As I was taking a January break from the drink I decided to drive into Dublin city centre last Saturday night. The people I was with mentioned the new 30kph speed limit which was coming into effect shortly and which I hadn't heard about. While the speed limit is ridiculous - there are very few accidents or pedestrian deaths in Dublin city centre - it did get me thinking about the proposed changes it will bring about.
The increasingly unpopular Dublin City Council have said that it will "promote modal shift to walking and cycling". I found this interesting as I am on both sides of the fence. I cycle in and out of work 4 days a week and drive the other day. Many drivers give out about cyclists, and rightly so a lot of the time, with cyclists performing daft manoeuvres and merrily sailing through traffic lights. However some drivers can be very aggressive and zoom by narrowly missing cyclists which is pretty intimidating and nerve-wracking.
If there is a collision the cyclist is going to be in a bad way, a driver will most likely have a dent on their car at worst. So will this new initiative work? Personally I would have prepared to see the Council put a bit more thought, effort and money into proper cycle lanes instead of this heavy-handed new law. At the moment we have a bit of red paint on the roads that is ignored by motorists and buses and frequently trails off to nowhere in particular. As both a cyclist and a motorist I'm not enthused about this new directive at all!
Let's hope it will encourage more cyclists and those poor taxi drivers out there have my sympathy! Here's a link to an interesting article from Conor Pope of the Irish Times on the increasing popularity of cycling in Dublin.
On a visit to Ranelagh this Saturday for breaky, myself and a friend decided to have a wander through the Ranelagh Village Market. Not intending to spend long, I was pleasantly surprised to spend an enjoyable hour browsing the stalls.
From the vast array on offer I came away with some treats. Sweet Mountain Lavender Oil from Emerald Beauty, a Cardigan Pin with a glass pebble from Venice dated from 1970 from Venice Jewellery. Adam King also has a lovely selection of Jewellery. I couldn't leave without picking up some lovely custard
cake (we did cycle there) and seed bread from Soul Bakery. Or if your looking
for something prettier, Buns.ie have are almost to nice to eat.
There's a great selection of fresh produce; meat, fish, veg and fruit. Gourmet food, Arts & Crafts and Hot food cabins. A selection of knitwear caught my eye, and at very reasonable prices. You can buy Irish Free Range Chicken which is spit roasted from their mobile unit.
Ranelagh Village Market is open every Saturday and Sunday, 10am - 6pm. Definitely worth a visit.
For this blog entry I'd like to write about something a little different. It's a book recommendation, but this is a bit more than a book. I am talking about the graphic novel 'Maus' by Art Spiegelman. For anybody who isn't really sure what a graphic novel is (I'm not!), it's basically a novel or story told in comic book format. The term graphic novel is most probably used as 'comic' doesn't really encompass the serious and often difficult themes that they frequently explore. So what is 'Maus' about? Art Spiegelman's father was an Auschwitz survivor and Maus tells his story in simple, but beautifully composed, black and white graphics. Ingeniously he uses the visual metaphor of depicting the Jews as mice and the Nazis as sadistic looking cats. This has the effect of focusing the reader's attention on the story without distracting from it's often subtle themes and visual clues.
There is no doubt that Spiegelman would have made an excellent graphic designer as he understands visual iconography and language superbly well. Lots of clever images are found throughout the book - Spiegelman's parents fleeing Poland stand at a crossroads in the shape of a swastika for example.
What really distinguishes Maus from other Holocaust memorials is the clever way that it also documents Spiegelman's frequently difficult relationship with his father. This relationship is interweaved throughout his father's narrative and his father is capable of arousing both sympathy and frustration in Spiegelman as well as the reader. At one stage the graphic novel diverges as Spiegelman discusses his concerns with his wife that he is portraying his father as the racist stereotype of a Jew.
This exploration of their relationship allows the novel to work on several levels and also shows the difficulty that Spiegelman has in dealing with such an overwhelming historical subject. In some sense his documenting of his father's history is an effort to understand their own relationship and the distance between them. All that said, I strongly recommend this book. If you think of the Beano or Spiderman when you hear the word 'comics' this could be the one that changes your mind!
A great selection of the Canadian Illustrator Jon Klassens work can be found on www.burstofbeaden.com. Well worth a look! A selection of prints of his work is available on www.gallerynucleus.com, reasonably priced from $30 there's even some t-shirts shown here.
I particularly like his "Nextdoor" print, a beautiful winter print, very apt with this weather.
www.itsnicethat.com features a interview with Jon and gives us a little information into his background and influences. With a training in animation but with a confessed interest in textiles his work certainly holds a certain traditional style in terms of process. His work translates into animation very well however Jon prefers to leave that aspect to others. It's Nice That sums up his style as having "a distinct, considered mark that more often than not manages to make you feel as if you're inside his picture".
Jon feels he has not yet set his artistic style in stone and hopes this will come with age. However I feel this only adds to his work. The fact that he approach develops through the subject and message.
