The Minimal Manual

The daily detritus of my life, spilt out onto a keyboard and left to ponder like a Rorschach test.

Thursday, August 18, 2005




La Sagrada Familia

Typically, the "must see" tourist attractions are recipes for disappointment, as anyone whose been to Graceland can attest. So as Rashmi and I were on our way to see Gaudi's (for whom the word "gaudy" was coined) Sagrada Familia, we weren't expecting much. But were we ever surprised! This church is mind-blowing. The church has been under construction since 1882, and is just over half-way built. Nevertheless, the thing is already unbelievably big and unbelievably complex. Every inch of the building is covered with a mosiac or a sculpture. At first glance it looks as if the builders decided to doodle as they built, but a visit to the museum below the church shows that Gaudi intended every peice of the construction and created intricate models of every part of the building. When I consider all of the purposeful preparation and detail that went into this church, I'm struck by the magnitude of Gaudi's achievement. Designing this building in the time that Gaudi did, would be, in literary terms, like writing the Bible over lunch. Hopefully the church will be finished in my lifetime.

Opera . . . sort of

Rashmi and I capped off the night at L'Espai Baroc, a bar in the Gothic Quarter offering opera by candlelight. It was quite the espectaculo, to borrow the doorman's phrase. As you may be able to tell from the picture, the performance took place in a medieval courtyard filled with some very odd antiques (notice the stuffed aligator in the back of the picture). It was quite the find (thank you, guidebook).

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