Jun

Cultural Heritage: Listening to Ireland

by Joyce McGreevy on June 1, 2016

Sunrise in Ireland, where an audio postcard might include a recording of birdsong. Image © Joyce McGreevy

While I’m sleepless in Chicago, dawn arrives in Ireland. I can almost hear the birdsong:
© Joyce McGreevy

Audio Postcards from Galway

Travel articles emphasize the visual: the view from the room, the lay of the land, the unique color palette of a place.

reland offers spectacular scenery, but to appreciate Irish cultural heritage, you also need to listen. © Joyce McGreevy

Ireland is visually dazzling, but to appreciate its cultural heritage, you also need to listen.
© Joyce McGreevy

Longing to Listen In

My favorite example of the visual is a webcam overlooking a pedestrianized street in Galway, Ireland. The view is so intimate that, as a former resident, I’ve recognized friends among the passersby.

One night, knowing it was daytime in Ireland, I logged on. An unapologetic voyeur, homesick for my other country, I wondered what folks would think if they knew they were being watched over by some sentimental Chicagoan in rumpled pajamas.

In Galway, Ireland the cultural heritage includes everyday sounds of the street. Image © Conall Stafford

A view of Quay Street, Galway, looking south.
© Conall Stafford

In Galway, Ireland listening is one way to appreciate cultural heritage. Image © Talleri Adkins McRae

Nearby Mainguard Street, looking north.
© Talleri Adkins McRae

But webcams are mute. I longed to hear the everyday sounds of Shop Street:

Children zigzagging around amblers, leaving whoops and laughter in their wake:

Kai Restaurant, Galway is a great place to appreciate Ireland's culinary innovation and cultural heritage. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Table talk in Galway gets a big assist from its organic, innovative cuisine.
© Joyce McGreevy

The indistinct murmurs of delight at Galway’s Kai Café and Restaurant:

Galway's Corrib Riverbank is a gathering place for the conversations that are part of Ireland's cultural heritage. Image © Conall Stafford

Conversation at the Corrib, with O’Brien’s Bridge and the recently restored
medieval Bridge Mill buildings in the background.
© Conall Stafford

A River of Sounds

I recalled the rush and roar of the River Corrib, the eloquent plashing of salmon. And I remembered how the water whispered whenever a Galway swan would glide regally by.

The swans of Galway are a beloved element of Ireland's cultural heritage. Image © Conall Stafford

Among Galway’s majestic mute swans, you may see—or more precisely, hear—one
or two Icelandic whooper swans.
© Conall Stafford

I wanted to hear again Yeats’ magnificent, locally inspired poem, “The Wild Swans at Coole.” Here it is, read by actor Maelíosa Stafford of Galway’s world-renowned Druid Theatre.

Druid Theatre in Galway, Ireland is prime spot for appreciating Irish cultural heritage. Image © Talleri Adkins McRae

Founded in 1975, Druid Theatre helped make Galway one of the premier cultural centers in Ireland, and arguably, Europe.
© Talleri Adkins McRae

Places Have Voices

This got me thinking about ways we come to know places through our sense of hearing.

Oh, I see: Places have voices, and a country’s cultural heritage includes a symphony of its everyday sounds.

Some sounds are a given. Every day, as Aer Lingus flights make landfall over Ireland, first-time visitors invariably exclaim three little words: “It’s so gree-ee-en!”

A Broad Spectrum of Voices

Other sounds may surprise you. Contrary to Lucky Charms stereotype, the Irish don’t all speak identically. An Irish ear would recognize highly differentiated speech reflective of the four provinces–Connacht, Munster, Ulster, Leinster—and often specific to a county, or even a neighborhood.

Hear the differences for yourself on a sound map, here.

Today’s Irish speech may also reflect one’s Brazilian, Filipino, Nigerian, Latvian, or other heritage. Galway’s population reflects more than 33 nationalities. As Irish President and Galway man Michael D. Higgins notes, “One of the great characteristics of Galway is that has been such a welcoming city–welcoming diversity and welcoming openness.”

Greetings from Galway Friends

I invited friends from Ireland to send audio postcards to OIC Moments:

Filmmaker Kamil Krolak sent a bouquet of audio for this article, including from Galway’s St. Patrick’s Day parade:

Ciana also triggered memories of gatherings where nobody stared at cell phones and everybody had stories to share. This tale of an ill-gotten typewriter, goes by faster than a Galway racehorse, but merits repeat listens:

The Wordsmith, an acclaimed novel by Patricia Forde, sets language at the center of Ireland's cultural heritage. Image © Patricia Forde

In 2016, Children’s Book Ireland honored The Wordsmith as a finalist for CBI Book of the Year.
© Patricia Forde

The Voice of a Wordsmith

Speaking of stories, here’s Galway author Patricia Forde reading the opening lines of her acclaimed novel, The Wordsmith. Set in the future, it’s a story in which language, like the planet, is under threat, and only love and expression can save them both.

