First stop was the book bindery, a tiny shop with its entrance in a wide, well-swept alley. It was crowded with people craning to see the lady as she put together the cover of a book. I was most interested in seeing the embossing since I've made several books. I managed a decent position to see her heat up the letters and the gold leaf (or some thin metal) and stamp them into the cover. It was disappointingly simple, but I wouldn't have know if I hadn't gone. We thought we would go to the opera, but one show had just started when we left the shop, so to use some time, we headed over to the English Market. Most of the stalls had samples or small meals available for about 2euro. The bruschetta from the Alternative Bread Company looked delicious, but we were more interested in getting a dessert. We split a kebab of meringue and fruit, made a mess even though we thought it would be the least messy option.
The opera house is a modern glass building right on the Quay. It dominates the block, a testament to just how much people will put up with if you wave enough money in their faces. Previous to its construction the Quay was dominated by the Custom House, a beautiful building constructed in 1724. When a new Custom House was built in 1818 in another location, the old Custom House was incorporated into the Crawford Gallery (actually, it was an art academy and then a gallery, but either way, it became a place for the visual arts). Then someone(s) came along wanting an opera house, which is all fine and dandy, but they (this is vague because I've only heard this history told once or twice and I didn't exactly take notes), in their infinite wisdom decided that it would fit perfectly right in front of the Crawford. City planners must have approved this and the only way I can see that they would allow such an historical and impressive building be completely hidden (it really is tucked away now) is that investors in the opera house had a lot of money and promised that such construction would bring lots of revenue to the city. They could have made it less ugly. In any event, they put on a lot of great shows, musical, operatic, and dramatic and we headed over to see a half an hour set of excerpts from Candide. Apparently the opera house is much more punctual than the rest of Ireland, however, and we missed the 7:30 showing by about 2 minutes. A stroll down the Quay got us some appropriately dramatic sunset pictures and we returned in time for the 8:00. The actors (is there another word for actors who are singing opera?) dressed all in white, with a white base on the face and very dramatic eye make-up. The set was minimalist, the only prop they used was a chair (I'm sure there are a few more props for the whole show, but you get the idea). I didn't realize that Candide was an English opera, but it's hard enough to follow the words in any language because of the nature of opera singing. Still, I managed to cling to some thread of narrative in the songs, though mostly it was thanks to the brief synopsis given beforehand.
We stopped by the Lee Gallery on our way to school to check out and exhibition by one Sarah Corner called "Autumn Colour: featuring Landscapes and Wildlife." It was astonishing to me to look at some of the landscapes, especially the ones with ruins and realize that they weren't made up, they were painted from life. Never in American landscape will you see a ruin of a castle. It's so strange to think that landscapes I've only ever imagined or thought of as fantasy are actually here and people can go out into them and record them with oils or pencil. At the Gallery on campus it was eighties night. We wanted to make the showing of improv comedy at the Granary, though, so we just did a walk through. We debated the merits of an installation piece (I argued for, they against) and agreed on the pretentiousness of several abstract pieces. We watched a giant game of Irish Jenga (the pieces are white, orange, and green and you have to make each new layer alternate colors) end with a terrific crash and a game of Twister begin with a lot of giggling.
We arrived at the Granary only to find that the show was already full. So we headed back to Beverly's and enjoyed a few hours of Dr. Who before calling it a night.
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The following weekend (Oct. 4) was the Folk Festival. On Saturday night we headed to Sober Lane in the hopes of catching a band, but typical of the Irish, they were late. Not so typical, they were almost an hour late, by which time we had decided to move on. An Brog or Clancy's? We decided on Clancy's and did not regret our decision as the Boogie Band rocked the pub all night. Included in their set were: Sweet Home Alabama, Don't Stop Believin' (oh, we sang that all right! while kneeling on a tall chair), Footloose, the Killers, and Bon Jovi, among others. Beverly and Joanne won some shoes (they are gold slippers really and they fold up to fit you your purse so you can put on the high heels when you get to where you are going). We did pass through An Brog on the way home, but it was filled to the point of difficult movement with college-aged students who had been drinking all night and were not apparently planning on stopping either drinking or making out with their partners.
The main feature of the Folk Festival was the Céilí Mór on Sunday from 2pm until 6. Stalls with food and ware were set up on part of the Grand Parade and a stage and fenced off area for dancing filled the rest of the sidewalk (it is quite a wide sidewalk, in case you were wondering). I regretted having eaten lunch so much of the food looked delicious, so we decided to go home, get a little money and return to buy a few things and have dinner. Stands to choose from: 2 crepes stalls, pizza, Chinese, ice cream, 3 bakeries. I had some egg rolls, a slice of pizza, and a giant brownies which I believe was gluten-free or something. All delicious. But before that, some dancing. Beverly and I danced the whole Connemara set. Céilí dancing is like square and line dancing combined. If you know Contra dancing, that's actually closest. Most of the moves that were called were familiar to me, but that didn't stop us from getting turned around in some of the 4-couple sets. After dinner, Joanne and I got in for the last dance, Shoe the Donkey (I think). Whenever I go dancing, I wonder why I don't do it all the time. It's always great craic. There's an Irish word for you. It means fun, but might be a little confusing the first time an American hears an Irish person say that there was great craic at, say, a society meeting. Not to worry, folks, crack is a Dublin problem (though, unfortunately, it has been on the rise in Cork, but doesn't every big city have these problems?).
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I finally got out for another dance a couple of weeks ago. At the Festival of Jewish Culture, of all places! The first band, Belz, consisted of a singer/guitarist, drum set, hurdy gurdy, string bass, accordion, fiddle, and electric guitar. They did some really beautiful songs and songs you could tap your feet to. One of my favorites was one that the singer said was about a girl who just didn't want to get married. That doesn't have anything to do with why I liked it, but it does add a little extra punch because I would be singing that one if I knew Yiddish. During the next two bands, Fireflies, who played traditional Klezmer, and Lazik, who started off their set with some Nova Scotia sets and moved into Klezmer, the singer from the first band (I feel I should mention he was not actually Jewish, for what it's worth) led Klezmer dancing. By the end of the night, even the backs of my hands were drenched with sweat, I had been swung around until I was giddy, and I was happily exhausted.
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This past weekend (Oct. 24) was the Cork Jazz Festival. This is a famous festival and my Gaelic teacher encouraged us all to go. I found it strange that she was speaking to a classroom half-filled with American students advertising a form of music that is American and claiming that this foreign city had one of the best festivals for the genre. I don't doubt it, but I did not feel any pressing need to go out for a form of music that a) I can get at home and b) I like, but isn't at the top of my list. So I spent the weekend in Dublin. Eventually I will write a post about it!
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