TheCity

Author: Aida Skirmantaite

  • 10 movies to get you into the Christmas spirit

    10 movies to get you into the Christmas spirit

    It’s that time of year again, when you don’t need an excuse to laze around the sitting room watching TV all day. It’s the middle of December, which means Christmas is just around the corner and the only way to truly get into that jolly Christmas spirit is to sit back with a warm cup of tea and watch Christmas movies one after the other. If you’re too exhausted after work or college, don’t fret. The Christmas elves* at TheCity.ie have compiled a list of Christmas movie classics that are bound to get you into that merry spirit.

    xmas

    1) Elf (2003)

    The Christmas elves unanimously decided to start the movie list with Elf – a film about a human, raised by elves, called Buddy (played by Will Ferrell). After learning that he isn’t a true elf, Buddy decides to travel to New York to find out where he is truly from and to meet his cranky father. Kids and adults alike will be amused by Buddy’s goofiness and folly while he tries to discover what it is like to be human.

    2) Home Alone (1990)

    This movie is truly a Christmas classic. Eight-year-old Kevin (Macauley Culkin) is accidentally left at home, while his family heads off to Paris to celebrate Christmas. Kevin is left to defend the house from two clumsy burglars, the “Wet Bandits” (played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci), who take the opportunity to rob empty houses during the festive season. The events that ensue will leave you crying with laughter.

     3) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

    Directed by Frank Capra, It’s a Wonderful Life is a truly classic heart-warming tale about George Bailey (James Stewart), a disgruntled businessman, who decides that he has nothing else left to do in his life than to end it. Guardian angel, Clarence (Henry Travers), saves Bailey by showing him what the life would be without him.

    4) Love, Actually (2003)

    This irresistible, delightful movie is for the die-hard romantics. Set in London, the story follows 8 different couples and the ups-and-downs of their love lives during the Christmas season. Be careful though, you will find yourself singing ‘Christmas is All Around’. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

     5) Die-hard (1988)

    What’s more joyful than Bruce Willis (plays John McClane) saving Christmas from some German bad guys? Add Alan Rickman (plays Hans Gruber) to the mix and you got yourself an action-packed Christmas movie.

     6) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

    A movie you can watch on Christmas and Halloween? Now that’s just cheating. Tim Burton’s spooky stop-motion animated movie follows the adventures of Jack Skellington. Jack grows tired of scaring people in Halloweentown and accidentally discovers Christmastown, which brings a new purpose to his life – he schemes to kidnap Santa and overtake Christmastown.

    7) The Santa Clause (1994)

    What do you do when Santa accidentally falls off your roof? Ultimately, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) decides to take over Santa’s rounds for one night but eventually finds out that by putting on Santa’s clothes, he signed the Clause and now he must become the new Father Christmas and all the benefits that come with the title: huge belly, white hair and a long snowy beard. Scott may have a hard time getting used to the changes.

    8) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

    Christmas at the Griswolds’ household, what could possibly go wrong? Many things, as Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his family learn in this painfully hilarious comedy.

    9) Jingle All the Way (1996)

    It’s Christmas Eve and Howard Langston (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is running around town trying to get the very last Turbo Man action figure for his son. Saying that Howard gets into some crazy situations would be an understatement in this action-packed family movie.

    10) How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

    If you’re a grumpy kind of person who hates the sound of Christmas carols and any of the exhausting festivities associated with Christmas, you might want to stick this movie on. Grinch (played by Jim Carrey), like you, would do anything to stop Christmas from coming. But if Cindy Lou Who’s (Taylor Momsen) singing doesn’t melt at least a tiny bit of your frozen heart, you are a lost cause. Go back to your murky cave you grouch!

    TheCity.ie also took to the streets of Dublin to find out what Christmas movies the public love to watch over the Christmas season.

    *No elves were harmed during the production of this article.

  • Video: Dublin’s First Traditional Christmas Market

    Video: Dublin’s First Traditional Christmas Market

    Dublin’s first city centre traditional Christmas market opened on 13th November outside the St Stephen’s Green Park. The market offers a selection of Irish crafts, including hand-made accessories, wood-crafts, jams, cookies and knitted jumpers. A large selection of food and drinks are also available, with crepes, hot-dogs, burgers, hot chocolates, mulled wine and lots more. The market is open to the public every day from 12pm to 8pm and is planned to run until the 23rd of December. Last week, TheCity.ie spoke to the people outside St Stephen’s Green to see what they think about the market.

