BUFFALO, N.Y. What can reading 26,000 books tell researchers about how language environment affects language behavior?

Brendan T. Johns, an assistant professor of communicative disorders and sciences in the University at Buffalos College of Arts and Sciences, has some answers that are helping to inform questions ranging from how we use and process language to better understanding the development of Alzheimers disease.

But lets be clear: Johns didnt read all of those books. Hes an expert in computational cognitive science who has published a computational modeling study that suggests our experience and interaction with specific learning environments, like the characteristics of what we read, leads to differences in language behavior that were once attributed to differences in cognition.

Previously in linguistics it was assumed a lot of our ability to use language was instinctual and that our environmental experience lacked the depth necessary to fully acquire the necessary skills, says Johns. The models that were developing today have us questioning those earlier conclusions. Environment does appear to be shaping behavior.

Johns findings, with his co-author, Randall K. Jamieson, a professor in the University of Manitobas Department of Psychology, appear in the journal Behavior Research Methods.

Advances in natural language processing and computational resources allow researchers like Johns and Jamieson to examine once intractable questions.

The models, called distributional models, serve as analogies to the human language learning process. The 26,000 books that support the analysis of this research come from 3,000 different authors (about 2,000 from the U.S. and roughly 500 from the U.K.) who used over 1.3 billion total words.

George Bernard Shaw is often credited with saying Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language. But the languages are not identical, and in order to establish and represent potential cultural differences, the researchers considered where each of the 26,000 books was located in both time (when the author was born) and place (where the book was published).

With that information established, the researchers analyzed data from 10 different studies involving more than 1,000 participants, using multiple psycholinguistic tasks.

The question this paper tries to answer is, If we train a model with similar materials that someone in the U.K. might have read versus what someone in the U.S. might have read, will they become more like these people? says Johns. We found that the environment people are embedded in seems to shape their behavior.

The culture-specific books in this study explain much of the variance in the data, according to Johns.

Its a huge benefit to have a culture-specific corpus, and an even greater benefit to have a time-specific corpus, says Johns. The differences we find in language environment and behavior as a function of time and place is what we call the selective reading hypothesis.

Using these machine-learning approaches demonstrates the richly informative nature of these environments, and Johns has been working toward building machine-learning frameworks to optimize education.

This latest paper shows how you can take a persons language behavior and estimate the types of materials theyve read.

We want to take someones past experience with language and develop a model of what that person knows, says Johns. That lets us identify which information can maximize that persons learning potential.

But Johns also studies clinical populations, and his work with Alzheimers patients has him thinking about how to apply his models to potentially help people at risk of developing the disease.

He says some people show slight memory loss without other indications of cognitive decline. These patients with mild cognitive impairment have a 10-15% chance of being diagnosed with Alzheimers in any given year, compared to 2% of the general population over age 65.

Were finding that people who go on to develop Alzheimers across time are showing specific types of language loss and production where they seem to be losing long-distance semantic associations between words, as well as low-frequency words, he says.

Can we develop tasks and stimuli that will allow that group to retain their language ability for longer, or develop a more personalized assessment to understand what type of information theyre losing in their cognitive system?

This research program has the potential to inform these important questions.

Link:
What 26000 books reveal when it comes to learning language - UB News Center

Edith Nesbit is a biographers dream. Mrs Bland, as she was known for most of her life (a misnomer if ever there was one), was one of the great childrens writers, responsible for The Railway Children, the Bastable series (which included The Wouldbegoods) and the Psammead series, in which a bad-tempered sand fairy livens up the novels Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet.

Its not just that Nesbits books are brilliant: her life is also brilliant material for one. She was in person at once quite awe-inspiring and a bit of a nightmare, able to weather tragedy and yet a queen of melodrama, a self-supporting writer who opposed womens suffrage. Vibrantly attractive and adored by her many proteges and readers, she was what they called in those days advanced a committed socialist (she and her husband Hubert Bland were among the earliest members of the Fabian Society) who wore free-flowing clothes, gave charitably and wrote ferociously against poverty, and let her children play barefoot in the garden. Her home at Well Hall, in Eltham, was a lively hub for young writers, artists and Fabians; a place, HG Wells recalled, to which one rushed down from town at the week-end to snatch ones bed before anyone else got it. She was generous with her time, her money and her husband.

Nesbit put her success down to being one of those people who feel that they are children in a grown-up world; her stories certainly read as if written for equals. In the Psammead novels, there is a delightful mix of the recognisable Camden Town, the British Museum and the magical; it is as if by grounding her fiction firmly in a real world, Nesbit makes the fantasy seem all the more tantalisingly possible. In her readable and thorough biography, Eleanor Fitzsimons presents a real life of high drama and storytelling.

