Updates

It's been a while, but things have been relatively so and there's not a ton to relate. December, as a month-long vigil to consumerism, definitely has it's distractions, but I've still managed to get a some good work done on "chapter 2," which stands at 26 pages including today's efforts.

This month's activities have been numerous. Back-to-back Holiday parties, one for Katie's work and one for school took quite the toll, although the former did most of the damage. Katie didn't make it to the second one, if that's any indicator. Ha! For the holidays we went to Katie's Dad's house in Maryland. We left on Friday the 19th and had to fly back on Christmas Day, which is never a pleasant prospect, but it could have been worse. While in MD we took a couple of trips down to DC. On Monday, 22nd Katie and I went to the National Mall and checked out the Lincoln Memorial (always impressive) and then walked past the Washington Memorial on the way to find an ATM and the subway. The wind was blowing really hard and it was really cold, so I was kind of disappointed we didn't stop to look at the new WWII memorial that was unveiled a few years ago, but I know we'll be going back at some point and the prospect of frostbite wasn't that appealing at that time. The following day I found the WWI Victory column which is right next to the White House. Katie, her Dad, brother, and I went to see the National Christmas tree and all of the trees decorated from each state. I figured the Michigan tree would be full of pink slips and broken GM and UAW symbols, but instead is was some crappy decorations from elementary school kids in Three Rivers. Go figure. In general, it was nice to get out of the city and be able to stretch our legs for a few days. To say that every chance I get to leave our tiny 1BR place for the comforts of a larger venue fuels my desire to move is an understatement. I just need to crank out this dissertation faster.

One of the highlights of this holiday season is that Katie and I have managed to get rooftop tickets for the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. Needless to say I am pretty pumped for the game and hope that the Wings put a good walloping on the Blackhawks, but really, it's just great to be able to witness such an historic event. I ordered the Wings' Winter Classic Toque, which arrived today; Coupled with my new Red Wings sweatshirt and Pavel Datsyuk jersey, I think I'm ready for the game. More details on that to follow though.

Chapter 1 and the Dissertation Writing Group

Today marked the first time the dissertation writing group considered a member's work. Fortunately for me, I was the one getting feedback. I must say that it was quite nice to have a number of well-read, intelligent people providing feedback and asking questions about my work. It really helped me to see where I needed to go and what areas I need to improve. I was also pleased that pretty much everyone thought that the chapter I submitted was pretty strong as it presently stands. Granted there is still a ton of work to do on it, but it's just a nice thing to hear.

As it stands today, I have drafts of two chapters done and have received excellent, thorough feedback on one of those chapters. I'm hoping to have a draft of a third chapter done by the end of the month or early January. With the holiday break (I'll be in Maryland for almost a week) it may be difficult to reach my "chapter per month" goal. I've decided that chapters 1-3 will cover various aspects of the interwar period (1919-1939), chapter 4 will probably cover 1939-1987, and chapter 5 will cover 1987 to the present. One of the challenges will be to maintain the analysis of Cork and Derry along with the that of Dublin and Belfast. To do so will probably require some time back in those cities to get some more source material, but hopefully I can get the bulk of it done with what I have at the present. At present, chapters 4 and 5 are going to be the most difficult to draft and get to the same stage that my current work is at. Nevertheless, it's an interesting challenge and one I'm looking forward to completing.

Back from Michigan

I'm back after a long weekend in Michigan. It was a good visit and I got to see a number of my friends, a sweet hockey game, and I enjoyed some Hungry Howie's pizza - always a good thing. My buddy Tine gave me his old N64 along with the best video game ever - The New Tetris. My roommates and I used to play this game ALL the time in undergrad. Needless to say it might be a dangerous thing to have around the house now, but so far, so good. If it becomes too much of a problem I now have a study carrel at the library up on the Lake Shore Campus. I assume I'll get some decent use out of that, and it will be nice to have a quiet place to work and to be right there in the library as well.

The Dissertation Group continues to meet. We've basically been a discussion entity up to this point, but in two weeks I'm going to present some of my work and we'll have a proper workshopping session, which should be good. I'm interested to see how it turns out, especially since the chapter I need help on is all over the place right now. A bit of constructive criticism would bode well for this chapter at present. The first one was much more straight forward, while this one is trying to compare and contrast four different cities, which can be a challenge in terms of structure. So we'll see what happens. Hopefully there will be some satisfactory notes to post in the near future.

Completely unrelated, I've been working my way through all of the Dick's Picks albums. I actually own 2-3 of them and downloaded the rest (I know, I'm a horrible person. I'll buy them once I can afford to do so). There are 36 volumes and all but one are multiple CDs. I started the last week of October and just finished this week. You would think one might grow tired of that much Grateful Dead music for that long, but actually it had just the opposite effect. Most Deadheads fall into one of two camps, Jerry or Bobby. Personally, I'm deeply ensconced in the Jerry camp, but the Dick's Pick exercise leaves me with a greater appreciation of some of Bobby's work. I'm still not drinking the Weir kool-aid, but I'm probably less likely to skip past the Bobby tunes now than I used to be. Although, some songs, like Lost Sailor > Saint of Circumstance, will never be listenable to me and always get passed up.

I also went on a book-buying binge about a week or so ago, and have since received all of my purchases. The expensive books were of the academic ilk and should be useful for my dissertation. I also found a number of cheap books on the Grateful Dead that I wanted to read, and one on The Band. I've almost gotten through a book of interviews conducted with various members of the Dead and I find it to be a very enlightening book. It's really amazing how progressive the band was, not just musically, but in terms of musical innovation. Their experience with musical equipment, especially PA systems was more interesting than I thought it would be. I'm looking forward to getting through the other books, especially Phil Lesh's autobiography.

So much going on

A lot going on this weekend, but the main thing is that I'm back in Michigan this weekend visiting the old haunts, as it were. The most significant revelation game tonight with my buddy Joe. Both avid hockey fans, we sought a local game to attend since I was in town. The Wings were in Florida and everyone else seemed to have away games as well. Then Joe remembered the Plymouth Whalers of the OHL. Let me tell you, I understand the appeal of minor league baseball to baseball fans (which I certainly am not). The Whalers game was awesome. They play in an arena that seats probably 5000, have $5 tall boys of Labatt Blue, and a great on ice product. We had a lot of fun watching the game and the team played well. The Whale ended up winning 5-1, with the last two goals being real beauties. Needless to say, Joe and I are both hooked. The OHL is awesome. As much as I enjoy going to NHL games, I had a ton of fun at the OHL game tonight. It was so laid back, inexpensive, and enjoyable that I just had to mention it. So if you have minor league hockey in your area do yourself a favor and check it out. You won't regret it.

Fun Fact

Today in 1869 the very first intercollegiate football game was played between, what are today, Rutgers and Princeton. This has since led to the current college football season in which the University of Michigan has made a mockery of this American institution.

Final thoughts on the Election, or I'm done talking about politics for a while now.

Like millions of Americans I voted yesterday. Given the long, drawn out election and everything that goes with it I'll jump in with the other internet talking heads and contribute my two cents. I voted for Obama and I'm glad he won. A few thoughts on the election, reactions to it, and observations on people my age.

The election process in this country is way more complicated and drawn out than it needs to be. I understand that we are a huge country and covering that much territory takes time. But how significantly did the candidates positions on the issues change during the course of the election? Since the actual election is always in November, the economic crisis would have still hit if the thing were shorter and the outcome would probably be the same.

Nevertheless, last night was an historic moment in American history. It will be one of those times where you recall where you were when they announced that Obama had won. I, unfortunately, was taking the dog out to pee. Seeing and hearing the pundits talk about the significance of electing an African-American president was really interesting. I believe it was Chris Matthews who made an interesting point about the correlation between race and age. To paraphrase, he said that this election result affected the psyche of people over the age of 45. For those younger folks, especially under 30, they tended to view Obama as just another guy and not as a "black" guy. I had never thought of it that way since I'm under 30 and just thought of Obama as another guy. Go figure.

One of my best friends updated his Facebook status to read: "Dear McCain voter under 30: You're an idiot." To a certain extent I understand that sentiment. Of course my brother is under 30 and I'm sure he voted for McCain, assuming he voted. But I also understand why he would. Plus, my brother is a rational person and doesn't fall back on ridiculous comments about socialism and heathenism. It seems to me that a lot of young McCain voters simply voted the same way their parents traditionally did, i.e. they come from upper/upper middle class families. The real failure, it seems to me, is their inability to actually examine the issues and each candidate's position on them and really wrestle with what their respective impacts would be. For me the big issues were education, health care, and the environment. Leaving the public schools in the hands of a "free market" is about the asinine idea ever and would only worsen districts that are already hurting.

