As for the weekend
I very pleasently had the excuse of playing tour-guide to thank for among other things, the company of an engaging, effervescent, (and a long list of other compliments besides) woman from Hong-Kong and a visit to the IMMA - both of which are rare treasures to me (with the latter being almost entirely my own fault unfortunately).What this leads me to muse on here for public consumption are two things:
Firstly, I would like to recommend all and sundry - excepting those who are suffering emotionally (particularly depression) - to visit the exhibits of Sophie Calle and Margherita Manzelli in the Irish Museum of Modern Art. I've been impressed, intrigued and disgusted by art many times, but so far as I remember, I haven't had anything run amock in my head and confound me like the paintings by Manzelli. I wouldn't be telling you much by describing what they look like, so i will say rather that they have this strange familiarity about them like they are from a dream one forgot one had. And utterly shocking for reasons I can't quite understand. Even if I do count up the weird things about them that account for the powerful effect they have, it still does nothing to shed light on how such devices appealed to the mind of the artist. It's really exceptional. As for Calle, her stuff isn't at all as mysterious - one knows exactly why and how it illicits the reaction it does. Neither I nor my adopted tourist for the day could actually 'do' all of the exhibit - which is either a detracting aspect of her work or a sign that we are lightweights and need to do some arty bulking-up (yes- the latter is most likely). Well worth a visit though.
So secondly; so-called 'Irish' Culture. To be honest, I was embarrassed (and noticabley so) by what I saw in terms of Irish Song and Dance. I would compare it to someone judging 'Irish Food' by what they were given on their flight over or something like that. One difference though is that there is no hype when you get your unopenable bag of peanuts and your fizzy drink that's as much aluminium can as it is beverage. In contrast (and now I have to adit it was a weak metaphor to begin with), what I saw in the city centre yesterday was so proud of it's contrivance that I had flashbacks to Vegas - where I will say with my hand on my heart you will see something closer to Irish song and dance than I did in 'The Bridge' and the 'Arlington Hotel' on Saturday. Sadly - and very very sadly though - there is little in the way of alternative.
Hmmm. I'm ranting like a retiree. Enough. Think I've got the bones of what will be an overly wordy (yes it is possible) letter to the editor of the Irish Times in that paragraph.
1 Comments:
You got me, as they say, to a tea... or a tee... or t. Where did that phrase come from anyway? If you want to email to the Irish Times (and be philosophical about the size of the cheque you'll receive) the address is lettersed@irish-times.ie
I only ever wrote to them once and I'm not at all surprised that my over-the-top response to an article no-one read apart from me, didn't get published. For your information, it read as follows:
Madam,
- Given her experiences, one would expect Margaret Cook to be a perspicacious commentator on the divorce settlement of Ray and Karen Parlour (Irish Times
Weekend Review, July 10th). The only insight her article offers the reader however, is into the writer’s own sense of rejection and loss at being, as she says, ‘dumped.’ Otherwise, it lacks any of the cogency or insight that such an important and potentially life-defining issue deserves in the times we live.
Quite apart from dubious statements of the greater benefit that men receive from marriage than women (which makes one wonder why a man would ever apply for a divorce at all) and her thoughtless entrance into the arena of blame where she flails indiscriminately; Margaret Cook bizarrely compares a wife to a dull peahen, and a spaniel while concurrently suggesting that the reward for this
place in the farmyard should be its continuance at all costs! I was shocked to read her suggest that it is a good thing if “many men may be deterred from straying when they consider the price they have to pay.” It scarcely needs suggesting how this assertion would look to her if the genders were reversed, but really, whom whatever would such a scenario benefit? Is this what I, as a young single man should be learning about marriage? Whatever about the legislation, articles like this certainly will not stop men from getting a
divorce – it will put them off ever getting married in the first place!
-Is mise,
James Buckley,
If you need a dictionary for any of the words I used in the above letter, consult http://dictionary.reference.com
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