England-1, Paraguay-zip

I always said, "you haven't seen an African until you seen them eat sugar cane." And now I say, you haven't seen a Brit until you seem them screaming at the screen in a pub floating up to their eyeballs in pints singing Vindaloo. Thus, is the cultural joy of watching football fans do the football frenzy.

I forgot to mention the Tate Modern. So many big names (Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Sherman, Bacon, Kandinksy, Warhol, Degas, Guerilla Girls, Pollock, Beuys, Rauschenburger, Oldenburg, Duchamp, Lichtenstein, Braque, Munsch, Miro, Magritte, Koons, Dali) its just a bit ridiculous. Its fun to giggle at the craziness of some of it. A delight to see an artist's work "in the flesh" for the first time (a Koons) One cannot help being overwhelmed, but it is truly incredible to walk up to a work that one has long wanted to see.

"Unique Forms of Continuity in Space"
bronze
Umberto Boccioni

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=81179

Seriously, check it out (note above link). I loved this at first sight while studying Art History. And, before my overdosing eyes, by total surprise, there it stood in the Tate. Unbelievable. Your eyes move across it quickly, then slower and slower, always moving, searching over it. It was, however, smaller than I had hoped/ remembered. I wished it was bigger. Bigger than me so that this dynamic figure would dwarf me. Seem almost threatening in its powerful and forceful stance. Quite a sight.

And Braque, I always had a soft spot for his little, Cubist paintings. I've always imagined he crafted such small, dark paintings, because I've long thought of him as a poor, neglected underdog, lost in the shadow of his huge counterpart, Picasso. Never gaining Picasso's mega-fame. Just want to put him in my pocket.

But by far, my favorite sighting, for whom I have an even softer part, was Rothko. I will always be partial to the richness, density, and simplicity of colour fields--his in particular. They had one dim, quiet, meditative room dedicated to six of his paintings. All red--a favorite. And they are huge. At least 10 or 12' by 10 or 12'. Truly awesome. I am lame to communicate it. I just want to crawl up in them, and they would fit me. And it'd all be understood without words between me and everything.

What is art? It's that.