Zachęta — National Gallery of Contemporary Art (Warsaw, Poland)

I had the good fortune to visit Zachęta, the National Gallery of Contemporary Art, today in Warsaw.  Once again, I discovered some artists I had never heard of that I enjoyed and that now already do, and will continue to have meaning in my life.

Here is the outside of the beautiful building:

Inside, I first checked out the Kuba Dąbrowski photography exhibit… another artist I had never heard of, who instantly has become one of my favorite photographers on the strength of this exhibition.

Here’s some of his work:

I was expecting to find many other Polish artists, like in Stuttgart where I discovered some new (to me) German artists, but the rest of the museum was surprisingly global in scope.

The two curated themes right at the moment are Artistic Migrations and the Cold War, and Brazil: Art/Music including “Brazil in Poland.”

Here are some of my favorite conceptual pieces:

This one cracked me up, since I have Argentinean peso notes (2, 5, 10) in my wallet:

The Cloud of Not Knowing:

I thought this one was particularly brilliant… It’s called Freedom, by Robert Winter.  What you may not be able to see well is that it is partially an essay on freedom, written in black on black.  If you look closely, you can see individual words:Based on this piece, I’ve looked up Robert, who is a young artist from Brazil.  Here’s some information about a recent exhibition he gave, and some of the galleries in Sao Paolo.  Very interesting, his concepts for Ice Cream sales cause Shark Attacks and the art related to that.

Back to Zachęta.

Here’s The Club, by Brazilian artist, filmmaker, and photographer Jonathas de Andrade:

 

Here you can get the full background of this conceptual piece:

I encourage you to visit  Zachęta if you can, for more pieces like this:

 

 

Next visit in Warsaw I plan to check out the National Museum and Centre for Contemporary Art in Ujazdowski Castle.

Yet more travel musings – European budget airlines

On the other end of the spectrum, I LOVE WizzAir and Vueling, two European budget airlines.  They are the masters of the upsell and all the little fees and they will totally screw you if you don’t follow the rules, but if you know what to do they are pretty darn good ways to fly around Europe for next to nothing (usually under 100 Euros per one-way, maybe a little more with bags and choosing your seat and little luxuries like a pilot and 2 or more engines and 2 wings on the plane).

I thought, when I first learned about WizzAir a couple years ago, that the name might come from the lack of a bathroom on the plane, and what passengers might have to do from an opening in the back of the plane in their time of need, but sadly, that vivid image, from my active imagination, is not accurate.

More travel musings – airlines

I think everyone who travels enough needs a good primary carrier for each continent they travel in regularly.

Here’s StatusMatcher, a great resource you can use to figure out which airlines will statusmatch with which others (and similar for hotels and other hospitality providers).  Carl-Boz sez check it out!

Doing the research, British and AF/KLM are the best airlines for Europe (in terms of being able to upgrade and also use miles for business and first class flights), but neither are status matching right now (AF/KLM was doing so recently).

We’ll see how Turkish Airlines does.  They’re at the intersection of Europe and Asia, but they might be OK as one’s “European” carrier for now.  They’re getting really good reviews, and one’s Turkish status gets one in to United and USAirlines Clubs and I think others, too.

Singapore & Cathay Pacific and Korean Airlines are the best for Asia (by the ability to upgrade and get business/first trips using miles)… And I have had such great travel experiences on Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, that I looked at them first (and since Singapore is not statusmatching right now, you might consider applying with Cathay Pacific).

Emirates and Etihad both rock for Middle East – but since Etihad is doing a killer status match right now through late Feb, that is a no-brainer for you, if you read this by February 24th, 2014.

If you are going to do one statusmatch this month, do Etihad… and if you are going do a second one this month, do Turkish Airlines next.. if you can use them.

 

Outside Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

The outside of the Staatsgalerie is also beautiful:

 

… especially at twilight:

My visit gave me perspective (of multiple types).

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

I was fortunate to visit the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart this week.

I didn’t know much about Willi Baumeister nor about Oskar Schlemmer prior, both artists from Stuttgart (the latter being in the Bauhaus movement).

Nor about German artists Oskar Kokoschka, Hans Arp, Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer.

They have a good collection of modern art, including abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock:

My German is pretty bad these days, so one funny anecdote when I first entered the Modern Art area, is that I was surprised that I had never heard of the prolific artist Kein Titel… which means Untitled.

I learned a lot about Oskar Schlemmer… they had a whole room of his paintings – here are my favorite five from that room:

They had some Max Beckmanns, the expressionist who was obsessed with the human condition, including Resurrection, his masterpiece about World War II:

Spain was well-represented:  they had a room of Picassos (including 6 Picasso sculptures, and his classic Violine), quite a few Miros, and some Tapies… there were also two walls of Swiss-German Paul Klee:

They also had some modern US and British and other artists I had never heard of:

Travel musings and recommendations

American Airlines sucked so badly, even as their top tier Executive Platinum, that I dropped them (on my previous status match).  I had sweet talked them in to a second year of status match after I didn’t meet their requirements in my first year, so they were certainly pliable and willing to give me a shot… but they didn’t upgrade me when I flew, and some of their policies (especially flight changes and flight credits) are extremely flier-unfriendly (compared to United and other airlines).

I am doing the Delta status match now… http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/business-programs/skymiles-medallion-status-match-challenge.html.  Not that I want to fly Delta much (though they do have the best airline food and great pricing on some trips to Europe).  It’s mostly about getting better service and upgrades on SkyTeam partners e.g. China Eastern and KLM.

