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After leaving Berlin we spent a few days in Madrid where I took a lousy photo of Guernica. This is a famous painting by Picasso with a long political history that delves into how the horrors of war are viewed by outsiders. Fascinating to see how people react to this painting today.

If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and conclusions you have got I obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously. I make the painting for the painting. –Picasso

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Why do hotel rooms push environmental messaging? Not only the consumables that supposedly save the planet, but also the requests to reuse towels, and the soaps/shampoos that claim to be organic and responsibly-sourced? I wonder if all this low-level eco-noise is a subtle finger wagging. Since the hotel is careful with resources, guests should also be careful with resources. They should not blast the AC, leave the water running, steal towels, throw the TV out the window, etc., etc.

Posted on by mark

Don Quixote making his way through the Grand Via, the shopping district in Madrid. Sancho Panza looks like me, whenever I’m dragged to the mall.

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be! –Cervantes