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Published: September 5th 2008
My favorite store in Dublin
I haven't been in yet, but I'm sure they had all the knobs and knockers I could ever kneed.The title refers to a question about an actual fox that was spotted by an anonymous student on the way back to XXX last night. The response from another student who will also go unnamed was, “Honestly, when you asked me that question, I thought you were referring to Dr. Barrington...”
Back by popular demand! Sorry for the extended hiatus, folks, but I have returned. Here’s a rundown of the past few days. If you’ve only got a bit of time, skip to the end because you will NOT want to miss the last part. If you have time, read the whole thing and enjoy the build-up to the climax at the end:
Monday:
After class, Riley, Ingle, Ashton, and I made a trip to the bay area. We basically walked to the River Liffey and followed it to almost the coast. Our trek was dotted with some amusing stops and sites. We reached a bit of a dead end at one point and had to navigate around to the rest of the canals and docks. There was actually a Hollywood-esque sign at this point that declared “Grand Canal Docks,” but we had to slide through a
Kayaker
This guy was just floating down the Liffey fence to see it. This site was denoted on the map to be the proposed location for the U2 Tower, a project that will entail the tallest building in Dublin housing a hotel and U2’s own recording studio at its pinnacle. However, at this point we could only locate an abandoned lot where it will stand. I’d read that there has been a lot of opposition and controversy surrounding the tower’s construction, but I figured there would be something to see other than a footnote on our touristy map. However, as we made our way around the dead end to Hanover Quay, we found U2’s current recording studio. Now, it’s not at all what you would expect; the building is very unassuming and any non-fan would have no idea what they had stumbled upon…except of course for the copious amounts of U2 worship graffiti on the wall opposite the studio and the hundreds of notes written to the band in Sharpie ink on the studio door. I’d come prepared, so Riley, Ashton, and I all signed the doors with a different song lyric. It was such a difficult decision that we pondered for a while (especially me… what pressure!). I
Me, Ashton, and Ingle help
I'M STILL REELING!!! (anyone?) went with a line from “Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own” as How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is one of my favorite albums (I know it’s no Joshua Tree, but how do you compare the two eras?). After we felt we had sufficiently paid homage to the greats (I felt like I’d made a pilgrimage), we were on our way. We tried to walk all the way to the edge of the coast, but at some point we still couldn’t see the end and were pretty tuckered out, so we turned around and made our way back. All four of us crashed when we got back to XXX (that has become a trend).
That night we went to see a play called An Invisible Atom by Anthony Black at the Players Theatre in The Samuel Beckett Centre on campus at Trinity. No one really knew what to expect, but sometimes that leads to a better experience. We got to the theatre really early and waited in the lobby for a while. The front wall was plastered with old posters from past performances, so those were fun to peruse (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was one… get
Funny sign 1
A bit of graffiti with the parachute... ready Furman Theatre company and patrons… it’s coming this spring). There was also a letter signed by Samuel Beckett giving the Players Theatre permission to use his name and approval for their projects. The house didn’t open until about a minute before the show was scheduled to start. As the 10 members of the audience (six of which were Furman students) found their seats and got settled, the house manager told us to turn off our mobiles and pointed out the exits. As he was speaking, an actor with a grey trench coat over an orange and grey hoodie came on to the black box stage. Then the house went black. From entering the house to the blackout, I’d say a minute or less passed. I’ve never felt so thrust into a production. A single spotlight came on the face of the actor, and we were off. He jumped into a speech that revolved around time, space, and existence. From that opening monolog, I knew we were in for a loaded production, and I was pretty sure it was a one-man show. During that first speech, the main character, Atom, broke the forth wall to ask the audience “Can anyone
Worship
