Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Time's Flying



Like the cliche picture? Yeah? I do as well. As I'm writing this, its 2am in Dublin on Dec 4th, but still Dec 3rd back home. This means I'm only 10 days away from returning to the States! I just completed my last 9am-6pm class day here in Dublin, which really signifies to me that my time is here is coming to a rapid end. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the hard part of my week, since I actually have class all day long, so to get past the final week of actual class means a lot. Next week, we have rehearsal and our big Showcase, so its basically tech week/scrub down the apartment week. Easy, at least on the performance side of things.

I haven't fully processed my thoughts on everything yet, so I'm not gonna even attempt to sum anything up or really give you one succinct thought about my experience here (its not like I'm a proponent for brevity anyway, lol). I'm extremely excited to go home, but I'm really comfortable here. I miss my inner circles, both The Coalition & CFW, but I've grown to really care about the other 11 folks I've shared this wonderful experience with. I'm so thankful to have seen so much while over here, but sad to think that I may not be able to travel abroad again for years. These are just the beginning of my thoughts. I hope I'll have a clearer stream of consciousness wrap up (whatever that means? you ever just ask yourself why you say the silly stuff you do?) before I board my plane on the 13th.

Quick plug for my Showcase, which I'll hopefully have some video of next week. For our voice piece, my friend Peter & I are reciting this poem which basically is spoof of Irish myths. I'm the embodiment of this great hero (typecasting, i know) & he is telling my story. Let me just give you an idea of what's going to take place: bongos + shirtless Kevin + the spirit of Right Said Fred (I'm Too Sexy) + Usain Bolt impersonation + Elvis impersonation (complete with pelvic thrusts) + Afro wig & sunglasses + cupping breasts (my imaginary ones) + King Arthur's foam sword + He-Man pose = A Legendary Performance.

Wish y'all could be here.

Peace & Blessings!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Couch Potato Musings

Let's see, its 9pm on a Saturday night. Where am I? On my couch, watching British Cops on TV, trying to decide what DVD I'm gonna pop in for the night. This is where the real Kevin exists. I do some of my best thinking during times like these. Here are some random thoughts that have come across my mind recently:

  • I watched Alien for the first time (believe it or not) last night. Wow. That's all I can say, what a classic. I was curled up, scared as hell from a movie made in 1979! Talk about standing the test of time.
  • I got hit by a car today. Obviously, I'm fine because I'm writing this to post, but it pissed me off. I'm just walking across the street jammin to the new Murs CD, I'm right in front of this small SUV while its waiting to turn onto the main road, and outta nowhere they hit the gas & bump my ass! Luckily, I was far enough away that I ain't get bumped too hard. Europeans can't drive, I am now convinced.
  • Did you know that Michael Jackson's Bad was supposed to be a Best of Both Worlds style collabo with Prince?!?!?! Like, they we're about to do an album together! How sick would that of been? They had creative differences, so it never came to fruition though.
  • I read a story on Michael Vick the other day that detailed how he became bankrupt. I officially have no sympathy for his situation. I know its old, but when everything first went down, I wasn't on his side. Black people, especially in Atlanta, went beside themselves to defend him & say that he was being railroaded. I started to empathize with him a lil bit, so I just viewed it as unfortunate. Now after this stuff being put out there, it confirmed my first instinct that he was just a dumbass with $130 million & karma got his stupid self.
  • The one thing I miss more than anything right now is somebody to debate Hip-Hop with. I got maaaaaad new music on my ipod, its been a good year for Rap, and I have nobody to debate this stuff with. I'm almost tempted to start hitting up these rap message boards, but I can't deal with internet thugs, so hopefully I don't get desperate.
  • I wanna start freestylin'. Not to be a rapper myself, but it would just be fun to start a cypher & make up stupid rhymes. Any takers? Who wanna battle me?
  • I did this Conflict Mediation role play today (which paid 40 euros) where a friend and I played an ex couple with a child, and we were getting mediation to work out our custody issues without the courts. We had a guideline w/ background information, but basically had to improv everything else. I learned that having a child really is something that I know little about & that having kids out of wedlock sucks. I got a headache acting out this imaginary scenario, so I definitely wouldn't wanna deal with the complication of sharing custody with an ex in real life.
  • I want comic books for Christmas. What a strange turn of events, I get into comic books at 21 years old. Movies play such a influential role in my life. Is that a good thing?
  • There is this show over here called Boozed Up Brits Abroad. Its exactly what the title implies. Never ever will I be ashamed to be American because of a minority of jackasses. I'm convinced every country has their own jackasses that are just as dumb.
  • I miss my siblings. I haven't seen one of my sisters is a couple years & I just found out that I'll see her during the holidays. I'm really excited about it. Its crazy to think that all of us are almost grown now. I smell a family portrait coming soon.
  • I'm trying really hard not to gain a caffine addiction. This past week, the miracle of coffee really hit me & I started making pit stops before class to pick up a cup of java. And every time I walk past my neighborhood Starbucks, I'm terribly tempted to stop in & get the new Dark Cherry Mocha coffee. This has got to stop. I also have a taste for Hennessy. I don't know why, I hardly ever drink it. What is going on with me?
Aiight man, its time to pick a movie. Devil In A Blue Dress wins. Denzel & Don Cheadle, its time for inspiration. I'll holla at y'all later.

Peace & Blessings!

How To Spend Thanksgiving Abroad

What up, what's happenin' folk? Thanksgiving has come and passed & I'm definitely thankful to say that I had a great alternative to our beloved American holiday. I was a little worried about how it would go earlier this week. I had just come back to Rome (I'll speak on that soon), had a paper to write, was stuck in my typical end of the semester depression (Side Note: Can we get a diagnosis on that? I'm saying, if seasonal affective disorder is real, should they have something like semester pressure disorder? I'ma have to get up with Morehouse School of Medicine & step my pharmacuetical game up), and had mad stuff to rehearse for our Showcase (Dec. 10th! eek!), so I wasn't in the typical Thanksgiving mood when Thursday rolled around.

It started hit me real hard: no football, no cranberry sauce, no long ass wait for dinner (lol, maybe that wasn't too bad. haha.), but most importantly no holding hands with my kinfolk, praying, and then breaking bread. But I made peace with it & reminded myself that I have very little to complain about in comparision to all that I'm blessed with, so let's get it in at dinner. IES, our program, had reservations for everyone (like 50 people) to have a special Thanksgiving dinner at Town Bar & Grill. This was a big thing, since Thanksgiving doesn't exsit out of the US & the restaurant was nice enough to make a specialized menu for us with a turkey dish & pumpkin pie for dessert.

Now from the name of the place, I didn't know how nice the place was gonna be. It sounded kinda homely, a comfortable type restaurant. Naw brotha, this joint was a classy, sophisticated, white tablecloth type spot. Of course, as soon as I staked out a corner table for the group I was with, I headed straight to the bathroom to put the restaurant to ultimate test. You know a place isn't high quality unless they have a clean & efficient bathroom. Walk in, I see shining bathroom fixtures & clean tiles, actuall stalls (hit me up if you wanna know why this is such a nice thing, I don't wanna spoil the story with TMI), and they got actual hand towel instead of paper towels, so this place is already batting 1.000 with me.

Everyone finally gets to dinner, the wine is poured, the conversation begins flowing smoothly & Thanksgiving is starting to feel like home in a new way. We waited until after our first course to share what we were thankful for, but when we did, it was such a beautiful moment. Being able to open up and be reflective and vulnerable with a group of strangers (here meaning people that don't know you very well) is such a invaluable experience. I get a chance to see that so much every summer at MLW, but because of that I always forget about the small miracles that can be made the same way through theater. Wine, gourmet food, clean bathrooms and a nice circle of friends is definitely a great alternative to the Thanksgiving traditions I've loved all my life.

Side story: So we're usually on a 1 or 2 drink limit at IES paid-for outings. Not a problem at dinner cause I like to savor my wine, I ain't gonna be knocking it back anyway. Well, we're going around saying what we're thankful for, complete with cheers at the end of each mini-speech. There are 7 people at our table, so you can imagine that my glass of wine ain't lasting too long with all these cheers to go around. We're joking about this & then see the waitress over at another IES table re-filling glasses & then my roommate comes over laughing about how the waitress filled his glass up to the top. So, I'm thinking we're on a 2 drink limit tonight. Cool. I down my drink during the cheers & just wait for the waitress to come top us off. Well, 10 minutes later, I'm having a conversation with someone & I see that my wine glass has disappeared. Not cool, Joe. Everyone else still has their glasses & has wine, so I'm paranoid like who stole my drink? I ask a waitress about it & she shuts me down with the quickness like "You're only allowed 1 drink. You'll have to speak to the hostess if you want more wine." I'm feeling slighted, cause I saw the other waitress re-filling, but I just gotta suck it up and enjoy my main course with a glass of water instead. You know a brotha can't show out over a glass of wine when a) I ain't paying for the dinner anyway b) I'm the only black person in the spot c) its a super classy, white tablecloth joint d) our group consists of toddlers compared to the other patrons in the restaurant (you woulda swore it was 65+ date night in there). Its whatever, everyone else offered their wine to me (so I got mine), but still there are principalities to this shit, Smokey! lol

Pics:





(I got mad compliments for my shirt. Two things Kevin shouldn't have at once: wine & compliment. Swagger is at 100 right now!)

