And you know that I could have me a million more friends, and all I’d have to lose is my point of view

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I really haven’t taken a lot of pictures in awhile.  But here’s some for those that might possibly feel sorry for me being so far away from everything and everyone.  Don’t.

This is literally five minutes from my apartment.

And of course I go out there almost everyday, sunny or not.  Must be something about growing up in the Midwest.  I can never get enough of the ocean.  I go out there, and I could be anywhere.  Jakarta, Guyana, South Africa .  ‘Course with less sharks, though.

More pictures in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, I’ll be in Andalucia for the next week.  Granada to Cadiz to Sevilla to Cordoba.  It’ll be great to go back, and see how if it’s as quite as I remember.  And everyone will speak Spanish.  Adeu, Català.

It doesn’t mean I didn’t try, I just never know why

Part of the 10-day-long celebration of Carnaval here, they have a funeral procession throughout the streets of Old Town (El Casc Antic).  It’s mostly a parade to celebrate the beasts and devils of the world, and they do that by making large representations of these things and loading them up with tons of fireworks.  Makes sense to me!

You can’t really see it in this picture, but this is supposed to be a serpentine/dragon-like devil, complete with a supple, slightly hairy pair of tits.

These are fairly shitty quality, but the full ones I have are some of the best pictures I’ve ever taken.

Let’s go, Let’s sit, Let’s talk, Politics go so good with beer

Carnaval.  (Sorry, some of the pictures are kinda blurry.  It all happened so fast…)

What’s funny is that the whole time I was taking these pictures, a guy I know here (not for very long at this point) is telling me how big of a crock of shit Carnaval is in Spain.  He kept yammering at me about how it’s only for the churches to glean more money from ignorant Spanish thinking they’re donating to kids and schools (each “car” had its own money collector that’d come by afterwards asking for donations), and how much money they waste building and planning these parades.

He said to me (I’m translating here so it might not be exactly what he said), “They can always find money for feathers, but we can’t feed those poor sitting down by the train station?  Well, each year there’s more and more poor, and each year the feathers just get bigger and bigger.”  It’s good to know there’s as much hypocrisy and turning of blind eyes here as there is in the States.

I mostly felt bad for all the kids who had to get all dressed up on a Tuesday night, and parade up and down the streets of their hometown, dancing in unison to blaring house music.

But lady you need some cold advice, About a few things

You know what the best thing is about telling an 8 year-old that you’re 87? They don’t get the sarcasm at all.

Sun keeps risin’ in the west, I keep on waiting for it confused

Taken January 6th, at Parc Güell in the Northwest outskirts of Barcelona.  It’s basically a giant hilltop park designed by Antoni Gaudí, who also did the previously mentioned Sagrada Familia cathedral.

All the girls here, All the girls dress like sailors

Taken January 4th at the Torres Winery in Vilafranca de Penedès, a town in-between Tarragona and Barcelona about a half-hour north of here.

Torres is a fairly well-known European winery that also has vineyards in Chile and Napa Valley. And their operation here wasn’t any Mom-and-Pop outfit. The grounds were gigantic, cellars like post-modern catacombs, and the process incredibly organized.

Taken during the Smell-o-Vision part of the tour. They took us into this long room with images of nature and vineyards projected onto one wall. All the while, odors were pumped into the room that represented the four seasons and periods of wine-making. I think this one was of springtime. The smell was lilacs or some other early blooming flower, if I remember right. The whole thing with the smells and the images (and also the crazy nature sounds blaring from the speakers) was incredibly cheesy and strange, like something out of Willy Wonka’s factory. Needless to say, I thought it was pretty cool.

Ryley laughs a lot when he drinks wine.  I don’t know why.

From the autumn section of the Smell-stravanganza. The odor was of burning grapevines.

The Pyrenees in the distance.

The entrance into the Reserve cellar.

The private family stash, dating back to the 1800s. In other words, some of the world’s oldest vinegar.

Bottles that cost as much as I make in a month, that probably don’t taste very different from the more economic options there.

Statue at the end of the Rambla in Vilafranca.

Mixing pop and politics, He asks me what the use is

Yeah, sorry for the lack of posts, especially after my declaration of the exact opposite.  I’m really just trying to clear my queue of photos with this one.  Surprisingly, it has mainly a religious theme.  But don’t all my posts?

The Torre Agbar at night.  I think I already talked about this.

My photo of a man taking a photo of the Torre Agbar in the Passeig de Gracia.

La iglesia de Santa Maria del Mar.  Interestingly enough, only the second time I’ve been in a church or cathedral here (the first was for Mozart’s Requiem here at the church where all the bums hang out at).  It’s funny, because when I was in Spain the first time that seems like the only places I went to.

For some reason, people don’t like their picture taken when they’re worshipping.  Go figure.

Back again at the Sagrada Familia, which is still as impressive.

The fruit atop the new(ish) construction.

From the backside.

Blockhead Jeebus’s crucifixion.  My favorite is the Shroud of Turin below him (or maybe the Rock’em Sock’em Robots feel of the whole thing).

A better understanding, Of what was already understood

So I finally went to a museum here. And it just so happened to be one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Teatre Museu Dalí. It’s located in Figueres, about 2 1/2 hours north of Tarragona. And it’s amazing.

I bet you didn’t know he cast his own metal to make jewelry, figurines and mirrors like this.

There’s some people’s heads in the lower left-hand corner to give you some size perspective of this.

This is the view from the lens atop a set of stairs that lets you see Dalí’s interpretation of Mae West’s head. This took up the entire 20×20 room. The lips were the size of a sofa, the hair 12 feet tall.

I bet you didn’t know he made his own holograms, either.  Yeah, back in the late 70’s, early 80’s.  There was one he did of Alice Cooper, but I can’t find my picture of it.  And yes, they’re drinking Busch beer in this one.

The ceiling in one room.  Check the Dalí moustache on the one on the right.

One of my favorite things in the museum, but these don’t really do it justice.  He painted these pictures by putting the metal bottle on a canvas and looking at the reflection.

Incredible talent and creativity, absolutely.

Transsexual Adam and Eve

It was like going to an art show, filled with some of this best art you’ve ever seen, at some crazy eccentric’s giant mansion, packed full with the weirdest shit.  Actually, that’s exactly what it is.  The most impressive thing was that he worked in almost every medium, utilizing almost every style to exist.  And all of his pieces were amazing.  The pencil work, the watercolors, the statuettes, the installations, the baroque work, the post-modernist stuff… everything was incredibly done.

Ryley said that the museum alone made the trip worth while.  I have to agree.

Again I hope you notice, I’m no hare and you’re no tortoise

Barcelona – December 28th, 2007

Mostly taken in Parc Montjuic, a park south of the Barri Gotic on a giant hill in the middle of the city. To get there, you either have to take a long series of escalators/stairs, or take the Metro (subway) to the funicular, which is pretty much a tram that goes uphill. Oh, you can also take the gondola from the port, but I don’t think it operates during the winter.

The Palau Nacional, built for the 1929 World’s Fair. It now houses yet another art museum. Impressive building and grounds, though.

The fountain in front of it. It’s all lit up and purty on the weekends, though I didn’t see it.

Hey buddy, did you get a hold of Captain Weirdbeard over there?

From atop Montjuic. You can’t see it too well, but on the left is the Sagrada Familia, and the bullet-shaped building is the Torre Agbar. I think you can also see the cathedral top, too. More on these later.

The stadium built for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Lord Humungus Stabs Ryley In The Stitches

(Alright, I know it’s a cop-out post, especially with the amount of pictures that I have.  But it’s been a busy week, and I have a lot of pictures to reformat.)