Legal Graffiti in Germany

I just read the most amazing article linked from twitter. Graffiti is now legal in Germany, and they are offering courses for seniors to take up street art.


Seniors with Spray Cans, click:
here 

Berlin, Hamburg and Munich are three of the hotspots for graffiti art. 

Quote from the article:

"Seniors who take part in graffiti courses can benefit emotionally and physically, says Anders, though she cautions that they must also possess a certain level of fitness to start. The social setting of group courses can benefit retirees who lack daily personal contact through the workplace or those who have lost a partner, for instance. But the benefits don't end there.

Anders explains that there also physical advantages. "Graffiti is an activity that requires a lot of movement, like bending and stretching," she says. "It can also potentially strengthen hand-eye coordination." (end quote)

Legal graffiti ... what's next, right?

Another great link from Dusseldorf


 http://akheilshah.com/graffiti-art-in-dusseldorf-germany/


Would love your comments. Just log in to blogger (easy if you have a google account) and let me know what you think!

Barcelona: so crowded but so wonderful

Crowd gathered around live gargoyle on La Rambla

Tourists taking photos of live gargoyle on La Rambla

Mopeds on La Rambla

Barcelona is crowded. It is just a fact, and honestly, I don't really like crowded places or big cities ... but I love Barcelona. It may be a fairly good sized city but it doesn't feel big. Maybe that is because my concept of Barcelona encompasses the area of Las Ramblas, the different La Rambla as I make my way from Placa Catalunya down to the sea. It does really feel crowded though. As a person who doesn't like crowds at all, I have picked up a few tips on how to do Barcelona without the crowds.

Tip 1. Go early, the earlier the better. The only problem I ran into in May was leaving my hotel so early that nothing was open and I encountered a drunk on the street. Now he didn't speak to me. In fact, I couldn't even see him. I only heard him, bellowing out a very loud and obnoxious song at 7am. Then I heard the sirens and 4 or 5 police cars surrounded the corner where the objectionable noise was coming from. I assume he was the lump I could see from a safe distance two blocks away. The police in Barcelona are ever present and very comforting. They patrol the streets and don't put up with a drunk singing and cursing very loudly early in the morning. They dealt with the problem and one of the policemen even gave me a smile and a tip of the cap as they walked by me later.

Waterfront boats in Port Vell, Barcelona

Tip 2. Go down to the waterfront and walk around. Down by the Columbus Monument at the end of La Rambla, the roads widen and there are tons of walking paths. You can walk forever. The Columbus Monument is also worth some time to see. It is wonderful  If you would like additional information about the Columbus Monument, click here.  One day, I walked for three or four hours from the Columbus Monument to Port Vell and never made it to my destination, which was the cable car that goes to Montjuic. Shame really as I really wanted to visit the Catalan museum on Montjuic. But I walked for hours and ran out of steam. Oh well, it gives me a reason to go back!

Please click here for additional info on Port Vell. There are some great restaurants with a fabulous view.

Crowds by the Columbus Monument

Crowds thin out a bit by Port Vell

Early morning on La Rambla

My favorite dog on his morning walk along La Rambla

Tip 3. Just have fun. Barcelona is one of the funnest places on earth. There are just so many whimsical, wonderful things to see and do. Here are some little known and fun facts about Barcelona. Click here to check out!

Update on Amy Winehouse's death

Apologies for digressing from my travel posts, I feel a burning desire to post on the death of Amy Winehouse one more time. Return to travel mid-week, I promise.

RIP, Amy ...

While in Miami this week, I picked up both Frank and Back to Black. I have to admit I am partial to Back to Black. It reminded me of the hours I spent drinking wine, smoking cigarettes and singing to The Supremes back in the late 70s with my best friend, Kathy. God rest your soul, Kathy. 

She was shot to death by her husband in 1984. I had moved to Florida by then. She was the best friend I ever had and I wrote an unfinished mystery novel, pulling my pain from the days around her death. Pain I still carry. 

Maybe that is why the death of Amy Winehouse hit me so hard. Or maybe it is due to my addiction problems or my husband's. I don't know. I became a recovering alcoholic at the age of 31. Maybe it was the struggles with codependency while I watched my husband struggle with his addiction for 8 years of our marriage. I truly do know the pain. Sometimes I was crazier than he was while I watched on in helplessness. The only thing that finally worked was locking him out, refusing to see him and walking away. Somehow with God's grace, he found his way. 

The best article I have found on Amy is from Rabbi Shais Taub. Thank you, Rabbi, for your profound words. They do bring me peace. 

Rabbi Shais Taub's article: Was the World Powerless to Stop Amy Winehouse?

I always remember, "but for the grace of God, there go I."

A tribute to Amy Winehouse

I admit I never even knew who Amy Winehouse was when she was alive. How sad for me. But with all the publicity of her death, I went back and listened to Rehab and Back to Black and other songs and became enraptured with her music. She was an incredible singer with an amazing voice who sang from her soul. Her voice was bold, in your face, raw, and painful. And the photos of her from slim to emaciated, from confident and smiling to tense and afraid to the final video of her last concert breaks my heart. She was a young woman who had not found a way out of her addictions and time ran out before she had a plan. 

I was also intrigued and slightly disgusted by all her tattoos, an art quite like graffiti - placing images where they don't belong (in my puritanical mind.) So this post is a tribute to Amy Winehouse and her tattoos. 

