SOUNDTRACK: DON BRYANT: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #116 (November 24, 2020).
I was not familiar with Don Bryant, although I must have heard his music over the years.
Bryant, almost 80, has been in the music business since the early days of rock and roll; he wrote his first hit, the Five Royales’ “I Got to Know,” in 1960. He went on to his biggest success as a songwriter for Hi Records in Memphis …. For a number of years he only recorded gospel music, until 2017 when he began releasing soul records again, backed by members of the Bo-Keys.
Although
Classic soul music feels best in a club, with a lead singer and big band, preferably with horns, playing off the excitement of a sweaty crowd, drawing them in to stories of love, or love lost, or love reclaimed. It’s a hard feeling to find in our pandemic times.
Bryant manages to play some gorgeous old-school soul with just a guitarist (Scott Bomar) and a keyboardist (Archie “Hubbie” Turner). And his voice, of course.
Wearing an elegant black and grey jacket matching his salt-and-pepper hair, Bryant evokes style and experience – someone who has been in it for the long haul.
This set is three songs from his latest record, You Make Me Feel, all written by him.
His voice is powerful and resonant, deeply rooted in gospel. The keyboard sound is a classic soul sound and the guitar provides a mixture of rocking riffs and mellow accompaniment.
In “Your Love is to Blame” he even gives some good James Brown yelps.
Between songs he sounds like a preacher: I’m going to give these songs to you as strong as I can.
“Is It Over” is slower and more mellow. His voice sounds great, hitting high notes and unlike contemporary singers, his grace notes sound great–strong and not whiny.
“Your Love is Too Late” is a classic soul kiss-off track: “I found somebody new to do the things I wanted you to do.” It opens with an old fashioned guitar riff and moves on from there with grooving guitars and fleshed out keyboards.
I don’t listen to much soul, but I do rather like it.
[READ: December 26, 2020] By the Way 2
This is Ann Lane’s second book about public art in Ireland. She compiled the first in 2010. I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know what is in it.
She says that in the ten or so years since the first book, more art has been added and she had been made aware of all of the art that she had missed.
But the fact that there are over 1,000 images in this book, that this is her second book and that in the introduction she says that she pretty much ignores the big cities (due to size constraints of the book) makes me think that Ireland is absolutely amazing with the amount of public art that the country has. Ireland is about the same size as Indiana, and I would bet a ton of money that Indiana does not have 2,000 (some absolutely gorgeous) piece of public art to look at.
This book is broken down by county. Lane includes many pieces of art from each county and provides some context for the piece, whether it is the impetus for the creation, some comment about its construction or even an occasional personal reflection.
It isn’t easy to photograph pubic art. Some pieces absolutely fail when taken out of context or when trying to encompass an entire piece of art with a tiny photo. Sometimes you cannot do justice to a piece because it must be seen from different angles to be really appreciated. But Lane does a great job conveying these pieces. And if her main goal is to get you to want to come to Ireland see them, then she has succeeded.
I marked off dozens of pictures in here because they were either my favorites or they were interesting in some way.
I followed this format.
COUNTY
Town: Title (Artist) Location. Comments.
GALWAY
Glenamaddy: Bulrushes (Alex Pentek), Community School. These look like giant cattails and have LED lighting in them. That sounds pretty cool.
Recess: Connemara (Joyce’s Craft Shop). A large bearded man seems to be holding a stone. “The plaque reads: ‘Conn the son of the sea. Built in 1999 by Joyce Craft Shop for no apparent reason.’ The stone pyramid at the rear bears the legend: ‘On this site in 1897 nothing happened.'”
LEITRIM
Carrick-on-Shannon: Wind Harps (Mark Garry) Beside the river. Four wind harps in stainless steel and titanium. The sounds are activated by the winds on the river. I’d love the experience this!
MAYO
Keel, Achill Island: Achillhenge (Joe McNamara). A modern concrete Stonehenge-type structure. Here’s an example of Lane putting her own take on things: “I went to this installation determined to be outraged, but to my astonishment I found it strangely compelling.”
Ballina: The Rolling Cast (John Hogan) Foxford Road. I loved this abstract swirl/infinity sign. It is a perfect visualization of someone fly fishing, and I find its sense of movement to be really engaging.