Just a glimpse of the wall across from HQ. really own time?” or something to that effect. I got chills. After the opener, Atom jumped down from the cube he’d been standing on and the play began. The story essentially started with the birth of the Atom’s son, Abe. Atom remarked that this was when his life began anyway (his childhood had been very sordid as he was an orphaned bastard). He worked in a very vapid but lucrative occupation (some sort of investment firm maybe?) and owned a very nice house filled with nothing but the best of furnishings. One day he went into work pitching an idea for an organization against the use of nuclear weapons (or some other peace-keeping/we-are-one theme) with his son’s future in mind. Word of the pitch made it to his boss, and he was called into his office for a talk on the basics of how economics should work. The portrayal of the boss (I was right by the way…one-man show) was very “W” in accent, demeanor, and views on world economy. I don’t think this was an accident. He gave Atom a week off to read and ponder Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
The Shamrocks
My favorite graffiti on the wall. Nations. The next day a bomb destroyed Atom’s entire office building killing everyone who’d been at work. While recovering from this shocking occurrence, Atom began to have chest pains. This led him to looking up who his birth parents were to see if there was any family medical history of heart problems. The receptionist dropped his file (after making a joke about little orphan Annie…), so Atom grabbed it and ran. His mother was deceased, but his father’s business card was enclosed. Atom flew to London to find him. His father was an extremely wealthy business man who didn’t believe Atom’s sob story despite obvious resemblance. Atom returned home only to get in an argument with his wife about her physics dissertation on quarks. He didn’t think she should be researching farther separation of atoms that could lead to more destruction. While she was gone to give her presentation, Atom received a call from his father that’s only purpose was to tell Atom to invest all he could in a stock that was going to increase ten fold the next day. Atom had fallen into a great deal of financial trouble since the loss of his job, so he sold
all of their possessions. When he called to invest the money, he found out the stock was a nuclear arms corporation and couldn’t go through with the investment. So he ran to a nearby bridge and jumped. At the apex of his jump, he picked back up where his first speech had left off. That’s called foreshadowing, folks.
Overall, the production was mind-blowing. The actor was amazingly compelling. He played at least 7 different characters in at least 5 different accents. I know we all sat awe-struck as he extensively went through his family lineage full of a long line of bastards at one point in the production. The lighting was top-notch as well. There was no scenery or props (save the cube, a shelf, the book, and the business card), but all of the scenes were created with the lighting. The queue at the adoption office was created with lights aimed at the edges of the stage. The airplane scene had blue runway lights at the edges of the stage. Overall, I think this was the best one-man show I’d ever seen. It was packed with powerful themes of nuclear weapons, parenthood, economics, science, ethics, materialism, time, etc. And
Note to U2
Not much, but there was just so much pressure! that was all in less than an hour. Amazing.
Tuesday:
Field Trip!!! First, Mellifont Abbey. Established by St. Malachy, the Archbishop of Armagh, in 1157, Mellifont Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in Ireland. Our guide Yvonne did a nice job of explaining the history and recreating the church and its atmosphere. (Another thing I liked about Yvonne was the fact that her accent was as close as I’ve heard to the Irish accent I’ve attempted in the past… Translations anyone?) My favorite aspect of the site was a building called the chapter house. It was the only building we’ve been able to experience as a whole (its roof is intact). I uttered a “wow…” aloud upon my entrance because I was not expecting the gothic ceiling. The outside of the building was surrounded by scaffolding and other attempts to preserve it. Another cool thing about Mellifont Abbey was the fonts that were one of the only things still standing in what used to be the church; they had a very small hole in the back that allowed the water to stand long enough to rinse the communion vessels and ensure that all of the water remained on
The Bay
This was about as close as we got to the end. consecrated ground. It was also interesting to hear about some things we’ve been covering in history: Chieftains, Anglo-Normans, and the Ard Rí come to mind.
Next we were off to Monasterboice. This is a site of a great deal of spiritual growth before Mellifont Abbey was established. The main item of note at this site was another cross of the scriptures. This high cross was a bit more detailed than the first, and the base used to be decorated with the signs of the Zodiac which I thought was an interesting mix. The scenery around this location was beautiful, so check out the pictures for sure.
