This is war! War makes madness! This is madness?

Photo, ,

This billboard is on my walk from the bus to work. It’s advertising the ‘This is war! Robert Capa at work’ photographic exhibition which has come to Barcelona after a successful stint in London. The image used is, of course, Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death – a fine photograph which most experts consider to have been posed (not that this makes any real difference: all images are created, one way or  another, and this is a particularly good image).

Attached to the billboard is an interesting statement from persons unknown, pointing out that Capa’s great work was staged, and then continuing for lines and lines and lines without really saying anything that makes sense. Is this madness?

One other thing worth noting: hampones is a synonym of ladrones, I’m told. It’s a new one on me.

capa2 capa1

Primavera Sound 2009 review

Music, , , , , , , ,

This year’s Primavera Sound was one of my favourites yet. Although our friends from impoverished Hackney couldn’t make it, I know they were there in spirit. I also behaved myself and resolutely refused to kick any chaps in the balls, a major improvement on last year.

Partly as a result of better behaviour, and partly because Gemma and I found it easier to strike out on our own, we saw more bands this year and certainly enjoyed more of what we saw. The new system for drinks tickets, which involved buying them drink by drink at vending machines was disatrous at the beginning of the festival, but ended up being simpler and more efficient. In contrast with Summercase (which won’t happen this year), the Rock Delux stage faced the stepped amphitheatre it occupies, so while sat we didn’t have to crane our necks to see the bands.

Anyway, here’s my breakdown of the bands we saw – graded according to my patented binary review system.

Thursday

Spectrum – 1

The Vaselines – 1

Joe Crepusculo y los Destructores – 1 (a surprisingly good Spanish band)

My Bloody Valentine – 1

Yo La Tengo – 1

The Bug – 1 (an early highlight)

Aphex Twin – 1

Friday

Tokyo Sex Destruction feat. Gregg Foreman – 1

Spiritualized – 1

Carsick Cars – 1

Art Brut – 1

Sun O))) – 1

Throwing Muses – 1

The Mae Shi – 0

Jarvis Cocker – 1

Saint Etienne – 0

Saturday

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – 1

Plants & Animals – 0

Herman Dune – 1

Neil Young – 0

Oneida – 0

Deerhunter – 0

Ghostface Killah – 1

Sonic Youth – 1

Black Lips – 1

You’ll notice very few 0s in this review. I can’t say why that is, but my hunch is that I had fewer must-sees on my list than in previous years, meaning I was free to enjoy plenty of bands I’d never heard much from. My main disagreement with how the festival was organised was the way Neil Young was billed. When he started, there was a block of over an hour when no one else played on any stage, meaning that we were effectively forced to watch his show. By all that’s sane, I should probably be a bigger fan of Neil Young than I am. But the truth is that he leaves me just a little cold, and this episode of dedicating the entire early part of Saturday night to him (I suspect it was a contractual obligation), pissed me off. Plus, there was a terrible artist on stage all through his set, ‘creating’ a two-dimensional representation of the concert as Young and his band played. Half the time, it looked like nothing more than a turd.

Despite that, Primavera Sound 2009 was, for me, a great festival. We caught up with loads of old friends, made some new ones, and enjoyed some excellent concerts. Roll on Primavera 2010!

FC Barcelona, the penya and Primavera

Music, , , , ,

So here we are. Unless things go on for much more than 90 minutes tomorrow evening, in 24 hours we’ll know the outcome of the Champions League final. F.C. Barcelona face Manchester United in what should be a mega-clasico of a match. We’re going to watch the game at the Penya Barcelonista de Cerdanyola del Vallès, the same bar where we saw Barça win three years ago, and where we saw them knock Chelsea out just three weeks ago.

If you’ve never been to an official penya (they exist for most football clubs but around here they’re predominantly F.C. Barcelona-affiliated), these official supporters’ clubs are often the finest places to watch a good football match, provided you back the penya‘s team. You need to make sure you get there early, though. For the second semi-final, I got there over an hour before kick-off and barely managed to snag a couple of stools in the non-smoking area (shock, horror!). For tomorrow’s game, I’ve booked a table in the smoking area – three years ago, I did the same thing, and when I offered my name, the owner simply shook her head and said ‘Els estrangers‘, ‘the foreigners’. This time, she at least admitted she knew me and allowed ‘Tom’ to go on her bit of paper. We’ll see how well this works out around 8 tomorrow evening.

I’ll avoid predicting the outcome of the game because my hope that Barça will win is far greater than any knowledge I’d ever profess to having of the game. Suffice to say: I reckon it’ll be hard for both clubs, and while Man U may be favourites, I do think that Barça can win it.

And if they do, it’ll set off a great long weekend of celebrations. Because while I’ll be in the office the next day, whatever happens, Thursday night sees the start of Primavera Sound – Barcelona’s pop festival and officially the first party of the summer (well, that’s what I always say). The lineup is pretty good, and this year I’ll probably be aiming to take in a few newer bands I don’t know so much about (any recommendations are welcomed). The festival runs until Saturday, but even better news is that Monday is ‘second Easter’, meaning we get another day off! Skill!