Bárr na Trá: Sleán (Micky Monagahan) I love that some of the art is simply commemorating the past. Like this one: a statue of the implement used to cut turf in the bogs.
Westport: The Sentinel (Ronan Halpin) The Sentinel. Some of the art is incredibly realistic. Others, like this one, are delightfully fanciful and seem like they are very old. This is a bronze and stainless steel angel on a horse. Created to celebrate the town’s winning the Best Place to Live in Ireland from The Irish Times in 2013.
ROSCOMMON
Gortnaganny: Lt. Gen. Dermot Earley (Seamus Connolly). The book is chock full of sports figures like this footballer and chief of staff of the Defense Forces (in that order).
Ballyleague: Five Mosaic Panels (Patty Preston, Therese and Debbie Tierney). You can’t see th ese well, but they are lovely mosaics on a wall–all that remains of a children’s paddling pool that existed there for over seven decades.
Tarmonbarry. Surfboarder (Kevin Casey). This stylized surfboarding statue is the village name sign. I had no idea there was surfing in Ireland.
SLIGO
Rathcormack. Countess Markievicz (John Coll). There are obviously many statues of men. There are a lot of statues of women (not nearly as many). Many of the ones that are up are pretty great. Like this one, Constance Markievicz fought in the 1916 Easter Rising. She received a death sentence which was commutes on account of her gender. She then became the second woman in the world to hold a cabinet position–Minister for Labour in Dublin. Her great quotation: “Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels and gold wands in the bank and buy a revolver.”
Sligo. W.B. Yeats. (Rowan Gillespie) Stephen Street. This very cool statue of Yeats had him on a wild pose: long legs bent forward, head back, hand up. It’s very trippy.
DUBLIN
Áras an Uachtaráin has three cool sculptures in the Sensory Garden.
The Braille Alphabet (Richie Healy). On three large slabs there are letters cut into the stone with the Braille alphabet adjacent.
Bluebells (Richie Healy) is an interactive piece of seven bronze bluebells that each makes a different sound.
Taste (Róisin de Buitléar) is a giant red strawberry on a fork that appears to be plunging through a wall.
Yeats Way: Wave (Angela Conner) Guinness Reservoir. This giant spiral (37m tall) is wild looking. But what I especially like is that “the tip can sway up to 6m in the wind and return to its central position by way of a ten-ton lead counterweight.”
KILDARE
Donadea Forest Park: The Twin Towers (Brian Swan). This replica of the Twin Towers in New York City lists all of the men and women of the NYPD, NYFD and Port Authrioity officials who died in the 9/11 attacks.
Kilcullen: Trout and Fly (Kieran Behan) Town Centre. There are many monuments to animals, especially fish, in this book. The trout is the most common fish in the river Liffey. For some reason, the design of this sculpture is based on the art style of the indigenous people of the northwest coast of the Unites States. It looks very cool.
KILKENNY
Page 116-117 juxtaposes three men. One ancient, two modern, with the two representing the sport of hurling.
North of Thomastown: Cantwell Fada, Long Man of Kilfane is a fourteenth century ruin of a Norman knight.
Three Castles: Hurler (Ruairí Carroll) At Tulla Church. This statue is incredibly modern looking–boxy and stylized. It is not of a specific person but rather honors All-Ireland medallists from Three Castles GAA Club. It contrasts wonderfullly with the above.
Thomastown: Ollie Walsh (Jerry McKena). This bronze statue commemorates the famous hurler who died in 1996.
LOUTH
There are statues of boxers and even a handball champion in Drogheda, Louth.
MEATH
Ratoath: Perch. (Orla de Brí) Jamestown Roundabout. This is one of my favorite pieces in the book. It’s a blue curved steel arc with a seated bronze female figure on top “observing life from her elevated perch. This piece is about taking time to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of your surroundings.” This piece is striking and unusual.
OFFALY
Moneygall. Barack and Michelle Obama (Mark Rodec) Obama Plaza. The Obamas visited the town in May 2011. This book taught me that Barack Obama’s great-great-grandfather Falmouth Kearney, son of the town’s shoemaker, emigrated to the US in the aftermath of the famine.
