Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

adventures / history / Ireland / photo / Thursday — Comments Off
12
Mar 26

Have another

I attended the Sport and Discrimination conference today. It was being held on the Dublin City University campus. Today I saw presentations on Olympians who suffered abuse over social media. The authors of this study examined the accounts of 1,917 Olympians from the Paris Games and found 809 instances that were verified as abusive, and 128 of those were escalated for “additional action.” I saw another great study about the diversity (or lack of) in European sports administration and sports media. There was another fascinating presentation about athlete activism, the discussion and findings of which I am sure will work their way into a future class. I took many notes.

I also took this photo out of one of the classroom windows when the day’s presentations were done.

This was a two-day conference, and it was paired with the IACS conference. The timing worked out for both groups, and there’s a fair amount of crossover in the scholars and the scholarship. I registered for, and enjoyed attending the sessions in Sport and Discrimination today, but I’m presenting twice in the next conference. One of them is a piece I’ve worked on with my lovely bride. She is also the rock star that is the executive director of the organization, so she’s running the thing. The International Association for Communication and Sport’s summit began unofficially tonight, with a mixer.

We took a trip, in two buses, almost 200 people, to the Guinness brewery or museum, or both. It wasn’t clear to me. It’s a tourist attraction, basically, opened at the turn of the century. This is not the sort of trip I would take, but everyone seemed excited about the prospect, and I heard a few people saying this one thing off of their trip’s checklist, and there we were, having dinner. (Which was small and light, but incredibly tasty.) Before dinner, we got a tour.

But before the journey began we saw the actual original lease, which is mounted in the floor.

It is dated 1750, and Arthur Guinness agreed to pay £45 per year for 9,000 years. Eventually this becomes the largest brewery in the country, and then in the world. Today it is remains the largest brewer of stout. But in between the company purchased the property, so this is just an artifact at this point, and many of the buildings in the area. Making the drink was an intensive process. They had their own power plant.

Today, the museum is a well curated walked display. A lot of polished things to see, not a lot of places to linger, which is good for a walking tour. You’ll pass this cool display.

The characters are made of falling …

Water is a big deal here. Beer has the four ingredients and you can’t make it without water. We learned that once it took 11 pints of water to make one pint of Guinness. At some point that came to sound ridiculous. Our guide told us the process is nwo down to three pints of water to make one pint of the stout. They are targeting a 1:1 relationship in the near future.

You can see some of the old equipment. This mill dates to 1906 and the Ganz people, based in Budapest, made their first mills. The last mill they bought was acquired in 1916. Inside it, malt, roast and barley were milled and dropped into a kieve below. From there, it was mixed with water and sent to the second stages of the brewing process.

Here’s a side view of the mill, because moving parts are interesting and not at all a workplace hazard.

You don’t want to be the brew man getting your sleeve or tie snatched up in this machinery.

Nearby was the triple ram pump of 1958. The sign tells us that it circulated yeast through the coolers and other vessels in the storehouse.

Behind it you see the rest of the gear. Steam kept the stainless steel cylinders, valves, pistons and chambers clean.
All of this was made by David Brown & Sons. By that time I believe it was the son. The firm is still in operation, and they’re works are all over the UK, fancy buildings, tractors in fields, you name it.

Steele’s masher was created by a man named William Steele, and it mixed milled barley and water together. This one which dates back to 1880 or so, worked in brewhouse 1, which no longer exists. Not sure when that was razed.

The sign says this is “Manway door from No. 3 copper, Park Royal Brewery. This copper lid was installed in the Guinness Park Royal Brewery on opening in 1936.” The door was made by Robert Morton & Company, in Burton on Trent, which was founded in 1840, but was acquired by another concern in 2023.

They do professional taste testing for quality control every morning, hence this clock. Apparently this is a serious part of the business. You are doing the work at 10 a.m., but you can’t have eaten anything or drank certain things, you can’t have showered beforehand, and so on. You wonder how much of that is necessary and how much is historically traditional

Here’s their first advertisement. You can tell because the ad copy itself says so. It’s from a 1929 national newspaper.

And that was both their first ad, and the first one displayed in a tidy little section. Our tour guide seemed to suggest that not all of the advertisements were grounded in truth.

But it is a toucan, and toucans are always a marketing win.

Whereas this one also seems farfetched.

What you don’t see enough of in advertising are seals. (Or sea lions. Let’s not quibble the art.) Gilroy knew it.

Gilroy was John Thomas Young Gilroy. He was studying at Durham University when the Great War took him from the books and sent him into the Royal Field Artillery. After the war he went back to school at the Royal College of Art in London. He later taught there and another arts school. By 1925 he was in advertising, and that’s how he came to Guinness, his style features in a lot of the mid-century English advertising, though. He also created cover designs for the Radio Times, painted portraits and national propaganda during WW2.

It’s not clear how much time he spent in farm country though, this is all wrong.

He knew something about professionals, though. But, from our perspective decades hence, this reads different.

Opening time means you’ve had a bad day, or have a big problem. Go home, toucan, you’re already drunk.

Everyone seemed to think the highlight of the Guinness experience was the opportunity to learn how to pour a proper Guinness. There’s a process. Fortunately, they offered a good teacher. Hilariously, all of the professors found this to be intimidating.

You take a bunch of people who like to learn and feel the need to perform at a high level and then ask them to do it in public, and in front of one another … it gets stressful, I guess. That guy talked everyone through it, though. You hold the glass just so, 45-degree angle, and pour until the black liquid reaches the golden harp. Then you put it on the part and let the chemistry do it’s part. Bubbles of nitrogen rise and that forms the iconic head of the drink. After that’s done it’s work then you go back to the spout and top it off. Despite their nerves, people were getting it right. They earned themselves a fancy certificate. I’m sure some of them will be displayed in offices soon.

OK, now I have to go finish up my notes for tomorrow’s presentation.

adventures / Ireland / photo / Wednesday — Comments Off
11
Mar 26

Almost not sleepy, but definitely bleary eyed

We are in Dublin, Ireland. It rained, as it does. And then the sun came out for a while, which is still a seasonally new thing, I gather. There is a conference going on at Dublin City University, which is next door to our hotel. My lovely bride has been in and out of the conference today. (More on that tomorrow.) I have spent the entire day, I mean the entire day, in our room doing school work.

There was a lot to grade, midterms, and write, the usual, and prepare, presentations, and it took all day. All of this was part of my plan to stay ahead, or on par, but certainly not behind, over the next three weeks. It was an effective day, and it was a full day. I was fetched for dinner, at a charming little cafe right across the street. I grabbed my sunglasses on the way out the door of the room. It was something like 8 p.m. and pitch dark. I had no idea. It was a great way to waste a day in Ireland, though, which was always the plan. Get work done, drain the jet lag out of my weary eyes and limbs. Be ready to present as a human being should at the conference tomorrow.

I had the fish and chips. I think that was the only meal I had today.

So I have nothing for you here. Except these two little photo fillers.

Sunday night, before this trip began, we got a bit of ice cream. Mine was not good. I did not get this, which looks gross, but it might have been better.

Equally unimportant, but much closer to where I am right now: there’s an electrical panel on one of the walls in the DCU building where the conferences are underway. A little sticker graffiti is fun. Custom stickers are cheap and easy to make. Eventually some maintenance or facilities person will come by and peel these off. But no paint or other serious labor needed. Until then, though, have a little character on an otherwise spartan wall.

Tomorrow, I’ll join the Sport and Discrimination conference and see a lot of research done by brilliant scholars, some of which are our friends. And a few more will be by the end of the weekend. Friends, I mean. They’re already brilliant scholars. On Friday and Saturday I’ll pretend to fit in with presentations of my own.

adventures / friends / Ireland / photo / Tuesday — Comments Off
10
Mar 26

So where are we?

We have arrived at our intended destination. All went according to plane. Onto a plane quickly and easily. Flight departed on time and landed on time. Plane landed at the right airport. I actually slept a bit on the plane. You can’t count on all of those things, particularly the last one. But it happened — sleep, I mean — and now I am cured of jet lag.

I am a notoriously bad flier. I can feel jet lagged by staying in the same time zone. It also takes me a two or three days to feel like a human again after a trip begins (or ends). Some of this is surely about how much I sleep in the days leading up to a trip. Usually that’s not a lot, but I usually don’t sleep that much anyway. Then there’s the travel. The moving stuff around, making faces at the airport, dealing with luggage, the dehydration of the whole travel experience. The miracles of modern travel, whatever. And then I’m just not sleeping on a plane, even when you’re supposed to. Too much noise. Sleeping as you perceptibly move is a weird idea. I have stuff to read, or work to do. And there are movies and things. Then there’s that seat, which is not designed for someone with a spinal column. And always the guy in front of you. And the noise associated with the perceptible travel. Oh, I can make a lot of excuses for it all, but I’m just a lousy traveler. I just hope I can remain decent company.

