Posts tagged spain
via "Spain's barefoot nuns put faith in YouTube to find new convent recruits," by Giles Tremlett, guardian.co.uk, 16 January 2009
This is a promotional video from a 400-year-old convent of the "Barefoot Carmelite" order in Ecija, Spain, near Seville. They were down to 11 nuns and had had no new novices join for three years, so they decided to try something drastic: YouTube. The video has generated lots of interest, and their first YouTube-inspired novice has just joined the order. I know I'm pretty far outside their target audience and so can't be expected to get the aesthetics of their video— which appears to depict convent life as taking place on another planet. A Kenny G. planet. With neon, Comic Sans typography. I suppose if you can get past all that and still want to join, that's a good sign you may have a vocation.
Nate: 
Jacob's Dream (detail), by José de Ribera, oil on canvas, Museo Nacional del Prado, :: via The Guardian
Madrid's Museo del Prado has made ultra-zoomable "gigapixel" scans of fourteen of their masterpeaces, including Velazquez's Las Meninas, Goya's Third of May, and Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, available through the Google Earth application. In truth it seems like a bit of clunky way to gain access (open Google Earth, zoom in on Madrid, find the museum), but once you're in you can zoom and pan across every crack and brushstroke. I loved this close-up of José de Ribera's surprisingly naturalistic 1639 depiction of Jacob's dream at Bethel, in which he saw the angels of God ascending and descending on what I always pictured as a sort of celestial shopping-mall escalator. But here we only see the face in repose.
Nate:
Calle de Fuencarral, Madrid, Spain, Google Street View
I'd never seen an urban playground set up like this one, in the heart of Madrid. There are more little rainbow-pickets down the street, interspersed with the more expected urban furniture—benches, bus stops, and cafe seating. I like how integrated and open it all is; usually you'd expect to see kids more sequestered.
Nate: