silvia planas

One about age, blogs, appearance, and poetic licence

2010-10-26T00:22:00.008+02:00

A few weeks ago I was been flattered by a Swedish girl who kept saying I was her queen, just because we happen to have the same name... the queen and I! And then she kept inviting me to champagne until the bubbling spirit made me walk an inch above the grown! But her flattering didn't ended there, nah, nah... she then asked my age, I responded: "36". She opened her eyes in disbelief, and I even think she got sober all of a sudden... "I thought your were 28... EXCLAMATION POINT"

That same night we attended the birthday of Mau's best friend, Fer. And after lots of mojitos, vodka shots, and sweating to '80s music... Mau asks me the same question again..."how old are you?" ... Dunno what is it here in Europe, but I think they have this fucking obsession with age, as if! But returning to Mau's impertinent question... my answer was the same... mostly cause there cannot be another answer, right. And he got surprised too, but the alcohol didn't let him open his already oblique... and now, drunken eyes... "I thought you were 32"...

OK, OK... I admit it! pull an all-nighter drinking like a fish... not water though, dance like a dervish, and some other few things, ;) and you will definitely look older by the minute.... in my case it took about a couple of hours to go from 28 to 32... not too shabby!

But that was then, a few, very few weeks ago... and now is now! Today it is a totally different story!! I do apparently look 50, according to 2 guys from the Czech Republic. It seems that I must have aged over a decade between the then and the now! Can you imagine how surprised I was??? I can't even start to imagine it myself! But it did happen... Although, there is some relief hidden behind curtains... they both read my blog! lol And took special interest in my obsession with lightning, and its many uses in our American adages... My favorite has always been "lightning could strike". And another, made famous by "Sleepless in Seattle" and I pretty much guess by others too, is "for a woman over 40 it is easier to get hit by lightning than to find a husband". Then, there is my friend Sally, who at some point last year complained to me about how hard it was for her to find a suitable partner... specially having recently turned 50. So, I kind of mixed the three, cause for some reason all of them came together and at the same time to my head, and tried to play with words and concepts, but from my own point of view... The result was exactly the one intended... create controversy, always! What wasn't intended was to make it seem it was really me! But, I did wrote it in first person: confusing to say the least!!!!

Bottom line, I don't know what am I anymore, right now the confused one it's me! I don't know who to believe anymore: the drunken Swedish girl, a not so drunken Mau, my 2 guys from Prague, their friend from Quito, who by the way said she though I looked somewhere in the middle, between the Czech Rep. and my blog, or what is printed in my passport... hmmm, tough one, tough one!

Desperate men of Lloret County!

2010-07-16T00:06:00.004+02:00

When my friend came to Lloret this week for a quick vacation... A much anticipated one! Of course, she warned me: "Get ready to party!", and that was all she said.

We did our best to accomplish the mission... but every time we went out, the only thing that seemed available around us, were desperate men!

As it turns out, desperate men are even worst than "desperate housewives"... from any "county" in the world!!!! Cause, for men, when "down-under" head thinks, the one over their shoulders fills with cum! They just need a pair of tits... As a matter of fact, any pair! As well as any ass, as long as it moves... The only thing in their mind seems to be governed by their "cum matter", as the opposite for "gray matter"! Therefore, and very sadly, they leave with the first cunt their little head in their pants finds in its path! Leaving the rest of us, very eligible candidates... "cumless" !

But my question is... if we (and by "we" I mean women, the good ones!) are, somewhat, as desperate as them... Why are we more choosy than they are?

In my mind there is only one plausible answer to my own question... We are obviously thinking with the right head! Cause, thanks to nature, we were made perfect! lol One head, one thought... the right one!

We are not here to preserve the species... Enough people in this world already! We are here to select the best possible sperm donor... even if it is just make believe, and even if we only want what comes before cum-in!

United for Human Rights, Educational Materials, Videos

2010-07-06T12:34:00.000+02:00

United for Human Rights, Educational Materials, Videos

I feel really ashamed I only know a handful of the thirty! listed in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights... I wanna know them all to better exemplify them in my daily life, and to enforce them if I see it fit! As I have been witness to many things that I thought were violating what I thought Human Rights were, now I don't wanna be a mere spectator, I wanna do more! And speak for those who are denied a voice.

Mrs. Robinson is back!

2010-07-06T10:34:00.001+02:00

Ah! One more thing... This also goes for undergraduates!

Twenty one

2010-07-06T10:08:00.005+02:00

Without internet since last Friday!!!! Ahrg!!!!

I have discovered I am an Internet junkie! Yes, I admit it. But, no I am not ready to act on it! No IA (Internet Anonymous) for me! lol

Why should I feel ashame of my addiction? After all, having addictions, as long as it's what you want in life... Well, I think it is entirely justified! You are the commander of your own ship, right?

As far as my weekend goes... I only have two things to say: Eclipse-Hotel W, and 21! Talking about addictions! hehehe

You can figure out the rest! lol

I am a lucky charm!

2010-07-01T23:25:00.002+02:00

Seems to be that I am a lucky charm for lots of people except for myself! lol

I have friends, where I live, that every time I visit their businesses can hardly cope with the hordes of clients they receive! As it turns out, one of them seeing that I was bringing her so much luck every time I was at her shop, she offered me a part time job! Just tending to tourists, and make use of my language skills! And the best thing is I don't have to kill myself to make a buck! lol She pretty much let me do whatever I want, even seat down if there is not too many non Spanish speaking people around! It is an arrangement made in heaven!

Today was my first day at her shop, and she said she hadn't made so much money since Passover! Why can't I save some of that luck for myself???? I wonder!

There are so many things in my life that will gain from it! Unfulfilled things! I just hope that some day my karma returns me the favor with something really big!!! LOL

To blog, or not to blog: that is the question!

2010-06-30T23:07:00.004+02:00

Sometimes I wonder... Is anyone reading my blog? I know I share every post on my FB account, and people leave messages there. Some of them really encouraging! But, I keep wondering... Why doesn't anybody leaves me a message here!

In the beginning of my blog days, I remember receiving messages. I knew then that people was reading my, and I have to admit it, SHIT! Lol But lately... Nothingness! Am I sending words into space, like little probes searching for something? And if, in fact, it is so... Isn't anyone listening? Aren't there enough radio telescopes to intercept my cry for recognition?

Recognition, Ah! Is it really that what am I craving for? I don't like to think so... but, can't keep from wondering! On the other hand, I would really like to think that what am I really hungry for, it is simple reciprocity. Someone who'll pick up the challenge to write me back! Yes, it is definitely that! The recognition, (we all at some point seek, or sought-after) it is a given... as long as you already have reciprocity!

How I long for someone to pick my brains! I am sure it is the sole reason for my blog's existence... the search for intelligent life elsewhere! Lol Could the lack of response mean that I am alone and lost in my own universe? Just the thought of it, and I am already shivering. A cold and unmerciful feeling runs up my spine, gives me the willies, and makes me blue all over again!

Can it really be possible that no one is really reading this? Can it really be possible that I am more alone than I thought? As if!

If there is anyone out there listening to what I have to say... could you please acknowledge by sending me a word or two? I really am in a pretty poor shape here, and really need to know there is someone else living in my own little universe!

The whreath that found its way back

2010-06-26T11:25:00.005+02:00

Magda wearing the wreath she braided, and Piotr found in the sea!

Before I begin I have to tell you, this is a true to life story!

On the night of Saint John's festivity many traditions remain. In Puerto Rico, they believe that going backwards into the sea, at midnight, will bring them luck. In Catalonia they celebrate with fireworks and a delicious sweet brioche with candied fruits, champagne, and a night of dancing and partying with friends and family... In Poland, a maiden braids a wreath and throws it into the sea, or a river. The man who finds it will marry her.

As it happens to be, Magda and Piotr were in Lloret the night of Saint John's. Magda braided the wreath, as it is the tradition in their homeland, Poland. She thew the wreath into the Mediterranean that same night, on the 23rd. of June.

Two days later, Magda, Piotr, Dave and myself went for a day in the gardens of Santa Clotilde, and later descended to Sa Boadella beach. As we were enjoying the first day of summer here... cause summer has taken its time to come this year... we went for a swim, played around in the water, sunbathed letting our bodies dry with the warm embrace of the sun... and as we were almost ready to leave the beach, Magda and Piotr decided for a last splash in the water.

What happened next was nothing less than one of those serendipitous, unbelievably puzzling, cosmic exploding things! Piotr found, floating on the sea, the wreath Magda had braided two days earlier!!!!

What are the odds on something like that happening???? I don't know much about statistics, but my guess is: Astronomical! One in a trillion! To say the least.

So, I guess they are definitely made for each other! Since, according to their tradition, Piotr will now marry Magda. Who already is, his one and only love!

"Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost." — Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

2010-06-21T22:56:00.001+02:00

The unbearable loneliness of being

2010-06-21T22:01:00.006+02:00

For the last couple of days I've been thinking about the loneliness of my existence. Funny! I live surrounded by people and yet I can feel it tearing my flesh apart, like a Memento from a Harry Potter movie!

But, in reality, it is a little worm. A malignant worm that lives inside my consciousness and keeps biting the Jiminy Cricket inside of me.

Although I enjoy my moments of solitude, loneliness on the other hand it's a totally different proposal... and one that I'm still trying to fight. But, unfortunately, I'm starting to feel I am loosing the battle on that one! I wanna fight the stigma, the adage that clearly states that “after 40 it is easier to be hit by lightning than to find a proper husband!” And as funny as it may seem, one of my favorite adages is “Who knows, lightning could strike!”... Well, neither nor! I, obviously, haven't been stroke by any kind of lightning whatsoever! Not that I wanna get married... I really have mixed feelings on that one! But a partner in crime (sort of speak) would really be welcomed! An adventurer like me, willing to globe trot next to me... which, by the way, would come in handy on certain countries that I would probably never visit, just because I am a woman traveling alone, i.e. Iran, or Afghanistan. But, been the fact that I recently turned 50... I wonder... what would be the appropriate adage for someone like me???? Me, being choosy, extremely choosy! Stubborn, witty, with more brains than heart, but at the same time loving, caring, warm (full of contradictions, as you can see, just like all the rest! Only me, I am prepared to accept and acknowledge them)... a crusader with all its colors and arms when it comes to safeguard the sanctity of my space, the vital space that would make me choke to death without it! I am an adventurer and I hate routine! Wouldn't settle for anything less that what I am and have to offer... I am really looking for an equal, and age doesn't matter to me... But what the hell! I am the one who's 50! LOL So, no point on trying to be politically correct, right?

Let me see.... Have I left something out??? Oh! There is another thing: I hate having timetables! I eat when I am hungry, I sleep when I'm sleepy, I go through life without those really annoying time capsules. If you wanna know, to me, there are sort of a chain and ball. Except for school, I did never impose any of those timetables to my son, and you would be pleasantly surprised how well of a little gentleman he turned out being! Everybody who ever met him can give testimony to that. A little too much of a square to my taste, but if that works for him, so be it! Now, and for the rest that I might have distractedly left on the inkwell, I think I'll let my friends fill in the blanks.

With half my generation gone: dead from drug abuse, heart attacks, prostate cancer, other kinds of cancer, marriage, bad marriages, bitter divorces, and callous hearts... and the other half gone by simply dropping from life itself... where is it that I would find a suitable partner? Willing to put up with me, the real Me!

I have searched, without even searching, half the globe for that special someone. And though I have encountered, more than once, what everybody refers to as a soul mate: their hearts had been callously withdrawn from the possibility of intimacy. Fear overcame their already fragile self esteem and the result is an obvious one... I remain unpartnered! And one more thing to ponder... I don't like men my own age. They are, at the most, incapable of commitment. And besides Americans, French and Italians, (as for the last two, don't particularly care for them. Not loyal at all!) I haven't found what I was looking for. Younger men in Europe, generally speaking, are not attracted to me! Although, I am, and remain, very attractive. With looks that do not correspond my age, and a curious mind with a probable age of 15! Therefore, Loneliness again!

Maybe I just need a body donor, or to clone myself. LOL Get a body more in harmony with who I am... a body that could last forever, would even be a better deal! But that's just dreaming, not gonna happen! Of course not!

So, the adage goes... “After 50 it is not only impossible to find a suitable husband, but it is also impossible to get stricken by lightning”.

So, go on! By all means, please stand on an open field in the middle of an electric storm... I guarantee you! You will not be stricken by any of it!

Little Girl Blue... and maybe a little estranged too

2010-06-20T23:43:00.014+02:00

I am sitting there, I can see her... but I have doubts: maybe I am only looking from me at me.

You could say I have the blues. Dunno why, or if I do, I prefer to keep it to myself.

I am missing something, or something is missing here! Probably the reason why I am there, and not here. If I am confusing you... Imagine how confused must I feel! I counted my little fingers... and still have 10 in my hands. Even counted my little toes, and still have 10 between both feet too!... I couldn't count the raindrops, though. Yesterday wasn't the best day for it! Too many raindrops to sort from: drops falling from the sky, drops falling from trees, drops falling from balconies, and even drops falling upwards, straight from the ground. Too many raindrops to count, cause it was fucking pouring!

What else is there to say... I can't count raindrops! Specially, when all I will ever gonna be able to count on, or wish I could lean on, is going to feel just like those raindrops do: Lonely, through, and totally wet!

I am missing something, or something just missed me! Came, stayed just long enough to make a dent, and then left as if it was passing through here... Probably the reason why am I there now. But, why the missing something isn't it there too? Is it something else besides the here and there? And, if there is something else... why not send me a tender, loving, caring little boy blue? Now!

A little boy blue who'll pick me up and dust me off. Iron willed to hold me endlessly, and resolute to warm me up. A little boy blue to bring me back here, the here and always now to where I belong.

As time goes by

2010-06-19T23:17:00.011+02:00

Yes, just as the song says: As time goes by... There is someone out there that could always rely on that other someone to hear the words "I love you"... If he is open enough to accept it unconditionally. If he is open enough not to see any barriers, or preconceptions.

How many of you have ever fell in love at first sight? I know I did. How many of you do believe in love at first sight? I do.

