Who the fuck cares where Raed is?:Roshan Blogs From The Heart Sinews of Post-Fabulism

I've got a few papers to write tonight, so right now I'm going to actually be dripping the text into the modem after having pureed it with my electrosexual blender. The one that keeps winking at me! It's e-culture so fast, so self-indulgent and so poorly editted that it goes through 15 minutes of fame in a record 1/8 nanoseconds and wakes up fast enough after the tumor shocks have set in to see its own body lying in bed and picking its nose.

If I've e-mailed you up until this point, I've probably given you a few main outlines regarding Dublin's "cultural life". You know it's old and that it's filled with dead people, and you might even know that it's severely cosmopolitan but only kind of metropolitan. I've been told by several people that Dublin is "turning into another Paris or London." It seems to be mimicking the ascent into global tourism of its European big brothers, and whatever resentment of cultural gentrification this might entail is only half hearted as the economy is improving. Typical of this is the infamous Temple Bar District, which was a popular local hotspot that the government decided could be franchised for tourists. The locals were evicted and relocated, many of them minorities, the homeless shooed away and then this part of Dublin really did become a "Disneyland of Bars". It's a similar story as Central Park, which served its 150th anniversary the other day-the Park was home to minorities and lower class occupants who were callously evicted. While I am greatful that Central Park exists and it does sometimes live up to its namesake as the "lungs of New York", I fail to see what Temple Bar "means" in the long run.

Everything is within walking distance, the busses run pretty often, many churches are pretty to look at. But you can't throw a rock in this city without hitting an American or a tourist. Actually, I wonder if you're even allowed to throw rocks in this city. This weekend I'll be going to Galway, a more rural area in Western Ireland that will in all likelihood feature thicker accents and girls with even more messed up teeth. I'll probably have a few commentaries up on Dublin nightlife in the next few weeks. (But I'm keeping the funny drinking stories to myself for now.)Part of what's been propelling Dublin's economy is that its still in its own little technology bubble, though it's been a more gradual economic massage than the boom and bust we witnessed in the states. I'm trying to write one of my papers on Dublin's technology economy and to a lesser extent its technology culture.


Psst: I'm still looking for an apartment, preferably Brooklyn based when I get home this summer. I'd like to have someplace to hang my head in September so if any one is coming across anything feel free to throw an e-mail my way: Churchoftheblues@hotmail.com.

I haven't really tried to figure out if I can post pictures here, but to those of you who've bloggered: how do I do that? I guess I can figure it out later.

feet in the air,
Roshan