Most Anticipated Movie of 2009



Its nearing really close to the end of the year, which means its finally appropriate to look into the future with joy & excitement to discuss what movies we're most looking forward to. While everyone is excited for big budget and/or big name flicks such as Watchmen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, etc etc (which I am too, trust), the one movie I'm hyped to see is called Black Dynamite. Its a spoof of the 70's Blaxploitation films & is too dead on not to be a cult classic. Check out the trailer here. After watching the trailer, check out this hilarious promo video featuring a young'n named Barry:


Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Rose That Grew From Concrete Still Has Thorns

I'm sitting here watching a CNBC re-broadcasting of Jay Leno & Conan O'Brien (I have a sick addiction to late night TV) and I'm suffering from a severe bout of writer's block. I've got a 2,000 word essay for my Movement class due on Tuesday (Thank God, I'll have Monday to procrastinate) and I can't think of any decent way to start the paper. Its another one of these open ended, BS essays that asks you to discuss some random paragraph long quote. No author, no context, just given to us to interpret & relate to our experience somehow. Shoot, it sounds like the professor just opened a book & pulled a random, nice sounding quote out of it at 11:52 the night beforehand. And you wonder why we students procrastinate? Anyway, I was looking for something to write about & get some exercise for the brain muscle, then I remembered that I wrote blog post in my journal last week. So, I'm gonna use this space to exercise my brain & hopefully be slightly entertaining as well.

Its been just over 2 weeks since Barack became our President elect. Elation, pride, & relief could be felt as soon as the final image was final projected on our TV screens. We had done it. We finally got it right. Our voice will finally be reflected in our Government (fingers crossed, knock on wood, and all that good stuff; I got the 4 leaf clovers too, so we're covered). And until we the brotha takes office, we're all gonna party (literally and figuratively) like its 2099. We got white people blasting will.i.am's Obama songs in celebration, while the Us's are bumpin Jeezy's "My President Is Black" like its our new national anthem. But what happens when the party's over? What happens when the reality sets in that this brotha ain't the only person with a job to do?

The aftermath after this momentous occasion has left me feeling a little unsettled though. It seems like some people's rationality has been blinded by our good fortune and faith. It reminds me of the unsettled feeling you get sometimes after eating a really good meal. I know its a random metaphor, but let me explain myself. It's like we've been eating poorly for years (a Super Size Me last 8 years) and then we get the bright idea to get in better shape before we really hit rock bottom. So we spend all day cooking & finally get this healthy, energy boosting meal to feast on. We're drinking red wine with it, feeling so good that we start to sing and dance with whoever is around, but in the midst of it all, our stomach still rumbles a lil bit. We may wanna forget, but we can't shake the fact that our body is still sick & that one healthy feast ain't gonna cure us no time soon. Once again, I admit its strange, but it serves its purpose.

From damn near every Irish person I spoke with last week, I heard that "America's back!" and that we've instantly got our credibility back. Then I started hearing from celebrities & public figures such as Oprah, Will Smith, and Al Sharpton (I already know, but lemme make my point) that "Black people's excuses are all gone" and "Rappers will have to change their image since Barack will be the new image of Black cool". After those statements, I'm reading some of my favorite political blogs and seeing comments from Black conservatives gloating about how the rest of the Us's would start coming over to their way of thinking now that we can see that hardwork alone can afford us the same opporuntity as anyone else in this country. No matter how ridiculous these statements are, the sentiment that reeks from them diminishes the history of African-Americans and lacks the nuance and thoughtfulness that would appropriately reflect Obama's triumph.

At first, I just brushed it all off. Its whatever, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But eventually, it started to irk me. It ain't just a matter of opinion, some stuff is just wrong. I mentioned in another post how it irked me when some of my fellow American classmates over here act all ashamed of being American in front of our Irish counterparts. So, now I'm starting to take offense to Irish folk (and I'm sure the rest of Europe too) telling me that America instantly has regained credibility. You ain't gotta tell me about Bush's fuckups, I remember both elections clearly & knew better than to vote for his dumbass back in 2000 (and I was only 13!), but let's not act get too crazy now. America's still at the top of the food chain & if we ain't doin good there's gonna be major rammifications for everybody else (i.e. the economy), so stop throwing rocks at the throne.

As for Will & Oprah, I love y'all, but Negroes please! Stop peddling this idea that all Black people do is complain about our situation & racial harmony has arrived. Y'all just got another in your stratosphere of mega successful Black people who White people don't necessarly think of as "Black" anymore, but that don't mean that you gotta throw the rest of us under the bus. There ain't but so much room in your category, so instead of acting like we all should be where y'all are at (which is an impossibility in our capitalistic society) maybe y'all should help us do better at our level. Some of us aren't making excuses, but rather looking at facts & reading up on our history and asking why so much has stayed the same as we've progressed so far. Instead of being helpful with those soundbites, they're up there stiring the pot of confusion.

Al Sharpton. I respect dude's history & his efforts on behalf of our civil rights, but he stays losin when it comes to speaking on Hip-Hop (among other things). Yeah, Barack is cool as a polar bear's toenails (OutKast all day, ery'day), even Ebony magazine said so. But does he think that we can only have one image of cool at a time? Just as 50 Cent only represents a small portion of us, Barack only represents a portion of us too. What Hip-Hop needs, and this specifically applies to its images, is balance. At one time, you could hear Biz Markie on the radio as much as Kool G Rap. Beautiful, that's what we need. Little Brother should get as much play as G-Unit. Wale should be as uqibutous as Lil Wayne. And Jim Jones, Shawty Lo, and Soulja Boy should be silenced forever. That would improve the image problem in Hip-Hop & for Black youth, not just funneling kids from one image to the other.

I'm not even gonna waste my fingers (pause) on them Black conservatives. To even be one means that they're past talking to or about. But I suppose my point is that what happened on Nov. 4th, as of right now, only means that we're willing to give change a chance. Whether it really happens or not is up to us. The economy is still in the tank, we're still at war, still occupying other countries, still racially divided, still denying rights to homosexuals, still underpaying teachers & underfunding schools, etc etc. For every good thing we have going, we got another huge issue to face, and so is life. Let's keep that in perspective as we continue to move on from here.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Humor Is My Anti-Drug


This weekend, I decided that I was staying in & taking some me time. Last week, I had a paper to write (which means procrastinating until the wee hours of the morning), Obama got elected (which means i had every excuse to lose my mind, but didnt since there weren't any other Black people around), then went to Northern Ireland for the weekend (which means, I spent too many hours sleeping on buses and in a hostel). I say all of this to illustrate the cloud of mental exhaustion that followed me around all week. Reminds me of a Nas line, "Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne/I'm deep by sound alone, caved inside in a thousand miles from home/I need a new n***a, for this black cloud to follow/Cause while it's over me it's too dark to see tomorrow".

Now my week wasn't that bad, in fact I enjoyed most of it, but still it completely turned me off to doin it big this weekend. Plus, add in the fact that I'd going to Rome to see my lady next weekend (I'm geeked up; go on & hate me now), it wouldn't make sense to overexert myself & have to stumble through another exhausting week. Damn, now I've rambled on for a paragraph & half without getting to my point. Here it is: I was killing time online & came across the season finale of Real Time w/ Bill Maher. It was hilarious as usual, totally cheered me up, and hit some points I was getting ready to post about soon (I will throw my two cents in, just cause). Check out the end of his show, with one of my favorite New Rules sections ever.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Cheers!

