Is TV3 the anti-Catalanista channel?

At least three people think so.

Personally, I'm not sure whether the event in Sabadell merited much more coverage or not. But it probably could have replaced '1,000 march in Mallorca against corruption'. 3Cat24 is, after all, supposed to be about news in Catalonia.

March 5, 2010 | Spain | 1 Comment 

thebadPoll: The worst place in Spain

This is a slightly different way of running a poll. I'm not going to offer any choices. Instead, I'd like you, gentle reader, to nominate the municipality, region, village or other place which you consider to be the worst place in Spain*. Maybe it's hideously ugly… maybe it's just utterly tacky. Share your loathing!

What's more, if you can't narrow it down to one, you'll get bonus uselessPoints(TM) for naming and shaming multiple places!

__

*And for the sake of clarity, 'Spain' means whatever the Spanish government in Madrid says it means. So yes, you can choose Barcelona if you like.

February 27, 2010 | Polls, Spain | 12 Comments 

Note to self:

Never mind.

February 23, 2010 | Home | Leave a Comment 

Why are PP members so effin' rude?

The other day, our esteemed former Presidente del Gobierno – and honorary president of the PP, José María Aznar, visited the university of Oviedo in order to sell some of his FAES stuff. The students of said academy responded to the man's visit by waving banners and calling him a war criminal. Señor Aznar's response was that employed by all gentlemen of the world: he gave them the finger ('the bird', as our American friends would have it).

Aznar salutes the students of Oviedo

Aznar salutes the students of Oviedo

Now, if you've ever read this blog before, you may have determined that there's very little love lost between your humble host and that twat, Aznar. In case you need convincing, here's my analysis of the man: He's a slimy, post-fascist scumbag who did nothing for Spain other than bring about our current economic situation; a small, disgustingly self-important, right-wing tosser with a shit-eating grin and a ridiculous moustache.

But this isn't just about Aznar. It does seem that Spain's right wing are just generally rude. Look at the 'king', with his "Why don't you shut up?" diplomatic manoeuvre. Then there's Esperanza Aguirre and Ignacio Gonzalez, a right pair of hijoputas. What's wrong with these people? It all lends support to my theory that the most impolite people you'll generally encounter in life are right-wingers. We on the left generally opt for more intelligent criticism.

February 20, 2010 | PP, Politics, Spain | 11 Comments 

Bruce Anderson is a stupid man

I wouldn't normally post a link to the Independent, mainly because of Bruce Anderson. A few years ago, I liked that newspaper's international and environmental coverage, the columns by Robert Fisk and even its silly covers. But it was Bruce Anderson's bilious opinion pieces that made me turn away for good.

Tonight, I read an opinion piece on the Guardian which obliged me to see what this stupid man had written. His article which, through a series of bafflingly illogical and incoherent arguments, makes the case for torture – frankly beggars belief. One can only assume that he is either a malicious agent provocateur, a truly evil pervert or simply stupid. I think you'll agree that I'm being charitable when I plump for that last answer. The article is so riddled with fallacy and flaw that I have neither the time nor the patience to pick it apart here. Read it for yourself and see whether I'm really employing an ad hominem fallacy, or whether my treatment is actually quite fair. After all, we needn't waste our time debating what fools say, right?

February 18, 2010 | 'Terror' | 1 Comment 

Primavera Sound 2010 Festival Line Up

It's that time of year again! As Barcelona's winter continues to fling a surprising array of nastiness at us, we're already getting the occasional day that lets us dream of spring. And spring in Barcelona means one thing: the Primavera Sound festival. This year's festival takes place from the 27th to the 29th of May, at the Parc del Fòrum.

