300

Has anyone seen the movie 300?

This movie will go down as an ultimate movie night anthem. Ingredients: beer, steak, 300.

Doodlings

One of a few sketches I've done up of current inspiration: Henry Moore's sculpture, 'The Helmet'.

Hooray for Architecture!

Application Status:	Decision Made
Decision:	Institutional Acceptance

Wooohooo! The suspense is over, and Carleton will regret this decision forever. I can't wait to get back into the fantastical world of university. I also can't wait to continue my undeniable reign of four-square. Carleton was the only place I applied to; I shudder at the thought of another year of work had they rejected me, but that was part of the plan. Let the year of consolidation collide head on with Thesis!

Esbjorn Svensson Trio

By a stroke of luck, I caught EST, a Nordic band live at Vicar Street, last Friday. If you like jazz, check out their myspace. A big part of the appeal is the light show which may have outdone the music so if you aren't fully impressed, I can tell you the live show is worth hearing/seeing instead.

St. Paddy's Day

The revered religious holiday St. Paddy's Day flew by this past weekend. This was The Genuine Article - nothing could be more Irish than St. Paddy's Day in Dublin! The Irish however kept a low profile. They've just about had enough of this pomp every year, and a lot of 'em booked town. Around this time, the city. is. mayhem. The place was filled with people. The parade was pretty eclectic but entertaining, with Carnivale-esque costumes and oddly enough, a number of USA marching bands from Universities of Tennessee, Illinois, and Nebraska. The NYC Council also made a surprise appearance. Almost immediately, the crowds stampeded through the streets to the nearest pub. We bolted for the Stag's Head and watched the Rugby finals which was cunningly timed with St. Paddy's Day. This is when the resident Irish came out of the woodworks and patriotically cheered their lungs out for the national team. James and I noticed that for the first time, Dubliners have lived up to their name of being chatty folk. Until now this has been somewhat elusive... some situations just stir up a new spirit in people.

It took the weekend to fully recharge.

Lisbon: Part Deux

I'm gonna zip through this bit because I'm kinda fallin behind the times! At last, Portugal shared a bit 'o sun. We did plenty of walking around the town, presumably conquering the place in a couple of days. Taking the Tram 28 was a nice cross-section of the city. We saw (and did) some Fado dancing at the Lusa Club, famous for various Portuguese up-and-comer performers. Met some Canadians here too. Visited the Jeronimus Monastery, ancient property of the Knights Templar. The ceiling vaults were mezmerizing. The Expo '98 site was spectacular. Some respect to Alvaro Siza's Pavilion. The Calatrava Train Station wasn't quite as impressive but still sharp. On the way back to Porto, we saw the new Casa da Musica by Rem Koolhaas and luckily caught the Porto Symphony Orchestra. Typical archie students, we were more interested in the building than the music. If you haven't already, be sure to check out the photo album more pics!

Portugal: Porto a la Pluie

Jessie and I took this past week off for a long-anticipated vacation to Portugal where we mainly explored Porto and Lisbon. You can find a fair sized photo album from the column on the right which I linked up. (Jess took most of the pics, so I can't claim all the credit, but the reaaally good ones were probably mine).



J arrived Friday evening and we took off bright and early the following morning for the capital city of Porto. Upon arrival we bolted for the city centre, wide-eyed as ever. After snapping some pics, we grabbed a bite to eat, a Portuguese specialty: churrasco (grilled chicken). These people give new meaning to chicken, fries and salad. Our lunch was a gloriously generous helping of good simple food. We pushed on to find a decent campground. Ended up taking a bus part of the way out to a site along the coast, south of the city, however we hopped off the bus when I instinctively (and incorrectly) thought we missed our stop. My typically spectacular navigational skills failed me here, despite Jessie's cautioning. Soooo, we ended up marching for a helluva while with backpacks and all through the Porto outskirts. At last we found our campground and crashed for the night.



The next day we popped in to town and had a fantastic bus rides as we zipped around the winding streets. The bus was blazing through tiny alleys, barely nipping the parapets off of residents' homes, and stopping along the way to vent at the lousy oncoming drivers. The view of the city by bus was the best part. On the way in, we got completely drenched. So as we got a rainy and hazy view of the city, we took shelter for a quick espresso, soup and salad. J ordered this really good potato and kale soup. Afterwards, e pretty much charged through the city as the weather reluctantly eased up on us. Saw the main churches/cathedrals, climbed the church towers, explored tiny streets and alleyways, visited the amazing Lello Bookstore. It was a full up day with cheap cheap cheap wine to top it off. This was also the end of our tent, as it leaked like a sieve that night in the rain.




