They blew up Bangalore!

In case you haven't heard, there were seven small explosions in Bangalore today. Two people are dead, and 20 are injured, though these numbers are certainly 100% falsified (the government will keep the real, higher number out of the papers, to avoid scaring the MNC presence). I am safe and completely unharmed. But standing on my porch this evening, I was subject to a fascinating cacophony of sounds - the wail of fire trucks clashing against the Muslim call to prayer from mosques across the city. Although this is a Hindu city, it has a large Muslim population.

Terrorism has certainly worked its magic here. The majority of the day at work was spent watching the news roll in. The first three timed bombs went off just before 2pm, and afterwards, everyone was focused with rapt attention. The fourth and fifth bombs went off almost simultaneously. The sixth and seventh bombs went off some hours later, leaving everyone to imagine - is this the end, or just the beginning? When will the bombs end? Everyone is afraid - not terrified, given that only 22 people were directly hurt, but it's on everyone's mind. The phone lines were jammed all day, so some people are just checking in their families around now. And that's the point of terrorism really - not to hurt everyone, but to affect a large population. Check that box - even I've canceled my evening plans and will camp out at home. Is that a rational response? Are they really likely to bomb a bar? The probability is infinitely small, yet somehow large enough for me to have zero interest in venturing out.

I feel pretty safe in Bangalore and always have, but bombings are scary. You can't "out think" an explosion like you could a potential mugger, and it's hard to anticipate where the next bomb might be planted. Two of the bombs were within a couple miles of my office. One of them went off near where we had a department team lunch yesterday. This will certainly be on my mind for a while. In any case, I don't want anyone to worry about me - I'm ok, I'm safe, no sweat.

Paris Gay Parade

I walked out of the catacombs and right into the Paris gay parade. It was happening just around the block. It was a pretty shocking change from seeing so much death to seeing people full of so much life. The parade had some really interesting characters.

Les Catacombs

This was a really spooky experience. There are 6 - 7 million dead peoples' bones beneath the streets of Paris. They were placed in mass graves in the 1700's, then later reburied together in the catacombs. Finally it occurred to someone around 1850 to creatively arrange the bones - something between a tourist attraction and a way to encourage people to come and pay their respects. A section of the catacombs is still open to visitors today, but there are no brochures and it is not widely mentioned, and only some 100 people are allowed in at a time. And it is downright spooky. I was walking into the catacombs next to a woman and she had a total mental breakdown; some catacomb workers had to come and calm her down and guide her back to the surface. There are miles and miles of bones. And since it's so far underground, water is seeping in - so there's constantly a "rain" from the ceiling. Imagine having a drop of cold water hit the back of your neck in this place. I didn't know quite how to react, emotionally - it's like nothing else I've ever seen.

Rodin rocks my world

The Rodin Museum was my favorite, hands down. It's set up in a garden that surrounds an old house, and his statues are scattered both inside and outside. Walking around the garden was a very casual, fun way to visit an art exhibit on a sunny day. All of the statues are incredibly expressive - faces in deep thought, or pain, or sadness. The sculpture above is the top of an enormous door called "The Gates of Hell." Notice "The Thinker" on the left? This is the original use of the thinker; as Dante, thinking about the fates of all the damned people.

Musee d'Orsay

By far my favorite museum in Paris (for paintings, not sculpture!). I think its an old train station - the open layout looks wonderful. Galleries are off to each side. There were many famous pieces here; my fav's were by Seurat and Van Gogh. Van Gogh and Monet are below.

Champagne

Ok, so I'm stuck in the past. These next few French events were all in early July. But I don't want to leave them out completely, so I'll add some mini blogs about them. I took a full day trip out to the Champagne region to see the cathedral at Reims (pronounced "Rantz," go figure), the Epernee region in general, and the champagne houses of Mumm and Moet. The area is stunningly gorgeous. Fields of grapes are set in perfect lines, but all at different angles, so you get interesting patterns. And no building is more than two stories. There are several rustic French villages, and as you might imagine, they're largely involved in the production of bubbly.

Palais de Tokyo

The Palais de Tokyo is one of Paris's lesser known modern art museums. I was actually trying to go to the Musee National d'Art Moderne, but I just missed the closing time, so I went next door and found this museum. The place was all about large installations and modern, conceptual art. It reminded me very much of my favorite museum in Atlanta, Eyedrum.

The first picture should give you an idea of what this museum is about. They mounted about 100 Darth Vader heads on poles and fitted them all with computer processors. Then they set all the processors to generating synthesized music - the listing described it as the ultimate "dark symphony." The music was actually pretty good, and I really liked the concept.

The art gets even more crazy. This is a landfill - literally - that was transported inside the museum. You can put on a some gear for sanitation and then climb into the pipe and around the landfill, eventually emerging out of the red door. What was the message here? I don't really know; I didn't go inside.
This one was just playful, and it put a smile on my face. It's a life-size statue of an elephant standing on its trunk, and it has its own room.