For me it was the moment he stepped out the motor coach. I remember my face lighting up like a Christmas tree. Funny, isn't it? Just when you least expect it, love touches you in a way that makes you walk on air, just an inch above the ground. But, it is only an inch you need to see life through a kaleidoscope. It can happen just like that, in a fraction of a second, in a furtive exchange of glances. Maybe even, in a wink of an eye... or a few winks, perhaps.

It happens when you don't need to say the words, when your eyes are sparkling with love tunes... When you also feel shy! And you really do! It could have been love at first sight in the beginning. But after a mere four days: four wonderful, perfect days... and perhaps during a month of June, days you will always cherish forever! You feel the certainty it isn't at first sight anymore, but a love that lasts for eternity and back! After a four days period you are truly, madly, deeply In Love!

And the song still plays on: "Women needs men, and men must have his mate that no one can deny... still the same old story... ... the world will always welcome lovers, as time goes by" Could it be possible? Could it really be possible for anyone to love and be loved in return? Could the world really welcome them as lovers? Two strangers, but at the same time, undeniable soul mates. Two strangers that in a mere four days could relate more than some couples do in a lifetime?

Love is, and always has been "A fight for love and glory". You know, the winner takes it all!... Why can't we all be winners? And how do you approach that imperfect human being, just to make him understand you only want to love him in a perfect way. Cause the truth is, before your eyes, he is and always will be, perfect!

How can you shorten the time gap between one another? How do you approach intimacy when you are threaten by rejection?

How do you tell that love of yours that no matter what, you will always remember everything that happened between the both of you, that you'll always think of him... That no matter what, your love will always be there... as time goes by.

No brains = Dangerous minds

2010-06-19T09:33:00.006+02:00

I was minding my own business. A visit to my friend at the video store. Catching up with her, since we hadn't talk for 4 days... I was hosting my Transylvanian guy! Then, all of a sudden, and out of nowhere, this girl shows up and says hi to my friend. I know her, I've seen her before, many times before! I think we even went together to the Horror Film Festival last winter... not my friend though! But a friend of my friend. Are you following me?

Anyways, she rents the movie American History X with Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. It is about neo-nazi skinheads... and then she opens her mouth, which apparently it isn't connected to her brain... Unfortunately!

She starts talking about the great job the nazis did during WWII. That it is a good thing to kill groups of people to clean the gene pool! And so on... At first I thought she was joking... But then I asked bluntly, "you must be joking, right?"... she turns around, serious face and all, and says to me, in my face! "no, I am not joking".

The next thing was me getting all outraged! The steam: I could feel it coming out my ears, my nose, my eyes! Probably red too! And then, I couldn't help it, I answered that ominous comment "Ok, right! Why don't we start with you then? Right here, right now! I have my knife right here in my pocket (always have it!) it will just take a move from my hand and you will be bleeding to death in a few seconds". She then says to me: "first you have to get me" Aaaaaarrrg!
"Don't worry" I say, "it will be a fast death, you wouldn't even know what is happened until you get to the other side! People like you are the ones who don't deserve to live" I continued, "and I don't care if there are witnesses or not, I don't care cause I would be doing a favor to society. After all, it is their word against mine, and I am very good at getting out of hairy situations. After I kill you, I will be outta here like nothing happened"

And I swear to you! I was ready to do it. Determined! My friend tried, in vain, to make a joke out of it: "Hey Silvia, what about the cameras!" to what I coldly said "the cameras don't work" Which, by the way, it's true!

In the end, I took a deep, deep, deep breath with my knife still in my hand, and walked out the door with not even a goodbye to my friend!

It's been two days already since the incident. Now I can write about it more calmly, but I still feel outraged inside!

All my life I have been fighting intolerance, racism and xenophobe people like this little maggot! I could have crushed it under my shoe, and feel no remorse about it! And I don't think that by doing so would have put me at her level!

When is it gonna stop? When will people learn anything from our bloody past! History teaches us all kinds of lessons as we go by! Why are there people then that still look back and think that killing indiscriminately is a good thing!

Sixty million people died during WWII, 12 of those millions exterminated by the nazi regime, and the rest fighting against it! Isn't that enough! And it is not only WWII, we have thousands of genocide examples throughout history! The former Yugoslavia, Darfur, Rwanda, Sudan, Gaza... just to mention a few of the more recent ones.

Maggots keep on breeding like rats! But people keep on turning their heads, and looking sideways whenever it happens! ......... I didn't! But, should I have acted on it? Vigilante style?

One thing is for sure, the lack of brains and discernment it will only lead to dangerous minds. With no morals whatsoever, nor respect for their fellow human beings. FUCKING MAGGOTS!

Between oxy's and Don Q!

2010-05-09T03:04:00.002+02:00

Tough decision! It is my last weekend in the island and I am debating myself between taking an oxy and going to bed, or go out for a while and have some Don Q Limon with diet coke!

Which one would you choose???? I am still thinking...............

I will probably do both! First the Don Q and later the oxy! lol

Seeya tomorrow!

The Hunger

2010-05-07T22:41:00.002+02:00

I am going through a phase... the hunger phase! Not enough brains to eat from! Thus, not enough inspiration! The muses seem to have abandoned me, or maybe they are hiding from me... the truth, I will never know for sure which one it is.

In the mean time, it finally started to rain. I just hope it brings some desperately needed coolness into this air, so thick, you need a knive to cut through it! The downside is that mosquitos seem to have developed AOIES (Acquired "Off" Immune Eficiency Syndrome) and no matter how much of it I spray all over myself, they keep coming right at me. Like kamikazes, they attack all my exposed flanks! Even my bare fingers find their unmerciful stings making way through my flesh while I am writing this!

I guess it is about time to jump into the shower, and shake some of this heat off me... maybe they wont be so tempted by the clean skin (the kamikazes, I mean). Yes, I am gonna jump into it! I was really trying to avoid the moment. But, I guess that, by now, it has become one of those urgent, needlessly unpostponable moments... And, again, in the mean time, I will urgently wait for the kamikazes to leave me, and the muses to join me...

Now, if I could only eat some brains!

Dos Gardenias para...

2010-05-06T05:11:00.003+02:00

No son dos gardenias para mi. Tampoco una para ti. Esa flor blanca y delicada con un perfume embriagante, sesgada, debatiendose entre la vida y la muerte, ahora le pertenece a Yemanya.

Don Q limon en mi aliento mezclado con Diet Coke y la gardenia solitaria, que ahora flota en un mar con nombre de mujer, son los aromas de esta noche. Detras, estan las pancartas llenas de consignas. Detras esta la politica de un imitador, de un comico, a pesar de no hacer comicidades. Detras de Hans Landa y Au Revoir Shoshana! Pero, tampoco es de Alemania este dictador. Este dictador nacio con la mancha de platano... y tu abuela donde esta? Parece preguntarme la gardenia, mirandome fijamente desde su mar de agua dulce... y tu abuela donde esta? vuelve a preguntar la gardenia al tirano que baila salsa californiana.

Ruben Blades es confundido por el Gran Combo y un chico de camisa blanca me mira y yo lo miro tambien. Nos miramos. Ruben termina su acto sin ser confundido. Ya no nos miramos. Me voy por el camino donde viven las gardenias hermanas de la que hoy nada en un mar en calma. De la que hoy yace sesgada, debatiendose entre Machin y las gatas que maullan a una luna inexistente, flotando en un mar de agua dulce con nombre de mujer.

Goodbye NY, Hello San Juan!

2010-05-03T00:32:00.002+02:00

May 1st, 2010

There was so much I would have liked to do in this city... unfortunately, when you are a penniless traveler, like me, you have to settle for the things that are free in life! Like friends, good company, interesting conversations, and nature... all kinds of it! Urban and not so urban nature!

Got everything packed, jumped into the shower, and called Sue for breakfast at her favorite bagel shop. We grabbed some iced coffee on the way, and sat at a little Park near Columbia University. After a breakfast/picnic at the park, we said our farewells and went our separate ways. It wasn't goodbye, though... But many, many thanks!

The shuttle to the airport was amazingly on time! TG I was early, for a change! lol

The flight to San Juan was extremely short! Only 2 hours and 19 minutes... I wonder if it was due to the heavy winds?

Well, now I am here, ready to undergo the long list of doctor's appointments! But I need them in order to proceed with my NY lawsuit... so, good luck to me!!!!! lol

Cheers!

In a New York minute...

2010-05-02T23:35:00.006+02:00

April 30, 2010

Last real day in NYC, cause tomorrow I will have to leave for JFK around 2pm. Got up late again! Still DUI... driving myself under the influence of a jet-lag! lol

After having breakfast with Sue, I went to the library to use the Internet... tried to check if the transfer Nela made to my account was already posted, NO LUCK! Fucking Spanish banks!!!!

I checked my messages, answered some of them, made sure I had all the numbers of the cs in PR I was gonna stay with, and left for a walk downtown.

The day was gorgeous! Sunny and hot, just as promised! A real summer day in the Big Apple! Still penniless but happy, I strolled around Central Park and my old neighborhood in E Houston. I had all day for myself, up until 7:30pm when I was supposed to meet with Sue and friends for dinner, a music show, and a party at one of her buddies.

Dinner was at a small African restaurant in Brooklyn. I got on the subway, and asked for directions at the booth. They told me to get off at Nevins... I don't have to tell you, I got LOST! I was told the restaurant was in Carlton Ave and Hoyts... the thing is Carlton and Hoyts go parallel to each other... so, there is no such corner! It took me an hour's walk to find the place! That was the downside of it... on the other side... I passed by Alan Rickman (Harry Potter's Professor Snape) on my way to the restaurant! Didn't want to stop him or anything, after all, he is just another human being going on doing whatever his business is! But, for me and everybody else that visits or lives in this city, this is what it's known as a New York minute... when anything can happen or pass you by!

3rd day In the Big Apple and 1st Cosmo!!!

2010-05-02T22:53:00.006+02:00

April 29, 2010

3rd. day in NYC. I still am under the influence of a severe jet-lag. I got up really late in the morning and felt slower than ever doing the daily routine of showering, having breakfast, etc. In other words, I had to be in Wall st. district to see my lawyer at 2:00pm, and got there just!

I spent the whole afternoon going over details, and more details of something that happened almost 4 years ago! Believe me, my memory doesn't reach that far! So, I guess I could say it was somewhat a pain in the neck! But got through alright, though.

The day was a bit windy but, all in all, sunny and pleasant. I walked up to Ground Zero, which is a couple of blocks away from my lawyer's, and saw the memorial they are building there. It is gonna be really nice once it's finished. Went to the Post Office next door and sent a postcard to Sylwana and Troy in Poland, as per their specific request! lol

It was so nice outside that I decided to walk a little and go up to Canal st. I was surprised at how many of my old shopping places are now closed! Well, they all were selling smuggled goods, and I guess the cops were really on them! But I managed to find my old Hindu friend, the one that always sells my perfume, and was able to get a good bargain outta him... as always! lol A short visit to Pearl for art supplies, where, unbelievably, my student card from Spain got me a 10% discount! I am all for discounts and bargains!

I then took the subway to Time Square at 42nd, and walked down to 40th with 7th to the most famous comic book store in the world! I was trying to find Raphael or Michaelangelo, from the TMNT action figures for my son as a b-day gift, which is next month... but, unfortunately, they had none! A bit frustrated walked back to Broadway and went to Toys R Us... the same thing! No Raphael! No Michaelangelo! Totally frustrated now!

The afternoon was giving in, as well as my feet. It was time to go back to the dorm and try to rest some before my dinner date with Sandy... or so I thought! 10 minutes after I got there Sandy called and told me to leave right away! Take the subway up to 242nd st. where she will be waiting for me... No rest! "This is NYC" I keep telling myself! The city that never "rests"!

It was so good though to finally see Sandy! She is looking great, and doing really well after the cancer. She took me for dinner to a little sushi place in Riverdale, and... I finally had my first cosmopolitan!!!! Sushi was excellent too!

Stuffed and tired, (cause it was my real meal since I've got here!) I went back to the dorm. I was supposed to meet Sue and go to a cs meeting with her and a bunch of NY cs, but when I called her I got the machine, and by the time she answered back I was already half sleep, and with no desire of going out again!

Outside, it was still windy and a little cold. But we still had the promise of a new day ahead, a one with shinny and clear skies... and that was enough to go to sleep and dream again.

2nd day in NYC... Lawyer's day!

2010-05-02T21:43:00.002+02:00

April 28, 2010

Second day in NYC... Meetings with my lawyer, and such await me! Not a fun day for me. Besides, it is fucking freezing out there!

I feel like an onion, I am wearing layer upon layer of clothing, and still am freezing! Can barely move! So many layers make me a little bit clumsy. Well, what the hell! I am just a little bit clumsier than usual! lol

The meeting at my lawyer's cut my day in two. I wanted to go to the National History Museum or the Planetarium, but didn't had enough money for it! So, I just walked around its lobby and took a couple of pics of the enormous dinosaur's bones displayed in the middle of it. Tried to see if I could get away by sneaking in one of the exhibits or the museum itself, but it was heavily guarded, and was afraid to get caught... I left with my tail between my legs, and went back to Sue's.

Later on that same day, I received a call from Sandy. Finally! We are probably gonna have dinner tomorrow night. I really wanna see her, it has already been more than 2 years since we last saw each other! It is about time.

In the mean time, I was back at the dorm, Sue wasn't around, but I knew she was going through her finals and she would have little or no time at all to be with me. So, I called Adam's assistant, Amr, a really nice young gentleman! We share a passion for writing and culture, so I was glad we could meet that night for a walk. Outside it was even colder than the night before! Really crazy weather for NY this time of year! But the weatherman's forecast for tomorrow looks promising... we'll see!

Amr and I walked all the way down from 72nd street (I think) to Columbus Circle, and sat down there sharing our space with some of NYC rats! We both kept away from each other's path, fortunately! (I meant the rats and us!)

BTW, I showed Amr, who's a major in English, my latest English poem and he not just liked it, he thought it was very good! Which really reassured the thought of how good I am! LOL

666 has landed in NYC!

2010-05-02T20:42:00.006+02:00

First day in NYC... It started as a normal NYC day, everybody running around, fast paced... even the elderly!

My hostess had planned something for the evening. I had a terrible jet-lag and was really tired... but, it is NYC, and you can't say no to it! Can you?

