10pm, e10 after)
www.bodytonicmusic.com/events


FRI 14 NOV- MUD
MUD & Reach Present:
BENGA
FABIO (BBC RADIO 1, UK)
EQUINOX (Bassbin/Inperspective, UK)
SAFETY BOY, RICKY FORCE & COLZ


SAT 15 NOV - POGO
ZEIGEIST (SPEGEL, SWEDEN)
TRUSME (PRIME NUMBERS, UK)
BARRY REDSETTA
DAZBOY & JAMES M

Doors 10pm, Adm e15/e10 Members

www.bodytonicmusic.com
www.myspace.com/thezeigeist
www.myspace.com/trusme



COMING SOON:
BEARDYMAN, BEN KLOCK, BILL BREWSTER, BURAKA SOM SISTEMA (DJ/MC Set), THE BUG & WARRIOR QUEEN, CARL CRAIG, JOKERS OF THE SCENE, KLUTE, MEAT KATIE, MODESELEKTOR LIVE feat. PFADFINDEREI, NATHAN FAKE LIVE, SICK GIRLS, SHED LIVE, SWITCH, THEO PARRISH & lots more.

Check the websites below for more details - don't forget ADVANCE TICKETS are always cheaper than the door when you purchase at tickets.ie


TWISTED PEPPER
54 Middle Abbey St
Dublin 1
www.bodytonicmusic.com/thetwistedpepper
www.bodytonicmusic.com/events
www.tickets.ie

McCain as POW

I hear John McCain's campaign have released photos of him as a POW - guess they want to hammer home his war experience.

I wouldn't have thought it much of a selling point for his skills as President & Commander in Chief of the US forces - I mean let's face it - HE GOT CAPTURED !

Worth looking at this:
Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman interviews professor Mark Crispin Miller on election fraud, voter intimidation, voting machine malfunctions and the Bradley Effect. Miller is the author of "Loser Takes All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008."

Senior citizens protest publiclly following budget

Minister of State for Health John Moloney represented the Government at a senior citizens protest today in Westland Row, but he was loudly heckled and eventually left the microphone without having spoken.

The meeting was to take place in a hotel room with a capacity of 300, but when hundreds of older people began to turn up the meeting was moved to St. Andrew's Church, Westland Row.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore and Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin were all welcomed warmly.

The protest rally was organised by Age Action.

A second rally will take place tomorrow (22 Oct 08), organised by the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament:
Dail Eireann (Kildare Street entrance) Wed 22 Oct, 2008 12.30 - 13.30

The ISC Parliament is run by older volunteers who are elected annually at the Annual Parliament Meeting by delegates from affiliated organisations. The ISCP currently has 400 affiliated organisations whose memberships combine to a total of 100,000 individuals.

This membership means the ISCP has a genuine mandate to be the Voice of Older People in Ireland. The Parliament is organised on a non-sectarian / non-political basis.

Contact Information:
Irish Senior Citizens Parliament
90 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3.
Tel: 01 - 856 1243
Fax: 01 - 856 1245

E-mail: seniors@iol.ie
Web: www.seniors.ie
Blog: www.iscp.wordpress.com

.a voice for children who don't have one

O2 identified IAA (Irish Autism Action) as their charity of choice in 2005. October 08 sees them launch an Affinity scheme for the ABA Schools nationally - they will donate 5% of a customers bill to the schools. This will apply to both prepay and billed users.

The 5% comes out of O2's take and costs the customer absolutely nothing. The customer should FREEtext AUTISM to 50308.
(NB. sending the text is free!)

If you/your company decide to sign up & don’t have a preference for a school for the donation, FIDELMA's friend’s nephew is in:
St. Catherines
Barnacoyle
Co. Wicklow
...they could really do with the extra funding.

To specify that your donation go to that specific school she would need your mobile number and bill payers name for O2
(forward back to us & we'll pass it on).

