Declan Cashin

Writing: the art of applying the ass to the seat

Baby denim nappies

I’ve got a lot of baggage (pause here as regular Nightwatch readers, ex-boyfriends and psychotherapists across the land let out a fully justified ‘Well duh!’). Don’t worry, though; time, space and basic human decency dictate that I can’t get into all of that on this occasion.

Rather, I’m referring to actual baggage of the carry-onto-a-plane kind, though this topic is likely to be even more traumatic for the average reader than a tour of my psyche, because who among us hasn’t been left scarred by our battles with the bulging carry-on?

Continue here.

The reviews for the second Sex and the City movie may well prove to be the most entertaining aspect of the whole enterprise. Particularly good is this review from Salon.

Choice quote: “This bloated, incoherent movie mimics an SATC episode in structure — vague social relevance at the beginning and the end, conspicuous consumption in the middle — with virtually none of the wit or panache, and seems devoted to destroying our affection for these characters”.

See more here.

Tomorrow is the finale of Lost, an event, even this early into a new decade, I predict will be my TV moment of the 2010s (the Teens? The Twenteens? Have we decided on a title yet?).

There’s some good coverage all over the gaff: in today’s Guardian, New York magazine, and, of course, EW.

My interview with Gemma Arterton in Day and Night in today’s Irish Independent.

“Promise you’ll let me nap afterwards?” Gemma Arterton enquires with a naughty, sleepy glint in her eye, as she sinks deeper into the sofa in the swanky suite in London’s Soho hotel. It’s easy to see why James Bond was so beguiled by her charms.

Alas, our encounter is not quite as sexy as it may initially sound. Moments before, the 24-year-old’s publicist had stuck her head in to tell us that our interview slot had been extended to 25 minutes. Arterton responds to the news graciously and pleasantly, and remains admirably bubbly and chatty throughout our chat, but the poor girl is clearly knackered.

Continue here.

Feature from today’s Independent to mark this weekend’s 25th anniversary celebrations in The George

As the country’s longest-running and most famous gay establishment, The George occupies a special place in gay Irish life, and this weekend the Dublin bar and club is celebrating its 25th year in business.

And so it should. That The George opened at all — and, what’s more, survived — is an achievement in itself, seeing as it was set up in the midst of a devastating recession, and when homosexuality was still a crime in Ireland (and remained so until decriminalisation in 1993).

Continue here.

The Cam and Sam show moves into No 10