From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Traveling from Slovenia to Italy, we had a chance to stop off in Slovenia's capital city, Ljubljana. I came upon the sculpture, "Faces in Locksmith Street", quite by accident. This street is really an alley way between some old Medieval houses where garbage used to be thrown out. The dirty water would run down the middle trough into the river. A Slovenian sculptor has created hundreds of different faces and placed them all along the whole street. There is also a poem posted that reflects the sentiment of the artist about how each person has many faces which change with age and experience. I had stepped on the faces before I noticed them, and when I exited the alley, I noticed no one else was entering. I was the only visitor who appreciated the art.

I left the alley and joined a throng of people in the main park and square. They were watching an event advertised as "Dining in the Sky".  About 20 people were being strapped into amusement ride style seats that were attached to a table suspended from a huge crane.  This apparently was a promotional gimmick for either a wine company or catering company. The "guests" were being served wine and a starter as the cameras rolled. The company seemed to be taking longer than expected to ready the meal, and there were a lot of awkward waves to onlookers. I did wait until the crane hoisted the table up into the air above the town, just in case someone dropped their wine glass and let it fall 100's of feet.  It occurred to me that this was one of the stupidest things I had ever seen, but it was not only being witness by a whole crowd, but would be broadcast as well. Yet the beautiful sculptured faces in the alley would probably go unnoticed.