Nesbits own childhood was largely happy but nomadic. Her father, a distinguished chemist and teacher, died in 1862 when Edith was three, and from then the family moved around in reduced circumstances, taking regular trips abroad to cope with the ill health of an older sister, Mary, who died young. In 1880, the 21-year-old Edith married Bland, then a bank clerk. He was tall and athletic, powerful seeming. The description left by George Bernard Shaw, a close friend of the couple during their early marriage, makes Bland sound like a bully; nevertheless he was popular with women. He had already impregnated one fiancee by the time they met. Nesbit herself was seven months pregnant when they married; their son, Paul, was born that summer. Two more children, Iris and Fabian, followed. Bland was never good with money; Nesbit supported the family by writing and by decorating greetings cards.

It seems little surprise that her novels tend to feature hardworking mothers battling in the background to keep the family afloat. Fitzsimons makes this connection and her book is interesting in showing how Nesbits lifelong socialist principles found expression in her childrens books. Yet perhaps the biographer is too insistent on drawing links between the life and the fiction. It is true that Nesbits characters are often semi-orphans, but then any childrens writer worth their salt knows that absent, or at least supremely negligent, parents are a prerequisite for a decent adventure. Fitzsimons does not always allow for the complex workings of fantasy, craft and imagination in the fiction elements that are just as relevant, one suspects, in Nesbits approach to life.

The household was apparently always embroiled in scenes; its hard to tell what was for show and what was suffering. Shortly after Iriss birth, Nesbit discovered that Blands relationship with his previous fiancee was still going on (she had no idea about Edith). On his nights away from home, Nesbits friend, Alice Hoatson, kept her company. When a devastated Nesbit suffered a stillbirth, it was Hoatson who had to prise the dead baby from her arms; before long she had moved in permanently. They told people she had joined them because she was seriously ill; in fact she was heavily pregnant. Nesbit agreed to raise the child, a girl named Rosamund, as her own. It is unclear when she discovered that Bland was the babys father. Rosamund would later claim that Nesbit only found out six months after the birth and would have thrown the pair out if Bland hadnt threatened to leave with them. Others assumed that Nesbit had always known and may even have engineered the affair to get her husband away from a lover she disliked. She had her own intense romantic friendships Shaw being one yet Fitzsimons concludes that these were probably platonic. After all, she notes drily, Bland held women to a high moral standard.

She suspects his views were also behind Nesbits stance on female suffrage. (Blands opinion: Votes for Women? Votes for children! Votes for dogs!) She once delivered a speech titled Natural Disabilities of Women to an appalled audience of the Fabian Womens Group, which had invited her to speak on women and work. And yet work she did, writing more than 40 books. Its one of the odd contradictions that Fitzsimons wisely does not attempt to resolve: that this bright, talented woman would cling to deeply traditional ideas about her place and vulnerabilities, and was apparently in thrall to a bullish hypocrite. Or perhaps she was engaged in a bold experiment in living. Another way of understanding the menage a trois between Bland, Nesbit and Hoatson (who would have a second child with Bland, a son they pretended was Nesbits) is as a fruitful and longlasting collaboration between the two women. Nesbit was already an acclaimed poet by the time her childrens stories, often serialised in the Strand magazine, began to improve the familys fortunes. The first Bastable book, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, appeared in 1899. The still-precarious family finances depended on Bland and Nesbit (they sometimes collaborated) churning out articles, stories and novels. Hoatsons management of the home and children freed Nesbit to create. She generally set the tone. Her moods could plunge the whole household into gloom just as she enlivened everything when she was happy. Most agreed that Nesbit and Bland thrived on all the drama.

But in 1900, the family came to grief when 15-year-old Fabian died after an operation to remove his adenoids. The whole episode puts the grown-ups in a bad light. Nesbit seems to have forgotten that the doctor was even coming: she had to be roused from her bed when he arrived at 11am to perform the procedure. Its possible that Fabian hadnt been warned not to eat beforehand an omission that may have caused his death. Nesbit was, Fitzsimons writes, demented with grief. She threw herself into work and her popularity grew. Take a book by E Nesbit into any family of boys and girls, a contemporary noted, and they fall upon it like wolves.

Sarah Watlings Noble Savages: The Olivier Sisters is published by Cape. The Life and Loves of E Nesbit is published by Duckworth (20). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 020-3176 3837. Free UK p&p over 15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99.

