Live Review: Cursive, Kevin Devine @ Limelight, Belfast

It’s been a long time since Nebraska’s finest, Cursive played in Belfast. Six long years to be precise, and that was a festival slot. Kevin Devine’s not been here since 2008 either; “not since the big wheel was here”. But the wheels kept on spinning (or in this case, being dismantled) until finally the pair joined up again to bring their indie-rock back to an appropriately intimate setting.

Music

Live Review: Lostprophets @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

It’s a wet, windy Monday evening and Lostprophets are in Belfast for the second date of their tour. Rumour has it they were pumping iron in the local gym before taking to the stage – it’s only apt that they were preparing to treat us to a ‘gun show’ for their fifth studio release, Weapons.

Movies

Film Review: Mr. Nice

Mr. Nice is a comedy-drama directed by Bernard Rose (most famous for his 1992 cult horror, Candyman), adapted from the Howard Marks autobiography of the same name, starring Rhys Ifans as Marks, alongside Crispin Glover and Chloë Sevigny.

Set primarily in the swinging 70s, the film tells the story of the notorious British drug smuggler, as he transforms from a youthful drug dabbler to international smuggler, taking in love interests, dodgy dealers and terrorist organisations along the way.

Sport

10 Reasons why I <3 Chicharito

Anyone who follows me on Twitter is probably already aware of my heterosexual man-crush on Javier Hernandez.

Hernandez, better known as ‘Chicharito’, comes from a footballing family; his father and grandfather both played for Chivas Guadalajara and Mexico before him. While struggling to break into the Chivas first team, Javier almost quit football.

How quickly things change; two seasons of regular appearances for Chivas later, he signed for Manchester United as an unknown before announcing himself on the global stage as one of the stand out players at the World Cup, scoring against France and Argentina while being clocked as the fastest of the tournament.

Television

Why EastEnders thinks you’re stupid

Eastenders boss Bryan Kirkwood is “really proud” of the baby swap storyline, describing it as “captivating”.

I’m not convinced. Okay so it had pretty good ratings but it also had 65 zillion complaints and ended up being re-written, re-filmed and cut drastically short. Is that really the sign of a good storyline? Something to be proud of?