Finally, we stopped in Drogheda to eat lunch and explore a bit. We ate on the steps of St. Peter’s Catholic Church then stepped inside. Wow. Dr. Barrington had asked us to explore it because they have St. Oliver Plunkett’s head in a box. Sure enough. There’s a head in a box. My favorite part of the church was the organ, though. It was amazing. After walking around the town a bit and discovering the differences between it and big city Dublin, we boarded the bus and headed back to Trinity.
That afternoon we
View of Dublin from the bay
The area to the left is where the tower is supposed to be at some point. Also, we walked back in the rain if you can't tell... went to the Screen across the street from Trinity to see a film called Somers Town. The theatre wasn’t very stadium seated and all of the previews were for Hollywood films. Interesting. The film was a wonderful little British indie about a pair of chaps living in a working class community in London (Somers Town). It was shot in black and white, which brought a poetic view to the gritty area while still keeping the grittiness intact. One of the boys, Tomo, has just come to London to escape his life in the Midlands. He is mugged on his first night in the city and loses everything but the clothes on his back. This leads him to befriending Marek, a Polish immigrant who is left to his own devices while his dad works during the day and drinks at night. Marek is a photographer and has many pictures of a Parisian worker in a local café named Maria. Tomo, who isn’t nearly as shy as Marek, takes a liking to Maria as well. The film is essentially a bunch of everyday vignettes beyond this basic plot, but it was superb. In one scene, Tomo has to find something to wear
Grand Canal Docks
Kinda like Hollywood, right?... beyond the track suit he came in, so the boys steal a bag of laundry from a Laundromat. However, the bag was mostly women’s clothing so he amusingly ends up in a dress tucked into a pair of huge trousers for most of the rest of the film. In another scene, the boys find a wheelchair that they decorate and use push Maria home from the café. My favorite scene took place with the boys sitting on those wobbly horses often found on playgrounds sadly swilling a bottle of wine they’d bought to share with Maria… only to find out she’d gone back to Paris. The last scene of the film was the boys going to visit Maria in Paris… and it was shot in color. Brilliant. The contrast was absolutely stunning. The boys did a wonderful job as they were very unaffected and natural actors. Again, here ends Mary Beth’s Movie Minute.
Wednesday:
After class we went to the National Museum of Ireland. The folks in the Medieval Literature class had to go to view the Treasury, so I accompanied them. The artifacts were interesting, but there wasn’t much information accompanying them so it was hard to
get into. I think the most interesting thing I saw was a set of writing tablets from the 7th century. It was a set of two pieces of wood that had a thin layer of wax poured into it that was then written in with a bronze stylus. There was still writing in the wax.
From here we moved on to the National Library of Ireland. There was a large reading room that was pretty cool, but the best part was an extensive exhibit on the life and works of William Butler Yeats. The exhibit itself was very well organized and interesting as there were many different media that one could explore to experience the exhibit. My favorite part was the original hand-written manuscript and first typed copy of Easter 1916, Yeats’s poetic response to the Easter Rising. Another item of note was a questionnaire that Yeats had filled out for a department at Cambridge regarding creativity. His answers were so funny. He basically refused to answer any of the questions on the last page because they required an essay to be answered properly.
Finally, we stopped in at the National Gallery of Ireland. We aren’t really visual art hounds
and were pretty museumed-out by that point, so we wandered through a European section that consisted mostly of Biblical scenes and figures before heading to the wing that housed Picasso’s “Still Life with Mandolin” and a Van Gogh that I don’t remember the name of. After leaving this wing, we got ourselves sufficiently and humorously lost trying to find the way out.