Originally posted here:
The Life and Loves of E Nesbit review melodrama and menage a trois - The Guardian

In a follow up to our feature on street art last week, artist Emma Blake discusses the culture of street art in Dublin, and what she believes the city needs to do to help creatives.

At the moment in Dublin, for creatives, the future looks bleak. With each creative space that closes down, more and more artists are finding it hard to see a future in Dublin and deciding to leave for places like Berlin that encourages and appreciates creativity.

Most recently, and probably the one that hit the hardest, was theannouncement that The Bernard Shaw was set to close, after months of fighting behind the scenes to stay put. The Bernard Shaw is where I painted at my first ever graffiti jam. Its where so many graff writers and street artists, as well as DJs and bands, got their first opportunities.

They actively promote sustainability and environmental issues offering a free pint to people who collect rubbish from the canal and bring it in, or if they bring in an eco brick theyve made, they were one of the first to ban plastic straws, have compost bins in Eatyard and provide reusable plastic glasses for people bringing drinks to the outside areas.

There has been regular graffiti and street art jams in The Bernard Shaw since it opened in 2006, and they also lent their front walls to street artists looking to paint, both just-for-fun pieces and pieces about certain issues they wanted to make a statement about. This is where I painted the Not Asking For It piece this time last year, after a 17 year olds underwear was brought into question in a rape trial in Cork.

It is also where Aches painted the portrait of Savita Halappanavar in the run up to the Repeal Referendum and Jess Tobin (Novice) painted a piece in the run up to the marriage equality referendum. The Shaw has also hosted First Fortnight Mental Health Festival jams, International Womens Day jams and most recently The Minaw Collective painted a huge piece raising awareness of environmental issues.

Its nearly a year now since The Tivoli Theatre closed down. This was a huge hit for nightlife in Dublin; it was a greatvenue for gigs and club nights. However, it was also a big hit for street art culture in the city. The annualAll City Jam was held there every year for 11 years, with the last one happening in 2018. There was no All City Jam this year, as there is nowhere in the city centre big enough to host that amount of artists.

The jam saw 40 Irish and international street artists and graff writers transform the car park and outside walls of the Tivoli Theatre with new artwork every summer. The Tivoli Theatre was then sold and knocked down to make way for holiday apartments. However, the walls surrounding the premises are still standing. I can still see the piece I painted at the 2018 jam when I walk by the site.

If developers were smart, they wouldkeep thewalls that surround their premises, which were once the walls of the Tivoli Theatre car park. The Tivoli Theatre has been knocked down, but all of the surrounding car park walls, with a lot of the street art from the last All City Jam in 2018, are still standing.

They should recognise this opportunity, keep all of thesewalls, and once the building has finished, continue hosting the annual All City Jam there. They would be foolish not to see the draw for tourists this would have to their apartments, over other accommodation options.

If you look at photos people post of their trips abroad, street art is one of the main features. People love getting photos in front of the different street art around a city. Street art has become a major part of cities around the world.

It is a huge draw for tourists, revealing a citys personality and culture to them. Dublin City Council should really recognise this and encourage it, instead of ordering murals to be painted over and turning Dublin into a culture-less city full of nothing but hotels.

Building owners commission or give permission for street art to be painted on their walls or building, the council then order the street art to be removed as it hasnt been given planning permission, but they never give planning permission for pieces when people do apply.

A lot of the time the reason for this is that it is in a protected area the whole of the city centre seems to be when it comes to street art, however, these areas all have billboards and other advertisements plastered all over them, so why are they given permission, but art isnt?

If you look at Belfast, where they dont need to get permission from the council to paint, the city centre has loads of really amazing street art pieces. It brings the city to life, and attracts a lot of tourists, with arts organisations like Seedhead Arts running regular packed out street art tours of the city centre.

As well as artists regularly painting in Belfast throughout the year, they also have an annual street art festival, Hit The North.

Dublin is one of the few main cities in the world that doesnt have its own annual street art festival. If you look at cities all over the world, so many of them now have annual street art festivals, in the UK alone there is Upfest (Bristol), Meeting of Styles (London), Bring The Paint (Leicester), Yardworks (Glasgow), Nuart (Aberdeen), Rochdale Uprising (Manchester), Cheltenham Paint Festival, Blackburn Open Walls and loads more. I wont go listing the street art festivals in the rest of Europe or the world, because there are too many, but you get the point.

Every major city, and so many not-so-major cities, have an annual street art festival. But here in Dublin were Bally-go-backwards, still fighting with the council for street art to be appreciated and recognised as a worthy art-form that deserves space and permission to exist in the city.