She told me we were gonna have pizza near Bleecker st. and then go to an off-Broadway comedy show... What a surprise, a delightful surprise! When the curtain finally opened, my jaw dropped to the floor! There they were, Yllana's boys on a new comedy show called "666". I reviewed them right here on September 10, 2008 when they performed in Sabadell town festivities their Star Trip show... I just couldn't believe my eyes, it was, actually, a very surreal experience!

I am in NYC! Not in Spain! Not anymore, anyways. But there they were, performing their incredibly talented comedy act, and I... I was in some place between a transoceanic jet-lag and a NY minute.

I am a vessel on a sea as deep as unknown...

2010-03-28T04:14:00.004+02:00

I am a vessel on a sea as deep as unknown. Adrift... with a gust of breezing contradictions blowing my sail to port. I have the sun ahead, but the stars follow me close. I don't mind the solitude, that rogue a splash salting my face. An empty bottle meant for a shore, carrying a message of rum days long gone.

I am a vessel on shadowy waters leaving a whitish wake. Adrift... flying with seagulls following a dream, racing with dolphins a meaningful stream. I don't mind the fading horizon, that line that never comes close. An empty bottle meant for a shore, carrying a message for someone long gone.

Pussy men

2010-02-12T22:17:00.003+01:00

Let's talk about pussy men! Yeah, you heard me right... PUSSY MEN! They come in all sizes and colors, but the last one I met came in a medium body size (coz I never came to see the inside body coz he turned out to be too much of a pussy) and in black and white... Black skin, white teeth!

Pussy men, they will flirt with you, tell you how much they like you, hug you, touch and scratch your legs... and brake your stockings too, invite you all the time to go out, never to stay in! That is if they don't also talk incessantly to you about their ex-girlfriends!

I have been lucky, since recently, cause I have never encountered one of them, at least not one I was interested. But I guess my lucky stream has finally been broken with this one specimen!

Luckily for me tomorrow is Carnival and I am going as a sexy angel... will post the pics in my next entry, promise! And, luckily, I might find some non pussy man willing to stay indoors with me! lol

And as far as this specimen and all the other pussy men of this world, PLEASE! try to stay out of my life! Prego!

Greetings Earthlings

2010-02-08T23:53:00.009+01:00

I am so outta practice that I don't really know what to talk to you about, except perhaps for the fact that today I finally realized that not only I must be from another planet (Planet Silvia) but I have also been in hibernation for a very long time, and on a very long trip through galaxies and asteroid fields.

Today I found out about the earthquake in Haiti, that Obama is growing gray hair already, and one of my best friends has been getting reacquainted with an old flame, ended up been a couple, and already split up. In other words, as long as my friend is concerned, it is still business as usual, at least for me. Cause she is exactly in the same single condition as she was the last time I spoke to her! No wonder they say life is weird, I should know better, I hold a Master's Degree on Weirdness!

And besides the fact of been more connected to my Mother Ship than to this planet's affairs, the fact of having been absorbed by an Internet black hole didn't help a bit!

It is amazing to think how we communicate nowadays. How much we rely on technology and science to make our everyday lives whole. When was the last time any of you bought a stamp at the post office? Does any of you know how much a stamp costs these days? Cause I certainly don't! I haven't penned a letter since... I don't even remember the date! Which also made me realize that all my friends really live in my computer.

The world has been shrinking since the day a couple of nerds invented the PC in their garage. It has shrunk so much that people don't even live in their home towns all their lives... as it used to be in a not too far away past, but in a really too faraway galaxy it seems. In the time span of six months 5 of my friends have moved. They haven't upgraded their respective homes, but moved to other cities, even countries or continents. And since I had a bit of a crash when I landed today, it's gonna cost me a fortune in airfare just to go on visit them. Cause on top of all that the "beam me up Scotty" of my Mother Ship isn't working too well either.

I guess I'm stock in this time and place for now, better make the best out of it! Gone watching CNN online, see if I can find another gray hair in Obama's head.

This is Major Tom, signing off now.

Neither Tuesday, nor a Friday

2009-05-28T18:59:00.005+02:00

Neither a Tuesday nor a Friday. Still it was the 13 of some month of a certain year, or at least it could have been, and I was new and thinking for the first…

If I were to be born on this day and had no precognition of the world, I’d with certainty say: The Sun is shy. The air is chilly. The ceiling is sad: can’t stop crying. People are pale. Nubians are pale! Women wear Cossack pants. All men have big beer bellies. Preferential treatment awaits only to those speaking any foreign language: In a world where you don’t know what the sun looks like, sunglasses are used to block the light within: People’s true colors… If I were to be born on this day and had no precognition of the world, I’d with certainty say: Waiting on the platform can be quite an adventure. Flowers are in full bloom seducing all kinds of birds and insects. If you sit still waiting for the train nobody knows when will enter the station nor which tracks will it use to make its big entrance: like a debutant in the ballroom of life. But if you sit stillest still, long enough, waiting for the train: which of course will make you wait long enough! you will undoubtedly be bugsessorized. You will be engulfed and gulped all at once by an army of flapping wings. A gigantic stomach releasing induced vomits of acid. Stings all over the legs. They always attack the legs first: The army of flapping wings. And the desperate scratching… it only rebels the more timid stingers. Now, all stung and on the verge of a nervous break down, you will realize you’ve just been around for a little while and still don’t know the miraculous benefits of cortisone: The ceiling is sad: can’t stop crying. Finally, you’re inside your train wondering how long will this ride last. Will it have great many stops? Already have the window seat. But the view isn’t always pretty. Keeps getting interrupted, now and then, by the pitch-black darkness of making way through impossibles: Pretty much straight. Pretty much all the time.

If I were to be born on a day like this and had no precognition of the world, I’d with certainty say: That are the curves the most exciting part of this ride: the bending of corners: the mystery behind. That the sun is shy and the ceiling is sad: can’t stop crying.

Rambling

2009-03-12T04:51:00.006+01:00

Today the wind has slowed down a little. It is more pleasant to go out at night and don't find yourself fighting over the sand that got into your mouth or in your eyes! This has open a world of possibilities, like eating by the beach under the pale moonlight... and don't find crunchiness in every bite!

I keep meeting characters in this hotel I'm staying at... Today it was the turn for CJ and his protégé... CJ been a former reggaeton radio station's dj, now turned reggaeton artists' manager, he started conversing with me while I was trying to write something here! Anyway, in the end he made sure to find out if I was single or else! hahaha He was so obvious! hahaha At one point he asked: "OMG! Won't your husband get jealous if he sees me talking to you???" hahahaha

Well, I don't have a husband... but a jealous hotel manager, perhaps! lol Just one of the many that find me so attractive lately!

I went by the pool to have a smoke and there was a woman talking to the top of her lungs (probably drunk, cause I think I saw her jaywalking the lawn) on how she just had her first sexual experience... with sodomy! She was so excited, I think she was still cumming! Nevertheless, it was pretty interesting what she was saying about her backdoor exit experience... She was lamenting all the years wasted with a negative whenever the opportunity had arised!

CJ is back, and the hotel manager is marking his territory! hahaha He hasn't left my side, just in case! He even gave me a kiss!!!! Men are really something! They never cease to amaze me.

Anyway... the manager has left, CJ came downstairs again... to talk to me, obviously! (told you! attraction is on my side, lol) I will go out to the terrace... the view tonight is spectacular. There is a full moon and everything seems to be covered by a silvery mantle... SHIT!!! They just said the elevator has broken!!!! And I am in the 7th floor!!!!! I think I saw a nice couch in the lobby... I'll only need a blanket, and I'm all set!

Well, goodnight fellas... 'til another day!

Don't get my weird success with men!

2009-03-10T01:56:00.006+01:00

I was going to tell you about the abysmal differences between the non existing 800 number and the invisible 24-7 customer service versus the detailed service received once at the Barcelona Airport... But for some reason, that it's something that can wait for now. I'll explain myself...

I have been trying to understand something that has me completely bewildered, to say the least! And I am talking about men, of course!

For some reasons that are obvious to me, but somehow are escaping the rest:

I am feeling older and uglier than ever before, cause the lines around my eyes are more visible now than ever. I am feeling (and probably cause I AM) fatter than ever!... when I look at myself in the mirror, I can see little bulges coming off my underarms and off the back of my sundress!

My stomach seems to have developed a sudden attraction for gravity, cause it keeps falling down... and my ass is not fit for a white woman!... I have a Jennifer Lopez ass!!! Can' t seem to keep it in place no matter what I try! Even when I'm wearing jeans, or any other kind of pants (which, by the way, I hate!) my ass keeps coming off the back... and my stomach coming off the front! I rather stand up until my legs and feet swell, than sit down and have all that mass come out like The Blob, flooding over my pants like in a horror movie!

But, despite all that... Men are falling around me like flies on the honey! Don't get it, really. It is the lowest I have ever felt about myself, but somehow it is the most attractive I have been to them!

They keep paying me compliments about my EYES! (the ones that have more lines than a Martian landscape!) ... my body! For crying out loud! The body that looks like one of those Spanish sausages that put me where I am now!!!!...... All and all, I have more success with men nowadays that I had in a very, very long time!! Still don't get it, but I swear it's the truth! I even had two guys fighting over me a couple of weeks ago!

Not that I don't like the attention, but it's kinda weird... if you know what I mean.

I started going to the gym before my trip to PR, cause I have to do something about that gravity thingy, and because I am tired of looking at myself and kinda see my aunt in the mirror!!!! That my friends, it's a horror movie in itself!!!

But I also have to stop eating the so many good things they have in Spain! That ain't helping at all, I know! Keeping fit was easier when I lived elsewhere! There are so many things for what I am hating Spain right now!!!!! But one thing at a time... first of all, put an end to the Wes Craven film of my life! That might do the trick... in the mean time, I will console myself with the studs that keep coming at me!

Weather of the Caribbean... The curse of the Tropical Storm

2009-03-06T20:41:00.004+01:00

And here I am, in "sunny" Puerto Rico... So far the sun has only showed its face today and just for a little while. Still is windy as hell and because of the bad weather, going out has been out of the question!

To give you an idea, yesterday I waited more than an hour to get a taxi! Not even taxi drivers adventure out when there is bad weather. After all, it is understandable... the streets collapse with traffic jams, just because the lack of alternate routes and also, because three quarters of them are under 2 feet of water.

Electricity also fails. It only takes a knocked down line by the strong winds to have half the Metropolitan area without working semaphores for a while... and if, on top of it, you add the fact that there probably are one and a half cars per person... well, you do the math! But I tell you, in reality feels like been in the middle of total chaos!

Despite the heavy wind, a shy little sun emerged today between the dark clouds. A sign from heaven to go down to the pool... Unfortunately, the pool faces North and the hotel is just south of its lonely water hole... the sun doesn't reach the coral stones that surround the little pond. It even makes a big shadow over the small strip of beach behind it! Looking at the angle of the casted shadows, I would guess that around this time of year, it probably is early in the morning the only time suitable to sunbathe by the swimming pool. Just my luck! Cause frankly, I am not a morning person at all! If required to wake up early in the morning, I rather stay up all night... it is the only way I can remain sharp. Otherwise, I will look and feel as in a wake... MINE!

Anyway, I hope for a sunnier day tomorrow... in the mean time, I will probably go to the sancta sanctorum of my room to watch a movie, read my book, or something... Maybe I'll go out tonight... gotta be ready, just in case. Right!

Carnaval en Lloret

2009-02-28T13:17:00.016+01:00

My arrival here coincided with the Carnival celebration... I´ve gotta tell you, I have to add one more thing that people here know how to do very well... and that of course is partying! I have been so engrossed in my misery lately that I completely forgotten on how capable they are at showing you a great time... that is, if they can keep the bitching at bay!

I was in front of a mountain of cardboard boxes full of needless things, but that you carry them anyway! Probably as a comfort blanket, nothing more... and I couldn´t take it any longer! The walls were kinda tumbling down on me, and I felt totally lost in a sea of bits and pieces from my previous lives! I had a number in my pocket... Ramon! from Thursday night at Moby´s. What the hell! I thought. Let´s give him a call and see what´s in the agenda for tonight!

I doubted he would remember me. After all, it was Aida who made the connection... I was there just for the booze, and surrounded by my usual aloofness! Didn´t pay too much attention to him or anyone else... But, he did remembered me! And the funniest part is that we are neighbors! Who would have thought! We live accross the street from each other, and naturally he offered himself to show me some of the local waterholes... along with their fauna! LOL

It was Carnival. Everybody was in costume! Many did disguised themselves around a theme and did it in bunches. It was a very wild night... a very good one too! Only, I danced and jumped so much that I managed to loose my cellphone, or maybe it was stolen... I don´t really know. Found out the next morning around 8AM when I finally made it to somebody´s home! lol

The bartender of the first tavern we hit

Some of Ramon´s friends

Sergi in costume.... he was supposed to be some kind of truck driver cock sucker from Rumania or something...

More of Ramon´s friends

Snow White and not the dwarfs, but Ramon himself!

Sergi again... of course!

I would have liked to say ¨don´t you just take my word for it¨ and then post the pics I took that night... But, it seems there is a little uploading problem here at the Internet Cafe. I promise you I will try again tomorrow... Cause no matter what, an image is worth a thousand words!

24-7... an unheard concept here in Spain!

2009-02-16T19:43:00.003+01:00

I have an upcoming trip to Puerto Rico, but needed to change the date cause it caught me right in the middle of moving to my new place.

What did I do???? I called the airline to cancel my flight. Because that's what you normally do, right? WELL, NO NO NO NO... NOT IN SPAIN!!!!

Something as simple as a 24-7 eight hundred number is an unheard concept here in Spain. It seems really impossible that in this time and age, you'll find a country in the world (not the third world!) that doesn't have the right tools to offer a good Customer Service... But I am in SPAIN!!! and unfortunately, things here don't work that way.

Customer Service???? They don't even know what it means! I kinda got used to the idea that Spaniards are rude and nasty when it comes to deal with public in general. But I've gotta tell you, this is TOO MUCH!!! This goes beyond rude and nasty! This is simple and plain common sense!!! For crying out loud!!!

You would have expected that even in a "third world country", like this fucking country! (but don't even tell them!!!) an American company would have a better understanding of the services they need to provide. Specially, cause it probably has to deal with lots of Americans, like me!!!! used to a FIRST CLASS SERVICE, NO MATTER WHAT!!!! But nooooooo!!! It seems that American Airlines has gotten the same virus that affects the rest of this forsaken place!

