We went to the showing of the top 13 films from the Albuquerque 48 Hour Film Festival in the historic Kimo Theater on old Route 66 downtown. The participating teams get topics and then have 48 hours to write, cast, film, and complete final production of their movies. The common elements in each movie were a map, the phrase “You’re so smart!” and the name Roman Rodriguez. The atmosphere was festive and the films were very well done and enjoyable to watch. I hadn’t been in the Kimo in a very long time. It’s a great theater with its glowing skulls and depictions of Anasazi symbols.
I dropped my car off the get the tires replaced at the Downtown Goodyear garage, and passed by the Anasazi Building on my walk back to the office. They are making progress on it as you can see from the first photo taken yesterday and the second photo taken in May of last year. The Sandias had waves of clouds crashing over them this morning. I took the panorama across from the Balloon Museum and Laurie took the last photo from our property about the same time.
After I dropped Laurie off to sing in the choir at the early service, I went over to UNM and photographed the ducks and the architecture. The clouds were building up over the Sandias on my way home, so I stopped at the jetti sculpture on Coors and got the shots of the Sandias, clouds and sculpture.
I drove through north Corrales and all access to the river and bosque are closed. People say we are in a drought, but really we are experiencing what is more normal for arid New Mexico. So if the bosque and state parks and wilderness areas are only going to be open when we have above normal rainfall, New Mexico may end up being closed for longer than most of us will live. Rosencrantz was hanging out in the bamboo looking smart, and René was having a bad hair day after I gave him a shower.
We spent our last day in Paris getting ready to leave — checking in for the flight, cleaning the apartment, preparing food and packing. We went out for a walk in the Tuileries got our last look at the Louvre in the late afternoon sunlight, and I took random photos in the Tuileries and on the street walking back to the apartment. We are leaving for the airport at 6:30 this morning.
The rain started falling during the night and continued all day yesterday. Our museum pass had run out, so we planned to go to some of the sites that were not on the pass, but we didn’t want to walk to them in the rain. There’s the metro, but then Laurie got the idea to take the Batobus which is run by one of many companies that run tourist boats on the Seine. The batobus’ route runs from the Eiffel tower to the National History Museum and Gardens with six stops in-between. Once you buy a pass you can get on and off the boat as much as you want throughout the day. We got on the boat at noon, got off at the National History Museum (flowers and frog photos are from the garden) and Grand Palias (the last Crystal Palace built in 1900 before wide-use of electricity made the architectural style obsolete), and then we rode the boat for a couple of laps, because the views of the monuments from the middle of the Seine are unique and were magical in the misty air and rain. We got off the boat and headed home about 8:00 pm. One person told us the Seine was 2 meters above normal — the current ran fast and the water was rough, so the ride was exciting at times. There are a lot of interesting boats on and along the Seine — many different types of tour boats, including large restaurant boats. Many barges make their way up the Seine, often sitting very low in the water as they move their loads up river; and many boats of various sizes and styles that people live in are moored along the river . The many bridges that cross the Seine looked like a labyrinth through my telephoto lens; the Eiffel tower was lacy in the misty rain, and the Palace of Justice and Notre Dam looked particularly medieval under the gray sky.
One project of Henry IV was to extend the Louvre along the right bank of the Seine and join the Louvre to the Palais des Tuileries (the Palais des Tuileries was destroyed in the upheaval of the Paris Commune in 1871). The resulting addition was more than a quarter mile long and 100 feet wide making it the longest edifice in the world at the time. After the addition was completed Henry invited artists to live and work in the spaces on the lower floor, a tradition that continued for 200 years until Napoleon III put a stop to it. Today King Henry’s addition is part of the Denon Wing that houses a lot of the permanent collection, including the Mona Lisa. We made another trip to the Louvre yesterday afternoon, and the photos today include interiors, staircases, ceilings and selections of artwork from the French master’s in the Sully Wing (oldest remaining section of the Louvre) and the “Grand Format” paintings in the Denon Wing. I also included photos of two more installations by Michelangelo Pistoletto near the “Grand Format” paintings. The first one (2nd photo) shows Laurie and I in the mirrors that represent the Law (Judaism) in an installation that represents the four major world religions. The second one (4th photo) shows the world religion installation from its outside, and the third Pistoletto is the last photo in the series.
Off Center & Not Even 