Alain de Botton at the Dublin Writers Festival

I knew little about Alain de Botton before his talk yesterday at the Dublin Writers Festival. I knew roughly what kind of stuff he wrote about and that he had a Twitter account with "inspiring" tweets. My husband is a fan, and managed to persuade me to go see the talk. The Liberty Hall Theatre, where the talk was held, turned out to be a comfortable and aesthetically pleasing venue, which was stuffed to the gills with enthusiastic listeners.

De Botton turned out to be an excellent speaker, a pleasure to listen to even if you didn't know his work or didn't always agree with him. He spoke mostly about his latest book, Religion for Atheists, which discusses what dedicated atheists, such as he himself, might have to learn from religions. His main argument was that the secular should not automatically consider religions stupid and childish, but instead appreciate and be inspired by their methods of teaching, creating communities and producing art. He had insights into education and organisation of the humanities as well as such diverse material as the calendar year, functions of art and the necessity of beauty in architecture. Unfortunately he only touched these topics; I would have been interested to hear more about them. I suspect that he could have easily done an entire series of talks. On a number of occasions he directly or indirectly addressed Richard Dawkins (albeit not in a particularly agreeing manner), and it occurred to me that scheduling his talk the day after Dawkins's created a very interesting two-day theme of Atheism Today, or, the Problem of Religion Today, if you prefer.

You can see photographs of the talk on the festival website. The festival continues until the weekend.

Comedy Cream: A night of stand up in Little Green Street Gallery

There's a BYOB comedy night on Friday in Little Green Street Gallery. The gallery is on the corner of Little Green Street and Little Britain Street, just off Capel Street.

Here's what they say about the event:

Little Green Street Gallery & Padraic Coffey present... COMEDY CREAM Fancy an evening of delicious entertainment? Well be serving up the cream of the crop in the comedy circuit, in the intimate surrounds of the Little Green Gallery. An alternative night out, Dublin's only BYOB comedy event, so grab a few beers and let the laughs roll out! Featuring outstanding acts: Danny O'Brien ("A quality stand up with a one track mind... enjoy the ride!" - Nighthawks) Trevor Browne ("Hilariously aloof" - Hot Press) and Robbie Bonham (Winner - 98FM Best Comedian) plus guests!! Only 50 seats available so be sure to pre-book a ticket at little.green.gallery@gmail.com 6e (with student ID) 8e full price Complimentary drinks on the night (dont forget to bring your own though) Friday, June 8th, 9:00pm. Hope to see you there!

Dublin Biennial POP-UP

There's a new art exhibition due to begin soon, Dublin Biennial POP-UP. Here's the description from their website:

The Dublin Biennial POP-UP, is an International Contemporary Art Exhibition featuring 55 International and National Artists. The Exhibition will be showcased at The Point Village, and will run from June 15th - June 24th, with a Gala opening on Bloomsday, June 16th.

Dublin Shakespeare Festival begins

Beautiful weather for it - and it looks like they've good numbers for the opening performance of their headline production, The Indian Tempest.

Midnight Tango

I was at the Grand Canal TheatreBord Gáis Energy Theatre last night to see the opening performance of Midnight Tango.  You won't be surprised to hear it's a dance show.  Vincent Simone & Flavia Cacace are two of the most popular professional dancers on Strictly Come Dancing and are former Argentine Tango world champions, amongst many other dance accolades.  This is the second year they've toured with a tango show but the first time it has come to Dublin.  It was screened live in the cinema here but I missed it.

The show has a modest story told entirely through dance, with some live singing, and is given some genuinely nice comic touches via an older couple who own the "bar" where all the dancing takes place.  A six piece band provides most of the music.  You won't be surprised to hear that the music of the awesome Astor Piazzolla features heavily, and this is just fine by me.  The music was great, having the band on stage worked very well - just tucked into a corner.  Sometimes the singers stood in the middle and the dancers nicely snaked around.  Costumes were, for the most part, 1940s style and gorgeous.  I'd happily wear a lot of the women's outfits, and all the men's hats.  Tiny quibble about the hats though - it does mean you can't see people's faces, especially if you're not sitting in the flat seating on the ground floor.  Flavia and Vincent's costumes were naturally more elaborate, and her own style was very recognisable, and dare I say it, out of sync with the rest of the cast.

And so to the dancing, which was just fabulous.  Vincent & Flavia are listed as the principle choreographers, though no doubt, renowned West End producer & choreographer, Arlene Philips, had some input, since her production company is backing Midnight Tango.  I also recognised Karen Bruce, the director of this show, from the Strictly stable.  Argentine Tango is a tight, intimate near-battle between partners, with lots of flicking legs, called ganchos, and postures that wouldn't look amiss in a yoga class.  It originated in, shocker now, Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century and quickly spread to Europe, where it became popular.  At that time, most dancing was choreographed, so the freedom of expression within the A.T. was something of a revolution.  Props such as hats, chairs and tables feature heavily in professional performances.  Vincent & Flavia have been dancing together for about 10 years so they are perfectly in sync: they look like they've just made it all up on the spot.  Flavia gets thrown around so much, she must weigh almost nothing.  Naturally in a show like this, other dance styles come into it (rumba, samba, etc) but it's mostly about the tango.

