Worst ever theatre experience

Sergi Belbel’s A la Toscana, last night, first night at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, of which Mr Belbel is the boss. It was well staged, the music was well done, and the actors are the ones who get all the work on the nacional circuit, and none the worse for that. But, like the…

Desde que te perdí

Folks seem to be going through a Kevin Johansen phase. Argentine music tends to Yankee-hating-up-Manu-Chao’s-arse bollocks, but “el Hugh Hefner Aragonés” is interesting and amusing:

Cádiz y sus cantes

It’s been done before, but here’s soundman, producer, director Luis Jimenez (if he really was any of these, and not a mere video-ripper) in footage of Maria La Sabina:

Spanish Pavarotti anecdote

Tutto Pavarotti was the title of the great man’s best-selling album, but even this proved a linguistic step too far for Spanish audiences. At concerts on the tour he was alarmed to see them rise en masse and chant “Tutto! Tutto!” in the belief that this was his first name.

Noise abatement on Spanish trains

A young Latino with a moderately loud blaster gets on at Sant Andreu. I’m trying to talk to people, so I’m grateful when a Latino security guard comes through the carriage just after Torre de Baró. He walks over to the young guy, taps him on the shoulder, motions him to turn UP the sound,…

Why I came to Spain

To get away from British Spanish music would be a plausible explanation. Here two famous examples, a cover of George Formby’s Lancashire toreador and of Mike Read’s The Spaniard wot blighted my life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwUy735pnhU I actually love them, but don’t tell.

The Spanish Prostitute Moment in pre-war French popular novels

This is a crucial element in what remains of French realist writing in the 1920s and 30s, which, for this reason and others, was more popular than praised. Based on some reading and no maths, I would venture that in a book of (x + y) pages (not counting the open letter of support from…

Don’t shoot that hare

El Niño de Tetuán singing fandangos (MP3s or him and a superb selection of others). We’re probably talking early 1930s, but I don’t know where–Seville or Jerez seems more likely than Tetuan :-): A esa liebre no tirarle cazaores de la sierra a esa liebra no tirarle porque está haciendo en la tierra madriguera pa…