Theatre – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Whenever I see The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, I think of Alphonse Laurencic

And here. I would dearly love to find out more about Alphonse and his creations. Someone once showed me a magazine with a few relevant pictures, but I’ve forgotten who/what/where. All but the blind will have noticed my background tribute on this blog’s front page to Robert Wiene. The OpenFlix/YouTube publishing of Dr Caligari is…

Manga monster in a Tarragona wood

Pity you can’t see it from the motorway. Or perhaps not. (H/t Abandonalia)

¡España británica!

Why impose disastrous Spanish policies on thriving Gibraltar when British colonisation of Spain would have so many advantages?

Vitoria: Wellington could have had it all.

Best ever portrait of June Caprice?

This original drawing with its delicious absinthe blue is by one Emili Vilà Gorgoll (Llagostera 1887-1967, who he?) & is up for auction at Balclis on Wednesday. Here’s the competition. I go basically for the munchies and the odd curiosity. I sense an inverse relationship between price and personal preference – the expensive stuff seems…

If Merkel complains about how much TV3 costs, ask her about Bavaria

The television arm of Bayerische Rundfunk inflicts roughly the same relative damage on regional GDP as its Catalan cousin.

Can an independent trade union survive in Spain?

Or do they all live off the state in order to live at all? This re the emergence of an independent domestic workers union in Barcelona, Sindihogar.

Is Gertrude Stein pulling the strings on the Balearics?

José Ramón Bauzá, in government but losing the power of speech.

Ben Jonson and the ground charlatans

Like today’s miserable vendors of pirated CDs, early modern Venetian ambulants are trading on someone else’s stolen content, but at least they’ve had to learn it by heart.

Ear, ear

How to get drugs without a prescription on match days.

Narco tombs in San Miguel Arcángel, Culiacán and Barcelona

Luis Estrada’s new narcoflick, El Infierno, a brilliant narcoart short by Don Bartletti, and a couple of my old photos.