This is the line up so far. It's pretty much final, though a few more acts will likely be named. The big names so far appear to be The Charlatans, The Fall, Gary Numan, Orbital, Pet Shop Boys, Pixies, Wilco and Wire.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow
Apse
Atlas Sound
Beach House
Beak>
Ben Frost
Best Coast
Bigott
Bis
Biscuit
Black Lips
Black Math Horseman
Boy 8-Bit
Broken Social Scene
Built To Spill
Camaron, La Leyenda Del Tiempo
Circulatory System
CocoRosie
Cohete
Cold Cave
Condo Fucks
Crocodiles
Delorean
Diplo
Dr. Dog
Dum Dum Girls
Emilio José
Endless Boogie
Fake Blood
Florence + The Machine
Fuck Buttons
Ganglians
Gary Numan
Grizzly Bear
Half Foot Outside
HEALTH
Here We Go Magic
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
Japandroids
Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard
Joker featuring Nomad
Junip
Lee "Scratch" Perry
Les Savy Fav
Lidia Damunt
Liquid Liquid
Low performing "The Great Destroyer"
Major Lazer
Marc Almond
Matt & Kim
Mission Of Burma
Moderat
Monotonix
Mujeres
Nana Grizol
No Age
Nueva Vulcano
ODDSAC
Orbital
Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy)
Panda Bear
Pavement
Pet Shop Boys
Pixies
Polvo
Real Estate
Roddy Frame
Scout Niblett
Seefeel
Shellac
Sian Alice Group
Sic Alps
Sleigh Bells
Spoon
Standstill
Sunny Day Real Estate
Superchunk
Surfer Blood
The Almighty Defenders
The Antlers
The Big Pink
The Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77
The Books
The Bundles
The Charlatans performing "Some Friendly"
The Clean
The Drums
The Fall
The Field
The King Khan & BBQ Show
The New Pornographers
The Psychic Paramount
The Slits
The Smith Westerns
The Wave Pictures
The XX
Thee Oh Sees
Titus Andronicus
Tortoise
Ui
Wilco
Wild Beasts
Wild Honey
Wire
Yeasayer

February 18, 2010 | Catalonia, Music | Leave a Comment 

New 'drunk girl' theft scam being tested in Barcelona for MWC!

Yesterday was Gemma's birthday, which we celebrated with tapas, cake, cava and beer at Glaçiar in Plaça Reial. We left at about 2am, and headed through the passage way back onto the Rambla dels Caputxins, emerging onto that stretch with a taxi rank between Ferran and Escudellers, also known as pickpocket central. Here is the basic info you need to know about the 'drunk girl trafficked' scam:

People involved: At least 3 people take part. Firstly, a young blonde woman who appears to be drunk – she's eating a kebab and with her podgy body and blonde hair could have been English… from her accent we think she was more likely from he former Soviet Union; secondly, one Latin-American man with a mobile phone, and a Spanish-looking man with a pony tail.

What happens: blonde girl approaches from the centre of the Ramblas. Apparently drunk, she collapses and nearly drops her kebab in front of bemused locals/marks who tut and then try to help her out of the road. Meanwhile, two men apparently unknown to each other join the melée, eventually making it appear that they're both tying to take the girl away. Ideally, civic attitudes and 'having heard of people trafficking' kick in, making the marks attempt to ascertain whether the 'victim' really knows her new friends. Of course she does, but not it's not how it looks!

At this point, the girl dropped her kebab. Looking back, this could either have been a genuinely convincing piece of acting, or it was a signal to move on to phase 3.

While Gemma's aunt continued trying to establish if the girl was OK, one of the guys managed to move behind me. As he made a grab for my wallet, he nudged me – certainly accidentally – and alerted me to their intentions. I barked "We're going!" in Catalan to Gemma's aunt, and dragged her into the waiting cab. We got away safely and without anything missing.

In all, this little piece of street theatre took about one minute to unfold. It must have been carefully planned and although I think I've heard of something similar, I can't find any references to the scam at the excellent Kovaks PI website. This, like all the most pernicious scams, is based on manipulating a person's built-in civism (rather than, say, their greed or lust, when in my opinion the mark gets all he deserves). As soon as the girl fell over, we were probably at risk of losing our bags/wallets. The fact that my man with the ponytail messed up his move on my wallet suggests that either this particular iteration of the scam is new, or the guy was new to it. It might well be that they thought they'd practice the scam on Saturday night because from today until next weekend, BCN will be rammed with sales executives packing expensive mobile phones and American-style wallets full of cash.

The thing to do, of course, when a girl falls over in the street, is call for the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police force). Likewise, if two men seem to be fighting over a drunk girl who doesn't know either of them, the thing to do is call for the Mossos. Shouting "Mossos! Policia!" might make you look like a berk but there are lots of cops around there and they'll turn up in no time.

Some useful info for visitors to Barcelona:

Catalan police phone number: 088
General emergency number: 112
Police officers on Les Rambles will always be in uniform and will always have an ID card (and normally a gun!)
Kovaks P.I. – the #1 resource for Barcelona street scam stories. Worth a read even if you're not coming to Barcelona

February 14, 2010 | Catalonia | 3 Comments 

A Congressional Gold Medal Don't Come For Free

Now, this is just hilarious: former Spanish PM (and generally, like, my #1 favourite guy), José María Aznar, is under investigation after a group of lawyers alleged that his government spent public money lobbying for him to be awarded the USA Congress's Gold Medal. The allegation has been around for about four years but only now is the Spanish judiciary really looking into it.