The McCain health care plan, well, it was a joke. McCain kept saying that people shouldn't have a bureaucrat deciding their medical treatment. Even if boiled down to such a simple relationship, which, if you know anything about other national health services, does not happen, the real question to be asked is this: Would you rather have someone tell you that you CAN have a necessary procedure, even if you have to wait a few months (because it's not an emergency), OR would you rather have someone tell you that either a.) you can't have the procedure at all, or b.) you can have the procedure but it will cost you your house, life savings, kids' college funds, etc. That seems like a no brainer. Detractors call Obama a socialist. Not only is this incorrect, it shows a vast misunderstanding of what socialism is. When I was in Europe this summer I was talking to a guy about American politics, and he laughed at the idea that Obama was a socialist. In Europe, he would be considered conservative, undoubtedly. Americans use the term socialism interchangeably with communism in order to provoke fear and condemn what they don't understand. It's really sad. It's even more sad that a lot of people my age, college educated people, make these same accusations without examining what they really mean.

People are certainly entitled to their opinions, and like my Dad says, as long as they're informed opinions I have no problem debating with them. But those folks that just talk out of their ass and use fear and lack of reason (on either end of the political spectrum) to make their point aren't making a point at all. I had no problem talking politics with McCain supporters during this election, My brother and my cousin both supported McCain and we were able to have intelligent, rational conversations without turning to sniping and petty bullshit. That's the way it should be. There are too many people that latch on to one small thing, usually incorrect, and ride it with a virulence that is both ignorant and disheartening. Perhaps my lack of political conviction colors my opinion. I'm a moderate. I've voted in three presidential elections and never voted for the same party more than once (I voted for Nader in 2000). While hindsight is always 20/20 and looking back I don't always agree with my decisions, a big part of that was what was happening at the time, how it affected me, and my education of the issues. This time I feel like I was on the ball and suitably informed. It looks like American politics might experience a paradigm shift with this election, and personally, I think that's a good thing. If we move to a more European socio-economic model, I think that's alright, so long as we retain the aspects that keep us distinctly American. I have no doubt this would happen. So put away the vitriol and let's see what happens before making these stupid, uninformed, often times racist, comments. America may have taken a huge step forward by electing Obama president, but it still has a long way to go.

Chapter X initial draft

I have to call it "Chapter X" because I'm not sure what number it will be. Does the introduction count as chapter 1? If so it'd probably be chapter 3, if not, chapter 2. Today I finished a first draft of Chapter X. Of course, this is a first draft in the most basic sense. It's basically a 48 page recitation of the evidence I plan to use for the chapter organized in chrono-thematic fashion. The structure is rudimentary at best, and there is no analysis yet, but still it feels like a pretty big accomplishment and a solid departure point for crafting the chapter further. I know what direction I want to take the chapter, it's just a matter of doing it now and getting some constructive feedback along the way. At present, I plan to put this one on the shelf and work on its compatriot chapter - same time period, different thematic focus. Once I have evidence drafts of both chapters done I'll go back and do some more of the analysis and plug in the secondary works.

On Sunday I was reading a chapter in an edited collection that helped me to re-think some of the theoretical aspects of the project, particularly those relating to memory, and the ways in which the Irish experience differs from other areas, namely Britain. While thinking about these things I also thought about how to frame Chapter X, which was something that I was struggling with because it does not deal with memory in the traditional sense of commemoration and remembrance events. What clicked was that those rituals were aimed at the men who died during the war, but a different memory landscape existed for those who survived and returned. It's here that the subject of Chapter X, the British Legion's approach to housing and employment issues, fits into the memory rhetoric.

Is it better to get the evidence drafts done and go back and touch them up or to complete an evidence draft of each chapter and then go back and doctor the whole thing? If I get in a real rhythm with the evidence drafts that might be the way to go. Any thoughts on the writing process are welcome. Also, any thoughts about at what point is it prudent to have my adviser take a look? Would feedback at this time be too vague, or is it worth a conversation just to make sure things are on the right track?

Sharing sources

I received an email this morning from an historian in Ireland I had contacted about some sources she had used in chapter she had written. I was hoping that she would be willing to share some transcripts of interviews she had conducted with Irish veterans of the First World War. I had tried to contact this person previous, outlining my project in broad terms, but never heard back from her. This most recent message garnered a response. She politely told me, in not so many words, that my subject was too close to hers (admittedly her published works have been influential, why else would I contact her?), and since she was now working on her PhD she "cannot make available recordings and other materials which I have assembled for my PhD." She added, "Should you wish to avoid duplication in our two studies, you might consider concentrating on the cultural consequences of the Great War in Ireland. Music seems a particularly rich vein." ARGH! That's exactly what I'm trying/intending to do. I looked at an abstract of her project and she's concerned with the politics of Great War memory in Ireland. Granted, politics are never far from ANY subject in Irish history, but I only care about them insofar as they shape the trajectory of Irish history in general. I don't want to study politics intensively. Other folks I have contacted have been more than willing to provide suggestions and offer help, but I was really hoping that this person, who is probably one of the most learned on the subject, would fall into that category. I must admit I'm pretty bummed about this.

I sent back a polite email, thanking her for her time, explaining, briefly, I was interested in the cultural aspect, and that, perhaps, we could be of help to each other in the future. No reason to slam the door closed, eh?

On the one hand I get it. The dissertation is a big project and nobody wants their work copied. In that regard, some sources may need to be protected to ensure the uniqueness and the integrity of a project. On the other hand, it seems detrimental to furthering an aspect of history. Perhaps that's a bit idealistic, but the few people who study the Great War in Ireland understand that it's not your typical brand of Irish history. To study it means committing one's work to exposing people to an aspect of the past written out of the history books, generally. Dissertations must be unique pieces of research, but no two projects will ever be exactly the same, even if they use (some of) the same sources. In that regard, the unwillingness to share material seems a bit myopic. If it were something that I could go back and find at an archive, that would be one thing, and, perhaps, because these are interviews she personally conducted there is a personal stake to be had in how they're used and who uses them. But unless the interviewees specified that no one else should use them, that seems a bit selfish (to me at least).

A former colleague of mine at Loyola once told me, to paraphase, there are two types of Irish historians, those that are friendly and willing to do whatever they can to help you, and those who are bastards. Based on a single email I cannot put the subject of this post firmly into the latter category because of the caveats already mentioned. But it seems that the dial certainly was nudged in that direction a little bit (but to her credit she was polite, and, on the surface, made a valid argument).

This begs the question: should people in the same field be expected to share sources? Where does one draw the line with sharing sources? How should requests for information by colleagues be handled?

Songs that tell a story

As much as I love improvisational music like the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers, nothing quite grabs me like a well written song. It's usually something simple, with three chords, a great melody, and lyrics that tell a story. Perhaps it's the historian in me that is particularly interested in stories and the context out of which they emerge. I was jamming with one of my buddies last week and since we're both Mark Knopfler fans, I suggested we work on the tune "Sailing to Philadelphia." I had randomly come across it on my iPod the week before and was blown away instantly. First off, not only does it have Mark Knopfler and his signature guitar work, but he trades verses with James Taylor. The lyrics tell of two English surveyors who come to America. The names of these surveyors? Mason and Dixon. The song addresses several tropes inherent in the American psyche: adventure, movement west, pulling one up by their bootstraps, overcoming humble beginnings. It really is a great song and I recommend picking up a copy.

Songs that tell a story are what got me to where I am today. When I was a freshman in undergrad I worked at a local art gallery selling stuff on eBay. Over the Christmas break one of the owner's former employees came back from MSU and put in a few hours while he was in town. We had similar musical interests and he turned me on to the band Solas, who he had seen at a festival. I really liked what I heard and picked up some of their stuff. A Solas "story-song" favorite is "The Newry Highwayman." From there I came across the band Seven Nations, a Celtic-Rock band for lack of a better description, who covered a number of traditional songs, many of which tell a story, such as Canadee-I-O, Back Home In Derry, The Pound A Week Rise, and Crooked Jack. It was these two musical groups that fostered my initial interest in Irish history. I heard the stories in the songs and wanted to learn more about who these people were and the types of things that affected them. Seven Nations covered some Christy Moore, and I ended up getting into Christy. As THE Irish balladeer he plays plenty of songs that tell a story.

