Arts & Culture

SHANNON Gospel Choir will be joining forces with acclaimed singer-songwriter, Paddy Casey for a concert at The Oakwood Arms on October 21.

A feast of Irish traditional music with eclectic overtones will be provided by a local group in the Quay Arts Centre, Ballina, Killaloe on Saturday, October 8 at 8pm.

THIS year’s Children’s Book Festival is running throughout October and Clare County Library isoffering a tasty menu of Irish and international authors and illustrators.

Crazy, Stupid, LoveDIRECTED BY: Glenn Ficarra, John RequaSTARRING: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma StoneCERT: 15ACRAZY, Stupid, Love is a lame, stupid, title.

TG4 began broadcasting a series of filmmaker Bob Quinn’s works this week, ranging from his documentaries Why Don’t They Shoot People?, which he made for RTÉ in 1966, the more recent Vox Humana (Notes for a small opera) on the music of the Galway Baroque Singers and Damhsa an Deoraí (The Emigrant Dance) to part one of his four-part North African Odyssey Antlantean, which sees Quinn travelling to Celtic countries and North Africa to discover the origins of Conamara sean-nós singing. Fiction films to be shown include The Family, a disturbing film about a Donegal household and Poitín, a comedy on the evils of moonshine. Born in Dublin, Bob Quinn worked as a television producer with RTÉ before moving to Connemara in 1969 and founding film and video company Cinegael with Seosamh Ó Cuaig and Toni Cristofides. Each screening of Bob Quinn @ 75 will be preceded by an interview with Quinn, conducted by Irish poet and writer Theo Dorgan. …

Thor****Directed by: Kenneth BrannaghStarring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston Star Wars: The Complete Saga*****Directed by: George LucasStarring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Yoda Of all the superhero movies Marvel were going to make in the build up to next summer’s uber-blockbuster The Avengers, Thor was always going to be the toughest character to sell as being even remotely believable.Even in a world where the physique of an Olympic gymnast comes as standard, everyone worth their salt can fly and underpants are always, always worn on the outside worn, making the Norse god of thunder was going to be a tall order. But Kenneth Brannagh, the most unlikely of comic book flick directors and world famous Shakespearholic, cracked it. The story is a simple one. Overprivileged kid (Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth) destined to take over the family business annoys his dad, gets kicked out of the house, learns a lesson in humility, falls in …

ON Friday, people across the country will enjoy a Culture Night, an evening of entertainment, discovery and adventure, which is taking place across the country.Museums, galleries, churches, historic houses, artists’ studios and cultural centres will open their doors late into the evening, welcoming people of all ages to taste and sample cultural delights for free.

IT isn’t just the people of Ennis who are starting to bring out their winter woollies. The town’s sculpture trail is set to get wrapped up in wool at the end of the month as part of a colourful initiative to mark National Volunteering Day.