Antoni Gaudi - Sagrada Familia

This also has Gaudi's influence and he was still working on it when he passed away in 1926. This church has been under construction since 1882 and is not expected to be finished for another 16 years at least...

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to officially consecrate the church and proclaim it as a Basilica on his visit to Barcelona in November of this year.

Antoni Gaudi - Casa Battlo

Probably Spain's greatest architect, his unique modernist style still awes today. Perhaps another modern day famous architect whose name also begins with a "G" knowingly borrowed much from Gaudi?

This is Casa Battlo, which Gaudi remodelled in 1904-1906. The modernistic middle class residence that Gaudi created for the Battlo family was greatly influenced by his interest in the shapes of the ocean and of life in the sea...

I have to admit that this is one of the most jaw-dropping buildings that I have ever been in.

More photos below...

Barcelona

My wife and I are fortunate to be off for Northern Spain for a little R&R this week...

Death of a Salesman

Such a sad play, really...

... and a truly great play.

Willy Loman is such a sad character. At once an everyman as well as a nobody. The veneer has worn off this old man and what lies underneath is not pretty to look at. His family has trouble coming to terms with the veneer-less Willy Loman and so does he.

A timeless tale that is about a country, man, family, and life's purpose. I'm impressed with how well this play actually holds up in our modern micro attention span society.

Harris Yulin gives an impeccable performance as Willy Loman and the whole cast deserved the standing ovation that they received.

Inception

I've been a fan of director/writer Christopher Nolan ever since "Memento."

This film comes with much hype and I dare to say... having just seen this... much of it is over-hype in my opinion.

Beautiful to look at (it seems that a good majority of the $160 million budget went into special effects) and somewhat interesting to think about afterwards (three levels of dream world, well, actually four...), at the end of the day the story didn't have an effective emotional core to really hold an interest.

Part of the problem lies in the dream landscape itself. If the audience knows that what they're watching is a "dream" then they effectively know that it's not real and subsequently can't invest themselves in the story.

There are quite a number of references to other films (Citizen Kane, James Bond, Matrix, Blade Runner...) and a global cast (think international box office).

I'm not sure that Leonardo Di Caprio was the best fit for the lead character, Cobb. He doesn't have the maturity and intelligence that Cobb would need to have to truly pull this story off. Cobb would need to be at least 10-15 years older...

I must say that it's nice to see a summer Hollywood film that's creative and fairly unique rather than another sequel or remake...