Support Spain? Nah, but maybe Russia

Colombian writer, Juan Gabriel Vásquez has a short piece in the Guardian today explaining why British football fans, with no team in the European Championships, should opt to support Spain instead. Most of his reasons concern nonsense along the lines of 'Spain is different' and 'Zapatero likes gays' (apparently this is an appeal to Guardianista sympathies). He also mentions that he lives in Barcelona, and that football is more than just a game here, which is true. What he doesn't mention is that (at least, based on a very unscientific survey of my colleagues and acquaintances) half the people you ask around here won't even be supporting Spain themselves.

There's a minority of people who are calling for a Catalan national team. I don't see any problem with this: the precedent has been set by Scotland and Wales, both of which have their own football associations. Indeed, the two 'biggest' Welsh clubs even play in the English league, just as Barça and Espanyol could play in the Spanish league. Personally, I don't see much point in creating a Catalan football team but I also can't really see any argument against it. If enough people want it, they may as well make it happen.

I'll probably support Russia this time around as I have an inkling that they may already have it all sewn up.

May 28, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, UK | 3 Comments

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – Can't take That Away From Me

Another cover from Bonnie 'Prince' Billy here. In case you didn't recognise it, this is a Mariah Carey song. I actually think that his R. Kelly cover is better. Speaking of which – has anyone seen Trapped In the Closet? I've seen a bit of it. I can't work out if Kelly is a tortured genius or a complete lunatic.

We spent the weekend in Rome and have the Primavera Sound festival fast approaching.

May 27, 2008 | Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment

Scientology is a cult

A fifteen year-old in London is being threatened with prosecution after City of London police caught him with a placard reading "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult." at a demonstration outside the cult's London headquarters. The boy was told he wasn't allowed to use 'that word' and after refusing to get rid of his placard, was served a court order.

The City of London police have been nvolved in controversies concerning the Scientology cult before. Their chief helped open the cult's HQ in 2006 and was full of praise for their spiritual enrichment of society. Without much more evidence to hand, I'd say that this whole things stinks and that another police force (like the Met) should take over the policing of the cult's headquarters… it sounds like the City of London police has far too close ties to be able to act in the spirit of Britain's law. Freedom of expression is being rep

Incidentally, the fifteen year-old's placard was poorly written, in my opinion. "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult" is slightly misleading because 'cult' and 'religion' are not mutually exclusive terms. A far simpler "Scientology is a cult" would probably have done the trick and would still have been perfectly accurate.

May 21, 2008 | Filed Under UK | 3 Comments

Iniciativa close to splitting?

Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV), the green-left coalition party which forms part of Catalonia's tripartite government, may be close to splitting over the drought issue. Representatives of the party from the Terres de l'Ebre region have dissolved their regional grouping and set up a critical current within the party. The problem is that as greens, they feel that they should oppose and diversion of water between rivers (something that I too would like to avoid). However, their party in government in Barcelona has approved numerous measures which go against key green positions, partly because they don't want to split the Tripartit.

Another thing worth noting is that ICV leader Joan Saura, along with about five other Consellers (Catalan government ministers) is being investigated for corruption after paying friends just under €12,000 each for 'research' papers that may not have been completely necessary. Not quite as bad as anything Jordi Pujol did for his family and friends, but the wolves are baying for blood.

Meanwhile, the PP and ERC leadership crises continue to bubble away. For analysis of the PP situation, check out South of Watford. For analysis of the ERC situation, watch this space.

May 21, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, Politics | 2 Comments

68% of Italians want the Gypsies out

Good to see that Berlusconi's coalition of the willing stands up for what's important. Sadly, an Italian recently said to me that the Roma people "aren't the historic people of Italy" and that they therefore should be extradited. Of course, when you ask "to where?", there's no answer. But let's not dwell on the details, eh? Berlusconi and his Lega Nord friends are hard at work on the new populism: how long before the PP see the opportunity?

We're off to Rome in about a week so I'll try to assess the local feeling while I'm there.

Incidentally, we just had a fantastic weekend in Hackney. London Fields went down very well with a few cans of Belgian lager.

May 17, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, PP, Politics | 2 Comments

Gaycelona versus Gayxample – does Graham Keeley ever know what he's talking about?

