From a big pile of LEGO bricks that look pretty slick to the last album from Johnny Cash, there’s plenty to keep you occupied this week.
The Art of the Brick
As you may have noticed, we frickin’ love LEGO here. So you can imagine our excitement when we heard that an exhibition made entirely out of LEGO was headed our way as New York-based artist Nathan Sawaya brings his incredible LEGO-themed collection to the Ambassador Theatre for April, starting this Saturday.
Creating all sorts of weird and wonderful displays out of the humble brick, Sawaya’s show has been all over the world since its US debut in 2007 and it promises to be great craic for young and old alike.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Following on from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the latest film sees Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and his company of courageous dwarves continue on their dangerous quest to reclaim their homeland of Erebor from the scaly grasp of the charmingly villainous dragon, Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch).
Along the way they are accompanied by our plucky titular hobbit, Bilbo ‘the Burglar’ Baggins (an impeccably cast Martin Freeman), who is now in possession of the One Ring.
That’s the really, really, really evil piece of jewellery in case you were wondering. Almost as evil as an engagement ring.
At the same time, the grey wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) has left our weary travellers to confront the strange, dark shadow that has been steadily growing in the darkness of the dark shadowy shadows…
The highlight is most certainly in the second half of the film when we are eventually introduced to the stupendous and sneering Smaug, brilliantly voiced and brought to life by Bendyballs Cabbagepatch. The Hannibal Lecter of dragons, he is charismatic and evil all at once, while the witty exchanges between Sherlock stars Martin Freeman and Buttermilk Crumplehorn are worth the admission price alone.
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug is Jackson and Co. most certainly back to their best and, as a result, YOU SHALL NOT PASS… on getting this Blu-ray 3D, Blu-Ray or DVD.
Johnny Cash – Out Among the Stars
A posthumous collection from the Man in Black, these song were left unfinsihed before he died and mostly record in the 1980s with producer Billy Sherrill. According to Rolling Stone this was Cash at his most disinterested, and he admitted himself in his autobiography that this wasn’t his finest period.
However, there’s still plenty of weighty and affecting material in here that we’ve come to associate with Cash. The opening track, from which the album takes its title, deals with a botched liquor store robbery and how the robber commits suicide, leaving his family to deal with the repercussions of his actions. Lines like “I robbed a man in Texas, just so I could die” recall some of Cash’s other iconic hits, and there are duets with June (of course) as well as Waylon Jennings, making this album a great collection that’s well worth your time. Besides, a bit of foot-tapping never really goes astray. It’s not him at his darkest or his most powerful, but it’s Johnny Cash, what more do we need to say?
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