The show runs for a quite short (understandably) 2 hours including the intermission.  The theatre was mostly full last night and standing ovations were happily given.  I'm actually going to see it again on Saturday, so I'll be interested to see how a Saturday night, final performance compares to an opening night.

Tickets are still available for performances which run until the 9th, priced between €35 and €50.  On a side note, it was absolutely lashing last night, so if you're going along, make sure you've got weather protection or punctual friends.  Every time I go to the GCT, I'm annoyed that I can't wait inside if I'm not the person who has the tickets.  It's a stupid system, which is, no doubt, losing them drinks money.  /end rant

Time Out of Mind at IMMA Earlsfort Terrace

The Irish Museum of Modern Art's new temporary galleries are now open at Earlsfort Terrace, next door to the National Concert Hall. You will remember the venue from Dublin Contemporary. The new exhibition 'Time Out of Mind' opened on 31 May and I recently paid a visit there.

'Time Out of Mind' intends to engage art with science, in celebration with Dublin's status as the City of Science 2012. I was very intrigued by this, as connections between art and science, and one deriving inspiration from the other, are very high on my list of interests. The venue, as the former Medical School, is cited as being particularly appropriate for the theme. However, only a few of the installations directly explored these connections and I felt that there was scope and potential for a great deal more. Perhaps consequently, my favourite works of the exhibition explicitly reached out towards sciences. The initial calm of Cristina Iglesias's Untitled vegetation room shatters when the viewer realises that the apparent solid branches of trees and bushes are tentacles. Marie Foley's cabinets, of all the artworks here the most suited to the history of the building, speak of historical medicine cabinets or the cabinets of curiousities of Victorian gentlefolk. In Dust defying gravity, Grace Weir explores the old rooms and equipment of Dunsink Observatory from the perspective of dust floating and falling in the room. At the end of the video installation, the room and the dust all fade together into the orrery as a reminder that everything is part of the massive galactic dust, eternally swirling in the darkness of the universe.  

The exhibition rooms themselves are well suited for their current purpose with their high ceilings, wooden floors, airiness and tall windows (where desired). However, although the introduction to the exhibition states that the layout follows an 'open composition' to encourage multiple readings and experiences, I found the lack of signage confusing. It was not immediately obvious where to go, and the exhibition rooms are not always very well distinguished from those intended for 'staff only' and the like. In the corridors, the viewer's gaze is drawn to signs advising of 'compressed gas' and 'fire exit only', rather than directions to exhibition rooms, which, in my opinion, interrupts the flow of the artistic experience. There is a balance to be struck between a freeform space and a completely unguided one.

The day I visited I also had a chance to explore the IADT First Year Visual Arts Practice exhibition, which was sadly available only for a few days and ended yesterday, 4 June. This collection of works by future artists was of very high quality and it would have been good to extend its availability to those who had perhaps left the city for the long weekend.

'Time Out of Mind' is joined by a number of talks, listed on the IMMA website. The exhibition and the talks are free.

Three on The Quay

Apparently some international sporting event called the European Championships (not sure of what) is starting this week and Ireland is participating.  Mobile phone company, Three, are sponsoring the events for Ireland supporters on the 10th,14th and 18th of June at The Big Screen at George's Dock, IFSC.  Each event starts at 5pm and is family friendly.  If that's your sort of thing, I'm sure it'll be fun.

Dublin Shakespeare Festival 2012

The Dublin Shakespeare Festival is almost back. It runs from 6th to 16th June in Trinity College and other nearby venues. Based on last year's performances it should be a lot of fun. All the details are on http://www.dublinshakespeare.com/.

Forbidden Fruit

As well as Bloom this weekend, the Forbidden Fruit festival is on in the grounds of the stunning Royal Hospital in Kilmainham.  5 stages of music featuring a vast pantheon of music (New Order!  Death Cab for Cutie!  James Vincent McMorrow) as well as comedy stages which will presumably feature the comedians who didn't bother going to the Kilkenny Cat Laughs.  Tickets are €49 for one day and rise to €115 for all three.  Doors (gates?) open at 2pm every day and there is NO PARKING ON SITE, so get on the LUAS.  There's no camping either, so I do wonder how they can even call themselves a festival!

Bloom in the Park

With all the advertising going on for Bloom, you hardly need us to remind you it's on this weekend.  Never the less, if gardening is your thing, then you'll want to get your ass down to the Phoenix Park any day of the long weekend.  It opened yesterday and runs every day from 10am to 18:00.  Tickets are steep enough at €20 per day for a non-senior citizen adult or €12 if you are over 65 but kids are free.  If I were going, I'd be heading straight for the Food Village and artisan (whatever that means!) food market.  The Environmental Zone has some interesting features from the Federation of Irish Beekeepers and the Tree Council of Ireland, amongst others.  Reading through the website brings to mind the fabulous Eden Project in Cornwall.  If Bloom is anything like that, then it's well worth a visit.  I hope they get decent weather, or at least as little rain as possible.