Yes, SurlyMike, I guess it is time for installment #2 in the vacation saga. Thanks for the gentle prodding. 
So, um, like.... This was the first time that I actually made an effort to see art museums in Ireland (they tend to call them galleries, though). We stumbled across the Hugh Lane Gallery, which houses art from the turn of the 20th century through the present. I was particularly interested in seeing all the Francis Bacon canvases. Little did I know, they had his studio in London dismantled after he died, and they reassembled it in its entirety at the Hugh Lane. It's there permanently, but they had another temporary exhibit of various modern artists' studios assembled so you could walk through them and get very close to everything, but they just lacked the character of Francis Bacon's studio. It was a total mess, which seemed unusual because I always read about artists having to be fanatical about keeping their brushes and workspaces clean. There was a photographic exhibit of numerous shots that someone named Perry Ogden took of Bacon's flat -- I guess for the sake of documentaion -- and in them, you see that the the living/kitchen space was quite neat. Something about his process required a wrecked studio. The quote below is his, and elaborates on this....
Hm, a toilet picture. Whatever for? I just wanted to show the ladies what an annoyance it is to have to pee whilst having the sharp, cold rim of a plastic sanitary bin stabbing into one's butt. It seemed like these things where in every public establishment a few years ago, but I am happy to say that the gallery was the only place that had one this time around.
This is the River Liffey. It's what bisects Dublin into North and South, thus you have Northsiders and Southsiders. Supposedly, the Southsiders are supposed to be more posh, and therefore, stereotypes and rivalries abound. I just like walking over the river on the little bridges. There tend to be all sorts of men crouched down along the way, holding a paper cup out to accept any offerings from a rather jaded populace. The new topic of conversation this year concerned the influx of Ukranian and Romanian immigrants, and how Ireland is a small country that can't handle the population boom it's experiencing because of being prosperous and in the European Union.
See how narrow the streets are? And the sidewalks are a bit of a luxury since they're about as rare as hens' teeth during rush hour. But straight ahead, we see the Millenium Spire. Smack in the middle of Dublin city center. It's just a very tall, needly-looking metal thing that was meant to commemorate the... you guessed it! -- the New Millenium. However, I hear that the architect brother of a very famous Irish writer, Flann O'Brien, thought the spire was hideous and therefore managed to have its erection held off for three years. So it was 2003 that ushered in the New Millenium for Dublin.
Installment #3 (The Neolithic Burial Grounds and Beyond) will come in the not-too-distant future, so until then, I'll just put up some random shots that turned out to look a little like Impressionist paintings. Which is somewhat appropriate, considering that for the first week of the trip, I was always in a total fog during the day -- struggling to stay the fuck awake. I would guzzle tea and just feel like I wanted to curl into a ball and pass out. Then at night, I'd be wide awake. Little did I know I would get jet lag going there. I always got it coming back. Things were a blur for about seven days.
Sweet dreams and snuggly warm wishes to all you folks out there....
Oh shit! How I could forget? I wouldn't be a patriotic American without leaving things on a YouTube kinda note. Forgive me if you've all seen this, and if I'm, like, years behind on popular YouTube culture, but just in case someone out there missed it:
So, um, like.... This was the first time that I actually made an effort to see art museums in Ireland (they tend to call them galleries, though). We stumbled across the Hugh Lane Gallery, which houses art from the turn of the 20th century through the present. I was particularly interested in seeing all the Francis Bacon canvases. Little did I know, they had his studio in London dismantled after he died, and they reassembled it in its entirety at the Hugh Lane. It's there permanently, but they had another temporary exhibit of various modern artists' studios assembled so you could walk through them and get very close to everything, but they just lacked the character of Francis Bacon's studio. It was a total mess, which seemed unusual because I always read about artists having to be fanatical about keeping their brushes and workspaces clean. There was a photographic exhibit of numerous shots that someone named Perry Ogden took of Bacon's flat -- I guess for the sake of documentaion -- and in them, you see that the the living/kitchen space was quite neat. Something about his process required a wrecked studio. The quote below is his, and elaborates on this....
Hm, a toilet picture. Whatever for? I just wanted to show the ladies what an annoyance it is to have to pee whilst having the sharp, cold rim of a plastic sanitary bin stabbing into one's butt. It seemed like these things where in every public establishment a few years ago, but I am happy to say that the gallery was the only place that had one this time around.
This is the River Liffey. It's what bisects Dublin into North and South, thus you have Northsiders and Southsiders. Supposedly, the Southsiders are supposed to be more posh, and therefore, stereotypes and rivalries abound. I just like walking over the river on the little bridges. There tend to be all sorts of men crouched down along the way, holding a paper cup out to accept any offerings from a rather jaded populace. The new topic of conversation this year concerned the influx of Ukranian and Romanian immigrants, and how Ireland is a small country that can't handle the population boom it's experiencing because of being prosperous and in the European Union.
See how narrow the streets are? And the sidewalks are a bit of a luxury since they're about as rare as hens' teeth during rush hour. But straight ahead, we see the Millenium Spire. Smack in the middle of Dublin city center. It's just a very tall, needly-looking metal thing that was meant to commemorate the... you guessed it! -- the New Millenium. However, I hear that the architect brother of a very famous Irish writer, Flann O'Brien, thought the spire was hideous and therefore managed to have its erection held off for three years. So it was 2003 that ushered in the New Millenium for Dublin.
Installment #3 (The Neolithic Burial Grounds and Beyond) will come in the not-too-distant future, so until then, I'll just put up some random shots that turned out to look a little like Impressionist paintings. Which is somewhat appropriate, considering that for the first week of the trip, I was always in a total fog during the day -- struggling to stay the fuck awake. I would guzzle tea and just feel like I wanted to curl into a ball and pass out. Then at night, I'd be wide awake. Little did I know I would get jet lag going there. I always got it coming back. Things were a blur for about seven days.
Sweet dreams and snuggly warm wishes to all you folks out there....
Oh shit! How I could forget? I wouldn't be a patriotic American without leaving things on a YouTube kinda note. Forgive me if you've all seen this, and if I'm, like, years behind on popular YouTube culture, but just in case someone out there missed it:
VIEW 14 of 14 COMMENTS
I agree with ya on the technology...even though I use it every day and my life is greatly 'enhanced'....I still wish we lived simpler lives !