Certain songs transcend pop and work as international soundtracks. Bowie’s “Heroes” sounded like a million dollars in a café. Madonna sounded good spilling out of a clothing store and onto the street. Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” sounded great in the bakery. Michael Jackson sound’s good anywhere. And T Rex’s “Bang A Gong” sounded fantastic on a bus this morning in Barcelona. Margaret Explosion has to work on its International chops.
Psicodèlico
The great Antoni Gaudí picked up what they were putting down in Barcelona and transformed the city and architecture worldwide. Pablo Picasso painted here for twenty years. Juan Joan Miró was born here and spent most of his life here. Dali lived and worked nearby. Surrealism, Modernismo or Moderisime in Catalan, Novcentisme, new century movement (last century change, not this one), Manzana de la Discordia or just plain Psicodèlico, Barcelona wears it well.
Leave a commentGypsy Bandits
I wonder what Jerome’s would say if we bought one of these orange Renault 4TLs and brought it in to them for service. My hunch is Ted would be fine with it but Mike would go bananas. “A French car!” He’s still giving us a hard time about our Obama 08 bumper sticker. Of course the Glen Beck and Rush shows that he listens to at top volume have got him all wound up.
There are so many cool European cars on the road over here. I’m kind of partial to the Seats since they’re made in Spain but I don’ think I’ve ever seen one in the states. In Barcelona about half the vehicles on the road have only two wheels, mostly motorcycles and scooters but thousands of bicycles too. They have racks all over town where you can rent them and you can drop them off at any of the other locations. We can only think locals rent rather than buy their bicycles because they don’t have any room in their apartments to store them. Maybe that’s why it seems like there is less crap over here. Space is at a premium and it is used well.
We stopped at a cafè/bar on the way home tonight and heard “Everybody Wants To Rule The World.” That thing gets stuck in your head. When we got back to our place we put our “Gypsy/Flamenco/Spain playlist on the iPad to cleanse our ears. Which rounded up the Gypsy songs (mostly Gypsy Kings) and inadvertently added “The Screaming Gypsy Bandits.” They sound good here.
Leave a commentDos Cortados
The best part of the day in Spain for us is drinking café con leche. We pick our cafés carefully and sometimes pass up ten before choosing the right one. It’s nice when the spot is lively but not too crowded and preferably off the beaten path a bit, típico places with locals drinking their coffee out of small glasses. There is one near where we are staying that we’ve even been to twice because the coffee is great and we love our server. Last time we were here we had café con leche, pinchos de tortilla (one with zucchini in it, one traditional Español) and we followed that up with two cortados (a small cup of coffee with hot milk served in a short glass). We came all the way over here for this.
1 CommentTe De Tápies
They make a big deal of Antoni Tápies in Barcelona. He is one of their own and his work is everywhere. We visited the Fundación Antoni Tápies, a building and foundation that he set up to not only showcase some of his work but to give back. The foundation supports artists of all stripes and shows their work as well.
Tápies’ work has to be seen in person. It is large, hands on, rough and tumble graphic work. He often uses concrete on his canvases. It encapsulates the look and feel of Barcelona, full of history and that rich Spanish palette and as lively as the graffiti on the grates they pull down over the shop windows at night. By the time you get down to the gift shop and start thumbing through hundreds of postcards you really miss the physical nature of his work.
Leave a commentEternal Art Quest
Wandering for art is easier in some places. We do it wherever we go and it gets you into some of the nicest neighborhoods and then some of the most interesting ones. Often there’s an art district near a big gallery or museum. Many times they are in run down but up and coming parts of town. Usually though it is like following the money. There is a Marlborough Gallery Branch in Barcelona and galleries scattered about on Consell de Cente. I liked this beautifully painted portrait by the very un Spanish sounding artist by the name of Schmitz. It’s called “Sunomi Mori” and it’s selling for 2,000 Euros. At least that is what the tag said.
Leave a commentModernismo
There is no doubt that Spaniards have a highly developed sense of design. Despite multinational, big money influence they have their own colour palette and they pay attention to detail. They certainly have a longer history so it follows that they are further along the evolutionary scale in that regard.
Hundreds of years of culture are all around them. Roman ruins, ancient buildings and art in public spaces, a respect for the past and a hunger for the new are all part of the package. And then there is Generalissimo Francisco Franco. When his dictatorship ended the country blossomed as if on steroids. It is something to behold.
Leave a commentCarmen & Emilio
There are public drinking fountains all over the old city of Barcelona. Most are dried up. Some still work but people don’t seem to use them anymore. I saw a dog drinking out of one yesterday. People buy their water in plastic jugs now. See “MX-80 – We’re So Civilized.”
Leave a commentHombre vs. Ciervo
Hard to say who got the worst of this deal. The deer has been gutted, stuffed with clothing and coated with silver. The guy has his head cut off.