I swear! the ham is great, the cheese superb, the espresso hmmm, the paellas... the food in general! Marvelous, wonderful, amazing!!!!! The rest.... IT SUCKS BIG TIME!!!!! I think they are gonna give me an ulcer, if I haven't got it yet!

Oh well, I am gonna take a long hot bath, and I'll get ready to go out and have dinner somewhere... After all, it seems to be the only thing they know how to do well!

"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

2009-02-15T15:38:00.006+01:00

Arenys de Mar didn't turned out to be the place I was looking for. One has to kiss many toads before one finds her prince!

Decided to go on with my search, and always on the coast, that's how I met with Gabriella and Sergio. The Argentinian couple that came to live to Spain after many, many years living in the States. It was funny how we instantly clicked!

It was me, as usual, who, and with no consideration at all to anything, (or should I say with the same deference I have received since my arrival here...) I started bitching about this fucked up place called Catalonia, and for that matter but some grades bellow, Spain.

In Sergio I found the perfect ears to deposit all my frustration and despair. He was supposed to show me just a couple of flats. That was something than in any other circumstances would have taken an hour at the most, but in this case, it ended up been a delightfully 5 hour long rendezvous. We even shared a cup of hot Earl Grey, my favorite!

In the end, the business transaction took a second place before what is, and to put it in Bogie's words... "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".

Gabriella turned out to be as charming and supporting as Sergio. She was the one to take me to Lloret de Mar. When I walked inside the flat, it didn't take me more than a minute to make up my mind! I guess that deep inside I knew I would know it... Know that I was home. The only thing missing is flatware! No biggie, really!

We left Lloret straight to their office in Pineda, where I signed the pre-contract, and today I will finalize the transaction signing the contract with an option to buy! The whole thing couldn't be more perfect, and who knows, if I can really integrate myself, I might end up been the owner of a flat in the Costa Brava!

The other good news are that I might also get a job working with the F1 circuit... in every country that holds the Grand Prix, except for Brazil.

Life is certainly starting to look better for me... which reminds me of a Spanish saying: "No hay mal que dure cien años... ni cuerpo que lo resista". Which basically means that nothing lasts forever, not even the bad times.

Boadas still!!! hahaha

2009-02-15T14:28:00.004+01:00

Still am at Boadas! And I am thinking you could probably ask for any kind of cocktail here.... I am sure they would know right away what is it you are asking for, even if it is to just prepare it Boadas' style!

Sipping my second Cosmo now, and I have to admit its sweetness is starting to get to my head! Not enough food today, I guess. But it's OK! After this one I will walk out in style... no walks of shame tonight! lol I'll take a cab and make it home, not the new one though... but it's getting pretty close now! My dream apartment still is in my pocketbook and just an hour away from here!

One great thing about my soon to be new home though... it is IT, the place to be during the summer. I will be smack in the middle of the summer action... and that my friends, that is PRICELESS!!!

Shit! I haven't even made a dent to my second glass and my head feels as light as a feather! Dammit!!!! lol .... I am wondering now about that graceful and stylish exit I had in mind just a few minutes ago... where is it going???? hahahaha

BTW, surprisingly enough, they don't take credit cards here at Boadas... so, if ever in the neighborhood, please do take some cash with you. Otherwise, I see you washing glasses for a couple of nights... meaning it isn't cheap! But totally worth it!

The only thing that could top what I'm feeling right now, would be TT walking in and making a pass at me! hahaha But what the hell am I saying!!!! Must be Boadas' Cosmos speaking! What the hell would a soccer player be doing in a place like this! Although, I wish it could really happen... Anyway, he probably is a prick! I know, I know... I am in love with a body, a smile, and a color! hahaha It would be funny though, if I ever meet him, to find out if he really is worth the time of day... but foremost, if he really deserves me! AHA!

Not that I want to, but the closeness of this place doesn't help... I overhear a conversation between a patron and one of the bartenders, a regular for the familiarity of the exchange... their respective wives don't like flying and the patron has the cure for it... a couple of whiskeys and a Valium!!!! I sure wouldn't want to be in her shoes!!!! The kind of things you can hear in places like this!

I will sign off now, I wanna finish the rest of my drink in private, if you don't mind.

Ta-ta, see ya!

A farewell to Barcelona

2009-02-15T02:30:00.003+01:00

I started celebrating too early. The owner of what I thought was my dream apartment is asking for a 2,000 Euros bank guaranty!!! Nevertheless, and since I know I will live in an even better place, I decided to go out in style and celebrate anyways... after all, my just recovered will needs a Cosmopolitan desperately!!

Right now I am at Boadas, the oldest cocktail bar in Barcelona. Established by Miguel Boadas in 1933, the place has remained practically the same since. All thanks to the continued tradition in the hands of his daughter now, who's approximately around 80 years old!!! The business of making people "happy"... literally!

As I write these lines, I am sipping a Cosmo, my favorite drink. I have to say, it isn't at all what I expected, but it isn't bad either. I guess it is a Spanish style Cosmo!. A little bit sweeter than the ones you get in the States, a little bit tangier too, with a subtle orange whiff to it. Different, yes... but not bad, not bad at all.

Mahogany is all over the place. Mahogany is the main characteristic of this picturesque place! It is a very small room, and they told me it used to be even smaller. I don't think it can hold more than 30 patrons at a time, and 25 of them standing up. Aside from the bar, there is a mahogany sill all around the room, for the purpose of putting your drink down. Above it, the room is full of photographs, cartoon likenesses and oil paintings of the founder and his daughter.

Miguel was a man with a very pleasant completion. An oil painting of him catches my attention, a broad smile dominates not only his face, or the portrait, it really dominates the whole room.

Sitting at the curb in the end of the bar, you get the feeling time has stood still. Even the bartenders ware uniforms more appropriate for 1930's fashion than today's. I feel like a time traveler... and right now I am at a place in time where I could see Hemingway walking any minute in and through that door... and we all know how fond was he of alcohol!

It is a farewell to the nights in Barcelona. A "Spanish style" Cosmo farewell!
Tomorrow I will continue my journey in search of the perfect home!

The call

2009-02-11T01:06:00.003+01:00

I am on a train. It isn't a destination unknown, I exactly know what I am doing... for a change, lol. Cause it hasn't felt like it lately, but today it is different.

My iPod is on. "Lady in red"is playing, and outside my window I can see the golden lights of the magic hour twinkling over the gentle waves. I will arrive at Arenys de Mar just as the sun starts to come down... I will see the sunset from the terrace of my soon to be new home.

It is funny how life takes you around, plays with you. Sometimes a little, other times a lot! But in the end, and after making you suffer, she'll always give you what you prime for. Funny. Yeah!

I remember myself saying I would some day like to retire to a small town in the Costa Brava with a terrace overlooking the beach. I would then go for a swim any time I felt like... sunbathe with nothing at all between me and the sand, the blue sky or the sea. Breathing my inspiration a bit at a time, mixed in the air that comes from the depths of the Mediterranean... salty, fishy, adorned with pearls and corals. Notes of red, blue and gold. Laced with the waves that brake at my feet... and all that is just 30 minutes away from me now! Hard to believe!

I acted on an impulse. I didn´t even wanted to stay in Barcelona anymore. I was feeling so unhappy, so useless, so impotent! It was as if the city and all it's scum had transformed all of the sudden into some kind of a monster, eating me alive, devouring my will to do anything at all! I had been erased, annulled from existence... a terrible way to go! And then... when I saw the add... I felt the little coves of the Costa Brava calling me. I felt the blood in my veins flowing again, rushing through my heart, pumping my dried out arteries.

I heard the call... and I was answering...

About Spanish Men... Desmystifying the image of the Latin Lover

2009-02-08T05:19:00.003+01:00

If any of you out there have ever had the fantasy of a Latin lover... let me just demystify the notion of it.

I know books, songs and movies, and lately Antonio Banderas have a lot to do with the image some have created in their minds about what a Latin lover is or does. But reality can be, and is, quite the opposite!

Since Rudolph Valentino, Latin lovers haven't changed a bit. They still beat women and treat them like objects, really! Everyday I see on the news a new victim of their machismo, and it seems there isn't anything that can be done to stop it. There is no romance when there still is a double standard. It is ok if is the man that goes out at night with his friends, and comes late... or early in the morning, no questions asked. But if it is the woman who does it... well, it is a very different story. The least it will happen, is she will find her pajamas on the sofa, along with her pillow! The worst can easily go from finding the door bolted and impenetrable, to all her belongings in the street... if not death in the worst case scenarios!

The funniest happens after a brake-up. Just like in the movie with the same name, you still have to tolerate each other cause neither party wants to move out. Women are more civilized when it comes to that. Men on the other hand, don't take it as easy as you would think they would. They can tell you they don't love you anymore, they can tell you it is over, but they will also tell you they are not jealous if you go out and come home late... but they will want to know every detail about your little escapade. So, you'll better have your story straight! Fortunately, it is easy to turn them around... Let's face it, we are better liars than them! If they do anything they weren't supposed to do, they will come home with flowers or some sort of a gift they would never give you if not out of pure and sheer plain guilt! Thus, they are always gonna be caught infraganti! Besides, they will always start giving explanations without been asked to give them... and that my friends, is a dead giveaway!

I can only feel amused by the things men will be willing to do or say, just to deny they aren't in love anymore... In some cases it might be true, but when it comes to Latin lovers, it is impossible to let go. Once you've been owned by one of them, you'll always be their property. No matter what you do, no matter how far away you go, they will always feel you have betrayed them!

Tonight I was lucky! I just found my pajamas and sleepers in the living room. My pillows and my iPod over the sofa! Tomorrow, who knows what it will happen! Cause no matter how much a man thinks I am some kind of an object that can be owned, I will never cease to be who I am... my own woman, my own person!

I wonder, what will he want to know in the morning??? lol

Outraged!

2009-01-26T23:32:00.012+01:00

Haven't we learned anything? For how long are we gonna prevent our mistakes from becoming part of our historical memory? And if so... Why do we choose that path when there isn't any real restitution to be made, nor is there any just retribution to be given? Isn't that too accommodating, too easy, too self forgiving, and also too hypocritical?

I feel totally outraged, it has been so for quite a long time now. But lately, it has become an abnormally normal way of living. A strange daily ritual, for which I feel as guilty as any of the culprits holding the most important roles in this never ending stage called life.

It isn't just one thing! It is the sum of all that has gone unchecked by all of us as a collective. We are just too goddamn busy living our pitiful excuse of a life, to really stand up and denounce the obvious!

On one hand, we are killing the planet. But that pretty blue sphere we all call home, isn't ready yet to go into the night without a fight. Western Europe, Spain and France particularly, have received the fury of the elements... we had a sort of hurricane over land. And that, when we all know that hurricanes never form over it! The destruction has been nothing short of catastrophic, and the death toll... one too many! We might as well do what Jim Jones did in Guyana and kill everybody including our kids. We might as well put a gun in their heads... suffering will only last a fraction of a second vs. the moribund home they are gonna inherit from us, plus a slow and painful death as our dammed legacy to them.

Secondly, I keep hearing people talk about a crisis, a new depression, etc... everybody in their respective countries blaming the government in turn. Opposition has it easier than ever these days! As it has always been, if I may add... Only now, they seem to be feeding on the lack of a discerning criteria on behalf of the millions of people suffering it first hand.... More to my introduction point! We still are as dumb as ever!

We need more independent thinkers. But, above all, more independent doers! I don't believe in problems, there is just people without imagination!

The unscrupulous will take advantage of our most primal fear, making us believe that in returning to our worn out and ragged old patterns rests our only way out. I don't have all the answers... but I also feel some kind of certainty as they are even more clueless than me, if that is even possible!

Four boys died last Saturday morning, due in part to the extreme weather conditions we have been experiencing since, due in part to construction defects in the stadium that buried them alive under its rubble. A stadium they were precisely using to escape the strong winds blowing outdoors! Irony? No, I don't think so. Total negligence on behalf of the highest bidder for the construction of a government financed project... That's more like it! But unfortunately, it isn't until a tragedy of this sort takes place that the responsible show up with a solution. Is that gonna return those kids back to life and to their broken down families? Why did we wait so? Can we really fall any lower?

I swear, sometimes I believe I am living between Disneyland and Macondo, and this is just a bad chapter of the Surreal Life!

And the cherry to top it all! The IV Reich is here already!!!
Yes, I said the IV Reich, leaded by the elected Nazi Pope Benedict XVI, whom in an act that dares all that a man of God is supposed to stand for, lifted the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops, including that of a Holocaust denier whose rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jewish and not Jewish groups alike. All that without any consideration to the other 6 million people that were also exterminated! Gassed along with the Jews, they were considered little pebbles in Hitler's shoes. Gays, lesbians, Gypsies, communists, persons with physical and mental disabilities, etc. Religion wasn't the only criteria used during the Holocaust. In total, Hitler & Co. got rid of 12 million people! So, and just as a footnote... ENOUGH ALREADY with the Jewish martyrs! They weren't the only ones who suffered during WWII. And now, back to the present Nazi Pope in Rome and his predecessor Pope Pius XII... The one that condoned all the atrocities committed by the III Reich.

Men of God??? Holy See??? HOLY SHIT! And that's more like it!

If we can so easily forget, or "forgive", our not so old past... What else is there waiting for us? How much more has to happen before we all firmly stand before such an outrage!

Just some thoughts on the Palestinian Genocide

2009-01-13T03:06:00.004+01:00

"The failure of the Oslo Accords, the betrayed promise of a Palestinian Estate and the continued denial of Hamas as the elected Palestinian government, have provoked the actual situation in Gaza" This was part of a manifest presented by the small group "Jews for a Just Peace". They were present during yesterdays rally in Berlin, where another very small group of people, around 2,000 to be exact, rallied in favor of Israel's actions against Gaza and the Palestinian people.

It is of common knowledge that Germany holds a guilty complex when it comes to Jews and Israel... thanks to their Nazi past! To go against Israel still is a taboo for them. Understandable... maybe. But 'til when is this guilt gonna be an excuse for the inexcusable? The only thing this is doing for Germany, in the best of cases, is to cause the exact opposite reaction... It makes even more patent the antisemitism that still lives in Germany. A two face masquerade holding a signed blank check to the order of Israel, to confirm without the shadow of a doubt that same past they so desperately want to officially forget.

