Gaga and Your Body: Trinity's Science Gallery Opens Biorhythms show in New York

One of Ireland’s newest and most successful galleries has opened an exhibition in New York for the first time. The Science Gallery at Trinity College has attracted 750,000 visitors in the three years since it opened – far exceeding its target of 50,000 visitors a year. The gallery has a reputation or putting on exhibitions which make science more accessible to the general public.

“It was really a bit of an experiment by Trinity College,” explains Michael John Gorman, the gallery’s director. “Let’s find a new way for the university to engage with the city and to bring together science and the arts - to connect the Ivory Tower with all of the creative community around the university.”

One of those exhibitions was called Biorhythms: Music and the Body, and was seen by more than 60,000 people in Dublin last summer. It explores why our bodies react differently to hearing Lady Gaga and Beethoven. Now, it has opened at the Eyebeam Art and Technology Centre in Chelsea, Manhattan as part of the World Science Festival. It’s the first time that the Science Gallery has taken an exhibition overseas, and also the first time that the World Science Festival has ever invited an exhibition to participate in its program. “It’s a great honor to be the first one,” said Michael John Gorman, “For us, it’s exciting to be on the international stage.”

The exhibition is being supported by Imagine Ireland, the year-long promotion of Irish arts in the US by Culture Ireland.  “That’s a pretty great thing to be part of,” said Gorman, “It’s really thrilling to have the experimental mix between science and art suddenly being regarded as part of emerging Irish cultural activity.”

Singer Gavin Friday and composer Linda Buckley were among the curators of Biorhythm. Trinity Provost Dr John Hegarty travelled to New York for the launch last Friday, which saw a New York beat boxer and his band take part in a live experiment on stage, having their emotional and physical responses measured as they performed to see how music and the body interact. The exhibition runs until August, and the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center has planned a book launch, workshops and other events to run alongside it.

“It’s unusual for us to host an exhibition, but we were really excited about the possibility of this show” said Amanda McDonald Crowley, the center’s executive director. “We’re not a gallery for hire.  It wouldn’t make sense for us. We’re in Chelsea.  There are 389 galleries in a five block radius of us. We’re much more interested in the possibility for collaboration.”

The exhibition offers a chance to experiment with different kinds of installations. It includes the world’s largest research experiment on music and emotion, which is being conducted in collaboration with Queens University Belfast. “They’re actually using the visitors to the gallery as experimental subjects, and by attaching them to sensors for skin response and heart rate, they are testing how people respond to different types of music,” said Michael John Gorman. “And it’s a real scientific experiment, where they’re going to create this huge database. So one could imagine that being used for example in devising new sorts of musical experiences, which are tailored to your mental state, which is a next generation type of music.”

There are also a range of more playful installations – like a sonic bed which you can lie in and feel the music pulsing through your whole body, an acoustic armchair, a giant ear. There’s also the chance to create your own music and sounds. “I think what’s really interesting here is the combination – there’s a number of works that are really rather scientific in approach and there are some that are much more arty in their approach,” said Amanda McDonald Crowley of Eyebeam. “The idea of mixing up those works conceptually and thinking of sound in the context of both art and science, and where those ideas meet, that’s what’s really interesting for me.”

The Science Gallery hopes the event will lead to new links with international artists and scientists, with Dublin designated City of Science in 2012.

BIORHYTHM: MUSIC AND THE BODY at Eyebeam Art +Technology Center at 540 W 21st St runs til Aug6th. Open Tuesday-Saturday 12-6PM - admission free! CHELSEA

How the US media covered Obama's Irish stopover

THE president and his pint: this was the image of Barack Obama's brief Irish stopover that captured the imagination of most American media outlets.

The image was used to illustrate articles on most US news websites, and broadcast on all the news networks, who reported on Obama reconnecting with his Celtic roots.

"When at a pub in Ireland, it would surely be deemed sacrilegious to deny yourself a pint of Guinness, especially if you're the president of the United States reconnecting with your distant Irish relatives," wrote Kelly Chernekoff, on the Fox News White House blog.

"So when visiting his great, great, great grandfather's hometown of Moneygall, the president was determined to not only drink a pint, but do it justice."

The visit has attracted considerable media attention, with the primary focus on Moneygall.

Mark Landler of the 'New York Times' wrote that: "President Obama may not be related to everybody in this postage-stamp Irish hamlet of 300 that claims him as its native son. But on Monday, Mr Obama appeared determined to hug, kiss or shake hands with every last one of them."

Jubilant

The paper described the visit as "jubilant" and the crowds who greeted him as "quite possibly the most loquacious rope line he has ever worked".