(A Gorgeous Night, captured by moi)
(ROAR! lol)
(One of the coolest pieces of art in the British Museum)
(In front of the stage at The Globe Theater)
(Jesus In The Sand, on the River Thames)

These are just a couple random photos to give you a taste of my London trip. I took 300 photos during a 5 day trip, so these are just scratching the surface of what I saw & experience over in the Queen's hometown. This trip was probably the best part of my time abroad so far. I don't say that to discount Dublin in any way, because I've had & continue to have great times here, but during the London trip, everything came together for me. It was the perfect mix of exploration, discovery, education, inspiration, freedom, and comfort all in one vacation. Yes, I viewed this a vacation. Primarily, I thought of it like that because it was the only way I could mentally prepare for it without negative thoughts creeping in. You try traveling with the same group of 12 people who you've spent the last 6 six weeks in class with. I got nothing but love for the group, they're great folks, but spending as much time with each other as we do can make a brotha get agitated from time to time.

But I ain't tryin to dwell on any negative worries, let me tell y'all about the awesomeness of my time in the home of the Union Jack. 5 plays in 3 days, this was the plan & as you can tell, the itinerary was tight. On the first day, we got in, checked into our ridiculous hostel (more on that in a sec), and had about an hour to ourselves before we headed off for our first show. We had been up extra early, around 6am since we had to be at the airport at 7:30am that morning, so that first play (Creditors by Alan Strindberg; highly recommended) was a little rough to sit through. After the show & some dinner, we returned to our hostel & decided that we'd be better off staying in & getting some sleep rather than prowling around the city. Let me tell you about this hostel then. It's called The Generator and in my guidebook, it was listed as one of the most popular hostels in London. Sounds wonderful, right? Well, it wasn't exactly the dream hostel. First, true to its name, the hostel had a cheesy power plant motif to its design. Neon lights, sheet metal, orange & blue walls, a little metal fencing thrown in for good measure...you get the general idea. Next, the place is massive; there were about 800 people staying at the hostel. We saw at least 3 huge 20-25 people groups checking in while we were there, so just imagine the madness that could arise from such a scenario. On both the plus & minus side of things was the Generator Bar. On the plus side, the drink were cheap & the house mixed drinks were quality. On the minus side, the bar had these themed nights for each night of the week & we happened to check in on Karoke Night (insert horror movie music here). If you thought Karoke was bad in the States, conjure up a visual of a motely crew of foreigners taking turns butchering popular American songs from the 80s & 90s. It would of taken all of my dough for the trip to drink away the embarassment I felt for them as I killed time playing the world's worst game of snooker (the British cousin of pool). Actually, I think my snooker skills complimented the singing pretty well. A shame indeed, a shame indeed.

The next day we had free time around the city, went to see 2 shows, and were given a tour of The Globe theater. I got a chance to kill the majority of my free time in the National Museum (I'll pontificate on museums and such in another post) & then got my grub on over at Camden Market. The best part of the day though was our Indian dinner, which ended up being more of a feast than anything. This was an IES sponsored event, which meant they were picking up the check, which further meant I was indulging myself thoroughly. We get to the restaurant, Kwality, around 5:30pm & the fun started from there. Our program director, Ashley (its a dude), made the mistake of telling us that we could order like 3 or 4 appetizers & some drinks to start. Of course, we're getting the most delicious sounding dishes (sorry I don't remember them) and poppin' bottles of red & white wine to rinse our palettes with. He also orders us like 5 bowls of rice & mad naan on the side. What about dinner you ask? Why of course we get our choice of entree, no questions asked, so I really didn't want to imagine what that final bill looked like. For whatever reason, probably cause we we're shutting that place down, it was taking forever for our meals to come, which can only mean one thing: drink more wine. You know how a nice glass of wine enhances conversation? (isn't that like a scientific fact? if not, i'll prove it soon) Well, let's just say that we had more fun talking about any & everything than we had in awhile. When the food finally came, we stuffed our faces so much that even the White folk were scared about getting the itis. I've grown to really enjoy Indian food & its something I can imagine myself being completely in love with.

Saturday, day three. Alright, so you know that no trip anywhere is complete without a mention of one my embarassing moments. Ok, I have a reputation here for falling asleep during plays. I have my reasons for why this happens, but at the end of the day nobody listens to my valid excuses. Well, in order to keep myself from falling asleep, I decided that I would adapt my reliance on movie snack to include a reliance on play snacks also. My theory is that if snacked on something whenever I felt myself start to dose, I'd prevent myself from falling alseep & give me a quick dose of energy as well. Well, that reasoning definitely came back to bite me in the ass during our 4th London theater visit. We saw this show called Six Characters In Search of an Author (not my taste) and it was in this beautiful old Victorian theatre in the West End. Sometime during the second act, when my attention was grabbed again, there was a really quiet part where one of the main characters in the show was going through this revelation. I'm sitting there munching on my skittles, I finish the couple I have in my hand, and reach for another handful. I'm trying to be as quiet as possible, so I'm slowly reaching my hand into the bag sitting in my lap, but since I'm distracted by the play I'm not watching what I'm doing, and the next thing you know...Spppppssshhhhhh! The damn skittles splash all over the floor in front of me, in the middle of a classy West End theater. D'oh! Everyone heard & I know all the folks in my program knew it was my i'gnant self, so I was past embarassment at this point. Thankfully, my incident was trumped by a little old lady, about 6 rows up from me, later in the show. At the end of the show, one of the characers commits suicide & she shouts out "Come on! This is rubbish!" in her strong British accent, all while everyone else it silent & the stage lights are beginning to go out. People started giggling & let's just say that her sentiment was shared and the crowd showed this in their applause. Every show I've seen in Europe has had a double bow, meaning that they come back out to take a second, or sometimes even third, bow because the audience was so strong. This time, not so much; they barely received the double bow.

Ok, its extremely late as I'm writing this, so I'mma call it a night. More on London soon. I havent talked about my personal renaissance or the museums or seeing friends, so there's much more where this came from.

Peace & Blessings, y'all.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Playing Catch Up

I'm back, in full effect, and this time I mean business. I was reading my last blog post to remind myself how long its been since I put up some stories & I was shocked when the reality hit me that I've prolly got 2 weeks worth of experiences to share. Some I'll have to condense (I say that now...), but hopefully the notes I've been taking in my journal will help jog my memory. Here we go...


Amsterdam

Okay, so a couple weeks ago while we were on midterm break, I had the glorious opportunity to go to infamous Amsterdam for a couple of days. Let me just admit to everyone: the real reason I wanted to study abroad was to get a chance to go to Amsterdam. I can't even front, no matter where I studied or what I would have to do, going to Europe equaled a mandatory trip to Amsterdam, plain & simple. With all this said, you can imagine the anticipation I felt sitting in the airport & waiting for the trip to commence. It was a smooth plane ride there, complete with deep slumber & a heavenly view of the clouds as we descended down to the Amsterdam airport. We catch the train from the airport into the city & I'm getting more and more geeked up for it because I'm seeing graffiti all over the place as the train glides through the outer towns. Anything Hip-Hop related is like butta (not Parkay, not margarine...) to me, I'm an easy man to please. After about 20 minutes on the train, illegally sitting in 1st class, we arrive in the city. Gorgeous sunshine is shining on me & it just keeps getting better as I see more Black people in one area than I had seen in 2.5 months. I mean it was beautiful, Black families walking together from store to store, clearly not tourists either. Working men with briefcases, young dudes that looked just like my little brother & his friends, women pushing strollers, it was just something to behold. Then my biggest shock came when I took my headphones off & heard them folk speaking Dutch. Just imagine walking up to a dude that looks like a Tyrone or Malcolm or something & trying to say "What's good, bruh?" and then that brotha busts out some Dutch on yo' ass! Trust me, I was buggin. Then the icing on the cake was layed on thick when I heard a brotha cruisin down the street bumpin' "So Many Tears" by 2Pac. Come on, man! I am home.

Ok, back to the city itself. And please don't be misled, there were more Black people than Dublin, but the city is by no means a Chocolate City. There were people on bikes everywhere, they even had special bike lanes on the sidewalks where bikers would run your tail over if you got in their way. No of that pedestrian right of way BS, them bikers had full intentions of playin chicken with you & watching you lose. Its sunny, there are Black people, bikers everywhere, a 42K marathon going on, I'm getting my first glimpse at the canals, and all of this is within the first 20 minutes of arriving. Dublin eat your heart out, I'm never coming back. Or at least that what I had started to think. Eventually, that thought calmed down with the quickness.

