touching on some travels....

who are your favorite artists? i like egon shiele, laurtrec, manet, matthew barney and of course van gogh. i love peter paul ruebens, not to be confused with his brother. i went to the sistine chapel and within 20 feet of the pieta, i started crying. it was amazing. i am without words. i had an art professor who told me that when michaelangelo finished his pieta (and many people did the pieta), people went to see it, and he heard them commenting about what a lovely job david did. (david, the artist). that night, he went and carved his name into the sculpture.
when i went to see the statue of david in florence, the people say "he's italian from the waist up" cause his penis is so small. hahahahaha

i love italy. i love florence and madrid. i could write a novel based on my travels (i am!) but madrid is particularly splendid. it retains an authenticity i don't see in many urban cities. barcelona... psh. international whatever. i want unfiltered culture. and that's what madrid is.

another beautifully rich city is valparaiso, chile. you get old town. it's the oldest shipping port in s. america. dirty as fuck. beautiful as hell. they have these crazy funicular elevators that take you up the hill. i always forget the names of them so i have to wiki it, but they are crazy old wooden elevators that creep up the steep hills into the crowded mess of colored houses. it's an experience.

another city i love is rio, of course. but i am biased. i'm from there. and i also don't know a lot about it. i have never been to the favelas, and copa and the favelas live side by side. i read a great quote about rio from a prisoner there.

"rio's biggest symbol is the figure of christ that holds out his stiff, concrete arms to the world beneath him. never did his words mean so little to those below. never in my life have i seen so little charity or compassion in any city where extreme wealth and unendurable povery lie side by side."

it's a beautiful quote and a very viable statement. you should see the poor kids peddling on the streets, sometimes only four years old! the first time i went to brazil, i went to some hippie fair/market and a little toddler begged us for cash. i started to cry. my brazilian friend told me not to give him money. i didn't, and i was so disturbed that someone this small had to eek out a living this way. could his mom not find a job? where was the father? brazil is a complex place and i consider myself lucky, very fortunate, to live where i live.