An Irish Update

The weekend of Oct. 11th we had guest Richard Bellis visiting for a seminar. He wrote the book “The Emerging Film Composer” and is on the board of Directors for ASCAP. You can check out his credits here http://www.richardbellis.com/index.html

He was a very good teacher. Gave a lot of helpful tips, explained the business and work flow of the field.  Very neat to meet him.

Thursday there was a film festival in Tralee, Ireland. It’s a 3.5 hour drive, but we decided to make it into a mini vaca. Brendan rented a car. Driving on the left side of the road was hard to get used to, but he did a very good job.  We got into town just in time. The festival was good. There was a panel (of which our college director Derek Gleeson was on) talking about music in films. Then we watched 3 shorts.

On the way home, we drove a little out of the way to go to the Cliffs of Moher. Not to down play the festival, but this was the highlight of the trip. J We got there at the perfect time. It was blue sky and sunny when we arrived.  A lady was playing harp on the walk to the “castle”, and there were rainbows everywhere! --One going into the ocean, one behind the “castle” and one over the valley on the other side.  Such a beautiful place!  Just as we were leaving there was a cloud out over the ocean and you could see the sheet of rain making it’s way toward us. We went and had lunch in the visitor center while it poured.

Oct 16th was Brendan's birthday. We went to a really nice dinner at Ely's. I mentioned it was my husband's bday, and on the way back from the bathroom the waitress stopped me to ask for his name so they could give him a nice birthday dessert.  Earlier that day I had also asked Sarah (our roommate) if they would buy a cake while B and I were out to dinner to surprise him. They went above and beyond to make a really special surprise bday party :) 

This past weekend (Oct. 18th) we had visitor Christopher Young. http://officialchristopheryoung.com/ He taught us all day Saturday and Sunday. We did a VERY good exercise on writing a “good tune”, listened and analyzed some film music. Saw some of his works which he talked us through. Then each student in the Masters had a one on one session with him. We sent him some of our music to listen to the night before. He told me I had a “voice” in all my music… which one of my piano teachers told me once before so it was kind of neat to hear someone else say it to. Then he said he would describe my music as “deep” and having “introspective beauty”. Told me he think if I can combine my gift of writing concert music (since of course that all I really have in my repertoire right now) to work for film that I could be a very good film composer. He was a VERY encouraging and approachable man. Really enjoyed the time with him. He also graciously bought everyone dinner the last night he was here.

Since we worked through last weekend, our director gave us this Friday off and Monday is a holiday over here. Of course, we all have a TON of homework due Tuesday and Wednesday so it won’t be all fun and games. But today (Friday) I got up and went to the gym, cleaned house, started some homework/research, had a massage and then went out to dinner and a Traditional Irish Music concert at DIT with the roommates. Very fun! Tomorrow I will work hard on my homework but Sunday I plan to go shopping. I need more sweaters then what I packed. Or “Jumpers” as they say here.

Also, DO NOT ask for “a ride” out here. It’s bad. You ask for “a spin”.

Americans in Ireland

I haven’t written a blog since October 2012…. So we will see how long this one lasts.

I am doing this blog for my friends and family back home that do not follow my constant flow of Facebook posts and Tweets… OR for anyone (…mom….) who cares to have a more in-depth reading of Brendan and my adventures in Ireland while I do my MA in Scoring for Film and Visual Media at Pulse College. SO, here goes:

We have been here a month! The first week and a half was painful. Apartment shopping is not fun. But, we finally found a place. The apartment is a little bit further from school then I hoped, but it’s not bad. We are room-mating with another American couple (whom we met in person the day they arrived… HA!... we have gotten along very well though…) AND it has a balcony with a marvelous view. Brendan and I did get a chance to go to the Guinness factory. Did you know Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease!? Guess he had faith in his product.

 School:

In three weeks we have done a technology boot camp learning about Logic, screened the first movie we will all score a scene of, started orchestration class (had presentations on the woodwind group) professionally recorded (in a Windmill Lane Studio!!) 2 compositions using woodwinds, started working on how to edit and mix our recordings and had a couple days learning about the Music Business (copyrights, agents, royalties…). We also had a guest visitor: Garry Schyman, who is a professional game and film composer from LA. I was fortunate enough to be recipient of the Garry Schyman scholarship and was honored to have dinner with him. The following day he gave a seminar on game music. I have never considered the possibility of composing for game music—until now. It is a LOT more complex then I first thought. The music must be intriguing enough so that the player doesn’t turn the sound off, or get sick of the music loop if their character gets stuck (LOL). There’s a lot more psychology to it. Very interesting.

Cultural Encounters:

            Nothing I say in this paragraph is meant to be rude. They are just general observations…other then the fact that in American we drive on the “right” side of the road. And yes, I mean that as a double entendre.  J

-I noticed that all the doors of houses are painted, mostly blue or red, sometimes yellow. I asked a taxi driver if there was meaning behind it. He said no. It’s just fashion. I was kind of bummed there wasn’t more to it. BUT, I guess it would be similar to us painting our houses. Evidently the Irish just like the primary colors J… maybe some turquoise.

- My favorite scenario so far was: Brendan and I were sitting in a café. Two ladies walked in and an elderly gentleman went up to them and told them they were gorgeous and wanted butterfly kisses (evidently they didn’t know each other…lol… weird). The ladies then complimented him on his good health at 85 and he says “Oh, no. I feel unexpectedly pregnant”. (LOL!!!)

-Brendan and I were in a taxi, again, and the man was explaining to us that you can pretty much choose any word you want to describe a drunk man if you use it in the correct context. He said one of his favorites is “he was elephants last night”.

-Our teacher was talking about who a person who wrote for the television show (spelled phonetically) “Ee-or”. Bo (the other American) finally said “a TV show on Eeyore? From Winnie the Pooh?” The teacher and other 2 Irish students started laughing and said no “ERrrrrrr!”…. Evidently they say the letter “R” like “Or”… they also say the letter “Z” as “zed”.

-Another teacher was telling us to do an assignment “without waffle-ing”. Later I asked a classmate what that meant… it means to be serious or well thought out. You say “He’s a waffle-er” and it means he’s joking or messing with you. HOW DID WAFFLES BECOME SERIOUS? Weird. I still don’t get it.

Family:

Brendan and my tradition is to go to the zoo at every place we travel. The Dublin zoo had a TON of babies! Baby lion, baby zebra, giraffe, monkey, hippo, and 3 baby elephants!

Brendan is with me right now in Ireland. Sounds like his next job assignment might not be until November.  We are attended a nice church in downtown Dublin. Evidently there are a lot of people from Brazil here. One lady at church told me that she came here from Brazil to learn English. It is cheaper for them to come here rather then the States or Canada AND they can get work. In anycase, every Friday the church allows students learning English come and just “talk”. So Brendan is volunteering to talk to students every Friday so they can practice English. Very cool. Otherwise, Brendan is playing “Mr. Mom” AND doing a very good job at it… I might not let him stop. I came home the other day to HOMEMADE Guinness bread and chili.


Life is good.