TravelCent

U2DC

Washington, DC is a funny little town, or so says David Byrne, the Scottish-born music icon.  It’s a place where interesting blends come together, and a place where radical divisions can be immediately apparent.  There are plenty of opportunities to get in touch with the culture wars, and well as the cultural marriages in the world just by visiting, and astute travelers who have a thing for history will find plenty of chances to dig in and investigate larger pictures and puzzling connections.  Coming into the city raw, without much of a plan, can be one of the most exciting ways to get to know it.  With no agenda, and nothing in hand except for the plane ticket and reservations at a cool hotel, the city is here, waiting for you to add your perspective.

It doesn’t mean that your opinions will be accepted without question.  This is a town that’s made for arguing.  People like to argue about the essential issues of the day, like wages and health care, or also to argue about mundane things, like the best way to lace a boot, or even high philosophical matters, like the body and mind problem.  In fact, there are few places on earth where there is so much genuine joy given to fighting, outside of Ireland.  So it’s no coincidence to see a band like U2 play to sold-out audiences here.  DC has an Irish diaspora population, of course, and there’s also the extreme global popularity of some of their songs, but something about the band speaks to this city.

It might be possible to link the band’s relevance here by looking at Irish identity in a global context.  Their particularly brutal history of oppression, from external as well as internal sources, makes it a rather apt lens through which to see the world from a keen political perspective.  This may be something discussed at the U2 Academic Conference in North Carolina, but it’s worth talking about in DC as well. It might lead to some new friendships, or an all-out scuffle, or perhaps a bit of both.

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