So it could be a brilliant few days or just a very good few days. And you can’t say fairer than that.

Força Barça!

TVE censors crowd disapproval of Spanish national anthem at Copa del Rei final

Television

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTJRhiOaNLk[/youtube]

When the Spanish national anthem was played on Wednesday night, it was met with whistling, klaxons and a lot of other noise from the predominantly Catalan and Basque supporters present. TV España switched to its outside broadcasting units in Barcelona and Bilbao in an apparent attempt to hide this, and then played coverage of the anthem being played, with edited sound. The sport director of TVE has been sacked for this ‘human error’ which actually looks a lot more like the Spanish national broadcaster trying to hide a potentially embarrassing truth.

More coverage at Cataloniablog.

Copa del Rei seen in Barcelona

Photo, , , ,

As I was walking back from the Mississippi station today, I happened to bump into a TV3 OB team and a bunch of Culés. I asked a likely young lass if, perchance, El Barça would be coming through shortly and she confirmed that they were on their way.

I stood around for about five minutes and then spotted the TV3 team moving into the middle of the road, a surefire sign that the bus was on its way. And then, there it was. Heralded by flashing blue lights, cheers and foghorns, the Barça bus made its way across Carrer Numancia towads us. The cup itself was displayed proudly at the front of the bus, and some figures could be seen behind the tinted glass, waving and cheering. I imagine Eto’o led the chants.

Behind the bus was a fleet of hundreds of motos and cars, horns sounding and flags waving.

But this was fairly subdued by Barcelona standards. Everyone knows that within a couple of weeks, we could all be celebrating a much bigger triumph. If Barça can win the Champions League and secure a historic triple (yes, that’s a big if, but it’s there to be won), Barcelona will party for days on end.

(All 9 pics here. By the way, the pics aren’t great: I was using our compact camera and I was somewhat hurried)

GordoMeme: The Obama DVD set

Film, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Just seen this on Tom Harris’s blog (via about 7 others).

Apparently, Barack Obama gave Gordon Brown a set of DVDs as a kind gift recently. The game is simple: you get 2 points for each that you own and have watched, 1 point for those you’ve seen but don’t own, 1 point for those you own but have never watched* and no points for those you’ve never seen and don’t own (even if you intend to watch them this evening). My standing:

Own and have seen:

The Godfather, Raging Bull, Lawrence Of Arabia, Schindler’s List, Vertigo, Psycho, Chinatown, Some Like It Hot, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial. (18 points)

Seen but don’t own:

Citizen Kane, Singin’ In The rain, Gone With The Wind, The Wizard Of Oz, Star Wars Episode IV, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Graduate, On The Waterfront, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Grapes Of Wrath, To Kill A Mockingbird. (11 points)

Own but haven’t seen:

Casablanca. (1 point)

Neither own nor seen:

City Lights, The Searchers, Sunset Boulevard, The General.

Although I wasn’t ‘tagged’ to play this game, I don’t really care about the rules. So I’m going to customise the rules and pass it on.

*In my opinion, if you own one of the DVDs but haven’t watched it, you should actually be docked 1 point. So my final score is 28 points. My other new rule is that each person should add one DVD to the list. My choice is: No Country For Old Men.

Though I wasn’t passed this game by anyone involved, I’m willing to start a new chain and send it on to:
Graeme, Trevor, Jon, Katie, Andrew and Elena.

UPDATED: Primavera Sound 2009 lineup

Music, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Here’s the (probably pretty much final) lineup for Primavera Sound 2009…

Dijous 28 de maig, Jueves 28 de mayo, Thursday 28th of may
My Bloody Valentine, Aphex Twin, Yo La Tengo, The Jesus Lizard, Phoenix, Squarepusher, The Vaselines, Spectrum, Andrew Bird, Jay Reatard, Lightning Bolt, The Bats, Marnie Stern, Dead Meadow, Ponytail, Ebony Bones, Wooden Shjips, The Bug, Bowerbirds, Joe Crepúsculo y Los Destructores, Wavves, The Tallest Man On Earth, Women, Magik Markers, Veracruz, Girls, Cuzo, Meneo

Divendres 29 de maig, Viernes 29 de mayo, Friday 30th of may
My Bloody Valentine (Auditori), Bloc Party, Jarvis Cocker, Spiritualized, Throwing Muses, Saint Etienne, Shellac, Joe Henry, Art Brut, A Certain Ratio, Sunn O))), Magnolia Electric Co., Jason Lytle, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Michael Mayer, Dan Deacon Ensemble, Rhythm & Sound (Mark Ernestus), The Mae Shi, The Drones, Bat For Lashes, Damien Jurado, Fucked Up, Tokyo Sex Destruction, Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, Crystal Antlers, Uffie, Extra Life, Mahjongg, Carsick Cars, Sleepy Sun, Los Punsetes, Skatebård, Extraperlo, Rosvita

Dissabte 30 de maig, Sábado 30 de mayo, Saturday 30th of may
Neil Young, Sonic Youth, The Jayhawks, Michael Nyman, Ghostface Killah, The New Year, Liars, Herman Dune, Deerhunter, Black Lips, The Bad Plus, Gang Gang Dance, Oneida, Th’ Faith Healers, DJ /rupture, Ariel Pink, El-P, Simian Mobile Disco, Jeremy Jay, A-Trak, Jesu, Alela Diane, Shearwater, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, The Soft Pack, Chad VanGaalen, Plants & Animals, The Secret Society, Maika Makovski, Zombie Zombie, The Lions Constellation, Lemonade, Dj Mehdi

Bold denotes acts I’m looking forward to.