For more info:
this O2 webpage explains the scheme

Senate Ethics Committee formally reprimanded McCain

American tax-payers are bailing out bankers while being asked to vote for a presidential candidate who was formally reprimanded by the Senate Ethics Committee for his associations with a previous banking scandal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five).

After the savings and loan disaster of the late '80s and early '90s John McCain was accused of improperly aiding one of his major political funders, Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan Association took advantage of deregulation in the 1980s to make risky investments with its depositors' money (google it).

With investigators closing in McCain intervened on behalf of Charles Keating and championed legislation to delay regulation of the industry - that allowed Keating to continue his fraud at massive cost to taxpayers: 20,000 Americans lost their savings but the cost to taxpayers rose further from around $3 billion to, eventually, more than $120 billion.

The Senate Ethics Committee investigated and formally reprimanded McCain for his role in the scandal.

Fast-forward to today's credit crisis where lack of regulation and cozy relationships between the financial industry and Congress has allowed banks to make risky loans and profit by bending the rules.

Is it any wonder that McCain's campaign, in the last few days, have suggested they turn-the-page on the economic question?

Watch the documentary (13 mins) here:
paid for by the Obama Campaign

3 things you may not know about McCain here:

Raw Living Food at the Back Loft

MUREAD HUGHES passed word on that RAW RENEGADE RESTAURANT is creating a gourmet raw & living food restaurant with raw live entertainment in various randoms spaces around Dublin.

Using fine organic ingriedents, Raw will create dishes that have been slowly marinated over days, or gently air cooked at very low temperatures, fermented to create cheese made from nuts, wraps made from seweeds, creams made from sprouted sunflower seeds, deserts from the finest raw organic chrilllo cacao peruvian cacao beans on the planet and more.

3 courses will come in large platters to share with others. All food is wheat, sugar, dairy, gluten, egg, meat & fish free.

Raw promises to "source local, organic produce where available and take, love, pleasure and passion to make your delicious menu ...Raw food is a revoloution for the body, spirit and mind using some of the most amazing ingredients on the planet".


check it out:
THE BACK LOFT
7-11 St Augustine St (off Thomas St)
(now an art space - once DUNNES STORES' sewing factory)

Friday 10th October
19.30 prompt
Cost €35 (includes full meal, music, entertainment, film)

You must book in advance:
Contact: Natasha 087 9743455

Barcelona whistle-stop tour

A couple of weeks ago RICHARD, MICHEÁL and myself hopped over to BARCELONA to hang-out with the one-and-only RAMON (BANKROBBER Records) - the ultimate host. We spent three days bouncing between the launch of GUILLIAMINO's new album to the SIDECAR and, our hands-down favourite, the APOLLO.

We even managed to rendezvous with SIOBHAN O'KELLY who happened to be in BCN for a few days (thanks to AOIFE back-home and her mighty txt finger). Siobhan is based mostly in London these days where she attended the GUILDHALL SCHOOL (training ground for actors like EWAN McGREGOR and RALPH FIENNES - two and a half thousand apply each year but only 15 are accepted to the Guildhall).

We also caught up (far too briefly) with NURIA and MARTINE (of PAYA days) who popped down from CADAQUÉS where KATEANN, RONAN & SULAN visited them during the summer. (Cadaqués was home to SALVADOR DALI and a popular destination for PABLO PICASSO, JOAN MIRÓ and MARCEL DUCHAMP.)

We even managed to take a spin around GAUDI's uncompleted LA SAGRADA FAMILIA - it still a building-site inside but when you wander around it's hard to imagine that this architecture dates from early last century ..it's a perfect example of timeless design.

Where did the summer go?

The blog's been neglected this summer, but it's back when I can squeeze the time to put a few scribbles together. (Didn't even manage to squeeze-in enough DONGAL this year :-( ..will have to do something about that.)

