LET THE WORLD SEE THROUGH YOUR EYES sponsored by Vote at www.metrophotochallenge.com/ie Vote now to choose the top 3 Irish photos! The Metro Global Photo Challenge has moved to stage 2 of the competition. In Ireland you submitted over 5,600 photos with a total of 120,000 photos entered globally! Metro readers can now vote to select the best photo from a shortlist of 10 in each category; People, Places and Climate Change. The 3 Irish winners will then go to the world final where a panel of global judges will select the best of the best. Metro wishes to thank everyone who took part and for making 2009 the biggest year to date. Now we ask you to get voting and choose the best 3 photos to represent Ireland! Voting is open from Tuesday 3rd November and Sunday 29th November. To vote go to www.metrophotochallenge.com/ie pan... After eights: Ochoss grub doesnt leave much room for dessert The bill totalled 55 including two glasses of palatable (though not quite chilled enough) house white. If I lived locally, Id give Ochos another shot but give the fried dishes a wide berth rather than risk a wide girth. Lucy White 53 Ranelagh Village D6. Tel: (01) 496 8825. www.ochos.ie GIG Damien Jurado Long known as a restless solo spirit, Seattle songwriter Damien Jurado has become much more of a people person in recent years. For his 2006 album, And Now That Im Your Shadow, Jurados friends Eric Fisher and Jenna Conrad added swathes of harmony to his tender acoustic tales. Caught In The Trees, his most recent offering, takes that process further. The songs on this LP, a year in the making, are some of the heaviest Jurado has ever recorded, but also some of the most accessible. Gillian Was A Horse is typical of the albums galloping rhythms and evocative lyrics. With the intertwining voices of Jurado and Conrad reminiscent of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, its a perfect curtain-raiser. As well as inviting a couple of bandmates along, Jurado also brought producers Kory Kruckenberg and Casey Foubert on board for the album, ditching his usual lo-fi style in favour of something cleaner and more focused. Thats not to say Jurado has left behind the introspective solo moments of his earlier work. Caught In The Trees has plenty of moments of autumnal calm, with Last Rights a particular highlight. Here the edges are smoothed off by the presence of Conrad and Fisher, adding delicate touches to bring out the best of the band leader. Sometimes, a bit of company brings out the best in people. Aaron Lavery Tonight, Whelans, 25 Wexford Street D2, 8pm, 20. Tel: 1890 200 078. www. damienjurado. com Tuesday, November 10, 2009 metrolife 13 ART REVIEW Graham Crowley Seriously brightening up our winter is Graham Crowleys energising new solo show at the RHA, the first ever Dublin exhibition for this former professor of painting at Londons Royal College Of Art. Swapping complex cityscapes for reductivist Irish landscapes, the West Cork- based British artist has put a contemporary, Pop-coloured twist on a classical subject while never dumbing down his art history references. The incongruity of suburban housing in Hogarthian countryside is vibrantly captured: Red Terrace is at once humdrum and revitalising, its row of identikit dwellings receding into the mid- distance a triumph of colour and composition, while Empty Streets main focus is a boarded- up building that redundantly warns No Parking beside an impish, cartoon-like blue puddle. Also included is Crowleys 2006 John Moore prize-winning Red Reflection (pictured), the white houses reflected into a river thats as red as the scarlet sky. Hair-fine strands of white paint suggest movement, like the trails of light captured on a long exposure photograph; perhaps a flight path of a moth under a street lamp or nothing at all but aesthetic flights of fancy. Crowley has made interesting choices about what details to include and what to leave out, large expanses of blank, block colour juxtaposed with short and studious black outlines. Red Drift is the most multi-faceted and graphic piece, the physical scene of two boats and its reflection punctuated by cloud, shadows and rippled water ellipses that overlap like Venn diagrams. Lucy White Until Nov 22, RHA Ashford Gallery, 15 Ely Place D2, Mon to Sat 11am to 7pm, Sun 2pm to 5pm, free. Tel: (01) 661 2558. www.royalhibernianacademy.ie TRY THESE... Jameson Mix It Up Since October, those generous folks at Jameson have been giving away free drinks. Yes, in the spirit of the recession, you too could score a free Jameson with Coke, 7-Up or Schweppes Ginger this weekend participating bars include the South William, The Village, The Bernard Shaw, Porterhouse, Pygmalion, The Dragon, Bruxelles and the Hairy Lemon, plus many more at www.mixitup.jamesonwhiskey.com. The website also offers the chance to win a Mix It Up home bar kit and also has a Mix It Up online game. How victorious you are will likely depend on how many glasses of water youve had in between those free whiskey and Cokes... Saba Sunday Sessions Theres no rest for the wicked, even on the Sabbath. Thai restaurant Saba is hosting a weekly how-to class, with cocktail maestro and Bacardi ambassador Paul Lambert guiding tipple lovers through the art of Cuban spirit on November 15. Lambert has worked in the industry for over 15 years, including appearances on TV and radio show such as The Apprentice, The Pat Kenny Show, Ireland AM and Newstalk 106. The session starts at 12.30pm, and will be followed by lunch. Tickets cost 25 per person which includes the class, Thai bites, main course, tea and coffee and, of course, cocktails. First-come, first-served. E-mail: elaine@sabadublin.com or visit: www.sabadublin.com. ON MY iPOD Newton Faulkners five-track mix Over The Hillside by The Blue Nile: This is a perfect travelling song, great for staring out of plane, train and automobile windows. I love the vocal, too. Take It With Me by Tom Waits: Its Tom Waits! Amazing melody, amazing lyrics. To be honest, I could have just picked five Tom Waits. Go by Sparklehorse and The Flaming Lips: Because its Sparklehorse and The Flaming Lips, and its written by Daniel Johnston and it features Optimus Prime (really quietly). Gods Song (Thats Why I Love Mankind) by Randy Newman: This has some of my favourite lyrics ever written and his piano playing is really interesting. I enjoy his harshness. One of my favourite albums ever is Nilsson Sings Newman. Better Off Dead by Bill Withers: The version of this on the Live At Carnegie Hall album is incredible. I watched some Bill Withers stuff on The Old Grey Whistle Test the other night. He is one smooth man, with the most laid-back band ever. In fact, Im pretty sure the bass player was asleep. Newton Faulkners new album Rebuilt By Humans (Sony) is out now; he plays the Olympia on Mar 1, 2010. www.newtonfaulkner.com index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html