To give you a proper perspective on the city, let me give you a couple facts. Sexual innuendo is rampant, phallic symbols are unescapeable. All the metal poles in the city (you know the joints that are on the sidewalk to prevent a car from swerving into pedestrians?) are obviously penises. Also, there is a huge penis monument in the heart of the city. At first, its funny. But imagine spending 3 days staring at penises everywhere you go & not being able to get away from them, not funny anymore & actually does more to desexualize you than arouse anything other than disgust. Also, you see all the tourists crawling in and out of the coffeeshops at all hours of the day. Although being able to get a weed menu & be educated on the best ways to enjoy ganja by a barista is an experience that every person should have, the tourist aspect of it all did strike me as ultimately sad in a way. It stands in stark contrast to what mature consumption should be. Just like kids binge drink in America like they're gonna find the key to everlasting happiness at the bottom of the 15th can of Natti Light, tourists (myself included) crawl in out of these shops in search of a haze that'll ascend us to a higher consciousness. In neither case are these outcomes achieved and locals, who can indulge themselves legally everyday, are chill and mature when it comes to it.

I suppose you can tell by this point that Harold & Kumar, Cheech & Chong fantasy that I had was dashed with a stiff dose of reality. Chibbi (my housemate) and I stumbled around the city, checked out some cool museums, saw an improv show (it was aiight), crashed in our hippie hostel. No debauchery to report. We were in town from Sunday to Wednesday, so we definitely missed the party nights. Final thoughts before I post some pics:

  • The canals were very pretty, but every street & canal looks exactly the same. Its confusing enough sober, just imagine how it is under the influence.
  • There were no free museums in the city. Huge flaw. Almost fatal in my eyes. I'm from the DC metro area, we don't pay to get cultured. What's all that about?
  • The Red Light District. A man's fantasy playland, right? Wrong. For every one of these you see, there is another one of these waiting in the next window.
  • There were pretty women riding bikes everywhere. I am currently looking at bikes to buy my girlfriend for Christmas.
  • The Heineken Experience was closed. Major disappointment. After being to the Guinness Storehouse twice though, it was prolly for the best that Heineken was closed. Little compares to a pint of the Black stuff.
  • Dutch = an incredibly unsexy langaguage. It looks ugly on paper & sounds even worse. No wonder its not on anyone's radar to learn in school.
Next story, London! For now though, here are some pics:

The lovely Van Gogh Musuem (well worth the money)


A night out on the town


The Tower of Penis (come on, thats just too much)


These little things are everywhere (hitch your bike to that!)


One day, I'll own a house like that (and no you can't crash there)

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Friday Night, Out On The Town (Part 2)

Part 2, here we go...

I've left Brogan's & I'm on my way to meet Bryan & a friend of his from school at a pub called Anseo (which means here in Gaelic). I had been wanting to go to Anseo for awhile because I read good things about it online, so needless to say, I was excited. I get there, meet Bryan, but he lost contact with his friend, so he finally gets through to her & goes to get her. He challenges me to make friends with people in the pub while he gets his friend & we'll meet up soon. After about 10 minutes of being the akward guy watching people, sipping my pint, standing against the wall alone, I spot some American girls (they easily stand out) sitting at the bar & decide to go talk to them. I was quite nervous about this situation for a couple reasons: 1) I have a girlfriend, so in the back of my mind I'm thinking "Farah wouldn't like this. Don't get yourself in trouble." 2) Meeting girls in bars has never been my forte; I refuse to use pick-up lines, but even just saying "Hi, my name is..." is more difficult than need be these days and 3) I have girlfriend who I'm very serious about, so my general interest level in talking to them isn't very high (and I promise you, I'm not trying to suck up or cover my ass by saying that, even though I prolly could use the brownie points, lol).

Needless to say, my male ego kicked in & I started up a conversation with the girls (one Asian, one Blonde). As long as I look at it as me being a good wingman & making pretty friends to eventually funnel to Bryan, we're all good. The convo starts akwardly on my part, complete with a totally weak "excuse me", followed by a couple of handshakes & "hi, my name is kevin. what's your name?" intros. Luckily, they let me keep rambling akwardly until I had something decent to say & we started a conversation. It was the typical who-what-when-where-&-why small talk that you always do. The Blonde, Allie, is a loud-mouthed, slightly trashy looking girl with the unfortunate blonde hair with dark roots hair style. The Asian, Dee, was a cute, petite girl, simple & classy. Let me just say that, in this case, birds of a feather do not flock together. I mention that I'm an acting student studying here in Dublin and they inform me that they're studying in Paris & are here for the weekend. Allie, with a smart ass attitude, then tells me to perform a monologue for her to prove that I'm an actor. Note to anyone who meets an actor: unless you're a booking agent or have legit connections that could get some a job, don't ask an actor to perform for you when he/she is out socially, especially in a crowded bar. That alone is a pet peeve of mine, I'm not a puppet or a trained chimp, I don't perform on command. If you're a business student, I don't tell you to do a spreadsheet for me, so don't ask me do a monologue at the drop of a dime. Anyway, I'm a little thrown off & pissed, but in order to save face & by time for Bryan to get back, I give it a fair shot. Unfortunately, I lost focus & failed on delivering my monologue, so I just took the L & was gonna let it ride.

To Allie, that was unacceptable, and she tried to give me the business about it & then started to talk down to me about acting not being a real profession. Y'all know me, I'm an argumenative person, especially when it comes to something I love, so we had to go at it at that point. We're debating her ludicrous claims back and forth, which include such gems as "It doesn't take talent to be a great actor/actress at all, it only takes connections. Take Paris Hilton for example", "I could be a great actress right now if I wanted. I know everything about acting because my mother's best friend was an actress", and "Acting isn't a real major. The only real majors are Poli-Sci & Pre-Med". Now, I know you're probably saying to yourself, "Kevin, why would you waste your breath trying to argue with someone who's obviously stupid? You can't debate ridiculousness with rationality." And to that point, all I can say is that a brotha felt disrespected & I wasn't fittin' to back down to someone beneath my intelligence level. Pride is a hella of a drug, lol. While all this going on, her poor friend Dee has just been sitting on the side tuning in & out. When she finally tuned in, she sided with me (of course), and we proceeded to wreck Allie's argument tag team style. That was like her only opportunity to be in the conversation though, cause Allie wouldn't shut the hell up. Mind you, I can't stand this Allie chick but my fatal flaw is that I can't ignore that chance to tell someone they're stupid once I've started, so poor Dee is getting no attention. It so bad that the bartender made friends with her & was giving her free drinks cause she looked lonely. Somehow I gave up my mission to educate Allie & the three of us had a decent, civil conversation for a lil while & then Bryan showed up. He's boo'd up with his random lady friend though, so he offers me no help in how to get out of this conversation. The girls decide that they wanna go to Temple Bar, so I give them directions in an attempt to get them out of my hair (actually it was just because of Allie, she was demon spawn). They asked me to come with them, I thought "Oh hell to the naw", and politely declined using the "I have to stay with my friend" line (apparently it works for guys too). It was too bad though, because Dee was cute & I'm sure Bryan would of liked her, but whatever, he didn't need me to play wingman that night. Him and the lady friend seemed like they were heading in the same direction at the end of the night.

Ok, American girls gone. As soon as they left, a couple friends of ours who go to Trinity College in Dublin walk in. Great timing, people I actually enjoy talking to & haven't seen in weeks, now I'm back in an optimistic mood. The pub closes at like midnight, so we're disappointed & decide to find a late pub. We make it to Doyle's, right across the street from Trinity, and we had a good time. Doyle's is a nice pub, filled with college students & has 3 different floors with bars. We talk downstairs for awhile, then decide to go upstairs where the dance floor is. The dance floor is an interesting space full of people making out or akwardly trying to dance (mostly standing there bouncing in an uncoordinated way, with their feet seemingly glued to the ground). If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right? I had to make some fun for myself since my buzz was gone & I didn't have a strong urge to pay for any overpriced pint, so I dropped my Blackness for sec & danced like a lil kids just tossing my limbs around. Everyonce in awhile, they'll play something soulful and/funky, so I would catch my Blackness again for about 2 minutes per every 20 minutes. They love to play "Kiss" by Prince here, it may be their favorite Black song ever, so I rocked heavy to that. Also, "Intergalatic" by the Beastie Boys and "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice allowed me to feel slightly included on the dance floor. But they finished up with a killer finale of "I Want You Back" -Jackson 5, "Hit The Road, Jack" -Ray Charles, & "Shout" -Otis Day & The Knights (the Animal House version we all know, even though i just was reminded that it was originally an Isley Brothers song). When I tell you I tore it up, I'm saying I tore. it. up. That was a lot of fun, just losing it to those songs & I was satisfied with my night at that point. It was 2:45 am & I needed to be in bed. We we're scheduled to catch the 9am bus to Belfast that same saturday morning, and I did't get home until 3:45am, so you can imagine the type of morning I had on the way to Belfast.

