If/Else:
If(IsEmpty(Bed), “Cold”, “Comfort“)
If(IsEmpty(Eyes), “Defeat”, “Strength“)
If(IsEmpty(Soul), “Sorrow”, “Joy“)
If(IsEmpty(Heart), “Broken”, “Whole“)
If(IsEmpty(Love), “Grief”, “Love“)
No comments on Programming a Broken Heart
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The only thing not typical about this particular Tuesday afternoon was parking in the Yale structure so that I could get to class on time. I sat through Indian Philosophy for the requisite two-and-a-half hours, learned about various proofs for the existence of a self (Vedic teachings: ‘suck it, Buddha!’), and then walked back to my car. I was debating with myself if I wanted to go straight home or if I wanted to go do something on the way home.
I got in the car, pushed the button to start it, let the button go, and had a wave of fear wash over me. The starter did not disengage when I let go of the button. The car was running, but so was the starter motor. The frantic whirring made it sound like the Z was freaking out as badly as I was. I pressed the button again to try to turn the car off. To my dismay, the button did nothing. I couldn’t turn the car off. I tried flipping the ignition lock switch a couple times, pressing the button to try to turn off the car, still nothing.
The starter motor sounded more and more like it was on the point of failure. The stress had me sobbing and in tears. I put the car in reverse and dumped the clutch, hoping I could stall out the motor. Good thinking right? Except that the engine was revved just enough by the ever-whirring starter motor that all it did was actually back out the car. My only option was to kill it by disconnecting the battery.
I popped the hood. The starter began to smoke and whine. All I had was a pair of tiny channel locks I keep in the center console to pull the hood release… I loosened the bolt on the battery terminal through tears and sobs and curses. As I was trying to get it off, the starter burst in to flames and rattled to a halt, electrical burning filling the air. I pulled the battery terminal and started frantically looking around for a fire extinguisher, as the flames died down and the smoke dissipated.
Still full of panic and adrenaline, I called Daniel, sobbing and crying. “My car just exploded!” I blurted out (I did not feel like I was exaggerating at the time. It was a traumatic situation). Ultimately he got me calm enough to think of solutions (bless him, always saving me), and I got the car parking paid for until the next day.
Today, Cary met me at the parking lot where the Z lay motionless and dead. We inspected the area with the starter, and it looked as though the damage was contained to just it, thankfully. I watched as Cary pulled apart the ignition system of my car, trying to find the correct wires to link together to allow us to push start it. Apparently the button start module had catastrophically failed, so we could not get it to turn stay in the on setting without modification. After calling the people who published the wiring diagram for the Datsun 280 ZX series Fascists several times, we got the car set up for the hotwiring.
We dragged it to the top of the hill and pushed it down, popping the clutch and jumping the engine to life. I drove the Z home gingerly with two wires under the steering column elctrical-taped together to keep it running until I could get it in the garage and pull the wires apart. I had never driven a hot wired car before.
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Driving home tonight I looked at the mountains and had the thought “if I were a real photographer I would take a picture of those while standing on the side of the road trying not to get hit.” Tristan then suggested the “roof has a great view.” Well apparently I’m not a real photographer but I did run up on the roof of our house to take some photos so at least slightly crazy.
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Hans Baldung Grien, 1541-1544 Harmony, or Three Graces The three graces by Hans Baldung Grien is one of my favorite depictions of the three out of all the graces I’ve seen. This painting is part of a set along with “the ages and death”, which I will post about tomorrow. This is one of Grien’s later works, one of his explorations in German Expressionism, becoming popular at the time.
What strikes me specifically with this work is the flat out mischief in th graces’ looks. They are reading from a book, playing instruments, doing harmonious things, but they look like they are totally ready to dive in to any sort of mischief they possibly can. The children on the ground look more innocent, just bugging a swan, as children do. They almost come off as more adult than the three women, who have a youthful joy about them, enveloped in beauty and music, taking pleasure in reading. Except they are putting down those things to explore what can only be a bad idea. The musical grace already has one discarded instrument, and looks rather like she’s ready to discard her other instrument in favor of chasing after some nefarious project.