As a musician, one of the hardest things to remember are lyrics. I find that when a song tells a story it's much easier to remember because I think of how the story goes and the lyrics just come to me.

Some of my favorite "story songs." There are plenty of other story songs out there, especially by Dylan, Moore, Guthrie, and Garcia, but these are the ones I always find myself coming back to:

Little Musgrave - Christy Moore: A song about infidelity and retribution set to a great melody. Check out the live version with Planxty.

Ruben & Cherise - Jerry Garcia: A similar trope to that of Little Musgrave. This one is about a musician, his instrument, and the woman who potentially comes between them. The acoustic versions of this song are the best, notably 5/5/82.

Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan: Zimmy is always good for a long narrative and Tangled Up In Blue is no exception. This one, for those who don't know, revolved around a man and a woman who get together, split up, and then run into each other over the years. At least that what I get out of it.

Back Home In Derry - Christy Moore: This song was actually written by Bobby Sands and set to the tune of "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." It's about being transported and how resistance and ideology run deeper than judicial punishment.

The Boxer - Paul Simon: Coming of age in the big city. No one writes like Simon.

Gonna Move - Paul Pena: Another coming of age song. This one talks about overcoming obstacles, especially other people's expectations.

Pastures Of Plenty - Woody Guthrie: Woody wrote this song about Okies moving out of the Dustbowl, but the Solas does an amazing version of this one. Well worth checking out.

Miracles happen

At about 10pm tonight we checked the answering machine and there were two calls for me regarding my lost items from last weekend. As it turns out, everything lost has been recovered, and at minimal expense. My faith in humanity is restored!

On another note, I went to the dissertation writing group and it was a really positive experience. We're hoping for still greater numbers but it was good to have people in a similar situation to bounce thoughts and concerns off of. I asked about the chapter I'm currently working on and got some sound advise about splitting it into two chapters. Hopefully that will make things easier at these opening stages. We plan to meet the first and third Monday each month, with extra time off during the holidays. The plan is to establish goals for how much work will get done and to possibly present material to each other for feedback. It's really a way to help stay on track and establish some structure and accountability to the dissertation writing process. I think it will be a good motivator. The guy who initiated the whole thing even have "livestrong" style bracelets made that read "LUC Ph.D. ABD" on one side and "History Department" on the other - sort of a constant reminder of what we all should be doing, even if we're not. So far so good.

Updates

Nothing much going on here, aside from a turbulent weekend last. Due to some irresponsible inebriation I lost a number of personal effects, but, for the most part, have resolved all the problems something like that causes. To make matters worse, I had a gig on Wednesday evening, and, once again, none of my friends showed. Apparently the Cubs game was a major deterrent. Oh well. Two more shows coming up in the next month. If this trend continues I might have to invest in some new friends. Either that, or give up live music, but who really wants to do that?

Another thing of interest next week is a meeting of a Dissertation Writing Group organized by some of my colleagues in the Loyola history department. The first meeting is on Monday and I'm intrigued to see what the whole thing is about. I'll post any thoughts or suggestions as they come.

The new computer continues to be a boon. I've got a lot of material for the current section of the chapter I'm working on. I think next week I'll get back to writing and hopefully get a chunk of the chapter done! We'll see. The one thing I have noticed thus far is that it is easy to get carried away with detail and context. Currently I'm looking at the way housing for ex-servicemen contributed to the memory of the Great War in Ireland. It is necessary to give background on the various organizations charged with overseeing the construction of ex-servicemen's houses, but at the same time there is a fine line between giving context and getting into administrative history. I'm trying to avoid the latter. Perhaps this is something to bring up with the dissertation writing group, right?

New MacBook

Well, not exactly new new, it's a refurbished laptop, but it's got what I need. It's fast and able to handle all the stuff I need for work. iPhoto, Word, Bento, MacSpeech Dictate, and everything else work great on the new machine. No more waiting minutes, literally, for a program to load, to switch between programs, or doing any other day-to-day tasks. It will probably take a day or so to get everything transferred to the new machine and get it back to where the old one was. Nevertheless, it's great to have a new machine. I don't think it's absurd to get a new machine every 4-5 years. It's been 4 years since I got my iBook, and it's been a great computer. Let's just hope that I can get another good 4 years out of this MacBook. But right now, I'm really excited about being able to dive in headfirst to my research and writing (Does that make me a geek? Probably, but that was never in doubt.)

The other thing I need to mention, and I'm sure any one else in graduate school can agree with this, is that Interlibrary loan is the greatest thing ever. I'm working on part of one of the main chapters of my dissertation at the moment. I found a book on the subject I'm currently writing about (housing for Irish ex-servicemen) that Loyola did not own, naturally. A few quick clicks and interlibrary loan had the book for me in a few days. The book is a great complement to the primary sources I have, by filling in some of the administrative history those sources lack. Needless to say, the folks at ILL will be getting an acknowledgement when this thing is done!

The week that was

Since my last update a few interesting things occurred. The section of the diss I'm working on now relates to Irish ex-servicemen and housing in the 1919-1932 period. I spent some time this week trying to track down an Act of Parliament that was passed in 1919. That's the sort of thing one would expect to find online, but alas, I was informed that this is not so. They (how ambiguous) have only gotten the Acts through the 17th century digitized. Fortunately, I found a reference at Loyola's law library that seemed useful, and ended up finding a bunch of books that had what I wanted. It's nice that Loyola actually had what I needed - a rarity to be sure. Progress this week was a bit slow though. To make a long story short, my laptop if four years old and cannot handle running multiple programs at once any longer. Hell, it hangs when I just try to use the internet. Today, I ordered a new MacBook (well, a refurb) and I'm really pleased with the prospect of getting a new machine. Since my student loan money came in this week, I've been able to clear my credit card debt, and I should be able to pay off the new computer very shortly as well. Regardless, I'm looking forward to being more efficient with a serviceable computer.

In other news, the band I'm playing in - Fat Tuesday - had a gig tonight (Sunday) in the city. It was fun to get out and play again. Being my own harshest critic, I don't think I played great, but I played well enough. I even got to sing a song, though I couldn't hear myself in the monitor and my throat was dry. The worst part about the gig, besides having an 11:15pm start time on a Sunday night was that NONE of my friends showed up. How sad is that? I must have told at least 70 people and not a single one stopped by. I don't know if that says something about me, my friends, or Sunday nights. Our next gig is in the city on a Saturday night. If similar circumstances prevail, I'm looking for new friends. Other than that, the gig was fine. I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Steady as she goes

Just a few updates from the past week. On the dissertation front things are progressing steadily. I've been both going through material and starting to write. I put together a brief outline today about what I think the first chapter will look like based on everything I've seen the past few months. I'm trying to decided where to make a chapter break. The primary period of concern is the interwar period, but the entire project goes to the present. For the interwar period it seems easiest to just break down the chronology with one chapter for the 1920s and one for the 1930s. I could stretch the chronology of the first chapter from 1918-1932, and then the second from 1932-1939, with de Valera's ascension to power in 1932 as the watershed moment in the interwar years. I'm still trying to figure out which chronology to use. I'll have to look at the material from the 1930s more thoroughly before I made a final decision though. This week and last week I was going through the 1920s. So time will tell. Is it lazy to just break things down by decade?

What else has been going on? Let's see. The Michigan game on Saturday was an absolute travesty. Given the weather and the fact that ND weren't working with a brand new offense, I'm not terribly surprised that Michigan lost. Any team that fumbles the ball 7 (!!!) in a single game and loses 4 of them deserves to lose. Hopefully the bye this weekend will help big Blue to get their heads out of their collective asses against Wisconsin.

I'm also playing bass in a band now. We have a show this coming Sunday. Not the best night of the week to play a show, especially since it's at 11:15pm, but any excuse to play is fine with me. I'll probably have some reflections on the gig next week.

The Derek Trucks Band - God's gift to the ears

My two favorite bands of all time are the Grateful Dead and the Derek Trucks Band. Since Jerry Garcia died I'm obviously not going to any Dead shows. But the DTB just started a new tour and came through Chicago last weekend. Below is a review of the show that I posted on the DTB listserv. You'll also notice that there is a link to the show in the column on the left if anyone interested would like to listen to a recording and hear just how amazing these guys are. A few notes for clarity - Derek Trucks (DT) is married to blues singer Susan Tedeschi (ST). The members of the band are: Derek Trucks, guitar; Yonrico Scott, drums; Todd Smallie, bass; Kofi Burbridge, keys, B3, flute, clavinet, etc.; Mike Mattison, vocals; Count M'Butu, percussion.