***Update (or flashback)***
I forgot to tell y'all what happened on the way back from Doyle's. I leave Doyle's with one of the girls that lives down the hall from me. Its about a 30 minute walk back to the apartments, so we're just chatting away, trying to keep our minds off the cold and our fatigue as well. We're walking up Harcourt St & we can see a crowd start to form near this major venue called Tripod. Being the true Americans that we are, we make sure to get close enough to see the train wreck that was occuring. At first, we just saw some beligerent Irish guy & his girl fighting outside the club, almost spilling out into the street. Literally 10 seconds after we joined the crowd, this police van pulls up with its tires screeching & cops hopping out of the doors as if it was an '08 remake of the A-Team. Three of them go to break up the altercation and one grabs the guy & places the guy's hands behind his back while dragging him over to the van. For whatever stupid reason, the guy (who's not handcuffed at this point) decides that it would be great idea to fight the cop! He pulls his hand free and gets one solid haymaker in before the police struck down upon him with the cruel backhand of the law. When I tell you that they whooped this guy's ass, I mean 5 of them threw him to the ground got a couple hits in for good measure, pinned him to the concrete to cuff him, the picked him up (as if he was a corpse, but belly facing down) & threw him into the back of the van on his face. His girl tried to stand up for him, but she knew she didn't stand a chance & they didn't need more than one officer to subdue her attempt. Now, I've done my fair share of poking fun at the cops over here. They call them Guards (because of the Galiec name of the force), they don't have guns, and their batons look more light them 2lbs freeweights than anything daunting. But that night, they proved their hardbodieness. I now feel 2x more safe here & 2.5x more cautious to make sure that I don't end up as the Black Leprechan Rodney King. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post:

More on the Northern Ireland trip soon though. To sum it all up, I enjoyed the evening because it gave me a little bit of everything I enjoy. A little dancing, a couple of pints, some really good conversations, some humorous akwardness, a reason to argue/debate, reuniting with good people, finding a new place, enjoying the typicall stomping grounds. It was like a month of friday nights rolled into one friday night. Does that ever happen to y'all?

Friday Night, Out On The Town (Part 1)

So...I've got a couple posts written that need to go up, so I'm throwing them up here even though it throws my story progression out of order. I hate to do it, because I have flashes of OCD about things, but I've had so much on my mind that its been impossible to keep things in order. And without further ado...

You ever just have one of those nights where things just keeping happening over and over again? Not necessarily the same thing, but you move from one spot to another & the story of the evening just builds and builds on top of itself? That was how my friday night was last week.

So, I got back from the Wicklow mountains (gorgeous; more on it in an upcoming post) & made general plans with my friend Bryan to try out a new pub that evening. I arrive home not knowing what to expect because my roommate Mattieu has his girlfriend in town for the weekend. Matt is a French student studying at the European Business School, and also a recluse who doesn't speak English very well (even though he's taken it for 10 years he says, go figure). With this picture painted for you, I think you can understand why I had no idea what to expect from his lady. Turns out, of course, that she seems pleasant. She doesn't speak English at all, or at least didn't attempt to, and had this innocent, playful energy to her (even though I never had a clue what her & Matt were talking about). It was really nice to see them together though, cause he doesn't seem to have any friends here (he never goes out, he's on his computer 10 hours a day!), and they seem like a cute, really-in-love couple. Now, Matt is a very perculiar fellow as well. His diet is very simple, consisting of only Hamburgers, White Bread, Chocolate Muffins, Orange Juice, & occasionally Baked Beans. I'm dead serious too, I couldn't make this stuff up. So of course when him & his lady wanna make dinner, what's on the menu? Burgers & OJ! I was in the common area, eating my own dinner at the time (steak & pasta, I gets it in! lol), so this would explain why I know all the business. You gotta keep track of what goes on in your apartment. Getting back to the story, let me add in that Matt doesn't seem to like to use the dishwasher. We've shown him how, he's seen us do it, but he prefers to wash all his dishes by hand (when he gets to them). When he was cleaning up, I put my dishes in the dishwasher & his girlfriend, who was sitting by the counter, made one of those "oh shit" faces. Now, once again I can't decipher what she said, but her inflection and body language was quite universal when she started questioning Matt. Even my ig'nant ass could tell that she was like "You have a dishwasher? Why the hell are you wasting all this time scrubbing them plates?" After we've eaten seperate dinners, I'm watching TV & chillin in the common area & they return to the room. I'm waiting for Bryan to hit me up, so we can see what this new pub is like, so I decide to get dressed & ready. I go to the bathroom & lo-and-behold, here are Matt & girlfriend (I don't remember her name, its hard to remember people you can't have a conversation with) in the bathroom just chillin. Needless to say, this was akward as hell, but they weren't doing anything sexual. It looked like was showing her his razors & shaving gel, but still "WTF, Charles?" Then, about 15 minutes later, I go to the room to pick up my shoes & I happen to walk in on an intimate moment. Once again, nothing scandalous, but this time she was under the covers & I heard a certain giggle as I entered the room. Another universal sign; no matter what the language barrier, I knew Matt was fittin' ta get him sum. At this point, I'm like I gotta leave, I don't want to really get in the way, so I ain't waiting for a phone call no more. Its 8:20 something pm & I'm out the door, in search of a watering hole (pause, no red card).

Since Bryan hasn't called me yet & I didn't have his number due to a mix up, I decided to go to Brogan's Bar. Brogan's is a favorite of the Gaiety students because its right around the corner from school & they look out for you there. I knew the Gaiety students, plus some of my IES friends, would be there, so I was looking forward to it. There I met up with some people, a mix of my friends plus 1st & 2nd year acting students at Gaiety, grabbed a pint of Guinness and nudged my way into some conversations. I had a great talk with a guy named Mark, talking about the US & Ireland. He had some questions about comedic differences between Whites & Blacks, I had some questions about Irish pride & culture, so all in all I'd like to believe that it was mutually beneficial. After talking for awhile (I couldn't tell ya how long, ya know time flies when you let me gab on, especially about race in America), Mark got up to go smoke a cigarette. While I'm drinking my pint, eavesdropping on the conversation next to me, this guy sitting across from me starts up a conversation. (Side note: one of the things I really like about Ireland is that in the pub, anyone can strike up a conversation with you. You don't see people all akward & lonely too often.) He starts off the conversation asking me about the election (the easiest icebreaker ever for foreign relations; its almost as cliche as "what's your sign?" to me, thats how often i get asked about it), then he switches into saying that I look like Kanye West (haven't heard that one in awhile) and sharing his love for Kanye and his dislike of 50 Cent. He starts telling me how he can relate to rap music & how Kanye is inspirational to him, he loves how Kanye came from nothing (not true actually, but I let him talk) and made himself into somebody, and yada-yada-ya. Its always funny to me to hear people abroad talking about how they relate to Hip-Hop. Its never somebody with a Hip-Hop consciousness who I get in these conversations with, they're all casual voyers of the culture, who probably are more U2 and Oasis fans than Jay-Z fans. I know struggle is universal & that's why Hip-Hop crosses all borders, but hearing someone talk about it without the knowledge of its African-American context makes for a interesting listen.

So this guy, Derrick, is talking to me about how he relates to the struggle & then somehow segueways into informing me of this huge drug bust in southern Ireland the day before. About 1 billion euros worth of cocaine was sezied by the Irish Navy, so I'm told, and he informs me that cocaine is the main drug in Ireland. Useful information, I know. I start to tell him with my run in with a cokehead at a pub called the Bleeding Horse (once again, I can't make this stuff up), which was hosting a party for Optometry students, and how I unintentionally befriended the cokehead by mentioning that I was a Kanye West fan (see how it all comes full circle?). He's not too interested in my story though, as he wants to explain the drug trade to me. He breaks it down for me by telling me that you can sell 1.25g of cocaine for 100 euros. Now, I don't know how much 1.25g of coke is; I never done coke, nor seen it in person, only in the movies & TV. Hell, I still don't get the metric system, so this info is really going over my head. Anyway, he's excited & animated while he's telling me this, so I'm playing along like I'm impressed. Then he tells me that extacy (is that how you spell it?) pills are huge also; he says he could get 1,000 pills for 1,000 euros, than sell them for 5 euro a pop. Now this was a lil easier to understand, buy it for 1 & flip it for 5, simple math on that one. Still though, why is this guy giving me a beginners course in the Irish drug trade? He goes on to mention that he sells drugs, which would explain his 2008 Miami Vice look, and that you do what you gotta do to make money. Ahh, the simple rational of a criminal. It is so refreshing to the law-abiding citizens ear. But wait, there's more. Next, he proceed to reflect on how he held up a convience store, Menace II Society style, by sticking the place up with a .38 snub nose....at 14 years old! Gangstas make the world go 'round, y'all. He claimed to ran off with 5,000 Irish pounds (this was obviously before the Euro was created), which was so much money that he couldn't even hide it in his home. He said he was just leaving money all over the place in the house. Coming from the Black tradition, I'm used to hearing tall tales. Shoot, I do my fair share of telling them too. One of the many things that the Black and Irish cultures share is a love for exaggerated storytelling, and when some is giving you the run around by telling a tall tale, they call it slagging. While I'm listening to this ridiculous story, I'm thinking to myself "Aww great, here I am being the naieve American. He's got to be slagging me," so I start laughing and doing the whole "Come on, really? You'se a funny guy" routine. When I say that to him, he looks me dead in eye & tells me that he swears he's telling the truth. He licks his forefinger and draws a cross across his adams apple; this guy has officially creeped me out for the evening. He finishes his story by telling me that he has this tiny little bedroom in his apartment, no bigger than the corner everybody was sitting, but that he was getting so much dough that he bought himself a 52 inch plasma screen TV to put in there (officially a Negro please worthy statement). His mother started asking a lot of questions as to how he was getting all this money (he had told me earlier that he was a stagehand & once worked a Kanye concert, which played into why he was a fan), so he bought her a 42 inch plasma screen for her living room & told her to stop asking questions.