1 CommentThe Great Book
“The great book, always open and which we should make an effort to read, is that of nature.” — Antoni Gaudi
Leave a commentThe Circus Is In Town!
The circus is in town! They’ve set up their tents on an empty lot near the port of Barcelona. They’re here for the month of January. Attendance should be mandatory but we’re way too busy and there is the issue of animal abuse. It’s a complicated world.
Leave a commentNot On The Menu
If someone wheeled a sound system on to one of the streets in downtown Rochester and sang arias in Italian at the top of his lungs he would probably be arrested. The guy in the trench coat above held this crowd of passersby captive and had a woman kissing him on the cheek and whispering in his ear as we strolled by.
We live in Rochester for reasons that are not entirely cultural. They are perfectly valid reasons and as varied as we are. We like a small city with easy access to the countryside and weather of all extremes. Opera on the street is not on the menu.
1 CommentBeginning Of A Great Adventure
I’ve started a collection of dumpster photos. The past is still here for hobby archeologists and the dumpsters are a record of our progress. Someone has got to catalog this stuff.
Leave a commentIndoor Courts
Indoor horse shoe courts are grown man’s fantasy. We stopped at a gas station on the way up to Pete and Shelley’s in the Adirondacks a few years ago and we asked to use the bathroom. They told us to go through a building out back and use the bathroom there. It was this amazing site. I think about this at this time of year when we put our horseshoes away. We don’t live in Floyd, New York so I can only dream about what color to paint the shoes this winter.
Leave a commentBeginning Of A New Adventure
I can’t tell if it is just my Mac centric view of the world or a real phenomena but I’m spotting the glowing Apple logo everywhere. We spotted this copy of the Steve Jobs book in Catalan yesterday and thumbed through the photos. There are more in the book then there were in the the eBook.
Leave a commentBack To Painting
I put this charcoal drawing in the Rochester Contemporary Members Show and two others in the upcoming iSquare Show. I really like the medium. The charcoal is graphic and cheap but it’s messy as hell. Once I do a drawing I can’t even close the sketchbook without creating a reverse image on the opposite page and the drawing itself smudges. You have spray a each sketch with fixative if you want to keep it in the state its in. The fixative is rather expensive. I have drawings spread out on the floor all over the house. I’m thinking of going back to painting.
Leave a commentDream Machine
Bill and Geri’s neighbor’s are moving. This might be the time for someone to snag the white, wrought iron love seat that sits in their neighbor’s front lawn. It looks like a romantic rocket launcher for memory laden dreamers.
I enjoyed Michael Kimmelman’s article in the NYT this morning and passed it along to my father and our Madrileño amigo, Julio. A relatively inexpensive park built on top of a newly buried highway that had once torn the city apart with 1970’s style urban blight is transforming the lives and livelihoods of Madrileños.
The City of Rochester recently lost it’s bid for state funding of the “Death To The Inner Loop” project in Rochester but this this is not the time to put this movement on the back burner. Why should the state have to pay for this? This is a money maker. Let’s bring the canal back to the city center and fill in the portion of the Loop between East Main and Monroe. This will transform the lives and livelihoods of Rochesterians. Mr. Kimmelman will be back to do an article on this bustling cultural center.
1 CommentReprise
Sparky In The House
Butter is back in our diet for the holidays, mostly in the form of cookies. Cheese and dips, chocolate covered figs from Spain and even hamburgers are back too. Duane breaks his macrobiotic diet down at Vic & Irvs each year and we joined him for that debauchery last night. And Rick and Monica are bringing a picture of egg nog over later tonight.
Every time I see my former neighbor, Sparky, we talk about cooking some sausage, something we did about five years ago. He called the other day to say he had some sausage and he was coming by for lunch. He told me to have the grill hot but he got here about a half hour early so I wasn’t ready. How can you be ready for Sparky?
I put a collection of country music on and went out back to start a fire while Peggi and Sparky chatted about the old neighborhood. Sparky picked up the album cover and got on a roll. Turns out he knew most of the big stars and even played with a few. He told Peggi he was the one who gave George the “No Show” nickname. Sparky was raised in Kentucky. He knows Country. Peggi made a video of him a few years back and we put it up on YouTube this morning.
1 CommentZhorzh Roo-oh
We only scurried through the “Extreme Materials” show at the Memorial Art Gallery when we played the opening so we needed to go back and take in the show. Of course there are no rules as to what materials an artist can use but you shouldn’t have to read the tags to appreciate a work. That’s sort of backwards.
We wandered upstairs where a woman was practicing on the pipe organ in the antiquities section and reacquainted ourselves with some of the minor works by big name artists. I have some real favorites up here and this “oil paint over intaglio print on paper mounted on masonite” by Georges Rouault pronounced as “Zhorzh Roo-oh” is one. Rouault was an original Expressionist and a devout Catholic. He painted clowns, prostitutes, corrupt judges and gorgeous religious works. This is extreme painting.
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