WICKLOW
Ashford. An Saighdiúir (Séighean Ó Draoi). I love the blocky style of this cedar carving based on images of sixteenth century Irish soldiers in Gaelic dress.
Greystones: Bear with Bucket and Spade (Patrick O’Reilly) Seafront. This may be one of the weirdest sculptures in the book. Highly stylized with enormous feet (wearing moccasins?) and bulbous features, this is indeed a bear marching to the beachfront with toys in hand.
Roundwood: Paddy Ganesh (D.V. Murugan and T. Baskaran) Victor’s Way, Sallygap Road. The award for the most surprising statue goes to this. A large sculpture of the Indian god Ganesh–a large elephant squatting on the ground. Ganesh is playing the Uilleann pipes!
CLAIRE
Kilbaha. Cat and Hare (Seamus Connolly). These two creatures are stylized very differently, with the hare looking rather abstract and the cat looking more realistic. But the fun thing is that when Lane took the picture a bird perched on top of one of the hare’s ears. It looks like part of the sculpture.
Killimer. An Cailín Bán (Jim Connolly) Ferry Terminal Entrance. There are statues commemorating all kinds of things. This one is absolutely fascinating. Featuring a man and a young woman beside him. The text in the book says
In 1819 John Scanlan arranged for the murder of his sixteen-year-old wife, Ellen Hanley, who had eloped with him; his servant shot her and dumped her in the Shannon, but six weeks later her body washed ashore at Moneypoint. Both Scanlan … and his servant, Sullivan, were convicted of the murder and hanged. Ellen, An Cailín Bán is buried in nearby Burrane cemetery.
CORK
Cobh. Annie Moore (Jeanne Rynhart) Waterfront. This is a bronze statue of fifteen-year-old Annie Moore with her younger brothers Anthony and Philip, prior to departing on the SS Nevada. Annie was the first person admitted to the US through the new processing centre at Ellis Island on 1 January 1892. There is a complementary statue at Ellis Island. In Cobh she is glancing back, while on Ellis island she is striding purposely forward to her new life. It would be a very difficult one. She had eleven children, six of whom predeceased her and she herself died of heart failure at 50.
Cork. Christy Ring (Seán McCarthy) The Airport. Another hurler, Christy Ring was probably Ireland’s greatest ever hurler.
Midleton. Goose Boy (Niall Bruton) The Goose’s Acre. This amusing statue shows a boy and his geese with one grabbing onto the boy’s shirt as he tries to walk away
Midleton, Kindred Spirits (Alex Pentek) Bailick Park. This is another of Pentek’s cool statues. Eight giant feathers rise out of the ground. The thin spires of the feathers are perfect and you can see through them as well. Plus, it’s a very meaningful piece. This piece commemorates the generosity of the Choctaw nation who, soon after the devastation of their own Trail of Tears, collected $170 to assist victims of the Irish Famine. Wow.
Reen Farm, Union Hall (John Kelly). There are several sculptures here, all weird and very cool. “Cow Up a Tree” is boxy and surreal. “Maquette for Three Cows in a Pile” uses simialr boxy cows stacked on top of each other. “Form and Function” has two boxy sheep having intercourse. “Logo in the Landscape” is a highly stylized kangaroo.
KERRY
Ballybunion: Bill Clinton (Seán McCarthy). A statue of Bill Clinton paying golf.
Dingle: Kaleidoscope of Life (Mary Leen) Brewery Road. This is one of the cooler pieces on the book. There are limestone discs with writing on them–each is a poem by he artist. As you get closer, you look through a peephole to see gorgeous stained glass installations
Waterville: Charlie Chaplin (Alan Hall). Seafront. A life-size bronze statue of the Chaplin dressed as The Little Tramp from the 1915 film.
Waterville: Mick O’Dwyer (Alan Hall) Seafront. There’s also this statue of the Kerry All-Ireland footballer.
LIMERICK
Murroe: Totem Pole (Barry Wrafter) Abbeyowney. This fascinating sculpture is like a stylized totem pole with hilarious alien-looking creatures. It apparently depicts spheres of different shapes being compressed with the attributes of a totem pole.
