Event Guide 80: National Gallery Family Art Holiday, Mass for Healing, French Friday. Songs of Praise, Christ Church Bells

———————————————————————
| DUBLIN EVENT GUIDE (for Free Events) No. 80
| 26 Dec 2008                      Subscribers: 2882
———————————————————————

Hi all!

It is Christmas Day when I start writing this Event Guide and I have to admit that I was tempted to give it a break this week. Many of you have left Ireland for holidays and more won’t be back in your offices – and therefore might not see this mail – until Monday 29 Dec. There are not a lot of events taking place and I could have done something else with my Thursday/Christmas Day evening. ;-) However, some of you would miss the weekly institution that this Event Guide became over the last year and others would like to know what is happening in Dublin considering that the coming week contains New Years Eve. So as a result I will send you a “compact” or slimmed down version of the Event Guide. It is a shorter version not because I am too lazy ;-) , but just because there are not too many free events taking place this week!

I hope you had a nice Christmas Eve and a wonderful Christmas Day with family and/or friends OR in any other shape and form you LIKE it. If it was your first Christmas on your own or without a loved one, remember that you are not alone and if you need someone to talk, then reach out to others. TELL them that you need them, they might not know otherwise. And for everybody: Remember that the Dublin Event Guide Community is out there as well and is there to support you! I intend to organise a good few more meetings in 2009 than in the last year, to make sure that more people can meet each other and can – if they want – find others to go to events with.

With 2009 around the corner it is time to think of New Years Resolutions and while I am not the biggest fans of New Years Resolutions I would like to exchange some with you! Yes, I DO need to your help for it and I hope that you will pledge (means: promise firmly OR giving a binding commitment) your support by sending an e-mail to dublineventguide@gmail.com with the Subject “New Year”.
Here is what I promise to do: I will do my best to continue providing you with the best possible “Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events)” every week throughout 2009. I will work hard on improving the newsletter in layout and content and will (with your help) try to increase the subscriber figure to 5000 so that we can get even more organisers to run free events. I will organise more Event Guide meet-ups than in 2008 and will do what I can to facilitate a closer Event Guide Community for the people that are interested in that!
And here is what I want you to commit to in return: A few weeks ago, I was talking about doing Random Acts of Kindness to others on a regular basis and I am asking you to continue that! That’s all! Continue doing at least one Random Act of Kindness per week for the whole of 2009! A Random Act of Kindness is any act or word that makes someone feel good or puts a smile on someone’s face. It could be as simple as a “Thank you” and there are LOTS of possibilities to surprise someone with some kindness. If you need ideas or want to find out more about Random Acts of Kindness have a look here www.helpothers.org and here www.actsofkindness.org/ or here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_act_of_kindness. If the 2870+ strong Dublin Event Guide Community did just ONE single Random Act of Kindness per week, that would make 149 240 people smile!! Isn’t that worth it? The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said “Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself!” Send me a mail to confirm that you are taking part!!!

—–
A huge thanks to Claus Sch. and Gordon this week, who were so generous to make a donation to me. Thanks for the Christmas present, guys!! It is very much appreciated!

And please read this: This Event Guide is sponsored by Esme E., Cliodhna D., Brian L., Padraig S., Kathie S., Orla niF, Jef B., Susanna N., Kate C., Nicola J., Claus Sch., Gordon and www.stickyfingerstravel.com, the travel guide for parents travelling with their children. The main sponsor is www.kravmagaireland.com, the self-defence training centre for everyone, which provides 12-week or 2-day self-defence training courses for beginners.
I am grateful for the support, but the sponsoring is still well below the cost, so YOUR support is NEEDED! Going to free events saves you a LOT of money. True? ;-) Knowing about these free events is the first HUGE step so that you then can decide if you want to go or not. True as well? This is at least worth 1 Euro per month? Do you agree? Can I count on your 12 Euro per year?
To contribute go to “http ://url . ie/v6z” and just remove the three Spaces in the web address (I have to write it like this, otherwise Spam Checkers complain about the url .ie address.) you then can donate using PayPal or your credit card!
Alternatively you can transfer your donation directly to “Joerg Steegmueller, AIB, SortCode 93-36-78, AccountNo 03556043” or send a mail to me (dublineventguide@gmail.com) and we can arrange a different route for your donation. This Event Guide is a hobby project and NOT a commercial enterprise, so I do need donations!