Derrick, after chatting me up for awhile, decides its time for him to take a smoke break. Being the awfully polite drug dealer that he is, he asks if I'd like to smoke as well. Thanks but no thanks, I'll just finish my pint. He steps outside & I decide to make my move to leave. Before I left though, I felt compelled to tell my friend Tara to stay away from him & text me when she left, even though I knew she still was with at least six people who we knew very well & would get her home safely. I noticed earlier, pre-confession, that Derrick was quite fond of her, putting his arm around her & buying her a pint (even though she said she didn't want one & was a lil tipsy after her 1st pint). Seeing how he characterized himself as a real go-getter & one not to get caught up on morality and ethical decision making, I felt slightly bad leaving her in the same vicinity of him, but it ain't like I was leaving her alone at all. I was off to the next pub to see what more fun could be had.

Part 2 coming up next...

Friday, October 31, 2008

The Proudest Adult Moment of My Life (so far)



Ladies and gentleman, there is officially no better feeling than contributing to a historical event. As you can see, this is me dropping my official absentee ballot in the mail on my way to class on Thursday afternoon. I had previously felt good about sending in my Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, which would still make my vote count in case I didn't get my official ballot (voting abroad is more complicated than necessary), but now I have the joy of saying that I filled out the official ballot that I would of done if I was back in Columbia. I do miss the retirement home polling place that I grew up going to with my mom when she voted.


But anyway, as many of you know, I've been on cloud 9 the past couple of days. The same Thursday that I voted, I was feeling really good. My iPod was wicked on the shuffle (kids, go grab Cameo's greatest hits, them boys ain't no joke!), I got my Halloween costume (that's a forthcoming post), and I had a wonderful, warm feeling about those closest to me in my life. Along with that personal joy, the rain had subsided in Dublin, which is always a cause for celebration. I really felt like God had parted the gloominess of the day to share his shine with me both inwards and outwards. As I basked in this feeling, and danced down the street to "Back and Forth" by Cameo, I took pictures outside of the tennis club where we have class in twice a week. I wanted to document how the sky looked when I was feeling highly favored, so these are the pics:

After I took these pictures, I realized that class wasn't at the tennis club that day & had to bust my butt to get up to the IES center (not too far away, but still) before I was too late. I had been so caught up in the feeling, and especially my music, that I forgot where I was supposed to be. If God was showing favor, I'm sure He also was setting me up to amuse him with my absent-mindedness. I love the idea of that duality. I hope things fall into place in your lives & y'all all get a chance to have a divine moment like that sometime soon.

Peace & blessings y'all!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Back On My BS

Hey hey hey

I'm writing this right now just to tell y'all that I got a bunch of stories coming from my week long vacation. I would start the process of sorting through all my pics & all the notes I took to remind myself of everything that went down in Amsterdam & London, but I'm supposed to be writing papers & rehearsing my monologue. Oh, I'm also supposed to read a play. Yikes! I'm breaking my rules right now cause I got the itch. I hate the overused, cliched addiction, I-need-a-fix-like-a-crackhead metaphor, so I'll just say that I got this intense fever to just write. Y'all know I think a lot, about a bunch of random stuff, and that I occasionally get deep & philosophical outta nowhere, so expect some posts like that soon. Too much is going on for me to keep it all in my head (and I think Farah is getting a little tired of being my only outlet, even though she won't admit it, lol).

Topics soon to come:
  • Amsterdam - It is & isn't exactly what you think
  • Airport Security
  • Internal Monologues (Why you inside joking with yourself? Dueces to Mr. Sterling! hahah)
  • Dutch is an unsexy language (which prolly explains why no one outside of the Netherlands speaks it)
  • Developing a passion for art
  • Remembering what I actually like to learn as opposed to what I'm forced to learn
  • Liminality (look it up, I just learned what it meant)
  • Diversity abroad
  • The search for wisdom
  • Everyone keeps telling me to write a damn book, but about what?
Trust, I got a lot to say (don't I always?), so hopefully I'll take a portion out of my day here & there & share more with y'all. Until then, be safe, smart, strong, & beautiful like I knew each of you were when I left & VOTE FOR OBAMA!

(Seriously though, vote! I'm prolly speaking to the choir here, but still I can't go without saying that. And if, surprisingly, you're a McCain supporter, its best you not speak to me until 2009, cause right now I'd question my friendship with you.)

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Thursday, October 16, 2008

It Ain't Over...

(I promise only had 1 drink that night, I just look goofy. lol)

So, I would be completely remiss to say that my weekend only was great because of Farah. The majority of it, yes, but I gotta show some love to my buddy Anna also for stopping by to see a brotha. Her & some her girlfriends we're actually in town visiting Dublin together, but you know we had to link up & have some pints together. Farah & I actually planned to go out with them on Saturday night, but we weren't feeling to hot after stuffing ourselves silly at this bomb ass Asian fusion restaurant. So, I made plans with Anna to meet up with her & her girls on Sunday night, not the best night for going out, but whatever.

We went to this pub called Porterhouse Central, a nice pub with good local brews & cheesy pop/rock music. Side note: I had gone there randomly with a a group of friends for one of my classmate's birthday that same week & due to a mix of good beer & desperation for ANY black music, I showed out to MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" & Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman". Not my finest moment, even though I love those classics, but I just figured that'll give y'all some insight to my experience.

Me & the ladies had a nice time talking about politics, studying abroad, traveling, missing bf's/gf's, why I call Anna "Applehead", and exchanging roommate stories, all before heading to a late night spot for some delicious pizza. Good times.

I forgot to mention, I visited a new town this past weekend also. So, Sunday morning I rode to the airport with Farah & had the sad "I don't wanna say good-bye" moment, and as you can imagine, I wasn't in the best mood going back. After the 25 minute trip back to City Centre, I'm walking up street to get to the light rail & I here my name being called (which was miraculous seeing as though I was blasting The Game loud as hell in my headphones). Turns out that it was my classmate that live down the hall from me, and in the midst of a 5 minute convo, they somehow convinced me to go to Howth with them. Howth is a seaside town outside of Dublin, which is a 30 minute train ride away. It's known for having great seafood.

Mind you, I'm not feeling real personable right now. One of the closest people to me just left, plus I just threw whatever clothes were on the floor on (y'all know them type of mornings), so the thought of exploring a new town wasn't high on my list of priorities. But I figured that seeing something new would help me get over my sadness, so I went. I'm a proud dude, my fellas wouldn't approve of me moping around all lovesick, lol. Howth was nice, as I was satisfied to find out. Its really quaint, somehwere you'd wanna live since its on the water & close to a major city without being a tourist trap. There were some great views from the lighthouse we walked to, which I couldn't take pics of since I aint have nothing on me, but trust that I'll be back with pics for y'all. There was an open air market, so you know I pig'd out on some damn good food (apple & cinnamon crepes = yuuuuuummmm). We stayed for a couple hours & then bounced, so its definitely a good trip if you wanna go out for a nice seafood dinner & walk along the coast before returning to the city to do whatever you do. Did it help me get over my lovesickness? Kinda, but moreso it just made me a little sad that I ain't have my people here with me to see this. Its one thing to reflect on my own, but I'd to share these experiences & reflect on growth with folks that know me best. One day we'll get there, but til then I'll keep blogging & keep the faith.

