Gunternation

Here’s a holiday treat from the heartland. I asked Kevin and Andrea if I could post some of the video they sent to the ROL Christmas party. I think you’ll find this makes your Christmas just that much better. It stars Kevin, Andrea and their son Trevor (a prodigy as you’ll see), and features a boldly enigmatic and taciturn performance by everyone’s favorite beagle, Toblerone.

Trevor turned 1 on the 21st. Happy Birthday Trevor!

Bill’s mom sent us a package of goodies from the US. Mmm, tasty US goodness. Thanks, Mom!

With this influx of ingredients, we’ll be able to soothe our palates with the following familiarities:

• sausage balls–we’ll have to experiment with mince pork since Jimmy Dean-style breakfast sausage doesn’t exist here
• Rotel cheese dip–Does Calvita share the meltable and chip-dippable qualities of Velveeta? We’ll find out!
• cocktail sauce–The Irish love their prawns, but they eat them with a Marie Rose sauce made from ketchup and mayonnaise; Bill makes a great cocktail sauce with chili sauce and prepared horseradish (which I hope we can find)
• things dipped in ranch dressing
• tex-mexi things made with green chilies and chipotles

It’s interesting how just knowing you can’t buy something creates a desire for it. What I wouldn’t do for a Fresca!

We finally went to the Epicurean Foodhall off Abbey St. tonight after some last minute Christmas shopping. We had heard that there’s a Mexican place there. It’s called Taco Taco, and for Ireland it’s pretty authentic. We had a couple molletes (Mexican sandwiches) which were pretty tasty, but the most exciting discovery was a rack of Mexican foodstuffs.If you look closely you can see bags of Maseca masa harina. For €14. That’s $21. We actually found some “maize flour” at a Chinese grocery of all places for much cheaper, but the existence of actual masa harina in Dublin is very exciting. I asked one of the workers if I could find dried chiles in Dublin and he drew me a map to a gourmet grocery that has “everything to make mole.” We think it’s Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer St. We’ll find out soon. Very soon.

We made our first foray into the Dublin arts scene last night. The Wizard of Oz was showing at the Helix, but it was unlike any Oz we’ve ever seen. For one thing, there were no commercials. The most important difference, however, was the music. It was provided not by a scratchy soundtrack but by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. The orchestra was on stage with the movie shown above them sans soundtrack. It was amazing to hear Judy Garland’s voice soar over the rainbow backed by a full orchestra. More amazing, though, was the story of the movie score. Back in 1969 MGM suffered a corporate takeover. The new CEO decided to have all this scrap paper lying around in boxes removed and used as landfill in a new golf course. The “scrap” paper included the scores for High Society, Ben Hur, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and almost every Judy Garland movie ever made, including The Wizard of Oz. The guy who bought MGM in 1969 wanted only the real estate, and appointed a former head of programming at CBS known as “the smiling cobra” to downsize the film division. Downsize, indeed.

So what were we listening to if the original score was buried under the 12th hole? A wonderful score painstakingly reconstructed note by note by composer and film buff John Wilson, who also conducted the orchestra. The score was utterly familiar, and of course the point was to match the film exactly. But the orchestration was also exposed in a new way, at times overwhelming the dialog or lyrics. But that was okay, because even if we didn’t already know what was being said or sung, the music was telling us how to feel. It was nice also to be distracted momentarily by some interesting sound coming from the percussion section, and to have the pumping bows of the string section add another visual element to soaring melodies or driving action.

Afterward we finished our night of arts in fine Dublin fashion with a couple bags of chips and battered sausages from our local take-away. It was a good night.

Wednesday I took a half-day off work and we trekked to city center to take care of our motor tax and register with immigration. I tried to give the government our money for the car, but they wouldn’t take it. We don’t yet have an official insurance document that mentions Ireland, something we’ve been waiting two months to get. We’ve gotten various documents from Geico, but so far all of them have had an error with the make, model or year, and none of them are the insurance disk we need to display on the car and show to the motor tax people. I’m about ready to call up that little lizard and give him a piece of my mind.

Our visit to the Garda Naturalisation and Immigration Board (GNIB) office was much more productive. We waited in the queue for several hours, but everything went very smoothly and we left with shiny new registration cards. So, we can stay in Ireland until December of next year (when we would have to re-apply) and can come and go as we please. Afterwards we got some pizzas at a place in Temple Bar. They weren’t Reale’s, but really, whose are?

I forgot to mention earlier that when we got our bank account we weren’t able to get a joint account because only I could show proof of address. When we paid the television tax I neglected to write both of our names on the application, so the television license lists only my name. I found the loophole and didn’t take full advantage of it. Never again! Every loophole I find will be looped to its fullest.