Saturday, September 02, 2006

Im in paris

...and already missing the french alps. Granted, paris is wonderful. I tried to go into the madeline where saint-saens played the organ, but no...closed. I dont like saint-saens that much anyway. I've discovered that St. Etienne and St. Eustache are my favorite churches in this city. Notre dame is FILLED with tourists while other, equally beautiful structures remain untouristy. Yesterday i spent most of the time in the Louvre, where i saw delecroix's portrait of chopin. I passed by the opera where there are golden busts of haydn, bach, mozart, meyerbeer and a whole lot of composers who i've never heard of. Old and forgotten opera composers, i assume. When i was in grenoble i saw a large bronze statue of Berlioz. They seem to put these men on rather lofty pedistals. Or they did, probably not anymore... which is probably for the best. I love the music of bach, berlioz and others but im not a fan of western cultures habit of deifying musicians and artists. Sure they did great work, but the man who developed a faster-growing speicies of rice, he saved untold numbers from starvation. The engineers of the world who developed and built our actual infrastructure, our sewers and our bridges. These people are more worthy of praise in my opinion. Sure art humanizes- but there are practicalities that are overlooked here, always overlooked. How many famous engineers can you name? how many famous inventors? I dont like deifying on either side, im just saying that there is no injustice in the lower cultural standing of these composers. Dont get me started on pop-culture. Why celbrities make more money than nurses baffles me.

am i going to make enemies this way?

sorry no pictures, im using a different computer, one currently without pictures.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i've enjoyed reading your travel experiences