Peace & Blessings y'all!

Quite Possibly My Favorite Weekend Yet...

This past weekend, I had a very special visitor come spend time with me here in Dublin. Since most of y'all reading this are basically fam, you know who I'm speaking of, but for any new person or acquaintance of mine that doesn't know about my personal life, I had my girl Farah in town for the weekend.

Let's see where to start? Oh, ok I got it. So, she got in a little after 7pm on Thursday night. I have class on Thursday evenings from 4:30-7pm, so I had already told her that she'd be waiting a minute for me to get to her. I got outta class early, thankfully, and was on the search for a cab to the airport. It prolly took me a good 20 minutes to finally get a cab, cause I had to get cash but the ATM near school wasn't working & the convience store with an ATM was like 3 blocks away from me, but I finally hopped in a cab & was on my way. Anticipation at this point, through the roof. I gotta tell y'all though, the cab driver was listening to the radio on the way there & since I aint one to chat up cabbies, I listened as well. It was the most ridiculous interview I think I've ever heard. Some researcher at Oxford decided to study how Potato Chips taste based on how loud they crunch. Somebody spent a bunch of dough for this dude to sit around & watch people eat chips. And literally this interview went on for the entire 25 minute cab ride! But to his credit, there is a correlation between taste & sound, but I'll get scientific on y'all another time.

Got to the airport, paid the cabbie, hopped out like a little kid a christmas & rushed into the lobby area. Called up Farah, we talk, we're happy, we don't see each other though. I'm walking up & down this terminal looking for her, giving her landmarks to look for, reading signs out loud, but still no brown eyed girl. Finally, we figured out that we were on different floors & felt stupid, but whatever, nothing ever goes classically smooth for us anyway. We kinda pride ourselves on that. So I find her, we have a moment, then we're off to find a shuttle back to City Centre. Only problem is that I don't know where to catch the shuttle, nor do I know which bus to take back into town. Bear with me y'all, this was my first time at the airport since I arrived in Dublin & we had advisors to point us in every direction. After aimlessly walking around, trying to read maps with Gaelic town names on them, I put pride aside & asked for help (it was hard, y'all).

We get on the bus, get back into the city, & then saw the scariest thing I've witnessed since being here. We've just been dropped off in front of Trinity College, which is in the middle of City Centre, and we're waiting to cross over to Grafton St. (one of the busiest streets in Dublin). As we're watching traffic go by, we see the bus we rode on sideswipe one of these little mini Euro cars (small cars here are as popular as Hondas in America) as both cars made were making a left turn. Remember, drivers here sit on the right side of the car, so that means the bus crush the driver's side of the car! Luckily, the poor women inside was alright, even though her car was mangled. It happened so fast though, that we were stunned & in disbelief. People started rushing over to her as the bus continued driving, but soon we saw the bus driver come back & check on her, he just had to find a spot to pull over at. Imagine what Farah was thinking, she was only an hour and a half into her visit!

The next couple of days were really, really nice for the both of us. We visited a lot of sites around Dublin: Dublin Caste, Kilmainham Gaol (thats jail in Irish), Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Guinness Storehouse, Temple Bar, O'Connell St, & The Ha'Penny Bridge. A couple of these places I haven't been to, like the Gaol, so I really was glad to experience new stuff with her. We talked a couple times about how much better traveling is when you're with the right people. Obviously, being abroad you don't get to handpick your travelling buddies as you'd like, and both of us have had experiences where we've been frustrated with people we've travelled with. Its remarkable, in terms of the contrast, between travelling with nice people that aren't quite suited for you & the folks that have the same impulses & interests as you. Things were just so easy for a weekend, which was a blessing in the midst of this wonderful, yet challenging experience we're having.

It was extremely sad to see her go, but I'm going to Rome next month to visit her, so I can man up until then. Its hard having a taste of home though, because everything else pales in comparison. The next 2 days after she left, I wasn't interested in being around anybody in my program, cause they just don't measure up to her. Getting over that feeling is difficult cause it ain't fair to them, they're great people in their own right & you can't expect people you've know for 4-5 weeks to be as important to you as people who you have hundreds of memories with. I'm over my withdrawl now, so I'm back to being nice to others & enjoying my program again, but I'm also amped cause next week is our midterm break! This means your boy, Kev aka The Black Leprechaun aka The Jaguar (as someone in my program dubbed me recently), will be travelling to Amsterdam (Watch Out Now!) & London (Hi-Oh!). Expect bunches of pics & random stories from those trips. I'll blog about my plan for those trips soon. Here's some pics from the weekend & check my Facebook soon for the rest of them with captions & explainations & such:











Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Back Again, This Time With Ridiculousness!

Man, its really been over a week since I posted. I definitely knew I had to get back on this joint, but a brotha's been busy with class & visitors in that time span, so please bear with me. But before I get into a recap of what's been happening to your favorite Black boy in The Land of the Leprechauns, let me just hit y'all with some Dublin ridiculousness.

Aiight, so today I was in Aldi (a super cheap supermarket, like shopping at the Wal-Mart supercenter but with less options) & I'm in line for the check-out & I look up at the other line & what do I see? A white dude with Mullet Dreads! Yes, you read that correctly: MULLET DREADS. It was business in the front & rasta in the back! Let me give y'all a pic of Mullet Dreads that I found on Google, just so y'all have a visual to rock with:


I haven't missed my Palm Centro more than in this moment. You know that I woulda took a pic in a heartbeat on my phone, but taking out my digital camera woulda been a lil too obvious to make this work. The funniest part of it (aside from the fact that I find White dudes with dreadlocks hilariously akward) was that dude was with his girl buying a bunch of 6 packs of cheap ass beer, just like you'd imagine a redneck would do. I know stereotyping is wrong in situations like these, but this joint just screams ridiculous!

And then, when I thought the Mullet Dreads were just a bold Irish redneck fashion statement, I saw it again in an even more hilarious incarnation: The Asian Mullet Dreadhead. Come on, man! Come, On! You mean to tell me that Harold decided that he was tired of rockin the bowl cut, so he went to his barber & was like, "Gimme that Jeff Foxworthy/Bob Marley hybrid. That'll be on some next level jumpoff, son!"? What is going on? Do I even need to say Negro Please?

I hope I see more Mullet Dreads while I'm here, the amusement that I get from them is priceless. I'll blog again tomorrow with the story behind my wonderful weekend.

Peace & blessings!

Monday, October 6, 2008

As The Tables Turn

Today was the day that all of us IES students have been waiting for since we started: Integration day with the actual Gaiety students. Weeks of anticipation lead to the typical (and sometimes annoying) hysteria that comes from preparing for the unknown: nervous jokes, constant talk about how things are gonna change, repeatedly talking about who these people could be, what they'd look like, how old they'd be, etc etc.

Oh, before I forget, let me explain what integration actually means for us. Ok, we'll be working with 1st year Gaiety students for 2 classes a week (Devising & Voice). These students range in age, as the program is a highly intensive 2 year program, which I suppose is comparable to some grad school programs in the States.

Alright, so our IES group was invited to meet with the new Gaiety students at 10am over tea & coffee. I got there 15 minutes early (I'd love to say that I was trying to make a good impression, but naw, I just skipped breakfast in morning), so I proceeded upstairs where I heard people talking. Turns out that it wasn't the 1st years, but the 2nd year students, who were starting their first day back as well. They were really nice, but definitely had that seasoned look to em, so I could tell that I should just fall back & not try too hard. Other IES students show up & we wait upstairs until the meet & greet starts at 10am. You could see the nervous energy on everyone's face. It was kinda funny to watch for me, cause y'all know I'll just play it cool & low key before I get psyched out by my nerves (especially since I had got there early & already stumbled over my words already, so I couldn't of made more of an ass of myself, lol). After some akward introductions & some genuine laughs, we all headed downstairs for the meet & greet.

So we all gather in one of the classrooms. Its the 1st years (maybe 20 of em), 2nd years (another 20 probably), us (12 of us), & some staffers (like 6 of em), so we have over 50 people crowding in one of half of the room around a table with tea & coffee. You can imagine the quality of the myriad of conversations that were going on. It was basically, "HI, MY NAME IS...." (having to scream over everyone else, as you extend your hand to whoever is walking by), brief small talk about where people are from (all that I met were from Ireland, nobody know anything about MD or ATL), & other random chit chat.

The Program Director, Patrick Sutton (imagine John Goodman w/ Russel Crowe's demeanor & a penchant for wearing tieless suits w/ the shirt unbuttoned to show off some chest hair), cuts off the meet & greet at 10:30 am since the Gaiety students start class at 10:45 am. Morning over, but thats just half the day.

