The Amazing Woman

The Chiney Shop

Thanks to my dad for sending me the link to this video, an interview with Jeanette Kong on her documentary "The Chiney Shop".  I may not remember any specific chiney shops in Jamaica itself (too young when I left), but I still find myself gravitating to the local "Asian store" -- I'm more posh these days :) -- for anything out of the ordinary, whether in America or here in Ireland.

Great video about a key part of the Jamaican experience that very few non-Jamaicans know about. "Out Of Many, One People" indeed!

The Fastest Man In The World

There's absolutely no doubt.  Could there be?  In the 100 meter dash finals of the 2012 Olympic games in London, Usain Bolt proved again tonight that, even when everything doesn't go perfectly, he still can blow everyone else out of the water!

And let's not forget Yohan Blake's stellar performance as well.  Sadly, Asafa Powell didn't get to show his chops in the final, robbing Jamaica of the perfect 1, 2, 3.  But still...

... how proud am I of our boys tonight?!

*Nice present for Jamaica's 50th Independence celebration tomorrow, don't you think? :)

Gotta Get It Wherever You Find It!

We're Number Two!

National Geographic lists Jamaica's national dish, Ackee and Saltfish (yum!) as number 2 on its Top Ten National Dishes list!  Second only to the U.S. hamburger, in their opinion.  I would venture to disagree! 

What Are The Hardest Languages To Learn

Some real surprises here. I would never have thought of Dutch or Norwegian as easy languages to learn. Italian though, definitely!

What do you think?

Death, Be Not Proud - Emma Thompson in Wit (2001)

I've watched this movie twice in the last 24 hours. It's not funny and sweet, like I prefer my entertainment most of the time. Nor even because recent events in my life have brought home to me, again, just how fragile the people in our lives are.

But, because Emma Thompson and HBO have crafted in "Wit" (based on the Margaret Edson play), an unsparing, wrenching, true, and ultimately beautiful portrait of death and dying. I couldn't look away.

The poetry of John Donne is literally (hah!) another character in the movie. In the last scene, showed here, Emma's character recites again "Death, be not proud" in the way I will always from here on hear it in my head.

Death be not proud though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
Thou’art slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better than thy stroake; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.
by John Donne (1572-1631)

The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency

I've seen all the books appear over the past few years, but have always resisted buying them.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because I tend to avoid most anything hinting at "literature" or afrocentric or that everybody tells me I should be buying.

What a fool!

Having taken a half-day from work - complete aversion to work today combined with an overabundance of comp time/time-in-lieu not yet taken - I ended up watching the movie I'd recorded from the BBC onto my DVR a couple of weeks ago.

As you can see, this has motivated me to write a blog post for the first time in a month.  And why?  Because my experience was so fantastic, so amazing, I think everyone should know about this.  This wonderful movie was funny, engrossing, empowering, touching, and flat out beautiful.

I guess it should be no surprise really.  With a director like Anthony Minghella, of The English Patient and Cold Mountain fame, there was little chance that this film wouldn't work.  Add in a screenplay co-written by he and Richard Curtis, of Four Weddings and A Funeral (see earlier post) and Bridget Jones' Diary, and you have a wonderful script.  Round all this off with the acting chops of some fantastic actors and cinematography actually shot in the true location (!), and you have a film where everything rings true.  I laughed.  I shed real tears.  And... now I want to go to Botswana.

 But first, I need to read the books.

Barack Obama and the Voice of God

I came across this great Time Magazine article, Barack Obama and the Voice of God, while studying up on my my new, emerging passion, voice over narration.

You know voice overs, you just don't know you know.  Actually, you hear them 50 million times a day  - virtually every TV commercial, radio promo, continuity spiel between TV shows, public service announcement, documentary, telephone on-hold or interactive or voicemail system.  Every cartoon character, stuffed toy that speaks or makes a funny noise, video game character, company training video and audiobook, ALL use professional artists to voice the script.

They're like air, you never notice how ubiquitous voiceovers are until you start paying attention.  Well, I love to read and my job is already to talk, so I think this would be a natural transition for me.  Now, just to get some training and coaching so I actually know what I'm doing!

Anyway, back to my original point... this is one of those articles that points out something that you never ever realized was case, but afterward wonder how you could have missed it!  "God" is African-American.  He used to be British, but that's so last century!  So, is it so much of surprise that Barack Obama actually won the Presidency?  If "God" can be black, why not the most well-known man on the planet?

An Actual Summer

Sunglasses on the drive on into work.  A persistent house fly.  Car windows that need to be left cracked open. 

It's almost like being back home in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill/Carrboro) again.  Now all we need are some dogwood petals, violent yellow pollen staining everything, and debilitating heat and humidity :-)  Ahh, good times!

Rock That Anthem

Ok, yes, OF COURSE I'm stoked about USA tying England in the World Cup soccer/football game tonight! [cue cheesy grin and fist pumping]  But, I'm actually struck by something else very telling in how the teams, and the fans in the stadium, responded tonight.

God Save The Queen vs. The Star Spangled Banner.  The Americans ROCKED it!  Did you see?  The American players with their hands over their heart, most singing along, the American fans shouting out the words with glee.

I'm not sure how much of the difference was culturally based emotional expression (stiff upper lip vs. brash enthusiasm), knowledge-based (I assume most Brits actually know the words to their anthem, right?), emotional investment in the anthem per se as representative of patriotic pride, and/or the anxious energy of the underdog team going against the big gun.  A little bit of all?  But, the difference was palpable.