The little power the manifestation showed, is just another confirmation of a recent poll, where one out of every two Germans is against Israel's attacks on Gaza. Even Jews are against it! Why is it then? Why are we condoning such a conduct. A conduct that so far has taken the lives of 876 people.

Hamas is not the only one suffering here. There are children, just like yours. Human beings just like you and me. People who want to live, grow, progress and aspire to all the things you and me take so much for granted!

I keep hearing comments on the streets, some against Israel, others against the Palestinian. The latest are always accompanied by the word "terrorist". But, how can you leave that qualification out when your sovereignty is not recognized? When no matter what you do, your neighbors don't do as they say? And the crudest of them all... When you see your son, daughter, mother, uncle, sister, brother treated like animals, and finally murdered like pigs.

There is no dignity in this attacks, there is no dignity in murder, but there is even less dignity in turning away from it. When is enough gonna be enough for us to do something? And all because it doesn't happen to one of us!

Spain and me... A match made in Hell!

2009-01-10T14:55:00.007+01:00

And just when I thought Spain was finally smiling at me... Badaboum! The hit came out of nowhere and left me truly K.O.

I am clueless when it comes to what kind of a silly idea made me think I could make it back home without any troubles, or at least not so many! Was that too much to ask? I keep wondering.

You all have been my witnesses, you all have been here with me every time I had a setback on this little adventure of mine. You have read about the big bumps I found on the road, the small victories (which were the few), and how my brother wiped my tears and gave me hopes every time I was ready to throw the towel, and go back the same way I came.

Looking back now, June 24, the day I finally came to Barcelona (or should I say Sabadell, which is definitively not the same) seems to have taken place more than an eternity ago. So much has happened! I seem to have come a long way since, or so I thought. Think again baby! Just when I was starting to savor the laurels of moving into the big city, and just when I was about to sign the contract on my new home, another Spanish fuck came in and made true, all over again, what I already thought about this fucking place!

They told me to wait until after the Holidays to sign... on the day in question I called to confirm the appointment, and... Surprise, surprise! They plainly told me that they were putting the apartment on the market again! Cause the owner turned greedy before the tough times the economy is living nowadays. The fucking owner wants to make more money on it... I would say "good luck" on that one! I hope he crashes and burn on trying! Fucking bastard!

Anyways, I'm back to square one. A little bit numb, of course! But in good spirits. One thing I have learned these past months is to take things easy, and don't let this fucking country of mine get to my nerves! I think I can finally say that I am over it! Just like I am over a lot of other things... like man in general! HAHAHA Not sex though! I'm sorry, but there still are things that one cannot live without! Which reminds me... Gotta go suck somebody's dick! Ta-ta, seeya!

All you need is ________?

2009-01-07T23:45:00.016+01:00

"John Lennon was right: Love is the answer..." Someone said on the TV. And they continued, "couples tend to break up more during the Summer holidays than any other time of year".

I couldn't help it. Right away I started thinking why could that be true, and the reason seems to be the long periods of time they spend together during this season of leisure. Been together at all times creates all kinds of animosities between the parts, and it could make life unbearable, as I heard.

I tried to remember the most significant breakups I've had to see the theory proved. But in the end, I couldn't find a single one that happened during Summer. Although, I have to agree that some of them were caused by that "midsummer closeness".

If the whole point of a relationship is been together, why do we run away from it?

It is true, we all need some time apart. Time of our own to do whatever it is that complements the relationship. A lot of people understand that that time is to do things they used to do before they had a partner in life... and that is when problems arise. Because no matter how you put it, some of those activities are totally against the principles of a good and healthy relationship. For example, and I don't want to be the party pooper here, but if you ask for a time to yourself to go out dancing with your buddies... well, that isn't gonna add anything to the relation! In any case, it can actually deteriorate immensely the trust in each other... and trust is the engine that keeps the relation going.

"All you need is love" another Lennon mantra! But I searched myself in and out, and I have to disagree with it... All you need is trust. That's how it should go! Break that trust and you'll end up alone, hurting and hurt!

On the other hand, acceptance... moreover, tolerance... There you have it! Like a quintessential chem formula, Love=trust+tolerance/misled aloneness. Such a simple one too! Why is it then so hard to achieve? What has gone wrong in the lab of our lives?

Food for thought...

____________________________________________________________________________________

Y ahora y para mi querido hermano, aquí va la traducción:

Todo lo que necesitas es ________?

“John Lennon tenía razón: El amor es la respuesta...” Alguien estaba diciendo en la tele y continuaba, “las parejas tienden a dejarse más durante el verano”.

No pude evitarlo e inmediatamente empezé a pensar en el por qué de tal aseveración. La razón parece estar en que es durante esa temporada de ocio, cuando las parejas pasan más tiempo juntas. El estar tanto tiempo el uno al lado del otro crea todo tipo de animosidades entre las partes y por lo que he oído, la convivencia puede llegar a ser insoportable.

Traté de recordar las rupturas más importantes de mi vida con la intención de probar dicha teoría... pero al final, no fui capaz de encontrar ninguna que hubiese tenido lugar durante el verano. Aunque tengo que reconocer que algunas de ellas tuvieron como causa esa excesiva proximidad veraniega.

Si toda la razón de ser de una relación de pareja es poder estar el uno con el otro, ¿por qué lo saboteamos al tirar cada cual por nuestro lado?

Sí, es cierto que necesitamos nuestro espacio. Espacio y tiempo para hacer lo que sea que nos hace felices, porque la realidad es que cuando estamos contentos con nosotros mismos, aportamos más a la relación y sobre todo de mejor grado. Se trata de que ese espacio de crecimiento personal rompa con la monotonía de la cotidianidad. El problema surje cuando creemos que podemos llenar ese espacio con actividades que solíamos disfrutar cuando éramos solteros... pero lo que no tenemos en cuenta, es que algunas de éstas van en contra de lo que hace falta para mantener una relación de pareja saludable. Por ejemplo, y con esto no quiero ser la nota discordante, pero si utilizas tu espacio para salir de fiesta o copeteo con los amiguetes... bueno, que eso no va a ayudar, como tampoco añadirá nada positivo a tu relación. En todo caso, lo que dicha conducta puede provocar, es un deterioro irreversible en la confianza que cada cual pueda tener en el otro... y sin confianza no puede existir la relación.

“Lo único que necesitas es amor” otro mantra del Lennon! Pero después de rebuscarme y desdoblarme del derecho al revés, debo decir que discrepo totalmente con la frasecita... Lo único que necesitas es confianza. ¡Eso es lo que realmente debería decir! Rompe esa confianza y terminarás solo, herido y lo que es peor, ¡hiriendo al otro!

Por otro lado, la aceptación incondicional... o mejor aún, la tolerancia. ¡Helo aquí! La quintaesencia de la química conyugal, la fórmula para la convivencia perfecta: Amor=confianza+tolerancia/soledad equivocada. ¡Simple! ¿Verdad? Entonces, ¿por qué parece tán dificil de alcanzar? ¿Qué es lo que ha salido mal en el laboratorio de nuestras vidas?

Algo para la reflexión, sin duda.

A white Epiphany

2009-01-07T01:03:00.005+01:00

I spent the day at my brother's... who by the way, didn't pay too much attention to my present... I'm not even sure he liked it... Oh well!

It was raining cats and dogs when we got there, and for once (more!) I wished it was snow instead of rain. My coat was drowning in the cold rain, and for another one, my brother agreed with me.

After having lunch we all sat down for a movie, but just before that we listened to the news and they were announcing snow at 100 meters. My brother said to me: "not a chance we get it here. This is Barcelona, it rarely snows here. Besides we are at 66 meters". But that is where he lives... I live at 400 meters. So, I left his comment unanswered, probably cause the child in me was telling me I might get lucky later on... And I did!

Just half an hour past the time he left me home, it started snowing! I haven't seen snow in Barcelona since I was a kid, and boy, oh boy! What a marvelous treat that was!

It is snowing still, and all the cars parked on the street and the hill right in front of my building are already covered by a white blanket. I can't wait to see how it is gonna look in the morning! I hope it keeps snowing all night, otherwise, what already is in the ground might not hold... We'll see.

Another boring Sunday

2009-01-04T23:43:00.004+01:00

Another boring Sunday afternoon... the night doesn't seem to be improving either. Well, doesn't really matter. Just because we still are in the middle of the Christmas Season, doesn't mean every day is gonna be a holiday... Right?

Nevertheless, it has been a productive Sunday. I have updated my CV and even translated the same to English. Tomorrow I plan to go to the different newspapers in the city and live my CV for consideration. The English version... I am gonna start seeking for a position in the UK. After all, I still have the dream of living there again. Can't take that idea off my mind!

Now that I have finished with the serious part of my day... I think there showing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead man's chest... IN SPANISH! It is gonna be, as it always is, a hilarious one!

A gift for the Dalai Lama

2009-01-03T22:51:00.005+01:00

Today I went shopping to my childhood neighborhood, Gracia. I had to find a gift for my brother the "Dalai Lama". He is the most difficult person to give a present to! He has very few passions... one, actually! His every week trip to the mountains, where he rolls down through all kinds of obstacles mounting his bike, him and his buddies the Dark Bikers.

As you can see, it was an almost impossible task. I had to call my niece for advice and she said what I already new... an impossible! lol She bought him a shirt and a slack, so she suggested I could buy him a pullover.

One good thing about the current economic crisis: the traditional January Sale has come earlier this year! I found him not one, but two pullovers. Finished my errands around the neighborhood and when I was about to take a cab, I see this small train coming up the street towards me. It was magic! A Polar Express in miniature. It made a stop right in front of where I was standing, and offered the last ride of the night for free... I took it of course! and for the first time this Christmas I felt like a kid again.

It wasn't just the ride what was magical tonight, the last stop was nothing short of a trip through time... The last stop was right in front of the tent of the third Wise Man, Balthazar, the black one... and which by the way, was and still is my favorite one! I couldn't help it. I had to do it. No excuses... I just walked right to him and asked for a Wii Sports.

Of course I am not so sure my wish will be granted, but I sure had a blast trying!

It's complicated!

2009-01-02T23:56:00.011+01:00

I fell in love with a wonderful man. He is tall, handsome, kind. I can really talk to him, with him, and we understand each other in such a mature way... It was wonderful, but too short.

Why is it that whenever you find something so pure and good it never lasts... WHY!

We broke up a couple of days before Christmas, and it was really hard, because we love each other very much... we just can't be together. There are so many reasons why we can't be enjoying each other!

Yes, it is true that he's got a Peter Pan complex, and he probably still is a little bit of a mama's boy... but mostly, I know it is because he is afraid of failure, intimacy and commitment. He's fear paralyzes him in a way I have never seen before. He is so patently afraid of knowing he is in a relationship, and what such a state implies that he preferred to end it saying he loves me so much and don't want to hurt me with his fears. He wants to let it go now, cause he thinks that it is gonna happen anyways. No matter what we do, he believes, and I mean he really believes the future is already and irremediably written. He is sure he's never gonna be able to overcome his fears, and therefore, he is gonna fail me. He is gonna fail himself.

We are officially not together anymore... but we still live together as if nothing had happened. It is weird, I know! But we love each other... sometimes, most of the times... there are other moments when we are mutually pulling apart from each other, repelling each other!

In my case, it is because I have plans, lots of plans! Plans that, if in a relationship, would be postponed or worst! accommodated around the time we owe to the relationship. I would hate myself if I couldn't do all the things I need to do to fulfill a part of my inner self... on the other hand, one other thing I need to accomplish fulfillment, is a definite relationship with the man that makes me want to say "I wanna die with him, after having lived whatever I have left of life in this body of mine"...

His side of the story is a sad one too. He says he can't make things work. He says he can't change the course of things to happen. But, he keeps saying the same thing, that it is not that he doesn't want to, it is that he can't, cause he knows how it is gonna end. He says he is unable to make it happen, and he is afraid of hurting me more if we continue and then brake up having been together for a longer period of time. I keep saying that he doesn't want to, cause when you want something you fight for it till the end! Right? Unfortunately, I can't make him understand, nor can I get into his head to make him understand. In his mind, this future is his present... thus already happened. And in his future he has failed already. How can you fight that one!

The worst part, though, is that we really feel for each other, we really love each other (except when I hate him and he hates me back. Lol) But this is so complicated! When we are together we feel so intensely! We don't have to say it, and for a few days in a row we don't seem to have enough of each other, and those days are wonderful. Those are the days we don't leave the apartment and people don't intrude in our world. Then, and out of the blue, the demons come in and all goes to hell. We feel the need to be apart. We want to run out and be apart from each other, and time becomes an eternity just before we cross the door out... Then, it doesn't matter where we are, or who we are with... we feel miserable! Counting the minutes to go back into each other's arms.

We are both suffering already. I don't even know how it is gonna be after I move out, in a week or so. I know it is gonna hurt me more than I can imagine right now. I just don't wanna live in the future, like him... I don't want to miss a thing! Not one single wonderful moment... the bad ones I discard them as they come. Inside me, there's only place for good memories.

I am better at coping with it than he is. Probably because I live in the present, enjoy every minute of it!... In the mean time, he lives in an altered future where there is no future for us.

Those weird friends of mine: The Cigarette Eater

2009-01-02T12:28:00.004+01:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-12-31T11:16:00.003+01:00

It is the time of year when we are and show our best... For me it is a time of transit, a time of confusion and a time of gathering myself and my thoughts about what my life has been for the past 6 months (basically) and where I want it to go from now on... The last one is gonna take me more than just one night to figure it out!

Tonight everybody will be happy and joyous, and I... I don't know how I will feel. Horny is one option... although I don't have anyone to ease it with! That doesn't mean I wont feel it... but, a one night stand wont do it either.

Alone! that is not an option, it is the way it will be! My brother is going early to bed. He's got a date with his biker buddies early tomorrow. My niece is going through a break up with her fiancee and she is not going to do a thing... she is gonna be with him! IDIOT! Therefore, I am on my own... as usual!

Tonight I will fly solo... again! But, in the end, that is how I think I like it!

Happy New Year to everyone and best wishes for the whole 2009!