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Hey folks,
Just got back from the DTB's rocking of the Windy City. It was my first DTB show since the Park West filming of Songlines (i.e. WAY too long). The band was in excellent form (as if they had any other). Susan sat in for a few songs on vocals. The setlist is as follows:

The Vic, Chicago, IL - 9/6/08

I'll Find My Way
Leavin' Trunk
Soul Serenade
Key To The Highway
My Favorite Things
Down Don't Bother Me
Get Out Of My Life Woman
Done Got Over*
Anyday*
Joyful Noise*

Encore:
Volunteered Slavery >
Up Above My Head

*with Susan on vocals

A few notes: The band was hitting on all cylinders from the starting gun. The soul serenade was a nice treat - something I wasn't expecting. I thought I heard a brief Amazing Grace tease during the intro. Wait for the tapes to confirm. (There were at least two tapers there, although I didn't get a chance to go talk to them. I recognized one from the last Park West show, and I know he got his source up pronto). My Favorite things was a nice, long jam. Very nice. I was in Ireland this summer when I first heard the new arrangement of Down don't bother me. I liked it from the get-go, but hearing it live was truly impressive. I hope they put this one on the new record. GOOMLW brought the funk. Susan did a great job (she even gave Barack Obama a shout out while she was improving over the Joyful Noise vamp). I hadn't seen her sit in with the band before and she added a great dynamic, especially when exchanging lines with Mike and Derek. The Volunteered Slavery was a bit spacey, most notably the jam into Up above my head. A real highlight if you ask me. Derek was on fire all night. Detuning, pulling the low E behind the neck of the guitar, and all kinds of DT wizardy. Everyone looked like they were having a good time, and the interplay between DT and ST was fun. They made a good time of it all. Derek also seemed to be more mobile. Not Pete Townsend by any stretch, but a few more bends at the knee, shrugs of the shoulders, and flexing of the elbows than a few years ago. He seems to be finding his element and having more fun with it (perhaps others have noticed this as well, I only bring it up now since I've been unable to hit up many shows in the past few years).
This was the first show I went to with my fiancee. She's not into the jam thing, but really enjoyed the show. We were standing in the section in front of the soundboard, and Katie said that from there Rico looked like Turk from Scrubs (that made me laugh). She got a kick out of Rico and the Count. She definitely enjoyed the show and I think she understands my obsession a bit better now.

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If I had the money I would follow this band on tour in a heartbeat. At some points during the show it felt like you were in a huge chautauqua tent, especially during Joyful Noise. It's really a great feeling to have. Plus watching DT play guitar is something any music lover should experience. Check to see if they'll be in your neck of the woods soon.

... and the band played on.

When I was overseas it became abundantly clear to me how people could spend a solid year in research. Now, it has become equally clear as to why it takes folks so long to go through everything. The dictation software I have works pretty well, however, I don't see myself relying on it exclusively. It's certainly helpful when taking notes on material, but there's something to be said for actually typing out text that necessitates thought. One other piece of advise I got this past week (or should I say, received again) was to start writing. Don't worry about going through every single little piece of research. As you write you'll have a better idea of what, exactly, you need, which prevents spending ungodly hours trolling through material you probably won't need. The goal is to chip away at the stone. And that's certainly what I'm trying to do!

In other news. The Red Bull Flutag was in Chicago this past weekend. I went down to check it out with some friends. It was entertaining, but we didn't stay for the whole thing. There were a ton of people there and the novelty wore off after a while. By attending the Flutag I missed a good portion of the Michigan game. They looked pretty good when I left, but as I read the game recap it seemed pretty clear that this was not maintained throughout the rest of the game. I watched a bit of the Notre Dame game, and they looked just as pathetic. Apparently a fourth quarter rally enabled them to beat a team they were trailing for most of the game and who had lost to Cal Poly the week before (my parent's alma mater; No offense Dad!). Hopefully, the UM quarterbacks will pull their heads out of their assess long enough to put together a win this week.

Finally, I actually watched sizable portions of both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. I have to admit that I tend to lean republican, but really consider myself a moderate. In the present election, however, I have no idea why anyone would want to vote for John McCain. I felt like writing something following his speech and that of his proposed veep, but refrained. Perhaps that was a good thing. It's disturbing that the republicans are trying to make this an election about personalities, again, while Obama addresses the issues and offers concrete proposals. As someone who hopes to work in the education field, I cannot understand how anyone in that industry would vote republican given the current education planks in their platform. Granted, I like the idea of small government, but in some sectors I think it's beneficial to have the backing of Uncle Sam: education, health care, and the environment. Those are areas I can support "big government." One might notice that all of these are long-term issues, that contribute to social well-being. Shouldn't be a surprise there. These are all areas that have systemic problems, need to be addressed quickly (i.e. the health care system needs to be blown up and started from scratch if you ask me), and, unfortunately, will probably continue to be ignored until it's too late. Anything beyond these issues, I prefer small government.

A long year for Michigan football

The Rich Rodriguez era did not start off well. For all the off-season hype about Rich Rod and his vaunted spread offense, when it came to game day the Wolverines did a massive face plant. Michigan fans knew this was coming. The exodus of players to graduation and the NFL draft after the 07-08 campaign would have made this season challenging for ANY coach. But to usher in a complete overhaul, most people knew that disaster would ensure despite their hopes that things might be deceptively better than projected.

Enter Utah. As we saw in 2004 with Urban Meyer calling the shots and Alex Smith (and his small hands) under center, Utah is not just a schlep of a mid-major. They're a solid team similar to App State last year (a team that was coming off of a Div 1A championship, a fact that got lost in the upset rhetoric). That said I'm not surprised that Michigan lost on Saturday. However, watching the game was very painful. Not just because my beloved Wolverines looked anemic on offense, but because of the commentators. I could rant and rave about my distaste for sports commentators for hours. The most annoying moment, to me, occurred during the first half when the commentators were slurping Michigan's offense, which had never really gotten off the ground, at the same time that the producers put up a graphic of both teams' total yardage. Utah had well over 100 yards total offense and Michigan had 35. If it weren't for penalties committed by the Utes, Michigan's 4th quarter comeback would have been for naught. It's foolish to think that Big Blue will get those kinds of breaks every week. Personally, I wanted to seem more Sam McGuffie. When he did get the ball he looked alright. Granted he's no Mike Hart, but he's not running behind the same offensive line either. I'm intrigued to see how he develops in Ann Arbor. But right now, we need a quarterback. Sheridan threw A LOT of near interceptions, and Threet was a bit better, but not a whole lot. I wouldn't be surprised if Threet starts next week though, based on his 4th quarter performance. Sheridan looked like he was trying to be Pat White out there instead of just managing the game. Before the season started Michigan fans knew that a QB would be at the top of the list for next year's recruiting crop. Frankly, I'm surprised Pryor DIDN'T come to UM. It's one thing to sign on to a program that's already winning, but it's another to be the spark, or the cornerstone, that brings a team back to their rightful place of prominence.

I do have to give props to Utah's offensive line. They protected their quarterback really well and allowed him to thread the needle with his passing. It's not a stretch for Utah to win the Mountain West title this year, assuming they stay healthy.

Hopefully next week, when we play a weak Miami, Ohio, team Big Blue will settle into their offense a bit more so they're ready for Notre Dame in week three. After the absolute domination we've had over ND the past few years, it would suck to let that get away now. In reality, we're still at least another year or two away from getting back to being a consistent top 5 or top 10 team. So long as that happens, these growing pains will be worth it. As for this year, I'll be happy with 7-5 or 8-4.

Why Lunchbox?

One of the most frequent questions I get when meeting new people is how I got the nickname, Lunchbox. Well it's not really that great of a story, but I might as well write it down for posterity.

