The One Where You Get a Song from 2000 Stuck In Your Head

While I thought last week as relatively quiet when it was actually anything but, this week really has been pretty low key. I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seat waiting to hear all the glorious details of how I watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine and season 8 of Drag Race, but I’m going to save that and tell it in person. It’s just not as emotionally impactful when you read it. We had planned on going out to Glendalough but the weather was quite crap this week so we had to postpone the trip. That’s not to say this week was a total wash, I did go out and about a bit.

Wednesday Veronica and I went into Wexford to spend the afternoon. I explored the city a bit while she holed up in a bookstore. My first stop was a record store that was closed last time we went to Wexford, and true to form, it was closed again. I’m pretty sure the last time we were there was Wednesday. So instead I went and hung out at a Costa coffee shop, partly to look into what’s around the city and partly because I’m addicted to their millionaire shortbread. Costa is the big coffee shop chain here, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Starbucks outside of Dublin. To get a sense of what a Costa looks like inside, just imagine the cafes that were inside Borders bookstores. Same color scheme even. I had my headphones on whilst googling Wexford until over the voices of Willam and Alaska’s Race Chaser podcast I heard the faint sounds of a familiar song from my childhood. I took my headphones off and discovered it was the 2000 hit “Breathless” by the Irish band The Corrs and 12 year old me was LIVING for it. It’s amazing that I can’t remember what I did last week but I can remember every word of a minor hit song that I haven’t heard in 18 years. But it also kind of makes sense because I used to listen to that album on repeat every day.

Anyways, after I finished living out a long forgotten childhood dream of listening to the Corrs (U2 who?) while in Ireland, I packed up and headed back out to wander the streets a bit. Wexford is charming little city along the Wexford Harbour that in true Irish form has a great mix of old and new architecture. Blocks away from the ruins of the Selskar Abbey is the ultra modern National Opera House. Also, I just want to note that castles are fucking everywhere here and everyone is super chill about it. No big deal. Just a fuckin castle in the middle of town. You know how it is. I didn’t venture too far off the main road, preferring to stay in the more commercial area this time to get a sense of what the city has to offer. I stopped in a TK Maxx (Apparently to avoid confusion with another European retailer that has TJ in it they went with TK) They’re exactly the same as TJ Maxx, right down to the oversized blue porcelain Buddha in the home decor section (you know exactly what I’m talking about) only with more leopard print in the men’s section which was heaven to me. There were of course plenty of European brands that I’d never heard of before but also a ton of Zara and Topshop, I even found a Marc Jacobs shirt. God bless Europeans. After spending far too much on a couple of sweatshirts and a button down that I’ll probably never wear, we headed back home. I really enjoy Wexford, of the places I’ve been so far, it’s the one I would consider living in the most.

Friday was the Annual Open Call art show at the Enniscorthy Presentation Center. Veronica and I both submitted pieces for the show, her piece was a combination of two photos of mine that she weaved together. I submitted a triptych of three Polaroids I took while in Greystone. While taken in 3 different locations in Greystone, I arranged them to give the illusion that it was a panoramic of sorts. Or as some lovely locals I overheard said “So just take 3 random photos and slap them in a fuckin’ frame.” I knew there were over 100 works submitted but I was still surprised by the size of the crowd, you could barely move through the place. Having been to multiple open call shows before, I was expecting a mixed bag of.. well… crap to be quite honest. But this was not the case at all. Everything was of really strong quality. There were a handful of winners and personally, I don’t think the a judging criteria should be whether or not you would hang it in your living room but hey that’s just me. But I also get it at the same time, if you pick nothing but intensely abstract, art for arts sake, pieces year after year, you’re going to draw less of a crowd from the general public and come off as that hoity-toity art gallery that people outside the art world expect from places like this. Anyways, ya boys technically now an internationally recognized artist. And I thought that guy in Toronto buying one of my prints was a big deal. A couple things here to also note 1. I just learned water color pencils were a thing and I’m fascinated by them. 2. Art supply stores are in every town I’ve been in which I think is awesome. In Ohio, you have to drive half an hour to a Hobby Lobby and hope everything you need is going to be on sale. 3. The arts are very well supported here. Most larger towns have some kind of arts center. Something I think my hometown of Newton Falls could benefit greatly from.

As your 2 day hangover may remind you, Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day. I was always under the impression that St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland was similar to Cinco de Mayo in Mexico. Something that’s really not as big a deal as Americans drink it to be. I was actually quite wrong, it’s quite a big deal here, the Irish see it as a celebration of their culture. To the point that it’s a bank holiday and it’s used as a “one day break” from Lent. I attended the parade in the city of Gorey, which Veronica was walking in with the NWspca (North Wexford Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals). Again, I was surprised by the size of the crowd. I really need to stop underestimating the turn out of the Irish. The parade itself was lovely, it reminded me of the July 4th parades in Newton Falls. Only instead of little league teams, it was boxing and rugby clubs (don’t fuck with the kids here) and instead of 14 firetrucks in a row blasting their sirens there was only one. I did get whacked in the face with an Irish flag by a small child but then God came to my defense with a large gust of wind that ripped the flag of the stick and blew it across the street. The kid cried and I, having my honor avenged, laughed heartily.

While it was a rather quiet week, I really enjoyed getting a deeper look at the culture of Ireland. I’m definitely getting to experience a side of Ireland I wouldn’t see if i was just here for a week as a tourist.