wish my name were irish

whenever someone learns that i’m american here (usually when i open my big fat mouth), they immediately ask me about the election.  cab drivers, sales people, strangers.  they are absolutely obsessed with american politics.  the election dominated the front page of the irish times nearly everyday. and then they ask me if i voted for o-BAM-a.  bam like ham.  not bam like bomb.  am i allowed to compare the pronunciation of obama’s name to a bomb?  is that okay?  i don’t know.  but they say it like like BAM!

nothing will really change tomorrow.  when people figure out that i’m american, they will still say, “oh how about that oBAMa?”

the idiot’s guide to irish-american relations:

• lots of irish people live in america.  the famine.  lots went before the famine too.  but there are lots in the US.  most people i’ve met have at least one family member living in ireland.
• we helped them with the Troubles (yeah that doesn’t sound condescending, does it?  gimme a break.  i’ve been PC for too long).  we sent them us senator george mitchell to help sort things out.  bill clinton helped them negotiate the good friday agreement.
• we gave them the celtic tiger.  there’s tons of foreign investment in ireland because they have nice tax laws and they speak english.  what happens in the american economy very directly affects their jobs here (if they work for an american company….etc).

so whatever happens in the us greatly impacts ireland.  that can be said for any country really, but those were very ireland-specific reasons i gave.

the new york times had a great video looking at the 1972 film the candidate, pointing out how it predicted politics today.  west wing fans should see the movie.  or settle for the nyt video about the movie.

today, i spent too much money on food and on clothes.  i also discovered google reader, which aggregates all of the blogs you read.  none of these things helped to get my final paper done started.

what is this final paper i speak of?  for the next 3 weeks, i am supposed to be researching art and politics in ireland– specifically contemporary irish art about the Troubles.  so i’m supposed to go to archives with artist files and email art galleries and talk to art history professors and read reviews of exhibitions and go to museums.

what will i actually do?  read the news.  sleep in.  shop.  wander in parks.  meet people for drinks.  take my host dog for a walk.  make quiches.  attempt to learn how to make something besides quiche.  agonize over having nowhere to live next semester due to the housing shortage.

KIDDING.  i will be in cold cold libraries and archives pouring over artist files and writing countless emails begging people to let me interview them.  lots of work to do.

okay enough rambling.  time to waste more time on google reader and compulsively check election results.