The Cranberries - Zombie

I don't know what is with me and songs about protest/war lately, but I am seriously obsessed. So, naturally, I've re-fallen in love with The Cranberries's song, Zombie.

Take a listen:



E

Do you have Irish?

Tá sé fuar inniu. It is cold today!

In the spirit of geimhreadh - winter - here are some fun new Irish words that I'm learning. Ask me in a month if I'll be able to remember them, and the answer will probably be no. But for now ...

oíche -- night (eechya)
aingeal -- angel
fuar -- cold (foor)
seomra leapa -- bedroom (showmra lyapa)
Nollaig -- Christmas (no-log)
Chrainn Nollag -- Christmas Tree (crain no-log)
deoch -- drink (djaw)

-E

Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty

Because I was feeling nostalgic and in the need for some beautiful animation...



-E

"It's an insane thing, to write a play."

One day, as we all sat around our lounge, sipping cappuccinos, Michael West said to us, "It's an insane thing, to write a play." There we were, aspiring playwrights living in Ireland, about to start the unthinkable - write a play. We must have been mad, loons, all of us. Needless would Michael know that three weeks later he'd be winning the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Playwright. An insane thing, yes.

Sitting in my living room now, six months later and living back in New York City, I think I'm fully starting to realize the extent of those words. Being a writer, trying to create a world. It's an insane thing. I have completed two stage plays in my infant career (a one act, and a two act), and now that I am facing the reality of writing my second full length screenplay, I can't help but go back to those words. Have I lost my mind?

The only thing that is keeping me calm is - I think - the fact that I now personally know a successful writer. I spent 18 weeks with him, I drank coffees and pints with him, I talked about Simba and Hamlet with him. And now his success is becoming a reality. Michael's latest work, Freefall, is premiering at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin later this month, and I can't help but sit here in awe. I know him. I know the flesh and blood man that wrote that play, those words. If you don't know, the Abbey Theatre is the end-all, be-all of theatre in Ireland; it's the National Theatre, the hot tamale of the stage world. 

To think, Michael made an insane thing sane. He wrote a play. He did what I dream to do.  And now, all I can think is how much I want to be there to see it come to a reality, to watch that show grace the main stage of the Abbey in it's full fruition. 

Is truly is, an insane thing.

-E

The Secret of Kells

Oh, and go watch this movie... NOW.

The Secret of Kells. It's amazing. I'm sort of in love. It hasn't left my DVD player in over a week. Legit, it's Irish Animation at it's best. It should have kicked Up's arse at the Oscars, hands down. There seriously isn't any competition, in my opinion. And my Irish Cinema professor was an animator for the freaking Ninja Turtles, so that's saying a lot ...

-E



Aisling’s Song
You must go where I can not,
Pangur Ban Pangur Ban,
Nil sa saol seo ach ceo,
Is ni bheimid beo,
ach seal beag gearr.
Pangur Ban Pangur Ban,
Nil sa saol seo ach ceo,
Is ni bheimid beo,
ach seal beag gearr


You must go where I cannot
Pangur Ban, Pangur Ban
It’s a misty old world
and we are only in it for
a short, sharp while

Uimh Gaeilge

Oh lawdy, I've decided to bite the bullet and make an attempt at teaching myself Irish. Maybe this is an intellectual's way of pulling a Britney, I don't know, but I'm enjoying myself so far... well, sort of. Once I get beyond the memories of Sra. Hink drilling subjunctive tenses into my brain, it all seems to be a lot of fun. Maybe it's that whole "willful over mandatory" thing?

OH.

And when I went to the bookshop to buy said handy-dandy book, the teller (after examining my theatre culture and Beckett anthologies) LAUGHED at the grammar book! He said, and I quote, "Good luck with that one! That's the first copy I've sold in months."
After hours of reading up on my new handy-dandy Irish Grammar book, this is all I've got ...

Tá mé ag foghlaim na Gaeilge. Uimh Gaeilge. - I am learning Irish. No Irish.
Tá mé Meiriceánach. - I am American.
labhairt liom Béarla. - I speak English
beoir - beer

And that their language is more intense than English (Béarla) by half.
oíche mhaith
-E

Broken Croí/Heart Briste -- An Dráma

So I went and saw Broken Croi/Heart Briste at the Project Arts Centre here in Dublin tonight, and I’ve got to say that I really loved it. Now, interwebs, I’m not a fan of Post Modernist Theatre. I’ve tried to like it, and I usually just can’t grasp my head around the more conceptualist styles of theatre, but Broken Croi/Heart Briste was seriously good, in my opinion.

There is minor audience participation, and it even starts with an actor talking to you as you take your seats. And basically, in essence, it was a show about the divide in language and the struggle of communication for two people. It’s written in Irish with English subtitles, and I still didn’t have a problem understanding anything, because the emotions were there in the writing. So, two thumbs up, interwebs. I think that Manchán Magan did a great job as writer and actor.

A blurb from Magan’s website -- “A self-loathing dancer and a fanatical Gaeilgeoir seek to connect in a language lesson that swerves from slapstick to acrimony to personal revelation. It’s a comedic and heartfelt look at fractured relationships, using a blend of Irish and English to reveal the warped truth behind our passions. Manchán Magan is the kilt-clad pedagogue vying with his mutinous teenage side-kick Eva O’Connor, both using language in a way that makes it understandable and relevant to all. Is it in Irish? Can language be a weapon? Who the feic knows?”

After the show we sat down and had a chat with Magan, and I thought it was just an overall pleasant experience ... Magan on the Irish going to the theatre: “You’ve all been to the Abbey. (Looks directly at me, YES, me) I know I’ve seen you there.”

- E