Out & About

It was a dream for me to see them live as it was the first time that I had seen them in the flesh and they did not disappoint me as they were just great.

As you might imagine, I am a rocker by heart and always will be; up next is another favorite of mine: U2 (though I am sure that Charley Brady will disagree me on that) as they play on Thursday September 24 and Friday September 25, again at Giant's Stadium.

Now for the bad news: the concerts are sold out... what do you think Charley, huh?

An Elvis Tribute Spectacular will be performed at the Capital One Bank Theatre at Westbury on Friday, August 21, beginning at 8pm. 

The Rock 'n' Roll King's Spectacular is produced by Omar Farag who worked with the original Elvis. 

The show will present the music of one of the most talented and memorable singers of all time, Elvis Presley. 

The show features Elvis impersonators, Donny Edwards and Ryan Pelton, along with two local favorites, Steve Mitchell and Rick Virga. 

These talented impersonators, together with the credibility of a man who lived and worked with Elvis through most of his spectacular career, his original friend and drummer DJ Fontana, and a full concert band, All the Kings Men, will recreate the electrifying magic of the career of the one and only Elvis Aaron Presley.  

Tickets begin at $40 and are available exclusively online at LiveNation.com, charged by phone at (877) 598-8694, at the Westbury box office, and at participating Blockbuster® stores. 

You can save 25% when you purchase a 4-pack of tickets while supplies last.  For membership information, visit www.westburymembership.com.

Staying on the theme of concerts and festivals, the biggest Irish Festival in the USA is none other than the Milwaukee Irish Festival which will run from August 13 to 16 at the Henry W. Mair Festival Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and one of the acts that are on the bill is New York's favorite, The Screaming Orphans.

For more information go to www.irishfest.com. 

The Irish Examiner newspaper is very proud to have had one of the 39 interns from Project Children working for the paper as a journalist for the last six weeks.

Catherine Wylie came over from  Coalisland, County Tyrone with Project Children and what a great job she has done for us, with some great interviews under her belt.

We started her off with an interview of the new head of Tourism Ireland, Niall Gibbons. Now, was that some start to get her feet wet and a fine job she did too.

For more information on Project Children call (516) 764-4240 or you can call the chairman Denis Mulcahy direct on (845) 477-3472.   

Would you believe that we are coming into the middle of August already? I am sure some people are saying where is the time going? Well, I can tell you it we've had a mixture of good and very bad weather this year for sports and for festivals around the country.

Talking about music, a new CD is going to be released on August 18 called the 'Pride of New York' and if I had not mentioned it Joanie Madden would have had my life.

'The Pride of  New York,' from what I have heard are an Irish-American super group for between them they've won four All-Ireland Championship awards and they have also recorded multiple solo albums between themselves too.

The members of the group are Joanie Madden (flute, whistle) (how does she do it?), Brendan Dolan (keyboards), Billy McComiskey (accordion) and Brian Conway (fiddle); now is that some talent for yea?

The Irish Business Organization are hosting a special evening this Wednesday (August 5) from 6pm to 9pm in the outdoor patio at Bourbon Street (346 West 46th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues) serving complimentary appetizers in a cash bar.

I can only tell you that I was at the last one in Fitzpatrick's Grand Central Hotel and it was packed. This is a great way to network, gain some great contacts or just have a great conversation. This is an organization that is moving ahead, despite the recession that we are presently in, and it seems by all accounts it's (the recession, that is) coming to an end...

See you all next week.