When I was in middle school, and for most of high school, really, I was fat. It's safe to use the word heifer, I think. I probably wasn't 6' yet, and weighed over 2 bills, very little of which was muscle since I didn't work out. Despite my heft, I played lacrosse on my high school's club team. One of my lax buddies gave me the name my freshman year of high school. At the time he was obsessed with Kevin Smith's movie "Mallrats." I would assume most people are at least somewhat familiar with Kevin Smith's work, and know of the characters Jay and Silent Bob. Well, at one point in "Mallrats" Jay calls Silent Bob "lunchbox." One can presume this was the case because Silent Bob was a fat guy (there might be some sort of New Jersey idiom behind this, too. With Kevin Smith you never know). Since Silent Bob was a fat guy, and I was a fat kid my buddy, Brennan, decided that I too would be known as "Lunchbox." Suffice it to say the name stuck. By the time I got to college very few people knew my real name. I even had a little Indian professor for a computer class in undergrad that called me "Mr. Lunchbox." It was great. It got to the point where it was weird when I was addressed by my given name. (It's still a bit weird to me, actually). A lot of my friends still call me Lunchbox, or any of the variations picked up over the years (most commonly Box, but also, LB, and Lunch).

So that's the story. It wasn't because I carried a lunchbox to school (although I did afterward) or anything else. A unique nickname tended to ensure that people wouldn't forget who I was even if I forgot them.

Coping with life as a poor graduate student

As I made clear earlier this summer, the debacle with my credit card in Europe was a truly trying experience. Unfortunately, the worst effects of it are only now being felt. I can reasonably say that entering my 5th year of graduate study this is the first time I feel like I am on unstable ground financially. Yes, I won a research grant this summer and have a fellowship in the coming academic school year, but the former only helps to pay off the credit card debt I do have and the latter only really helps with cost of living expenses. There is little to help replenish my devastated savings. Perhaps I should have taken out a larger student loan this year, but it looks like its too late to adjust that. Honestly, I'd prefer to have a higher credit card bill that I know I can pay off over a longer period of time and be more stable, than to be able to pay off the bill quicker but face financial straights. The timing couldn't really be worse for all this, but there's not a whole lot to be done at this point except to ride it out.

On the research front, in addition to the database program I found, I also got a copy of MacSpeech Dictate. This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, dictation software. It lets you speak to your computer and it will type out what you say. I figured since I have so much stuff to go through, a lot of which is in JPEG format and thus unable to be copied and pasted to a text document, this would be good and efficient alternative. The only real problem is that my iBook G4 runs a PowerPC processor and the program needs and Intel Mac. Luckily I can use Katie's MacBook while she's at work. Right now I'm just waiting for my microphhone headset to arrive and I'll be good to go. It will be good to start getting through this material so I can delete some of it from my iBook's hard drive. Sure I have it all backed up on an external hard drive and archived on DVDs, but I can't bring myself to delete the 20+ Gigs of photos from my hard drive yet, even though they're sucking up almost half of my hard drive space and contributing to slow performance (even worse than I was experiencing before, which were the result of putting Leopard on such an old machine). Add a new Mac laptop to my list of things I need but can't afford at the moment.

Throughout all of this I've tried to keep a "Candide" attitude telling myself that everything will work out. Let's hope that Voltaire's satire isn't just that in this case.

Vetting the data

Well, now that I've returned to the good ole US of A and took a week off to get back into the swing of things, I'm turning my attention to going through all of the material I collected on my trip. I'm taking a page out of the research strategies of one of my professors at LUC, Dr. Lew Erenberg. He uses a database program to keep track of all his notes for his various projects. I figured it couldn't hurt to look into something similar. I found a program called Bento for my Mac that is pretty much everything I'd need. It allows be to create custom templates with whatever input fields I deem necessary. It allows you to create a Library and collections within that library as well. This is great because you can select the library and run a search and it will pull records from all of the collections. I wanted something with tagging, sort of like the labels function on blogspot. Since it wasn't possible to use hyperlinks within the program I just created a "Keywords" field. While it doesn't keep track of all the keywords throughout the library, it does so within each collection, which helps with consistency. So in essence, I've got a tag-like process going on. I've already been able to copy all of my typed notes into the program and I'm sure it will be useful when going through all the jpegs and pdfs I've accumulated. Just a make a record for each, put in a reference to the picture or file, and type in whatever notes on that document. Money.

Final Ratings

Accommodations:
Best: Queen's University Belfast - The continental breakfast really set this place apart. It was nice to have a stable internet connection and an en suite bathroom. The only drawback was the lack of crockery, which meant I wasted $20 on a pot and a pan for cooking. The location meant I did a lot of walking too, but the weather wasn't bad so it worked out fine.
Worst: King's College, London - Lacked an internet connection, phone, or any telecommunications whatsoever. The bathroom was an entity unto itself - and that's not a good thing.
The Rest:
University College, Dublin - Nothing fancy here. Had internet, but Skype wouldn't work on my Mac. Laundry was expensive. Had a Centra (think 7-11) in the complex. Great access to buses.
University College, Cork - Best bed of the trip, en suite bathroom, nicest kitchen of the trip. No in-room internet - 4 computers in common room (3 of which worked). Laundry really expensive.
University of Ulster, Magee - The most uncomfortable bed on the trip and the kitchen was kind of gross, but that was due to a couple of the guys living there being messy and not caring about the rest of us. Decent internet connection. (2) Great roommates.

Fish & Chips:
Leo Burdock's, Dublin - Best fish of the trip. Didn't get enough ketchup. Take-out only, a beer would have been great.
Jackie Lennox's, Cork - Best chips of the trip, make that curry chips.
Galway (can't remember the name of the restaurant) - stopped here passing through to Derry. Fish was too greasy and the chips weren't any thing special.
Bishop's, Belfast - Not bad. I would say standard - nothing to write home about. Perhaps if I had got some curry for the chips.
N/A - Derry & London.

Archives:
Best: The National Archive, Kew - based on what I've written already, this should be no surprise. Everything an archive should be.
Worst: The National Library, Ireland - a colleague at Loyola warned me about this place before I left and he was right. This place was such a pain to work at. Unfortunately, I'll have to go back, but at least I'll be better prepared.
Some of the rest:
University College, Dublin - A wonderfully run archive, prior to Kew, the one of the best I went to. They didn't have much that I could use, but that doesn't take mitigate the quality of the facility.
National Archive, Ireland - Not a bad place to work. Their digital camera policy is a bit inconvenient, but it could be worse.
Cork City and County Archive - Pretty much the same as UCD. A beautiful facility with great people, just not a whole lot I could use.
Boole Library, University College Cork - A very nice facility with a very friendly and accommodating head archivist. I enjoyed working here.
Harbour Museum, Derry - Some of the nicest folks along the way. They had one collection relevant to my work. Allowed digital photos, weren't over-bearing, helped with last minute request.
PRONI - A very nice facility, easy to use, lots of useful material. No digital photography, which is a shame. That would definitely boost them in my mind.
Belfast Central Library, Newspaper Library - Great collection, allowed photography, late hours.
Imperial War Museum, London - Nice facility, horrible online catalog, would love to do more work there.
National Army Museum, London - Very nice, new facility. Catalog not online, yet. Great materials, friendly staff. No photos allowed.
British Library - Great hours, one of the best collections in the world.

Coming to America

Well, I'm finally back home. The last week in London was really exhaustive, but, at the same time, I got a lot of work done. I spent a few hours on Sunday tooling around London, but nothing really to write home about. Monday was a long day, what with two flights, one of them being transatlantic. Nevertheless, I got home safely. As the plane was touching down at O'Hare the one thing that kept going through my mind was Neil Diamond's "Coming To America." That made me laugh.

So now that the initial research trip is done it's on to the next stage of the dissertation - going through all that material and starting to figure out how to put the thing together. We'll see how much stuff I have to write about here as the process unfolds.

All for now.

More thoughts on London, it's archives, and Tube

The pace of research in London is very fast. It's a nice change of pace from Dublin which is the equivalent to swimming in a tar pit. The days at the archives are just flying by.

Tuesday I went to the National Archive, Kew. This place is everything an archive should be. The staff is really friendly and helpful, everything is automated, yet there still a significant degree of autonomy for the researcher. One doesn't feel like they're being a burden or sized up on a regular basis. Everything there is easy to use, or at least what I needed was. I was also able to use my digital camera, yet another boon. I'll be going back there on Friday as I put in a bulk order of documents.

Wednesday I spent at the British Library. They have SO much material there and I was able to view some of the books that I wasn't able to see at the National Library of Ireland. I'm glad I did because I found some really good stuff in those books. The system there isn't as fluid as the one at Kew, but, still, I didn't have too much trouble. The nice thing is that you can schedule what day you want documents delivered, so there are a few I ordered up for Saturday (and perhaps I'll order up a few more this evening). I didn't get out of the BL yesterday until about 7:45pm. Needless to say it was a long day, but it was also a productive one.