And to stay awake the next day, which is today. This, Tuesday, Dé Máirt, or Purplasday or whatever day this actually is.

Never mind the when. You had to figure out the where. Here’s one more hint.

We walked around with friends, people from other states and from other countries as we all assembled and were trying to keep each other awake. I ran across one more hint on our pedestrian journey.

Later, we walked by this building and everyone pointed and laughed at this mural. I was too tired to understand the joke, so I took a photo so that I could figure it out later. I still have no idea why it was funny, but many smart people thought it was.

And we have successfully stayed awake on our first full day in Dublin. We are here to attend two conferences, which start tomorrow and Friday. I will be networking and presenting research and grading. I have a lot of that to do tomorrow. And that, somehow, will be how I bleed off the last of the jet lag.

adventures / Monday / photo — Comments Off
09
Mar 26

We’re going on an adventure

You’ll have to guess. And this will take some doing. Here are all the hints you are getting. Look carefully, and maybe you’ll be able to figure this out from context clues.

We are going back to 2020!

Or at least dressing our faces that way, because germs, man. So you see a mask. And if you look near the top right corner there’s a hint. I’m wearing an overstuffed blue hint. Also there’s another hint covering my ears.

It’s a plane, yes, congratulations. But to where? You have until tomorrow to figure it out.

Friday / Rowan — Comments Off
06
Mar 26

Three-out-of-four, then two-out-of-three

I had four meetings — count ’em, one, two, three, four meetings — on my calendar for today. Researchers were trying to wedge one more in there in between the few null spaces in my day. Me, I’m the researcher.

My first meeting, which was to be the best one of the day, was postponed or canceled. It’s that time of year for everyone, not just you or me. This meeting was to be about a presentation we are delivering next week. This was the get our ducks in a row meeting. Guess who’s ducks are all out of sorts?

Not ours, because we have a plan and a great slide deck. I am working with an amazing colleague on this particular presentation.

My second meeting was a regular committee meeting. We meet for half an hour, every other week. Lovely people. Just happy to be around them. Thoughtful, curious, dedicated, wanna-take-part, sorts of folks. We talked for about 25 minutes about the details of our work and how we might invite this person or that person or all of these people in to a meeting to talk and take a lot at the whatsits and the whosits. And finally, it occurred to me, we’ve been asked to focus on just this one group, not all of the groups. And so we returned to the start of the meeting, essentially.

My third meeting was about sustainability in the classroom. This one was led by a departmental colleague and it was more of a workshop than a meeting. A PLC, they call it, a professional learning community. This meeting is filled with smart people from all number of fields and they are, right now, looking for ways to weave this and that into their own classrooms. I don’t do a lot of that in my classes at the moment — the thises and thats of the environment and ecology conservation and so on. You might think, “You teach sports communication and communication studies, how could you?” And I would say, Thanks for reading my bio.

Then I would say, I have an idea for a future class that fits in nicely with some of what this PLC does. If I’m ever allowed to pitch and offer it, it is going to be awesome. I am trying to get my arms around more than just the basic details.

Today they were using some tool called Padlet which felt very 2.0 Wiki, to share ideas. It is a subscription-based customizable bulletin board with options to populate with text, images, audio, videos, and links. It is like Jamboard. It’s a fun little thing to type in. So people typed in stuff they were working on, and cast about for ideas. I read all of them, because I’m trying to learn stuff and project my project into it. I was also able to add two or three ideas for people, so time well spent.

Then, finally, I wound up the work day with one more webinar, a Q&A session about this work packet I’ve been going on and on about. This was the last minute session. There are a few people on campus who devote just huge amounts of time to this particular chore for everyone else, and good thing, too. We’d probably all be in a much different place if the help didn’t exist. I had three questions, myself, and the answers can be boiled down to: 1.) don’t use that form now use it later, 2.) yes use that form now how did you not know that, and 3.) you are probably correct about the last form, but continue asking around. Two out of three, late on a Friday, is not bad at all. Some other people had questions, and some of which were unexpectedly useful, too, so it was 80 minutes well spent.

Also, today, I got a bit ahead of some class prep for my online course and my in-person Criticism class. And, now, this. So it felt, more or less, like a productive Friday.

I hope yours was too.