J'S THEATER: traveling

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Photos: Traveling IV

A final set of photos from this trip. One of my last planned visits was to see the famous Casa Batlló's, Antoni Gaudí's lavish house, designed for Josep Maria Jujol in 1877 and redesigned in 1904-6, that (in)famously appears to have no straight lines in its face. It spectacularly droops like candle wax, or creeps like the stone efflorescences in a Max Ernst painting, dominating the already grandiose architecture of the grand Passeig de Gràcia's most over-the-top block, the Illa de la Discòrdia (or "Block of Discord"), so labeled because the neighboring manses, by Barcelona's most famous Modernist architects Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Antoni Gaudí, Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Enric Sagnier), visually and visibly strive to outstrip each other, though Gaudí easily wins the prize. In local parlance, the house is known as the Casa dels ossos (House of Bones, in Castilian: Casa de los huesos), and if you stare at it long enough, it does start to appear to be growing new excrescences. (Like the Sagrada Familia, but in reduced form.) Just as with the Temple, so here, mobs of tourists, and a pricey entry fee, so I snapped (not so great) photos and got back on the Metro.

It was the highlight of a tour through L'Eixample, the neighborhood surrounding and north of the University of Barcelona; also in this area is Barcelona's main gay district, though I learned that to see it at full flower, it was probably best to visit after 6 pm. Many a shop, though none of the restaurants, shuttered for la siesta, which I'd completely forgotten about. Though thoroughly worn out, I definitely enjoyed seeing Barcelona again, and hope to get back soon. I was even able to have a complete conversation in Spanish, from pickup to drop off, with my cabbie, and on the first leg of my return flight read a couple of the books I bought, one by a young Spanish poet named Juan Vico, which received a prize in 2011, and one by the Argentinian author Carlos Skliar. I'll post translations of excerpts as soon as I can. My cabdriver--I am not becoming Tom Friedman!--stated what I'd observed, that the city had grown in infrastructure and racial and ethnic diversity, and Catalan cultural consciousness since 1990. The days of Franco's ban of this distinctive Romance language, or the absence of black and brown faces, was long gone. What the future promises, especially given the Eurozone crisis and Catalonia's own economic problems, remains to be seen, but the city is and will probably continue to be a jewel.

I concluded part of my return by staying in a relatively inexpensive, Japanese-style pod-hotel, Yotel, in Amsterdam's airport. It took a few minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights and connect to the Internet to Skype home, but I would recommend it for non-claustrophobics and non-acrophobics. It's like sleeping in a chamber of the spaceship in 2001, though without Hal threatening to wreak havoc. Reserve in advance though; I thankfully had so I wasn't denied a room but there was a line of people looking for an affordable option, their computer system was down, and the beleaguered young attendant seemed almost ready to bolt if he was asked another question.... On the second leg of the flight home, I finally read Julian Barnes's Man Booker Prize-winning novella The Sense of an Ending, after having recommended it, based on a number of strong reviews, to a student who enthusiastically polished it off and then came to my office hours to ask: "Professor, what happened at the end?" He wasn't testing me, I realized, but actually confused. I read the book and now what happened, so he'll receive an email, if he did not subsequently reckon it or consult Wikipedia. As tight as a Swiss watch's gears, that plot of Barnes's, yet also perhaps a bit melodramatic too.

OBAMA British Africa gin & rum, ales and stouts

PELIGRO

VOTA

Mary Astor Cafeteria, L'Eixample

FOCUS

Street scene, near Blanquerna

Carrer Moncada

The Umbracle, in the Parque La Ciutadella

Umbriacle, in the Parc de La Ciutadella

Door art

Casa Batlló

Museu Antoni Tàpies (with the wire cloud on its roof)

La Mulata, in L'Eixample

Street scene, L'Eixample

Galeria de arte, L'Eixample

Pub Fiction, L'Eixample

Yotel Hallway, pods on either side

The Yotel pod, straight on

Friday, June 15, 2012

Photos: Traveling III

I had seen the Temple de la Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí's unfinished, ongoing masterpiece, before, but it astonished me no less this second time, not least because a large portion of its façade and other sections of it are actually finished! The building's front and sides, every angle of it, pulsate with a strange, compelling magnetism; it is as if it were another life form, a stone creature to which you feel drawn, willing to surrender whatever good sense you have because you cannot say no. But I did say no to the tour, because of the long lines and exhaustion after several longish days, a lingering cold, and two hours whiled walking and looking in the Picasso Museum. I'd never been there. I highly recommend it. The collection is small; Picasso's friend and secretary Jaume Sabatiers donated most of what's in it, with the maestro himself and his former partner (wife?) chipping in some tidbits to fill things out, but it nevertheless gives a good sense of Picasso's trajectory, grounding his genius and work in his experiences in Barcelona, where he spent a good portion of his youth. There was also an excellent temporary exhibition called Archivo F. X.: On Zero Economy (or, as a large wall-sized display said, "Economy: Picasso"), that paired his work with that of admirers and critics, one of whom I recognized as soon as I rounded a corner and heard the beat and her voice: Adrian M. S. Piper, with her famous conceptual art project and video, "Funk Lessons"! As part of this exhibit the group Archivo F. X. Commissioners Pedro G. Romero and Valentín Roma created a series of pieces, ranging from a dictionary of capital and economy, to large coloring charts, to vouchers for 1 peseta. I asked three different museum guards, who were swarming about, whether these materials really were free, because I did not want to be spend the rest of the month of June in jail for larceny, and each assured me that yes, the materials were free. (My bold action in rolling up one large print led a couple behind me to do so--how easily we follow others.) As I left I mentioned in Spanish that no one was taking the pictures (I couldn't think of the word for "poster"), and the guard I spoke to just shrugged. I wasn't going to pass up Picasso/FX Archive swag! At some point I wended my way to the Arc de Triomf. That is not a spelling error, but Catalan. It's a striking monument, with flourishes such as only Barcelona seems capable of. Behind it, the Passeig Lluis Companys stretches in the direction of the Parc de la Ciutadella, where the Zoological Museum and Zoo, as well as the Catalonian Parliament are located. You infer from that juxtaposition. A fitting end to the day came when I happened upon a street performance that involved those giant wearable puppets that are common during Carnaval in Recife, Brazil, and the young musicians switched, not on behalf of me, but because they knew the tune, from what sounded like a traditional Spanish song to r&b. Above them hung the two signs you'll see below in the final two images, calling for help for public schools, and for the preservation of public services. The Catalan in the last two sentences reads: "We believe in public schools" and "We defend public services." Lest we ever think we're (the 99%, that is) not all in this boat together....