Today, I spent at the National Army Museum. When I initially contacted them via email they sent me a list of files that they held. Ok, cool. Once I got here they had their collection accessible via an online database (run on Macs no less!), which was nice. One of the staff told me it'd be available on the internet later this year. So I looked through their holdings and found some other stuff relevant to my research. London keeps coming up aces in terms of finding materials. So I spent the day looking through this material and taking notes. In fact, I was typing as fast as I could by the end of the day trying to get one last document typed out before they closed. I was the last one to leave, but I managed to get everything I needed, at least for the time being. All in all, it was a very successful trip to a very nice little archive.

The one thing that is clear to me is that I will have to come back to London, perhaps a couple of times, in order to get through all the stuff here. The one thing that I wasn't able to figure out for this trip was anything at the Royal British Legion Headquarters. So I'll have to see about that on a subsequent trip. (After my experience in Belfast, I really need to look into the Dublin Branch as well. They may have what I'm looking for and not even realize it.) But I will say that spending so much time at these various repositories has made my time in London go by quickly, which I appreciate, especially since I'm toward the end of the trip, pretty burned out, and not smitten by my accommodations. I have, however, been able to achieve the level of productivity I've strived for all along in London, which was not always the case in other places.

Although I may find the Tube's cash fares expensive, it's easy to see where the money goes. What a great system. The trains are on time and there are displays telling you how long until the next train arrives (like the DC Metro). The cars are clean, as are the stations, and while they may be labyrinthine, everything is clearly marked and it's easy to figure out where to go. The train cars are pretty quite for a subway. Usually, there are a few windows open in each car for ventilation, and even then it's possible to listen to music without having to decimate your eardrums or to have a conversation without having to yell. It's not quite like the Montreal Metro, which has rubber wheels and is really quiet, but when compared to the CTA subway there is a huge difference. It's nice to have an automated voice over the speaker that tells you what station you're approaching/at, and what is next. On the CTA the only time one seems to get this type of information is when the driver feels like telling the passengers. Sure they have certain announcements about keeping the CTA clean and the like, but nothing like the Tube. CTA buses have this feature, but it doesn't work on every bus. I haven't ridden the buses in London, but I certainly did in Ireland, and it's safe to say that based on my experience there and what I've seen of the buses in London, they're well maintained and clean, again, unlike the CTA. This just hammers home how absolutely terrible public transportation is in Chicago. People piss and moan about a $0.25 fare increase, but having seen other, better systems it's worth it for a higher fare. Besides, on the Tube a cash fare is £4, but if you have an Oyster Card (the same thing as the Chicago Card (Plus)) then it's only £1.50, and on top of that there is a daily cap so you won't be charged anything above the cap if you have the card (assuming I'm reading the literature correctly). But a difference between £1.50 and £4 is huge. Perhaps that's the sort of price structure we need in Chicago to really initiate change. The smart cards are so much more cost effective for the transit system there needs to be a much stronger incentive for people to use them. It's kind of like in Ireland how they charge you for plastic bags at the grocery store. Every one there has reusable shopping bags. After the initial adjustment period most people will probably just go with the flow, and be more content with their service.

London town

You get a shiver in the park/it's raining in the park, but mean time....

It'd be nice if the Sultans could Swing me a better lot in London. It should be clear that for me telecommunications is the central factor determining the quality of my accommodations. In this respect, London is the worst place so far. Oh, there are internet ports in the rooms, but one must have a King's College login to access them. No guest access here like at Queen's. There are no phones in the apartment and no common room with computers for people to use. That puts London just below Cork on the telecommunications scale. Frankly, I'm disappointed. For a place that caters to international travelers--in LONDON of all places--you would think they'd have some sort of solution to the telecommunications question. There is a bar directly across the street that has "free" wifi (with purchase of course), but that's hardly acceptable in my book. Nevertheless, it's something I'll have to deal with. Let's just say I'm glad I'm only here for a week. I couldn't afford to be here longer!

The room itself isn't too bad. There's a mini fridge, two pillows, and the sheets are really comfortable. The bathroom, however, is one of the most "European" things I have encountered thus far. I will upload a photo later, but it's basically a triangle with one corner being the "shower," with a bar bisecting the triangle that holds the curtain rod. When the shower curtain is closed, the toilet is inside the shower. I shit you not (excuse the pun). Now I was a part-time custodian for about 3 years in undergrad and I am by no means a germophobe, but I do not like grimy things. This bathroom scares me. Needless to say, another reason I'm glad I'm only here for a week.

On the research front, today was very productive. I spent the day at the Imperial War Museum, which is one of the coolest museums in London (again, another one I think the Colonel would thoroughly enjoy). When I got to the reading room they had the files I had requested waiting for me at an assigned seat. The chairs were comfy and the room was big and bright. Really, it was ideal for doing research. The only drawback was that of the probably 30 seats available they crammed everyone right next to each other so there wasn't much room to work. That kind of sucked, but otherwise, I enjoyed it. I must say that most of the research facilities here have been great, with the obvious exception of the National Library of Ireland. Tomorrow's plan is to go out to the National Archive at Kew. I know that I can use the old digital camera there so hopefully I'll only need the one day there. We'll see. It looks like it's probably a 45 min Tube ride in the morning. If you think that public transportation in Chicago is expensive where a cash fare for a single ride is $2, try London where the same goes for £4 ($8). Yet another reason I'm glad I'll only be here for a week.


Finally, a totally unrelated thing, but one I think worthwhile - a format change for this here blog. I've decided that an "Album" of the week isn't really cutting mustard any more. Sometimes I find myself picking an album because of a particular song on it. Since the music industry seems to be going retro to the 50s and 60s where singles ruled, I'm changing the Album of the Week to This Week's Music, which may include a single song, an entire album, or a live concert. Since, personally, I prefer live music, I'll provide links whenever possible to live music. Singles and records, I assume people (and I use this term loosely since there are 4 people reading this) can do a Google or iTunes search for a song or album.

Belfast in Pictures

As promised here are some pictures from Belfast (click on images for bigger pictures). Better late than never:


A couple of Pints Rich and I got from the Crown Bar.

The Europa hotel at one time held the distinction for being the most bombed hotel in Europe. Perhaps it still does, as I'm fuzzy on the details. The main bus and train stations are located there as well.

One of many murals in the Shankill Road area (i.e. Protestant).


Another Shankill Road mural.
And one more Shankill Road mural for good measure.

This is the main cenotaph at the Remembrance Gardens at Belfast City Hall. It's really a nice memorial, me thinks.


This is the Great War Memorial at Queen's University Belfast. It is located in front of the main university building and is literally the first thing you see when you walk through the main gates onto campus.
I just liked the look of this Celtic Cross. However, behind it you can see a list of names. This is one of the memorials in the Falls Road (i.e. Catholic) area. The names belong to people from the neighborhood (actually the surrounding streets) who have died in the Troubles.



This is a look at the grave sites of the Hunger Strikers and other Republican martyrs in Milltown Cemetery. Toward the back you can see a tricolor flying and a massive black tablet. On that is inscribed the text of the 1916 Proclamation. My camera battery died as I took a picture of it, sadly.


The grave of Bobby Sands. Frankly, I expected something more.

Exiting Belfast stage left

Wow, where did the week go. It's amazing how quickly time flies when you have lots of work to do. Well my journal of this dissertation research trip is quickly coming to its conclusion and I'll have to move on to other dissertation and life related things to write about. I've got next week in London before going home. But first a recap of this week's activities.

As I already mentioned, I spent Monday at the Royal British Legion in Belfast. Both Tuesday and Wednesday I spent long days at the Belfast Central Library. Since a lot of what I'm doing looks like it is going to rely pretty heavily on newspapers. The Belfast Central Newspaper Library was the best place to work with newspapers thus far. The main advantage of the BCL is that they have no problem bringing out bound volumes of newspapers. Most places tend to rely heavily on microfilm. That's not to say the BCL doesn't have it's share of microfilm, but for the major Belfast area newspapers, which I was most interested in, were all available in hard copy. So what's the big deal you might ask? My digital camera can take pictures of a microfilm machine screen and produce useable images. They are not the best, but they are certainly usable. A lot, of course, depends on the quality of the film itself. With the hard copies you don't have to worry about the quality of the film. Most of the papers I looked at were in good condition and I got really good quality pictures from them.

