Shortt's Live Music Venue

Wednesday, 16th May 2012

Goggle box

SHAME

Practically everyone has heard about this movie starring Irish actor Michael Fassbender. With its sexually explicit content the notoriety with which the film has been surrounded means that we all know about it and now we have the chance at last to see what exactly all the fuss is about. Its not often that someone like George Clooney mentions an actor's physical attributes when he's accepting an award and even before the film was fully released there were plenty of clips doing the rounds with shots of Fassbender in all his naked full frontal glory. While we all have been quite blase about nudity in films what we really have become blase about is female nudity. There is practically no film that is shot today that hasn't got some level of female nudity. Male nudity is another matter altogether though. While there might be allusions to male nudity, such as the American Pie franchise, there is rarely if ever any male nudity shown, let alone full frontal nudity. The last big star that was shown in the all together and fully frontal was Richard Gere in American Gigolo. And that was about 25 years ago. While you might get male nudity in art house cinema when it comes to full frontal male nudity it seems like it is still the last taboo. So its no wonder then that there has been so much talk surrounding this film. Much of that talk revolves around the fact that the main character appears to be a sex addict, hence all the nudity and no holds barred sex scenes. But in the film it is never really explicitly said that the character is a sex addict. Its quite obvious that much of his day revolves around sex. He constantly looks at porn on his computer at work, ducking off to the toilets to furiously relieve himself. He uses prostitutes, picks up women at bars and minutes later has fast, anonymous sex with them. Its clear that he has a problem. But is he a sex addict? Is addiction really his problem?

There clearly is something wrong but you don't fully realise just how wrong until his sister turns up out of the blue at his apartment. Played by Carey Mulligan his sister Sissy is a bit of a disaster to say the least. The first time we see her she is fully naked, which is just as well as she is having a shower at the time. Not knowing that his sister has decided to come and stay with him Fassbender thinks that someone is robbing his apartment and when he confronts his sister with a baseball bat he is less than pleased to see her. Its clear that the two of them are comfortable with each other, she is there naked and he is waving a baseball bat around. Sissy says that she needs to stay with him but only for a little while. It soon becomes clear that Sissy has a lot of problems. You can see from the cuts on her arms that she self harms. She is also a bit of a love junkie at one stage ringing up her latest ex and bawling down the phone how much she loves him and how she wishes he would take her back. Cut to the next night and she ends up sleeping with her brother's boss and then later phoning him incessantly saying that she needs to see him. Of course the boss is not too pleased with this behaviour. He is married and has children and absolutely no intention of giving any of that up for Sissy. Fassbender has to warn his sister away from his boss and telling her that she should have been aware of what she was getting herself into in the first place as his boss is quite clearly wearing a wedding ring. He is also in a bit of trouble at work. When his old computer was being repaired the full extent of his use of online porn sites became apparent. Not a good thing to happen in corporate America. But there is some good news for him. He hits it off with a colleague and he asks her out on a date.

It seems like for the first time he is making a real connection with someone. But it all ends in disaster. When they spend the first time together he finds himself impotent. Now he goes completely off the rails. First he has sex with a prostitute, then he flirts quite explicitly with a woman at a bar only to be bup by her boyfriend, then he follows a guy in a street ending up in a gay bar where he has sex and then to round it all off he goes to a brothel and has sex with two prostitutes. Its a real binge. When he is making his way home he gets a message on his phone from his sister and he realises that something serious has happened to her. He starts to run back to his apartment and all the while the message she has left is playing over the action. In the message, towards the end she says "we're not bad people, we just come from a bad place." Its perhaps the biggest clue to what is really going on with these two people. Finally he gets home only to find his sister on the floor in the bathroom covered in blood, she has made another suicide attempt only this time we don't know whether she'll make it as the action stops there. Its up to you the viewer to decide what will happen to these characters. From everything that you've seen in the film its obvious that there is something deeply sad at the core of these individuals. They both seem to go out of their way to hurt themselves but at least in Fassbender's case is it really all to do with sex? Or is sex just the way that his particular sadness expresses itself? Both him and his sister Sissy have a tortured relationship when it comes to love and sex and the way they approach it may be seen in classically masculine and feminine ways. While the film may not necessarily be ambiguous there is enough room for different interpretations to be drawn from what each viewer sees and how they interpret it. Even the title of the movie itself is open to many different interpretations. It is no surprise perhaps that the director of this film, Steve McQueen, has worked with Fassbender before as there is a lot of trust going on here. Surprisingly even though there is a lot of nudity there is really only one really explicit scene and that is when Fassbender's character iving the threesome. This is a really interesting film where sex, as well as different ideas of love, are used to explore many issues, but it is definitely not one for the faint hearted.

Sunday the 20th of May at Shortt's Live Music Venue is a night not to be missed as a local brand, providing quality original music for the masses takes to the stage. Ruby Music presents are becoming an institution within the local and national music scene.On the night there will be 3 very exciting bands that will guarantee to leave you asking for more, line up on the night includes,

Dead School are a four piece alternative rock band that is creating a stir on the national scene. Dead School was formed in August 2010 and comprises of Donal McDonald (vocals), James McDonald (guitar/vocals), Cathal Maher (guitar/keys), Dominic Kelly (guitar), Derek Kelly (Drums). Having spent an intense few months holed up in various flats and practice rooms writing the songs and honing their sound they are proving themselves as genuine talent.

The post-punk terrain has been covered before, but Dead School bring elements of this sound kicking and screaming into 2011. You've been warned.

Keepers of Doubt Irish 3 piece Keepers of Doubt is made up of Fergal on Guitar & Bass, Alan on Guitar & Drums & Marc on Vocals. All 3 of them have been playing in bands since their early teens. Keepers of Doubt was formed in early 2009 by Alan & Fergal who began blending their love of alternative rock into something all their own. Marc who is the latest member of the band, delivers a melodic vocal with conviction and intensity which has become the trade mark for Keepers of Doubt over the years. In a bid to retain a certain rawness & freshness to their latest album Uncertain Silence, they recorded the album in just 8 weeks and with most of the tracks being recorded in a single take. Keepers of Doubt have being gigging together for 3 years around Ireland, playing St Patrick's Day in the Sugar Club & Arthurs Day in the Pump House being their highlights.

Taylor Made Project, Born from the remains of some of Waterford's finest underground acts, Many who were lucky to see, caught some of the rawest performances on the scene. Stephen and Jay go back years, having played in Penfold, which was re-incarnated as Dirty 10to1, which unfortunately ended last year after an epic battle with trouser snake for the BOTB 2011 Championship. Stephen brings the funk element with the bass, an extremely talented bassist, who knows his instrument better than himself. With influences like Flea and Les Claypool, how could he go wrong? Jay has been heavily influenced by the Punk scene, with his love for that raw and heavy sound, ripping guitar shreds and piercing riffs. Stiff little fingers, Fugazi, No means no and Killing Joke are just some of his influences. Michelle, Former singer for Totem, Sounding like Beth Gibbons from Portishead IMHO, Brings the folky element to this 5some. Her voice transcends the bass driven, electro rock type tracks and brings it to an almost ethereal level. Gav on Drums, Member of Torann, Waterford tribal drumming, bare chested maniacs. His frenetic pace and rhythm is well met by all the encompassing elements, his style of drumming works really well. And lastly but not leastly , we have the lobster AKA Shake shack engineer number 2 AKA Dean Doyle, Having been in a few cover projects before this, he decided its high time he joined a band writing their own material. His enthusiasm to find the right range of keys to compliment the song is surely relentless and his ideas bridge well all the far out styles that all come together under one banner-

The Tailor Mayde Project.