(no subject)
And if I had a nickel, for every damn dime,
I'd have half the time.
2 Wednesdays ago I went to La Défense to go shopping and look around the business district. It's the one place in Paris that almost looks like a huge American city, with skyscrapers, etc... Actually, the architecture there is very awesome. Very modern, very spacey, with modern art everywhere. It's a very cool place. That's what I love about Paris - that it can be ultra modern yet have so much history at the same time. Although that's the only modernish part of Paris - everywhere else is being preserved and all. However, I think that cities should be able to strike a balance between preservation and advancement, stagnation and the loss of what made that city what it is today.
Thursday, Père Lachaise, the cemetary. Saw Jim Morrison's grave, as well as a big group of American kids, so I made friends. That night I met up with 3 guys from Texas that a hithhiking across Europe. Went to the Eiffel Tower, all the way to the top. The view is magnificent, and it's such a trip to be so high up, outside, with the wind blowing, etc... On the second stage, you can look up too the top and it will make you dizzy. In any case, we got down, went to their hostel and hung out. Subsequently, I missed the last metro and had to walk home. It took me about an hour of walking rather quickly, because, umm I was kind of fucking scared. It's 2 in the morning, in Paris, and I have a vague idea of how to get home. I took a wrong turn at Porte de St. Cloud and ended up in the wrong suburb. I found the Seine and followed it all the way back to the apartment. Scary.
Vincent and I walked all the way from the Louvre to La Défense, subsequently hitting most of the touristy things in Paris. The Louvre, Jardin de Tuileries, L'Arc de Triomphe, Les Champs Elysees, Porte Maillot, La Défense, and La Grande Arche.
Week at the beach. Fun. Got some sun. The Atlantic Ocean is freezing compared to PCB. Low tide is fun, algae is gross, beach soccer cut the shit out of my feet. Spent a night with my uncle, who does the coolest art ever. He cuts out a stencil out of sheets of aluminum then uses a brush to color in the paper under the holes. My explanation doesn't give it justice, but it's cool as shit.
After visiting so many churches in France, I begin to wonder how it's purpose as a place of worship can be fulfilled when it's a tourist attraction. Can you really speak to God while tourists are taking pictures? Even when the tourists are gone, when you walk by the gift shop, can you really sit down and cross yourself and not feel like a fake? What about the 1500 years of history, and the carvings and the murals and all the work that went in building a worshipping place worthy of the splendor of God? Doesn't a tourist attraction take all that away? But really, what makes a church a church? What makes little churches in Amory that no one takes pictures of more or less of a holy place than Notre Dame? This, or course, begs the question about why churches are imortant (in the sense of a place to worship, a holy place, not a social thing), does it matter really...? In any case, this came up looking around Sacré Coeur and Notre Dame. Just seems cheap to me, like it's no longer a real church.
I'll be home soon. I'm shopping today. It's going to be hard to find space for all the extra stuff I've gotten.
I'd have half the time.
2 Wednesdays ago I went to La Défense to go shopping and look around the business district. It's the one place in Paris that almost looks like a huge American city, with skyscrapers, etc... Actually, the architecture there is very awesome. Very modern, very spacey, with modern art everywhere. It's a very cool place. That's what I love about Paris - that it can be ultra modern yet have so much history at the same time. Although that's the only modernish part of Paris - everywhere else is being preserved and all. However, I think that cities should be able to strike a balance between preservation and advancement, stagnation and the loss of what made that city what it is today.
Thursday, Père Lachaise, the cemetary. Saw Jim Morrison's grave, as well as a big group of American kids, so I made friends. That night I met up with 3 guys from Texas that a hithhiking across Europe. Went to the Eiffel Tower, all the way to the top. The view is magnificent, and it's such a trip to be so high up, outside, with the wind blowing, etc... On the second stage, you can look up too the top and it will make you dizzy. In any case, we got down, went to their hostel and hung out. Subsequently, I missed the last metro and had to walk home. It took me about an hour of walking rather quickly, because, umm I was kind of fucking scared. It's 2 in the morning, in Paris, and I have a vague idea of how to get home. I took a wrong turn at Porte de St. Cloud and ended up in the wrong suburb. I found the Seine and followed it all the way back to the apartment. Scary.
Vincent and I walked all the way from the Louvre to La Défense, subsequently hitting most of the touristy things in Paris. The Louvre, Jardin de Tuileries, L'Arc de Triomphe, Les Champs Elysees, Porte Maillot, La Défense, and La Grande Arche.
Week at the beach. Fun. Got some sun. The Atlantic Ocean is freezing compared to PCB. Low tide is fun, algae is gross, beach soccer cut the shit out of my feet. Spent a night with my uncle, who does the coolest art ever. He cuts out a stencil out of sheets of aluminum then uses a brush to color in the paper under the holes. My explanation doesn't give it justice, but it's cool as shit.
After visiting so many churches in France, I begin to wonder how it's purpose as a place of worship can be fulfilled when it's a tourist attraction. Can you really speak to God while tourists are taking pictures? Even when the tourists are gone, when you walk by the gift shop, can you really sit down and cross yourself and not feel like a fake? What about the 1500 years of history, and the carvings and the murals and all the work that went in building a worshipping place worthy of the splendor of God? Doesn't a tourist attraction take all that away? But really, what makes a church a church? What makes little churches in Amory that no one takes pictures of more or less of a holy place than Notre Dame? This, or course, begs the question about why churches are imortant (in the sense of a place to worship, a holy place, not a social thing), does it matter really...? In any case, this came up looking around Sacré Coeur and Notre Dame. Just seems cheap to me, like it's no longer a real church.
I'll be home soon. I'm shopping today. It's going to be hard to find space for all the extra stuff I've gotten.