barcelona la hostia, tio.

bye bye Barcelona

2007-08-06T16:05:00.001Z

A wave of tears has flooded my keyboard, rendering me incapable of typing for the moment. Here, however, is a pic that captures a real slice of the city for me. The dialogue sign says: "Got your phone? Your wallet? YOUR TRASH?" Similar signs in multiple languages pop up along the city beach. A small touch, but indicative of the attitude here: trash on the sand is definitely a problem, but how can

Sitges getaway, sans tourists

2007-08-06T14:52:00.000Z

Last weekend I had the good fortune to escape the oppressive, intense, competitive atmosphere of Bcn and enjoy a relaxing wknd in Sitges (pronounced SIT-jess). My lovely roommate B’s family owns a great flat in a quiet, modern part of town--one of those tastefully designed "Mediterranean" developments on a hillside that keeps things simple and white and makes the most of its views. In addition to

US addiction to fame: worse than EUrope?

2007-07-31T15:26:00.001Z

In a breathless and damning op-ed today, James Carroll argues that “An obsessive deference to [such] fame, and an all-consuming preoccupation with it, has become the defining mark of American culture.” Carroll argues that the American adoration of fame is either worsened or caused by (I’m not sure which) our lack of historical background. This seems to me at once partly correct and complete

Update: EU constitution, er, REFORM treaty

2007-07-27T16:57:00.001Z

Call it what you will, it’s looking like the secret is out on the latest EU Treaty. The secret is that the sexy new reform treaty, recently modified under Miss Mild Mannered Merkel’s leadership at an emergency Brussels summit in order to be re-presented to the public after failed referenda in France and Holland, is barely different from its predecessor. Granted, those few differences are

Remembering 1992, Spain’s moment

2007-07-26T16:59:00.002Z

A lovely and historic moment last night here in Bcn: the same archer who famously lit the Olympic torch with Elvin accuracy while the world watched , was invited back for a redo to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Games. The archer, Antonio Rebollo, appears to be aging like a fine Rioja. He met the high expectations of everyone who’d seen his first shot by nailing the target again,

French gov't sick of all the thinking, putain!

2007-07-25T03:01:00.000Z

No, seriously, my fellow French:Look into my eyes... Now, think less. ...And just work more.Have I heard this before?Sarko the darko? He looks kind of scary in this picture next to Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who got rich as a big-time Chicago lawyer and looks like a robot in a Simpsons episode.I still don’t believe it. Surely these are just bizarre coincidences! There must be some

must-see non euro fotos

2007-07-25T02:30:00.001Z

Ladies and gentlemen, I am normally not one to post ‘random’ material, but some things are worth the diversion.I made a bizarre comment earlier about a Burmese python trapped in Florida. That was a reference to an article I’d come across waaaay back this morning about this invasive species of Burmese pythons that appear to be taking over Florida. I forgot where I'd originally seen the article,

... blackout update... blackout update...

2007-07-25T01:52:00.000Z

New shit has come to light: the cause of the Big Barcelona Blackout of 2007 has been a massive power cable that snapped and went loco like a Burmese python trapped in Florida (we're talking chain reaction, fire, all out chaos)!Though most service has been restored, the papers are still reporting on each and every development in the blackout story. Barcelona has been sent back to the middle ages,

wknd recap + blackout anarchy

2007-07-23T11:05:00.000Z

As a result of the current power outage, I had the strange opportunity this morning to ride through a city without working traffic lights. I crashed my bike and passed by another accident, but for the most part things seemed to go smoothly. In truth, the bike crash was just a wipeout and entirely of my own doing. I am still getting used to this “new” bike (my previous one, a sweet Rock Climber

Iberia (2): Update

2007-07-22T14:52:00.001Z

The day after I waxed theoretical on Saramago's vision for a federal state of Iberia, El Pais published an article (again only in Spanish) on the same topic by Miguel Mora. It is a bit more realistic than my post. Here is an English article about the story.The basic conclusions from the press are that, despite a clear sense of Iberian solidarity between the two countries, Saramago is indeed off

Portuguese presidential soap opera

2007-07-21T12:14:00.001Z

For those of you interested in the complexities of EU-member state relations, and the polarized feelings that membership inevitably causes, this piece on Portugal’s ambivalent relationship with the EU is instructive. And kind of funny, if you’re willing to look at EU studies a soap-operatic type way--which is the best way to look at it. There’s a little bit of everything here. One gets a sense of

Sarko the darko?

2007-07-20T19:24:00.001Z

Much is being made of mon mec Sarko, and rightfully so. Sarko is doing so much in his first months as President that everyone is taking notice, which is exactly how he likes it. He is ruffling feathers like it’s his job. He has:challenged the independence of the Euro Bank, contending that the overvalued euro is hurting French exports; been adamantly against Turkey’s EU candidacy and instead

Madrid (III): vs. Barcelona

2007-07-20T16:08:00.000Z

It's not just about soccer.Granted, I am still smarting from seeing a thoroughly inferior Madrid team take the title from my poor, injury plagued Barca a few weeks ago. But the battle takes place on a more profound level: which city is better? The question is timeless; hardly a day passes without someone asking me, upon discovering that I’ve lived in both places, which city I prefer.People seem

Spain + Portigal = Iberia

2007-07-20T01:44:00.001Z

This is one of the more intriguing and pertinent posts I’ve read in a while (it is unfort in Spanish only). The nobel prize winning fiction writer Jose Saramago, 85, is predicting the unification of Spain and Portugal into a federal entity that might be called Iberia. It seems ludicrous, of course, for something like that to happen now. But the old man is not going crazy. After 20 or 40 years of

Spain wants their good food recognized

2007-07-20T01:29:00.000Z

And who doesn't want recognition for the things they do well?In the latest example of perverse globalization, Spain wants Mediterranean food qualified as a world-heritage cultural…item?It's not a completely absurd idea: Elena Espinosa, Spain's Minister of Agriculture and Fishing, suggested at an EU meeting on Monday that Mediterranean food should be added to UNESCO's list of "intangible"

Madrid II: some high and low lights

2007-07-19T17:29:00.000Z

Some highlights from Madrid, aside from the perfect weather, great people, and wonderful neighborhood vibe: -Informal live flamenco in La Latina. This place, whose name I will not divulge because too many tourists are beginning to appear there, is where flamenco aficionados, amateurs, and the odd professional congregate to hang out and play informally. It’s not nearly as good as going to a

biking in EUrope (not just Paris)

2007-07-19T16:38:00.001Z

An article in IHT has me pissed off this morning.[Tues morning, actually –ed.] This kind of think might only irk me on another day, when I wasn't so pissed off about having my bike stolen. But then the article does happen to be about… bikes. How am I supposed to not be pissed off right now? I had a relationship with that bike. Can you guess how angry I am? Are the italics getting the point

Madrid: a tribute

2007-07-19T16:26:00.000Z

The Royal Palace and Sabatini Gardens, sunsetLa Almudena Cathedral and the Palace after sunset, taken from Parque del Oeste I arrived in Madrid last Weds night, dropped my stuff and showered at a friend's place at 11, and we went out… until 5am. On Thurs nite, after a day full of walking around the city, we napped until 11pm and then went out until 6 (I remember smiling exhaustedly at the

Euro kicking dollar’s ass

2007-07-19T14:32:00.001Z

The IHT has interviewed American tourists in various Euro capitals--and they're pissed off! The consensus is that Europe remains a lovely place to visit but man is it fucking expensive! Welcome to my world, people. When I moved to Spain in July 2001, they were on the peseta, rents were manageable, and I’d usually get a free tapita with my beer. How times change! (Does this mean I’m actually

Germany, Russia and US

2007-07-18T15:39:00.001Z

So here’s the political maneuvering question of the day: If you were Mild-Mannered Miss Merkel and someone in your governing coalition said that Germany should keep equidistance between Russia and the US, how would you, as chancellor, react? John Vinocur, lover of political intrigue and rancor, thinks you must “crush” the statement. American exceptionalism—or the fact that I hail from the most powerful and important nation on earth— is always in sharper focus when I’m living abroad. Granted, I may be a bit Europeanized and thus not the 'typical American', but (1) I am American (hell yeah!) and (2) what is the typical American, anyway, in a country as diverse and unique as ours? (A question for another

which letter has the best cities?

2007-06-22T06:24:00.000Z

If you could visit or live in 3 cities starting with the same letter, what would they be? This seemed like a tantalizing question to me until I realized that my answer was pretty clear. But I’m very curious what you people think, especially those who have travelled the world (Trief, I'm thinking of you).New York, for example, would certainly be near the top of my list. But what are the other

EU and pesky Poland

2007-06-21T15:46:00.000Z

As if the EU weren’t facing enough problems in reorganizing the failed constitutional treaty, it now has to deal with the Poland of the Kaczynski twins. Under their aggressive and misguided leadership, Poland as a would-be European power is comparable to a large pubescent teenager trying to throw his weight around under the basket against a ten year NBA veteran who, like the EU 15, is no longer

latest sign the apocalypse is upon us, for real

2007-06-21T00:32:00.000Z

For every person in the world to reach present U.S. levels of consumption with existing technology would require four more planet Earths. The five billion people of the developing countries may never wish to attain this level of profligacy. But in trying to achieve at least a decent standard of living, they have joined the industrial world in erasing the last of the natural environments. At the

latest sign the apocalypse is upon us

2007-06-20T22:42:00.000Z

“On Wii, players will actually act out the game’s violence,” Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood declared in a petition. The group points to a review of the game: “You can use a saw blade and cut upward into a foe’s groin and buttocks, motioning forward and backward with the Wii remote as you go.”--"Nintendo Deals With Good Versus Wiivil", New York Times

beach escape: una cala perfecta

2007-06-20T14:23:00.000Z

A coupla weeks ago my roommates, their friends, and my friend Ian and I escaped to a wonderful beach about an hour south of Barcelona, just north of the small city of Tarragona. To my delight, this beach fulfilled most of my qualifications for greatness:isolated location, ideally a challenge to arrive at so as to keep it real (+keep the riff raff out); fine sand and crystal clear water, ideally

Rooftop party and left-wing ignorance

2007-06-19T23:31:00.001Z

My roommates hosted a kickass party on our rooftop on Saturday night to celebrate Capu’s 24th birthday. The ladies made a bunch of delicious food and assembled it on a table upstairs. The guys provided the animation (in a drunken court jester kind of way). Then a few people I knew and many I didn’t came and ate, drank, and talked until 6am, apparently. My friend A. and I couldn’t stay,

Elegy to Barca

2007-06-19T21:06:00.000Z

I'll keep this one short. Barcelona managed to take away the city-wide celebration that everyone had been long expecting by finally making official their historic collapse. This was mostly done last week, as I reported, when they managed to salvage a tie from the jaws of victory against an inferior Espanyol side. This week, although Barca beat up on the worst team in the league, Madrid also won

SONAR 2007

2007-06-19T20:22:00.000Z

Jeff Mills' profile barely visible in front of a massive high-rez screenWell folks, Sonar 07 has thoroughly rocked Barcelona once again, and this time I was here to witness the scene first hand, rather than read about it on the Rhythmism messageboards. Some of it, anyway.During the day, I had the pleasure of hearing/feeling the reverberating muffled bass during the afternoon at work, while

protesting the G8 protesters, take 2

2007-06-19T19:04:00.000Z

I was thinking a bit more about why I ridicule the G8 protesters almost as much as the leaders. It is a terribly cynical perspective. There is no doubt that most of them are there for a good cause; it’s great that they want to make a difference and are willing to sacrifice their own time and money to attempt to do so; and certainly there is legitimate reason to think the G8 countries do not

rooftop party

2007-06-14T02:33:00.000Z

Without going into detail, I cannot state how bizarre it has been to go from a flat in NYC that had a roof with a tremendous view--really, like a once-in-a-lifetime, you'll-never-stumble-ont0-anything-like-this-ever-again view, to my current BCN flat. By pure look, we can look down calle Mallorca from our top-floor terracitas, or go up to the roof for a better view of the surrounding hills,

gearing up for Sonar

2007-06-13T23:53:00.000Z

As a big fan of electronic music, I am very happy indeed that the SONAR festival has been setting up shop in the MACBA plaza right outside CIDOB's windows. (...Macba is the Contemporary Art Museum, the plaza is technically the Plaza dels Angels, and CIDOB is where I work; photo taken from my boss's terrace.)SONAR is a badass mostly electronic music festival, with other festival-appropriate

Post-post-9/11?

2007-06-13T15:00:00.000Z

In her Slate column today, Anne Applebaum writes that this G8 has shown that we’re progressing beyond a 9/11-based politics, in which: there are other major issues to address aside from terrorism; Europeans and Russia are going to push for them; and that quite possibly nothing is going to get accomplished: "…it's not exaggerating at all to state that the events of the past week—and the wildly

Tchin Tchin: welcome to the club Sarkozy!

2007-06-13T10:36:00.000Z

Oh, le pauvre nouvelle president Nicolas Sarkozy. He gets slammed in the press for taking a three day vacation on a billionaire friend’s yacht after winning the election and before starting the most demanding job in the country (How terrible to have wealthy friends!). During the first 5 weeks of his reign, the little guy has been hopping around Europe like Napoleon on speed, trying to earn the

What I am doing here?

2007-06-12T13:18:00.000Z

I must respond to the deluge of emails from all over the world asking me why I am in Bcn, for how long, under what auspices, etc. Man, this blog has caught fire! I am interning at CIDOB, which is a thinktank/NGO-type organization dealing with all aspects of Int'l Relations. As part of my Masters in European Studies (yes, it exists), I wrote to these people and asked if I could do an unpaid summer

Spanish pizza curiosity

2007-06-12T11:50:00.000Z

I just read the disappointing news that the NYC’s best pizzeria has once again been closed down due to negligible health/sanitary concerns. As I imagined a sizzling Sicilian DiFara pizza sitting on the table in front of me, my mouth watered and I truly desired pizza for the first time since being here (three week anniversary, btw). Culinary geniuses that they are, the Spanish just haven´t