Aznar's quest for gold failed, incidentally. He did, however, manage to arrange for the Spanish people to pay for his daughter's wedding. Well, someone had to, I suppose.

February 7, 2010 | PP, Spain | 3 Comments 

In Support Of The True Fiesta Nacional

One of Spain's greatest and oldest cultural traditions is in danger of dying out completely because of EU legislation. The European laws, designed to protect citizens' 'liberty' were introduced without a moment's thought about the impact they'd have on this crucial feature of Spanish culture. I am, of course, talking about Spain's true Fiesta Nacional.

Ever since the 1st century BCE, Spaniards have enjoyed the spectacle of gladiators locked in combat, fighting until one (or ideally all) of them dies a heroic death. Indeed, recent evidence proves that a Spaniard was himself the very bravest of Rome's gladiators – he killed a nasty emperor and temporarily saved the empire from something.

But all this is now under threat – because of a bunch of killjoy lawmakers obsessed by destroying Spanish culture. EU legislators introduced so called 'human rights legislation' many years ago, but it is these laws that might now be used to stop us from enjoying one of the great cultural pursuits this country has to offer. And the sad thing is that this could all be prevented if the do-gooders understood that live gladiator fights aren't really about men killing each other for the enjoyment of a crowd of baying monsters. You see, gladiator fighting is about so much more than that.

For those who haven't yet had a chance to enjoy the spectacle of a gladiator fight, I'm going to explain a little of what makes it so special. First of all, there's the amphitheatre it's held in: these grand stadia have their roots in Roman architecture and are designed so that wherever a viewer sits, they can see the action. Amphitheatres used to litter Spanish cities like discarded sunflower seed shells, but now only a few remain. It's worth remembering that Barcelona had loads of the places, while Madrid (which didn't exist when the Romans occupied Spain) had none. Why that's worth remembering, I'm not sure… but remember it, OK?

Next up is the sense of ceremony that surrounds the whole event. The gladiators are held in a sort of pen just before they're released into the arena, and when they appear in their beautiful costumes, you can almost believe you're watching ballet rather than deadly combat. Actually, I'm not sure about that: ballet exists as a way of interpreting violence, passion and the human experience by way of dance. Gladiatorial combat interprets violence by way of goading men to murder each other. But it's still quite full of movement, I suppose.

The deaths, while certainly not the focus of gladiatorial combat, are really cool! Some of the best gladiators can make a rival's suffering defence last for up to an hour, drawing the process of killing their opponent (which is not the main focus of the fight at all) into what seems like a true fight between equals. Of course, the truth is that the professional gladiators always win because their competitors, dumb and useless beasts that they are, are often drugged, underfed and tortured prior to the main event. Well, you wouldn't want the star to die, would you?! Anyway, the death isn't even the most important bit.

The most important bit is… everything. Of course, everything is geared in a way that it climaxes in the death… but that doesn't mean it's just about killing. You can buy an ice cream from the little man who sells them… and if he stands in the way of a good killing, just tell him to get the fuck out of the way. Because the death, while not the most important bit, is a moment so wholly Spanish – so ancient and lovely – that you really shouldn't miss it. Yes, the death is not the most important part of the gladiator fight. It's the killing.

Oh and, before you bring it up, no we really don't see the killing as cruel. I mean, most of these guys are losers and criminals anyway. Sure, they're doomed to die terrified but imagine how they'd feel if they caught lung cancer from second hand smoke. That'd be a much worse way to go… so you see, they're really the lucky ones.

Can we really afford to lose this ancient, lovely and cool spectacle? To me, it seems self-evident that gladiatorial combat is above silly modern notions like 'humanity' or 'law'. Clearly, amendments should be made to this legislation to ensure that future generations can enjoy the killing with their own eyes? As has been pointed out, these fights exist: it's up to the opponents of gladiators killing each other to prove why it's suddenly wrong.

So, dear reader, I call on you to join with me in defence of this noble pursuit. Together, we can preserve barbarity in these perplexing times.

February 6, 2010 | Spain | 8 Comments 

More movie reviews

We've seen quite a few movies recently, including some old favourites and even a couple of classics I'd not seen before. Here is a quick binary review of the ones I can remember.

