Posts relating to the 2009 Irish Blog Awards in Cork will appear on my other site, Bicyclistic.

There’ll be an auction of a painting for the Awards charities, there’ll be a sale of paintings that were exhibited there, the free painting result is already posted, and I just might get around to doing a review myself of what was a rather fantastic event.

Read: After The Irish Blog Awards »

Sorry, but I’m painting. Pretty much all the hours there are. Art show in Cork on Saturday, and traveling Friday, so tomorrow is last day for painting.

They’re mostly paintings of Ireland, and if you’re a glutton for punishment you can follow progress such as it is, on twitter. You could even guess how many and win a painting.

I’ll post pictures of them, and maybe have a sale even, after the show (or maybe even during) - which is at the Irish Blog Awards. And I’m telling you all this to explain why you’re hearing nothing from me, even if you are still coming in your thousands.

Back to normal service and on with the promised changes, after this event.

Read: Pause for Painting »

I’m currently consolidating all the various pages of my Irish paintings so that you can browse through them all from one page.

It’s also the place for paintings not particularly Irish, like the ones of Eastern Europe or of grain elevators in the midwest of America, or of people who may well be Irish but who can really tell when they have a purple face?

And the abstract paintings, which just might be the most Irish of all the paintings, are also there, because I’m putting everything related to paintings there.

As such it’s the page that will carry future big sales, as well as one-off specials, the links to prints, and to the free paintings competitions that I run the odd time (there’s another one coming tomorrow, for example - keep an eye out).

Tonight I’m adding another 30 odd paintings to that page. And once this art show I’m currently working on is over, I’ll make sure to pump out the events for the madness that is St Patrick’s Day season in Kansas City. And I might just have another online art sale.

Read: Consolidation of Pages of Irish Paintings »

Unless you’re clued in to Irish matters, it’s probably escaped your notice why I’m a bit quiet here on Irish KC at the moment - but it will continue like this for another 7 days.

In the meantime here’s two Valentine’s Day memories, something I wrote earlier, and something I wrote earlier again:

  • I’m Reminded of the British Police by Valentine’s Day in America
  • Using Cannabilism Instead of Hallmark for a Special St Valentine’s Day

Read: For The Day That’s In It »

This is the shortlist for Best Blog Post award in the 2009 Irish Blog Awards to be held in Cork on February 21. This category is sponsored by KRO IT Solutions

I count 17 posts on the list, which might not seem that short to you but when you think that every single post in the last year, by over 4,000 bloggers, was technically in the pot for this award, well it’s a very short list indeed.

Have a nose through for the state of blogging in and about Ireland today. I won’t mention my favourite because there’s a couple I haven’t read yet.

Annie Rhiannon: “Ten Days in May”

Asleep on the Compost Heap: “Kells after Midnight”

Bock The Robber: “Leonard Cohen in Dublin - Concert Review”

Darragh Doyle: “The first time”

Darren Byrne: Adoption - “One Year Later”

Grandad: “How to blog?”

Hangar Queen: “The Big Lop Offski 2″

K8 the GR8: “The Secret Fire”

Lex Ferenda: “Correction; of the, year”

On The Record: “The Ticket’s Top 40 Irish Albums of All Time”

Public Inquiry: “A corrupt nation in denial”

Red Mum: “Calling All Single Parents in Dublin North”

Sinéad Keogh: “Starbucks Endorse Obama”

Stranded on Gaia: “Carlton and Chester”

Suzy Byrne: “Irish Rail enforcing the ban on free travel for Same Sex Couples”

Suzy Byrne: “Sarah Palin’s Trip to Ireland - seeking the itinerary”

Tuppenceworth.ie: “Waiting for Obama”

Read: Best Irish Blog Post - The Shortlist »

March is nothing in Irish events in Kansas City, if not spectacular, and this year March brings you The Irish Spectacular in a presentation by the Harriman-Jewell Series at the Folly Theater on Friday, March 6, 2009 at 8pm.

This Irish and Celtic music celebration is performed by the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra and features Irish traditional folk music, new arrangements of famous Irish airs, and new compositions by Irish composers.

A lot of people are going to love this I’ve no doubt - it clearly oozes with talent - but I have to wonder why we need Irish Orchestras touring America to be accompanied by Irish dancing, trad music, and interpretations of Irish folklore? In many concerts on this tour of the US the DPO are performing Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Brahms.

Soloists in Celtic Orchestral Gala Concert Program
Cora Venus Lunny (Violin) : Frankie Gavin (Traditional Fiddle) : Athena Tergis (Traditional Fiddle) : Aidan O’Brien (Uilleann Pipes, Irish Flute and Whistles, Banjo) : Peadar Townsend / Eric Cunningham (Bodhran, Percussion) : Michelle Lally, Denise Brennan, Ingrid Madsen (Vocalists) : Sinead McCarthy (Irish Traditional Dancer)

Inishlacken
Inishlacken is a double violin concerto for classical violin (Cora Venus Lunny) and traditional Irish fiddle (Athena Tergis) by the composer of that thing called Riverdance, Mr. Bill Whelan.

