Suck it, Italian Renaissance.

Obviously, I am a geek. That much should be abundantly clear by now. That being said, I also have a decent education and marginally impressive knowledge of the world outside of pop culture and geek-dom. 30 Rock-style “backdoor bragging” aside, the whole point of sharing this was to admit that as much as I feel I should, I just can’t get as excited about high-brow culture as I can about pop culture.

I first experienced this phenomenon as a child. Toronto has some wonderful art galleries as well as the pretty damn awesome Royal Ontario Museum and even my hometown has a nice little modern art gallery. However, the first time I really felt gobsmacked by seeing original works of art was on a family vacation to California after we stumbled across an art gallery showcasing Batman artwork, much of it by Batman creator Bob Kane.



I’m not sure if it was amazing to me because I could understand the fluidity and gracefulness and starkness of it all in a context (Batman being a total badass) that was familiar to me… or if it was just amazing because nobody in a Monet painting ever punched someone in the face. Anyway, to this day, that art gallery showing remains one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

In the last week or so, a few things have come up which got me to thinking of that Batman art and how thrilling it was. First, there was a news item from the BBC that a James Bond museum is opening up in England. To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long for that to happen. The museum has the tank from GoldenEye, the gun from The Man with the Golden Gun and – best of all – the Lotus Esprit Turbo / submarine from The Spy Who Loved Me. If you think that car didn’t blow my young mind the first time I saw that movie, you’re crazy.


The second reason I’ve been reminiscing about the awesomeness of original Batman art is the fact that my wife and I are planning a trip to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. We’ll have the opportunity to see some absolutely breath-taking artwork and architecture. I know that while we are in Bruges (where I’ll be hard pressed not to pull Colin Farrell’s whole “one gay beer for me gay friend and one normal beer for me… cause I’m normal” routine from In Bruges), we’ll have the chance to see the only Michelangelo sculpture (Madonna and Child) to ever leave Italy.


Potential Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles jokes aside; it will be great to see something created by one of the masters of the Italian Renaissance. Despite being surrounded by opportunities to immerse myself in that area of Europe’s history and culture, I have to admit I’m even more excited about three things:

1. The beer.



Seriously, Michelangelo has nothing on some of Belgium’s Trappist monks when it comes to creating works of staggering genius.


2. The Belgian Centre for Comic Strip Art.



You know who are mental about comic strips? The Belgians. Seriously, Tintin and Snowy are national treasures… like Wayne Gretzky and The Stanley Cup to Canadians or Barack Obama and “these colors don’t run” bumper stickers to Americans.

3. The Nurburgring, specifically, the Nordschleife (North Loop).


The Nurburgring is one of the most demanding race tracks in the world. Over the years, it has become the stuff of legend and has bested, intimidated and even killed some of the best drivers in the world. Oh yeah, it’s also nicknamed “The Green Hell”.

So in the end, I guess it just comes down to the fact that I can see beauty in a painting or sculpture or medieval church… but I can see even more beauty in a brilliant beer, ground-breaking comic or demonic race track. Sorry, Michelangelo.