Today we wandered to a couple of Gaudi places. We went to Casa Batilo, but at 21euro apiece, we didn't pursue the indoor tour. Still, just looking at the outside was an exercise in realizing just how sucky most buildings are, and how much better Gaudi made them. He designed so much of Barcelona that his work is a major part of living here.
Now let's be honest. I don't care about buildings, really. I live in a town whose principal architecture is the strip mall, punctuated by lunchbox houses, of which I live in one. And I kind of don't care, although I do always like to look at the older neighborhoods and see how the people have tried to put their mark on the clone-zone houses after a few decades. Homeowners associations kind of kill the creativity in newer neighborhoods, but even those weird fascists represent a form of evolution.
Anyway, Gaudi is something totally different, and here's why I think he is so awesome: first, a suburbanite plebe like myself can recognize that this architecture is unique, completely separate from the way anyone else built anything. If I can recognize it, that's saying something. I wish there was something, anything I could do that was really unique, but the only talent I really have is for being me. I'm okay with that, but building fabulous structures would be an added bonus.
Second, Gaudi's work is pretty. I mean, I actually like looking at it. Other famous dudes have made famous buildings and I've thought, "Ew." Especially all those uber-modern people whose stuff is all clean and perfectly symmetric and built for people who don't have any possessions or children or pets -- I'm done looking at that stuff. But I could sit and stare at the structures Gaudi built. I don't get bored, which is major for me. I *always* get bored, but not here.
Third, Gaudi likes nature, and natural surfaces and shapes and structures. He makes his buildings like living things, and maybe they work because the shapes are part of the world I understand. I don't understand clean lines and uncluttered space.
And finally, most importantly, I think I could live in a Gaudi structure with Gaudi furniture. Okay, I might not necessarily need a chapel in my apartment, but if he designed it, maybe. The work actually is -- and jeez, I never thought I would use this trite, irritating word -- uplifting. It's fun, it's funky, it's totally outside the lines, but it is like a big celebration: how can we make this ordinary thing more interesting?
Here's one of the coolest things they had in the La Pedrera exhibits: a before and after maquette of Casa Batilo. It was incredible. The building was a block of rectangles, a thoroughly ordinary apartment building. It was nice enough. But now, with a reimagining by Gaudi, the thing is AWESOME. It's awesomeness wrapped in funky wrapped in cool, with a boatload of wacky on top. Color everywhere, shapes everywhere, totally detonated joy.
I don't know why I am all obsessed with this guy, but it is certainly better than being obsessed with Spanish soccer. Spain got a real kick in the nethers from the Netherlands tonight. People all over town had advertised, on cafe chalkboards and such, the game being watched on the cafe tv or the bar's big-screen or whatever. I would be nervous about showing my face near one of those places right now, lest my poor Spanish sound in any way Dutch-accented. Cassie suggested we stay indoors all day tomorrow, so as to avoid hungover, grumpy Spaniards. She might be on to something.
Today's other amusement was going into the Tiger Store for the first time since my friend Andy recommended it. What a blast. Andy described it as "ikea meets the dollar store," and there can be no more perfect description. It's another great example of design and arrangement of objects, because I don't need a damn thing from that store, yet I considered buying several things anyway, just because I was having fun.
Which is kind of a good description of Barcelona as a whole. I've never cared about Spain or Barcelona or cities or traveling much at all, but something about the combination of fun, function, beauty and accessibility makes this city phenomenal. I've never been anywhere like it.
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