All events listed in this Event Guide are free of any admission charges or at least appear to be free unless otherwise stated. I try to find confirmation in all cases and do my best to double-check the information. However errors can happen and therefore no guarantee for correctness can be given.

[ad]

______________________________
______Joerg’s Plans______________

Quite a number of readers asked me to provide a digested version of the week’s events from the long list of events in this newsletter. It is quite challenging to pick and choose, so to make it a little easier for me, I am describing in this section what _I_ intend to do in the coming week and maybe that helps you.

It is a very very quiet week, so I will use the opportunity on Saturday to have a look at some Sales and maybe I find a good bargain. The rest of the days I will use to relax and get ready for lots more work and Event Guides in the new year. If I were French, I would definitely go to the French Friday event on Sunday. On Wednesday I have the Christ Church Bells on my “maybe” list.

______________________________
______Competition______________

PERFORMANCE 08 – COMPETITION
Paddy Foggarty is organising a big event on 28+29 Dec, called “The Performance 08”. It will take place in the Village and in Whelans and 100 bands will play on 4 stages over the 2 days. Exclusively for the readers of the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events) Paddy offered some tickets (pair of day passes). Would you like to win this prize? Check out www.theperformancelive.com to get a better idea about the event and then send a mail to dublineventguide@gmail.com with “Performance08” in the Subject and your name and mobile phone number in the body of the mail. The mail has to be with me by 17:00 on 26 Dec.  The value of a pair of day passes is more than 60 Euro. Oh, and please help Paddy a bit and let other people know about this event. It is a bit of a challenging time of the year for a festival like that and any PR would be appreciated.

All events in this Competition Section are non-free events, but the organisers are making free tickets available for you to win. I usually get lots of competition entries and unfortunately not everybody can win, so even if you are not the winner, please consider going to an event to support the organisers. :-) If you don’t win, and will go to the event, please help showing the organisers that promoting their event in the Dublin Event Guide is beneficial and mention to them that you heard about the event through “Joerg’s Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events)”. Thanks!

______________________________
______Dublin News______________

IRISH RECYCLABLES TOO DIRTY TO SELL
During the week I found a report about the low quality of Irish recyclables (www.rte.ie/news/2008/1219/recycling.html) and it seems that the companies involved are surprised about this!? Where I live there is a big green bin and you are asked to put in this bin all cans, all plastics, all tetra-paks and all paper. If you throw all this in the same bin, how can ANYBODY be surprised that the recyclables are too dirty to sell?? Dohhh!?!?! Why else would nearly all other countries separate recyclable goods at source!?!?

SALES STARTING
Expect the Sales to start on Saturday in nearly all shops in Dublin. And since we have seen 20% discount in most shops BEFORE Christmas, you can expect significantly higher reductions. (I wonder when we will get money back when buying goods. :-)) 110% discounts? Would be cool. ;-) )

IMMA CLOSING FOR RENOVATIONS
The Irish Museum of Modern Art will be closed for renovations from Monday 12 Jan to Mon 2 Feb 2009 inclusive. This is due to extensive upgrading work being carried out on the building’s electrical supply. The Museum’s café and bookshop will also remain closed.
Two of the current exhibitions, ‘In Praise of Shadows’ and ‘William McKeown’, will close on 4 Jan. The ongoing IMMA Collection exhibitions, ‘Exquisite Corpse’ and ‘Self as Selves’, will close on 11 Jan and reopen on 03 Feb. The new exhibition programme for 2009 will begin on 04 March with the opening of an exhibition of some 30 works by Hughie O’Donoghue. www.imma.ie

Until the first week in January “normality” will still not return as far as events are concerned. There will be a lot fewer events and especially the free events will be affected, however for 2009 I expect rather MORE than less free events, and you know where you will find out about them all! Here in the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events)!! ;-)
For another week the “Regular Events” might not take place as and when they normally do, so please be aware of that and double-check before you go to a venue.

_____________________________
______Exhibitions_______________

Many exhibitions open on a Thursday and with next Thursday being New Year, this is definitely not the week to open any new exhibitions. Expect that the second week in January (05-09 Jan) will bring many openings until then this section is rather quiet.

______________________________
______Friday___________________

Today is St. Stephen’s Day, this is a bank holiday in Ireland and the second Christmas holiday. I expected that some shops would be open today again and would already start the sales, but I found out that this is not very likely. It seems that most shops are staying closed today. Oh and for visitors to Ireland: Most museums are probably closed as well! Make sure that you check first or ring ahead if you want to go to some venue!

