I really love Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. Recently I've been reading Joan Margarit's Noves cartes a un jove poeta (New Letters to a Young Poet). In the introduction Margarit claims:

"Vull dir que no m'interessa el poema que no contribueixi a fer-me una persona millor, a procurar-me un major equilibri interior, a consolar-me, a deixar-me una mica més a prop de la felicitat ..."

Here's a rough translation:

"I am not interested in poetry that does not better me, console me, or bring me a little closer to happiness."

Margarit will be at Poetry Week in May.

Parallel Lives

I hung out at the Picasso Museum today. Guess what? Picasso and I have parallel lives.

The museum, whose collection is mostly Picasso's early drawings and works on paper, arranges all the pieces chronologically.

So you can see Picasso coming to Barcelona, studying at my school, carrying around a sketchbook, making little paintings of the sea and the city ... discovering Madrid and Paris ...

What does this all boil down to? I'm probably about to make it big as a Cubist painter. Basically I'm waiting for that to happen any minute now.

Here were some of my favorites:

Sant Pau del Camp, with its distinctive mozarab cloister.

The Liceu

La Barceloneta

     
 Near the Prado in Madrid

A café in Barcelona

Barcelona cityscape

The beach at Barceloneta

Images pulled from the Museum's online catalog.

Read what they have to say about Picasso's relationship with Barcelona ... the modernization of the city and the construction of the Eixample began while he lived here.

Although Picasso spent far more time in Paris, Barcelona is "where it all began ... where I understood how far I could go."

10 photos of Paris

Holy week in Spain is wonderful and not to be missed. But this year I spent the week of vacation with my MOM in PARIS. 

Yep, doesn't get better than that. Besides seeing her, here were some of my favorite things from our trip:

The river. 

The Rodin museum. 

Free admission to it. (!!!) Not paying for museums as a student is wonderful, I recommend never getting older than 26.

I think the Louvre is maybe my idea of paradise. I knew it was an art capital, but after visiting I'm blown away by the amount of art making, patronage and appreciation that goes on in Paris. It's so great to see museums packed full of people looking at art.

Paris is also full of architecture from the middle ages. 

Like the conciergerie. 

And in case you're wondering where all the old printing/flying equipment is, check out the museum of Arts et Metiers.

I didn't expect to be blown away by the Eiffel Tower. I was blown away. I also really loved the architecture at the train stations, which reminded me of it.

So many public gardens. All this beauty is good for the soul, don't you think?

Para Cristina

Unas fotos del taller de papel ebru de la semana pasada, y un video corto. Las hojas son muestras de la profesora, Mar.

Se prepara un día antes una mezcla de 5 litros de agua con 60 gramos de algas, y un tapón de formol. La mezcla dura más o menos un mes, si coge un olor raro lo tiramos. Pues se cola la mezcla de agua y algas y se vierte en la fuente, y se preparan los colors. Son polvos diluidos en agua, con unas gotas de hiel de buey. Lo importante es: cuánto más hiel de buey, más crecerá la gota de pintura inicial. Los colores se han de flotar sobre el agua.

Los pinceles son de pelos de caballo y rosal. Empezamos con los colores que tienen más hiel, y luego los colores que tienen menos hiel. Es necessario escurrir bien el pincel antes de espolvorear los colores.

Las burbujas se han de quitar si aparecen en el superficie del agua entre hacer hojas. Son el enemiga. Entre hojas, se limpia el agua con papel diario o con el otro lado del papel que acabamos de hacer. Luego las hojas se han de prensar para quedar bien planas.

Allí las ojas pueden ser obras en si, e incluso pueden ser fondos para caligrafía. Los artistas no firman sus obras. A veces un fondo de papel ebru se usaba para documentos oficiales.

paint the town

Barcelona = street art. Here are some links: this video  about the current state of things, by BCN Mes, the best paper (subtitled in English). 

Where to buy spray paint in barna.

A church with a graffitied dome (inside, that is).

This man gives walking tours of BCN street art. 

I think this dude's work is great. I first spotted it on a churrería near my church. 

And I was really happy to see so many space invaders in Paris. We need a few more of these guys over here. 

This is BCN: still under construction

But still beautiful. Reminds me of this interview with Tahiti Pehrson: "If I “see” it all the way to the end, it’s not worth doing."

This is BCN: beach or library?

These signs can be found at eye level on the front doors at the public libraries.

That they are necessary is, well, so Barcelona.

Photo dump

This is why I love having a blog. I can talk about whatever I want, and not worry about boring my friends and relations.

Without further ado: some lettering.

Spanish tile

This isn't remarkable in terms of aesthetic, but it captures public opinion perfectly. "Bancos culpables" -- blame it on the banks. 

 

Spotted while riding the funicular up Tibidabo:  

On a painting.

Old department store? I love how it is short but still looks good.

The murals at the Pantheon were filled with monograms.

A classic. Barcelona's metro is pretty modern/clean but can look a little soul-less. I mean, we spend a lot of time down there, where's the public art? The decorative touches? I'd like to think that these "bocas del metro" would fit right into BCN, which is so steeped in art nouveau.

I got all excited about this but it's not a print shop anymore,. They left the sign up. Because the lettering is just great, right?

Es imposible engañar a una vieja ciudad.

Joan Margarit said that. I think a good English translation would be: "you can't trick an old city."
This is a photo of Paris: