Paris - Sainte-Chapelle

Paris - Sainte-Chapelle
Originally uploaded by 41Dodge

Patricia particularly likes to visit the European Cathedrals and on top of our list are the gargoyles of Notre Dame and beneath a spire on Sainte-Chapelle. I am curious how the gargoyles became so identified with the religious architecture of the times.

When you look at Versailles, the underlying theme is Greek gods and their struggle in nature and with water. In contrast the fierce threat of gargoyles are popular with the cathedrals of Christendom.

Le Louvre - Aile Richelieu

Le Louvre - Aile Richelieu
Originally uploaded by SergeK

We've been told over and over that in order to get through the entire collection of Musee du Louvre a person would need at least a week. Patricia and I only have a week total in Paris.

QUESTION: Do we skip the Louvre all together or what collections and portions of the Louvre do we summarily dismiss or breeze past quickly?

Of course, we also need to go to the Musee d'Orsey, Center Pompidou and Picasso Museums in addition to the Louvre.

Copyright Violation

Copyright
Originally uploaded by Andrea Cassani

As tradition would have it, art students went to painstaking ends to copy the works and techniques of the masters. In Paris at the Palais Royal, Musée du Louvre it is not uncommon to see art students with canvas and easel in the galleries sketching or painting copies of the works before them.

Theft! Copyright Violation! Call the intellectual property lawyers in America!

Marais Museum Directions

Museum Directions
Originally uploaded by speattle

I am beginning to think we won't need to leave the Marais district of Paris. There is more to see there than one week will allow.

Most definitely, we will want to visit the Musee Picasso that houses more than 1000 works of the master and then pieces he held in his collection of peers and contemporaries. Also, the Jeu de Paume at the Hôtel de Sully is a museum devoted to film and photography.

The Musée Carnavalet-Histoire, also located in Marais, is an historical museum where you will find paintings, furniture, and some personal items of French notables, from the time of King Henry IV to present and the history of the city of Paris.

As Patricia says, we might be lucky if we do a museum a day. With all the other attractions in Marais, we might be lucky of we get out of the district.

Place des Vosgues

In one month Patricia and I will be traveling to Paris and will stay at Place des Vosgues. This is one of Paris' oldest squares built originally as a palace for Queen Catherine d' Medici and Henry IV. The palace has been divided up into 36 residences and over the years has housed famous tenants such as Victor Hugo.

Place des Vosgues is located in the Marias district of Paris, a vibrant neighborhood of young and old, gay and straight and is known for art galleries, cafes, shopping and many bakeries, bistros and bars.

During the late 1500s the square was the location for many public events such as jousting which led to the tragic death of Henry IV being poked in the eye and his death after which Queen Catherine vacated the palace. Much history has passed since with the upheaval of the revolution in the nearby Bastille. Marais became a poor section of Paris in he early 1900s and place where Jews were rounded up and children sent to camps in Germany.

We look forward to discovering this rich Parisian history.

On Location of "A Serious Man"

On Location
Originally uploaded by deeshader

My old friend Michael Tezla on location at the Red Owl on East 7th Street during the filming of the Coen Bros. "A Serious Man" The film is a black comedy period piece set in 1967, located in St. Louis Park where the Coen's grew up.

"A Serious Man" follows Larry Gropnik, a Jewish academic played by Michael Stuhlburg and his existential struggle as his wife Judith considers leaving him for his colleague Sy Ableman. Complicating his life, Larry's ne'er do well brother Arthur (played by Richard Kind) is living in the basement and won't leave and his daughter is stealing to pay for a nose job and son is dealing for marijuana.

Habanero Bill Wins Throwdown

My colleagues at Mpls/St. Paul magazine, Steve Marsh, Bill Swanson, and Stephanie March decided to challenge each other under the guidance (or threat) of Food Editor Adam Platt. The resulting winner may be of great surprise given popularly held theories of aging and digestion!

Boulangerie du Paris

My friend Mike is currently living in Paris and running a tech company there. His life in Paris reminds me of when I traveled to Paris to shoot a film back in the 1980s and especially those amazing breads, pastries and coffee's at the Boulangerie.

What's This Masterpiece Doing Here?

National Gallery Treasure hanging on a wall on Wardour Street
Originally uploaded by Dippingmytoes

The National Gallery of Art in London, in order to promote viewing of the treasures in it collection, began hanging some its most treasured pieces outdoors on the streets of London. This painting by Jan van Eyck is a masterpiece known as the "Arnolfini Portrait" (1434) a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife in a Flemish bedchamber is on Wardour Street - a replica of course.

Conservatives Voted for Obama

I especially want to thank the Conservatives and Republicans who saw the light in this election and voted for Obama. An interesting statistic from the recent vote totals was that only 22% of all counties in the nation voted for McCain and most of them were in the deep South. This number shows that county's that voted for Obama were wide spread across urban, suburban, exurban and rural counties.

Thank you. I am optimistic it is possible to find common ground.

If you are a Christian you might want to watch this testimonal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBLnwMbYmUw

In the Middle for Obama

Obama is Beautiful World!

Everybody Loves Obama

A Beautiful Day in America

As an American born in the 1950s, witness to the 1960s, raised in the 1970s, came of age in the 1980s, disillusioned in 2000 and 2001... I am overwhelmed today. It's the dawning of a new age in America.

I would have to say that one of the most defining aspects of American life for my generation is the civil rights movement. As a kid my parents were Republicans and we moved to Washington, D.C. in 1967. Although my older brother and sister got caught up with being "Clean for Gene" and I was fascinated by seeing the Nixon administration up close as well as what went on inside Capitol Hill -- my parents were totally in favor of Civil Rights. They admired Dr. Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson during his speaking tour across the country to break down racial barriers and segregation stayed in our house.