Minor and Major Chords

Yes, the sounds of any community comprise both minor and major chords. Yet Galway’s tapestry of sounds reveals a community keenly aware of, and consciously shaping its changing cultural heritage.

I leave you with a song by The Saw Doctors. It’s courtesy of Ollie Jennings, manager of this world-touring, locally-formed rock band. The title, “N17,” refers to a road that leads home to Galway.

The road much traveled, and rightfully so.

Ireland's green fields and stone walls feature in the songs that art part of Irish cultural heritage. Image © Joyce McGreevy

“Yes, I wish I was on that N17
(Stone walls and the grasses green)
Traveling with just my thoughts and dreams.”
© The Saw Doctors; photo © Joyce McGreevy

On June 11, Kamil Krolak will film the world’s biggest performance of the iconic song “Galway Girl.” Join the global audience here.

Read about Druid Theatre’s world tour, here.

Meet Ciana Campbell, Patricia Forde, The Saw Doctors, Brendan Smith, and Maeliosa Stafford.

Revel in the Galway Arts Festival, July 11-24, here.

“The Wild Swans at Coole,” by William Butler Yeats, is in the public domain.

Oh, and that Galway webcam? Have a look, here.

Joyce McGreevy 3 Comments

Art of Travel/Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Ireland

May

The Travel Sketchbook

by Eva Boynton on May 23, 2016

A hand holding a travel sketchbook on a hike, illustrating that many an aha moment waits inside. (image © Kolby Kirk).

Sketchbook in chest pocket, Kolby Kirk is always ready to draw on the trail.
© Kolby Kirk

There’s an Aha Moment on Every Page!

For me, it’s impossible to start a trip without this one essential item: my travel sketchbook. It is my eyes, my memory, my inquisitive mind on paper. Together we take on the world.

It is in the act of drawing that I learn to look, listen, perceive, and remember. In fact, I have not experienced a place fully unless I have sketched it.

Drawing of a jungle collection and inside of a house, showing an aha moment within a travel sketchbook (image © Eva Boynton).

The Jungle Collection: taking a moment to record and remember.
© Eva Boynton

For travel sketchers like me, there is something powerful in the act of drawing—the magnetic draw to draw. The gift back is a travel sketchbook that offers surprises, discoveries, and a souvenir collection of aha moments.

OIC Insights about Time

It was during a train adventure from Chicago to Los Angeles that Ken Avidor sketched the changing landscape. In the process, he realized he could record the passage of time on a single page—something impossible to find in a snapshot.

Roberta and Ken Avidor may be the ultimate sketching duo, always set to travel! They live in an apartment at the Union Train Station with no car and two folding bicycles. At a moment’s notice, they hop a train with travel sketchbook in hand to discover and draw.

A drawing in a sketchbook of scenes from a train window, showing an aha moment about capturing time in a travel sketchbook (image © Ken Avidor).

A travel sketchbook offers the freedom to show how an environment can change.
© Ken Avidor

Travel is about movement and each travel sketchbook captures the changing frontiers. Ken Avidor explains, “The thought that often occurs to me is I am the first person to sketch this. . . . It’s kind of territorial, like a dog marking a tree.”

Roberta had another insight about time. Unlike photographers, she was able, through her drawings, to invent, erase, stylize and organize how things changed in front of her eyes. On this page of Roberta’s travel sketchbook, she captures the transition from city to country.

Drawing of New York City apartments fading into Indiana fields, showing an aha moment in the travel sketchbook (image © Roberta Avidor).

“All places seem more interesting when you draw them.”
© Roberta Avidor

OIC a New Strategy for Preserving Memories

In the pages of Suzanne Cabrera’s travel sketchbook, she embeds clues to preserving memories. Like a detective or archeologist, Cabrera often sketches single details that connect to a story (or create one!) and forever solidify a memory.

Drawing of a stapler, showing the aha moment of a travel sketchbook (image © Suzanne Cabrera).

A clue…
© Suzanne Cabrera

A drawing of a bag on the ground, a clue to a aha moment (image © Suzanne Cabrera).

And another!
© Suzanne Cabrera

Cabrera says, “Ask me what I did this time last week and I may not have the slightest clue. Ask me what was going on in any drawing I’ve included here—even one that dates back years ago—and I can tell you everything.”

