Most popular musical number in Spain

This non-authentic version of Paquito chocolatero is by King Africa, who is, according to Wikipedia, actually kind of American, and John Major’s favourite artist to boot: Now an authentic version from Mike Oldfield, which doesn’t involve the mass simulation of anal sex popular down south: The next three favouritest tunes are also pasodobles, namely Viva…

Adam Aston singing Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino

One of the first times I played in public as a kid was at the local Polish club, and I remember trying to figure out what all these old folks were doing in this neighbourhood, amid numerous refugees from newer tyrannies in Asia and Africa and Latin America. After that it was a short conceptual…

El ropavejero y la belleza

–Hola, buenos días, ¿tienes ex-votos? –Yo nada de botos señor, pero la suegra se ha dejado hacer las domingas y están bastante bien. // Later, someone is getting on the bus driver’s nerves. So: –¡No me toques los botones!

For Ronaldo

Não é desgraça ser pobre, there ain’t no shame in being poor, and sometimes it’s better only being able to afford one tranny hooker. By Amália Rodrigues, who I only discovered the other day.

Der Engel

When I saw this first I briefly thought it was Montjuïc viewed from Maians Island, where Quixote first saw the sea. But the sun sets west, not south, and those are mountains in the background, not clouds. So it must be Italy, somewhere. Here’s the text.

Shouted across block during F1 trials yesterday

–¡Alfonso primero! –¡Alfonso XIII! Probably one of those time-space-specific things. Alfonso XIII strikes me as an infinitely superior as far as witless losers go, but I wasn’t there at the time.

Flatulent chief inspector publishes “Volatile peace. Talks on farting”

“I have in my mind the most masterly farts which, however, would be impossible to reproduce.” The farting policeman explains nevertheless how to perform the “Imperial”, the “Terminator” and the “Saturday Night”, which may or may not refer to the comparable artistic frustrations no doubt suffered by the admirable Mr Travolta.

Misdeed and identity in the Indian Ocean

La Vanguardia, 2008/4/21: “Piratas somalíes secuestran un atunero vasco. El ‘Playa de Bakio’ lleva 26 tripulantes, trece africanos, ocho gallegos y cinco vascos. Anoche, una fragata española acudía desde el mar Rojo a auxiliar al barco.” Victims from north of the Mediterranean are dissimilated on the basis of their autonomous community, while victims from the…