TONIGHT

http://www.bossip.com/6282/timbaland-says-jay-z-just-raps-for-fun/

Jay-Z might be a hobbyist, but DICEMAN FRANCIS be on the turntables tonight in Ft. Greene spinnin the wildest world and Brooklyn sounds.

Birthday party for Big Dave, Wild Irish Rosie and Soul Legend Sam Reed. Get down, get dowwwwn.

395 Adelphi, Buzzer 2L
Ft. Greene --> Any train to Atlantic

TONIGHT

http://www.bossip.com/6282/timbaland-says-jay-z-just-raps-for-fun/

Jay-Z might be a hobbyist, but DICEMAN FRANCIS be on the turntables tonight in Ft. Greene spinnin the wildest world and Brooklyn sounds.

Birthday party for Big Dave, Wild Irish Rosie and Soul Legend Sam Reed. Get down, get dowwwwn.

395 Adelphi, Buzzer 2L
Ft. Greene --> Any train to Atlantic

Down in Folsom Prison

Well hello there! I guess I've let down all my readers with my lack of posting, but I was in the closest thing to confinement since my one mishap in Oneonta back in the day.

I've been staying at a place called King's Hospital in Palmerstown, which is about 20 minutes outside of Dublin proper. Not so bad, but it was rough. There was one bar within walking distance and a little mall, but not a thing else. Rough. I hardly left campus sometimes. And on top of that - may the Lord forgive them - hardly no internet access. They allowed staff members to go on from 4-6 PM and blocked access to everything fun: blogger, youtube, myspace, ya know...all the geeky stuff I stand behind.

So I was pretty much stuck there for the past week, but got into the city quite a bit. I found some Korean food that was pretty good on Parnell St. in Dublin. Our bus-driver Mick said that's where all the Polish and "nigs" live and that I should be careful. Mick's a weird bloke. Total alpha male and has the admiration of all my female co-workers. He splits his time between Ireland and Thailand. I'll let you decide your thoughts on Thailand, but it sounds a bit sketchy to ol' Kev.

I was pretty pumped to get out of King's Hospital. Dublin is a fair city, though. I DJ'd (I think I posted 4-5 times about it) at this art space called This is Not a Shop last Friday and then went to this place called Dice Bar. I hear it's owned by the guy from that band the Fun Loving Criminals:



Whoa. I met some good folks there - one lady who used to live in Downtown Brooklyn. She knew Moe's, a bar I like in Ft. Greene. I also got to visit the Sinn Fein office -- the political party that used to be associated with the IRA. It was kinda shabby and not what I expected, but I'm glad I got to see it. I got some Republican propaganda and what not. Very nice, thank you.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to getting back. Working/traveling is a weird mix. The one thing I like about traveling is not having a fixed schedule and being able to do whatever I want. Not this time, though. And I've been moving around with the same 74 students and the same 7 staff members. I kinda need a change. Only another week, I guess. I can't take this total immersion thing. I might go out alone tonight. I'm in Galway now and there's a little art festival going on. Pics still forthcoming! I gotta get the f outta here.

God bless. Thanks for readin still.

Thank you, Studentios.

They had this song ready for me today after a week of having it in my head. Thanks y'all!

Witch Season

We've been discussing the poor treatment that the Irish faced when they arrived in America. Ya know, "No Irish Need Apply" and all that. But I told them about an Irish woman named Ann Glover who was hanged for being a witch in Boston in 1688. They misinterpreted her native Irish for some sort of evil witch-speak when and claimed to get a confession out of her.

That was pretty much the sentiment of the time. In 1650, this English bloke Richard Mather said that the new influx of Irish into Boston was "an attempt by Satan and his sons to unsettle us." Damn -- the Irish is the devil!! And people are still chasing witches.

There is a strict no-drinking policy in effect on this trip for the students. Even if a kid is suspected of drinking, he or she will get a phone call home to the parents. If they get caught or are suspected again, they will be sent home to the US. And one group of kids has already been suspected and got that dreaded phone call to their parents. Now, of course, they're on the other teachers' collective "S-lists" and are being sought out at every turn. And I happen to think they're pretty good kids.

Any entrance into a pub is considered a violation, which I agree with. But today, however, I took a couple of the "suspect kids" into a restaurant that also served booze in the front because the meals here are pretty much shit.

Brekkers: shitty cereal, occasionally ripe fruit and toast.
Lunch: Potatoes, thin piece of meat, gruel-like soup.
Dinner: see lunch

So I said, hell - let's get some decent food! Then one teacher, who I guess is my superior because she's about 37 and was a teacher back when I was on the trip, pulled me aside and reprimanded me for taking them "into a pub." After acknowledging that it was more restaurant than pub, the teacher called the kid an "arrogant shit" who she knows will eventually drink.

Awkward. But now the teachers are all talking about how their one roommate, who is more innocent than they are, bought a pipe and is smoking with another group of kids because he "probably wants to distance himself from the drinkers." Or a kid who just buys a pipe will smoke with the others kids who smoke? How about that? Witch hunts are still alive, my friends. Let the kids playball.

Oddly cold, oddly.

It'd be a waste of breath complaining about the weather here. It ain't so bad, but Ireland is known for having a dampness that chills the bones and has everyone saying, "Some weather, eh?"

We're still in Waterford. We've been cramming our days filled with trips to various lighthouses, castles and beach side resorts. We saw a grand place called Tramore that reeks of the Jersey shore. Arcades, skee-ball, Taz tats, you name it. We built a golf course on the beach and named every hole after things relating to the hood and N.W.A: Compton, EZ-Z, Dre, the Stuy, more gutter stuff ya know..