On Thursday, I took the train to Bangor followed by a bus toward Newtownards to the Somme Heritage Centre. I spent the day there going through some of the sources they had there. Noel Cain and the other people at the Somme Centre were very friendly and accommodating. The centre was really cool. It was the type of place I would love go with my Dad because I know he'd really like it (Dad, since I know you're reading, you have your charge: Going to Northern Ireland with me). Oh, and I managed to leave my umbrella either at the train station in Belfast or on the Bangor train. Note: this is NOT a good thing in Ireland. As Murphy's Law would have it, when I left the Somme Centre it was raining pretty hard and I got drenched.

Friday, I went back to the BCL and finished up another run of papers. When I was in the Republic they had a number of newspapers digitized and completely searchable, which made the process of finding relevant information a lot easier. In the North, however, there are no papers that are completely digitized so I had to go through microfilm and hard copies. Since memory/commemoration of the First World War in Ireland most prominently coincides with Remembrance Day my strategy for attacking papers in microfilm and hard copy consisted of this: I would select a paper - this week it was the Belfast Newsletter, the Belfast Telegraph, the Northern Whig, and the Irish News, Belfast. I would request the papers from the month of November from 1919-1939. I would have liked to go further into the future but Belfast had three good papers (the Irish News, Belfast started strong and faded fast) and I wanted to get through all of them. Plus, after 1939, the commemoration of WWI veterans changes because of WWII so the 1919-1939 period is the principal concern.

So it was a very productive week in terms of research. Or at least I hope so. The other issue that developed was with so many pictures I'm starting to run out of hard drive space on my computer. I was at Tesco the other night and bought some blank DVDs. I've backed up all of the photos I've taken on DVD. Probably not a bad idea. Given what happened with my PRONI notes, I'd prefer to err on the side of caution.

So that's the update for now. I leave Belfast tomorrow for London and after a week I FINALLY go home. I understand why people need to spend 6-12 months engaged in research based on my experiences here. But I don't know how people can spend so much time away from home. I guess most people have some sort of funding, and when the dollar was strong it would be a bit easier. Yet, it remains a difficult thing to manage. So as worthwhile as the trip has been I am certainly ready to go home.

All for now.

Adventures in Belfast

94 years ago today Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, thus commencing the First World War.

Things are still moving along here in Northern Ireland. This weekend differed from my usual activities because my buddy Brendan (Poz) from Loyola was in Belfast. I let him crash on the floor of my room, and since he was staying with me, we pretty much spent the entire weekend together.

I picked him up from the bus station about noon. We came back to Queen's so he could drop off his stuff then we went to check out the mural paintings in the Falls Road and the Shankill Road (Catholic/Republican and Protestant/Loyalist, respectively). Poz had a guide book that we were using as our reference point, but the problem was that for both the Falls and Shankill there only existed a small inset map and not a map of the entire west Belfast area. Needless to say, there were many wrong turns taken. There is a big fence separating the two neighborhoods and it's somewhat surreal walking through the gates (which are closed at night) between the two areas. The murals themselves were fascinating. Along the Falls Road the murals generally focused on Bobby Sands and the H-Block Hunger Strikers, as well as other moments and ideals of Republicanism. In the Shankill Road there was a distinct theme of violence that I found very interesting, especially when juxtaposed to the Falls Road and the typical villainization of the IRA (I don't want to sound like an IRA apologist, I'm not by any means). People don't hear as much about the UVF and other Protestant para-military groups as they do the IRA. But in the Shankill road militarism was ALL OVER their murals. There was even one dedicated to a particular soldier who earned the moniker "Top Gun" for taking out so many of the "others." A whole wall on the side of a house for this guy. It really makes you think.

After we looked at the murals, Poz wanted to go see the grave of Bobby Sands. Mind you we started in the Falls Road, worked our way north and then back east through the Shankill Road. To get to Sands' grave we had to go BACK down the Falls road, i.e. the road we walked down once already, plus an extra mile or two until we found Milltown Cemetery. And it was a huge cemetery. The guide book said the Sands' memorial was on the right hand side just after you walk in the main gates. That wasn't exactly true. We wandered around trying to find the area described in the book, but couldn't find it (the pictures in the link resemble the description in the book, but not what we actually found at the cemetery; weird). Finally we asked a gentleman walking through the cemetery and he pointed us in the right direction. In the meantime he told us that a bunch of the Hunger Strikers were there as well as some of the folks from the Gibralter Incident. He told us that when they were burying the Gibralter victims that loyalists threw grenades at the mourners. He seemed pleased to tell us that even though they ran toward the motorway, the loyalists were caught. The way he said it suggested that they weren't just apprehended and taken off to jail. But it was probably about a city block's distance to the grave sites of Sands and the other Hunger Strikers buried there. Just inside the gate my ass! The cemetery was clearly a Catholic one and Nationalist/Republican. What really struck me was that there was a sizable Great War memorial in the cemetery. Probably the LAST place I would expect to find one of those would be in the same cemetery where Sands, et. al. were laid to rest.

By this time we'd been walking for over 5 hours straight. Since we had been walking south, I figured we could just find an east/west road and try to get back to Queen's. So we asked for directions at a shopping center, but they weren't too helpful. And so I did what I very rarely do. Called a cab. We took a cab back to Queen's. Of course once I saw the route that we took, I realized it only would have taken us another 45 min or so to walk back because I recognized where I was after about 3 turns and 2 traffic lights. Oh well.

Then we went to the Tesco to get some food for dinner. We bought a couple oven pizzas and cooked those up. Then we went out to find a decent pint. But first we had to walk back to the city center to find a specific ATM so Poz could get out money without any fees, or so he hoped. After getting cash, we tried in vain to find a bar that wasn't packed, loud, and full of DB's. Every place we went to was absolute garbage. Even the old fashioned pub turned chachie on Saturday night. We ended up at a hotel bar. There was a wedding going on and some of the wedding-goers were at the bar. We made nice with some of them and they bought us drinks, so that made it worthwhile. One of the guys kept trying to get us to drink Diesel, which, as he told us is for Belfast because Belfast is hardcore. It consists of 2 shots of vodka, 1 red bull, and Magners (hard cider). Poz eventually tried and said it was good. I had no desire to imbibe any such concoction and took his word for it.

When we got back to Queen's a security guard stopped us and asked to see our room keys. I displayed mine, but Poz didn't have one. So we BS'd the guy and said he had to get his bag out of the room so he could go to his hostel and the security guard let Poz through under the provision he came back out. Of course he didn't, but the guy didn't have my name or room number so score one for us.

On Sunday we got up late and went out to do some more sight-seeing. We trekked through the TItanic Quarter, which was a real disappointment. Although they did have the HMS Caroline on the display there which served in the First World War and was at the Battle of Jutland in 1915. Unfortunately, people aren't allowed on the boat. So that sucked, but it was cool to see. On our way back from the Titanic Quarter we stopped at the Crown Bar for a pint because it one of those places you HAVE to get a pint in Belfast. Then we made our way back toward Queen's and Tesco's again to get food and beer. I had no interest in going out again after all the walking we did Saturday and Sunday. So we made food, had a few beers, and shot the shit.

This morning we got up early and went to breakfast. Then we headed downtown. Poz took the bus to Dublin and I went to the Royal British Legion office in Belfast. I got there around 9am and worked there until about 1pm. They had minute books of the British Legion (Ireland) Northern Branch HQ since 1919 (pre-dating the founding of the actual British Legion itself!). So I went through those and took pictures of all the minute books from 1919 until early 1942. The interwar years is the most important and I was quickly running out of memory (and that's with a 2GB memory card).

The folks who worked at the were great. They asked me if I wanted to go out and get a pint so of course I said sure. One of the guys told me they go out for a pint in the afternoon every Wednesday. As he said that I looked at my watch to double check that it was in fact Monday. Apparently they started going Wednesdays. Then Wednesdays and Fridays. Then MWF, then everyday. So they have Monday-Wednesday, Tuesday-Wednesday, Wednesday proper, Thursday-Wednesday, and Friday-Wednesday. They only go for 1 pint, but it was cool to talk to two gentlemen I went out with, both ex-British Army.

After the pint break, I bid the guys from the British Legion adieu and went over to the Belfast Central Library. I wanted to check out their newspaper library in preparation for my planned visit tomorrow. I went through their holdings and made a list of titles I'd want to look at so I should be ready to go in tomorrow guns blazing. There was a guy there taking digital photos today, so I'm glad to see I'll be able to do so as well. Although, I'm starting to run out of space on my hard drive. I have one blank DVD with me, but I might have to go buy a few more. It'd probably be wise to have a back up of some of these things any way. I think I've got about 12GB worth of photos though.

