Blacklist (Again) and Picasso

So Wednesday we went to Blacklist again. In all honesty, I really have no great love for the "metal" genre, it's just a fun thing to do with an evening, so you can all stop worrying (those of you who have been worrying) about me growing my hair out and buying black shirts adorned with band names that are depicted as dripping with blood. Ok? Ok.

A couple more people from AUD came along this time: A guy from India, a guy from Pakistan and a couple of Americans (a Dartmouth student and a Johns Hopkins student, respectively), good people all of them. Our Iraqi friend was our once again the lead metalhead among us, and acted as our bridge to the strange crowd which, as before, welcomed us with open arms. Among the new initiates there were a couple of conversations wherein I was nervously asked, "Uh, so, do you listen to this kind of music a lot?" Uh, not really, but the energy of the place is infectious and the true aficionados of the genre are a friendly and passionate bunch that one can't help but enjoy being around.

In a nice transition from the beautiful chaos that is "Blacklist: Savage Metal Night", we made the long anticipated trip to Abu Dhabi for the Picasso exhibition at the Emirates Palace Hotel. First, it was nice to test our little Ibeza on a longer trip (about 2 hours) and determine that, yes, this car is worth at least the 4000.00Dhs we paid for it. I love that damn car. I can't even help it.

Second, Abu Dhabi is a beautiful city: Set on a narrowly separated island in the gulf, populated with shining buildings, and surrounded by crystal-clear water, it's a nice change from the "unfinishedness" of Dubai's crane filled cacophony. Make no mistake... Dubai is superior in many ways: The people are more cosmopolitan, the finished buildings are nicer, it's just generally, I don't know, a little more "2009"...but Abu Dhabi is a nice place to visit.

Third, Emirates Palace is gorgeous in a way that only that rare combination of unlimited capital and tasteful design (think Vegas only classier) can create. The bathrooms alone create a sense that this place was built for people with whom I have never associated: People who find the use of paper towels beneath them and require a cloth hand towel taken from a neatly stacked tray decorated with several fresh rose blossoms near the deep marble sink in which one could bathe a two-year-old.

Finally, the paintings turned out to be fantastic. Beyond anything we'd hoped for. A massive collection from each stage of Picasso's life. You look around for awhile until all of a sudden you find a painting that you can't fully understand, but it makes your heart beat a little faster and you find it hard to tear your eyes away and move on to the next work of genius, but finally you do and in a couple of minutes you're glued to the floor again. And did I mention it was free? It was free. Unbelievable. Afterwards we hit a nice Italian restaurant where we made up for the cheapness of the day going all-out on fantastic pasta and then rolled home. No speeding tickets, no breakdowns, no getting lost, and it was not even necessary to use my A.K.. I'd have to say it was a good day.