The Friend Connection
January 15, 2008
January 08, 2008
January 05, 2008
33
Josep Subirachs is no doubt one of Spain's most brilliant and intriguing sculpture artists. Subirachs' magic square is nestled among on the bronze doors of the Passion façade, which depicts the last two days of Jesus' life, at La Sagrada Familia. (It can also be seen again behind the monumental sculpture "The Kiss of Betrayal.") The magic square solved reveals the age of Jesus at the time of the Passion.
Some 500 years earlier, Albrecht Dürer engraved a magic square as part of Melancholia 1, the first magic square seen in European art. In his fourth order magic square solved, Dürer reveals the number 34. While visiting the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, I found myself, unexpectedly, in front of this Dürer print. Even at his exhibit, I didn't come across any literature or hear any speculation on the significance of the number 34 for Dürer.
January 03, 2008
The Thermodynamics of Paella
I climbed four flights of stairs in the late morning from Las Ramblas to the Cook and Taste cooking studio where I would find three other Americans waiting on stools perched along the immaculately spacious teaching counter. It was already beginning to swelter in the studio, and so we were poured water from the tall plastic water bottle supplied by the kitchen.
We were then offered a lesson on how to cook our short and round rice grains that were characteristic of the country. The printed out menu were we presented gave a rough outline of our Basque chef's instructions. Some made detailed notes of the nuances, carefully timed hints, and warnings, while I fell into a trance induced by the bonding of the fish stock, rice, and saffron.