BRITTANY was something else: arrived in BREST (TALL SHIPS 2008), travelled east-ish for Les VIEILLE CHARRUES where we set-up base with the 'ROCK EN SEINE 07' crew (FRÉ, SABRINA plus 25), good music, an audience of around 200,000 and an amazing warm Breton welcome for the Irish.

ELECTRIC PICNIC 08: what can I say? Organiser JOHN REYNOLDS was more than generous to the 'DONEGAL CAMPERS' who rolled-in once again on that iconic VW combi-van and got treated to a fantasy weekend. The positive thinking of 35,000 paid off - there wasn't a drop of rain until around 02.00 on Sunday night - we danced through it while surprise-guests THE ORB blasted BODY & SOUL with HARRY NILSSON '...where the sun keeps shining through the pouring rain'.

The Electric Picnic is a wonderful mix of music, fun-fair, circus, theatre, comedy etc. and great food - yep, this year BRIDGESTONE FOOD AWARDS were dished out! Awards, which were devised for Electric Picnic by Bridgestone publishers JOHN and SALLY McKENNA, were given in four categories:

* The Best Dressed Food Award for presentation and style
* The Healthy Buzz Award for seriously healthy food
* The Greenest Gourmet Award for eco-friendliness
* The On Our Doorstep Award for best use of local and regional ingredients

Taking the gong for 'Best Dressed' stall, the MAD HATTER's TEA PARTY, based in the Body & Soul compound, provided festival goers with a picturesque Alice and Wonderland setting to enjoy tea and scones and toasted Gubbeen cheese sandwiches.

The TINY TEA TENT on the VILLAGE GREEN took the 'Greenest Gourmet' award, generating its own electricity through wind and solar power and using its tent to create awareness about deforestation of the tropical rainforest.

Dishing up the best healthy food this year was GOODNESS GRACIOUS, with its healthy salads and exceptionally good veggie burgers. And finally, THE GOURMET OFFENSIVE took the 'On Our Doorstep' award for its tasty and "very good value" cuisine from around the world made from locally sourced produce.

Speaking about the awards Bridgestone publisher John McKenna said: "The simple thing about the Bridgestones is that they are about inspired people who do inspiring work and who have a singular style, which is why we can go from roadside stalls to five star hotels.

"Giving awards to festival stall holders shows that the old fine dining idea of food is purest bunk; good food is good food, wherever, however, thanks to the person and their passion to be good, to be their best. And it's appropriate to give these awards at Electric Picnic, which has always made an effort to be grown up and serious about food, which shows the respect it shows its punters, a respect often missing in festival situations."


ELECTRIC PICNIC - 4, 5, 6 SEPT 2009
TIckets for next year's event go on sale around OCTOBER (10th or so), don't get caught out, they'll be gone in a flash.

more info: www.electricpicnic.ie

Murphys new book

The MURPHY brothers, SEAN and KIERAN are busy as always.

It seems only yesterday that the boys made contact to suss-out the SEXTON+ organisational culture and toy with the idea of inviting us to brand and package their delicious product. We've worked closely together since and the studio lights up when Sean bounces into the studio (nothing to do with the fact that he'd be stocking our freezer with ice cream). The guys are true entrepreneurs, dynamic, ferociously hard-working, inspiring - a pure pleasure to work with.

Now they've written a book - THE BOOK OF SWEET THINGS (MERCIER PRESS, €19.99). 'The brothers are American, but visited Ireland often when growing up because their father is from CORK. They loved Dingle so much they decided to find a way to live there giving up lucrative marketing careers with global brands. With the help of the black Kerry cows, the idea of making ice cream for a living was born.

MURPHYS ICE CREAM is distributed nationally to high-end stores, they have stores in KILLARNEY and DINGLE (we branded their building head-to-toe) and, according to GEORGINA CAMPBELL in the IRISH INDEPENDENT, their Dingle store has become a landmark - 'anyone visiting Dingle will know the cheerful blue and white Murphys shop'.

Check these out:

Kierna's blog is here:

Independent article here:

Book for sale by Mercier Press here: