Latest news with #ShaneJohnson
Irish Examiner
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Culture That Made Me: Cork DJ Shane Johnson picks his touchstones
Born in 1970, Shane Johnson grew up in Bishopstown, Co Cork. In 1988, he started DJing with Greg Dowling. As Fish Go Deep, the duo also began releasing music. Their residency sets at Sir Henry's nightclub in Cork in the 1990s have attained legendary status. The bi-weekly podcast of their long-running radio show has clocked more than 5 million listens. He will perform with Martin Roche (Get Down Edits) at Cork's Lee Rowing Club, Saturday, August 9, as part of a series of club nights that will also include Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip (Fri, Aug 8) See: Johnson also plays Eden in Ibiza on Sept 5. The Jesus and Mary Chain I loved Psychocandy by the Jesus and Mary Chain. I was drawn to the sheer antisocial aspects of it. You're a teenager, what are you gonna do? Play music that sounds like barbed wire. The album was tremendously exciting. Listening back with the ears I have now, underneath all the distortion, I can hear stuff like Phil Spector. There are actual pop songs in there, but they're buried beneath this obnoxious sound, which appealed to me. Dexys Midnight Runners Searching for the Young Soul Rebels by Dexys Midnight Runners was such a different record to what came out of UK pop music on its release in 1980. I started listening to it a few years later. The references were back to black music. The band had a look and an attitude that grabbed me. On the album's first song, Kevin Rowland runs through a list of Irish writers, including Oscar Wilde, Sean O'Casey, George Bernard Shaw. That sunk in subconsciously – you didn't hear too many Irish references in British pop music around that time. Def Jam Recordings My dad was into jazz. He had a great hi-fi system in the front room. I love jazz now, but as a teenager, it was an annoyance, not what I wanted to hear. The first genre music I picked up on was hip hop. I got into the Def Jam stuff, coming out of New York – Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Eric B. & Rakim. Public Enemy's first album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was a different sound. The lyrics are political and anti-establishment, which appeals to teenagers. It was eye-opening – Chuck D was giving you the news from the streets as opposed to the TV. Sir Henry's Sir Henrys, South Main Street, Cork. The first time I was in Sir Henry's was my brother's 21st birthday around 1984. It was a fancy dress party. I was massively underage, but I got in because I was in disguise. It was my first experience of the lights, the music, all these people smiling and dancing. I've held that memory as a DJ. When you're looking down on this heaving mass of people, everyone having the night of their lives, you feed into those experiences and memories yourself as a DJ. Sometimes you can get complacent as a DJ. You must catch yourself when it's great, keeping in mind it's not always as good as this. Since leaving Henry's, Greg and myself have had plenty of good nights elsewhere, but it's hard match nights we had there. Mike Pickering Mike Pickering, from the Haçienda in Manchester, was the first DJ Greg Dowling and myself brought over to Sir Henry's. He was massively influential. Greg and myself had been trying to figure out the mechanics of DJing. To see someone more experienced, on another level in terms of his selection and the way he put music together, up close was inspiring. Joe Claussell In the late 1990s, we brought Joe Claussell over to Sir Henry's. He was a big DJ in New York. He had a way to frame songs – he'd play a song you wouldn't think is a song for the dance floor, but the context he played it, with the song he played before and after it, turned it into a song that made sense on the dance floor. That was eye opening – the epitome of a great club DJ is taking a song, making it their own, using context all the time. Tokyo Olympics Around 1983, I got a ticket for my favourite band at the time – Human League at Cork's City Hall, but they cancelled the gig. There was a storm. Their gear hadn't arrived by ferry. I was inconsolable. My older sister, Gina, took pity on me. She brought me down to the Regional Tech, where a Dublin band, Tokyo Olympics, were playing. I've a memory of the wise arse on the door saying to my sister, 'Do you want a family ticket, love?' I bought a box of 10 Major [cigarettes] for the occasion. My older brother, Billy, was at the gig. He was bumming fags off me for the night. I remember the band being great. They made one album, Radio. I relistened to it recently. It holds up well. The Smiths The Smiths in 1985. (Photo by) In 1984, I went to see The Smiths at the Savoy. One of my siblings brought me along. That was amazing – to see the fervour of the crowd, Morrissey on stage in his pomp, flowers everywhere, sticking out his back pocket. Just being overwhelmed by the experience, the noise, the slight edge of danger, not sure what's gonna happen. That's what gives live music and clubbing the real edge. Art Farmer I've been to tons of memorable gigs at the Cork Jazz Festival. On a Sunday night, for after-hours, where you'd get musicians still hanging around playing little sessions in the Metropole Hotel, my dad always slipped me in with a friend or two to catch impromptu gigs there. One year stands out. I was with a good friend, Joe Corcoran, who's since died. We sat in one of the small rooms, to see Art Farmer. He played flugelhorn and trumpet. He would have been almost 70. He played the most sublime set. The Second Woman Eileen Walsh in The Second Woman at Cork Opera House. Picture: Jed Niezgoda. I saw The Second Woman in Cork Midsummer Festival with Eileen Walsh playing the same scene repeatedly – with different actors, a hundred actors – for 24 hours. It's a seven-minute scene. It changes depending on what the other actor brings, their attitude, and how she reacts. My wife and I went up to Maureen's for a pint after an hour and a half of it. Having discussed it, we got into it again for a couple of hours. Then left in the early hours of the morning and came back the next morning to see how things were going. It was a fabulous experience. It shows what you can do with theatre. Geoff Dyer Geoff Dyer is such a funny writer. His interests resonate – the way he talks about men and their obsessions. There's nobody like him. He's invented an entire category for himself – it's not memoir, biography nor travel. It's bits of all these things. He's an amazing eye. His recall is phenomenal. His latest book, Homework, a memoir of his early years, is painted so vividly. It's a beautiful book to immerse yourself in. I enjoy his writing so much. Scarecrow Scarecrow is a movie from the 1970s featuring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino. People in the know say it's a great unsung movie, directed by Jerry Schatzberg. Both actors are the best versions of themselves. Sometimes Pacino can be too big, but he was contained in it. Hackman is always brilliant. They play two interesting characters. It's great.
Business Wire
25-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
CarbonQuest and Daroga Power Announce the First Carbon Capture-as-a-Service Project
SPOKANE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CarbonQuest, a leading distributed carbon capture technology provider, and Daroga Power ('Daroga'), a leading developer of power projects in the U.S., today announced their first joint carbon capture-as-a-service financing project in North America, with a goal to offer such service to customers across a variety of sectors ranging from food and beverage operations, commercial and industrial facilities, and utility infrastructure. This initiative follows the 2023 partnership announcement, which aims to bring 'Sustainable CO2' to North American commercial, industrial, utility, and other types of emitters. This project and future joint carbon capture-as-a-service projects will be owned and operated by C2Zero, a portfolio company of SER Capital Partners, in partnership with Daroga Power. CarbonQuest and Daroga's first financed project is at a beverage-industry plant in Washington state. Under this model, the plant enters into a multi-year agreement with Daroga to finance CarbonQuest's distributed carbon capture system at no upfront cost for the design, installation, and operational maintenance of the carbon capture system. This structure provides lower cost, resilient, and sustainable CO2, ensuring a reliable supply of liquid CO2 for its operations. This agreement also guarantees a minimum amount of captured CO2 for the plant each year. CarbonQuest's Carbon Management Software (CMS) tracks in real-time the amount of CO2 captured, liquified, and sold for utilization to provide assurance and transparency. This first-of-its-kind financing agreement is a significant milestone for distributed carbon capture, as it provides flexibility to emitters that cannot pay for upfront carbon emission controls, while securing a steady income stream from CO2 utilization. CarbonQuest and Daroga Power are already building on this agreement with a robust pipeline of similarly financed projects. 'Customers in many sectors are under pressure to reduce emissions yet are concerned about paying for hardware-intensive projects with capital budgets,' said Shane Johnson, CEO of CarbonQuest. 'Carbon capture-as-a-service relieves that worry while providing stable and guaranteed emission reductions over a set timeframe. Daroga Power is the right financial partner at the right time. They understand how to evaluate power generation and carbon capture investments and turn them into valuable investments that scale. We are looking forward to many more opportunities together.' 'Daroga Power has developed and financed numerous distributed power projects globally, and carbon capture-as-a-service is a natural extension of our existing capabilities," said Ory Moussaieff, Co-Founder of Daroga Power. 