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The opening of a fresh new café has been welcomed in the city in recent weeks. Paparazzi/Epiccafe, located on Denmark Street (just off Cruises Street), joins an ever-growing number of cafés and eateries in the city centre, despite the economic downturn. With its funky interior – think menus printed on the reverse of retro comic books and table tops designed with iconic movie posters such as Pulp Fiction - Paparazzi is here to offer something different. For one thing, it’s open late-night till after midnight six days a week. Owners hope to cash in on this, as there have been petitions in recent years for a space such as this to be available after 8pm in the city. The clever folks behind it have also acquired an alcohol licence, which explains the café’s double name: when the light goes down and the customers of legal age come out to play, it is somewhat transformed into Epic Late Nite [sic] Café. Local bands have been invited in to play and a number of film screenings have been lined up, starting with the cult-classic Jaws this weekend.

Last Friday, I tested out what Paparazzi had to offer (all in the name of research for this review, of course). After being seated by two genuinely friendly members of staff, I decided to order a 10″ Margherita pizza for €8.50. Within 5 minutes, my companion and I were served two deliciously hot pizzas, made with fresh homemade dough. I really enjoyed the music-inspired indie feel they captured with the multifarious artwork that adorns the walls. Though a relatively small premises, it has the illusion of being larger due to the vivid colour scheme used.

Prices at the café can at times stray into the expensive bracket (salads costing €8.95 and their vegetarian range of flatbreads priced at €6.95 each), so once the novelty of the place has worn off, perhaps it will experience difficulties battling to keep up with the well-established and reasonably-priced BB’s franchise located approximately 3 metres across the way. However, the proximity to Limerick’s famous Milk Market is sure to work in their favour.

Upcoming events include a Sushi Night this Friday in aid of the Irish Red Cross’ efforts to relieve the Japanese disaster zone. Hopefully there will be a good turnout to show Irish support for this worthy cause. You can keep up to date with the various goings-on of Paparazzi/Epiccafe by visiting their Facebook page here.

Picture courtesy of Epic Late Nite Cafe

  For all those of you who missed my review of this album last Thursday on my radio show (The All Kinds of Everything Show, featuring myself and Andrew Gallivan of http://andygallivan.wordpress.com/ at 5pm every Thursday on 99.9 Wired fm/wiredfm.ie [end plug!]), I thought I’d provide a more clarifying and indepth review with this blog post…

R.E.M’s fifteenth studio album, Collapse Into Now was released last month to rave critic reviews. The Guardian’s Dave Simpson called it a “return to form” (source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/03/rem-collapse-into-now-review) whilst The Irish Times believes they’re “firing on all cylinders” (source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2011/0304/1224291240188.html). I’m inclined to agree – though perhaps not with as much enthusiasm as the experts above. The opening track “Discoverer” is without a doubt a tune that makes a lasting impact with that paradoxical thudding rock-lilt that only R.E.M seem capable of producing. However, as the album develops, stand-out tracks are few and far between. The efforts of Stipe and co. are to be commended, with this album definitely on a par with their great 2008 offering, Accelerate, yet both manage to lag behind the genius that were early ’90s albums such as Automatic for the People (1992) and 1994′s Monster.

The third track of the offering, “ÜBerlin”, is reminiscent of their earlier work and is followed up  by the strangely-melancholic “Oh My Heart“. Though it is difficult to detract from the individual quality of these songs, I somehow felt while actively listening to them that they would be more suitable for passive listening – perfect as background noise during a car journey, for example. Whiling away a lazy Saturday afternoon with the album playing at low volume from the corner of my living room, I was surprised at how quickly it came to an end and had to be restarted. It’s no wonder, as the 12-track album lasts just 41 minutes with an average song duration of little over three minutes.

Overall, I’d rate it a B+ for effort, 7.5/10. Controversial? Perhaps. But let’s hear what you think. All comments welcomed. Hear some of it for yourself at this link: