The meaning of Guernica explained in a subway
What do a gored bull, a horse and flames have in common? No, this is not a three-people-walk-into-a-bar kind of joke. The answer, of course, is they are all prominent images in Pablo Picasso’s most famous painting (Decafnation’s opinion).
But what does it mean? Have you ever wondered about the symbolism in the painting? Is it really an anti-war message?
A New Yorker magazine art critic took a copy down into the Big Apple’s subway tunnels and asked people what they thought. It’s an interesting video.
THE BOMBING OF GUERNICA
The bombing of Guernica (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡeɾˈnika]) (26 April 1937) was an aerial bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. It was carried out, at the behest of Francisco Franco’s nationalist government, by its allies, the Nazi German Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion and the Fascist Italian Aviazione Legionaria, under the code name Operation Rügen.
The bombing is the subject of a famous anti-war painting by Pablo Picasso, commissioned by the Spanish Republic.
— Wikipedia
PABLO PICASSO
Pablo Picasso was the most dominant and influential artist of the first half of the 20th century. Associated most of all with pioneering Cubism, alongside Georges Braque, he also invented collage and made major contributions to Symbolism and Surrealism. He saw himself above all as a painter, yet his sculpture was greatly influential, and he also explored areas as diverse as printmaking and ceramics.
Finally, he was a famously charismatic personality; his many relationships with women not only filtered into his art but also may have directed its course, and his behavior has come to embody that of the bohemian modern artist in the popular imagination.
Will Cole-Hamilton bucks the trend, flips Courtenay Comox riding to NDP
More than four thousand fewer Green Party voters showed up this year and incumbent Conservative MLA Brennan Day lost 787 votes as the NDP won in Courtenay-Comox by about a three percent margin. The ‘blue wave’ was strong across the province, however, taking 64 of the 93 seats in the BC Legislature
THE WEEK: NDP trails BC Conservatives in polls, undecideds will determine outcome
This week: Province-wide polling indicates the NDP have fallen behind BC Conservatives heading into Election Day and that undecided NDP and Green Party voters will decide the outcome in swing ridings like Courtenay-Comox. Also, what should British Columbians think about the Alberta secession referendum? And if you suffer from Long Covid or other chronic diseases, funding cuts to virtual care may affect you
Voting stats show some positive trends in the local government elections
The Comox Valley’s 2026 local government election results show more women sought public office and were elected this year, especially in the Town of Comox. Plus overall voter turnout increased over the last municipal election in 2022. And, we look back to 1949, the year one new council member was born.
Decafnation recommends Will Cole-Hamilton for Courtenay-Comox riding
Will Cole-Hamilton is not just the “greenist” candidate in the Courtenay-Comox riding, he also the best candidate. Decafnation recommends that you vote for him. His Conservative Party opponent’s colleagues are fostering a hard-right Maple-MAGA movement. And, please, don’t vote Green again, you’re just helping the Conservatives.
It’s a clean sweep in Comox! In Courtenay, Manno’s your new mayor after vote split
Comox voters wanted change, and they got it, electing four new council members and returning two incumbents, who had opposed the recent Official Community Plan update, which had triggered a grassroots movement for change. In Courtenay, voters got change whether they wanted it or not as Manno Theos won the mayor’s chair in a vote split between his opponents.