Pallasgreen: Paddy Ryan (Seamus Connolly). There are serval sculptures of hammer throwers. Paddy Ryan was the world record holder and Olympic medalist.
WATERFORD
Waterford is full of beautiful murals on the sides of manty buildings. Some are realistic, others are cartoony and still others are abstract.
ANRIM
Ballycastle: Children of Lir (Malcolm Robertson) Seafront. and
Ballycastle Leap of Faith (Malcolm Robertson) The Harbour. The large swooping arc is a very popular motif in many of these sculptures. These two by Robertson show birds in flight or fish leaping out of the water–with their steams behind them in a swooping arc.
Ballymoney. Joey and Robert Dunlop (Amanda Barton) this is a memorial garden to the great motor-cycling brothers. Joey was killed in a race in Tallinn in 2000, and Robert was killed in a practice run for the North West 200 in 2008. Amazingly: while this book was in preparation, Robert’s son William was killed in a crash in Dublin in 2018.
BELFAST
Shankill, Belfast: The Boxer (Mark Richards) Woodvale Park and
Belfast: John Caldwell Dunville Park (Alan Beattie Herriot) the flyweight boxer who won bronze in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.
Belfast: C.S. Lewis Square features sculptures by Maurice Harron of Aslan, The White Witch, Tumnuslew, Mr and Mrs Beaver and Maugrim. They are intense and a little scary.
ANTRIM
Belfast: More Than a Flight of Fancy (Eleanor Wheeler and Alan Cargo) Mill Avenue, Ligoniel Road. This shows another swooping statue of birds in flight.
ARMAGH
Lurgan Master McGrath (unknown) High Street. This is a statue of Ireland’s most famous racing greyhound. There’s nothing surprising about that except that according to the picture, full-sized automobiles come up to the dog’s first foot joint. Meaning that this greyhound is about three or four storeys tall (I wish the book gave that detail).
DERRY
I love the juxtaposition of these two statues on this page:
Dungiven: Rory Dall O’Cahan and the Lament of the O’Cahan Harp (Eleanor Wheeler and Alan Cargo) Bleach Green entrance Castle Park. This gorgeous old style harp (no strings) is next to
Feeny: Lig-Na-Paiste, The Last Serpent in Ireland (Maurice Harron) Picnic Site. This is a large stainless steel shiny and rather scary snake. It is based on the legend that this one snake Log-na-Paise was overlooked when St Patrick rid the country of snakes.
DONEGAL
Buncrana: John Newton (Willie Malone) Amazing Grace Park, Railway Road. I put this on here not because of the large bronze bust but because I didn’t know that they knew who wrote “Amazing Grace.” (It was he).
Letterkenny: Everest Stone (Redmond Herrity) Market Square. This gnat triangle slab shows a tiny man–Jason Black–the first Donegal Native to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
DOWN
Newcastle: The Smuggler’s Head (Ralf Sander) Bloody Bridge, Ballagh Road. This cool sculpture is of two rock formation which, when viewed from the right angle, forms the profile of a face.
Newcastle: “Liberte” and “Wind and Sea” (Patrick Campbell) These are two bronze statues by Campbell that depict people dancing or waving their arms in joy. Liberte is fascinating because while the woman is topless she appears to have underwear on–painted? graffiti? Who can tell?
TYRONE
Omagh: Make a Wish (Alex Pentek) Community House, Drumragh Avenue. This cool statue looks like giant dandelions, with optic fibred and LED lighting. Commemorating the victims of the 1998 IRA bombing. The piece incorporates a series of seeds placed inside the builidng which when viewed from outside appear to be floating.
Omagh: Omagh Peace Garden (Sean Hillen and Desmond Fitzgerald) Omagh Peace Garden, Drumragh Road and Market Street. The large mirrors at the memorial garden track the sun by computer and direct the sunlight via the 31 smaller mirrors, representing the lives lost on the explosion down the street, where another group of mirrors bend the light around the corner and finally, via one small mirror, onto the heart of the six ton glass pillar.
That I would love to see. And it’s a wonderful way to end the book.
I’m embarrassed at the lack of public funding for art in this country. And seeing books like this just makes it all th emore insulting.
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