Praha In Photos

Just a few shots from my trip to Prague. The first ones were taken from our walk up to the castle and the last is the Lenin wall where Czechs enjoyed a tiny bit of free speech in the Communist Era. They still use it now, they said the white stick figures had only been up a few days.

More about Prague soon.

Vote Obama.

Gaudi - Overrated?

So we're in Spain. And there is this whole Gaudi phenom that has to be inspected. Here are pics of his work in case you are unfamiliar.


Now his work is impressive. I wouldn't gush over it, but it is unusual and interesting. And suddenly it occurs to mi madre that it would be a lot more fascinating if, for example, you had just dropped acid. Even our tour guide mentioned that Gaudi himself was a big fan of the opium. And then it all starts to make sense. Except for one thing.
The way Gaudi is praised to visitors of Barcelona. The man liked the city and left most of his work there, but that doesn't really excuse the audio tour regaling him as "The most universal genius of all time." Einstein, Newton, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates... Morons. The audio tour of Casa Batllo also inferred that Gaudi himself invented the handrail. That's right, before Gaudi man was wandering up and down staircases with no hands! Nothing to safeguard him from 46ing it on the stairs. "Note the round shape that fits perfectly into your hand." Yep not only did he think of the railing, he thought of making it round. Just like Michele thought of making post-its yellow. Without that key decision the whole project would have been a failure. No one would have bought into those cheese-grater shaped railings.

The biggest Gaudi project is La Sagrada Familia, an enormous cathedral in the middle of Barcelona. Gaudi built one side of it, died and all his plans were accidentally burnt in a fire. So they are improving the rest of the building. Gaudi's bit is pretty mind-boggling, particularly because its so massive. And also because it looks like something from Gothic Candyland post-Global warming. Its melting. The other side of the cathedral was done in cubism and reminds me of something from The Fountainhead (a brilliant novel which everyone should read.) The cathedral isn't finished yet, if you'd like to visit it after completion it should be done in 2020. Or 2035. Or 2080. Depending who you ask. That last conservative estimate is the work crew's projection. Based I'd say on Spanish work ethic.

So the final conclusion on Gaudi is that while he may have been a genius, the mind-altering substances made his work a bit, well, ridiculous. In Casa Batllo they had a guestbook visitors could sign. We signed:

Say No to Drugs
-The Bessmans