REGULAR EVENTS – FRIDAY
* Sahaja Meditation program every Friday at 19:30 at 4/5 Eustace Street (bell 3, next to the IFI), Temple Bar. For more information contact Seamus on SHarten@upc.ie www.templebar.ie/home_ns_9_action_view_nid_229.html

______________________________
______Saturday_________________

REGULAR MARKETS
* Don’t forget that the Temple Bar Markets (Temple Bar Food Market on Meeting House Square and the Temple Bar Designer Mart near Cow’s Lane) are taking place every Saturday from 10:00-16:30.
* The SuperNatural Food Market is taking place every Saturday from 09:30-15:30 in St. Andrews Resource Centre in Pearse Street, Dublin 2. www.supernatural.ie

______________________________
______Sunday __________________

CHRISTMAS FAMILY ART HOLIDAY 2008
The National Gallery invites to a 3-day Family Art Holiday. From Sun 28 Dec until Tues 30 Dec the art holiday will take place every day between 15:00-16:30 and is featuring artist-led workshops with Don Conroy, Frances Coghlan and Imelda Healy, tours of the collection and musical recitals by ‘Musical Trio’. Admission is free!
The schedule for the three days is:
* SUNDAY 28 Dec
15:00-16:00Art Workshop with Frances Coghlan, Shaw Room
14:00, 15:00, 16:00 Gallery Tours
16:00-16:30 Musical Trio, Atrium
* MONDAY 29 Dec
15:00-16:00Art Workshop with Don Conroy, Shaw Room
15:00 Gallery Tours
16:00-16:30 Musical Trio, Atrium
* TUESDAY 30 Dec
15:00-16:00Art Workshop with Imelda Healy, Shaw Room
15:00 Gallery Tours
16:00-16:30 Musical Trio, Atrium
Further Info: www.nationalgallery.ie or 01 661 5133.

FRENCH FRIDAY (ON A SUNDAY)
The next “French Friday on Sunday” is on 28 Dec in the Bia Bar 28/30 Lower Stephens Street, Dublin 2. The evening starts at 18:00 and goes until 02:30 this time, because the Bia Bar has a late licence. A “lot of guests for this night” is the organisers promise and music from Electro Mix and Live Djembe will be two of the features. In addition there will be a pub quiz with a lot of gifts.
french-friday.com/

REGULAR SUNDAY EVENTS
There are a number of regular live events every week and over the coming weeks I will try to gather more of them and include them as a regular feature:
*The Mary Stokes Band (Blues) from 18:30 in Bruxelles near Grafton Street and near the Westbury Hotel. I listened to them a few times and they are brilliant!
*Jazz in The George in George’s Street from 16:30-18:00: Jazz Band Zrazy.
*Sunday Roast is the event in Thomas Reads “The Oak” in Dame Street/Parliament Street every Sunday from 19:00. Provided are free live music, games & roast potatoes.
* Loose Change play in Gibneys Pub, New St., Malahide every Sunday from 18:00-20:00.
* Songs of Praise, a Rock Karaoke is taking place every Sunday from 21:00 in The Village in Wexford Street, Dublin 2. www.getpraise.com
* Gardiner Street Gospel Mass in St. Francis Xavier Church at the top of Gardiner Street near the junction with Dorset Street every Sunday at 19:30. Everybody is welcome independent from your level of religiousness. www.gardinerstreetgospelchoir.com
* Ballymun Gospel Choir Mass at 19:00 in Virgin Mary Church, Shangan Road, Ballymun.

WEEKEND EVENTS
If you are just looking for Sunday events, please check the event list for Saturday as well. A good few events are taking place on Saturday AND Sunday, but it wouldn’t make sense to list them twice.

______________________________
______Next Week_______________

———Monday————————–

MASS FOR HEALING (LIGHT CEREMONY) – UNITARIAN CHURCH
On Mon 29 Dec at 19:00 a “Mass for Healing for those touched by AIDS” is taking place in the Unitarian Church, Stephen’s Green. All are welcome and admission is free. The preacher will be Archbishop Phillip Zimmerman from Columbus, Ohio, of the Reformed Catholic Church. His ‘secular’ occupation is Director of Pater Noster House there, a home for people living with AIDS. Atmospheric Christmas music will be provided by some members of Gloria. Thanks to Brian McI. for telling me about this event. reformedcatholicchurch.org/Event%20Calendar.htm

