From our hike yesterday in Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park to the source of Rio Borosa, which originates out of a rock.
Here’s Ofer at the bubbling spring:
Rio Borosa
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Author Archives: Jennifer
Dali House
It’s a small town several hours north of Barcelona, but Figueres is birthplace to larger-than-life Salvador Dali. We were surprised to learn that Teatre-Museu Dali takes second place (after the Prado) for most visited museum in Spain. Not bad for a tiny town tucked away near the French border.
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- From the “Aliyah, the Rebirth of Israel” collection commissioned by Shorewood Publishers. 1967-68.
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- From the Aliyah collection.
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- From the Aliyah collection.
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- The Mae West room looks like a living room with weird furniture until…
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- …you climb a tower of steps to view the space through magic glass.
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- Catalan bread rolls dot the museum’s outer walls.
Barcelona – The Spanish Masters
Man in a beret. 1895
Still Life. 1901
If art were food and wine, we’d have gained 300 pounds this past week alone. In our short stint in Barcelona, we have quite stuffed ourselves on Gaudi, Picasso, and Miro.
So far, the most surprising visit has been the Museu Picasso, not your everyday Picasso museum. The collection here chronicles his early years and features sketches and paintings rarely seen in U.S. exhibits. In addition to the usual abstract and Cubist menu, the works highlight Picasso’s very traditional training and feature his drawings, Impressionist-inspired still-lifes and classical oil portraits. One museum monitor aggressively chased out a visitor attempting to steal a snap of L’espera. Photos were strictly prohibited but the museum provides samples from their catalog.
Pitcher. 1914
Portrait of a young girl. 1919
An extra special treat was the Miro Foundation. The curators didn’t do quite as good a job at showing the transformation from Miro’s early years to later ones, but the collection thoroughly displays the influence of Japanese portraiture and calligraphy. In addition to paintings and tapistries, the museum has countless sculptures. Like Picasso, Miro’s classical training is hard to miss in his earlier work in oil and pastel. Tons of other goodies and an excellent catalog found here: Miro Foundation Gallery
And then there’s Antoni Gaudi. I’m not big on churches in general, but in the name of architecture, La Sagrada Familia is worth wading through the throngs of tourists. A few photo ops to demonstrate the very labor intensive feat that is still underway. (Speaking of labor, signs everywhere implored people to keep silent and respect the spirituality of the space. Never mind all the stone grinders and jackhammers.) I’ll let their website handle all the pretty photos. Virtual tour here.
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- In the Passion Tower.
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- Looking down the tower core.
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- It’s a work in progress…still.
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- View of the city.
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- Park view from tower.
And the buffet continues tomorrow in Figueres, Dali’s hometown.
Barcelona – La Crisis
A few snaps here of Placa Cataluna, where a large group had organized to inform and protest against austerity measures.
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- Group Discussion about La Crisis
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- No Cutting Back Public Services – sanitation, teaching, public transportation, retirement
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- Protesting La Crisis
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- No More Evictions!
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- Discussing La Crisis
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- Yes we can.
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- Art is My Weapon
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- Art in protest.
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- Those Thieving Bankers
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- Financial Auto-Genocide
Josephine Baker “House”
Chateau Milandes – Josephine Baker’s “house”
Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Beauford Delaney and Chester Himes were among the many black American artists who traded the racist and segregated United States for a less oppressive life in France. But none became as entrenched in French society and legend as Josephine Baker. Unlike Baldwin, Wright and the others, she did not expressly self-exile because of the racism she endured at home. Instead, when offered a contract to entertain in Paris, she accepted without hesitation. In 1925, Baker arrived in Paris and twelve years later traded her American citizenship for French.
Chateau Milandes was home to Josephine Baker and her “Rainbow Tribe” of adopted children. She first inhabited the chateau in 1939, escaping Paris at the outbreak of WWII. Throughout the war she ran spy missions for France, her willingness motivated by her having a Jewish husband. She used her status as an entertainer to access parties and state affairs, where she collected information she had overheard. Later she completed missions in North Africa. France recognized Baker’s allegiance with three of the country’s highest honors: La Croix de Guerre, La Médaille de la Résistance and La Légion d’Honneur, which Charles de Gaulle presented himself.
Israeli Students Respond
From today’s New York Times, a few thoughts from Israel’s Palestinian and Jewish students.
Elvis Has Left the Building
Obama’s Holy Land tour ended yesterday, but not before Netanyahu made a phone call to Turkey’s Erdogan to apologize for the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla deaths. A special phone booth (a trailer) was conveniently placed next to Air Force One where Bibi could make the call before Obama boarded the plane.
Ironically, in spite of White House efforts to shield Obama from obvious, unspeakable warts, weather assured he’d see one – the separation wall. A local khamsin, a desert sand storm, blew in at just the moment Obama was to take his helicopter to the West Bank. Poor visibility meant he now had to drive through Jerusalem to reach Bethlehem, which meant passing through and along one of the most sobering symbols of the conflict. Some might call that divine intervention.
Still, Obama’s speech and visit to the Israeli people have registered as a roaring success in spite of their lack of meaningful substance on critical peace issues. And the apology to Turkey certainly gives Obama a feather for his hat.
Click below to watch the speech everyone (in Israel) is talking about. Israeli papers reported, “He had us at shalom.”
And the politicians are saying…
From the Jerusalem Post:
Public Opinion on Obama in Israel
From today’s Guardian, a fairly typical range of opinion:
As Obama prepares to visit Israel, there are mixed emotions on both sides
“Welcome to Israel, Mr. President.”
The White House may be downplaying Obama’s visit to Israel, but his 3-day tour through the holy land has presented Israel’s peace activists the opportunity to underscore their role in highlighting sentiment against the occupation. They bought large ads in today’s Ha Aretz and Jerusalem Post print versions.
Israel’s peace activists, you say?
Though you’d never know it from the paltry to non-existent coverage they receive in the American (and mainstream Western) press, Israel’s voice of opposition to conflict in the territories is impressive, well organized and replete with some heavy hitters (the best example being former IDF soldiers who make up Breaking the Silence).
In our newspapers, criticism about regional geopolitics abounds, but readers too often finish with the impression that Jewish Israelis themselves have little to say or do except complain about international scrutiny and fret about security. We might expect that newspapers claiming to give voice to the voiceless would make the effort to credit those who risk ostracisation and the wrath of their own brand of religous fanatics. The Israeli peace movement is good people doing something. It’s good material. It should be big news, but the biggest names in journalism rarely make mention of the country’s active protest. Not the New York Times, not The Guardian, not Le Monde. As if attempts to silence them on their home turf weren’t bad enough, some of the largest newspapers with the loudest horns essentially ignore the existence of Israel’s peace camp. How can that be an accident?
Well, The Guardian did offer a little chirp of attention several days ago. On the 17th they ran a link to the following film short, My Neighborhood, produced by the group Just Vision. Watch the film to get an idea of Israel’s activists in action and be sure to check out Just Vision’s website for news you’re unlikely to find in the New York Times.