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Jan 22, 2025 | 
thebigsmoke.com.au | Joch Diaz |Paul A. McDermott |Matthew Reddin |Derryn Hinch
Elon Musk’s Nazi salute at President Trump’s inauguration could be a canary in the coal mine of the American media landscape. On January 20, Elon Musk did the Nazi salute during the American Presidential Inauguration. That is a statement of fact. That is what happened, right? Right? Just checking that you saw it too. It’s important that we’re all on the same page for this one. Cool? Cool.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
irishexaminer.com | Paul A. McDermott
Gerry Leonard, the Irish guitarist best known for his work with David Bowie, lights up when he starts talking about Hinterland, the band he formed in the late 1980s with his old friend Donal Coughlan. “It’s always welcome with me to talk about Hinterland. It’s a chapter that’s kind of on a dusty shelf now. But it was an interesting chapter,” says Leonard. Hinterland released one album, Kissing the Roof of Heaven, on Island Records in 1990.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
irishexaminer.com | Paul A. McDermott
In September 2005 Spin, the American music magazine, named their “Ten Best Two Album Bands”. Joining a list that included Joy Division, The Stone Roses, The Slits, New York Dolls and Slint were Compulsion. It wasn’t the first time Compulsion were name-checked in such auspicious company. In a 1993 end-of-year review the NME named their “Top 20 Turn-Ons of ‘93”. On that list the Dublin punk band joined Rage Against the Machine, Elastica and Tindersticks.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
thebigsmoke.com.au | Deb Turney |Marylyn Sendah |Paul A. McDermott
Featured Politics Politics Politics & Social Justice The Big Smoke’s Lead Communications Manager, David Clarke charted the 2024 Election Day emotional roller coaster as it unfolded in New York. The last 105 days of political campaigning in the United States have been a wild and often tumultuous time.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
thebigsmoke.com.au | Deb Turney |Paul A. McDermott |Marylyn Sendah
The US election nominees are immersed in branding, and here’s what each of their campaigns is actually selling us. We’ve been watching the US election campaigns with our trademark Big Smoke cynicism, because, why not? Amid the theatre of promises, power poses, and slow-motion flag waves, it’s clear the campaign videos are now (almost) the equivalent of Super Bowl ads.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
thebigsmoke.com.au | Deb Turney |Paul A. McDermott
Silence isn’t always golden, and Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post have taken a big, and rather suspect, gamble in a divisive election. In a statement last Friday the Washington Post confirmed they will not be making an endorsement in this US election. This followed the LA Times making the same call. Both outlets have openly supported the Democrats anyway, so outside the announcements why does it matter? The publications may not be saying it, but we know what they think anyway.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
thebigsmoke.com.au | Paul A. McDermott |Deb Turney
While standup comic Tony Hinchcliffe is generating most column inches, the real horror started after he left the stage at Trump’s MSG rally. Tony Hinchcliffe is trending. Trending like a plane crash. His short set at Madison Square Garden (MSG) may be the most reviewed, and reviled, piece of standup in history. But, are we all overreacting? At its most basic, comedy is pretty simple. It’s essentially comprised of two moving parts – the set-up and the punchline.
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Oct 20, 2024 | 
thebigsmoke.com.au | Paul A. McDermott |Deb Turney |Matthew Reddin
Like so many others, Musk abandoned morality and ethics and clambered into Trump’s clown car, but as the saying goes, “when one door closes…”All the conspirators, co-conspirators, enablers, false actors, con artists, grifters and everyone who’s stuck their fat fingers into Trump’s rotten American pie are losing their shit.
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Oct 14, 2024 | 
thebigsmoke.com.au | Paul A. McDermott |Matthew Reddin |Vivienne Pearson
In this open letter, Paul McDermott asks our cousins in America to consider a few things…or not, actually…in the lead up to the election. Hello, good people of America, I’m writing to you now begging you to MAKE IT STOP. The time has come to end it. In fact, it’s well past its due date. We’ve all been waiting and frankly, we can’t believe it’s gone on this long. This experiment in political stupidity, ego, male make-up, bad hair and barbarism has failed [1].
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
irishexaminer.com | Paul A. McDermott
embed a third down: https://youtu.be/Y5wsRLpu2Mc?si=tCQWM-7MBhT64lzH Dublin band Sack spent two years living in London, releasing records and touring up and down Britain. By 1995 their record label had ceased trading and as a new musical movement began to take hold Sack decided that it might be time to come home. “I can remember being in The Green Man pub late on a Tuesday night.