For her, the small and unremarkable provide powerful connections (like pieces in a mind puzzle) to a particular experience or story. Often Cabrera’s travel sketchbook reflects her perusing mind. It offers a blank page to clarify her personal thoughts.

Drawing of a man, showing an aha moment in a travel sketchbook (image © Suzanne Cabrera).

‘Cause there’s is a story behind every-thing.
© Suzanne Cabrera

In her sketchbook, Suzanne sees clues to her travel memories. I see clues to an aha moment: drawing creates narrative, an illustrated autobiography of the sketcher’s memories, perceptions at the time, and later reflections.

OIC So Many Ways to Sense a Place

When Fabio Consoli packed for his world bicycle trip, he made sure to find space for an important tool: the travel sketchbook. Pedaling on bicycle creates an intimate connection to a place, experiencing the elements of the environment first-hand. Consoli found a similar experience with his travel sketchbook.

A drawing of a bicycle and cycle kit, showing the aha moment of the travel sketchbook (image © Fabio Consoli).

While perusing the souks (markets) of Marrakech, Consoli discovered a red pigment that he could mix and use as watercolor. Then he happened upon a bigger discovery: the use of local materials in his travel sketchbook gave him an even greater sense of place. The smell and taste of his materials instilled a memory of his travel moments in a way that an image cannot.

Scene from a travel sketchbook reveals the artist's aha moment. (Image © Fabio Consoli)

Consoli talks about his many travel destinations: “I don’t choose the places because they are interesting to draw. In reality, it’s the place that chooses me.”

And Consoli brings home a bit of each place in his sketchbook. He now uses local fruit, coffee, soy sauce, and wine for color in the location he is drawing. His sketchbook not only serves as a visual memoir but an ongoing sensory experience of the places he has visited.

OIC a Great Way to Slow Down and Focus

If you decide to walk the forests of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) or hike the steep stairs to Machu Picchu, you might run into Kolby Kirk sketching a tree, a bird, a noteworthy leaf, or an ancient ruin.

A journal with writing and drawing of a campsite, showing the aha moment of the travel sketchbook (image © Kolby Kirk).

In 2001 Kirk backpacked around Europe, all the while sketching and writing. His aha moment came at the Temple of Apollo in the ruins of Pompeii, Italy. While drawing, he was flooded by a herd of tourists who snapped photos and rushed on to their next site.

Kolby Kirk explains, “I realized that the act of sketching—paying close attention to the details of the scene—was etching this moment into my long-term memory. I can still remember that day, that moment even, now nearly fifteen years ago. I wonder if the same could be said by those tourists?”

A sketchbook with drawings of Pompeii and writing, showing the aha moment of the travel sketchbook (image © Kolby Kirk).

In Kirk’s sketchbook he gives time and appreciation to a place and, thus, sketching becomes an act of compassion giving him time to look, draw, and study his surroundings.

OIC Power in the Travel Sketchbook

Each mark made in the travel sketchbook absorbs the artist’s experience of a place and imprints its memory.

Drawing of a cactus by an eight-year-old, showing an aha moment uncovered in a travel sketchbook (drawing © Charlotte Conk).

While cycling in Mexico, I met a family of cyclists who were traveling with their sketchbooks on a trip from Canada to Panama.

I asked eight-year-old Charlotte Conk what she had learned from drawing during her travels. She replied with a smile:

“That the arms of people do not go on their head.”

Her travel sketchbook is a portfolio that shows a developing eye.

Charlotte’s aha moment—learning to look a little harder—is powerful in its simplicity, providing an insight that she’ll use the rest of her life.

Thank you to Roberta and Ken Avidor and Jefferson Lines, Suzanne Cabrera, Fabio Consoli, Kolby Kirk, Charlotte Conk, and all the other artists who offered photos from their sketchbooks. Thank you for inspiring me to continue my travel sketchbook!

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Eva Boynton 6 Comments

Art of Travel/Life Lessons/Worldwide Sites

May

Challenging the Cultural Traditions of Food

by Meredith Mullins on May 16, 2016

A Fascinating Fasting Adventure

We love to eat. It is one of the pleasures (and necessities) of existence. Food is a feast for our senses—a visual journey of color and form, a delight in smell and taste, often a tactile adventure (especially when you eat with your hands!), and even an auditory experience as we crunch an apple or carrot . . . or as we listen to the popping of popcorn or the sizzle of shrimp on the barbie.

Meredith Mullins 7 Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Germany

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