Monday, February 23, 2009

Cowper to The Green

Perhaps it's just me, but Dublin has felt like a spectacularly shite place to be in the last few months. But on blue sky days like today it feels like it might eventually pull out of its collective anxiety and become a decent place to live in again. Where people smile a bit more, keep drinking at a proper level, and manage to stop asking "Is your job secure?" for long enough to have a conversation about, I dunno, cats or something. Where a taxi driver's inevitable "Yeah, it's slow at the moment..." might just be followed up with "But sure, fuck it."

It takes the fortuitousness of having just the right change for the Luas in my pocket to set me on this tram of thought. Johnny Cash in my ears helps, too. Then when the tunes end I can still hear a guitar strumming, and turn around to see a Spanish bloke playing a guitar at the front of the carriage. No-one minds. I grin, and afford him one ear. He complements Johnny nicely.

This may well be the way to reclaim your city: filling it with music and scrawling love notes to it while curious passengers look over your shoulder.

4 comment(s):

Sarah Gostrangely said...

So right!

A bit of creativity is called for, along with the doom and gloom.

Nosy fuckers on the Luas though.

Andrew said...

It always comes as a huge relief to me when I think i've made an arse of getting my point across and then a commenter gets it spot on. I do harbour this romantic notion that straitened financial times might lead to a wonderful creative boom. Though I might well be wrong, time will tell.
As for the nosy Luas passengers, i had to pretty much write with my diary two inches from my face to stop the old bloke beside me from rubbernecking. I gave up in the end, I was gonna put the thing on the fucking internet, after all.

Darren said...

Wonderful. I wish I could sum up my thoughts so artfully. This is exactly how I feel. Perhaps a creative revolution will take the edge off the Big R.

On the bright side, I'm hearing a lot of "but sure fuck its" lately. We know it's bad, but it will get better - that's what I'm hearing from people.

Andrew said...

Thanks, Darren. I'm not sure this was particularly artful, just of the moment.

you might be right about people cheering up a bit. it has felt like one big bereavement for a while, but people may now be getting over the shock of it and adjusting to a slightly more cautious life.