Macbitch in Paris

CC says that Telva says that Jaume Plensa is simply panting to design some sets for Verdi’s Macbetch. I blame Telva’s legions of copy editors this time–they get Toulouse wrong too–but there’s no reason why not: “So this is the story of Lady Macbitch and her husband. The Queen stimulates herself with the props of…

Hot chicks in Cornell

Geo-sensitive porn chat ads cope as well with multi-key characters as the average wanker. I doubt not that Cornell University is a chattering of cheeky chicas, but at this time of year the weather’s rather better in Cornellá, Barcelona. Not that I’m in Cornellà, but you get the picture, and if you don’t then I…

Fines for “incorrect” language use

As we go into recession the governments of two mini-“nations”, one with a state, the other with considerable autonomy, both worse afflicted by the downturn than might reasonably have been expected 20 years ago, have, within days of one another, rediscovered vaguely Biblical and distinctly 1930s strategies to disguise their failures of economic management: blame…

“The Virgen Moroneta”

A moreneta is a little black woman. English speakers might assume that the moroneta Julià Travel is going to take you to visit is a stupid little woman, but Base de bandades says she is the patron saint of all Catalonia’s Moroccans. (There’s no direct attribution to Julià Travel on the site, but the texts…

My favourite Barcelona menus: Ca la Flor, Secretari Coloma 10

For a long time I’ve avoided the centre of town, where the keywords are minuscule and mediocre, but even in quieter districts it’s difficult to find a decent traditional menu for a sensible price. Ca la Flor (Secretari Coloma 10, metro Joanic) is just the job: €8.50 for three generous home-cooked courses with free-flowing booze,…

LIFE archive photos of Barcelona

PATIO ANDALUZ, conde del asalto 120, PRESENTS SPANISH FOLKLORE if you want to see the come along BEAUTIFUL GIRL’S will sing an dance for you… slow prices. A human adboard, but no pictures of US sailors sloping off into alleys with Spanish prostitutes on the 6th Fleet’s historic visit in 1952, although Bagdad was the…

The Italian man who went to Malta

Increasingly huge on the net, but whose script/voice is it? (Via Josep Tarrés. More on “Funiculì, funiculà” some other day.)

Towards a noun-free Southern Europe

Tim the Translator is not happy with a diktat on non-sexist language issued by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, which includes a recommendation to use passive reflexive (which may well be distinct from reflexive passive) constructs like “it will be ruled judicially…” in order to avoid discriminatory acts like “the judge [m] will rule…”. He…

European single currency under threat in Chinchón, Madrid

Seven years on and Spanish barmen still haven’t learned to love those damn eros ueros: Perhaps the shame this induces will send Trichet cap in hand to Threadneedle Street to apply to the Old Lady for admission. Perhaps not. (Thanks to El Ciruco, who is holding out for more than a share in Google Ads)