The following day, we checked in to a hotel right in the city centre which was a huge relief after sleeping on acorns and a rained-in tent. Then headed off on a daytrip out to Braga, to the Bom Jesus Sanctuary (it means 'Good Jesus' - don't worry, they like Him here). At Bom Jesus, you're meant to climb 1000 steps to the top of a hill overlooking the city, while stopping along the way at several hexagonal chapels. If you're really devoted, you're meant to climb the steps on your knees. We had none of that ofcourse. In the guidebook, the site looked warm, orange, red and yellow etc. But when we got there, we were a tiny bit dampered because it was grey and cold, and pouring. This was THE rainiest day we had all week and on the climb up, we were waterlogged! It was really beautiful though, despite our wingeing. We headed back to town and got ready to head to Lisbon.

This was the end of our time in Porto leaving it with the hope that Lisbon would bring more sunshine... (part 2 coming, but maybe after St. Paddy's Day).

Rugby Six-Nations

This past Saturday marked the first time since 1920, that English Rugby (or any British sport) was allowed to be played on the grounds of Croke Park Stadium - the same location where 87 years ago English soldiers marched on to the pitch and shot 14 Irish citizens. The cause of the shootings was an eye-for-an eye response to the same-day assassination of 14 British secret agents by the IRA. Bloody Sunday. (Note: not to be confused with the Bloody Sunday of 1913 or the other one of 1973 - generally if anything lousy is going to happen here, it's on a sunday).

The 1920 event is the reason for the Gaelic Athletic Association's determination to ban all 'British' sport and strictly allow only Gaelic games within Croke Park. That list is pretty short: Irish Rugby, Hurling, Camogie, Rounders, Feile na Gael, and Feile Paile na nOg (sorry this one's reaaally obscure - no image to show, but you can probably guess it involves whacking a ball with a stick). This single match has slightly opened the doors towards the Old Enemy and the President of the GAA is pushing for new planning regulations for the stadium to fully allow for British sport to be played in Croke Park. It kind of feels like an invisible wall is slowly coming apart day-by-day here.

Needless to say, Dublin was swelling with emotion on Saturday. Every pub with a tv screen was jam packed with people wearing their rugby jerseys and scarves. Choppers were hovering the city centre and the stadium. People were just in a rush to get shopping or errands done before the game. Unfortunately, tickets to the game weren't quite as easy to get a hold of this time around as sales started inflating months ago from 300 euro and up. A last check on ebay before the game showed tickets at 1,200 to about 2,400 euro!

On my way to finding a good a bar to watch the game I was just a few minutes late for the opening kickoff, and those few minutes were dead silence in the streets. When I arrived at the Church Bar (a church converted into a pub - which says a bit about the state of the Church here these days), I could hear people chanting the national anthem through the building. I'd have make the assumption that being an Irish person hearing 'God Save the Queen' being sung in Croke Park is bit more stirring. I haven't heard how the coaches or teams approached the game, but it's hard to imagine that either side treated it as regular match. Regardless, one side must have taken it more seriously, as the result ended up to be an absolute rout. The Irish team squashed England 41-13. Even so, with every goal the city was shaking. Even though there was hardly any competition this is exactly what Ireland has been waiting for, for years. I wonder if Tony Blair was in the English dressing room before the game...'Ok, so we've been a liiiittle rough on those blokes over the years - maybe just go a little easy on 'em alright lads? Jolly good, have a smashing good match.'

Afterwards, I kicked things off oldschool at Agnieszka's 80's party (Polish friend from work). Morgan, your humming of 'Like a Virgin' was pretty good in comparison to the Polish karaoke equivalent :P . It was a fun time, and I was fully impressed by the 1,100 purely 80's tracks on queue in a single playlist. Who has that? Amazing.

On Saturday, I'm off to Portugal with Jessie! She's meeting me here on Friday and we take off bright and early the next day till the following Sunday and all that's planned is serious relaxation in the sun. Will have plenty of pics and maybe the odd sketch to show when I get back.

Hope all is well back home. Have been reading CBC news frequently, watching 'Little Mosque on the Prairies' and playing my Canadian tunes non-stop for the past few weeks, I guess that means I'm staaaarting to get a wee bit homesick...Go Team!

Badly Drawn Boy Concert

...two nearly identical and incredibly exciting pictures from the Badly Drawn Boy Concert on Sunday night at the Olympia Theatre.

Mime Off

I never thought I'd see a Mime-off in my life, but today I witnessed such a thing at Grafton Street. You'd think the Statue of Liberty mime with 'Peace', 'Freedom', and 'Stop War' plastered all over its pedestal would draw the odd passerby and a generous coin toss, but apparently not so. Right next to the Statue of Liberty was a mime devilishly dressed who was making a killing off the good Irish Catholics. As it turns out, the noble act of sponsoring peace and freedom just wasn't quite as hot a pitch. This all turned into the ultimate 'Laugh with the sinners or cry with the saints' scenario...and as you may have guessed while distantly humming Billy Joel, the 'sinners are much more fun'.
Sinners 1, Good Irish Catholics 0.