One little pig

Roast suckling pig is really popular in Segovia. A new Spanish pork product! I was excited, even if the cuteness implied by the name inspired even more guilt than usual about my carnivory. But you know what? I wasn't that impressed. It was good, but it wasn't that good. Maybe I chose a bad restaurant, or maybe I just prefer my Spanish pork a little more mature. And cured. I dunno.

I like Esteban Vicente. He painted shapes in two or three colors on large canvases (think Rothko, slightly scaled down and with more circles). Stuff that might make me say "So what's the big deal?" if I didn't like it so much. But he's got great colors and makes it work. Unfortunately the Esteban Vicente museum in Segovia (he's from Segovia) was half full of a temporary exhibition of sculptures by this guy Gottlieb, a contemporary of Vicente's. I think they went to art school together in New York or something. I like sculpture. I even like some modern sculpture. But modern sculpture that looks like cardboard cutouts of arcs and stars glued together and painted yellow and black just doesn't do it for me. And it took up so much space that would have otherwise been filled with stuff that I like, dammit.

Segovia's other art musuem is one of those free bank-sponsored spaces that hosts temporary exhibits. Most Spanish cities have at least one. One of the exhibitions was this series of September 11-based paintings: before, during, after. Not what I was expecting to see. It was really well-done, though. You knew just what you were looking at, but it was abstract enough that you could look without recoiling. Maybe that's too easy for me to say, though, since I wasn't actually there for September 11.

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I've been to the Russian and now the Spanish version of Versailles, still not the real thing though. Felipe IV was a grandson of Louis XIV and ruler of Spain after his side won the War of the Spanish Succession. (Catalunya backed the other guy and paid for it.) He built a Versailles-like palace with fountains and gardens in La Granja, just outside of Segovia. The fountains weren't turned on, which was kind of a bummer but understandable given that they serve no real purpose and Spain is in a drought right now.

European royalty back then must have been a pretty good gig if you could get it. And didn't get beheaded or anything. They got to live in these fabulous palaces with great art and beautiful gardens. I guess European royalty today have it even better though: They still get to be rich and usually beautiful, don't really have to do anything, and are pretty safe from the guillotine. I don't remember wanting to be a princess when I was a little kid, but it sounds pretty nice right now.