How I got to live in Barcelona City

2008-12-30T23:11:00.004+01:00

Where to begin... Remember my beautiful roommate Laura???? Turned out to be my most horrible nightmare!

The fucking Brazilian started acting crazy towards me, right after she found out I was better at friendship than she is. I'll explain myself... Do you remember Beto? Her summer long boyfriend? Well, in reality, they weren't together. But that I didn't know until much later, when one day after the movies he told me himself. They had a brief affair, and right after that she dismissed him under the pretext that he was not what she wanted... She was after a much bigger fish! As I found out, she was after a rich Spaniard we had met one summer night at a restaurant. The guy in question was the owner of several hospitality businesses around Sabadell and vicinity. But while entertaining him, she also was secretly entertaining poor old Beto! I had no idea! Of course, in my ignorance, and since I was doing no harm, I told her all about my incipient friendship with the Carioca. She got jealous! And from that point on, she started making my life miserable!

At the beginning I didn't make much of it. I just couldn't believe it! Even though, it took no time at all to realize what was going on, it was hard for me to acknowledge the truth... It simply seemed too stupid to be true! But I guess not everybody is the same, and still are brainless people in this world with nothing more than hair in their heads!

At first, it was little things she did to annoy me. The silent treatment was one of them. Messages failed to reach me. My mail, mysteriously returned to sender, while I increasingly felt harassed with her “soap opera like” little dramas! She started imitating the way I dressed, bought my same outfits, just to find out later that did little or nothing for her. Her vulgarity was patent, such a sad view! Things around the house changed places or magically disappeared before my eyes. When her meal ticket gave me a book as a present and started to enjoy the intelligent conversation she failed to provide him, her attacks got bolder! To the point she indisposed me with Manolo, the landlord, making me the scape goat he later used to throw me, and the other two roommates that later joined us, out! She also made their life miserable and that's when I realized it wasn't just me, nor my friendship with Beto or Jose, the reason for her inexplicable behavior. As a matter of fact, nothing, except sheer envy, can explain her contempt toward Tiphanie, Mary or me!

Just when I thought things were going to get better, that numbers were in our favor (3 to 1) it's when all hell broke loose and out of the blue, the three of us got hit... thrown out of the house without any explanation whatsoever! Luckily for us, and for some time now, I had been looking for a new place in Barcelona, and just a couple of days before it happened I stroke gold. Tiphanie and I had already talked about moving out together... Timing couldn't have been better! Still, it took us completely unprepared, since we had to rush and push our move, three whole weeks ahead of schedule!

I simply had to activate the emergency network and find refuge for us in a hurry! We are currently staying at friends. Tiphanie is at Javi's, and I am at Carlos, my niece's neighbors. It is just a temporary arrangement. Just until December 15, when we will move to a little adorable apartment I found in the neighborhood. No more Sabadell or commuting for us! We are finally living smack in the middle of Barcelona! As for Mary, she moved to another place in Sabadell. After all, she has all her family living there. One good thing though out of all this shit... the three of us have grown closer, and our friendship got stronger since! The kind of friendship the fucking Brazilian will never know!

Just Arrived! LATE NIGHT NEWS BULLETIN

2008-12-30T22:27:00.004+01:00

Here is my good neighbor. I left his face out to protect his identity... After all, I am not sure what he did is legal at all!

You might think I am a little, or a lot, crazy... besides the point... The thing is I'VE JUST GOT INTERNET!!! HURRAY!!!

Haven't finished with my moving, but I am at least connected! And all thanks to my neighbor who knows how to steel internet signals from other neighbors... lol Thank G for WiFi!

Tomorrow I will start as usual... will tell you all that happened these past couple of months... which, BTW, right now seem like a bad acid trip.

My life without the Net... or...No life at all! ... That is the question!

2008-12-30T20:07:00.006+01:00

It has been more than a month now... To tell you the truth, I never thought I could survive not even a day without my beloved connection to the Net... But here I am, a month or so later, and still without it!!!!

Writing these few words in a public computer, a "Locutorio" as they call such places here in Spain!

Vaya mierda! or Fuck the Motherfuckers that haven´t done shit with my Internet connection!!!!! I know, I know, we are in the middle of a crisis and in the middle of the Christmas season altogether... But, isn´t that an oxymoron???? WHATEVER!

I have lots of things to tell you, lots of stories to share, but this fuckers from Orange haven´t read my letter to Santa, nor I think they will read the one I just completed for the 3 Wise Men...

Such is my life, miserable life!!! without the Net!
Talk to you soon.... Hope it is soon anyways!!!

PRESIDENT OBAMA!

2008-11-05T05:42:00.010+01:00

"This victory alone is not the change we seek, it is only the chance for us to make that change"... "We are not a collection of individuals... we are and always will be the United States of America"

President Obama speech was nothing short of mythic. Camelot has returned to America! "The Dream" has received the breath of life from Obama's words. Words that alone have nothing more than the dictionary's given meaning, but spoken together by the new President of America, convey a new hope not only to Americans but to the world as a whole.

I have lived in many places and many different countries, but America is the place I have called home for the longest time. Rightfully or not, until now, I have criticized Americans and their many faults... But today, I proudly stand praising their strengths, humbly recognizing that if there is a nation in this world that knows how to deal with a crisis like the one is, at this moment, the planet facing... without a doubt that is America!

The rebuilding of America laid in Obama's acceptance speech, it also is the rebuilding of the world. A world that stood still waiting for the results of the American election, united in the hope for a better tomorrow.

No other American election has meant so much to the rest of the world as this one has. Today I have more than just an excuse to celebrate, today I have a reason to rejoice! Today I feel prouder as a human being that I have ever felt, for it is through my fellow American human beings that I have regained my faith in humanity. And the only words that keep pounding in my head and my lips can't stop repeating are "YES WE CAN", and all while my face drowns in tears of joy! My only regret is not having had the opportunity to vote in this election. You don't have to guess who would have received my vote... It is pretty obvious. Isn't it?

President Obama! It is a great victory and a great time to be witness of the changes ahead. Cause... YES WE CAN!

The end of civism

2008-10-16T14:18:00.005+02:00

It is the Spanish noon (2:00pm) and the news brake loose on the TV set. I am at my niece's restaurant. Everybody is having lunch, me included... Well, almost everybody! The teaching team from across the street are just occupying space (3 tables to be exact) having one coffee for 6 and 20 cigarettes a head! Just having one cigarette after the other and another one in between.

I don't normally watch TV, the news specially, and what I am seeing today on the screen... it only confirms my aversion to the stupid box! The anchorman goes on - A faculty teacher pays two strippers to perform in front of his class... The Full Monty! - Gangrened limbs are bluntly displayed for our viewing pleasure as though it was a chef's new creation... they repeat the scene 15 minutes later. - The sex market is exposed... for, only, the million and something time this year!!!... - A traffic control camera catches the drama as a car wrecks smashing into a bus stop and pinning two persons against the wall like butterflies on a canvas. The driver is got on camera as he runs away from the grotesque scene, while passersby rush in to help the two moribund, fallen lepidopterans shaking life away from their broken wings.

A commercial break falls like a godsend. I think they are advertising a new Buick. But, turns out been a... Jaguar??? What happened to elegance?... Probably ended up suffering the same fate as good taste and decorum in the news.

Oh, well! It is time now for dessert.

Writer's Block

2008-10-04T17:12:00.002+02:00

This is, by far, the worst thing that can happen to a writer.

I've just entered my blog on a contest and now that!!! OMG! I don't know what to do and for that matter, what to write!

What could be interesting, appealing, up with the standards my readership is used to? At this very moment, I don't know! Maybe, cause I find my existence, in the past couple of weeks specially, dull and lacking the excitement I am used to.

I have done so many things! and some... I would usually find them worthy of a post. But, I think it is me! It is the 'I' part of the equation that doesn't compute anymore. And here I am, even these few lines have been painful to produce and write!

In a couple of days I will be flying to Vienna, which could be just the thing! And once more I would get excited, inspired by life! So once again, I could sit down in this very same computer with the hunger and the urge of chronicling everything around me... It just might work!

A Hen Party... And another night ending up at Trauma!

2008-09-29T22:31:00.009+02:00

Keila invited me to this hen party that at first was supposed to be held at the bride to be house... but somehow turned into a party at Trauma! What the hell!

I was there, of course! We were already half way to the party, when someone called and told us about the change of plans. We had to turn around and change direction!

It wasn't good, but neither was bad. We ended up leaving the place around 5:30 in the morning. I could barely move my feet without having the feeling that a thousand knives were been drawn toward them, stabbing my soles on each step... but, somehow, I managed to get to the station and took the train home.
Keila told me to stay with her at her house, and then leave the next day, but I needed to go to the comfort of my own place... and where the muscles relaxant pills were!

Marc, Roberto and David... They made the evening fun!

The conversation piece of the night! A flyer from match.com!
And it reads as follows:
If only store clerks call you DARLING... match.com. The number 1 and more successful portal to find your match!
That was pretty funny... distributing that kind of propaganda in a place like Trauma, where, if you want, you might find many one night stands... but hardly your match!

This is a weird photo! I guess it came out that way cause of the light changing in the disco. But it looks cool, nevertheless.

The Brazilian girls at the Hen Party

Flavio (another Brazilian) and a bartender at Trauma, posing here with Keila

Zeze di Camargo & Luciano 2008 European Tour

2008-09-29T18:37:00.023+02:00

An improvised, sort of lobby with a bar and sitting fit for a kindergarten, was set at the entrance of the arena.

Friday night... and I had completely forgot I was invited to a concert at the Palau Sant Jordi! What can I tell you, it is my nature! I am so much into living the moment that I find it hard to plan ahead... I was invited 2 whole weeks ago!

Anyway, as I was told, it was gonna be Brazilian romantic music. A duet of two very well known artists, and I guess they must have been, or are... at least among their own! Cause, and I know I've told you this before, Brazilians are everywhere around here! It's incredible, but every corner you turn you can hear them talking in Portuguese, but with that peculiar musicality they impart to the language!

Zeze di Camargo and Luciano. That was the main attraction for the night but, the other duet that opened the show... they were really good! They certainly brought to the atmosphere and stirred things among the present singing songs about 'saudade' and 'sentimento'. Women... and man alike, they all were crying like babies, with a feeling of nostalgic longing for the country that they are so fond of and which is somehow lost in the distance. While some were sobbing with the repressed knowledge that they might never return.

And so it was that among 'saudade' and excited cries, Zeze and Luciano came to the stage. The group I was with, we all were in the general entrance part of the Palau... That is, without right to a seat! But then... something happened.

I have always seen it in movies, heard of it in the news, or read about it in papers... What I had never done was actually witness the moment it happens! I am talking about bribes!

I guess Manolo got tired of all the pushing and shoving, I know I did, and without saying a word he went to the bouncer that was guarding the entrance to the VIPs and placed 50 Euros in his hand! We all went in... and that was more like it!

The VIP area had its own bar, but not only seats, it also had tables and a small dance floor! All that plus we were just a few feet away from the stage. There was no more pushing and shoving, and the ones that had someone to dance with, had plenty of space to manifest themselves!

In the end, I got to enjoy the concert. Even though I probably was the only one in that place that didn't know the songs... But that do not prevented Luciano from throwing a kiss at me while singing some verses... of a song I couldn't understand!

The other half of the arena had a bar also... NO SEATS!!!!! and a stage at the far end of it, where the basket backboard is supposed to be. That was the general entrance, and the tickets cost almost 40 Euros per person!

The opening act... the one that made everybody (but me) sob like babies!

Ju

Vera

Georgie

Manolo

La Negra and a friend I can't remember the name!

Greedy, greedy boy! Two beers at a time!!!!

Part of the group

A view at some of those present

Me with the guitarist from the opening duet

And the show took off

Luciano, at the moment he was singing to me! lol

Zeze

One of their most known romantic songs

Zeze and Luciano

A view at the VIP area

Laura, who the next morning woke up to an spectacular hangover! lol

The present in the VIP area cheering and singing to the tunes

Another view at the VIPs dance floor area... not that they were dancing!
Anyway, they did dance whenever they felt like it, and wherever they wanted, transforming the whole place into a big dancing floor!

Really feeling the music!

Definitely! lol

A more upbeat song towards the finale

I am a Renaissance Man!

2008-09-24T19:46:00.005+02:00

Sueño de Enero by Silvia P. (Moi!)

Yes, I know it sounds weird... Specially, cause all of you already know how I look like... and there are pretty obvious reasons for why I can't be a 'man'...
The thing is, during the Renaissance, there were no women sharing that concept.

Being a Renaissance Man has nothing to do with gender. It's a concept, a way of living, and a way of seeing the world around, a synergistic point of view ... and in that sense, well, I am 100% Da Vinci stuff!

When people ask me what is it that I do for a living, you have no idea how hard it is for me to answer what it'd be, an otherwise very simple question! But NO. Not with me!

I am an artist, a writer, a poet, a journalist, a photographer, a designer, a screenplay writer, a producer, an adventurer, a thinker, a philosopher, an actor, a singer, a traveller, and I still want more!

I am a polymath and a humanist! I don't believe in restricting yourself to just one area of knowledge... Unfortunately, that is the modern way of thinking. Therefore, I am not of this time and age, and for that matter, no one should be! Knowledge is the only thing that can save us, save this world from its irresponsible adolescence. I wanna save the world! Why not?

Why not aim for the stars, because they seem so unreachable? Or is it because we are so used to see them, and in our minds have become just a pretty decor for a honeymooner's sky? I think the answer is a much simpler one! We've just stopped trying!

We have become so obsessed labeling everything around us! It makes us feel in control, of what? I will never know! Nor does anyone else! The powers that be have been really busy maintaining and justifying the status quo, trying to make us believe that an obtuse view of the world is the way to go!

Concentration. The word says it all! And that is what you get after four years in College. Do they care about broadening your horizons? You already know the answer. They give you a tittle to be a glorified automaton!!!! It is pathetic! Nauseating! If I had lived at the beginning of the age of reason, I would have been burned at the stake, accused of sorcery!

When I look at the sky, I see unexplored worlds of infinite possibilities. When I paint a canvas, I see a path to convey a message. When I sing and dance, I can feel the passion of a fire starter growing from within my entrails. A virus so contagious, I hope it infects everybody coming in contact with me!

I am a Renaissance Man with a 360° spherical perception of my world... But, as a woman, in this time and age, I am just as tolerated as they tolerate gays, environmentalists, idealists, bums and polymaths like me... and sadly, still be condemned by the witchcraft police.

A rollercoaster ride between boredom, a great time, the gloomy weather and a concert for 110,000 people... minus one!

2008-09-23T19:21:00.035+02:00

I think I've just survived the dullest, most boring weekend ever!

Used to, as I am, to all kinds of excitement, been in the middle of Barcelona's gloomiest days to the date, hasn't exactly been of any appeal to me. Besides, there is the 'tropical factor' associated with it all! Having lived for the past year or so in Puerto Rico and arriving to Barcelona in the middle of its humid summer, doesn't really prepares you for the change of season!

The sun ceased to shine on me at some point during last week. But, it really wasn't until Saturday that I realized how much I missed it. Going out on the street it's so much harder when it is a cold, dark and bleak wintry day, as it was the case last Saturday! And I think I've told you before, the moment I think I am gonna get depressed, that's the moment it happens! Although, I kinda refused to get there... so, I called my beloved brother and I didn't even had to explain. Thirty minutes later he was picking me up. I spent the rest of the day at his place watching movies with him and his wife. A neighbor joined us later in the afternoon, and even brought some pastries! My brother and I made dinner together... Actually, he made dinner, I watched... But we had a great time together! He brought me home later that night, with 4 movies he copied for me.

On Sunday I woke up late, there was no point in getting up early. It was yet another drab of a day. The only plan I had, was to attend El Canto del Loco's concert... but, that wasn't until 10pm, and I still had a handful of hours to kill! I sure was happy to have those 4 movies my brother gave me, only this time I had to watch them alone. So, I tried to cheer myself up thinking about the concert, and building up some expectations upon an event that turned out been just another dreary social event to suffer through!

Nevertheless, I did take some video of their music. Maybe some of you will find to fancy any of it... I know I didn't!

Here a view of the back of the amphitheater.
There was people even beyond the pine trees that frame the open roman style anphitheater.

A couple of views of the amphitheater where the concert took place. There were over 110,000 people present for that event!!!
I didn't like it, but I guess 110,000 would disagree with me! lol

Dani, David and Txema doing their thing

They had a big screen in the back of the stage displaying the lyrics of their songs... many times, the people's singing overpowered their performance. Some times it was the group who encouraged the public to sing, other times the public just took over... But they were more than happy when that happened, cause it showed how well accepted their songs are!

Here is Dani pointing the microphone towards the public, letting their fans take over in a pacific, musical way!

Since they were singing in Catalonia, they paid a small homage to artists like Peret, and my personal favorite: Estopa the brothers from Cornella... which I absolutely love and would have preferred it was them on stage!
I guess, sonner or later, I will have my chance to see them live in concert!

"Y eso es lo que quiero, besos..."
And that's what I want... kisses! Was singing Dani, and one thing I have to give to them... They really had the public right where they wanted them!
And not only the very young and female... No, no, no. Complete families were there singing to their tunes, cheering and putting their hands together for El Canto del Loco!

When sorry seems to be the hardest word... Thoughts, Depressions, Euphorias of the Crazy Genie That Lives Inside

2008-09-20T10:16:00.007+02:00

The world seemed to have been energized by people's return from vacation. The streets were now swarming with a new busyness that injected and infected everything around, a vaccine against the lethargic summer days. Echoing from what, more and more now, seemed a distant, long gone past.

Walking the streets had lost the laxity of steps that for the past few weeks turned plantigrades' business into a series of promenading mantras. Brisk movements were now required. They were been orchestrated by hundreds of passersby going about their business, but making it yours with their haste. And anywhere I turned, there it was, a conductor ready to make me stop abruptly, or continue at a higher pitch. One thing tough, no Chopin anymore... This was more of a Wagner, or Beethoven overture. And definitely Miller, it was Glen Miller when it rained! All the quicksteps were then needed to avoid fall in an open manhole!

For some inexplicable reason the more people I crossed, the more wormholes I tried, to avoid stepping into their toes... the lonelier and isolated I felt. It was as though, crowds and places rubbed in my face the futility of my existence.

I had always been alone, but experiencing loneliness was a first for me, and I didn't know how to manage that suffocating feeling!

I started thinking of all the relations I had taken for granted. Dismissed with a gesture that revealed absolutely nothing, as if of nothing had been dismissed. Yawning at the absence of anything invigorating, challenging. Treating clear and present beings like annoying summer flies around my table. Standing pretty in the middle of a crowd, noticing I was been noticed, letting all lesser bodies orbit around in a magnanimous condescension... So full of myself!

Oh, and what a fate awaited for those poor mortals who dared cross me, by a simple mere degree of separation! I would charge on them like a Khan, crush them like insects, publicly and without remorse!... And for what!

How foolish and purposeless sounds all of it to me now! What wouldn't I give in exchange for a glance, just a stray glance from any of the ransacked and plundered souls of my dismissals!

But they are not around anymore. Some had to amass scattered pieces and scrape them together before leaving filled with confusion... Others, simply vanished from my radar, as if they had never been... a total de-materialization right before my eyes... Eyes that had never been put to see!

Thus I am left with a totally self provoked loneliness. A vagrant, floating away through the various planes of existence. A self proclaimed Queen of the Dead in a city of muted cries, where each stone is an homage to an even greater regret. Continuously roaming the empty air around... regardless of how crowded it gets.

And for it I am... oh, so sorry!

Transvestites, Alien's Shoes, Good Company and a Better Cup of Tea

2008-09-19T06:58:00.012+02:00

I know the night was planned somewhat different, but in the end it worked out just fine!

Manel and I set out to some place I didn't quite grasp at the beginning. But then, he called a friend of his and asked him to tag along... His friend was just a few buildings down the street, so we headed toward Amberes.

Manel had a beer there, introduced me to the rest, and sat for a very short while, as they were tiding up the place before closing. Manel finally convinced Robert to join us... not that he needed too much convincing. I think he is an easy one that Robert! lol .... Just like me! I don't either need too much... to get ready and marching toward the night!

We took the bus downtown, and after a quick bite at a Basque eatery, we made our entrance in Strass.

Strass is a nightclub owned by Noa, a rather good transvestite. We made it there just as the show started, and, luckily enough, we were given seats right in front of the stage!

Noa and Coral were the only resident transvestites that night. As I was told, they are usually more than two of them doing their thing. The show was full of music, jokes and improv... even an 'almost melee' between Noa and an obnoxious patron! But bouncers were all over the place, just in case, really... cause it never got to anything! Noa managed the drunk asshole with a lot of panache and savoir faire!

After the show was over, Robert took a pic of Manel, Coral et moi... Noa was in a hurry and could not waste a minute. Too bad, I liked her a lot!

The night was young... too young! I was at their mercy, still don't know all the nightlife joints in downtown Barcelona, so they decided to go to Arena, a disco!

It was supposed to be a mixed ambiance, although in the end it was mostly gay... But the music... Well, as it is always true for gay discos... Simply divine! Some characters we encountered in that place!... One of them, defying gravity in those impossible shoes! And as always, whenever you're having a great time, time does seems to disagree to it by running even faster! One minute was midnight, the next 4 am!

We left the place like Cinderellas suffering from tardiness! Grabbed a cab in Paseo de Gracia and headed uptown. I was supposed to go back to Sabadell that same night, or morning, but instead Robert put me up for the night.

I have to say it, he is the most gracious host... Of course! He is not a Catalan! He is from my favorite place on Earth... England, where else! In the morning, when I woke up, he even made me a cup of hot tea! The way a cup of tea is supposed to be! We then joined Cun, and the three of us went for lunch at Everest, my niece's restaurant. Manel was already there... in the flesh that is! Cause the rest of him, I believe was left somewhere down the road the night before! lol

Around 4pm we said our goodbyes, Robert headed to a much deserved and highly anticipated siesta... Me, back to Immigrantland and the harsh reality of a place with nothing to do, except dream about the next escapade!

Noa and Coral doing their thing on stage

Manel, Coral et moi in Strass

Manel and Robert... first round at Arena

Arena's patrons

Dancing on top of Arena's bleachers

No comments!

A general view of Arena... not that you can see much, but the colors are nice! In the back there was a group performing rather good music. Manel and Robert know them, they live in the same neighborhood.

Here are the impossible shoes I was telling you about!
It looks like those aliens' feet from the movie The Arrival!

The whole outfit didn't fit the whole frame!

Second round!

I tried to get a better look of her from the front... She just couldn't stay put! And with those shoes!!!! lol
Besides, she didn't have a very friendly demeanor!

Hard to make out. But basically, one dancing on the floor, the other dancing on top of the first!

Go-go dancers on a podium stand at Arena

Out off the crowd from the Arena

The view from Robert's apartment... Can you make out what kind of plants are those down there????

At Robert's... Sipping tea and watching Porridge, a comedy series from the UK

OK, OK! Here you go! A better view of the Rastafarian's plants downstairs!

A Word for Qin

2008-09-16T12:14:00.005+02:00

The other night I went 'solo'... First to eat Dim sum, ensued by a visit to The Green House where I made a new friend, from Chile this time.

Going back to dinner, turns out that what I used to call, and know as, Dim sum... isn't the word they use here in Barcelona for those delicious steamed little morsels. Here they refer to the Chinese delicacy as Dianxin (Mandarin) or Pin Pan.

In Xi'an, Teresa referred to them as 'raviolis'. And in Shanghai, Cathy called them Yum Cha. And here in Barcelona so far I have found two different restaurants, with two different names for the same!

Boy! did it reminded me of the movie Hero... and the aiming of the first emperor of a united China, and the first of the Qin Dinasty, Qin Shi Huangdi. Among other things, he will unite all the Chinese Kingdoms under a common language. The one we now know as Mandarin and it is spoken throughout modern China.

With so many different words to describe just one tiny inconsequential thing... No wonder communication becomes such an unobtainable dream... a true Babel!

I wonder... what name will the Chinese market stand give to it????

The not so sticky rice I ordered along with my not so Dim sum!
It was good though. Steamed on a lotus leaf.

I never got the name of the guy with the black shirt... but the other one is Zhu Ling Jun. He speaks a little English and we talked about the difference in names of what I ordered. It goes with the geography, we both determined in the end.

Last Day of Festes... Gegants i Capgrossos... And Fireworks for the finale!

2008-09-10T17:38:00.021+02:00

It was Monday afternoon. The morning, I took it to regain some strength from the tight schedule of the previous day, as you all know it was an intense one!

On this day, there were only three things I was interested in... First the traditional parade with the Gegants i Capgrossos, then the tango lesson and to finish it up in style... the fireworks!

I left the apartment around 5:30pm. The parade started at 6pm, but I didn't want to follow the whole thing from beginning to end, as I did the night before with the Correfoc... After all, it wasn't that exciting and besides, I had to reserve my energies for the tango lesson at 7pm!

I went directly to the Central Market, where the parade was scheduled to end and placed myself in a good position. Just waited.

Around 6:45pm they were making their entrance in the plaza. Once there, the giants danced to the music of their marching bands. Each couple of giants belongs to a Colla, the same ones from the night before that dressed like devils... and the same have their own music to dance to!

There was a master of ceremonies stirring things up, sometimes making a mess sending all the people dancing in the middle of the plaza around the giants and the Capgrossos (big-heads)... It was fun though, especially for the kids! and the plaza was full of them!

A couple, (probably in love or something...) giant and giantess dancing to their music, performed by their own marching band.

This particular giantess weights 33 pounds and her name is Roser

Here, another couple. El Avi y l'Avia, the Grandfather and Grandmother, and they belong to another Colla. They also danced to their own marching band. These two are the oldest giants in Sabadell, they both are 75 yrs old!

La Roser and her consort. They represent the typical Catalan farmers.

A cutie smiling at la Roser!

La Colla that proudly own El Avi y l'Avia

La Colla of La Roser and her mate. They were the ones with the dragon the night before! I recognized them... they recognized me. Incredible! Cause you all saw how were we dressing for the Correfoc! We looked more like bank robbers than anything else! lol
The guy smiling in the front... he was the one torching the fireworks on the dragon!

The devil is one of the most beloved figures of these festivities. You can find him everywhere... the curious thing about it is that it doesn't represent evil... Go figure!

L'Avia dancing with La Cebe (The onion)

Another group of giants get to the dancing floor

All the Capgrossos go in the middle now to do their dance

No comment! Innocence is a wonderful thing!

Toward the end, everybody in the plaza was asked to choose their favorite Capgross and do like a train dance with them... It was a big mess until the kids got the hang of it! lol

While doing the train dance, the master of ceremonies was asking for different things for them to do... like pinch the left ear of the one you have in front of you, dance on one leg only, and so on... The kids had a blast!

Here they are! Doing the train dance

Many kids were wearing make-up to resemble their favorite giant or Capgross

After I left the Central Market and the Gegants i Capgrossos, I had to really run! For I was late for my tango lesson... Nobody took pics of me, nor did any video but, I managed to tape the teachers while they were demonstrating their skills... One day I will dance like this! No doubts about it!

It is a good thing I live where I do, cause I am just about four blocks away from the park and that's where the fireworks show took place. As a matter of fact, I am in a privileged position. I live on a fourth floor and no big buildings around it! In other words, I was able to watch the show from the living room window! Ain't that something!

The view from my window

I only taped a few minutes of the 20 minute long firework show... and just because I pressed the button without noticing and missed the middle part of it! Sorry about that! It was beautiful, you only missed about 15 minutes of it, that's all! lol

Hope you enjoy it!

Still Sunday Night!!!!! Correfoc is over but still are Sardanes, Jazz, Tango and Comedy!

2008-09-10T15:00:00.015+02:00

After I was done running away from dragons and dancing with devils throwing fire, I needed something more relaxing... I went for the music!

Not any kind of music though. Specifically, I went for Sardanes. When I got there it was barely starting. I managed to dance a little, not without making beforehand a full disclosure of my rustiness to the members in my 'rotllana'

La Cobla Jovenivola is very famous in Catalonia. It was founded in the early 80's.

A Cobla is an orchestra formed of 11 musicians that play 10 different instruments. Four of them are typical Catalan instruments: The flabiol, the tenora, the tible and the tambori. The flabiol is the peculiar flute sound you always hear at the beginning of a Sardana. announcing the dance is about to start.

