Dublin & Brown Bag Films

Last week I was invited to come and give a seminar/workshop at Brown Bag Films animation studio in Dublin, Ireland. Back in 2002 Brown Bag's very funny short film "Give Up Yer Auld Sins" (linked above) was nominated for an Oscar. They're doing some neat stuff-- TV shows, commercials, music videos. Feature film projects are developing, too. I really enjoyed their energy and over the course of two days we covered a ton of topics related to animated film making, studio growth, performance animation- all kinds of cool stuff. I do a lot of teaching online and I spend most of my time talking to a web-cam, so it's always a treat to teach and present to real live people. I love to engage in the give and take of questions and answers. It's fun and I'm always thrilled to do it when I get the chance. I'd love to do more workshops/seminars. Especially when I can hang with people like the folks at Brown Bag.

Anyhow, this was my first trip to Europe, so I decided to bring my lovely bride along with me. We had a blast as we walked and bussed and railed our way around historic Dublin. It was cold (what do you expect? It was January in the North Atlantic region), but the city of Dublin was a treat to visit. Malahide Castle, Trinity College Library, the Book of Kells exhibit, the Bank of Ireland building, General Post Office, Cleary's department store, The Brazen Head pub, Temple Bar, The Liffey- we got to see lots of neat iconic places. (the bangers & mash at the Brazen Head were very tasty!) What really struck me was that Dublin is a city of over 1 million people and there's not a single skyscraper to be found. In Brazil we lived in a town of roughly the same size and there were easily more than a hundred buildings over 20 stories tall. So this lack of tall buildings really added to the overall sense of history in the place. I can't wait to go back.

Oh, and what about the Guinness? Uh.. yeah. Those who know me know that I'm not a drinker, but I'm not a tee-totaler either. And so I say with no apologies that you haven't had beer until you've had a Guinness brewed right there in Dublin. (although Murphy's was pretty good stuff, too even if not as popular).