Lee Foster (fostertravel.com)

Picasso and American Art at SFMOMA

I was reminded of the joy of living in a great urban cultural center, the San Francisco Bay Area, when I went in to see the new "Picasso and American Art" show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this past week.  If I lived in a remote region, I would not see this stunning show.  There are 30 Picassos in the show and about 150 paintings by American artists who were influenced by him.  The exciting reality of the show is that there is a visual dialogue going on, a kind of visual conversation, as you see these artists inspired by a master among masters.  As Jackson Pollock said, "That guy missed nothing."  It's intriguing to see how Picasso's painting "Studio," for example, which is about the creative process, influenced Arshile Gorky's "Organization." 

I was taken back to my college days, at Notre Dame in the 1960s, when I had two Picasso prints on my walls.  One was "The Three Musicians," which was always an inspiring painting to me about the joy of the creative process.  I also had on my walls Picasso's famous "Guernica," which was such a powerful statement about chaos in the modern world, and which I had seen in Chicago, which was the cultural capital if you were going to Notre Dame.  I describe in Chapter 12, "The Refreshment of Art," in my recent literary book,  how these paintings kindled in me a sense of how art can enrich the human spirit. 

The new Picasso show starts out with Max Webber bringing the first Picasso into the U.S. in his suitcase, in 1909.  One tends to forget that in those earlier eras, before TV and the Internet and extensive artbook publishing, you had to actually go to a physical place to see a work of art.  That is why the 1939 retrospective show about Picasso's work, in New York, was so influential.  Many of the great artists in the show, as young men, saw Picasso's work for the first time in that show and were deeply influenced by his striking originality of visual language.   One interesting innovation of the SFMOMA show if that you can download onto your ipod the compelling verbal commentary explaining the show and listen to it anytime, even if you never see the actual show live.

Chris Baker, Your Guide to Cuba

Sooner or later Fidel Castro will die and Cuba will open up.  This will be a major event in travel.  Nowhere will the event stir more emotions than in Miami.  The intensity of feeling about Castro and Cuba in Miami has seemed to me almost palpable when I have visited the city.  However, for all U.S. travelers, there will be major implications, depending on how the new Cuba regime and how the then-in-charge U.S. leadership decide to interact.  Cruise ship companies based in Miami are awaiting the event impatiently.  Cuba could become a whole new cruise destination.  If you look at a map of the Caribbean, Cuba is a major chunk of the real estate.

As travelers think of Cuba, author Chris Baker is the man to know.  He has some major travel guidebooks and some literary books on Cuba.  Chris has guidebooks on Cuba available from Moon-Avalon and from National Geographic.  He has a moving literary book Mi Moto Fidel  about his motorcycle trips around Cuba.  He also has a lovely book on the aging autos that Cubans have managed to maintain, titled Cuba Classics.   If you're looking for a book on Cuba, Chris Baker is the go-to guy.  See all these books on his website.

The Queen Mary 2

I had an opportunity to have lunch on Monday in San Francisco aboard the Queen Mary 2, which is now billed as the "largest ocean liner" afloat.

It is a grand ship, even in a heady world of superlatives.  It is said that RCCL's Freedom of the Seas is "the largest cruise ship."  One must be careful about superlatives.

An ocean liner she is, as befits the $800 million that Cunard Line put into this new ship, with its sleek lines and sharply cut hull for piercing the waves of the North Atlantic.

The British heritage of past splendor can still be seen in the teak wood deck chairs.

There was much passing back and forth of plaques between dignitaries at the ceremony, especially between Captain Christopher Rynd and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was looking a little forlorn because of certain land-based sensitive political matters that he is currently dealing with.

Captain Rynd described with affection the triumphant entry of the ship on this maiden voyage to San Francisco as he saw thousands of well wishers lined up on the Marin Headlands and on the Golden Gate Bridge to salute the ship's entry into San Francisco Bay. 

Just walking the length of this ship can help one work up an appetite.  It is long.

As a sign of the times, when you go into the dining room, you cleanse your hands so as to mitigate any novovirus issues.

The ship's library has 3,000 books, possibly the most ambitious library now afloat.  Passengers disembarking in San Francisco were coming off a 35 day voyage, so some free reading time is to be expected on the Queen Mary 2.

Possibilities for the cruise consumer today are immensely varied.  Queen Mary 2 will help define a standard for upscale, classy, and tradition-based cruising.

Ronny Stoddart on Dubai

Occasionally one hears a totally fresh and startling perspective on the world that one has not considered.

Such is Ronny Stoddart's recent report in USATODAY Travel on Dubai.

Dubai is, of course, roughly in the Middle East, and I have looked at Egypt and Israel.

And, as I breathe the air, I learn each night about Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

But Dubai is a different place and a different vision in the Middle East, as Stodddart asserts.  It has a building that aims to be the tallest building in the world.  This one-of-seven United Arab Emirates aspires to be a top worldwide tourism destination.   It has man-made offshore islands crafted as palm trees.  Apparently, the local energy is as powerful as Shanghai, and that is powerful, as I have reported.

Apparently, the place is peaceful and prosperous and even Tiger Woods is golfing there.  Cruise lines plan to stop there.  People from 180 nationalities live there.

Ronny Stoddart has the must-read article on Dubai.