UPDATE: Recently announced additions include Neil Young and Jarvis Cocker. I do believe this could be the best festival ever.

Linksplash

Links, , , , , ,

It has been pointed out to me by several comrades that my blogging hasn’t been very frequent of late. This is mainly due to having lots of work on and several weekends with much to do.

As a shabby sort of attempt to rectify this, I’m committing myself to posting at least a few links each day, just to show my dear comrades that even if I haven’t the time to write my own posts, I have been reading yours. I’m calling this thing my ‘linksplash’ but I’m not sure about that. All suggestions for an alternative title will be considered. Hell, we might even have a poll.

Barcelona Notaries and where they live (link, via Kalebeul)

Aznar to save Spain? LD seem to think so (South of Watford)

Debate over Rimmington’s views that restricting civil liberties might be bad (Guardian)

Katie loves her veg box – I’ll start soon too (España Profunda)

Follow the Pirate Bay trial on Sofia’s Twitter (Link)

Nick meets Gemma’s old boss at the Confraria dels Pescadors (Link)

Flower a “must buy” for PS3 (Link via 3Speech)

Max Dunbar misquotes Lenin (Link)

“The bus is full”

Television, , , , , ,

Noel Edmonds has made a new play in his “biggest wanker ever” campaign. Now neck and neck with Jeremy Clarkson (no relation), Edmonds has called for immigrants to be thrown out and the UK’s borders closed. According to the News Of The World:

“We can all go down the pub and go, ‘Oh it’s terrible, all these immigrants.’ But what are we going to do in Britain to change this toxic culture if we don’t say, ‘Enough is enough.’

“If I was Prime Minister for a day the first thing I would do would be to close the border.

“Then we could work out how many people we’ve got here.

“Then you get people out who have committed crimes and you look at others who shouldn’t be here. Nobody knows how many people we’ve got here.”

Indeed. I avoided the boycott of TeleCinco for their anti-Catalan stance because I’m not that keen on boycotts. But Noel “cunt” Edmonds has made me rethink my position. “Noel’s HQ”, the wanker’s new vehicle, will be avoided at all costs. Well, it would have been anyway, but now I won’t even tune in to see if he kills another guest.

Summercase 2008: final review

Music, , , , , , , ,

Yes, as Grey said in his comment on my brief binary review, I was warned. I seriously doubt that I’ll go back to Summercase. Here’s my Last.fm review (links point to last.fm pages).

==

In over 11 years of regularly attending pop festivals, Summercase 2008 was by far and away the worst organised and most blatantly commercial event I’ve ever attended.

The lineup was poor and got worse with the loss of mia and Santogold, among others. A group of low-quality English pop groups (Maximo Park, Kaiser Chiefs, Sex Pistols, The Verve…) dominated the lineup and left little room for decent local or international break-through acts.

Also, the organisers’ addiction to Disneyfied 1970s acts (Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Stranglers…) made for further dull concerts as large groups of 20-somethings mumbled through the lyrics to PlayAtomic, a song which was fist performed before any of them were conceived. Incidentally, Blondie’s guitarist also managed to mess-up the guitar-part for Atomic, despite it being one of the most celebrated riffs in pop history. Give you a clue: it’s not good enough to just play the notes in the right order… you need to get the rhythm right too.

The thing is that, of what I saw, the only truly great concert was by Cornelius (easily the most experimental artist playing at this MOR event). Pretty much everything else was just rubbish.

As to the general organisation of the event, we were shocked and dismayed at the rudeness and generally low level of service offered by the Summercase team. Part of this was to do with the alleged policy of festival organisers to employ staff not from Barcelona, in order to prevent the normal issue of ‘free drinks for friends’ happening. What this resulted in was a service team of rude and aggressive non-locals who spoke neither Catalan nor English, and who were quite clearly unhappy with their work. Added to this, the females were forced to wear very tight pink t-shirts (men were in brown), and the festival succeeded in making itself not only a gross display of consumerism but also perfectly happy with breaking Barcelona’s modern conventions on language, culture and gender equality.

This year, I decided not to attend FIB because I thought the lineup didn’t justify a trip down to Castelló… especially when I had a festival on my doorstep. I won’t make that mistake again. And it looks like, with a huge drop in attendance, Summercase needs to sort out its act or clear off altogether.

Summercase 2008: 0