Dublin Notes, Days 2-4

1. One thing I like about Dublin is how your beer marks you--literally. Every beer is served in a glass emblazoned with its own name. Of course, that's easy to do when only 5 beers are served in the whole country. However, if you are stupid enough to order a Coors Light in Ireland, you should have it in a Coors Light glass. It means I don't have to work to feel contempt for you. I know you have terrible taste.

2. I was watching the local news. Always an interesting experience. The woman doing the weather had a look that wouldn't quite fly in the U.S. First, like most of us, she was a little overweight. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm only saying that a woman like that would not be allowed in a prominent position on our anorexia-supporting television networks. More of note, she was wearing a leather dress. Now that was interesting.

3. I spent part of the day at the Kilmainham Jail, where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rebellion were executed, among other Irish independent leaders. It was good, but pretty depressing. I felt I needed a drink after I finished the tour. However, I decided to visit the Ireland Museum of Modern Art first. Those exhibits really made me need a drink. Call me a savage, but jesus those were some stupid exhibits. Of course, between the two institutions was a pub, so my need was satisfied.

4. The exception to the above rant was a very interesting exhibit on how modern art influenced the composer Morton Feldman. That was well-put together and somewhat more exciting than Feldman's actual music.

5. Yes, I rode on the top of a double-decker bus. And yes, I enjoyed it.

6. I've seen way too much anti-Irish propaganda from 19th century America. I know this because every now and then I see someone and think, "Wow, you look exactly like the Irish stereotype images in 19th century newspapers." This probably isn't a good thing.

Random Ireland Notes, Day 1

I'm in Ireland for the next 10 days or so. I am here for a conference. After the conference, I am going to see a bit of Dublin and then somewhere else. A few stray notes:

1. We are all pretty familiar with the fact that American stars do weird commercials overseas. However, I was somewhat unprepared to see a giant billboard for an ice cream company starring Benicio Del Toro as a suave sexy thief who apparently uses his criminal mind to steal creamsicles.

2. Wow, the district in Dublin catering to 21 year old tourists who come to Ireland looking for an "authentic" Irish experience is gross. Even compared to the worst tourist districts I've seen in other places, the Temple Bar district in Dublin is really lame. Anyone who goes there should rethink their priorities. Sadly, you kind of have to walk through it to get from one part of the city to another, but maybe that's a good thing. We can all see it and be thankful that we aren't the stupid kind of tourists. Unless we are. And then we should feel shame and self-loathing.

3. While the atmosphere of the Dublin pub is rightfully legendary, the beer selection is horrible. Perhaps I'm biased because I don't think Guinness is a particularly great beer. But it's standardization, standardization, standardization. Each bar seems to have the following: several taps for Guiness, one for Smithwick's, and then 1 or 2 for Carlsberg, Heineken, Beck's, Coors' Light, and Budweiser.

This is not good. Everyone thinks Guinness is a great beer. And although I am not a huge fan, who am I to argue? However, the Guinness' hegemony is a disaster for Irish beer. Its success must have shut down hundreds of breweries throughout Ireland. Is it good that an entire nation's beer tradition be centered around a single brew? I can't imagine that it is. The crushing of independence and innovation only stagnates culture. The equivalent is every American drinking Budweiser.

Almost equally disturbing is the spread of mediocre lagers like Carlsberg and Heineken. While I have nothing particularly against either of those brews, they are also quite unremarkable. Why can't the Irish brew beers just as good?

On the other hand, given the number of people paying 5 Euros for a bottle of Budweiser, that Carlsberg is looking pretty good....

Also, I haven't seen anyone serving Harp yet. Is it a beer created solely for the American market?

4. I kind of like that the first meal I ate in Ireland was a Malaysian soup. Oh globalization, what can't you solve?

Journey to Portugal

I'm finally back from Portugal.

Go jet lag!

I am really glad that I traveled fairly extensively in Asia and Latin America before going to Europe for the first time. I certainly wish I had been in Europe before I was 34 years old. But I think if I had gone to Europe in college I would have become a Euro-phile. Because Portugal was awesome in so many ways. The castles and palaces, great public transportation, awesome food, good music, etc., etc. It was an awesome place. I think traveling to those other places though put Europe in greater perspective, where I could appreciate Europe as well as the developing world for what they are, rather than constantly comparing those places to Europe, which is obviously unfair.

Also, I should move to Europe for my health. I lost 3-4 lbs in 10 days from all the walking. Walking=healthy lifestyle. Americans just don't understand this. I walk a good bit, but nothing like I did in Portugal. In related news, I have little doubt that in walking to the college today, someone will stop and offer me a ride, unable to comprehend why someone would walk when they could drive.

Quick Portugal Notes

Just a few quick random notes from Portugal

1. I have never experienced such open offers of drugs as I have here. This place makes Eugene feel like, well, someplace where there are no drugs. It's really quite shocking. People just come up to you in the streets or when you are eating dinner and don't just ask you, they show it to you. Pot, hash, even cocaine. Weird.

