le cool issue # 92

The Last Days

Hazel Coonagh's photos of Poolbeg power station just before it was decommissioned beautifully expose both the inner structures and the exoskeleton of the station. Her experience is exceptional. Her father, who worked in the power station, showed her in. Mr. Coonagh appears in some of the shots as a back lit shadowy figure, standing strong and secure, much like the chimneys themselves. When I was viewing the show I felt somewhat like an infiltrator, as I had been allowed in the Workman’s club during the day time, while it was completely empty. I wandered around, unusually sober considering my surroundings, across abandoned expanses of floor and looked at the photos under the shine of light through the windows. The highlight picture is the ravaged staircase creeping up the sun drenched chimneys.

Isabelle Huppert

Isabelle Huppert has quite the acting CV. She has been in the business since the seventies and has scooped two best actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival. You might know her from the brilliantly cast I Heart Huckabees where she acted as the nihilist philosopher, Catherine Vauban, giving inspiration such as "It is inevitable to be drawn back into human drama." Or you might know her as the uptight Augustine in the kitschy 8 Femme, directed by Francois Ozon. Her confidence and sense of humour comes through in these characters magnificently. Filmbase is honouring her career to date with a collection of black and white photographs of her throughout her career. There's a beautiful picture of her as a young girl over-styled as a classic Hollywood star. Go and check them and then go home and watch some of her movies.

 

Wak-In Noodle Bar

I think I always associated life out of a sitcom with noodles from a takeaway box. I imagined life would change instantly with access to such packaging. Then Wak-In came along, the stir-fry bar of my fantasies, living up to my hopes and dreams. Once I was devouring a fresh box when a man stopped me urgently on the street. He was French. And sexy. He touched me lightly on the arm and beseeched me tell him where I ‘got  zose nood-eeeelz’. This is the Wak-In way. I guarantee it sparkles a bit of NBC magic over real life. The problem was that I finished eating and the fantasy stopped. So I never saw the man again, never casually encountered him at a laundrette or coffee shop. Maybe someday, buying another Wak-In, there’ll only be one portion left and I’ll look up and he’ll be the other customer and we’ll decide to share. Wak-In noodles - the perfect food to live out a sit-com fantasy.


Full issue - HERE -