Gary J. Kirkpatrick Art and Travel Blog
Expressionistic art
March 2017
Fallas is an annual festival famous for it’s wonderful statues, called “fallas,” magnificent mascletas (daytime thunderworks) and fireworks (at night), marching bands by the hundreds and the women who march with them in traditional silk dresses, as well as sound and light shows.
Here is my slide show of photos from Fallas 2017, set to Himno de Fallero, Hymm of the Fallero (member of the local organizations that make Fallas happen).
The first video is a small Fallas. The second is a huge one in front of city hall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E31mHvcuLQI
Fantastic! A major aspect of Fallas, Valencia, Spain’s annual festival. More to come!
March 2017
This slide show is from photos I took at the Science Museum exhibit in Valencia. There are thousands of these small sculptures (usually about a meter in height but sometimes higher). There are two that skewer Trump. Next year I expect many more, as most of these were begun well before the election. These amazing sculptures employ hundreds and hundreds of artists here. The large sculptures range up to 25 meters/80′ in height. They all display great imagination and ability! Enjoy!
Here are two videos of the amazing opening act of Fallas 2017. Fallas is Valencia’s annual festival, an Unesco heritage event. There are hundreds of sculptures 25 meters in height and thousands of smaller ones. There is a mascleta – fireworks without much light- every day at 2pm, and fireworks at night that are not just literally over the top. This one featured a first- 50 meter/ 165′ vertical firework trees. Amazing! The first of those below is mine and is just two minutes, the second is professionally done and is about 10 minutes.
Enjoy!
January 28, 2017
While in Philadelphia for my wife’s swearing in as an Italian citizen we visited the Philadelphia History Museum. They show a good video about the city’s founding. See link at bottom, first in a series.
Penn was not born a Quaker. In fact the earliest image we have of him is this painting, done during his service fighting a rebellion in Ireland. He is dressed in armor. He became a Quaker during his college years, a period of intense religious conflict.
His father was a close associate of King Charles II. When his father died, Charles still owed substantial sums to Penn’s father, which he settled by granting huge areas of land which Penn wanted to call Sylvania, the latin for ‘forest.’ The King insisted on adding “Penn” and thus came into being the name of the present day state. The grant included the area today known as Delaware.
The new proprietor, then probably the world’s largest individual landowner, first landed in America in 1682, afterwards traveling up the Delaware river to found Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. To attract Quakers he wrote a prospectus that brought in some 250 well to do Quakers. He eventually distributed it in Europe, attracting Hugenots, Mennonites, Amish, Lutherans, and Jews. He limited his own power as leader, a notable innovation, as was open discourse, akin to a Quaker meeting. Prisons were workshops designed to teach rather than punish. Swearing, lying, and drunkenness were forbidden as well as “idle amusements” such as stage plays, gambling, revels, masques, cock fighting and bear baiting.
He began advocating for a union of the colonies and his Frame for a Government contained many of the principles later to inspire the US Constitution. However, his attempts to establish a true City of Brotherly Love failed within two years. He had returned to England, never to return, and soon city leaders had reneged on the agreement Penn had forged with the Lagniappe.
Aranjuez is just south of Madrid and home to the summer palace. It was built in the second half of the 16th century under Phillip II. The town was originally inhabited only by the court but now is a small but vibrant town dominated by the tourists who visit the palace.
The main entrance is through a gate that leads onto a large courtyard.
Visitors would have entered through the doors to be confronted with a magnificent marble staircase and a ceiling high above. Nowadays visitors enter through a much smaller entrance in the Renaissance style wing. This style features a rather flat presentation, with pediments of various sorts adoring the windows. Here you can also see the Romanesque arches, rounded versus the sharper edges of the Gothic style.
The interior visitors access is limited to two floors. Once you climb the main staircase there perhaps a dozen rooms. Some are more what you might expect in terms of high and painted ceilings, luxurious furnishings, and rich colors. Others are intensely decorated with ceramics:
The palace sits on the conjunction of two rivers, the Tagus and Jarama. The rivers feed numerous fountains and maintain the extensive gardens.
Nearby is the Palcio de Sivela, built in 1860 and completely restored in 1988. Here is my impression of it
December 6, 2016
We set off on our journey from Valencia to Aranjuez at 7am on Sunday. The train route takes you west through massive fields of grapes dotted by the occasional and equally massive wine storage units jutting some 25 meters toward the clouds, stopping in a seemingly endless number of small towns along the way. Progress is slow and the it gets much slower as then we enter the National Park known as Torcas de Palancares, leaving the farms behind.
The ravines (barrancos) along the train route from Valencia to Aranjuez dig deeply into the rocky orange soil. Because it has been raining, itself a bit of a refreshing oddity, rivulets flow beneath the train as it slows to 20 kph as we inched across trestles, looking straight over the side at the rocky bottom far below. You don’t feel confident out there in the middle. They are going that slowly for good reason.
