The MOST Glorious Art
On the way back to the hotel from the Vatican, I visited the Ara Pacis Museum where I saw a magnificent Roman relief sculpture monument, Ara Pacis Augustae. It’s a large rectangular marble box with relief sculptures on the outside and inside walls. This piece was created to celebrate Augustae’s victory to leading the peace in Gaul and Spain.
St. Peter’s church is again, OVERLY elaborated with extensive decorations including sculptures such as Michelangelo’s Pieta and fresco paintings. The church is absolutely stunning and looks as if over 100 artists were involved in the church design. I went to the top of the dome, and my goodness, climbing up the steps was just as arduous as climbing up the steps to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower last year or probably worse as the steps were really small, and the halls were very narrow. There is NO way that obese people could pass through this hall of steps. Even though it was a lot of steps to take, once I got up there, it was worth seeing the beautiful view of the city of Rome. I was able to see the beautiful mountains in the backdrop, and the lavishing green countryside.
The Vatican Museum has one of the most famous and magnificent sculpture piece, the Laoco?n and His Sons, created by Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus. It depicts great dynamic energy and drama as Laocoon and his sons are fighting to escape from the serpent.
[View with PicLens] 12►
I went to the Musei Vaticani and the St. Peter’s Church today where I saw Michelango’s magnificent fresco painting. As I was walking through the halls of the museum, my eyes stared at the ceilings nearly during my entire passage. These ceilings are filled with fresco paintings like Michelangelo’s fresco painting in the Sistine Chapel. They are filled with details of images from the Bible. Even though I am not religious, I can still appreciate these images because of the amazing techniques that the artists used. The use of coloring, the composition, and chiaroscuro are phenomenal. It’s unfortunate that fresco paintings don’t exist often today since they are beautiful. However, during that time, the Renaissance period and even during the Medieval too, extensive amount of art in church was important because the churches were trying to attract people to come to the services and practice their religion. In other words, the extensive decoration in the churches was propaganda. However, during the Reformation period, a period that took place during 16th century, after Renaissance period,Replica Purses, changed the idea of overly done decorations in churches slightly. In several countries, in particular in the northern Europe, many group of people became against the Catholic concept and lead to a new set of Christian movement called the Protestant. The Protestant argued for simple church designs, use only existed bible characters in the designs whereas the Catholics were constantly creating new “make-believe” bible characters. The Protestants became less religious than the Catholics. So, when you travel to Europe and visit some churches, you will understand why some churches are overly elaborated with decorations and why some others are plainly simple.
I am standing in a large well-known room and looking at the ceiling with an expected astonishment. My eyes gaze at the familiar images that I have seen in art history textbooks throughout my life. Two nude guys touching each other’s finger, a famous image called “The Creation of Adam,” and more and more and more beautiful images - “Adam and Eve,” “The Last Judgment,” and the “Syphilis.” These paintings were beautifully drawn and painted with chiaroscuro. I could see the muscles of the people – the puffiness in the chest and the arms. The folds of the fabric of people’s clothes were realistically rendered in three-dimensional. This man who did this massive project was an outrageously gifted artist. I was looking at Michelangelo’s well-known painting at the Sistine Chapel.
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Gobbling up too much food…
Anyways, I need to get to bed.? So, I’ll post more details tomorrow about today and my train ride.
Today was some kind of a random holiday in Italy.? I will ask Jodi again what it was as I forgot and will post it as soon as I can.
Anyways, Jodi, her family,Replica Purses, and I went up to the mountains and had an ENORMOUS lunch with her friends.? I had Bolognia Pasta, sausage, tiramasu, some kind of cake that had cream inside it, and cheese with jam.? They were all absolutely distustingly delicious.? While I’ve always been a big fan of tiramisu as I love anything that is CREAMY, I’ve never tasted a tiramisu that is absolutely rich.? It’s definitely a no surprise that my tasting a tiramisu in Italy was even richer than what I’ve tasted in US as tiramasu is originated from Italy.
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Time To Go
So it’s past 8, my flight back to Washington departs in less than 12 hours, I just got home and I have yet to start packing, there’s presents that still need to wrapped, emails that still need to be sent, my eyes are burning from the acidic stench that my roommates have concocted in the kitchen and which is permeating throughout the entire apartment (Seriously, what the fuck did they cook their dinner with tonight, battery acid? Oh wait a minute… now they’re now yelling at each other. Again.), I’m typing on my eMac which just had a massive kernel panic from out of no where and is now acting funny, and best of all, my iBook is now dead, which totally sucks because it was going to be my main mode of entertainment while back home. All in all, a fitting end to an extremely shitty day.