I found a website that sells temporary tattoos of all the ones that Amy had.

http://www.tattoofashion.com/acatalog/Amy_Winehouse.html 

They have a combo pack of her most prominent tattoos.
1. Amy's Girl
2. Daddy's Horseshoe
3. Cynthia
4. Fan Girl
5. Lightening Bolt
6. Love Hearts
7. Feather
8. Never Clip My Wings
9. Hello Sailor
10. Blakes


Online, I found a tattoo shop in Lancashire, UK that specializes in tattoo graffiti. So now I am learning about another type of graffiti after trying to come to grips with the kind on the wall. Now there is graffiti of the body as well. 

http://www.skingraffititattoos.co.uk/

Last night I dreamed that I had tattoos on both arms with my name wrapped around my forearm in a black script like graffiti. In my dream, I had fallen asleep and woken up with the tattoos and was frantic to have them removed but couldn't figure out how. This is a dream worth interpreting.

Some info on dream interpretations ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_interpretation

In conclusion, I would like to express my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Amy Winehouse. Having been around addiction for a good part of my life, I really feel for those that remain behind. Some people just never get it before it is too late. Her story reminds me of another great singer, Billie Holiday. She has always been my favorite.


Some info on Billie ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday

All the publicity focused on what Amy did, instead of why she did it. She was not comfortable in this world and I hope she can find peace in the next. Hopefully she will be remembered around the world not for how she lived, but the gifts she left us here on Earth. 

http://www.amywinehouse.com/ 

and 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/07/amy-winehouse-an-appreciation.html 

Added July 30th .....
great article from Russell Brand on Amy
http://www.russellbrand.tv/2011/07/for-amy/

Experimenting: my feet are made for walking

The photo of my two feet was taken in Vejer de la Frontera, Spain. I doubled it in Picasa 3 and put it side by side as a background for my blog title.

I also changed the background color so it was more readable with the dark letters.

The 55 Year Old Question: Finding my Spirituality

Nunnery with a Mini-Cooper in front near Vigo, Spain

Church in Barfleur, France

I have had an ambivalent relationship with the Catholic Church for a long time. As an 8 year old, I collected saint statues, read missionary magazines, sent money to the lepers and wanted to become a nun when I grew up. By the time I was 14; I drank beer, had kissed a boy and wore eye makeup. My priorities had changed.   

You probably are thinking why should you give a rat's patooty what I think of the Church? But in reality, it is the main focus of this blog post, so listen up. Hahaha  It has to do with my bad relationship with the saints and Jesus on the cross and the Virgin Mary. I sit here in Mexico listening to a priest who reminds me more of a clown than a religious figure, and I understand nothing he is talking about. Neither does my husband who is a native speaker of Spanish, but this priest is from Spain. I'm not sure if it is his accent or the cheap microphone, but all I've understood so far is something about tacos, frijoles and tortillas.

 I believe in God, the God of my understanding that has nothing to do with Jesus, Mary, Joseph or any of the Saints, and yet I love Churches. Can't get enough of them and they have to be Catholic. The Cathedral in Canterbury, the Church of England, left me flat. Had to escape the Cathedral grounds where I spent the night and find solace in the Catholic Church down the street.  Yet here I sit, in a Catholic Church in Cozumel preparing for my role as Godparent to my niece and nephew (my husband's sister's children) and I feel resentful.  My husband and I will be Godparents but as single people, not as a married couple, because we weren't married in the Catholic Church and that upsets me.

I just got back from a magnificent cruise where I visited the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela and the two Cathedrals of Cadiz. I passed a handful of Churches in Brussels, Cadiz and Barfleur and a nunnery near Vigo, Spain. What is it about me that loves the architecture and the ambiance of Churches, but not the things they teach? That is the 55 year old question (my age.)

Church in the countryside of Normandy

Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela

Grand Place, Brussels

Perhaps it has to do with my rejection of the Church at a young age and the finding of my spirituality many years later. I am not religious but I am a spiritual person. For now, wish me luck. Reciting a prayer in Spanish and not fumbling my role will be all I ask for on Saturday.  

Update .... Saturday, July 2nd, 2011
The First Communion went beautifully. Jesus and MariJose did great. (Note that with their two names, you get the Sacred Family .... Jesus, Mary and Joseph.) The ceremony was so moving. There was the typical total disorganization, but everything is taken in stride here where I now live. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law even came in from Merida to celebrate with us. Even though it included a lot of things I don't believe in, I took what I liked and ignored the rest. Here are a few shots from the First Communion. 

MariJose, Luh, Jesus & Moises

Mari and her older sister Yessin

And in case you are wondering, it does not suck to live in Cozumel! Here is what a typical Sunday is for my husband and me when we drive around the island.

Beach in Cozumel on east side

Out the car window on the other side of Cozumel

first blog

Sarah & Liam

This is so scary, my first post in my first blog. Being of the baby boomer generation, I was comfortable with computers when they were IBM clones with PC DOS. My first computer, purchased through my professor at Florida Atlantic University, had Lotus 1-2-3 and Word Perfect and I blew the thing up in the first month of purchase in 1982. Luckily the computer came from the guy who built them for the university and also could fix them, so he had to reinstall my operating system. Back then before windows (the dinosaur age, I know) a basic knowledge of programming was helpful to use a computer. I was 27 years old and thought I had the world figured out. Little did I know that 28 years later, I would be grappling with setting up a blog about my travels and finding it oh so difficult. I am taking an online blog class to figure this out. (Thanks, Zora. Half of what you tell us seems like Greek to me - how fitting.) It will be the first computer class I have ever taken and I have been using personal computers half my life. (Wow, I just figured that out.)


I just took a trip from Barcelona to Dover for 10 days and it was amazing. With all the architectural gems I love finding along the way, I have decided to call my blog "Gargoyles & Graffiti," as today graffiti (which I hate but am trying to learn to love as it is everywhere) is as much a part of architecture as the gargoyles and decorative railings that thrill me. The photo above is of my niece and her beau, whom I met in Canterbury at the end of my trip.