Just say yes

2007-06-10T01:05:00.000Z

Back in the Tarifa and Budapest days, my friends and I cultivated a very simple approach to our adventurous, bohemian lives: Just say yes. The philosophy speaks for itself, I think. The idea is to accept all opportunities for adventure or discovery-- especially when you are living in a foreign and/or strange place, when such opportunities are more frequent and hold potentially profound

JODER

2007-06-09T22:49:00.000Z

Barcelona 1 - 1 EspanyolI am still in shock.I can't believe such a glorious game at the Camp Nou could end in such a way. It is shocking.In a very important game against their hated cross-town rivals Espanyol, Barcelona came down from 0-1 to tie the score at the end of the first half, and then went up 2-1. They were playing brilliantly, Messi especially, and the Camp Nou was full and rocking. It

Tariq Ramadan: Europe & Islam

2007-06-08T16:39:00.002Z

By pure dumb luck, IEMed organized a lecture series about more or less the exact topic I studied last term, Muslims/Islam in Europe. This is an extremely important issue both for understanding Europe’s future and, obviously, in the post- 9/11 context of the ‘war on terror’ (an unhelpful but inevitable term). How they knew to schedule the series for my arrival in Bcn, I have no idea. But I salute

The most visited building in all of Spain

2007-06-08T00:59:00.001Z

Is a few blocks down calle Mallorca.It's not the view we had in Brooklyn, but it'll do.

Uh oh

2007-06-08T00:49:00.000Z

Digital camera finally arrived.Appears to be broken.

last.fm

2007-06-07T16:01:00.000Z

Lovers of music unite: last.fm is the newest bestest thing out there. Billed as “the social music revolution,” it offers intelligent streaming radio: it learns from what you listen to and gives you more of it. It’s also an online community of people to get new music from. It’s extremely well organized and archived and will liberate you from the 30gb constraints of your ipod, as di.fm

More annoying G8: leaders or protesters?

2007-06-07T15:25:00.000Z

I was thinking a bit more about this urge to ridicule the G8 protesters almost as much as the leaders. It is both terribly cynical and entirely understandable. There is no doubt that most of them are there for a good cause; it's great that they want to make a difference and are willing to sacrifice their own time and money to attempt to do so; and certainly there is legitimate reason to criticize

2007-06-07T02:20:00.001Z

Quit clowning around, this is serious!

2007-06-07T01:55:00.000Z

We form like VoltronSmile! The leaders of the 8 most badass countries on the planet are getting together to continue being the best, and will discuss improving the lives of the other countries over brunch. Meanwhile, the unhappy and/or the adventurous protest. If only I could report first hand, 'embedded' with either of these two unique

Hunting, Fishing, Mining, Farming, ...?

2007-06-07T01:49:00.000Z

Back to the hunting and fishing story (o caza y pesca). So, I was relishing the return to the classic beach scene, and I was also surveying, observing, making mental notes... was I fishing? Or maybe not me, sitting up in the sand, but say that guy or girl or group who meanders through the horizontal masses, running the gauntlet of stares, confident enough to sort of announce her/his/their

Spanglish (II): Hunting or fishing?

2007-06-06T01:56:00.000Z

I was speaking with my roomate Bea sobre metodos de buscar chica/os—ways of looking for girls...er, being single and on the prowl. I noted that in English we could say that one is out hunting, “a la caza", or on the hunt (as some would have it). And Bea—who speaks quite well English and French in addition to Catalan and Spanish—suggested fishing. Another classic. Clearly related to hunting,

Spanglish (I): Introducción al Epanglish

2007-06-04T13:00:00.000Z

Getting back into the rhythm of speaking Spanish as the main language has been mostly a smooth process, but not without its kinks, especially in a diglossic society like Catalunya. Though I'm fluent (and teach Epani and have plenty of epani-epik efrens), living here reminds me of just how much I don’t know, and for that reason it’s humbling and instructive. As well as I speak, each day sees tons

rules of engagement (+ editor's hindsight)

2007-06-01T18:58:00.000Z

So what all is this blog about?You know. I post on topics of nominal interest to the outside world. (No guarantees there.) You all comment. In that way this blog imitates the politically- and community-oriented ones, wherein the commentary is useful input rather than banal fodder, yes? It is important that you, my friends--all twelve of you--react to some posts: if you don’t this blog will fail.

is this on?

2007-06-01T17:53:00.000Z

Dear friends, what it be?Welcome to big update #2. This will not be a typical bigupdate because it will be much shorter than the 9k norm. Really! There are two important items to report:1) new email address!2) big update is going the way of the gaslamp!Both of these items are exciting because they represent a definitive step forward for me, both technologically and psychologically!First, I