This work speaks to both the beauty and harmony of the traditional three graces, but also reminds us of the spark of chaos in every worldly harmony. It makes for a great pair and segue for the other work, which I will review tomorrow.
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Hello everyone!
David and I have been up for almost 26 hours straight at this point. The letters on the screen look weird if I’m not looking at them straight on. Travelling back home was an adventure, involving a pompous jerk on our long flight who threw a fit in his seat, violently kneecapping me in the process (yes, folks, a grown man). I think I have an airplane curse wherein I am doomed to always sit in front of small children with restless legs. But we got home.
Gia and Mama had prepared a welcome home dinner, which was really nice, and we went through our various souvenirs to show them. The kitties were skeptical at first but are seemingly happy to see us. Sophia is mad at david.
Good night, all, and thank you for travelling with us!
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Oh, Spain. We’ll miss you!
Today was our last day here, so we dedicated it to making sure we felt satisfied with what we’d done, and also good food, and also getting ready to go home. We got some posters from the Prado that we don’t want to get ruined, so we walked over to El Corte Ingles at Plaza del Sol to get stuff to take them home. They had a hard sided portfolio and a poster tube that were perfect, so we got those.
We went to Terra Mundi for lunch, which was extremely delicious, with a last bottle of Mar de Rande red wine. We went to La Taperia for dinner, with gourmet food that really hit the spot. We had a last jar of sangria, which was very excellent. We rarely drink at home, but the wine and alcohol in Spain is so good…
[Edit: This lizard on this building is made entirely out of CDs strung together. It was very impressive in person!]
We used a portion of the day to pack, and we are all set and ready to go. We’ll be leaving the hotel tomorrow at 6:30 am so that we can take the metro to the airport and have time for checking in and getting to the plane. Good night, everyone!
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Tonight’s post brought to you by wine, good food and category confusion.
David and I started the day fully intending to go to the Reina Sofía for their free hours today at 3. We left our hotel, and headed in the direction of Atocha, and approached the museum from the front. It was right around 3:05, and we saw the line out the door and extending by the building. We couldn’t see the end of it yet, so we started walking that way. I noticed that the line wasn’t really moving very much. We continued walking down the long side of the building, hoping to see the end of the line. Then we turned the corner… And still no end. The line was barely moving and was wrapped around two sides of the building! We decided it was not worth it and continued walking.
We wound up in the old section of Madrid. The one with the crumbling Mudejar buildings and winding streets. As we went up from Lavapiés we heard some drumming and singing, and saw a full on spontaneous African drumming session with guys in colorful clothes dancing and singing. Unfortunately we weren’t able to stay and watch, since I had just been confronted by a random Moro for having glanced at him, so we were in the process of ignoring him, walking away and hoping he didn’t follow us.
Thankfully, not engaging him was the correct thing to do, so we walked up a street that had an ancient looking Mudejar church looking more like ruins than a useful building. However, it looked a lot like there was a functioning library in the old shell of the building. When we hit a juncture with Calle Toledo, we went South again to the Puerta de toledo in the La Latina neighborhood. There are a lot more boho hippy types and student types in the area, little cool shops, and totally maze-like streets, however it’s also the somewhat more scary area of the city.
We walked back up to our hotel through the Plaza Mayor, and found a little souvenir shop with decent prices and a fan that I actually liked.
After hanging out in the hotel for a while, we went to dinner at Terra Mundi again. I realized that this is probably one of the very last times we get to eat there before we leave day after tomorrow, so I was a little sad. All the sad went away with the excellent wine and wonderful food. We had stewed venison and confit duck. David lent the title to this post in his efforts to compliment the duck.
It had been raining when we went to dinner, but by the time we got out, it had stopped raining. Which was good, because we had wanted to go and see the Puerta de Alcalá in its natural habitat. We walked up in the fresh smelling air, and stopped for various photo-ops, including one of a stack of surreal croissants on a granite bench. If any of the pictures tonight are blurry, just remember, tonight’s photos brought to you by wine.
