Beer with subtitles

The “cool sunset”-alarm struck at 7:15.

Sandymount Strand got a miss.

Dublin really does parks well, there must be tons of these things around the place.

Weather bodes well for summer time’s start tonight.

Having seen his exhibition and re-discovered my enthusiasm for David Lynch I felt I had to go investigate his new film.

Despite clocking in at three hours, I had seen it get favourable reviews so it seemed a reasonable risk for a bank holiday Monday evening. Of course, those reviews had mostly been tempered with “worth persevering with because of it’s so brave”-type comments…

It is definitely David Lynch. More David Lynch than ever before. Is that a good or a bad thing?

Nobody creates unsettling and uncomfortable situations better than he. It was fascinating to compare this to his exhibition in Paris: his films don’t do characterisation or plot or any of that normal stuff…they’re more like a set of paintings strung together, each memorable and tangentially related to each other.

Knowing he was a painter this now makes sense… The results are always worth watching of course but this film really stretches that idea to its limits…who is the central character? We don’t know; neither does she. Often we’re not sure which of the many possibilities we’re even watching.

Overall, it’s kind of fascinating but at the same time repetitive. Jonathan Ross said,

It’s a masterpiece…I think.

and I think that sums it up: we can’t even be sure if we like it.

However, if I had to watch Laura Dern grimace one more time…I was out of there, for sure.

No pictures because it was cancelled!

Why, why, why is our national holiday in March?

We fought for independence…we could have had any day we wanted, nobody told us to pick March. But no, we pick the one month where the weather is guaranteed even more unpredictable than the other 11.

Rain, hail, sleet, snow and force 15 gales. All in one day. They took with them the hopes and dreams of a nation.

Something of minor historical note happened last Monday. A new train station in the city centre opened; the first for 117 years.

117!

The new station, Docklands, began with brand new services operating between Clonsilla (on the Maynoon/Sligo line) and itself, which is located just east of Connolly Station in the northern docklands near Sheriff Street.

The project was completed significantly under budget and three months ahead of schedule.

All good, but it could very easily be argued that this was not exactly the most important route to address…for instance, DART users would like more frequent services and Enterprise users would like the DARTs to get the hell out of their way – a serious problem and unsolveable problem with existing lines!

In comparison, a few extra services from Clonsilla (which don’t even serve Drumcondra station!) is hardly a breakthrough. Besides, the line already existed: it was the somewhat mysterious “Newcomen” line, built in 1892.

So, it wasn’t exactly rocket science to build and then when you emerge from the station you’re on Sheriff Street, 100s of metres from any useful bus or tram routes and with a very real concern that you’re about to get attacked or robbed!

No, rather, this has to be considered as only the first part of the Transport 21 plan. Eventually, this station will join with Pearse and Heuston via the proposed (and, I believe, approved) underground “interconnector” project. Unfortunately, this won’t be ready for another ten years or so.

Aware of this, Platform 11 have an interesting campaign to re-open (temporarily; until the interconnector is ready) the Phoenix Park tunnel to allow services run from Kildare direct to Docklands. They call this the “d-connector” and also propose the re-opening of Phibsboro Station. The argument against the Phoenix Park tunnel has always been that Connolly Station is overbooked: however, with the opening of Docklands this argument is no longer valid: the Maynooth/Newcomen lines are well under capacity.

Seems like a no-brainer to me…?

References:

The Drumcondra Railway lines

AA Roadwatch notice of new station

It’s great to know I can manage the baby slopes even with 18 months of no practice…but too otherwise too steep and scary!

Facile red slopes my arse!

I may have mentioned in previous posts that I’m quite a big fan of trains. Whatever the reason for this (blame Dublin Bus), I’ve been looking for an excuse to take the TGV for a while. Paris to Geneva is a decent stretch of the legs, so why not.

The name must surely be a joke: “Big Fast Train”. But accurate! It’s double decker, goes at 300km/h and is about six miles long. The specs are impressive…train nerd heaven!

We pull out of the Gare du Lyon (served by the very swanky, driverless, suicide-proof No. 14 metro line – deserving of a blog entry by itself) at 10.30.

By 11 we’re more or less fully accelerated and it stays that way for another hour when we make our first stop.

Still in France, we take off again but never regain top speed; soon we’re winding through mountain country and it’s not long until we’re into Switzerland. The Paris-Geneva line is scheduled for an upgrade to TGV standard but not for some years to come.

Full speed was fun (for one thing, I’ve never heard an electric engine make so much noise) and now it seems unbearably slow even though we’re surely still doing at least 70 miles an hour. Irish speeds!

Or not…for some unknown reason we arrive in Geneva about 20 minutes late. Swiss Rail or French Rail…? Not impressed!

Is shiny.

Do you want to know what I’m really thinking?

A typical David Lynch line but this comes from a David Lynch painting forming part of an exhibition currently on display at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. This is the first time that his work has comprised an entire exhibition.

I had the good fortune to catch this on last night’s CNN – unfortunately, I didn’t know where it was on display. A series of happy turnings (i.e. getting lost in this morning’s rain) led me happily to the details. Amusingly enough, Cartier turned out to be situated almost next door to the Montparnasse Cemetery where I was earlier this morning. Small world…

His work is, in summary, like his movies: frequently disturbing, but with a very sharp sense of humour. It is also packed with fabulous one-liners; I burst out laughing more than once.

Highlight for me were the ground floor series of large paintings – many of which concern Bob, a loosely defined character who assumes whatever role is needed (“Bob’s Anti-gravity factory”/”Bob comes face to face with an ill-defined abstraction”)- and excerpts from his notebooks. The notebooks are scrawled/pencilled/painted on everything from table napkins and post-it notes to memos from his shows (such as the opening page to the script for episode 24 of Twin Peaks).

Also notable is a life-size recreation of a colourful living room. This has to be seen…it reminded me of nothing more than Twin Peaks’ famous dream sequence.

I can still dream, can’t I?

They knocked down the Bastille? Nobody told me.