Casablanca - 1/1 – Shamefully late to see this for the first time. Good fun, nicely filmed and quite exciting.

The Men Who Stare At Goats – 0/1 – Perplexingly pointless, utterly without direction, basically crap. Did not finish.

Hulk (2003) – 1/1 – Epically misunderstood, awesome on Blu-ray and far better than the shoddy 2008 remake. More on this another time.

Brief Encounter – 0/1 – Couldn't watch this without waiting for the punchline for a joke that never came. A victim of the many excellent parodies that followed it.

Up - 1/1 – Not as good as Wall-E but still v enjoyable. Loved the tearjerker opening sequence. Forgivable schmaltz.

Looking For Eric – 1/1 – Heartwarming comedy about workers' solidarity and Eric Cantona.

Let The Right One In – 1/1 – Swedish film about friendship by way of vampirism. Not too vampirous.

February 1, 2010 | Film, Review | Leave a Comment 

My Mongetes a la Catalana recipe

Catalan food, as observed by my friend Sebina, can be a little heavy sometimes. This mainly comes down to a love of recipes involving beans, especially in conjunction with lots of pork products. A classic combination is Botifarra amb Mongetes, sausage and beans… but that's a tad dull if you ask me. Instead, I prefer 'Beans a la Catalana', made with either mongetes (big white beans) or fabes (young green broad beans). This is my made up recipe for Mongetes a la Catalana, another great rustic dish for wintry days and evenings. The measures are based on serving four or five people.

What you will need:

About 700g of good Mongetes blanques. Go for 'ganxet' type as these seem to be better. When I say 700g, I mean when they're still in their water, in the jar. Strain them but do not wash them.
3 strips of good panceta/cansalada/pork belly, cut into large postage stamp-sized pieces. Not too large, mind
Sausage. Go for about 400g of botifarra sausage (chopped up as well). I used some mini chipolatas with black truffle but I don't know how easy these are to come by
2 cloves garlic, minced (or whatever you call it)
Handful of chopped parsley
Dash of white wine
Salt
Good olive oil
About 15 mins

What you need to do:

Heat a nice amount olive oil to medium-high temperature (around level 5 on my cooker) in a large, heavy frying pan. Add the panceta, making sure to add plenty of salt (it'll be a bit tasteless otherwise). After a minute or two, add the sausages. Fry the meat for 5-10 minutes, until it browns. Ensure the oil doesn't get too hot and that the meat doesn't burn. It might well spit a bit at this point (the fatty panceta does like to 'pop' from time to time). When browned, remove the meat with a slatted device, and place in a bowl.

Let the oil cool down a little bit before continuing. Get the heat down to medium/medium-low.

Now throw the garlic and parsley into the pan. If you got the oil temperature right, it'll fry but not burn immediately (that happened to me the first time I tried this). Fry for about a minute. Now add the strained beans and stir together for another minute. Here, I like to add a dash of white wine, just to provide a bit of liquid to the dish. Don't add more than a glass. When the wine has reduced down, add the meat again. Cook it all together for about four or five minutes (keeping the heat really low), and that's it.

Serve a fairly small portion in a bowl with pa amb tomaquet and a glass of decent red wine. This dish is filling, warming and really yummy. Hope you enjoy it!

January 30, 2010 | Catalonia, Food | Leave a Comment 

thebadPoll: what's correct: Catalonia or Catalunya… or Cataluña?

This new poll is borne from a post I read today at Jeremy Holland's From Barcelona blog. But it's also, I must admit, something I've probably grumbled about before.

Among the people writing about Catalonia in English, there seems to be little consensus as to what we call the place. I always use the English form 'Catalonia', Jeremy uses the Catalan 'Catalunya', Graeme at South of Watford uses the Spanish 'Cataluña'… doubtless someone out there (Trevor?) uses the archaic 'Cathalunya'.

My reasons for using the English form are fairly simple: firstly, consistency. In my guise as a sort-of-managing-editor, I spend plenty of time making sure that everyone writing for our website writes as consistently as possible. That is, we have a house style which should always be applied. So we write in American English, generally try to avoid jargon – sometimes a difficult task when writing about technology, and use the same naming conventions when referring to organisations, places or people. The idea of consistency in such writing is that a reader should never have to trouble themselves as to why we're suddenly using a different word to describe something. I use 'Catalonia', 'Spain' and 'Seville' because I'm attempting to maintain some sense of consistency in the way I write (though a quick search shows that I have used 'Sevilla' a few times!). I feel that the majority of news organisations and works of reference would agree with me when I say that as a rule, toponyms ought to be written in the same language as the rest of the article.

