xaxat

A plea from WordPress

xaxat — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:30:00 +0000

WordPress powers this blog and for that I am very thankful. Read what they have to say and take action. The whole post is here.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

We are not a small group. More than 60 million people use WordPress — it’s said to power about 15% of the web. We can make an impact, and you can be an agent of change. Go to Stop American Censorship for more information and a bunch of ways you can take action quickly, easily, and painlessly. The Senate votes in two weeks, and we need to help at least 41 more senators see reason before then. Please. Make your voice heard.

Gaudí at the Vatican

xaxat — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:35:51 +0000

I’m still working on a fix for the app but in the meantime, entertain yourselves with a little video from Rome.

With apologies

xaxat — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:39:54 +0000

If any buyer/ owner of the app should see this post, my humble apologies. The iOS 5 update has broken some of the functionality of the app. I did not know this because of my own oversight being too engaged with another project for the past month. Currently working on the necessary fix/ fixes. Thank you for your patience.

la Colonia

xaxat — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:59:20 +0000

Herewith a sample of images I took at la Colonia Güell in March. Things came up so I didn’t get to this year’s festa last weekend.
The first is the Casa Parroquial designed by Francesc Berenguer in 1917. It stands above Gaudí’s church and is the first Modernista building you see when you enter the village. The next is of a typical streetscape. Yes, the whole village is modernista.
The next 3 photos are of the Ca l’Ordal by Francesc Berenguer and Joan Rubió done in 1894. It ia a modernist interpretation of a three family farmhouse or masía which was the residence of three farming families, the Ordal, Cruañes and Gaudí, who cultivated the lands of the estate. These lands are still farmed and the nearest isn’t 100 meters from this building.
A few blocks up C/ de Aranyó is the Biblioteca Joaquin Folguera and C/ Ponent which leads from it to Plaça de Joan Güell. On this corner is an interesting semi-circular protrusion holding a fan staircase. It is constructed of flat tiles in much the same way Catalan domes are built. Worth a look.
More tomorrow.

Posted from Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Cataluña, Spain.

la Colonia Güell festa

xaxat — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 19:38:08 +0000

This coming weekend, 14, 15, and 16 October, l’Associació La Colònia Modernista is holding its 11th annual Festa del Modernisme de la Colònia Güell. They theatrically recreate street scenes from the life of the Colony of hundred years ago along with historical and cultural exhibits, a farmers market and a craft fair. Music, food and dance will abound.
For those interested in the Modernista buildings designed by Gaudí’s associates Francesc Berenguer and Joan Rubió i Bellver whose Ca l’Espinal is pictured below, many in the village will be open to the public this weekend.

Gaudí’s bench… or Jujol’s?

xaxat — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:55:46 +0000

The other day the Guardian posted an article entitled Gaudí may have used psychiatric hospital to test designs “Artist used Sant Boi hospital to trial prototypes for features in Park Güell and the Sagrada Familia, say researchers”. This was picked up by a few other places such as here, here, and here. (Not that that is content farming, mind you.)

The work is poorly executed, the researchers claim, because Gaudí’s workers were in fact patients. The bench at the hospital dates from 1912, while that at Park Güell was made in 1914. A further link with Gaudí is that his patron, Eusebi Güell, was closely associated with the management of the hospital and at one point provided one of his houses as an isolation ward during a cholera outbreak at the hospital.

Luckily they include many journalistic caveats. The reality is that

between 1911 in 1913, Gaudí entrusted (Josep M.) Jujol with the production of the circular medallions in the ceiling of the Hypostyle hall in Park Güell and the ceramic facing on the bench in the park. The medallions are veritable ‘objets trouve’ made from trencadis, mosaic created in this instance from shards of mirror cups and a porcelain doll. The monumental bench, which is often featured in tourist guidebooks, is decorated with a mosaic made of fragments of ceramic.

From the book Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí by William H. Robinson, Jordi Falgàs, Carmen Belén Lord, the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Jujol was also responsible for the trencadis on the facade of the Casa Battló, the wrought ironwork balconies of the Casa Milà, and many other aspects of Gaudí’s works from 1904 onwards. Not to mention his own buildings where he was the lead architect.

But back to the hospital in Sant Boi. Here is my conjecture. I would guess that Güell was talking to the director of the hospital and they wondered what the patients would do with trencadis in a similar situation to what was already being produced at Park Güell. The hospital is a little over a kilometer, a short walk, south of the crypt at la Colònia Güell where Gaudí, Jujol and others were still working. Jujol was only supervising, directing the tile workers at Park Güell and I bet he just explained what he was thinking to the patients and off they went.

So no, Gaudí was not testing designs. He already had complete faith in Jujol.

Thank you @Creativesuite

xaxat — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:08:17 +0000

In the great scheme of things, I still wonder where Twitter fits in. Of course I don’t spend much time wondering. At any rate, a few weeks ago after watching an online seminar from Adobe about how to use InDesign to create digital books, they asked the members of the audience to tweet about it. So I did … and they told me I had won a T-shirt. So here it is on a couple of stone finials on the 86 step staircase of the cathedral of Girona. from the bottom.

and at the top with the steeple of the church of Sant Narcis and the Pyrenees in the background.

Posted from Gerona, Cataluña, Spain.

Fiddling etc. on the roof

xaxat — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:56:39 +0000

‘Summer Nights’ concerts at La Pedrera are not to be missed. Visit Casa Milà in the evening starting at 8:30 p.m. and sit down on the famous roof for a jazz concert beginning at 9:30 p.m. A local report is here. amb una copa translates as ‘with a glass’.

Inexorable

xaxat — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 08:19:45 +0000

Before I can push an update to the app, let me place this here. The Colònia Güell admission fees have risen to 6 euros from 5 for adults and to 4,60€ from 3,50 for seniors and students. Hopefully that will help pay for a new web site.

Quite the modern cross. Gaudí used one of this design on top of the Portal Miralles and I think this one at Colònia Güell is a copy.

Weird trencadis coincidence

xaxat — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:29:17 +0000

While putting together a folder of my photographs of trencadis to make a slideshow for Youtube, I came across two of the same panel which had been taken 3 years and 4 months apart. One was shot in June, 2008 and the recent one this past February, quite unintentionally. While the one from ’08 shows the results of vandalism by people who seem to think that owning a piece of it is magic, the latest is complete after careful restoration. I’ve read that this is a continuous struggle for those who care for Park Güell.

Compare the two pictures and don’t side with those that think doing that is OK.