On the way back from Alcalá we saw a nifty little fountain that had marble eagles (not ducks) spitting water. We also walked by the tomb of the unnamed soldier, with its eternal flame. The eternal flame was, however, rained on and therefore out at the time.
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As we were walking through the Italian section of the 1st floor of the Prado, we came across La Piedad by Daniele Crespi. I started just looking at it from a technical point of view. Christ’s body folded oddly in death, his face vacant, Mary holding him up, looking up. The description said that strips of canvas had been added to the painting to make it bigger, which robbed it of its drama; but when the painting was restored in 2011, they reduced it back to its original size. This makes the composition more intense and intimate.
Daniele Crespi, La Piedad. 1623-1625 But then, I stepped back to get rid of the glare from the window. That’s when I started tearing up. I was looking at the intensity of emotion in Mary’s face, and it just hit me. She was looking up, both accepting and in deep, horrible pain. Crespi captured what I imagine must be the raw emotion of a mother cradling her dead son. The description says she looks serene. I suppose the picture on the screen sort of does, but in person, it looks supplicating, torn, infinitely sad. The angel at the left is showing outward emotion, but Mary is not, she seems too overwhelmed to cry.
I felt slightly ridiculous crying in front of a painting in the middle of the Prado. All of the other patrons were more interested in checking off masterpieces from their map than paying attention to me with my little emotional moment. This painting is deeply intimate and extremely emotional to be with, pulling you in to a moment, not necessarily of religious significance like you might think, but of personal love and loss of a mother.
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Today we thought very hard about venturing up to the modern part of Madrid with its scintillating, new skyscrapers. However, looking at the map we noticed we’d be walking over 7 km one way. We decided to ditch that for going to the Prado for a full day. We went in, bought our tickets, and then started touring the museum. We spent our first three hours looking at the main collection. We particularly enjoyed Bosch, and two works from Hans Baldung Grien. One, which was there the first time I was in Spain, was and allegory for time and death, with a young woman, an old hag, and death all together. The second I’m pretty sure wasn’t there, is the pair of the set, and is a painting of the three graces and harmony. Together they are very compelling.
After a while we got tired, so we went and got coffee at Starbucks, then went back and went through an exhibition they currently have called “La Belleza Encerrada”. It’s all things that have recently been restored, and all small pieces that are meant to be seen up close. It took us nearly three hours to make it through that one, as well, but it was really cool. they had everything from a crystal, silver and ivory processional crucifix from 1300, to Fra Angelico’s Annunciation, to Reuben’s 5 senses paintings, El Greco, statues, and cool little paintings of types of animals. It was very involved and actually very large.
By the time we were done at the Prado it was almost 6, and we were very hungry, so we went to Museo del Jamon, a chain spanish restaurant, where we got a tasting menu and Sidra Asturiana. It was very, very good, but I was really sad cause they ran out of Morcilla! We do plan on going back, though. I will not leave without having had some morcilla!!!
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Sitting at the terraza of Plateria del Museo on Huertas, we were watching people walk by when suddenly a black german shepherd streaks by at full speed, galloping down the street, then, remaining at full tilt, turns left up Paseo del Prado. Shortly after, a police car comes down Huertas the wrong way with its lights on, gets up to Paseo del Prado, and stops. The cop that’s driving is clearly talking to his partner, with his arm hanging out the window of the car. It seemed they were debating turning the wrong way up Paseo del Prado (keep in mind, at this juncture it is a big, fast, 4 lane road with a split, so they’d be REALLY going the wrong way.) Sure enough, they turn on the siren and turn up the road the wrong way. Whatever that dog did, it was bad. Also, I have never before seen a full on police chase involving a random, if really fast, dog. It even appeared he had done this before, as he was not stopping, and going directions that were a problem for the police to follow, and actually outrunning them rather well.
We continued munching our food speculating as to what a dog could have done to get chased quite like that, and had ice cream for dessert. The rest of the day we lounged around and relxed. 4 star hotels are really nice places to stay in on a vacation!
Margarine is Murder 