chocolate covered churros

i couldn't sleep through the night last night, but i turned away from cnn international to bbc world. (they sound smarter). rough night's sleep and general circadian disorientation what with dissertation, end of the semester, jet lag, and all. at any rate, i way way overslept and didn't go to the conference today. aside from isa's panel, featuring her unwritten paper that i have probably already heard before, there were fewer things on today's program that enticed. so i slumbered. and then i took the bus to the museums. first i went along to the prado and then to reina sofia.

at the prado, there were so many little baby jesuses and a mess of dead ones too that i wish both ricky bobby and elias childress were with me. i never in life, quite imagined that i would see the garden of earthly delights in person. i didn't know that there were black people in that garden. i swear i never saw them when i studied that as an undergrad. thomas struth's massive photographs were interwoven within the exhibitions and i wanted joan or liza or julia about what gives in contemporary museology. it's all so fred wilson and so meta. anyway, it was wonderful. i was a little overwhelmed with all the pre-19th century stuff (...luckily i had a plate of squid in its own ink over three rices) to fortify me. but el greco! and durer, caravaggio, goya, and a mess of others. i simply cannot believe some of what i saw before me -- un-reproduced, in their original frames in some cases. luckily, i crept up on bosch at first and enjoyed a few private moments before the chamber was swollen with school trips of teens and their hormones.

after all those voluptuous nude women in oil, i toddled off to pay my respects to guernica.

now more than ever we need artists to make plain the ravages of war.

i may return to the reina sofia on sunday if possible because i didn't spend enough time in their permanent collection. but listen, i did spend enough time on the second floor to develop a new crush on julio gonzalez. (no known relation to alberto or juan. although i do love it when juan gonzalez and amy chat it up. except when they speak with howard zinn and noam chomsky). zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. i digress.

i spent a goodly amount of time among the contemporary art treasures on floor two and then, i watched some african immigrants transform the concrete plaza into a soccer pitch at dusk. and then, i took two buses back to my neighborhood. and then, importantly, i procured the aforementioned sweets and some savory vittles (empanadas con carne y queso) too plus a can of cerveza. yum.


in other news...
i finally understand why miss bird told me it would be good to gps all the buses in d.c. i get it now. at the major bus shelters here, that is, the ones at major nodes, there is an LED board that announces the anticipated arrival of the next bus in minutes.


better, steadier today even without the tripod.