I am getting really great fares, but flying on the airlines I want and getting upgraded, on GetGoing.  https://www.getgoing.com/.  For example, recent trip to Cabo, under $300/person, and then we were all upgraded for free based on status.

And finally, I have tried out, with good results, a hotel reservation service, RocketMiles, which gets us up to 5,000 airline miles per hotel reservation (rather than hundreds).  Rates are similar.  You can try it here:  https://www.rocketmiles.com/refer/C2

Happy Travelling!

The Fictional Wolf of Wall Street

Just saw the movie, the Wolf of Wall Street, about Jordan Belfort.  Though many of the events (pretty much all of the events) in the movie are true, the order of events, causality, and chronology were changed by Hollywood to make a better story.

Here’s a quick list of inaccuracies in the movie:

*  Whereas Stratton Oakmont Inc. was presented as Jordan’s idea of a brand name, company, and logo (the lion), in reality Jordan started working for that troubled firm, and put together a deal to take it over.

* Many inaccuracies in the sinking yacht episodes… Jordan et al did not go on the cruise because they needed to get to Monaco since the Duchess’ Aunt had died… They flew from the US (4 couples) to go on a pleasure cruise.  The helicopter was not knocked over by the waves, but rather the passengers on the ship had to push it in to the sea (while shooting a video of that nutty act) to make room for the rescue helicopter.  And while Jordan’s jet did indeed crash on that trip, it was not in view in the ocean… it was later, post-rescue, and happened in France, whereas Jordan and crew were in Italy at the time.

* While Jordan did go to jail for months after he was caught slipping the note to Donnie about the wire, in reality the sentencing happened years later, and was for 22 months, not 3 years.   They skipped years (mostly documented in the 2nd Wolf book) in the movie, at that point (and given that the movie was 3 hours long already, it’s for the best that they did).

* In the movie, they show the FBI investigation beginning earlier than it actually started (to build up that notion earlier).

I could list many more, but you get the idea.

That was a great cameo by Jordan Belfort as his own introducer in Auckland (at the end of the movie), and mostly awesome music selected by Robbie Robertson… My one quibble about the music was the odd use of Simon and Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson.

How to Dial (US) Toll Free numbers from Mexico

Mexico blocks toll free calls (e.g. to 800 numbers) to the United States… but there is a workaround.

To call an 800 number, change the 800 to 880

To call an 888 number, change the 888 to 881

To call an 877 number, change the 877 to 882

To call an 866 number, change the 866 to 883

Nota bene:  these are toll calls and you will pay for them, but at least you can reach the number you want to call

Timeshares, Vacation clubs, and Fractional ownership

The timeshare industry has some challenges.  Timeshare is now a sleazy word, mostly due to sky-rocketing maintenance fees and deteriorating properties among the plurality of the market.

But when timeshares started, they were an innovation – a way for owner/operator/developer/investors to get sales and cash flow for properties that might otherwise have been challenging to sell or rent at anywhere near the pricing they received via timeshares.  And for early adopters of timeshares, they were often a great deal on a vacation spot at a much lower cost than hotels.

Timeshares started with 52 fixed weeks, and when you bought a timeshare, you received a certain week every year – say, week 35.

The next innovation in timeshares was the float… you could move your timeshare to different weeks.

Then, the location of your timeshare also became movable, through RCI.  You could exchange your week in Florida for a week in Costa Rica.

Then, some of the big hotel chains entered the market, both because they were threatened by this burgeoning industry, but also since they saw opportunity.

Marriot came in and provided great availability, among other features.

Starwood entered the market, and using points, offered great flexibility.

Four Seasons jumped in and offered amazing quality and service.

For the exchange market, Interval also entered to give timeshare owners an opportunity to exchange with more partners, with more product types, worldwide. Most people in the market assert that Interval’s properties are generally higher-quality than RCI’s.

Now, we are seeing vacation clubs, which often provide some of the best aspects of all of the above.

For me, if I was going to make an investment in a vacation club or timeshare, I would want flexibility, value, and a cap on the fees (or management participation via a HOA).

But, I personally prefer, intellectually and philosophically, the notion of fractional, Deeded ownership, rather than timeshares or vacation clubs.  Making a significant investment, but not having the upside of the real estate over time, makes no sense to me.

Seoul Megamarket: Lotte Mart

The five biggest grocery stores (if Europe has supermarkets and hypomarkets, then perhaps these are megamarkets?) in Seoul are:

1. Shinsegae Department Store
52-5 Chungmuro, 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea department.shinsegae.com
2. Hyundai Department Store
429 Apkujong-dong, Kangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea 135-724; 82-(0)2-547-2233
3. Namdaemun Market
49 Namchang-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
4. Myeongdong Shopping District
Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea; 82-(0)2-774-3238
5. Lotte Department Store
1 Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea 100-721; 82-(0)2-771-2500 lotte.co.kr

I went to the Lotte… Near the Gwangnaru subway station (line 2), in the Enter 6 TM building… Right in the middle of many apartment towers, many of them 30 stories tall.   Couldn’t find the store at first… It’s 2 floors underground (B2F) so people can drive in, park, shop, and load groceries in the underground garage.

It was the largest store I have ever been in.  I saw hundreds of products I have never seen before.  Some of the smells were amazingly good.  I could spend days in that store (and hopefully will).