Today:
This morning after class we went to the Book of Kells in Trinity’s library. The exhibit was pretty crowded and I was a bit lost information-wise because it was something being discussed in the Medieval Lit course as well. The Book of Kells is a manuscript of the four gospels that was meticulously written and illustrated by four unknown Irish artists in the early 9th century. It was amazing to hear Dr. Menzer point out all of these little details in the Book of Kells itself. I’m so glad I got to the book at while she was there. The viewing of the Book of Kells culminates in the Long Room of the Trinity Library. Holy. Crap. The most amazing library I’ve ever seen. Think Beauty and the Beast library. Ladders on casters included. I
want my house to smell like that library. It smells like knowledge. I just need a lot of leather-bound books. The only disappointing part was that the current exhibit in this part of the library was a bunch of books on Botany. Lame.*
This afternoon we walked to the Old Jameson Distillery. (Yeah…Ireland likes to brag about their alcohol.) I liked this tour better than the one at the Guinness Storehouse (amazing view of Dublin aside, though). It was more informative, but just as proud of what they had going. The discussion of the triple distillation of the whiskey got to the chemist in me. I did distillations with ethanol in the lab a few times this summer, just not quite the same scale… At the end of the tour, there was another bar and another sampling. But this time, there were a selected few that got to compare the taste of Jameson to that of a Scotch and an American whiskey (Jack Daniels). Because at the beginning of the tour she chose four females and four males and there was an extreme lack of female participants, I was encouraged by my cohorts to participate. The idea was that
Jameson is much smoother and subtler than its competitors due to its triple distillation and use of coal instead of peat to roast the barley. The idea is also the truth in my opinion. Because of our participation, John Tate, John Delucas, and I all got sweet certificates with our names on them that declare that we are certified Irish whiskey tasters. Word.
Ok. So that was all I had written before I went out to a dance club called Club M tonight. A big group of us met up at about 10:45 to walk there together. As we were leaving XXX, there was a large group of people standing outside the building across from ours. This was nothing new as there have been many events going on there since we’ve come including a wedding or two. As we were walking out of the main gate, I noticed a large cardboard sign for a film called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Again, I didn’t think much of it as there were plenty of signs around those front gates. As we walked out the door, I recognized a tall gentleman with curly dark hair and black artsy glasses. Then
I realized who it was: John Carney… the director of Once. My eyes moved from him to the man walking next to him. Oh. My. Gosh. Glen Hansard. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. GLEN. HANSARD. (This is the lead in Once and lead singer of The Frames if you haven’t been paying attention) I almost kept walking, but then I realized I was being a complete idiot. I turned around, walked right up to him, and stammered out a small conversation:
Me: I’m really sorry to bother you, but I just really love your movie and…and your music.
Glen: Oh tanks. Tanks very much. What are ya doin’ here , studyin’ or…
Me: Oh I’m just here studying for a couple weeks. I… I can’t believe I’m getting the chance to meet you.
Glen: Well it’s a small town
Me: I’m Mary Beth.
Glen: Mary Beth? I’m Glen.
I had tried to address both Glen and John as it was John’s movie and John’s music that I love as well (John is also in The Frames), but I was unsuccessful. By this time, Ben and Riley had realized who I was talking to and had come
back to join me. Ben and Riley introduced themselves as well. Ben then pulled out his camera and asked if we could get a picture with him. Someone from the group asked who he was, and Glen responded with a humble “Just some guy…” and a laugh. He was so nice and so chill. I shook his hand again, thanked him, and apologized again for bothering him. I then proceeded to finish walking out of the front gates of Trinity, and my legs crumpled underneath me. I couldn’t believe it. I’d just shaken hands with an Oscar winner. I’d just had my picture taken with the lead actor from one of my favorite films. I got up from my kneeling disbelief and went to hug Ben, and then Riley joined our hug. It was great. They were both so happy that I’d spotted him because they’re both big fans as well and didn’t see him until I was already talking to him. I didn’t care where we were going or anything that happened the rest of the night. I had just met Glen Hansard. Jennifer, another girl on the trip who’s also a big fan of Once, told me that
St. Oliver's Head
It's a head... in a box... the event going on at Trinity was a movie premier. Duh. So that explains it. It was the right place and the right time. Any sooner and he would have been on his way to Trinity. Any later and he would have been in the premier. Wow. Just… wow. In other news, Club M was fun. Lots of dancing with the group we went with for a while, then more locals came and more techno started playing and it started to get later. Most of us headed back. Everything was anticlimactic after The Glen Hansard Experience. How could it not be?
*Sorry if I offended any botanists.
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Heads in boxes AND oscar winners? Your study abroad experience sounds far more interesting than mine!