Dublin is being left behind. But there are so many amazingly talented artists in the city, there is scope for street art to become a major focal point in the city, but only if the council ease up on the stringent planning permission laws, start protecting cultural hubs (the very few we have left), and also look into Dublin getting an annual street art festival, similar to the festivals in so many cities around the world.

This will need to happen soon if we dont want to lose our creatives to cities that do appreciate and encourage creativity.

I know of too many now who have left or are now planning on leaving as a result of creative spaces closing down, no walls to paint and ridiculously high rents another issue we should take a leaf out of Berlins book to deal with. They have just frozen rents for 5 years to prevent what is happening here at the moment.

One artist weve already lost to Berlin is El Viz, who recently stuck posters around the city of his portrayal of Dublin at the moment.

Another we are soon to lose to Berlin is Will St. Leger, one of Dublins veteran street artists, who in his own words fought hard to stay in Ireland during the recession. Will and Maser painted this piece outside The Bernard Shaw in 2009.

Many more are going to leave if you continue down the track were going, I know Im starting to consider it. There is overwhelming support for street art in the city, so why should we have a grey city because a small percentage of people dont like street art?

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Opinion: Artist Emma Blake on the future of Dublin's creative scene - Dublin Gazette

AUTHORISM, noun:a word, phrase or name created by an author, which passes into common usage.

USAGE:The works of Shakespeare include hundreds of authorisms, including words now commonly used but unheard before his time, like bump, hurry, and critical.

Authorism is actually a neologism, a new word coinage. It was invented or at least first used in this sense -- by the language scholar Paul Dickson for the express purpose of giving a name to his book on words invented by authors, Authorism: Words Wrought by Writers, published in 2014 on the occasion of William Shakespeares 450th birthday. (The word had been used in the past to relate to the state of being a writer, as when Horace Walpole, in the late 18th century, discussed a writer too satisfied with his authorism.)

Shakespeare was the uncrowned king of authorisms. His written vocabulary, Dickson tells us, consisted of 17,245 words, many of which he simply made up for his plays. These included terms that are so essential to our everyday conversation -- like bump, road, hurry, critical and bedazzled that one wonders how English coped without them before Shakespeare dreamt them up. Scholars have tripped over each other in the effort to count Shakespeares authorisms: some put the total at 500, others come up with the extraordinary number of 1,700. Aside from individual words, Shakespeares authorisms include famous phrases that have come into common use since his day, like brave new world, alls well that ends well, setting your teeth on edge, and being cruel only to be kind. No wonder George Bernard Shaw created an authorism to describe excessive worship of Shakespeare: bardolatry.

If Shakespeare coined the most authorisms, the poet John Milton offers the most competition, with this tally clocking in at 630 new words, including such familiar words and phrases as earth-shaking, lovelorn, fragrance, by hook or crook, and pandemonium. Mind you, not everything Milton came up with stood the test of time, or that of necessity: few later generations found much use for many of Miltons authorisms such as ensanguined, emblazonry and horrent!

The early litterateurs had the opportunity to establish themselves in a language that was still growing. Geoffrey Chaucer, Ben Jonson, John Donne, and Sir Thomas Moore also are credited with several authorisms each. Chaucer gave the English such essentials as bagpipe and universe, while Moore contributed anticipate and fact. Ben Johnson is said to have invented 558 words, John Donne 342. English grew beautifully in their care.

Later writers had to contend with the fact that so many words had already been invented that there was less need for neologisms. Still, Charles Dickens came up with many original terms and phrases, gleaned, it is suggested, from expressions he had heard around the poorer quarters and criminal classes of London. Mark Twain, Dickson tells us, didnt take credit for any authorisms at all, but did claim that he popularized the language of the Mississippi River and words derived from the Gold Rushes of Nevada and California (for example, hardpan, strike it rich and bonanza). It is said that Twains talent for creative usage gave new meanings to existing words -- like hard-boiled, which he is credited for turning into a synonym for tough.

By the 20th century one would imagine the scope for totally new authorisms declined. The popular American writer Sinclair Lewis tried hard to create authorisms that might stick, but none of his invented words -- from Kiplingo for Rudyards bombastic prose to teetotalitarian for advocates of Prohibition to philanthrobber for a robber baron who dabbled in philanthropypassed into popular usage, let alone endured. George Orwells 1984 (a date derived from reversing the last two digits of the year it was written, 1948) takes the prize, though, for imparting chilling new meanings to commonly-used words and combining some ordinary words into sinister new phrases. These ranged from Big Brother as a term to describe a totalitarian dictator, to the more specific doublethink and newspeak which anticipate the post-truth and fake news of our times.

