Friday, February 25, 2005

While driving back from Turagua I had to pay toll as I enter Caracas, surprisingly a cute girl was in the booth, more surprisingly she smiled at me! "Nice smile!" I said as I drove by, thinking the old charm is back, nice!... A few hours later I realized what had happened... I was wearing the nice BMW cap I got at the road show (as a present) and my bluetooth headset! Somehow having a blue led in your ear makes people smile, is that so bad? 10:46:05 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []

Driving a BMW at a Race Track The company I work for invest in the importer of BMWs for Venezuela, so I manage to snatch an invite to the BMW Road show. Three hours of racing BMWs and Minis in a real racetrack with instructors. We did Slalom, Skid pad, and lapping. Was I good at any of it? Probably not, but I had the time of my life. Here are some pictures and a movie, all taken with my Nokia 7610. Again, you need Quicktime to watch good movies. 10:42:39 PM Google It! What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []

A couple of movies from France I haven't publish, the first is of the Fountain by Nick de Saint Phalle outside the Pompidou Center, the other is of the kids taking a ride in the cups at Disneyland Paris and catching an Car Stunt show. Of course, you need Quicktime to watch good movies. 9:59:47 PM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []

Of course, in Paris a visit to the Louvre Museum is not only obligatory, but one of the highest possible pleasures in the whole wide word. Though, some complaint that the Louvre is a warehouse more than a museum, it is hard not to be left breathless by the wonderful paintings and sculptures Yes, it is a little sad, to see people ganging up on the monalisa, the "most famous brown picture in the world" as one caustic british commentator put it, snapping flash pictures like paparazzis in front of the latest movie hot body, while completely ignoring other important masterpieces like those of Raffaello or Caravaggio or Da Vinci himself  just to mentioned the ones nearby and from a related school and period. But it is easy to forget all that and just look for the other jewels, enjoy and learn about them, we went to the Louvre several times in this visit, and every time there was something beautiful that we hadn't look carefully enough the last time, I think you can go a thousand times and still find them, and that's what you should look for. In my case, in this trip, I was taken by the work of Giusseppe Arcimboldo after seeing the "Seasons" in the Louvre. Not only was Arcimboldo an outstanding, imaginative painter for its time, it was an inventor, an specialist costume maker and party designer. Here is a painting of his, not in the Louvre, in which a container of vegetables becomes a face. Here is a painting of his, not in the Louvre, in which a container of vegetables becomes a face. Here are the rest of the pictures from the Louvre. 7:57:26 AM  What do you think? ( Thoughts) Who linked? []

© Copyleft 2005 Alfredo Octavio.