Madrid Part 3

Looks like all the pics in this post were shot on my pretty crappy nikon coolpix S5100 because i couldn't carry my SLR around that day/night. the day started with a moutain bike ride through casa de campo. Marco is like a nimble gazelle on a mountain bike. the terrain was kind of dangerous. there are trails galore in this huge huge park of every skill level it looks like. i love these trees, maybe they'll appear in a Spain illustration...... next it was on to a Paella lunch at his parents house. check out their awesome terrace on the 5th floor or something. it was so awesome. it is expensive to make too, like 40 euros ($60) Next it was on to the Reina Sofia museum which holds Pablo Picaso's war protest painting, Guernica. It was done in 1937. its 11 feet high and 25.6 feet wide. This painting MUST BE SEEN IN PERSON! If you go to Madrid you MUST SEE THIS PAINING! You cannot capture the size, impressiveness, and pure awe that this painting brings on. this is not my photo, i found it online, no photos allowed which doesn't usually stop me but i was just so focused on the painting i forgot to take photos. I looked at this painting for maybe 10 minutes. I even came back later to see it again. It is the most powerful museum going experience i've had in my life so far. This painting really got to me. This is the ultimate painting with a message. As an artist who want to be a fine artist someday this is like seeing the face of god. the sheer size, picasso's genius, and on top of it all it is saying something super important and timeless. on the adjacent wall is a series of photos showing the progress this painting went through, Picasso changed many things along the way, it's cool to see the evolution and decisions that were made in making this painting. For me I just get a swelling feeling of something when I look at this painting. I don't know what it is, I don't have anything invested in the Spanish civil war, i'm not spanish or haven't been immediately effected by war/bombing. Who knows what it would feel like if i were Spanish, or if i were Spanish and it was 1937 and i saw this painting. I would probably be a soggy puddle on the ground. not my photo either. it looks so small in these photos. that horse's head is amazing, the hand on the ground is amazing, the woman's head craned back screaming is awesome, the woman running and her leg is awesome. I love Picasso, probably because he was a real genuine artist, pushed the boundries of drawing the figure, and broke free of his traditional painting days. His work transformed so much over the years, he really kept searching. His paintings are free, emotive. As i've said before i'm super jealous of artists like this because they feel out their drawings more than they draw them. they really get a full release by fully expressing themselves and holding nothing back, and we get treated to seeing a part of them, a part of their soul on canvas. I wish i had that feeling where my arms and body just turn into my painting tools and i literally am painting my soul onto canvas. It's really obvious to say you love Picasso and love this painting, but i'm sorry, this painting has done it for me. Giving yourself 10 minutes to view this painting in Madrid makes it into the upper tiers of Jason's most recommended things in life list. Early Salvador Dali painting hinting at his surrealist future. Something is off in this painting, making you feel a little uneasy, which is what surrealism is supposed to do according to the books Rosario De Velasco. lovin' the plants the Reina Sofia plaza with a full sized Joan Miro sculpture. Taken from the big glass elevator. one of the symbols of the "revolution" going on now Lots of bars here look like this. In Madrid, the dirtier the floor is (napkins, peanut shells, etc..) the better a bar it is lots of expensive hams A cool thing about europe is that its so old so there are tons of family crests, where as the US has none. Ribeiro is one of the famous wine regions in Spain and also the name of a certain a-hole who lives in London. empanada Oh look its Marco's 2 friends that you guys met in Tokyo and went to karaoke with. We went to this place that was playing dance songs from the 50s so there is no cool dance to do, you just dance like a fool and love it. why isn't there any place like that anywhere else i've been in the world? and if there is please tell me. Then we went to this place called "El Sol" which is now listed in Lonely planet so its filled with brits and the like which has turned it into a tourist club. Its a shame because they were playing motown and funk and 60's soul and they say the club used to be awesome. it still would be if it weren't for me and all the other guiri's in there. I went to a club here in Barelona last night, Apollo. It looked like it was an almost all Spanish crowd. they played electronic and indie rock on different floors. They say no where plays hip hop and its not really popular. that means no grinding or people having sex with their clothes on on the dance floor cuz you can't really do that to indie rock and electronic music. What's a guy supposed to do in a club then? walked through puerta del sol at night to find all those little protesters were so sweepy and tuckered out. San Gines Chocolateria churros, fried dough things covered with sugar. dip them in this liquid chocolate and enjoy. and enjoy i did. you have to eat churros if you come to spain and you have to come to this place if you're in Madrid. They had a San Gines in Shibuya across from Parco for like 2 months and then it closed down. I guess they didn't a love a the churros. Or they couldn't sell 45 million churros a month to pay for that prime real estate. But there was a shop called churro star in my neighborhood in Hiroo.