First Published:Oct 25, 2019 19:36 IST

See more here:
Shashi Tharoors Word Of The Week: Authorism - Hindustan Times

The temporary installation of a work by street artist and illustrator Joe Caslin in the Courtyard gallery at the National Gallery creates a stunning contrast to Magnus Modus: Joseph Walshs towering wooden sculpture.

Seen to best effect at night, Caslins photographic muraldealing with themes of apathy and wellbeing among young men overlooks Walshs ethereal tower of swirling wood.

The placement of two modern albeit contrasting works clearly indicates how contemporary pieces can feel right at home in a historic institution occupied by some of the greatest artists in history.

Vue, the National Contemporary Art Fair, which will run at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) at Ely Place, Dublin, from November 7th-10th, will showcase the latest work from Irelands contemporary artists through the galleries that represent them.

Jack Hickey, whose work centres on photo-realism, and the social void between people of different sexes and classes, and who won the 2017 Hennessy prize, will be represented by The Doorway Gallery.

The Cork native became one of the youngest painters to have his work included in the permanent collection of the National Gallery for his portrait of the former State pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy.

His latest work, Runaway, depicting a womans eye in a rear-view car mirror (just like his portrait of Dr Cassidy which hangs in the National Gallery), is so true to life, that on first observation you would be forgiven for thinking you were looking at a photograph.

Quirky and thought provoking pieces by Stephen Johnson, from a body of work entitled Elements of War, navigate the grim topic of armed conflict through everyday objects. Hes represented by Gormleys Fine Art.

Johnson has gained a reputation as one of Irelands most promising young artists having won a series of awards since his graduation from University of Ulster in 2011.

His work can be found in many corporate and private collections throughout the world, including a portrait which hangs in the great hall of Queens University in Belfast.

Sligo-based artist Clea Van Der Grijns, whose film Jump won Best Experimental Film at this years New York Film Festival, will be exhibiting her monoprint photo-etching work at the exhibition, along with Deborah Strumble and Diana Copperwhite, represented by Limerick-based Parallel Editions.

Cork Printmakers are the first print studio outside the capital to exhibit at Vue. The 12 artists involved will be producing a limited edition boxset portfolio of their collective work. Most, such as award-winning Sarah Roseingrave who prints on glass,use traditional technologies, with a common theme of landscapes and Cork mythology running through their work.

What appears to be a vividly coloured mythological scene in Hide and Seek in the Devils Garden by German-based artist and author Michael Hutter is, upon closer inspection, a fusion of fantasy and the macabre. The artist is represented by Gallery X, which, like Hutter, specialises in works ranging from the sublime to the grotesque.

Atelier Maser, representing muralists turned canvas painters, will feature post-street art pieces by the creator of the Repeal the Eighthmural, in addition toworks by the well-known Dublin street artist Achesbest known for his U Are Alive mural on Camden Street and the Savita Halappanavar mural, which was painted at the Bernard Shaw Pub on South Richmond Street.

The Drawing on Don Quixote display at the Olivier Cornet gallery space explores the meaning of notoriety through some of the characters in the novel by Cervantes, often hailed as the first modern novel of our time.

One painting in a series by Miriam McConnon represents the character of Sancho Panza on a banknote as an historical Spanish hero, while Dulcinea In Lace depicts the character as both a duchess bride and a farm girl, woven in a lace embroidery.

The current opioid crisis and class action lawsuits against pharmaceutical giants who have manufactured the drug OxyContin in the United States are mirrored in works by Aoife Shanahan.

Pharmacist-turned fine art photographer Shanahanwill make her debut at Vue with a series of OxyContin encoded photograms designed to show the destructive capabilities of the ongoing crisis. After working as a community pharmacist, she studied art in Boston and Belfast, and her work, showcased by Green On Red Gallery, is driven by a camera-less approach and a deep interest in darkroom work and analogue processes.

The fair showcases contemporary works from 22 Irish galleries and runs from November 7th-10th. Admission is free. See vueartfair.ie rhagallery.ie and nationalgallery.ie

Excerpt from:
Take a new Vue of Irish art at the RHA - The Irish Times

THE ONLY thing better than a pint is a free pint.

We here at The Irish Post are really wishing we were home this weekend, because one of Ireland's biggest drinks companies are offering a pint-- completely on the house-- to anyone who places their order while wearing red socks.

To celebrate the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend in Ireland, Smithwick's are offering a free pint of their Red Ale from Thursday the 24th to Sunday the 27th of October between 6 - 8pm.

