{"id":1057,"date":"2007-05-03T11:55:56","date_gmt":"2007-05-03T17:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2007-05-03T12:03:31","modified_gmt":"2007-05-03T18:03:31","slug":"the-perks-sometimes-make-it-all-worthwhile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=1057","title":{"rendered":"The perks sometimes make it all worthwhile"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"clear:left; float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-top:10px;;width: 55px;\" name=\"fb_share\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#appId=125029517579627&amp;xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=1057\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"55\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>   People often ask me about the glamor and  glitz of the road, working for rock stars, the champagne, the private jets, the beautiful women throwing themselves at us because we&#8217;re so cool.<\/p>\n<p>Yeah right.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a more likely scenario: spend 16 hours at a dusty bull ring with no bathrooms that have toilet seats and no hot water, climb onto a bus with 15 other people without showering and travel for 12 hours to arrive for a day off just before the sun sets, often with all food and stores closed within 1000 miles. Well, the first part was the last two days and I didn&#8217;t have to endure the food and stores part this time.<\/p>\n<p>We arrived in Bilbao, Spain yesterday around 4pm, checked in, showered and went directly to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guggenheim-bilbao.es\/ingles\/home.htm\" title=\"Guggenheim Bilbao site\">The Guggenheim Museum<\/a> here that <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Frank_Gehry\" title=\"Gehry Wiki\">Frank Gehry<\/a> designed. I&#8217;ve wanted to come here for 10 years, since it was opened, but most American acts never make it to this part of the Basque region (unless you&#8217;re the Chili Peppers). To me the building is the main attraction, the famous shining silver exterior peeling this way and that, an insane metal flower blooming in the midst of a Spanish city, drinking up the water of the Nervion River and producing art.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/guggenback1.jpg\" title=\"Guggenback1\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/guggenback1.jpg\" alt=\"Guggenback1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The first of the surprises was the installation by Jenny Holzer of LED&#8217;s streaming words in Basque, Spanish and English of an intimate poem. The rhythm and touch of the words made it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guggenheim-bilbao.es\/ingles\/exposiciones\/permanente\/la_coleccion.htm\" title=\"Permanent Collection page, Bilbao\">quite special<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The current exhibitions did not really do it for me but I have always wanted  to see Richard Serra&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.guggenheim-bilbao.es\/ingles\/exposiciones\/permanente\/la_coleccion.htm\" title=\"The Matter of Time\">The Matter of Time<\/a>&#8220;. At 12,000 tons and 430 feet in length, it is an overwhelming piece of art that is at the same time made me feel playful and childlike. Then again, I like rusty metal.<\/p>\n<p>If you are ever in the north of Spain, you must stop in and see it.<\/p>\n<p>No photos allowed inside the museum but I have posted some outdoor shots at my <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/aronski\/\" title=\"bitterman's flickr site\">Flickr site<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People often ask me about the glamor and glitz of the road, working for rock stars, the champagne, the private jets, the beautiful women throwing themselves at us because we&#8217;re so cool. Yeah right. Here&#8217;s a more likely scenario: spend 16 hours at a dusty bull ring with no bathrooms that have toilet seats and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[37,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peNcU-h3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}