*Side note: I forgot to mention that Patrick introduced all the groups to one another (1st year, 2nd year, IES) & introduced us as the "American visitors", which didn't sit so well with a number of people in our group. It definitely made me feel different, but I didn't wanna take it as a negative, since technically we are the "American visitors". More on this later.

In the afternoon, we were split into our groups for Devising & Voice, since there too many of us to all stay together in one class. I was in the Devising group, which made me happy since that meant my schedule wasn't changed at all. Now I've talked briefly about Devising on here, just to give y'all a feel on it, so you should know that I enjoy it & find it to be a lot of fun. So expectations were high, especially with new students here which means that we'll be getting to know one another & playing games. There was a shift in tone though from the very beginning of class. Everything that our instructor, Antoinette said while giving instructions had more of an edge to it than usual. It had me think twice about everything that was doing, as if I was new, & I've been in her class for a month!

We quickly got up & started with basic games for focus, ensemble building, & cooperation. All of these activities, the IES students have done before, so it was comfortable for me. But as we worked on things, Antoinette was really sharp & serious about what we were doing in each game & started dropping a lot more knowledge than usual on us. I appreciated the knowledge, since I'm here for that, but the tone shift bothered me. I don't mind a serious, intensive program since I don't mind taking orders or direction, but it does piss me off a lil when people change out the blue. Antoinette talked to us about how the 1st years would be, but she could of told us that her teaching style differs when they're around. I think that's only fair considering the trust that needed to be built for a proper collaboration to happen. And when she started kicking deeper knowledge about the architecture of a space & knowing how frame a space to tell a story, it made me think, "Why she ain't share more with us before?" It just made me really feel like as the "American visitor", we weren't as worthy of the passing on of such knowledge.

Maybe I'm whinning (for the record, I don't think I am), but I wasn't alone on my feelings. The rest of class went well & there's no love lost for our instructor. Overall, it was a good day, just different. The Irish students were very nice & all at different experience levels, which bodes well for our potential as a group. I'll keep y'all updated on how things progress from here on out. More stories later on. I got a very special visitor coming on Thursday, so you know I'll have an update to give this weekend.

Peace & blessing!

The Best One Yet

No need for my 2 cents on this one. It speaks for itself. I can watch this again & again:

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Let Me Put Y'All On To Something


You ever wanted to know what I watch online or what I'm checking up on everyday as part of my routine? No? Let's rephrase this. You ever wondered why I think the way that I do or what influences my seemingly crazy, yet always rational thought process? Well maybe this will help give y'all some insight.

This brotha's name is Jay Smooth & he does a video blog called illdoctrine, which I have been a big fan of for the past couple months or so. I swear, I've seen a bunch of his videos & I don't think I've disagreed with him once. Remarkable, since I swear people make feel like I'm an alien sometimes (no Lil Wayne) when I try to kick some knowledge to em. He's just a down to earth guy, who's a huge hip-hop head (wow, alliteration) & uses rationality to see through the BS on a daily basis. Check out the video above & then check out his website illdoctrine.com.

Some of my favorite blogs of his include: A Beginner's Guide To "No Homo" & How To Tell People They Sound Racist

Oh How I Love Us's




Oh Black people, how I love thee. I say this on two different fronts: a) because I miss my African-American brethren & b) because I've recently felt the need to defend my brothas & sistas from unjust stereotyping. First off, I'll say that I'm truly missing African-Americans right now. I just need a break, even if its just a small one, to talk to some Us's who'll understand me in a way that these other folks can't. There's just a different feeling & bond amongst African-Americans, which I probably couldn't do justice to by trying to explain in a blog, so I won't belabor the point. Now, there are a solid number of African immigrants in Dublin. For those of you who've been keeping up with my blog, you know that I found a nice African barbershop & they hooked me up the with a decent haircut. But I'll tell you this, there is a difference between Africans & African-Americans that I knew a little about back home, but its a lot more pronounced when you're over in Dublin & you've the only African-American throughout the trip. These North African immigrants obviously come over here with their own customs, their language, & their common bond from being immigrants over here, & while they've been nothing but nice & courteous to me whenever we cross paths, I can just feel a difference. I apologize if I'm unclear or underwhelming in my analysis, its just hard to put it into words.

*Side note: If it was unclear as to why I'm saying both Black people & African-Americans, its to draw a distinction. Black people refers to whole diaspora while African-Americans would obviously be the brothas & sistas born in America*

But now on to the real reason I'm writing this post. Part B: Defending Black People. So, I recently had a conversation with a friend on Facebook just catching up with one another. I hadn't seen this person in a long time & turns out that said person had transfered out of the AUC to go to a predominantly White southern school. I inquired as to why said person wanted to transfer there, not even as a pointed question, I just thought it was a slightly random choice even for a predominatly White school. This person responded by saying that this other school was ranked in the top 20 universities by US News & World Report, while the other AUC school wasn't ranked in the top 100 (I double checked that statement & this AUC school is in the top 75) . I responded by saying that I can see the rationality behind the choice, even though I wouldn't agree with strictly using those polls to make your college decisions & we'll agree to disagree on those ideals. In response to me saying that, this person explained the choice in more detail by saying that they had enough of people caring about "things peope worry about down there, popularity, who's dating who, who has the most this or that", all of which is vaild to a certain extent, but then the person said they would rather not deal with Black females & that the stereotypes of them were "very true".

Let me clairify something that I omitted earlier, just to preempt some confusion. The friend I was chatting with is a Black female who transfered away from Spelman. Y'all know if a brotha woulda made that last comment, it woulda completely changed the story.

Anyway, I read this last comment & was immediately up in arms. I was ready to just go in on this young lady & really give her one of these intellectual smackdowns that we almost specialize in down in the AUC. But I thought about it some more & it turned out to be more of a sad statement to me rather than an inflammatory one. I thoughtfully wrote a response expressing my disappointment in such a statement & that I felt that she had missed most of what the AUC really has to offer. Now, I'm not gonna get up on a high horse & say that there was no basis for her to feel the way that she did. In the AUC, you can easily (extremely easily) fall prey to the fast life of Black Hollywood. Its a small community with everybody hustlin to achieve & money is huge motivating factor, so it can be extreme frustrating dealing with the "baller" & "stuntin" & "swagger" mentalities that are developed. But come on, what school ain't got people trying to get rich or a bunch of rich kids running around flaunting their wealth? You can't tell me it's just a Black thing & even more to the point, its frankly your own fault if you failed to find a circle of friends who aren't into that. There are a lot of people who aren't solely concerned with keeping up the Joneses & ballin out every weekend. There are a lot of intellectuals, scholars, & just real down to earth folk in the AUC & greater Atlanta community, so you find your niche & be happy with it. I'm speaking from experience on that one, cause I can't afford to keep up with the Joneses & I can't morally agree with parts of that lifestyle, so I made a conscious decision to find like minded people to spend my time with. And guess what? It wasn't that hard.

As for the second part of her rationale, which was the really saddening part, where do we start? I can understand not wanting to be around a whole bunch of people of you're same sex. I'm not into the machismo & pissing contests that come from being around a bunch of testosterone (which speaks to why I'm a drama major w/ classes at Spelman). But I would never cast off Black men as being people I don't wanna deal with as a whole. That is ludicrous & a sign of self-hatred, because as much as we might try to act alone, we're all in this together (especially as African-Americans). Now, stereotypes come from a true place. Something actually had to happen truthfully for the stereotype to stick & last. So, there are lazy & ignorant men in the AUC as well as gold digging, hypersexual females in the AUC. But if you come down here & stay for a year, and after that year your lasting image is that 1% of black life that unfortunately succumbs to those sterotypes, you've been blinded. I can't even quote Malcolm X & say that you've been hookwinked & bamboozled, because you chose not to see. Nobody did anything to fool you, you closed your 2 physical eyes & ignored your 3rd eye vision. And if that is the case, I can't be mad at a person for not allowing themselves to see. I can only pity them & pray that one day that person will open their eyes, especially that 3rd eye, to see through the madness.

While I admit to being one of the first to complain about the flaws in the AUC, never will I turn my back on the concrete fact that Black excellence is displayed there every single day. And as a Black person who knows how difficult it can be living amongst a very White population, I cherish the opportunity to be educated, inspired, & loved by other Black folks. Having the AUC experience has only enhanced my desire for & love of diversity in general because I now know more about my own. My history, the legacy that I have to carry on, the path that has been set for me. So, I guess my point is love yourself & love your people because otherwise you won't be able love others or realize who loves you too.

Peace & blessings, y'all! Shouts out to the A town!