All you have to do is go to one of the huge amount of participating pubs across the country, show off your dashing red socks, and enjoy your free drink.

The offer is valid across nine counties, although be warned-- pubs in Dublin 2 are finishing up the promotion on Saturday, so don't be disappointed if you arrive on Sunday expecting to rock out with your (red) sock out.

Here are all the pubs taking part:

DublinCassidy's, Flannerys Bar, Ryans, Jimmy Rabbittes @ The Camden, The Sports Bar @ The Camden, Devitts of Camden Street, Anseo, The Bleeding Horse, The Odean, Harcourt Hotel, Russell Court Hotel, Bernard Shaw, Portobello Hotel, The Landmark, Whelan's Bar, Opium, The Jar, The Mount Pleasant Inn, Birchalls, McSorleys, Taphouse Bar and Kitchen, Smyth's Of Ranelagh, Humphreys, Farmer Browns, Mother Reillys, Rody Bolands, Ashton's Bar & Bistro.

GalwayThe Pillar House, An Tain, Joe's Bar, Broderick's Bar, Dunlo Tavern, Brewery Lane.

RoscommonSpells, The Hatch, Mollys, Creatons.

MonaghanThe Squealing Pig, Terry's, (The Shamrock Bar) Peaky Blinders.

DonegalArnold's Hotel, Molly's Bar, Patsy Dan's, Oyster Bar, Corner House, Abbey Hotel, Reveller, Beehive Bar, The Hill's, McCafferty's, Doherty's, The Bank, Nesbitt Arms Hotel WSPR, Teague Breslin, The Cavern, The Rusty, Slieve League, Central Bar.

LeitrimGlancy's Waterfront Bar, The Poitin Still, The Bush Hotel, Paddy's Bar, Flynn's Bar, Cryan's Hotel, Gings Lounge, Murthaghs Bar, Cryan, The Anchorage, Dunnes Bar, McHugh's Bar, Percy Whelans, Buffalo Boy Steakhouse.

MayoMellett's, Gilligan's Bar, TF Royal Hotel, Moclairs, Doherty's, An Sean Sibin, The Loft, Hogan's Bar, The Cot and Cobble, T Breathnach, Tarbh 47, Rouse's, An Bolg Bui.

SligoFoley's, The Brewery, Fiddlers Creek, O'Neills Bar, Shoot the Crows, Thomas Connolly's, Kennedys, The Embassy.

TipperaryRoarty's, Glen Head Tavern.

All of these pubs, plus every pub taking part in the upcoming Sessions At The Shannon Festival in Carrick-On-Shannon will be giving free pints to red sock wearers.

Slinte!

See the article here:
There's a free pint for everyone in Ireland this weekend and all you have to do is wear red socks - Irish Post

With due respect to Kavanagh and Heaney, Yeats is my most cherished Irish poet. And among his vast collection, The Wild Swans of Coole is my favourite. I was, therefore, glad for the opportunity to visit the place that did much to stimulate the poets artistic imaginings. Coole Park, Co Galway was once the home of Abbey Theatre cofounder Lady Augusta Gregory, and served as a spiritual home and wellspring of creativity for many giants of Irish literature, including Yeats, Shaw, Synge and OCasey.

Setting out from a well-appointed visitor centre that unobtrusively occupies the old stables of the estate, I followed the Seven Woods Trail that was, as Yeats predicted, dry underfoot. Soon came a wow moment and the trees parted to reveal an aqua marine lake of intense beauty in a basin of deep green; Coole Lough is one of Irelands foremost examples of a turlough. Almost unique to this country, these consist of small lakes in porous limestone where water levels rise and fall with startling rapidity.

It was here that Yeats came upon his nine-and-fifty swans. He was referring to the whoopers that still arrive from Iceland every October to winter at Coole although how he managed to count the swans accurately seems a mystery.

The stay-awhile charm of the lakeside seduces me, so I relax languidly on a convenient rock. Its the wrong time of year, thus no bell-beat of their wings above my head from the whoopers. In compensation, a bevy of mute swans glide silently past on still waters that do indeed mirror a clear sky.

Written in the autumn of 1916, the evocative Yeats poem seems, at this moment, a quest for the security of a sublime and reassuring timeless in an increasingly turbulent world.

Onwards in the manner of Yeats as I trod with lighter a tread the Rocky Field that forms the flood plain of the Coole river. Limestone occasionally peeps above the surface as a reminder that the area is actually within the Burren lowlands. Eventually abandoning the waterside, I tag woodland paths that today are charmingly dappled with tree-moderated sunlight. A delightfully wide variety of tree species flank the trail, including a collection of exotic looking conifers that are native to North America.