The second reason I prefer the English form of the name is that when I'm writing in English, I'll use an English word wherever possible. This has nothing to do with any kind of linguistic conservatism: though my 'trade' involves the constant use of English, I'm the first to proclaim that one of its great strengths is the lack of an Academy that protects it from foreign influence. I do, however, broadly agree with George Orwell's Six Rules for clear political writing. As far as I'm concerned, 'Catalonia' is a perfectly decent English word that has been in use for hundreds of years and, like 'Spain' does the job admirably well. So why opt for the Catalan version? To me, it sounds like an affectation, particularly when this exception – this break in consistency – is applied only to 'Catalunya', and not to 'Spain'.

Jeremy makes a couple of points when explaining why he prefers the Catalan form. He's right to say that using 'Catalunya' hardly makes a piece of writing harder to understand. Pretty much anyone reading either of our blogs would be perfectly comfortable with the Catalan toponym. He also talks about the fluidity of English and its willingness to absorb words from other languages and cultures – something I mentioned above. But he does rather cloud the issue I thought we were talking about: whether there's a correct way to name the place in English. He also introduces something of a red herring: street names and people's names. To me, calling Joan, 'John' is incorrect… and calling the Plaça de Catalunya 'Catalonia Square' just aren't the same thing as calling Catalunya, Catalonia.

But I may be wrong. Jeremy has promised that he'll change and start using the English form if that's what most Catalans say they prefer. I'm not going to change the naming conventions I use, no matter what you say. But I am interested in hearing what you think. So the question is: when writing in English, what's the correct way to refer to the place? Catalonia, Catalunya, Cataluña, or something else entirely? As always, vote early & often to the right >>>

January 29, 2010 | Catalonia, Language, Polls | 37 Comments 

I have not given up

I've got various ideas for blog posts but I must admit that none of them have really turned out very well. Added to that, I'm very busy at work (as usual in January). But, whatever I might have said on Twitter, I've not given up on thebadrash.com

I'll hopefully be able to post a couple of times over the weekend.

Tom

January 29, 2010 | Home | Leave a Comment 

Avatar: Is this what we've come to?

Last night, Gemma, Jon and I went to see James Cameron's new movie, Avatar. I don't usually go to see big-budget blockbusters at the cinema but with all the hype that had built up around this film (pernicious hype!), I'd started to think that if I didn't see it on the big screen, I might regret it in years to come. It is, after all, far better to regret that you wasted time doing something than it is to regret sitting on your arse at home, reading a good book and drinking some good red wine. Or something like that.

We saw Avatar at the Yelmo Cineplex Icària, near the Ciutadella metro stop. The Icària cinema is one of those awful new-style multiplex joints with 15 fairly small screens. Nowhere near as atmospheric or impressive as the Odeon or Cannon of my youth in Plymouth. But the seats are more comfortable. The tickets cost €10.50 (Estafadors!), apparently because the film was popular. We were each given a pair of heavy, highly tinted sunglasses as we took our seats: these would make the 3-D work.

Yes, that's right: Avatar is a movie which employs that most current of fads: pretend 3-D. Touted by many idiots in the film industry as being 'as important as colour!', pretend 3-D essentially makes the background a bit blurry while whichever character is in the foreground looks a bit shiny. More on this later.

The film itself is incredibly bad. Everything about it is bad. That is to say, it has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The storyline is basically Pocahontas with more explosions. The script is unbelievably explanatory – at no point was the viewer able to question what might be happening, because everything had been clumsily foreshadowed in the first 25 minutes. The acting was melodramatic and amateurish. The 'goodies' were flawlessly 'good', the baddies seemed like they were involved in some sort of excruciating self-parody. Except they weren't. There wasn't a single moment of intended humour, soul or suspense – all in a film that lasted three hours. Three long, dull hours.

"Rubbish"

As I mentioned, the story is effectively Pocahontas: invading outsider meets beautiful warrior princess, they fight then become friends, she introduces him to her dad (the king), and her betrothed one (a warrior); no one likes the invader but he proves himself by undergoing their initiation rites; invader has sex with princess; invader's fellow invaders turn up, intent on killing everyone; invader decides to be warrior, fights on the side of the tribe, big battle ensues, invader and princess survive, FIN.