2. I saw a woman who was really impressed by a guy riding a Segway. He was telling her all about it. Clearly Gob needed to move to Europe. Segways are big in Portugal.

3. Smartcars are everywhere. How do you know when you are not in the United States? When you see Smartcars.

4. People are definitely asking me about the election as soon as they find out I am an American.

5. I was lucky enough to take a great picture of rainbow over an 11th century Moorish castle. Although I probably screwed it up somehow.

6. Eating and drinking outside is a good thing.

7. As are cups of sangria for a Euro.

8. European breakfasts are so far superior to American breakfasts. It is not even close. I would way rather have some good bread with cheese or jam than eggs and other heavy foods. Not to mention bacon.

9. They like really steep steps here. My knee hurts.

That is all with the banal observations.

Bayou Notes

On the Friday of the conference, when people broke for little trips, a friend and I created a trip of our own. We rented a car and headed down toward the bayou. Wow. That was crazy. Cool. But crazy. We headed through Louisiana metropolitan areas such as Morgan City, Houma, and Thibodeaux on our journey.

1. I wanted to head down to where the ocean was eroding the bayou. But you have to head way way down to get to that point I think. What we did see was the deeply industrial bayou. Little of the inner bayous remain in any kind of natural state. The closest I saw was some swamps owned by a hunting club. The road through that was really cool. Big trees with moss hanging on them, etc. I was hoping to see an alligator, but no such luck. The industrial areas did not look fun. Rough towns, clearly poor-paying jobs, nasty pollution. But it's Louisiana, so who cares?

2. That sure seemed the mentality with all the chemical and petroleum plants there. There was one chemical plant that basically towered over a house. Amazingly, someone lived there. That's not good. I have read in several places that chemical plants move there because they can do pretty much whatever they want without repercussions. That was clearly true.

3. Now that I'm on the job market, the idea of living in Thibodeaux, Louisiana and teaching at Nicholls State, does not seem fun. What a career I have chosen.

4. The poverty was pretty unbelievable too. Like the food, Louisiana has a lot in common with New Mexico. In Louisiana, the poverty seems more widespread but that's just because the population is more spread out. In New Mexico, you are severely limited by water. In Louisiana, that's not such a problem. It was kind of wild to see people in this country still living in that level of poverty. Wild.

5. Saw some old plantations as well. We stopped at one. It was a small one really. The one next door was much more massive. What places like that tell me is that you have to have a black sense of humor to be a historian. For instance, my friend remarked that the slave cabins were so near the main house. I said the only thing to be said, which was that who wanted to be inconvenienced with a long walk when they needed to rape a slave.

Louisiana--good times for all!

Baton Rouge Notes

Last week, I was in Baton Rouge for the American Society of Environmental History conference. Generally, a good conference. But no one wants to hear about that.

1. Baton Rouge was an interesting enough place. The downtown kind of reminded me about Albuquerque, though slightly better. Dead as a doornail during the weeknights. A few places to eat, but not much. Went to the same place twice due to general lack of choice. Friday night was more happening. That night, I saw some first rate segregation. There was two clubs across the street from one another. The first was a frat club, or at least lots of frat looking people, which if my years in Tennessee taught me anything it's that lots of people look like Greeks, whether they are or not. That club--100% white. The club across the street, which had an interesting Ancient Greek facade thing going on, 100% black. Amazing. Of course, anyone who says it would be different in the North is lying.

2. Damn, those people love the fried food. I think I ate enough fried food to last me a year. It was a lot like New Mexican food in some ways. It can be really great or really awful and you have no idea which it will be when you enter the restaurant. I had some great food and some utter garbage. But a lot of fried food. Also, that is about the least vegetarian-friendly place I've ever been. I had to eat fish because every place I went literally had zero vegetarian options.

3. One thing I find interesting about river cities like Baton Rouge is that strip of industrialized but presently inactive land along the water. I find these spaces fascinating. You can also see much of this on the bus from the Newark airport to New York City. You know the pollution there is really bad. There's garbage everywhere. God knows what kind of cancers you'll get hanging out there. And Baton Rouge is the Cancer Capital of America so it's doubly true there. But those spaces also allow for tons of birds, plants, and reptiles. I walked along this bike path between downtown and LSU. I ran into a patch of trees along the river with a little path toward the river. I expected to find a dead body out there. But damn if there weren't a ton of birds, including a lot of things that I'd never seen before. Really cool. There's something interesting to say about these spaces, but I'm not sure what yet.

4. The conference had the most absurd room for a panel I have ever seen. A friend of mine gave a paper. To get to the room, you had to walk out of the main hotel, down a long hotel toward the river. At the river was a casino (has to be floating in Louisiana). The whole hall was full of casino crap. Just before the casino was a restaurant. You walked through the restaurant to what looked like (and in fact was) a service elevator. You took the elevator up (down was to the service area). On the 3rd floor, you reached the conference room, which actually had a nice speakeasy feel to it. But what an absurd spot for it.

5. Abita beer is really good. I wish I could get it here.