Sunday, February 28, 2010

Friday night we went to see a friend of Mark's band upstairs at J.J. Smyth's. It was great to finally meet one of Mark's childhood friends! Dave was a very accomplished guitarist, and we got to drink Erdinger on tap, so that was an added bonus. I took a photo, but it didn't come out so great.


Yesterday we walked into town, and stopped by the Temple Bar Food Market for a snack. The mexican food stand's burritos have potatoes in them, which I think is pretty odd, so we got a couple of Tostadas, which was a nice little nibble. The people at the mexican stand are also very nice, which helps.


I have to admit that I can't really stand Temple Bar as a rule. I guess it's sort of like Fanieul Hall in Boston, I guess -- nice to walk around once in a while, but mostly annoying.

But then we headed over to the Irish Film Institute (IFI) because we had tickets to see three short films by Kenneth Anger and a question/answer session with the man himself. The program was "Invocation of my Demon Brother," "Rabbit's Moon," and "Lucifer Rising." I have to admit that I felt a little hypnotized by the first two films (read: dozed off a couple times), but I really enjoyed "Lucifer Rising," especially the costumes! During the question/answer session, I tried to take some photos, but they came out pretty crap! I need a new camera so bad it's not even funny...
Keep in mind that he is 83 years old...


He told the most amazing story, which I so wish I had captured on film. Apparently, the original star of Lucifer Rising, Bobby Beausoleil, said he was going to buy some new amps for his band, but it turned out that the big packages he bought were bricks of marijuana. Anger told him he couldn't keep it at his place (Beausoleil was underage at the time), so he broke into Anger's cutting room and stole all the footage of himself that he could find. Then Beausoleil and Charles Manson (!!!) got together and tried to blackmail Anger into paying 10,000 dollars to get the footage back. When he wouldn't pay up, they buried it in the dessert, so Anger re-made the film. Bobby later went to prison, where remarkably he kept in touch with Kenneth Anger, who said that he was much easier to stay friends with once he was in prison. haha!

I caught a couple of short videos of him answering some of the questions. This will really only be of interest to Kenneth Anger fans, I suppose:
Video 1
Video 2

Watching the films, I could immediately see how influential his work has been on other people, and, most surprisingly, I think The Mighty Boosh is totally influence by him!!

After the films, Mark went home and I met a couple of other American ex-pat ladies for dinner. I was pretty overjoyed when one of them suggested we eat at Juice. I couldn't help but order the Mushroom Wellington, and of course it was fantastic. My first thought for our after-dinner pint was to go to Anseo, but when we walked in, the music was just a little too loud, so not sure of where to go on a Saturday night, we settled on Flannery's. The place is a bit like walking into a barn, and it's quite rustic. When we sat down, there were ladies in weird outfits with feather tails passing out shots of Southern Comfort and lime on the rocks. I don't really like SoCo (too sweet), but it was free, so I said sure, and actually on the rocks with lime, it's not bad at all! But then as it got a little later, more and more people were stumbling in and the music was getting louder and louder, so we high tailed it out of there after one drink.

I said good-bye to my new friends, and then met Mark at the new Fibbers Rock Bar on Ormond Quay. Thankfully, the new Fibbers smells a whole lot better than the old one (which is still in business on Parnell St.). It wasn't too crowded, and it's close enough from our house that the walk back wasn't so unpleasant.

Today we walked over to the Hugh Lane Gallery for the Francis Bacon exhibit. We managed to tag along on a guided tour, which was very informative and made me think about the exhibit in a way I never otherwise would have. People have told me that I should really visit the Hugh Lane, but I never realized what a fantastic place it is. I will definitely go back again and often!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a busy weeekend! I love when you meet the director and get to 'peek' behind the scenes. The Hugh Lane is great, you never know what you'll find there.

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