Not that there's anything particularly wrong with that: it's an old story which, when done properly, can be very moving. The problem with Avatar is that James Cameron failed to do anything about the fact that we already know this story. So nothing happened that you couldn't predict from the beginning.

The film has been praised in other reviews for the richness of its visuals and the lush imaginary landscapes which Cameron invented for the land of Pandora (yes, Pandora). Actually, the visuals were not particularly stunning and watching the Blu-ray of the BBC's Planet Earth allows you to experience stunningly beautiful and far more detailed landscapes and forests… and it's all real!

Other annoying aspects of the film include: the annoying American insistence on rousing speeches just before a confrontation (cf. Independence Day, a movie that at least had some humour) – the main character's pre-battle speech in Avatar wouldn't have sounded out of place had it been barked by George W. Bush. Sigourney Weaver, who I once thought was a great actress, proves that like most actors she's actually not that bright and prefers $$$ to quality. Near-constant music. Action scenes that lack any excitement. 3-D.

"Pointless"

The very idea of making films in '3-D' is flawed. As has been pointed out, we are not dogs. As humans, most of us are capable of seeing a flat image and perceiving depth. It's why we have films in the first place. And anyway, 3-D in films isn't 3-D at all. It's 2-D with an effect applied to it. It can't touch you and it is no more 'realistic' or thrilling than standard 2-D. As well as these systematic flaws, Cameron clearly didn't want to be accused of just employing a gimmick, giving the audience cheap thrills by making objects jump out of the screen at them. So he didn't have any of that in the film. Surely, if 3-D is to have a point, it's to make stuff jump out of the screen at you?!

Instead, the pretend 3-D in Avatar is done more 'subtly', making characters in the foreground appear more defined than what's going on in the background. What this means is that the cheap trick of messing with depth of field in order to stop the viewer from seeing into the distance, finds its zenith in Avatar. At no point are you really able to enjoy the visuals. At no point does the 'camera' slow down enough to take in any of the allegedly stunning vistas. What's worse is that because you're forced to wear these heavy, uncomfortable corrective spectacles all the way through the film (I took mine off quite a lot, though, as it seemed to have little effect on my enjoyment), there are plenty of parts of the film that are actually not 3-D at all. When you see these scenes through the glasses, what you see is a hell of a lot of shimmering and glitching that simply should be there.

And that's the funniest thing about Avatar: the film that was supposed to bring 3-D to life for cinema audiences, like Gone With The Wind or the Wizard Of Oz did for colour, actually confirms 3-D to be a technology that doesn't look great and that we don't need. I doubt that I'll ever watch another film in 3-D – at least, not if I can help it.

thebadrash.com's binary review: Avatar – 2009 – Dir. James Cameron. 0/1

January 16, 2010 | Crap, Film | 8 Comments 

Adam Curtis: It Felt Like A Kiss

I'll be writing a post soon about the last ten years and the effect they've had on me. One of the very many things I have to be grateful for during this decade is discovering the films of Adam Curtis.

Curtis's documentaries focus on the political and social history of the 20th century, criticising much of the psychological methods of power employed during those years. In The Power of Nightmares, Curtis illustrated how governments learned that the best way they could explain their worth to us in a post-cold war world was by building a new culture of fear directed at enemies which could never be defeated. The Trap investigates the various definitions of freedom and how these contrary views impacted on societies.

YouTube Preview Image

It Felt Like A Kiss is instantly recognisable as a Curtis film (the Helvetica typeface, the often shocking archive footage, the powerful soundtrack). But it is significantly different to those I mentioned above. Detailing "how power really works in the world", IFLAK eschews any narration beyond occasional visual prompts. The film is instead a tapestry of powerful images played over a soundtrack of some fantastic music from the 50s through to the 90s. Like some kind of amazing, extra-long pop video.

And in It Felt Like A Kiss, it's the music that I most adore. Ranging from Roy Orbison to the Velvet Underground to the Phil Spector-produced title song, Curtis selects a phenomenal playlist of well known and more obscure pieces. The soundtrack reminded me of how much I loved some long-neglected albums, and finally got me to listen to a ton of 'Wall of Sound' records, many of which are of unimpeachable quality and beauty, however mad their producer is.

YouTube Preview Image

The film cannot currently be obtained legally, so you'll have to download it. I'm hoping that Curtis will release his documentaries on DVD some time soon (a box set of those would be fantastic). If you'd rather not download a film illegally, you can listen to much of the soundtrack on this Spotify playlist.

December 19, 2009 | Film, Language, Politics | 3 Comments 

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