Dublin, Ireland 2017: Day 5

The theatre community in Dublin has Christened Tuesdays as "Terrible Tuesdays" because apparently hardly anyone goes out to the theatre. And also because apparently, once you opened, the excitement of opening night is gone and things in the show will now go wrong because everyone is not "all focus and excited" as they were on opening night. My show went very well on Tuesday and for being a "terrible one" we have a half-full house. Not bad.

My body is starting to feel the time changes and the many non-stop days of working in the show. I decided that today was going to be an easy day. Jimmy and I decided to simply go out to lunch and visit Trinity College. 

Trinity College is a beautiful campus. It's also massive and encapsulated into its own fort. We didn't walk the entire campus because we only wanted to see two things: The BOOK OF KELLS exhibition and THE LONG ROOM of the library. 

The pages of the book have already been copied, enlarged, and printed on glass so you can have the opportunity to admire such incredible hand-made creation. Lights have been placed behind the glass so you can see the magnificent and colorful details of such incredible book. Explanations of its symbolism and history has also been written side by side. But what is “The Book of Kells?” You can Google for the answer but basically it is a Gospel manuscript in Latin containing the four Gospels of the New Testament, created somewhere around the year 800 AC. There is more to it than just the Gospel, for it is the finest work of calligraphy and also the highest illuminated (drawings with color) hand-made work. Since this work was created at a Columban monastery in Ireland, “The Book of Kells” is regarded as one of the most important Irish heritage artifacts. 

"The Long Room" of the library is in fact called “the long room” because the room is very tall and very long as you can see in the images above. You can also see that on both sides of the corridor, there are white busts; these busts are of famous writers and I mean the FAMOUS and MOST INFLUENTIAL writers in history. At first, I wanted to take a picture of each but then I thought, I will be here that whole day. So I just took a picture of four of them. Not surprisingly at all, the busts in The Long Room are all of males. Apparently, women have never, ever, contribute to literature in any way, shape, or form.

The image below shows me standing in the long room, trying to be cool and nonchalant but failing at it and also Jimmy and I in awe at being in this great place:

From the classical times, to me, the most important writers, philosophers, and influential people have always been, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Homer, and Socrates. (Talking about male-centric influences.) Coincidently the first four busts you see as you enter The Long Room of the library are Shakespeare, Homer, Aristotle and Socrates.

When walking from point A to point B, you always bound to find interesting things that called your attention. The image above shows a poster of a "Fiesta Latina," happening every Friday at dance club. Then there is a picture announcing the theatre festival, but the important thing is not the announcement but where it is being advertise.... outside a TOWER RECORD store. Yes, those stores exist here in Dublin. And last but not least, two images of a banner announcing the festival.

The last thing I want to mention is the fact that we received our first review. And because I don't want to paraphrase, I'm copying and pasting part of it right below the image that appeared on the newspaper.

“It is with great humour that he reveals some of his earliest attractions for men (in loincloths), but Carlos shares much more with us, from the nastiness of being bullied, to the intimacy of his first sexual experiences, and all set to a fabulous soundtrack of Mexican and International gay anthems. It is a well-written piece with plenty of rise and fall, which culminates in the sad revelation that his husband is in danger of being cast out of the US.”

Not bad for our first try!