Yes, I repeat, Jackie Robinson stayed in our house because no hotel would allow him to rent a room in Moorhead Minnesota.. As kids we were thrilled. Robinson was a baseball legend. We didn't see race as an issue. We didn't find his black skin to be anything but cool.

Today, in America, a barrier went down. It is very satisfying and brings us all closer together as a nation.

The Ground Game

As you can tell I think and feel in my heart that this election will be won today on the ground. I believe Barack Obama when he says that this election is not about HIM it is about US. And what that means is that in every corner of the nation the young people and the old, the black brown, yellow, red and the white people make up of movement that will not be divided by hate, anger and extremism.

When I woke this morning I felt a palpable sense of expectation for something great about to come. I also was slightly haunted by the sense in this country of missed opportunities. For instance, a huge transformation of possibility was cut short when Bobby Kennedy was shot down in Los Angeles. And of course one cannot ever erase the pain in our hearts that Martin Luther King's life was cut short when he still has so much to offer the country in terms of moral leadership.

But today we have a huge potential in front of us for change and transformation. All those young people working in Obama office around the country are a movement. All I will say to them today is: YES WE CAN! This is election ours if we step up and take our country back.

Listening to Charles

In this time of nasty and dirty politics filled with lies and divisive attacks its is wonderful to hear a Charles Alexnader in Colorado talk honestly. Honesty is severely lacking in todays public life. Let's listen to Charles.

"A great moment: When the press was hitting hard on the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter, he did not respond with a politically shrewd "I have no comment," or "We shouldn't judge." Instead he said, "My mother had me when she was 18," which shamed the press and others into silence. He showed grace when he didn't have to."

-Peggie Noonan, Wall Street Journal 10/31/2008

A Higher Purpose

Honesty is Virtue

This election in the past couple of weeks has become a referendum on HONESTY. And the most dishonest players in this race are McCain and Palin. The Republican candidates for the highest office in America spend little time talking about their own virtues and policies and almost all of their time speaking lies about their opponents.

When addressing an agitated extremist base, they attribute ideas, philosophies and polices that Obama and Biden have never endorsed, advocated, or supported to them with snide derision. On the campaign trail McCain and Palin's claims have grown increasingly more strident, inaccurate, and frankly wildly freaky.

In Iowa just a few days ago, Palin with her confusing malapropisms, told an audience Obama would confiscate property, investments, inventory, and destroy all the values we teach our children, moving America toward tyranny and away from freedom. This Communist red-baiting is HOGWASH and non-sense born of desperation. But what it clearly shows is the extent that McCain and Palin will use all kinds of lies and deceit to gain political power.

McCain and Palin are not truthful people we can trust with leadership in America.

Endorsement from Another General

In his endorsement of Barack Obama, Lt. General Robert G. Gard warns of flaws in character that are detrimental to McCain's ability to lead the country.

"The fields of foreign and national security policy, however, are John McCain's disqualifying weaknesses, in my view. McCain has demonstrated clearly that he is a dedicated ideologue when it comes to foreign policy, unwilling to consider opinions or even credible evidence contrary to his preconceived notions.
His temperament, marked not only by impatience but also by rude and sometimes hostile behavior, would discourage advisors from bringing to his attention views that might not be consistent with his preconceptions. A President with this combination of significant shortcomings would be a dangerous commander-in-chief, posing an unacceptable risk to the security of the nation.
McCain has adopted, promoted, and sustained the position of the so-called neo-conservatives and ultra-nationalists who believe that the United States should capitalize on American military superiority to spread democracy abroad. Overthrowing the Iraqi government was seen as the first step in transforming the politics of the Middle East by converting governments in the region to democracies friendly to the United States and its interests. McCain reportedly has bragged in private conversations that he was the first neo-con."

- Lt. General Robert G. Gard Jr. (USA, Ret.)

"Whack-Job" from Wasilla

Here is a woman who doesn't know the difference between socialism, communism and rheumatism. Yet she just keeps getting more and more wacko in her speeches and misrepresentations of the truth. McCain's own advisors have been calling her "Rogue Diva" and "Whack-Job"

Palin's Iowa speech is extremist stupid-talk way way out on the fringe since Obama never advocated confiscating wealth nor does he intent to raise taxes on the middle class. Lie, lies and distortions of reality is not the qualities we look for in the leaders we sent to Washington. Maybe they do in Alaska?

The statements from McCain ads about Palin that are more telling than the pet-names Rogue Diva and Whack-Job was the statement that she has the trust of nobody in the campaign and "her family." Wow, that's pretty rough-talk. Her own family doesn't trust her?

“But I also know this. I know that the size of our challenges have outgrown the smallness of our politics. I believe that Democrats and Republicans and Americans of every political stripe are hungry for new ideas, new leadership, and a new kind of politics — one that favors common sense over ideology; one that focuses on those values and ideals we hold in common as Americans.

“Most of all, I believe in your ability to make change happen. I know that the American people are a decent, generous people who are willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations. And I am convinced that when we come together, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists, or the most vicious political attacks, or the full force of a status quo in Washington that wants to keep things just the way they are.”

- Barack Obama. October 27, 2008

So what? Did you say SO WHAT!

A lot of people like to assume that businessmen and self-starter entrepreneurs are Republicans and they support McCain. Not so. Absolutely no so. This group is a political PAC of businessmen I know who are progressive forward thinking citizens and strong supporters of Barack Obama.

Even before Obama came onto the national scene, this group of proven leaders in the business sector were deeply troubled with the direction of the country and the arrogance of power that Bush, Cheney and the Republicans used their office toward bad ends.

Opie and Andy

Ron Howard, Andy Griffith and the Fonz.

“Government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves: protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.”

- Barack Obama, August 29th, 2008