Yes, I know there are plenty of awesome things about this place (and to be totally frank, I’ve managed to make quite a nice little niche for myself), but there’s also plenty of inexcusably shitty things that I’m tired of dealing with on a daily basis, and I can no longer buy into the whole “that’s what you get when you live in the greatest city on earth” nonsense.
But otherwise, it’s been hell, especially these past few weeks, and tonight’s series of disasters is the icing on the cake, almost acting as one final reminder of why I have to get the hell out of town. I really feel akward saying this, especially in public, but the thing is, and for reasons far too numerous to even get into at this point, I’m pretty much sick of New York City. I guess you could say that the novelty of being here wore out a long time ago, and I often wonder sometimes why the hell I’m still here.
And since I will be without a computer, and therfore have extremely limited access to the web, this will probably be the last entry of the year. Not the best note to end things on, I know. Not only was I hoping to chronicle the happenings back home (as spartan as I expect them to be), I also wanted to touch upon this past year on a personal level, which by all accounts, has been pretty incredible. There’s just so much going on, a lot of it really great,Replica Purses, though it’s now to the point that it’s almost overwhelming.
This is Matt signing out.
Oh, and please enjoy this card I whipped up for the occasion. It’s actually from two years ago; I didn’t have time to do a new one this year. Sorry.
Actually, the day has had a few bright spots, such as how friends and coworkers have been nice enough to pass along DVDs chock full of goodness (including the Trailer Park Boys Christmas Special, which I didn’t even know existed till today) since they all know how oppressively bored I’ll be back on the west coast… though now I can’t watch most of it due to the lack of a computer. I also got some primo games in Chinatown, like Bubble Bobble Old & New for the GBA and Space Station Silicon Valley for the N64. I’ve been wanting to sink my teeth into a DMA game without GTA’s shooting hookers in the face nonsense (I was going to get Cosmic Race for the sake of novelty, but in the end, I have better things to do with my $25). Plus, on the GAF, I managed to make the president of Working Designs think I was pedophile.
Then again, I get this way at the end of every year. Which is why, despite the fact that I hate the idea of going back home (also for a variety of reasons which I won’t go into right now, especially since some is rather personal), I still appreciate the chance to get away, at least for a short while. Though the real problem is, my tolerance for all the bullshit in NYC seems to lessen with each passing year.
Which is why, I really need a vacation, now more than ever, though I could really do without having to humor my parents and avoiding awkward situations with folks I went to high school with. Oh well.
Oh, and real quick, what’s my new year’s resolution? I have two actually: to finally do some comics this year and to stop buying role playing video games. Also, what’s my personal game of the year? Tough call, but I’d have to say, in the end, Katamari Damacy. No other game played, looked, sounded, or felt as good. Period. Though Metal Gear Solid 3 is a pretty close second.
Anyway, I really hope everyone has a great holiday! I better sign off, there’s still plenty to do…
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Unreleased
(Subscribers receive a link to download a high-quality 320 kbps mp3 of this track.)
OL – guitars
Jon Gagan – upright Bass, synthesizer + piano (listen for the unison between upright bass and piano about two thirds into the piece)
Davo Bryant – kick drum + dumbek
Mark Clark – percussion effects
Osamu Kitajima – koto
This is a unreleased and unnamed bossa from 1993. It was recorded during the sessions for The Hours Between Night + Day in Santa Barbara, California. I have no notes from the sessions,Replica Purses, but it sounds like the musicians were:
Here is an example of the music available at Ottmar-Friends:
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O’DonnellWeb – Merriment and Amusements from a Fr
Kos got some space on Cato.org to make the argument that the Democratic party should be the new home for libertarian minded folks. I’ll grant him that the Republican party has failed miserably at governing the country. What he fails to convince me of is that the Democratic party would be any better at it. A few renegades out West does not constitute a change in the Democratic party. A split government is the safest option. I want to see the legislative and executive branches split between the two parties. It doesn’t really matter who runs what,Replica Purses, as long as the built in tension forces either inaction,Replica Handbags, or reasonable compromises.
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