So the rest of this week will probably be split between the Central Library and the Somme Heritage Centre. I called there this afternoon, but the guy I needed to talk to wasn't in. Of course. So I'll call back tomorrow and hopefully get something set up for later this week.

(Pictures to be added later)

PRONO!

It was too good to be true. Things were going far to well in Belfast not to hit some sort of snag. This morning I got snagged. I've had a very productive week at PRONI and it showed. I think I had something along the lines of 50 pages of typed notes from all the materials I had looked at so far. Before I left for PRONI this morning I opened Word to get the file ready for action. I tried to scroll down to the bottom of the page, but it said there were only 2 pages in the file. So I did a Spotlight search on my computer to see if I misplaced a file or something. Nope. That was the only PRONI file on the machine. Pages and pages of notes, hours of work, gone. What I think happened is this: When I was typing everything up over the past three days I was forgetting to put page breaks in to ensure that each file has it's own page. That helps reduce confusion later. Well I must have had most of the document's text highlighted while inserting the last page break without noticing it, or something along those lines because the only thing remaining was the last thing I was working on at the end of the day yesterday. Once I saved and quit the program there was no chance of getting anything back, let alone the following day. What a huge pain in the ass. Right? Luckily, today just happens to be the one day of the week when PRONI is open late, so I have time to go through everything. And I did. I put my grant money to use and just ordered copies of everything I had already taken notes on. Fortunately, since I had a pretty fresh memory of the pertinent files I was able to get everything done by about 3:00pm, after about 4.5 hours, and move on to stuff I hadn't yet seen. So yes, the situation sucks, but if it was going to happen, it happened at the right time because I had time to get everything back. So it could be worse. At least I'm finding useful material and PRONI will post it home for me so I don't have to bother carrying the stuff around. I think that qualifies as turning lemons into lemonade. For my efforts, I'll have a beer tonight!

A few other observations: Every where I go in Ireland I run into Italians. Does Italy have some obsession with Ireland the rest of world needs to know about? I had an Italian roommate in Dublin (Carlo was great), then in Cork and Belfast there are large groups doing something (Lord knows what) under the auspices of some program. When I was in Derry there was another group of Continentals, that I assume was Italian based on deductive reasoning since their speech sounded like a romance language, but didn't sound like Spanish or French. The most annoying thing that all the groups have in common (not Carlo, like I said, he was the man) is their proclivity toward being out of doors while using voice decibel levels incongruent with whatever time of day it is. Perhaps I'm becoming a curmudgeon? Who knows.

I will say that the current crop of Italians in Belfast obviously didn't get the memo that the 80s are over. Numerous people, male and female, are rocking serious mullets. You can tell that these mullets are carefully stylized coifs and not the result of some brooding passive-aggressive spite. These are by far the worst mullets I've seen since I've been here, and there are a lot. How do Europeans not think that mullets look completely ridiculous? I blame soccer players.

Also, I've noticed that people, at least in Ireland, have an aversion to picking up after their dogs. Not only have I espied dog shit on numerous sidewalks, but yesterday I had the benefit of stepping in a huge pile of it. Granted, in Chicago no everyone picks up after their dogs. I've noticed some repeat offenders on our street, or at least people who walk their dog on our street. I have a feeling they do so at night. That, or their dog has an affinity for stealth crapping. But even so, they tend to crap on the grass, which, although still gross and not good for MY dog, it off the actual footpath, thus greatly reducing the chances for people to step in it. Not in Ireland. It's as though they're afraid to spoil all the green that surrounds them with dog poo. I don't even see people carrying plastic bags when they walk their dogs.

PRONI, Day 1

If today is any indicator of the next two weeks, Belfast will be a very valuable stop on this research trip. Let's hope it is.

I got up and went to the student center located about 50 yards from my building for the provided continental breakfast. They actually had a decent selection of stuff and it was nice not to have to buy breakfast food. Up QUB!

It was just over a mile to walk to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, which took about 20 minutes. No rain today and the temperature isn't too bad so I didn't mind it at all. I ended up getting there at 9:30am. Registration was a breeze. I spent a couple of hours going through their finding aids and online catalog compiling a list of sources I wanted to go through. I spent the afternoon going through the first batch.

I had a reference for the Irish Rugby Football Union from another book and I was greatly pleased with the material I found. A good deal of information about the organizations efforts to commemorate their fallen in WWI. Exactly the sort of stuff I'm looking for. Hopefully more of that will turn up along the way.

Towards the end of the day I was approached by a gentleman who, I assumed, worked at PRONI. He asked, somewhat puzzled, if I, in fact, went to Loyola since I was wearing a LUC t-shirt. I confirmed that I did and I was there working on my PhD. He introduced himself as Sean Farrell from NIU, a name I have heard of - cool! He asked who I was working with, still seeming a bit unsure. I told him my adviser was Ted Karamanski and Andy Wilson was one of my readers. This seemed to make much more sense to him, especially after I told him who I was NOT working with, which, of course, did not seem to surprise him. He seemed to be on his way out, but said he'd be back tomorrow. He offered conversation over a coffee/tea break, so hopefully I can count Dr. Farrell as another good contact gained on this trip.

All in all, a good day at the archives. Hopefully this will be a recurring trend over the next few weeks.

Out from the sweet town of Derry...

All is quiet on the western front. I'm moving east to Belfast in about an hour. I figured I'd make some quick notes since I have neglected to do so recently. This past week was fairly productive and overall better than I thought it would be. A quick recap in the on-going log of my dissertation research:

Monday: Bank Holiday. Everything is closed. Went to the Pub with Joe and Rich.

Tuesday: Woke up early and sauntered down to the bus station. Caught the bus to Enniskillen where I checked out the Royal Inniskillin Fusiliers regimental museum. I was pretty impressed with it really. It was a small operation but very well done. I got to talking to one of the folks who worked there and he actually gave me some leads for Derry. So that was good.

Wednesday: Not too much. Went down to the Free Derry museum in the Bogside with Rich. It's a one-sided story (but understandably so) and a really interesting little museum.

Thursday: I met with Trevor Temple, who is the principle historian on the Diamond War Memorial project in Derry. We sat down for a bit and talked about various things. Trevor told me of some more sources down at the Harbour museum that they had neglected to mention, so I fired off an email to them when I got home. He gave me some additional tips and I walked away with a solid contact in Derry.

Friday: I was able to get back down to the Harbour museum and look through the aforementioned files. Thank God for the digital camera. Just snap pictures of everything and sort it out later. I had originally planned to go to Armagh to see the Royal Irish Regiment museum, but then I discovered that instead of a 2:45 bus ride from Derry with at least 1 connection, I could take a 1:15 bus from Belfast with no connections. Needless to say, that trip was deferred for a few days.

Saturday: I woke up late and did laundry. Then Rich and I went to Belfast for the afternoon. We got a few pints at the Crown Bar and met some crazy drunk lady who kept us entertained until it was time to catch our bus back to Derry.

When the dust settles, I have to say that I've enjoyed my time in Derry the most so far. Having a couple of roommates to do things with has helped greatly. But I think I collected some good material while I was here. I get the impression the next three weeks are going to go pretty quickly since there seems to be a lot of stuff to do in Belfast and my week in London is going to be a whirlwind tour. I'm probably leaving Derry at a good time though, because even though it's the least expensive place I've been thus far, I've probably spent more time and money on extracurriculars here than any where else along the way. I'm sure next weekend in Belfast might be similar since my buddy Poz is going to be in town, but I have a feeling it's back to my old hermetic routine. I haven't broken the bank yet, so it's probably a good time to do so.

All for now.

Peadar O'Donnell's

My roommates and I have been frequenting a bar in Derry called Peadar O'Donnell's. They have sessions nightly of traditional Irish music and only last night did I remember to bring my camera and snap a few pictures. These folks sound really good and even do a number of Neil Young songs arranged in a traditional Irish vein. Very cool! Brother Neil keeps the free world rocking for sure. (Side note: when I was in Cork, I was watching the weekly sports recap show on RTE and the music they played over the credits was "Rockin' In The Free World." Is there a connection between Ireland and Neil Young I'm missing? I mean he's from Ontario?!) Anyway, the set up for the session was two fiddles, a guitar, and a multi-instrumentalist who played Uilleann pipes, bouzouki, and a variety of whistles. I tried to get pictures of each.






From left: Rich, Rich's buddy, and Joe (Rich and Joe are two of my roommates. Nice lads.)