There is a popular saying that goes: "La Sardana es la dansa mes bonica de totas las dansas que es fan i es desfan" And more or less says that the Sardana is the most beautiful dance of all the dances that are done and come undone.

It is important to mention that the Sardana is probably one of the very few folkloric dances that are still danced by regular people in a weekly basis. There are groups that do exhibition dances... but still, the Sardana is danced every Sunday morning in front the Gothic Cathedral of Barcelona, and at every festivity throughout Catalonia.
Here you have the perfect example!

The Sardana is the dance of brotherhood.

After the Sardanes were over, I moved to Vapor Badia, a library holding a Jazz concert... But to tell you the truth it was not what I was expecting... A jazz concert with only an electric guitar???? or was it a bass guitar????
WHATEVER! Not for me! It was kinda boring and if I had stayed I would have fallen asleep!

Performing Cry me a River... before that one they interpreted a song from Cindy Lauper!!!! I told you... Whatever! lol

I left the concert after the second song and headed to the Nigh of Tangos... It was getting cold as hell but ordered a coffee and endured almost til' the end.

Some of the couples were doing a really good job dancing the tango

I found out that they would have a tango shop the next day... so, I signed up for it! I always wanted to learn how to dance tango!

A little before the Night of Tango and Milongas was over, I left and headed home.

On my way to get the bus, I came across the plaza in front of city hall. There was a stage and seats arranged theater style... I was tired, it had been a long and very exciting day. But, as I stopped to ask where should I get the bus, this lady Alicia and her little niece Roser, told me there was a very good comedy show coming up at 1am and that I should stay, they will give me a ride home once it was over. I accepted.

And I was glad I did, cause it turned out to be an excellent comedy show, extremely original in all aspects. Too bad I didn't have any memory left in my camera! or the strength to hold it up and tape it!

The charade was all done with mimic and guttural sounds. Therefore, even if you didn't know the language you would have been able to understand it all!

Here are the 4 cosmonauts in hibernation.

The show was entitled STAR TRIP, and tells the story of 4 cosmonauts on a lengthy expedition into space... There were plenty of references to Space TV shows and of course the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

They made an excellent parody of Alien and involved the audience in it... Fog, squirt guns, and night vision video included! Some in the public got a good scare!

Here in what I was able to tape, they are awakening from hibernation. They do themselves the sounds of the hibernation capsules opening... then, when they look at each other, they realize they all have grown long hair and some beards! And see the rest, it isn't much! I wish I could have taped it all! But at least, you'll get the idea. Very funny!

Well, it only has taken me 3 posts to go over all I did last Sunday! Holy Cow!!!!

If I had done it in only one post, none of you would have been able to stick to it! It would have been toooooooooo fucking long!! lol
Let me go write now the post about the end of Sabadell's Feste Major... there are some fireworks to be downloaded still!

Take care!

The Night All Hell Broke Loose!

2008-09-10T12:20:00.014+02:00

Still is Sunday... it is now 8:30pm and I have just arrived to Plaza de la Creu Alta... and Hell is about to brake loose!

You might think they are some sort of cowboys. Stagecoach robbers maybe?...
What you would never guess is that I was dressed just like them! And the reason for such an extravagant display? The night of the Correfoc in Sabadell.

The word Correfoc means 'fire run'. Correfocs are amongst the most striking of Catalonia's festive events. In a world marked by fire and the smell of gunpowder all kinds of devils dance to the drums beat. They play with the fire and with the people, throwing at them their incandescent balls while dancing around like a Dervish.

Young and old, even little kids! They all participate in this madness letting the dragon fire at them. Actually, provoking the dragon would be more appropriate!

For an hour and a half everybody dance and jump with rapture throughout the route. It is totally contagious! In the end devils, instigators and dragons, they all gather in the Central Market downtown Sabadell where the sky bursts into flames falling down on their heads! It is the end of the Correfocs... but just until next year!

Here 'Las Collas' gather to initiate the tour and hundreds participate of what it mostly is SUPER FUN!

These devils are not the incarnation of evil; they are sprightly and festive, dancing to the sound of the drums, while they set off their fireworks.

Each Colla has its own colors. They are like gangs, representing their respective neighborhoods. But unlike the mafia related gangs, these Collas involve their whole families in the making of their costumes, props and the final farce! It's a family and a whole town's event!

That long stick he is carrying, it is crowned with fireworks. Once lighted, he will start moving like a Dervish to help spread the fire to every corner of the route.

Here are some of the Collas participating in the event...

A devil and two fire runners.

Even little kids!
The drummers set the pace...

The fireworks of the devils in action!

And this is what you do. You walk in front of the Drac, and he fires at you through his mouth and nostrils!

When the fire is out, all the fire runners place themselves ahead in the street, making a human barrier to block the dragon's pass... Of course it doesn't last!
Once the Drac has been recharged with fireworks, once more he starts charging against the fire runners, blowing fire out his mouth and nose... and the fire runners start running again!

In these two videos you can appreciate what I was telling about people forming a human barrier against the dragon... We already know who wins! Right? lol

It is indeed fascinating to watch... even more to participate!

Here you can better appreciate the dragon spiting fire

One of the dragon masters taking a break, and a sip of wine from his bota.

Recharging the dragon

Las Collas of devils advancing towards the Central Market.

The devils' dance...

The dragon leads the way. In the middle the drummers and behind them the Collas of devils with their fireworks. The fire runners... EVERYWHERE!

Since the beginning of time men have been fascinated by fire. It exerts an overwhelming feeling hard to resist, even for the youngest!

Getting ready for the grand finale!
It is hard to see anything with the skies bursting in flames over you. Besides, the heat is incredible. The whole plaza where the Central Market stands becomes a virtual inferno no one is able to escape!... Luckily, it only lasts a few minutes, after which the Correfocs is over until next year!

Here are two different moments when all Hell broke loose on the plaza!

The Correfocs might have been over, but not my night! Afterwards I went to the Plaza de l'Alcalde Marcet where la Cobla Jovenivola de Sabadell was performing Sardanes. After that, went to a Jazz concert, didn't stay though... Moved to the Night of Tangos, did stayed! and finally before going to bed saw the comedy show Star Trip by Yllana

Blunderbusses, half marathons, SEAT 600's Parade and a walk on the park with breaky and lunch in the middle... The festivities continue!

2008-09-09T00:52:00.017+02:00

Sunday morning, 8:35 am when I first heard the thundering... Boom! Boom! Boom! . They were 25 minutes early and I wasn't ready, I was still in my pajamas! As a matter of fact they woke me up.

So, I ran to the other side of the apartment to have a better look at the street... they were already one block down!

First view from my window of the Trabucaires. Their mission on Sunday morning was to awake everybody!

It was ok. After all, there was so much to do that day that I would have missed half of it, if they didn't wake me up...

They are the Trabucaires, blunderbuss shooters.

The history of this peculiar group of armed people goes back to feudal Europe. They were the 'elite armed force' of the time, fighting small private wars for their masters. They also were used to announce the arrival of high hierarchy clergy figures and diplomats, so the villagers could go out on the street and greet their master.

In Spain, as the feudalism declined, so did their demand to fight. Thus becoming a luxury folkloric group where only the greeting part of their duties remained. Their first act as such is dated back to 1571 when they were used to celebrate the victory at Lepanto.

They also helped the image of the romantic hero throughout Europe, when some of them strayed from their servitude and became bandoleros. Between the XVI and the XIX centuries, these bandits armed with their blunderbusses stole from the rich to give to the poor... Who doesn't know Robin Hood!

I got dressed in a hurry and once on the street, I had to turn back upstairs and get a jacket! It was a beautiful day, but a chilly one!

I ran the streets following their trail. But they were really ahead of me. When I finally reached them it was 10:30am and the show was over. I managed to take a picture of two of them and a kid firing the blunderbuss on video.

But in order for you to have a better understanding of it, I downloaded a short video from the Trabucaires de Solsona, the oldest group existing!

I stayed to see part of the Sabadell Half Marathon since they had to pass right through where I was... until I got really hungry and went home to have breakfast and rest for awhile. My schedule was packed, but I needed to recharge my batteries for all that was still ahead...
The winner of the Half Marathon of Sabadell... 5 whole minutes ahead of the next competitor and almost 15 min. ahead of the peloton.

Going down La Rambla in downtown Sabadell.

El Peloton!

Around noon I headed towards the observatory... they had an open doors activity to observe the Sun, and you all know how much I love astronomy! lol

On my way over there I made a stop to see the '600' car concentration and parade.

This one in the front, is an ode to the typical domingueros of the day!
Those who only took the automobile to go out on Sundays, carrying the whole family in the small vehicle, mother in-law included! lol And the whole picnic stuff on the roof-rack!

The SEAT 600 was a Spanish car made by SEAT from 1957 to 1973. It helped to start the economic recovery after the hard years following the Spanish Civil War. It was a relatively inexpensive vehicle... 60,000 Spanish Pesetas back then! around $1,000!!!

It was the first car within the modest economic capabilities of many Spanish families of the mid and late 1960s.

Here is the convertible version! Ain't that cute!

After the visit to the Observatory, which was ill fated... cause right after I got there, cloud after a cloud left no break for observation of the Sun. After the head of the observatory decided to call it quits and closed to the public, guess what? Yupe! The Sun started shining again!!!!
What do you want, it's Murphy's Law!

It was beautiful again, still chilly but beautiful! So I decided to get home taking a stroll through the park.

Going down from the observatory there is a place for the young at heart... graffiti included!

Some were in the shade, others in the sun... But all of them having a moment of solace on the action packed long weekend.

A view from atop one of the park's hills. You can see the avenue bellow with some of the attractions, dormant during the day.

A group of young people were having their picnic sitting in this bronze sculpture representing a sail boat.

You can cross the lake jumping these stone paved rocks... If you fall it's no biggie, in this part of the lake the water is only a few inches deep.

In the middle of the park there is a big lake where you can rent a rowing boat.

The lake goes down to the street where passersby and kids especially enjoy feeding the ducks and swans

On my promenade I discovered they have exercise machines in the park! Amazing, a public gym never looked so public! lol Which I think is marvelous!

Once home, I downloaded all the pictures from the camera and recharged its batteries, wrote my blog entry for the day before, had some lunch, a mini siesta and got ready to face HELL! ....

TBC... next stop: HELL

Saturday Night's Alright

2008-09-07T01:44:00.024+02:00

Neither the chilly air, nor the rain stopped anyone from getting out and enjoy the festivities... I included!

It was the second day of Sabadell's Feste Major, and after the pertinent phone calls to organize the party... We started picking up members of the 'summer beach club' along the way. Manolo, Ju and I were the first to get together right in front of El Corte Ingles, where the 'fira' with attractions for all ages had been placed. The rest joined us minutes later. But before that happened there was something I wanted to do... a ride on the most daring of all the attractions!

I have a thing for roller coasters. I just can't help it. If there is one, I've got to get in!

Kiosks with raffles and games were placed along the edges of the avenue... in the middle were the attractions

This raffle post states in bright neon lights that you will always win something... Always!

This one seemed harmless enough... think again!

Here is the 'Booster' ... This hammer looking swing promises to leave your brains (and stomach) well shaken! Not my cup of tea!

Now, this particular one killed me! Camel races!!!!! you make your camel advance by throwing balls into a series of holes. The farther the hole you score is, the farther your camel moves.

There were hundreds of people visiting the fair that night

And here we go! I wish I had taken my camera with me! You should have seen the view from up there!!! It was scary! To say the least... but so fucking exhilarating!

And up we go... up, up, up...

Up, up, up...

Up encore!

Finally!.... OMG! Holy Shiiiiiiit!!!!! I kept my eyes closed not to panic!

It was so fucking high! The funny thing with me is that I can jump from an airplane at 15,000 ft... but I will get dizzy if I look out a window higher than a 4th floor. The irony!

But... I SURVIVED!!!!
Otherwise, how the hell would I be writing this to you!!!!
The things I do for this blog!!! LOL

Mmmmmm! Delicious junk food! Cotton candy, coconut wedges, and my personal favorite... Candy apples!

And here I go again. Only this time I am not alone, Vera and William are my comrades in this adventure!

Let me tell you one thing.... THIS WAS FUCKING WORST THAN THE OTHER!!!!
Cause the momentum created wasn't so hard, you could feel yourself floating away from the seat... I didn't liked it a bit! Besides, it never seemed to be ending!!! I was shaking and dizzy when it finally stopped.

All of us tried our luck at the firing sorts!

Not bad Joan, not bad at all!

But here is the champion.. Pepe!!!!! Not too shabby my friend!

Vera, Joan et moi.

I think the bartender was drunker than all of us put together... He did tried more than once! But this is the best he could do!!!!
Shameful!

Here is Joan trying on my glasses.

The little ones had plenty to do... Here they are part of a live story telling, they all are little Indians... the ones that always, always get killed in movies!!!!
That's why, when I was little myself, whenever my brother and I played... I always wanted to be the cowboy... and usually was! hehehe

Another infernal machine! Didn't go in it this time, though.
I guess I am getting wiser! lol

There even was a karaoke theater in the middle of the avenue!
But I couldn't sing!!!! I found out too late to inscribe. A shame, really! Look at all the audience I would have had!

Autumn blues!

2008-09-06T17:04:00.003+02:00

Last night I felt for the first time the weather changing!

Since I got here I had been sleeping with my birthday suit and the fan on high, and last night for the first time since... I had to turn off the fan and put on some pajamas!

No more Miss Monroe nightgown... now I will have to wear my Channel underneath the covers! LOL

So this morning, when I woke up to a chilly windy morning, I decided it was time to unpack my warm clothes and give them some air! Specially the coats and jackets that have been sleeping surrounded by mothballs!

I am still sorting out the mess, and on top of that it started raining. The first rain of the season! But, I just thought I would give you an update and show you what I am at... I even had to invade an empty room on the other side of the apartment to get the task accomplished! LOL

My desk filled with the empty 'space bags' and part of my winter clothes, even a marabou sweater!

'The Invasion of the Coat Snatchers'

Thank heaven I don't have to sleep in here. The smell is unbearable!
Well, at least I don't have moth bites on them! hahaha