REGULAR MONDAY EVENTS
* The weekly “Zodiac Sessions” have been moved to Monday for this week. Check the Wednesday listing for venue details etc.
* Chapters And Verse Lunchtime Reading in Chapter and Verse on Parnell Street at 13:15. More information: Sarah 0872283351 or sarah@seventowers.ie or www.seventowers.ie/cms/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=27&extmode=cal&date=2008-12-01
* Pint&Picture or Cine Café. From 19:30 Howard Linnane is screening short films and full-length films in his fortnightly alternating movie event in the Portobello Pub in South Richmond Street. Ring Howard (086-3614787) for more information. The film screenings are free.
* From 21:30 in the International Bar, Wicklow Street: An acoustic singer-songwriter session hosted by Jacqueline Tuck. Entry is free. The music styles vary from pop to folk to traditional. www.myspace.com/jacquelinetuck

———Tuesday————————

REGULAR TUESDAY EVENTS
* In the Bankers Inn on Trinity Street (off Dame Street) at 21:30: An acoustic singer-songwriter session hosted by Dave Murphy. A contribution is requested but not required. This is a listening club so is very quiet and features a lot of experienced songwriters trying out new material. www.myspace.com/davemurphyandfriends

———Wednesday———————-

Wednesday is New Years Eve. Unlike most other larger European cities, there is no real focal point in Dublin for New Years Eve. Fireworks are now allowed and so the evening is for some a bit of an anticlimax rather than the expected great party night. Pubs and clubs seem to try to make up for all losses during the year and consequently charge outrageous admission charges and even pubs that don’t offer more than just their normal drinks for high prices think that the fact that it is New Years Eve gives them the god-given right to charge an admission charge. Places like that should – in my opinion – be avoided! So make sure you check the admission charges and stay away from expensive places or places that don’t offer at least live music in return for the admission charges.
In recent years the Thomas Reads Pubs and the Porterhouse Pubs were shining examples of normality and of fairness. Both pub groups did not charge admission on New Years Eve. The Porterhouse Pubs www.porterhousebrewco.com in the City Centre are in Temple Bar and at the Molly Malone End of Grafton Street. Thomas Reads pubs www.thomasreadgroup.com are in Parliament Street, on Smithfield Plaza and include Pravda (near the Ha’Penny Bridge), the Harbourmaster (IFSC), the Globe (South Great George’s Street), Ron Blacks (Dawson Street) and many others. Lately the Thomas Reads group got into financial trouble but if they have a no-charge policy on New Years Eve, you should definitely go there to show your support!

SONGS OF PRAISE NEW YEARS EVE – THE VILLAGE
“Songs of Praise” is taking place on Wed 31 Dec from 21:00-03:00 in The Village in Wexford Street. The organisers write: “For the fourth year in a row the most irreverent of revellers will congregate at Songs of Praise in the Village to welcome in the New Year with a Rock + Roll Karaoke special that will echo through 2009. And to reward our flock’s loyalty admission is free until 23:00! Our advice is to get your gang down early as we expect to reach capacity very quickly. Songs of Praise Rock + Roll Karaoke at The Village it’s the stress free solution for a legendary New Years Eve. www.therescuesquad.com/songsofpraise/ and www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=39873068790

ATLANTIC AVENUE – THE PADDOCKS
The Paddocks in Littleplace, Dublin 15 (Clonee) announces that “Atlantic Avenue” will play there on New Years Eve and that Admission is free for this gig.
www.gumtree.ie/dublin/99/32269499.html

CHRIST CHURCH BELLS
For many years, the Christ Church Bells ring out the old year and ring in the new year and a large number of people gather outside Christ Church to experience this every year. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any details on the website of Christ Church Cathedral, but in previous years the ringing out of the old year took place at 22:30 and the ringing in of the new year obviously takes place at midnight. It is not a HUGE event, but with the lack of a central New Years ceremony, the Christ Church bells ceremony has adopted this centre position and I think it is a nice thing to start the new year with a few reflective moments. www.cccdub.ie

Don’t expect the REGULAR WEDNESDAY EVENTS to take place as usual:
* The Zodiac Sessions in this week will already be on Monday! “The Zodiac Sessions” is a regular open mic event from 20:30 in Bruxelles (between Grafton Street and Westbury Hotel) for unsigned musicians. Admission is free and there is a different line-up every week. www.thezodiacsessions.com/
* I am not sure about The Song Room, but I would expect that is not taking place on that evening. “The Song Room” is another open mic event. It takes place in The Globe in George’s Street at 20:30 on Wednesdays as well. www.myspace.com/thesongroom