On TV, all the main networks previewed the visit with stories about Moneygall, including a report on NBC's top-rated morning show 'Today'.

Both MSNBC and CNN carried Mr Obama's speech at College Green in Dublin live in full.

CNN went to the scene early enough to hear Enda Kenny's impassioned plea to Irish Americans to follow their president home to Ireland.

Some outlets took a more sober take on events.

The 'LA Times', conscious of the ongoing controversy over Mr Obama's speech on Israel last week, carried his words of tribute to the Northern peace process as a model for other conflicts.

Bloomberg concentrated on Mr Obama's pledge of support for Ireland's efforts at economic recovery after the bailout.

The main news story of the day in the US was a massive tornado which killed at least 119 people in the city of Joplin, Missouri.

Most outlets carried reports from officials that Mr Obama was receiving regular updates on the damage as he made his way around Ireland.

This article appeared in the Irish Independent May 24 2011

Spiderman 2.0 hitting the right notes

A new air of positivity surrounds the Spiderman musical on Broadway, after preview performances resumed on Thursday night with no glitches and a more crowd-pleasing storyline. The $75m production, with a score written by Bono and the Edge, had taken a three week break to allow a new creative team to drastically rework the much-maligned musical.

New director Phil McKinley has put an increased emphasis on the love story between Peter Parker and Mary Jane, and on the battle with the villainous Green Goblin. The comic book’s most famous line – “With great power, comes great responsibility” has been included for the first time – its omission from the original version of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark had shocked fans.  “I’m very glad it’s in there. It’s got to be,” Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker/Spiderman, told me after Thursday night’s first preview of what’s being dubbed Spiderman 2.0. He said, after an “intense” few weeks of rehearsals, it was a relief to be back on stage in front of an audience. “I venture to say it was the most positive reaction we’ve had out of all 146 shows,” he said, basing his judgment on the volume of the response, and the laughter from the audience.

The new show adopts a much lighter touch, with many more jokes, some even at its own expense. At one stage the Green Goblin refers to himself as “a $65m circus tragedy” and quickly adds “make that $75m”. Spiderman is the most expensive musical ever staged on Broadway, and has been in previews for longer than any other show.

Patrick Page, the actor who plays the Green Goblin, says the creators of the show have listened to what fans and critics have said, and taken their suggestions on board. “It’s kind of the first Twitter Broadway show,” he said, “where people started saying: well this is what I think, and the creators and producers said okay, well let’s include their opinions.” Page said it had been the “thrill of a lifetime” to work in studio with Bono and the Edge over the past few weeks as they put together a new song “Freak Like Me”, which opens the second act of the show.

TV Carpio, who stars as Arachne, a character that has been transformed from a villain in the original production to a guardian angel for Spiderman in the new version, also paid tribute to the U2 guys. “They’ve been so supportive. It’s a dream come true. They’ve been great mentors and it’s been amazing to watch them work,” she said. Carpio says she’s happy that she continues to have “some of the most beautiful songs” in the show, despite her role being scaled back significantly. “I’m not going to lie and say it doesn’t affect me a little bit,” she conceded, “But it’s a bigger picture, this thing is bigger than my part. If my part has to be sacrificed for this story to be told and people wanting to hear it, I’m for it. I’m a team player.”

Actress Jennifer Damiano who plays Mary Jane, celebrated her 20^th birthday on Thursday, and is confident that they now have a “really solid show”. She was keen to give credit to ousted director Julie Taymor, whose “vision is still at the heart of the show”. Taymor retains a billing as “original director” on literature for the show, with new director McKinley billed as “creative consultant”.

One of the biggest cheers of the night was for stuntman Chris Tierney, who made his return to the Broadway show after suffering horrific injuries in a fall during a performance in December. Tierney, who suffered a fractured skull, fractured shoulder blades, four broken ribs and three broken vertebrae when he fell 20 ft into a pit at the front of the stage, said he felt “stronger now than when I fell”. The new version includes four extra flying sequences, and Tierney says, despite still suffering some soreness and a lack of flexibility in places, he’s got no concerns about taking to the air.  “We are the most safe show on Broadway, I’ll tell you that much. We’ve gone through about 60 new Department of Labor precautions. I’ve got about four people looking after me every time they clip in anything. I think it’s a little too much now, but I guess it’s the best way to go.”

Audience members emerging from Thursday night’s preview seemed to have enjoyed the show, with most saying it had been a lot of fun. “I really liked it,” said Brian Hartlet from Stamford, Connecticut, who had seen the original version three times. “The overall story in this one is much clearer, it flows so much better than the last one. But there are some elements of the first one that I miss.” Critics have been invited back to review the show in early June, and their verdicts are expected to be published to coincide with the musical’s long-awaited official opening on June 14^th. 