Today we depart for Cork, probably the city I'm most looking forward to. I have a DJ gig with this act in Dublin this Friday: http://www.myspace.com/youreonlymassive

Scenic Kilkenny

Boy, does Ireland have castles! Two in one day was probably a bit much, but I did alright.

At Kilkenny Castle, I fell in love with the wallpaper work of Sir William Morris. Look at this dang pattern:




Kilkenny Castle


At the Rock of Cashel, I saw a bunch of dang ol graves and other stuff. 'Twas fine. The lads rolled down the hills.


Rock of Cashel

Otherwise, one kid got busted for underage drinking. One counselor may have smelled it on him, but I don't know the full story. Send me a gmail.

My bad, Chilluns

Oh damn. I overslept today and missed a class. I blame it partly on my cell phone not getting signal and losing track of time and not having a proper alarm clock. So everyone's all "Where were ya Kev?" "Get enough sleep, Kev?" Oh well. Good third day.

Don't Talk Politics

With anyone you just meet - this is no new lesson. Especially 17 year olds who say "I don't hate black people, but I hate lazy people" or "liberals love the media cos' it's biased -- except Fox News." Even "they hate our freedom."

There's mediation and then there's just embracing an impossible situation. But I love y'all still.

Flaunting It

I'm teaching three classes a day to three different groups: the Normans, the Celts and the Vikings. They're named after the early inhabitants of Ireland just around the time of the arrival of monotheism and shoes. They're a pretty good bunch of kids. One kid asked if I'd prefer teaching in the suburbs instead of Brooklyn. I laughed and said I liked teaching in the hood, but I kinda love getting relevant responses and answers with some insight. Is that where I gotta go to get this? Is that why so many NYC teachers flee to the burbs? Better pay and correct answers?

I led a discussion on the Ancient Order of Hibernians excluding the ILGO from marching in the St. Patrick's Day parade. The kids responded mostly that St. Patrick's is mostly a secular holiday nowadays and that they should therefore be allowed to march. One student said that they shouldn't be allowed to be in the parade because a banner would be "flaunting" their sexuality. The other kids countered that a banner with the word "gay" on it is no more flaunting it than one held by firefighters that read "Irish Batallion 4545" or whatever. Bright.

We discussed Irish-American identity and every class referred to St. Patrick's Day as "an excuse to drink green beer." And I'm like, "Are you kids reading my blog?!" Nah, they still don't know about it and I don't know if I'm going to tell them. Maybe afterwards, but not right now.

We then talked about how St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, which is the metaphor for bringing the shoeless polytheists to Catholics. But he did something pretty interesting: he allowed them to keep some symbols of their ol' heathen ways. Note the Celtic Cross:



We agreed that it was tacky to get this as a tattoo, but thought it was cool that the circle in the middle represents the sun god.

The Irish still eat Weetabix for brekkers:



And they call breakfast "brekkers." The Irish is crazy!!! The diet is mainly carbohydrates for brekkers, more carbs and fatty meat for lunch, then a similar dinner. No corned beef and cabbage to be found anywhere. One of the students told me that that was the food provided on the emigrant "Coffin Ships." Thanks, student.

I also picked up one of these here rolling piano:



A mere 20 Euros (no Euro key here - just $$$). There's also a BBQ and DJ here tonight to celebrate the 4th of July. I've had R. Kelly's "I'm a Flirt" in my head all day, so hopefully the bloke spinning the records can help me out.

Day a haon

I took a position as a teacher with the Irish American Cultural Institute for the month of July. I'll be teaching high school students from the US at a few different places around this lovely Island: Waterford, Dublin and Galway. The pay ain't that great, but I get a free flight to Ireland, an apartment (well, it has a shared bathroom) and all my meals included. Ain't so bad. But I do have to teach 4 hours a day and I'm kinda making it up as I go along. Why did they hire such a hack?

We arrived at Dublin airport at 9:40 a.m. today, 3/7/07 (D/M/Y). No real hassle through customs, but there was an issue of some students with missing luggage, cash and cameras. One kid from California grabbed the wrong, albeit identical, bag at the airport, but the bag he picked up belongs to a woman named Rose from Puerto Rico. We might figure it out.

We hopped on a bus from Dublin to a little place called Glendalough in County Wicklow. Glendalough is the site of an old monestary founded by a saint named Kevin and it has a pretty wonderful graveyard. Pics will be forthcoming. There was one tombstone for two brothers: One died in 1921 at age 19 and the other in 1988 at age
86. Together at last. Missed you, bro!

Then we stopped for lunch when the most pleasant experience happen: A girl with a peanut allergy had to be rushed to the hospital because Irish yoghurt "May contain traces of peanut." She pricked herself twice with her EpiPin, but complained that her throat felt like it was closing. And it was, so she's staying at the hospital overnight. What a good start!

Tomorrow I'm planning a lesson on Irish-American identity issues. I'm kind of torn with my feelings on Irish Americans. I've never had a postive view of cops, I think binge drinking is sad and pathetic and I just hate pub crowds in the states. We're going to discuss reasons why and how people celebrate St. Patrick's Day. People celebrate their Irish roots or the Irish roots of others by getting totally fucked on cheap booze and green beer. After we resolve that it's a celebration of Irish culture, we'll talk about why gay and lesbian Irish Americans are excluded from the Parade every year.

The Ancient Order of Hiberians, the group that runs the parade, justifies the exclusion by arguing that St. Patrick's Day is a religious holiday. The Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization thinks that it's simply a celebration of Irish culture? Who is right in this?

So I'm off to have my first whisky in Ireland so far. Let me know where you is.