Also
Aughrim Suite is performed by Patrick Cassidy and is based on the Battle of Aughrim, featuring Uilleann pipes (Aidan O’Brien). The aria (Carmel Conway) from Cassidy’s cantata Deirdre of the Sorrows, is based on the ancient Celtic legend of the same name. Trad Irish fiddle player Frankie Gavin is featured on Bardinerie, 1920’s Jigs, and Queen of Sheba.

DPO
Although founded in the mid 1800s, the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra did disappear for most of the 20th century, ceasing activities with the advent of World War 2, only to be reconstituted again in 1997. This is the debut performance of the DPO in Kansas City, being part of its inaugural tour of the US - a 49 concert tour under the guidance of Columbia Artists Management Inc.

Gala Celebration
The 2nd half of the concert is called a Gala Celebration of Celtic Music, and it includes original orchestral arrangements by Irish composers.

Celtic mystical and folklore traditional musical elements are interwoven with symphonic orchestral color and structures, some featuring Irish instrumental soloists performing on traditional Irish instruments of fiddle (Frankie Gavin and Athena Tergis), Uilleann pipes, Irish flute, whistles, and banjo (Aidan O’Brien), bodhrán and percussion (Eric Cunningham and Peadar Townsend), vocals (Michelle Lally, Denise Brennan, and Ingrid Madsen), and Irish traditional dancer Fiona Collins.

Irish Composers Featured In Celtic Orchestral Gala Concert Program
Bill Whelan, Patrick Cassidy, Antonio Cafallo, Jonathan Casey, Derek Dolan, Michael Fleming, Carl Hession, Vincent Kennedy, Mick Langan, Greg Magee, Andreja Malir, Gloria Mulhall, Kevin Nolan, Jean O’Sullivan, Anna Rice, Peadar Townsend, Ken Tuohy, and J.J. Vernon, and more.

Program
    Celtic Song Overture
    Patrick Cassidy: Aughrim Suite
    Patrick Cassidy: Deirdre of the Sorrows Aria from Oratorio
    Bill Whelan: Inishlacken
    Gala Celebration of Celtic Music

Location
The Folly Theater is located at 12th and Central in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

Tickets
Tickets to the Irish Spectacular concert on Friday, March 6, are priced $20, $25, $40, $55, and $70, and can be ordered online or by phone at 816-415-5025.

Sponsors
Gaye McCarty Stevick sponsors this performance.

Links
The Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra have just started a blog which doesn’t have very much to it so far, and surely should be on its own site rather than the amateuristic presentation of Blogspot. There is also some information on the Harriman Jewell site.

Calendar
This event is posted on the Kansas City Irish events calendar.

Elsewhere
There are also performances of the Irish Spectacular in Lincoln, Nebraska on March 3 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts; in Colombia, Missouri on March 4 at the Jesse Auditorium, University Missouri; and in St Louis on March 5 at the St. Louis Cathedral - though Columbia and St Louis also get treated to classical performances of the non-Irish spectacular kind.

Read: The Irish Spectacular: Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra & Irish Soloists in Celebration of Celtic Music »

Irish KC has progressed to the next stage of the Irish Blog Awards - being longlisted. Following being nominated in the category for Best Arts & Culture Blog, the longlists were announced on Tuesday evening.

Last year Irish KC made it onto the short list for one of the awards, the since discontinued Best Designed Blog (it being decided that design more properly belongs in the more general Irish Web Awards), so I’m tickled pink to be on the Arts & Culture longlist this year.

Last year one of my other sites, the cartoon blog American Hell, made it on to shortlist for this same category, and I felt a mixture of pride and embarassment. (This year American Hell has also progressed to a longlist, in the new category of Best Humour Blog, and I’m delighted with that)

Anyway I keep saying that the best thing about the awards is the bringing to our attention of so many great sites, because I mean it. So please explore this list of blogs also on the longlist for Best Arts & Culture Blog at the 2009 Irish Blog Awards. If you live in Missouri or Kansas it will give you an appreciation for an Irish perspective on the arts, that you won’t get from sites that are the equivalent of an over-rated tea towel with bad Gaelic:

Best Arts and Culture Blog - Sponsored by Poetry Ireland

• Fustar
• Rapture Ponies
• Irish KC - that’s me
• The Asylum
• Chris Judge Illustration
• David Maybury
• Dante and the Lobster
• A Doubtful Egg
• Pursued by a Bear
• The Antiroom
• An Cathach
• Scamp
• The Red Scrap Book
• Film Talk
• Maguire’s Movies
• Caricatures Ireland
• Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Devious Theatre
• The Local Project
• Musical Rooms
• Self interest and sympathy
• Stonyriver Farm
• Eoin Purcell

I enjoy just half of those listed, but only because I have yet to include the other half on my regular web travels. Go visiting.

Read: Irish Blog Awards ‘09 - Best Arts & Culture Blogs »