Tittererer’s Digest |62| feat. The Firehouse Film Contest
Hello! I’m back and I don’t have a cold this week. I had some truly horrible soup for lunch though. Tesco Broccoli and Stilton Mug Soup. I was the mug for buying it in the first place!!! BAM! I’m back. That’s the kind of joke you only get in a Tittererer’s Digest. Seriously though, it was bad soup AND it stunk up my desk area for the rest of the day. Bad Soup, bad, bad, bad soup. Anyway, this week I have some highlights from this month’s Firehouse Film Contest, a musical about Angela Merkel, and a great article about Conan O’Brien. Let’s go.
The Firehouse Film Contest
The Firehouse Film Contest is a monthly short film contest held in Dublin. It’s run by Conor O’Toole, Conor Barry, and Simon Mulholland. Most of the Irish sketches we feature here are originally from The Firehouse but usually they don’t all end up on YouTube in the same week which is why this week is Firehouse week. It’s an important and beloved thing that I’ve never been to because I don’t live in Dublin. Anyway, here are some highlights from this month’s Firehouse Film Contest.
sea mission
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Rory Mullen won the Best Actor award for this gripping portrayal of several people on a submarine in a stressful situation. I particularly enjoyed the very accurate sequence of a sailor at work at the beginning. It was so accurate that it felt like found footage.
Quiet Silas
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The short film Quiet Silas is a series of clips of a character named Quiet Silas doing his quiet thing. It’s written and directed by Conor Smith and stars several TD regulars. Look:
Shane Aherne as Detective
Giles Brody as McStanley
Stephanie Fleming as Suspect
Gavin Hurley as Quiet Silas
Emma Keaveney as Axelsmyth
Conor O’Toole as Rolotone
Legends all.
The Accent
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Brilliant Shane continues his nominatively determined rise to fame with The Accent which has been all over the Irish Webulex for the last few days but also won the Judges’s Prize at the Firehouse Film Contest. Quite the week for Shane I’m sure you’ll agree.
Fishes Circle
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And here’s the overall winner of this month’s Firehouse Film Contest, Fishes Circle by Gillian Fitzpatrick, Rachel Ni Chuinn & Conor O’Toole and featuring Ruth Hunter, Simon Mulholland, and our very own Alison Spittle.
Angela Merkel Rap
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I love Hamlton. I love it so much that I’m going to see it in New York in America. This video shows that pretty much all politicians are heroes deserving of their own musical though. We need more musicals about politicians. There’s Hamilton, Michael Collins, and The King And I sure but I need more. Did I just post this video as a roundabout way of mentioning that I have Hamilton tickets? Maybe. It’s a very good video as well though.
Conan O’Brien
A great long-read about Conan O’Brien and his place in the late-night landscape by Emily Yahr in the Washington Post. Before digital TV and Sky+ and all that we used to get The Channels from a company called Cablevision. They provided the Irish channels, the BBCs, ITV, Channel 4, Sky One, Sky News, MTV, and TCC (which had Saved By The Bell and Pugwall but I digress). For sporadic periods of time it would also carry MSNBC which was of no interest to young Alan until I realised that it showed US talk shows at 9pm and 10pm, Leno and Conan to be precise. I was 12 so I was initially drawn to the silly headlines and big names on Leno but soon I loved Conan. Conan was weird, and Irish, and weird. He was weird every night, on television. He was important.
Later, when I was twenty, in America, and bummed about the final results I’d just gotten for my final year of college, I watched Conan singing the valkyrie’s cry from Immigrant Song over and over just to amuse himself and I felt better. Conan’s important. Also, the article has a great header pic so look at it and then read it and then send me your favourite Conan clip on Twitter.
Right, that’s your lot. Plenty there for you all. I’ve thrown away the rest of the broccoli and stilton soup packets. Byeeeeee.
