Declan Cashin

Writing: the art of applying the ass to the seat

Analysis of the Noughties from Time magazine…

Oh I shall be purchasing extra fast this month! Read preview here

If you’re a movie award nerd like me, then this guide to all the Oscar pre-cursors will be invaluable.

My interview with Ben Frow, head of programming at TV3, in Weekend magazine in today’s Independent

Ben Frow has been sweating buckets all week. That’s the reason he is ignoring the plate of biscuits that arrive with our pot of tea in Dublin‘s Shelbourne Hotel.

“I’m on a diet,” he explains, with a smile. “I hate gyms, so I’ve started going to Bikram Yoga twice a week. I pose for 90 sweaty minutes in sweltering heat and that’s my workout.”

Right now, the British-born dressmaker-cum-TV executive has very little to sweat over in his capacity as director of programming at TV3. Just days before sitting down with Weekend, the news emerged that TV3′s version of The Apprentice, starring Bill Cullen, had overtaken RTE’s Nine O’Clock News in the ratings with almost 500,000 viewers, while the show’s spin-off, You’re Fired, hosted by Brendan O’Connor, was just 20,000 viewers off trumping its chief competitor, The Frontline with Pat Kenny.

Continue here.

Another week, another utterly devastating report into the rape, sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children at the hands of the Catholic Church. What is there left to say, other than it is nothing short of insane that this country allows a depraved, immoral, criminal and inveterately evil institution as the Catholic Church to retain any influence at all in our society, much less in our health and education systems.

The Catholic Church will no doubt keep going, much like the mafia and other criminal organisations do, so perhaps the best we can hope for in this sick little country of ours is for total separation of Church and State, along the lines of the French model: no religious involvement in hospitals; certainly no involvement in schools which should all be under the auspices of the State and follow a strictly non-denominational line; no Angelus on RTE.

Everything and anything that gives any special preference or power to the Catholic Church needs to be stripped away immediately. If that involves drafting a new Constitution – which I think we need anyway – to totally re-model this country free from such a twisted dogma, then so be it. In short, and without meaning to sound any way facetious, we need a national exorcism to rid us of this devil.

Amidst all the coverage of this appalling national tragedy, two articles, for me, get to the heart of the matter: they are by the peerless Mary Raftery in yesterday’s Irish Times, and Fintan O’Toole in today’s Times.

Interview with Will Young in Day and Night in the Irish Independent today

Will Young’s rider has just arrived. It’s a trolley brimming over with bottles of vodka, sachets of suspicious white powder, and DVDs of hardcore eastern European pornography.

I’m joking, of course. Nothing could be further from the public image of William Robert Young. He’s the nice guy of pop: level-headed, sane, self-aware. The aforementioned rider is actually stocked with bottles of water, Coke (as in Coca-Cola), a variety of teas, honey and a heady stash of lemon and fresh ginger.

Continue here.

Plus my Nightwatch column from today’s magazine

The year’s best comedy, The Hangover, is a strong contender for an Oscar nomination in next year’s expanded-t0-10-slots Best Picture race.

The books of the decade according to the Times of London…how many have you read?(I’ve read 11 – how intellectual am I??)

100 The Position by Meg Wolitzer (2005) An hilarious, serious novel about sex and love and family. Paul and Roz Mellow publish Pleasuring (think of The Joy of Sex) in 1975 — it’s a bestseller, but what do you think their four children make of this?

99 The Lost Leader by Mick Imlah (2008)

In his first collection for almost two decades, Mick Imlah takes up the challenge to forge poetry from the folk legends of his Scottish past.

98 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie(2007)

The Biafran War of the late 1960s is seen through the eyes of Ugwu, a 13-year-old peasant houseboy, and the beautiful, passionate twin sisters Olanna and Kainene. This stunning piece of writing won the 2007 Orange Prize.

97 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007)

Oscar is a sweet, fat nerd, who lives in New Jersey with his Dominican family and dreams of being the next Tolkien and finding true love; a funny, charming and totally original take on the US immigrant experience.

96 The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda’s Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (2006)

Western writers’ responses to the most important international event of the Noughties were hindered by a shortage of insight and authority. But Wright brings both qualities to this powerful and compelling account of the prelude to 9/11.

Continue here…

Precious continues to be the most talked-about movie of this award year so far. Latest debate in The New York Times...

It’s almost three years on since he announced his candidacy, and one year since the election, but I can’t get enough of the O Man.

Therefore, right now I’m reading The Audacity to Win, campaign manager David Plouffe’s insider account of the 2008 election, and have just “acquired” the HBO documentary By the People: The Election of Barack Obama. Fired up, ready to go!