———Thursday————————

Happy New Year! Thursday is New Year’s Day and it is a bank holiday in Ireland. Nevertheless, most shops will be open on that day, so it might be a good day for doing your post-Christmas shopping after you have recovered from the festivities of the night before. ;-)

———Friday————————

Nothing to report yet. ;-)

______________________________
______This is odd!!______________

Many years ago I came across the “Physics of Santa” in an e-mail that I received at some time between 1990 and 1995. Thanks to a number of websites these calculations didn’t disappear again, but are still her for your information and since this week’s event guide is so short I decided to include them in full because you should know about it! I found the article again on www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/physics.asp. Enjoy! ;-)

THE PHYSICS OF SANTA AND HIS REINDEER
No known species of reindeer can fly.  BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.
There are two billion children (persons under 18) in the world.  BUT since Santa doesn’t appear to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total – 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau.  At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that’s 91.8 million homes.  One presumes there’s at least one good child in each.
Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical).  This works out to 822.6 visits per second.
This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.
This means that Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound.  For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second; a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.
If every one of the 91.8 million homes with good children were to put out a single chocolate chip cookie and an 8 ounce glass of 2% milk, the total calories (needless to say other vitamins and minerals) would be approximately 225 calories (100 for the cookie, give or take, and 125 for the milk, give or take). Multiplying the number of calories per house by the number of homes (225 x 91.8 x 1000000), we get the total number of calories Santa consumes that night, which is 20,655,000,000 calories. To break it down further, 1 pound is equal to 3500 calories. Dividing our total number of calories by the number of calories in a pound (20655000000/3500) and we get the number of pounds Santa gains, 5901428.6, which is 2950.7 tons.
The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that “flying reindeer” (see above) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer.  This increases the payload (not even counting the weight of the sleigh) to 353,430 tons.  Again, for comparison, this is four times the weight of the ship Queen Elizabeth. 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance; this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.  The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy.  Per second.  Each.
In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake.  The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.
In conclusion:  If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now.

If you are now puzzled and wonder how it could happen that yesterday you did get some presents from Santa, then don’t stop here, but continue reading this
www.angelfire.com/tn/EasyE/texts/proofsanta.html
www.physorg.com/news2487.html
web.archive.org/web/20041113092029/http://home.uchicago.edu/~rascalzo/arch/palace/library/humor-tech/santa-physics.html

—————–
Christmas is not over yet, so retain the Christmas Spirit for another few hours and then look forward to the new year! I know that some of you might not be too optimistic for 2009, but hey, if you start it already with concerns, then what chance does 2009 get? Give the new year an opportunity to show itself in all brightness and “positiveness”.  ;-)

Enjoy the weekend!

–Joerg

*********************************************
For donations please copy the following line in the address line of your browser and then delete the three spaces in the line (left and right of the dot and after http). This slightly complicated step is required because otherwise spam checkers think it is a phishing attempt: http ://url . ie/v6z
**********************************************
You are receiving this newsletter because you have subscribed to it. If you don’t want to receive this mail anymore, just click on the link at the bottom of this mail. It would help me if you told me in an e-mail why you decided to unsubscribe, but that is not a “Must”. If you only want to stop receiving the newsletter temporarily, let me know by e-mail and I will make sure that you will be taken off the list for as long as you want.  This Event Guide (the “Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events)”) is an Event Guide with a difference. It covers mostly free events based on the thinking that free events deserve additional support and that non-free events have the money to pay for advertisement. The Guide is a _guide_ and not just a listing and is therefore at times quite extensive. It is sent for free to anybody who is interested and if you want to be added to the mailing list or know somebody who would like to receive this guide, just send a mail to dublineventguide@gmail.com with the Subject “Subscribe”.
If you have feedback – good or bad – PLEASE tell me via the same e-mail address.
BTW: I am not paid or otherwise rewarded for compiling and distributing this Event Guide it is purely a hobby. However, I won’t say No to donations ;-) and if you want to help me with the running of it (no minimum amount!) just send a mail to dublineventguide@gmail.com with the word “Donation” in the subject and I will reply with a link that will allow you to make your donation by PayPal or per credit card or follow the link just above this section. Advertisement in or sponsorship of the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events) is possible, please contact me for more information.
Please note: The Dublin Event Guide (for Free Event) is not related or connected to the fortnightly printed publication “the event guide” that you find in pubs and other venues.
Copyright 2008 by Joerg Steegmueller.
***********************************************