Barbed Wire Means Keep Out

Have you ever ordered something that looked great on the menu, but when you arrived your gut reaction was, "Dear God, I'm paying money for this?"  That's how I felt about the Fundacio Antoni Tapies.  It looks really cool from the outside:

 Yes - that's barbed wire at the top (see below for closer look) but also click on the photo to see the beautiful detailing on the outside of the building.

 Since this building was so cool on the outside, it had to have something great inside, right? Right? Wrong.  But I didn't realize this until after I'd paid my entrance fee.
First of all, there is very little to see, just a few large canvases in the middle of the room on the first floor and a perimeter of paintings on the second.  Second of all, they are not great.  Sure, you can indulge your abstract side, but, as I mentioned during my visit to the Picasso Museum, it's hard for me to appreciate an artist breaking the rules unless he's also an awesome artist when he abides by the rules, too.
While pictures weren't allowed, I decided that - hey - I'd better get something for my money, and took a few anyway (shhh! Don't tell).

The first floor exhibition room.

 This current exhibit was called Antoni Tapies.  Head arms legs body.  Which meant that he painted random body parts that caught his interest.
This included legs (during that awkward moment when you walk around naked with your underwear around your ankle),

 feet that... smear,

and numerous other strange collections of body parts thrown on to a canvas.

I breezed through the latex room, which was just sort of... strange... and made my way upstairs.  This upper room held my two favorite parts of the museum but also my least favorite.  My two favorites were this painting, Wolf (2011)

and a gorgeous library behind glass that is available "by appointment only."  The Fundacio, apparently, "was created in 1984 by the artist Antoni Tapies to promote the study and knowledge of modern and contemporary art."

Anyway, the verdict is: take lots of pictures of the really cool outside.  Avoid the inside like the plague.  There are much better places for art.  Heck, there are better places for air conditioning.

Next, I ventured down to Barceloneta.  I had a hankering for some Baluard croissants and was striding purposefully toward my destination when... this stopped me in my tracks.  

 It's childish, but I thought it was hilarious.  It brought me back to middle school when I had a friend named Fanny and we used to try to find as many hilarious uses of her name as possible.  So here's to you, Fanny, wherever you are.  Your name always makes me smile.
For Naaman's final dinner in Barcelona, we went out for pintxos.  She wanted to sit outside, so we stopped at Sagardi.

We both got full plates:

Naaman's plate: 

My plate: (I waited for the hot tapas, which are not shown)

 The pintxos were pretty standard.  I think that Euskal Extre is better, and since it's also 0.55EUR cheaper per pintxo, I'm going back to my old standard next time.  I made myself try a few new things at Sagardi, including the three shown: a white fish, a pintxo of a cream cheese-like substance topped with jam, and a croissant filled with something that tasted halfway between shrimp and crab.
While sitting outside on a beautiful evening is a treat, being hounded by the musicians who play in the square in search of money is not.  Be strong, or have a few coins ready.  They're persistent, because they have to be.
This statue sat in the center of the square, but I have not been able to find any information about it.

 Is it a half-moon? A smile? A hungry artist's idealized croissant?  The world may never know.
My search for the answer did turn up a gem, though: an artist's rendering of the square that looks far prettier than my photos:

Credit: Joshemari Larranaga

Spotted: Backstreet's Back.

While these "boys" are now about 40, they've reunited for a new album.  I learned of this from my coworker Nadia, the one who confessed her huge crush on Nick Carter at our lab dinner... prompting two other coworkers to scream like tweens and confess their crushes on Brian and Kevin.  Anyway, for those interested, there's a kickoff concert in Central Park on August 31st.  I mean, why NOT go? The people watching alone is worth it.