'With the adaptation of CarbonQuest's modular distributed system, we are now able to transform an overlooked resource into a valuable asset, generating financial returns with positive environmental impact.' About CarbonQuest CarbonQuest is advancing decarbonization with a modular, accessible solution that captures CO2 from small- and medium-scale emitters before it is emitted into the atmosphere. The captured CO2 is then liquified, and used onsite and/or transported to businesses that use carbon in their production processes or mineralized for permanent removal. By introducing its technology and Sustainable CO2™ into the market, CarbonQuest enables its customers to support a circular economy or carbon removal, while meeting ESG and net-zero goals with a cost-effective, turnkey product. Learn more at About Daroga Power Launched in 2015, Daroga Power is a New York-based clean energy infrastructure firm focused on the development and disciplined management of strategically innovative and socially responsible energy projects throughout North America. Applying the discipline of both a strong financial and fast-track development background, Daroga Power is one of the few companies able to privately structure & finance deals to deploy distributed generation portfolios. With a successful track record and deep background, Daroga Power is rapidly becoming a leader in the shift to distributed generation that is reshaping the relationship between local utilities and their customers. Learn more at About SER Capital Partners SER Capital Partners is a middle-market private equity firm dedicated to investing in North American sustainable industrial, environmental, and renewable businesses. Its team members have amassed decades of experience in its targeted sectors as private equity investors and senior executives at both private and public businesses. The firm's strategy is to buyout and buildout attractive investments underpinned by critical assets while also authentically measuring and improving key sustainability metrics. More is available at
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Drivers hit with $30 million in fines after new roadside cameras begin enforcement
New mobile phone detection cameras in one Aussie state have generated more than $30 million in fines from drivers in just six months after the trail period finished and enforcement notices began being issued. South Australia introduced the technology in the middle of last year, with the cameras quickly sending out 64,454 warning letters during the grace period. But despite the warnings, the fines have continued to come thick and fast with more than 46,000 motorists caught out. "On 19 September 2024, police commenced enforcement and issued 28,120 expiations in the first three months," Superintendent Shane Johnson said. The following three months it trended down with a little more than 18,000 infringements for a total of 46,476 fines over the first six months of operation. That amounts to about 200 people per day being caught using their phone on the road, down from 350 per day during the warning period. Warning to Aussies after driver landed with $1,200 'shock' bill Little-known device on roadside post mistaken for 'speed camera' Drivers question mysterious camera along Aussie road Police have welcomed the trend but are calling out repeat offenders who can't seem to put their phone away, with a whopping 308 drivers receiving four fines or more over the short period. One registered driver was issued with an absurd 41 notices, according to the police data. "Some registered owners have been issued with over 20. That is absolutely a serious concern for us," Supt Johnson said. "The number of repeat offenders has been disappointing, and police continue to investigate these offences. These drivers face a loss of licence and significant fines," he said. The state's Police Minister Stephen Mullighan said it was an "unacceptably high level of mobile phone use amongst drivers" but said the figures illustrated the success of introducing such road-monitoring technology. Authorities in South Australia are set to roll out two more mobile phone detection cameras in the near future but have yet to disclose where they will be positioned. Motorists in the state caught by the cameras are hit with a penalty of $556 plus a $102 Victims of Crime Levy as well as three demerit points. But as Yahoo recently reported, actually bringing in the money from fines can be another thing altogether. In Queensland, for example, where road fines are the highest in the country, there is a staggering $160 million in seatbelt and mobile phone fines that remain unpaid. When sharing the latest camera data on Tuesday, SA Police reminded residents of the immense danger of taking their eyes off the road when travelling at high speeds. "Being distracted by a mobile for two seconds at 60 kilometres an hour means a driver travels 33 metres without their eyes on the road," authorities said. "A driver distracted for two seconds at 100 kilometres an hour means they will travel 55 metres without their eyes on the road." Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