Celebrations at Ground Zero as Bin Laden Killed by US Forces

As news broke that the world's most wanted terrorist had been killed by US forces in Pakistan, spontaneous celebrations erupted in Washington and New York.

At Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center's twin towers, thousands cheered.

I went down to the site to speak to some of those involved, and you can hear my a vox-pop of revellers, and my report on RTE Radio 1's John Murray Show at the following link.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thejohnmurrayshow/

(scroll down to the bottom of the page to the May 01st section)

AUDIO: Irish filmmakers hoping to make their mark at the Tribeca Film Festival.

A reception hosted by the Irish Film Board at the residence of the Irish Consul-General in New York was attended by several of the next generation of Irish filmmakers hoping to break into the industry.

Two feature films and five shorts from Ireland have been selected for the Tribeca Film Festival, which got underway this week.

You'll find a radio package I made for RTE's Morning Ireland on the Irish at Tribeca at the following link.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0422/morningireland.html

It's a Dunne deal - Neighbors lift objections after Gayle agrees to smaller house

GAYLE Dunne, wife of debt-laden developer Sean Dunne, has settled a long-running and bitter planning dispute with neighbours in the upmarket US town of Greenwich,Connecticut.

Residents of the plush Belle Haven suburb were prepared to lodge an appeal against the redevelopment of a $2m house at 38 Bush Avenue.

But their application was withdrawn after a compromise was reached just hours before a zoning board hearing on Wednesday night.

Under the terms of the deal, the Dunnes have agreed to preserve a century-old maple tree that sits on the property line with neighbours and reduce the size of dirt piles on the plot.

A separate application by the Dunnes for an even bigger house, with a carport attached, has been withdrawn.

Retired IBM executive Richard Case, who lives next door, said the dispute was the biggest he had been involved in during his 30 years of living in Belle Haven.

"I've never been interested in having this thing protracted for three years of litigation through Connecticut superior courts, which was the next level after we got past this board," he said.

The ownership of the Bush Avenue property is hidden behind a trust operated by a lawyer, Thomas J Heagney. But the address is listed as Mrs Dunne's residence in company files lodged with the state.

Modifications

The Dunnes have agreed to scale back their plans for the property significantly. In return, residents have agreed to certain modifications to the original building permit that was granted last July.

There are modifications to planned chimney heights, roof lines and the garage that soften the profile of the house and reduce the visual impact of the changes being made.

The Dunnes first ran into difficulty with locals and town officials when demolition work on the Victorian-era house exceeded what they had been granted permission for.

Neighbours also objected to the size of their proposed house on the half-acre site.

Construction work resumed at the Bush Avenue property in recent weeks after months of delays. But neighbours were ready to fight the planning permission, until a deal was reached in negotiations.

It's not known if the Dunnes still plan on living in the Bush Avenue property once the renovations are complete.

Asked if Sean and Gayle Dunne would be welcome as neighbours, Mr Case said: "I will try to be accepting to anyone who comes."

Earlier this week, I revealed that the high-profile couple are also linked to a second property on Bote Road on the other side of town, where construction is well advanced on an even bigger mansion.

[This article appears in the Irish Independent 22nd April]

Book given by WB Yeats to lover sold for $12,000

A book signed by WB Yeats and given by him as a gift to his “first love” has been sold at auction in New York for $12,000.

The 1893 collection of poems by William Blake was given by the Irish poet to arts patron Olivia Shakespear [correct]in 1896, two years after the pair first met. The book contains an inscription in ink by Yeats that reads: “Mrs Shakespear/from WB Yeats/February 1896”. Historians say Yeats, who was 30 at the time, had a short-lived affair with Mrs Shakspear that began that year. 

She later married famous American poet Ezra Pound, and the book was in the collection of their grandson Omar Shakespear Pound until his death last year. Yeats and Olivia Shakespear remained close friends throughout their lives, and Yeats would later call her his “first lover and long-time friend”.

The book contains penciled notes on the margins of three pages, probably made by Olivia Shakespear. One quotes Oscar Wilde, another quotes Yeats reading “a brief forgiveness between opposites”. The auction took place at Doyle Auction House on New York’s Upper East Side.

Other items of interest to sell at last night’s auction included a limited edition of an illustrated edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses from 1935 with engravings by French artist Henri Matisse which fetched $2,500. A copy of Oscar Wilde’s L’Anniversaire de l’Infante (1928) sold for $1,600.