Next stop is the splendid walled garden that contains the famous autograph tree of Coole. It was here, at the bidding of Lady Gregory, that the superstars of the Irish literary revival carved their initials on to the trunk of a magnificent copper beech. The letters have, of course, faded with the passage of time, although the hugely flamboyant initials of George Bernard Shaw immediately capture the eye above their more reticent companions.

Beyond the garden is the elevated plinth where once stood the great house of Coole. Sold to an uncaring Irish State by Lady Gregory in 1927, the contents were auctioned after she died and the vast literary collection was scattered worldwide. The house was then allowed fall into decay and, in a monumental act of State vandalism, was eventually demolished, thus removing from future generations a great part of Irelands literary heritage.

Returning to the visitor centre with a somewhat heavier tread, I wish fervently that Coole is a place where the lessons of history are soundly learned.

Getting there: Coole Park is located 4km northwest of the town of Gort, Co Galway. It is signposted from exit 16 on the M18 motorway

Suitability: Level circuit offering walker-friendly terrain

Time: 2 hours

Distance: 5km

Map: Available from the visitor centre

Read the rest here:
Walk for the Weekend: Coole Park, Co Galway - The Irish Times

Brought to you by Smithwick's

Now that we're heading into the colder nights, we could all do with a bit of extra colour in our lives. If that colour comes in the form of a pair of bright red socks, all the better.

Plus, putting them on this weekend could earn you one free pint of Smithwick's Red Ale. All you have to do is turn up to one of the participating pubs, and you'll be rewarded with a cool pint of the good stuff.

It's taking place in pubs all across Ireland from Thursday, 24 Sunday, 27 October between 6-8pm, with pubs in the Dublin 2 area running it from Thursday to Saturday.

That gives you plenty of time to pop down to a shop to grab a pair of red socks. Unless you're already ahead of the game and have a gorgeous pair sitting at home.

We're calling them gorgeous because all red socks are, by default, things of beauty. Here is the full list of pubs taking part:

Cassidy's, Flannerys Bar,Ryans,Jimmy Rabbittes @ The Camden,The Sports Bar @ The Camden,Devitts of Camden Street,Anseo,The Bleeding Horse,The Odean,Harcourt Hotel,Russell Court Hotel,Bernard Shaw,Portobello Hotel,The Landmark,Whelan's Bar,Opium,The Jar,The Mount Pleasant Inn,Birchalls,McSorleys,Taphouse Bar and Kitchen,Smyth's Of Ranelagh,Humphreys,Farmer Browns, Mother Reillys,Rody Bolands,Ashton's Bar & Bistro.

The Pillar House, An Tain, Joe's Bar, Broderick's Bar, Dunlo Tavern, Brewery Lane.

Spells, The Hatch, Mollys, Creatons.

The Squealing Pig, Terry's, (The Shamrock Bar) Peaky Blinders.

Arnold's Hotel, Molly's Bar, Patsy Dan's, Oyster Bar, Corner House, Abbey Hotel, Reveller, Beehive Bar, The Hill's, McCafferty's, Doherty's, The Bank, Nesbitt Arms Hotel WSPR, Teague Breslin, The Cavern, The Rusty, Slieve League, Central Bar.

Glancy's Waterfront Bar, The Poitin Still, The Bush Hotel, Paddy's Bar, Flynn's Bar, Cryan's Hotel, Gings Lounge, Murthaghs Bar, Cryan, The Anchorage, Dunnes Bar, McHugh's Bar, Percy Whelans, Buffalo Boy Steakhouse.

As well, every pub that's taking part in the Sessions At The Shannon Festival will be rewarding red sock wearers with one free pint each!

Mellett's, Gilligan's Bar, TF Royal Hotel, Moclairs, Doherty's, An Sean Sibin, The Loft, Hogan's Bar, The Cot and Cobble, T Breathnach, Tarbh 47, Rouse's, An Bolg Bui.

Foley's, The Brewery, Fiddlers Creek, O'Neills Bar, Shoot the Crows, Thomas Connolly's, Kennedys, The Embassy.

Roarty's, Glen Head Tavern.

Brought to you by Smithwick's

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People all over Ireland will receive a free pint for wearing red socks this weekend - JOE.ie

Complete casting has been announced for the upcoming North American tour of Lincoln Center Theater's critically-acclaimed production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady. Joining the previously announced Shereen Ahmed as Eliza Doolittle and Laird Mackintosh as Professor Henry Higgins will be Leslie Alexander as Mrs. Higgins, Adam Grupper as Alfred P. Doolittle, Wade McCollum as Professor Zoltan Karpathy, Kevin Pariseau as Colonel Pickering, Gayton Scott as Mrs. Pearce, and Sam Simahk as Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the tour will tech and launch in Syracuse, NY before officially opening at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Official Press Opening is Thursday, December 19.