There are more people on the train – so vacant we practically got on a first name basis with the conductor- than live in the protected zone portion of the journey, judging by the total lack of dwellings and just the occasional dirt road. A large bird, a hawk or perhaps even an owl, swoops across the tracks, looking for an unwary rabbit. The boars are too big to lift so they are safe from his talons.
We rented a car Alcoi is a small town in the hills to the south of Valencia, Spain. It is best know for the rock paintings in La Sarga, just 10 kilometers away, that date to 10-6000 BCE. The Museo Archeologico there is small but very well done, especially the slide show from which these photos come. The slides show the paintings as you would see them if you walked in to the sites and then enhance them, which is what I show here, having taken these of the slide show. There is a paltry lack of these on the internet, so I am glad I took these:
I did not realize how complex the matter of Piedmont wine is when I became interested while in Turin (Torino in Italian). What intrigued me were the lightly bubbly wines we were getting at restaurants as a house wine. Red, not white, and not bubbly like champagne. I wanted to learn more about them so I could avoid them! Neither of us liked the ones we had and needed to know how to ask if they were going to serve one and identify them on the wine shelves. We bought a few by mistake.
I have found meager references to this style on the Internet but one thing that is helpful to know: they are referred to as ‘frizzante.’ Knowing that would have helped a lot.
A frizzante wine has between 1 and 2.5 times atmospheric pressure in the bottle, compared to 5-6 for a ‘spumante,’ such as the famous and not my favorite by any means Asti Spumante, from the town of Asti not too far from Torino. I have only found references to white frizzante wines- see below for their names. I have no idea what they are like, having never tried any of them.
But not too worry. The wines of this region are mostly red, and still (versus spumante or firzzante). There are many excellent ones.
Nebbiolo is considered the greatest wine from Piedmont. It’s a high tannin grape with red cherry- a very common flavor for red wine- tar – not so common and if too strong is a fault – and rose flavors with. There are some 13 DOC or DOCG (a higher certification) wines in the region made from this grape and they vary widely from one another in nose and tongue.
Barolo, made with Nebbiolo, is a DOCG southwest of Alba and not far from Torino. The only vineyards with this status are on the southern facing hills. The wine is a brick red with 13%+ alcohol. The wines are aged for at least 18 months in barrel and not for sale for at least 3 years. The Riserva is five. Best ones are 10 years old or more.
Other Nebbiolo Wines
Langhe Nebbiolo is a region the grows Barolo and Barbaresco without the classification status so they are less expensive. There are sub-regions:
Albugnano, Carema, Fara, Ghemme, Gattinara, Langhe Nebbiolo, Lessona, Nebbiolo d’Alba, Roero Rosso, Sizzano* *Nebbiolo is known as Spanna in these areas
Barbera is the most common red grape in Piedmont. They are dark and you should taste black cherry, anise, and herbs. It is less expensive than Barolo wines and goes with many foods. There are 2 DOCGs :Barbera d’Asti and Barbera del Monferrato Superiore. ‘Superiore’wines are aged for more time and have more alcohol.
Dolcetto are dark in color with flavors of blackberry, licorice and tar. The wines do not age well. They are tannic, which some producers are reducing, making the wine more fruty. There are 3 DOCGs Dogliani, Dolcetto di Ovada Superiore and Dolcetto di Diano d’Alba. ‘Superiore’wines test at 13%and are aged longer which reduces the tannic impact.
‘Gavi’ wines from Cortese are dry with lemon-like flavors with good aacidity.
Here’s a link to a site with a podcast:
https://www.dalluva.com/wine-journal/the-best-regional-wines-of-northern-italy/
Eric Asimov of “The Pour” in the New York Times:
Burlotto Langhe Freisa 2010, about $18: “The Piedmont region of northwestern Italy is best known for its nebbiolos and barberas, but oddball grapes like the freisa lurk there as well. Burlotto makes excellent Barolos, yet its 2010 Langhe freisa is fascinating. It’s reminiscent of nebbiolo with its combination of textural lightness, firm tannins and deep flavors, and if it is maybe more Naugahyde than leather, it’s perfect for burgers and sausages off the grill. It might even benefit from another year of aging.”
Produttori del Barbaresco Langhe Nebbiolo 2010, about $15: “Produttori del Barbaresco is one of the world’s finest wine co-ops, offering great values throughout its range. The Langhe nebbiolo is generally made from the grapes of young vines, or grapes that for one reason or another don’t go into the Barbarescos. This is a lighter gauge than a true Barbaresco but still offers all the classic leather, floral and red fruit flavors.”
These are very reasonable prices for New York City especially. I was just there and could not find anything decent from anywhere under $13 US, and that was a very good Zinfandel from California.