  • BLOOD AT THE SCIENCE GALLERY

     

    "Blood Vessels" by Charlie Murphy, made of borosilicate glass filled with red and blue toluene that's used in thermometers.
    “Blood Vessels” by Charlie Murphy, made of borosilicate glass filled with red and blue toluene that’s used in thermometers.

    As soon as you walk in through the glass door of the Science Gallery, you are greeted by the large sign that says “Blood: Not for the faint-hearted”. It really isn’t.

    If you’re prone to getting squeamish at the sight of the tiniest trickle of blood, you might want to miss this one. However, if you’re fascinated by the crimson red liquid that runs through your veins and want to learn more about it, you need to see this exhibition.

    25 different installations and artworks in the Science Gallery incorporate the main theme of blood, exploring its nature, its scientific use and its perceptions in our society.

    The whole atmosphere in the gallery space is eerie in the evening, with dimmed lights illuminating the intriguing installations: a baby sculpture made out of freeze-dried animal blood; a vampire killing kit with four different sizes of wooden stakes; various one-man cinema quarters with videos of stem-cell extractions and blood transfusions; a machine that lets you feel the blood pressure through the aorta by holding the aortic arch simulator; and many more.

    If you have some time to kill, you can even stand in the pitch dark corner to watch as luminol drops down onto a sculpture made of blood and resin, slowly revealing the structure made by Beatrice Haines. Luminol is the substance that’s used in TV criminal dramas like CSI, where the cops are looking for evidence of blood residue in crime scenes.

    You see, blood on its own doesn’t really show up under fluorescent light. First, forensic scientists would pour luminol over the area and then illuminate it with the bluish-green light. When luminol comes into contact with the haemoglobin in the blood, it glows under the light.

    This is one of the more fascinating installations, however it does take time to truly see the structure in its full form. Apparently, it’s approximately 20 minutes, though it does take a lot of patience to stand still in pitch dark while concentrating on one spot.

    Another interesting installation is the work of an electronic artist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. It’s called “Pulse Index”, and it is an interactive installation where you can scan your finger on a sensor located in a small tube-shaped digital reader. The scanned image instantly pops up on the screen and keeps moving sideways.

    All of the participants’ fingerprint scans are accumulated into a digital gallery and displayed onto a huge monitor, divided into hundreds of smaller screens – each person’s finger scan travels along the screens and gets smaller and smaller until it reaches the end of the installation. Finally, the picture completely disappears into the maize of finger scans. The scanner is so precise that it even picks up the tiniest sweat droplets off your finger.

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    “Blood Jukebox” is yet another interactive installation that catches people’s attention. There was even a queue to this intriguing device. This machine, made by the art collective, Robot Versus Future, reads your pulse and tries to estimate your age, generating tracks from your teenage years.

    Additionally, it reads the tempo of your pulse and picks a song that matches the beat – the faster your pulse, the more upbeat song the machine generates.

    “Blood Jukebox” by Robot Versus Future.
    Finger is inserted into the pulse-reader.

    The exhibition at the Science Gallery runs until 25 January and is open to the general public, though it is recommended for over 15s due to its gory and bloody nature. (No sign prohibiting vampires from entering, though. Mind you, that would get quite messy, what with the free buffet of blood installations and curious mortals lurking in the dark corners of the Science Gallery.)

    Photography by Aida Skirmantaite.

  • Rally for Suicide Prevention for World Mental Health Day

    Rally for Suicide Prevention for World Mental Health Day

    A small group of protesters stood outside the Dáil on the afternoon of Friday October 10th for World Mental Health Day to rally for a better mental health system in Ireland.

    Among the group were the co-founders of Action for Suicide Prevention Dublin, Luke S. Clerkin (23) and Jamie Harrington (16). The aim of the rally was to promote the introduction of a 24-hour crisis care line to help those in need.

    The group were able to attract the attention of David Norris, who came out of the Dáil to talk to the protesters and express his concerns over the forthcoming budget, “There are difficult decisions to be made but they are always made at the expense of the most vulnerable.”

    Mary Lou McDonald also spoke to the group outside the Dáil, congratulating the young people on promoting the issue and promising to have the issues proposed for the Budget on Tuesday.

    Featured image: Andrew Mason, http://bit.ly/1sAy7is