The production's ensemble will feature Mark Aldrich, Rajeer Alford, Colin Anderson, Polly Baird, Mark Banik, Michael Biren, Shavey Brown, Anne Brummel, Henry Byalikov, Mary Callanan, Jennifer Evans, Nicole Ferguson, Kaitlyn Frank, Juliane Godfrey, Colleen Grate, Patrick Kerr, Brandon Leffler, Nathalie Marrable, William Michals, Rommel Pierre O'Choa, Joanna Rhinehart, Sarah Quinn Taylor, Fana Tesfagiorgis, Michael Williams, and John T. Wolfe.

Lincoln Center Theater's production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady is the winner of 5 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Best Revival of Musical and was nominated for 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, 5 Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical Revival and 3 Drama League Awards including Best Musical Revival. The production, which premiered in the spring of 2018, recently ended its long run at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater on July 7, 2019 after playing 548 performances.

Adapted from George Bernard Shaw's play and Gabriel Pascal's motion picture Pygmalion, MY FAIR LADY, with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, premiered on Broadway on March 15, 1956. The legendary original production won 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical and ran for 2,717 performances making it, at the time, the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Boasting a score that contains such now-classic songs as "I Could Have Danced All Night," "Get Me to the Church on Time," "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," "On the Street Where You Live," "The Rain in Spain," and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," Lincoln Center Theater's production of MY FAIR LADY was hailed by The New York Times as "Thrilling, glorious and better than it ever was. A marvelous and transformative revival." New York Magazine described it as 'Enthralling," adding that "Bartlett Sher's glowing revival proves that a beloved musical from another era can keep on kicking." And Entertainment Weekly raved "A sumptuous new revival of the most perfect musical of all time. A masterful piece of entertainment."

Lincoln Center Theater's production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady features choreography by Christopher Gattelli, and has sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder and sound by Marc Salzberg. Music supervision is by Ted Sperling, featuring MY FAIR LADY's original musical arrangements by Robert Russell Bennett and Phil Lang, and dance arrangements by Trude Rittmann. Orchestration adaptation is by Josh Clayton and music direction is by John Bell.

The North American tour of Lincoln Center Theater's production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady will be produced by Nederlander Presentations, Inc.

For the complete 2019-20 Tour Schedule, please visit: http://www.myfairladyontour.com

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Adam Grupper, Leslie Alexander, and More Complete the Loverly Cast of MY FAIR LADY on Tour - Broadway World

Arriving onstage coiled and poised to strike, the auditorium thrilled with anticipation and schadenfreude at the prospect of what Edna might inflict on them. Edna's talent for mockery is legendary, and as several hapless latecomers filed in, you wondered which part of her vast arsenal of delicious putdowns and backhanded compliments she might reach for.

As it happened, she pursed her lips and kept her powder dry, saving the barrage of banter and casual judgment for "non-entities" in the front rows and, after interval, selecting three guests to come up on stage for a taste of talk-show treatment.

That went swimmingly. Edna asked one woman about her husband's most annoying habit, and on discovering he was dead, held a mortified expression for a few moments before replying: "Well, there's nothing more annoying than that!"

Playful audience interaction was the main game, but more traditional jokes, potted reminiscences and occasional bursts of song featured too. Just under the make-up, you could tell Humphries was itching to be politically incorrect, and though nothing too outrageous was said, a gag about Edna's trans stand-up comedian daughter Valmai proved a bit of a clunker.

Not, mind you, because it disrespected trans people. Edna's approach to buzzwords like diversity, inclusivity, gender and ethnicity satirises suburban blindness, or at best lip-service, to them, and if there was any doubt about that, it was removed at the start, when the Dame acknowledged the Pratt family as traditional owners of the land on which we met.

It's more that with Edna's trans daughter the landscape of political correctness isn't assiduously surveyed. And Humphries seems to have poached his punchline from George Bernard Shaw, who used to appear in dressing rooms after shows he did not admire and exclaim, "Marvellous is not the word!"

Dame Edna maintains a terrific rapport with her public, though, and Humphries' enduring comic genius survives the show's loose format and digressive style. Fans should grab, while they still can, the chance to see Edna live.

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Years on, there's still nothing like a Dame - The Age