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Welcome to day 8! I don’t have too much for today as I slept half of it away (hey, I’m not a morning person). In the afternoon I walked around the corner to the Musée de Picasso. Later on in the evening we caught an exotic strip show at the Crazy Horse. Of course you want to read on!

First off is the Picasso museum. Now I know Picasso is not everyone’s favorite artist, but I happen to like him. I will admit that his art is hit-or-miss with me. Either I see something special and I “get” it or I shake my head and think, “what the hell?” Below are some of the pieces from the museum that I liked.

	Head of a man (1930) – Pablo Picasso First off, I strolled into the sculpture garden which was full of weird, barely recognizable shapes. Picasso did most of his major sculpture work towards the end of his career. I took a look at this one and immediately figured I knew what it was. I was wrong. After reading the placard, it turns out that it’s just the head of a man. I guess I have a sick mind.
	Portrait d’Olga daus un fauteuil (1918) – Pablo Picasso This is a portrait of the ballerina Olga who would become Picasso’s first wife. He painted this in the middle of his cubism phase. The rooms in the museum are organized by periods in Picasso’s life, so this one sits amongst a bunch of weird and distorted cubism paintings. That alone warranted a photograph. My guess is that the effect Olga had on Picasso was so profound that it snapped him back into reality (if only for a moment).
	Homme á la cheminée (1916) – Pablo Picasso I liked this one because I could actually make out what the picture was about. It’s a man sitting on a chair smoking a pipe. Can you see it?
	Guitare (1924) – Pablo Picasso Picasso’s cubism phase didn’t just apply to painting. He also did collages and sculpture out of odd materials (such as string and cardboard as seen here). I think it demonstrates that Picasso’s imagination really worked in 3D. He would take a common setting or object (such as the guitar here) and distort it in space, replacing curves with hard angles and juxtaposing different facets of the subject with one another. For his paintings, he smashed that image onto the canvas. For his sculptures, he built it out of household materials.
	La Toilette (1906) – Pablo Picasso In France, “toilette” simply means bathroom. In this case, a girl combing her hair after bathing. I couldn’t do a tour of an art gallery without posting at least one nude, so here you go.
	Paysage aux deux figures – Pablo Picasso I liked this one because I had to study it to figure out where the heck the “two figures” where. I eventually found them. Can you?
	Homme á la guitare (1913) – Pablo Picasso Here’s Picasso’s cubism in full force. Somehow, this painting portrays a man with his guitar. I can see many fragments that I would attribute to a man and several fragments that I would attribute to a guitar. I know that the head is at the top, the feet are at the bottom, and the guitar is somewhere in the middle. Beyond that, the image is too distorted to really discern what is what. This is one of those, “huh?” paintings for me, but it’s a good example of Picasso’s cubism paintings, so I posted it. There were a lot of pieces of art like this in the museum.
	Tête de Femme (1909) – Pablo Picasso To me, this sculpture looks almost demonic. The ridges on the head, the heavy jawline, and the thick neck all suggest a fierce man-beast to me. But no, it’s a portrait of a beautiful woman. Okay, so I may be crappy at identifying the subjects in Picasso’s work, but I still thought the sculpture looked pretty cool.

As I was leaving the Picasso Museum, I noticed an interesting looking sculpture in a nearby courtyard, so I wandered over to take a closer look. The sign outside said it was a modern art gallery, so I thought, “Uh-oh, it’s another wacky pointless modern art sculpture with odd shapes and things.” Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was actually a sculpture of something real (but in a ridiculous, impossible pose). Can you see what it is? Highlight the area between the parenthesis to find out (it’s an elephant balancing upside down on it’s trunk). I also spotted this wacky car parked in the street during my walk back to the apartment. It just goes to show that you can find artwork (good or bad) just about everywhere in Paris.

For dinner we ordered Sushi in. I noticed as I was walking around Paris that there are quite a few Sushi restaurants around. My guess is that’s quite popular here as well. The sushi delivery people ride scooters around with delivery boxes mounted on the back. We ordered some salmon, tuna, ikura (salmon roe), and California rolls. There wasn’t anything special about it compared to what I can get in Boise, but it was still good eating!

On our way to the nudie show, we passed through Place de L’Alma which holds the Flame of Liberty. This is a replica of the flame carried in the hand of the Statue of Liberty. It was given to Paris by the International Herald Tribune in 1987 as part of their centennial celebration. It is more famous now as the impromptu memorial for Princess Diana (notice the flowers and notes), because it is perched above the entrance to the tunnel where she was killed. I also snapped a cool picture of the Eiffel tower all lit up at night from the same spot.

And now for the Crazy Horse. This is a theater that features exotic nude dance routines. They are generally modern in style (modern music, modern themes) and sometimes quite provocative. I was a little pissed going into the thing because they started the show before they got everyone (including me) seated, so I missed the first number. The upside is that the ushers were so busy seating people that they didn’t notice several people with cameras were taking pictures of the show. I saw my opportunity and snapped a few of one of the early numbers. Unfortunately, the lighting was so dim, and the girls were moving so much that it was hard to get a good picture. I cleaned up one as much as I could and posted it here for you. For a better idea of what the show is like, click the link in the first sentence for some (very small) samples. Overall, I enjoyed the show quite a bit. My favorite routine was probably the “webcam” one which featured a girl doing a striptease for a “webcam” (which was the audience). There was a transparent “computer” screen in front of her that had a sexy “chat” conversation projected on it while she danced in her chair and took her clothes off. The girls were not COMPLETELY naked however. They had a small dark patch glued to their hoo-hoos. Altogether, it was quite enjoyable.

That’s all I have for today! Tune in for Day 9 where I head to the Musee D’Orsay in the pouring rain. Can you tell I like art museums? I hope you do too, because I’ve got more good stuff coming. See you then!

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