Rachel and I went to the Centre Pompidou today (the modern art museum). I enjoyed it, but I really have to say that 90% of modern art sucks and is really lame, although I always like a bigscreen TV displaying a Windows error message — but I don't think Bill Gates is some dadaist master I'm afraid.
Now, before you get angry at me for insulting Ms. Ono or whoever your favorite pretentious fool is, let me give the “credential” that I have an art school background and actually went there on a full scholarship as well. So I'm not (merely) some bitter-about-being-a-failed-artist-so-I-became-a-dictator-instead fellow.
My strong feeling about modern art, especially conceptual art, is that it's made primarily by people who desperately want to be artists, but don't really know how, don't really have anything to say, and don't really have the talent anyway… so you have people who are far better at “playing” the art world than actually producing anything of genuine value. I wonder sometimes if they even know how pathetic they are? Probably not, and that's the saddest part, the sense of self-importance.
But don't get me wrong — 10% of what was at the centre was brilliant.
The other thing that cracked me up were the patrons. The fact that people could scoff at and look down at Rachel and I over piercings and tattoos while watching some dude dressed in a pig costume fisting a giant tube of shit is extremely amusing. Yeah, I know you're only here so that you can pretend you're cultured and pretend that you understand art, but when you behave like that, you just prove that art to you is just another fashion trend — you don't get it yourself, and you only like what other people tell you to like (the commercial galleries), and then make the same tired old commentary…
It's only art if it changes your life, or better yet, destroys it and replaces it entirely with itself.
We took a nice looong walk around Paris today starting at our hotel in the Latin Quarter, up to the Louvre, down to the Eiffel Tower and back again. Paris so far is really nice, and we had the good luck (well, my good luck anyway, I don't think Rachel was quite as thrilled) to come across a wacky art school music performance (top centre photo). Well, time to rest the legs now…
So, the UK says that it's going to pull troops out of Iraq, and a few days later bombs go off across London… I'll spare you the conspiracy theories as to who would want to keep Brits scared and behind the war… We weren't sure if it was going to affect anything (we passed through London earlier today) but other than the occasional cop with a machinegun it seemed pretty business-as-usual.
Anyway, we're in Paris for the next few days, then off to Belgium (Liege) and on to Amsterdam after that. If you're around, drop us a line. We know our other destinations fairly well but this is our first time in Paris. Anyway, I'm going to try and build a BME update and get it posted, the connection here feels solid so I think I can successfully FTP a big file.
The view from our hotel room:
It kind of reminds me of Buenos Aires in some ways…
See y'all in prison France.
According to my logs, the Department of Homeland security and other government agencies spent today browsing BME. Some very unpleasant things are afoot. Unfortunately I can not talk about them at this time. Please consider supporting the Free Speech Coalition and the ACLU.
I have contacted some of you directly in cases where you are directly affected. If I have not contacted you, you are most likely not directly affected.