Of course, I was singing "The rocket's red glare..." as loud as anybody else in the stadium as well.

Brainwashed by Eurovision

There's no other explanation - it must be Stockholm Syndrome. Oh no, even the name taunts me!

The first year I was here to hear about it, 2008, I was confused. What the heck? Why? What's the point? And why a turkey?!

The second year, I remember turning my nose up in disdain at the silly Europeans and their weird song contest with the silly costumes and the bizarre dances and the totally unnecessary hoopla.

This year, bring on the Eurovision Song Contest! I actually set the DVR to tape it, found myself twittering about it, and was insulted (insulted I tell you!) that we in Ireland weren't allowed to vote tonight.

Sigh.

Friday Pearls

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tunes without words
and never stops - at all.
- Emily Dickinson (via Criminal Minds, Series 5: Mosley Lane)

Friday Pearls

Anything you can not relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you.
- Mildred Lesett Norman

Friday Pearls

I have 10 hearts and 100 arms. I feel too strong to battle mere mortals. Bring me giants!
- Cyrano de Bergerac

I love great quotes, don't you? My problem is that there are just so many of them, and I never seem to remember them for very long.

So, I thought I'd do something about my leaky memory and preserve some of my favorites for posterity. Since I'm such a TV addict, that's where I'll be getting most of these. And my best source? Weirdly enough, it's Criminal Minds. Great drama, even if it is about catching serial killers. Sorry if the source offends your sensibilities, but that's what makes me such an enigma - my eclectic interests :-)

I thought I'd try and make this a recurring series, so I'll be posting them on Fridays as pearls of wisdom to finish off each week. As a first outing bonus, you get two for the price of one.

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and of unspeakable love.
- Washington Irving (by way of Criminal Minds, Series 5: Retaliation)

U2 - Irie!

I'm a big fan of U2. HUGE. Longstanding. Committed and not deterred by the "pooh pooh the native son" attitude that seems present so much over here. If I hear one more person say that their "friend" has a "friend" who kinda knows Bono and thinks he's an arrogant langer, I'll get violent.

Anyway, that was just to set the stage. You all know :-) that I'm originally from Jamaica and quite proud of my heritage. Living in Ireland has raised interesting parallels to life and culture over there, so in some ways adjusting to life here hasn't been quite as strange as it could have been.



OK, stage fully set. Well, except to tell you that, along with my U2 fan-buddy from the states (we first got into the band together in college oh so many decades ago!), I went to see them for 2 of their shows in Dublin this summer. Woohoo!!!!

U2 has just opened the U.S. leg of their tour (and, yes, my friend also has tickets to see a show over there as well!) and gave an interview with Chris Cuomo of ABC News.

Back Stage With U2

All I can say is, you've got to watch the video in it's entirety to truly get why I now love them even more :-) Great minds do think alike!

It's official, my sappiness is incurable

I'm currently helplessly engrossed in watching that pinnacle of horrible TV countdown shows, 100 Greatest Tearjerkers (in British TV and international movie history). And yet, despite knowing that it's designed from the ground up to yank mercilessly at the heart strings by showing the most climactic clips possible from some of the best and worst films and TV shows of the last century, and even with Jimmy Carr's insufferable smirk and snarky comments interjected, I'm still finding it impossible not to react.

Remains of the Day
Mr. Holland's Opus ("the ultimate in manipulative and phony tearjerkers")
Love Story
Titanic
Truly, Madly Deeply
I, Spartacus
Ordinary People
The Color Purple
Braveheart
Lassie
The Green Mile
Sophie's Choice
The Pianist
Four Weddings & a Funeral
Cinema Paradiso
Life is Beautiful
The Killing Fields
Stand By Me
E.T. (#1. The first movie I ever saw and still one of the most moving)

Like a puppet I've sat here for the last 3 1/2 hours welling up over and over again. Ridiculous! But, I defy anyone else to not do the same.

True Bredren: Jamaican-Irish Links

Hah, it's not all my imagination after all! Awhile ago, I wrote about my own reasons for thinking that Ireland reminds me of Jamaica. It seems that other, more scholarly folks have similar ideas as well.

I know Wiki has to be taken with a grain of salt sometimes, but look here to read about the history of the Irish in Jamaica and here for thoughts about the similarities in accents and pronunciation.

Thewildgeese.com also has a couple of pieces about the links between our two countries.

Turkey Blues

Yes, that's right folks, the turkey lost! Poor Dustin... poor Ireland! But, seriously people, who else but the Irish would send off a turkey puppet as an inside joke to be the nation's representative at the biggest talent contest around?!

Sadly, the rest of Europe didn't get it, but at least this way I never have to hear the darn song again! Except for inflicting it on you that is, but that's just me being cruel :-)

Enjoy!!!

E strano, vero?

Leaving to go to Italian class tonight, I ran into yet another funeral crowd milling around the Catholic church next door, with the strangely glossy hearse inching its way through. I swear there's at least one of these things every week here! Not to mention morning mass several times during the week.

Now, I've never lived next door to a church before and certainly never next to a Catholic church. Actually, I now live next to two churches, one Catholic and one (much less attended) Church of Ireland. There are definite perks, the sound of bells ringing in the mornings and some very cool cemeteries primarily. But some major drawbacks as well, namely cars parked up and down every surrounding street, blocking your vision at a very iffy intersection when trying to come out of your driveway.

Is it just that there are a lot of people dying here, do you think? Or, that there aren't enough churches to go around?