metro Arts & Entertainment Emmett Tinley In Town Tonight Polichinelle, the debut LP from Tinleys band The Prayer Boat, was dubbed the perfect record for heart- broken insomniacs, the front- mans grainy tenor causing many a bottom lip to quiver. Hear it in full at Whelans 20th birthday bash Tonight, Whelans, 25 Wexford Street D2, 8pm, 21.50. Tel: 1890 200 078. www.emmett-tinley.com An Evening With Kevin Smith The American filmmaker achieved cult status with Clerks, Chasing Amy and Dogma and caught the Gen-X/slacker zeitgeist. Tonight he hosts an audience Q&A and reads excerpts from his new book Shootin The S**t With Kevin Smith Tonight, Vicar Street, 58-59 Thomas St D8, 8.30pm, 39.20 (returns only). Tel: 0818 719 300. www.viewaskew.com Bridget Flannery Spanish poet Federico Garca Lorca is referenced in Flannerys new richly textured abstract paintings, Deep Song and After Lorca fired up with blood-red colour, while After Image and Thaw are more placid and meditative Until Oct 31, Cross Gallery, 59 Francis Street D8, Tue to Fri 10am to 5.30pm, Sat 11am to 3pm, free. Tel: (01) 473 8978. www.crossgallery.ie life Book Now Art Fair 09 RDS Art Ireland may have been credit-crunched but all is not lost its legacy lives on in Art Fair 09 RDS, launching next month. More than 100 galleries and artists will feature at this three- day showcase promoting both established and emerging Irish and international talent, including works by Kevin Sharkey, Orla Walsh, Elizabeth Prendergast and Mick ODea (Blue Turf Stack, pictured). The Sean Scullys of tomorrow will be represented in an exhibition by the RDS Student Art Awards prize winners and also in Art On The Gallery which highlights young Irish talent. Meanwhile, a programme of talks by artists, galleries and curators provide another string to this all-new fairs bow Nov 13 to 15, RDS, Merrion Road, Ballsbridge D4, various times, 8 to 10. Tel: 0818 719 300. www.rds.ie Book Interview Lorrie Moore Moores melody Satirical eye: US author Lorrie Moores newest collection is set against 9/11 he majority of people who read Lorrie Moore must be glad they dont know her. Not because she isnt nice shes probably lovely but because the American short-story writer is merciless when it comes to lancing human absurdities. A woman in her new novel wearing various shades of orange and brown is described as looking like a highly controlled oxidation experiment. Another character tries to arrange a play date between an African- American toddler and her own child Maddie because Maddie doesnt have any African-American friends and I think it would be good for her. You wouldnt want to expose yourself in any way in front of Moore in case she recycled it. Her satire is so eye- smartingly lethal that reading her often feels like swallowing a pickled onion. Shes just got back to her home in Wisconsin from the west coast, where shes been promoting new novel, A Gate At The Stairs. Its a bit of an event for two reasons: firstly, shes one of the best short-story writers in the business, thanks to her glitteringly brilliant imagery and wit, and she hasnt published a novel for 15 years. Secondly, shes written a post- 9/11 state-of-the-nation book that takes in politics, racism and the war in Afghanistan, whereas shes known in landmark collections such as Birds Of America for writing apolitical miniatures about individuals in crisis. Why now this novel? All creation is a mystery to some extent: you look back and think: What happened here? she says airily. But I wanted to write about the changes that have taken place in the Midwest over the last 25 years [Moore has taught at Wisconsin University since 1984], in terms of the farms, food and people, and how they reflect broader national changes. I was also interested in that quiet, fearful, stunned period in the country at large after 9/11; how the nation held its breath in utter passivity as it watched George Bush use 9/11 as a way to invade another country. T A Gate At The Stairs takes place over 12 months following 9/11 and is narrated by Tassie, a 20-year-old college student who part-funds her studies by babysitting Mary for Marys white liberal adoptive parents, Sarah and Edward. Tassie is bright, awkward and, like many of Moores female characters, uses humour and verbal puns as protection against nerves, fear and in some cases outright disaster. I ts an uncomfortably comic book, darkly farcical and soaked to the bone in grief. After Id finished, someone told me it was very funny, says Moore. And I said: Really?. Because I couldnt remember anything funny about it. I just knew I was writing something very sad. Moores short stories, most of which take place in that vast, largely featureless expanse between the east and west coastlines of the US, invariably dramatise hyper-self-aware people encountering some sort of nerve- shredding tragedy cancer, nervous breakdown, divorce. (Her best known and rumoured semi-autobiographical story, People Like That Are The Only People Here: Canonical Babbling In Peed Onk, is about a young boy taken desperately ill whose father urges his writer wife to take notes we are going to need the money.) Such desperate grimness sometimes feels on a collision course with Moores almost hysterical use of humour, yet her comic timing, so perfect you sometimes laugh out loud, is never gratuitously deployed. It feels quintessentially American to use laughter like that, she says. Look at American art forms such as musical comedies theres all this comedic energy on the surface and dark narratives about racism and World War II underneath. She has continued writing short stories and says she enjoys their capacity to respond quickly to a feeling or an observation, as opposed to a novel, which can take several years to write. I still think of myself as a short-story writer; you internalise its structure and form, whereas a novel is more ad hoc, she says. But whatever the format youre just trying to capture the world and present its contradictions. It sounds benign; but in Moores hands it feels deadly. A Gate At The Stairs, Faber, 20, is out now. Moores short stories dramatise hyper-self-aware people encountering some sort of nerve-shredding tragedy Feb 1978: Jennifer Frost first appears on the world stage in Prestwich, Manchester. 1999: Starts her assault on pop with girl group Precious. They are selected as Britains entry to the Eurovision Song Contest but come 12th. Single Say It Again becomes a moderate hit. Their other singles dont and the fivesome split in 2000. 2001: Just in time for Jenny to replace loony tunes pop fishwife Kerry Katona in Atomic Kitten. Remember such legendary hits as Whole Again and er, their covers of Eternal Flame, The Tide Is High and Kool And The Gangs Ladies Night? 2004: They split up. 2005: Embarks on her voyage to solo stardom with an appearance on Im A Celebrity the series where that girl from Neighbours was airlifted to hospital after jumping out of an aeroplane or summat. She finished seventh, Bobby Ball, Jimmy Osmond and Carol Thatcher all proving more popular. DOWN THE DUMPER This weeks fickle finger of fame pokes... Jenny Frost 12 metrolife Wednesday, October 14, 2009 The novelist and short- story writer with an acid wit tells Claire Allfree why she felt compelled to write her latest work The hoTTesT TickeTs in Town We have ten pairs of tickets to the ART FAIR 09 RDS Nov 13 to 15 at the RDS For a chance to win, e-mail your answer to the question below to life@ metroireland.ie by noon today with Hot Tickets in the subject line. With your answer please include your name, address and a number where you can be contacted between 1pm and 3pm. Strictly one entry per person; entrants must be age over 18. Q. Which living artist famously takes on different characters in self-portraits? A. Mona Hatoum B. Cindy Sherman index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html