As seen in this fluff piece by the Guardian's Man In Spain for nice hotels under €100 in Barcelona:

Hotel California

Great value for money considering its locaton around the corner from La Rambla. The California offers decent, clean rooms and markets itself as gay friendly, though this is more subtly played than in hotels like Axel, in the "Gaycelona" district of Barcelona.

As any fule know, the so-called gay district is called 'Gayxample' from the Eixample neighbourhood. It seems that Graham Keeley's articles either consist of reheating AP and El País stories or churning out ignorant tosh. Has no one at the Guardian yet noticed that while Keeley is filing tons more stories on Spain than there used to be, they are predominantly ripped off or simply inaccurate? Maybe it's reading Flat Earth News but this guy is really beginning to annoy me.

Guardian, sort it out!

P.S. I was going to say that Graham Keeley doesn't know his arse from his elbow but I suspect that I'd have been picked up for bad taste. So I didn't.

May 16, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia | 25 Comments

Behind bars in Cerdanyola

There's a thought-provoking post over at Leftbanker talking about the walk-up window/service hatch that you see in many Spanish bars. It's true that this is a feature that seems definitively Spanish and certainly seems to fit with the idea of a life lived in the street: on summer evenings, you can just walk up to get your Voll Damm and drink it in the street with your mates.

But there don't seem to be many of those bars around here. To my mind, they seem more common in 'the South', and I remember seeing loads of them in Ciudad Real (most beautiful city in the world) and Seville. One in C.R. was recommended to us for having 'excellent tapas'. It didn't. How is it that Spaniards, who should really know about that kind of thing, can so frequently give crap recommendations when it comes to food? We asked a well-dressed woman in Cordoba for a 'locals' restaurant where we could get a decent meal. She directed us to this promising-looking place that had about two things on the menu. I had a plate of lamb kidneys. Not that bad, but really not excellent either. They didn't even serve coffee!

Our street is fairly typical in that it has three bars on it. Unfortunately for me (or maybe it's a good thing), they are the worst bars in western Europe. One is a Betis (Seville) football club supporters' bar called La Giralda which serves OK sandwiches. They show football games on their TV and whenever anyone scores a goal against Barça, the entire bar erupts in applause. Next up is the bar under my house, called Bar Los Caballos which is essentially a social club and watering hole for the many construction workers employed by the building firm also under my house. Actually, this isn't such a bad place: the regulars are OK and you see the builders playing chess quite a lot, which is pretty cool. They do no food but they do have a tobacco machine.

Finally, there's Bar Lastri. This is one of those places that defies understanding. It's a large, high-ceilinged square room, more or less devoid of decoration (save the obligatory TV, small and high-mounted, always tuned to Antena 3) and painted a ghastly turquoise-green. The clientele seems to consist exclusively of miserable, sour-mouthed, middle aged women and their nasty, alcoholic husbands. Everyone in there smokes constantly but the tobacco machine doesn't actually accept coins, so you have to exchange your money for tokens at the bar. This process normally takes about 10 minutes to complete because unless you walk up to the bar and scream, the barmaids will do better than any other server I've witnessed in Spain to ignore you (and that is some feat). I don't know whether they do food but I imagine that if they do, it would be utterly disgusting and served with a grimace.

As I hinted earlier on, it's actually quite a good thing that none of the bars on my street are places I'd like to frequent. Cerdanyola does have a few good bars: Bar Grau is a real classic, serving decent sandwiches, mediocre bravas and operating as the official FC Barcelona supporters bar, the headquarters of the Cerdanyola Chess Club, the Domino Club and the Pipesmokers' Association. Taberna del Tio Tom ("Tom's Bar" as we call it) is a really nice bar too. Kind of dark and cold inside, the service is laconic but friendly, the Voll Damms are cheap and they play blues and rock'n'roll constantly. They also screen movies with a projector sometimes, and play host to a guy who dresses like a Teddy Boy, complete with boots, sideburns and a tattoo on his arm that says "50's" in case you didn't guess that he loves the 1950's.

May 16, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, Home | Leave a Comment

Nightmare in Cerdanyola

I had a dream last night that I received some sort of prize from the communist mayor of Cerdanyola. I think it was for coming 1st in a treasure hunt.

But after I had a chat with him, I realised that in fact he was none other than Federico Jiménez Losantos, former communist, right-wing shock jock and utterly mad conspiracy theorist. Also, he only had one hand.

It was an imagery-laden dream and while not exactly terrifying (I had won first place, after all), I can't help but wonder what the significance might be of having Losantos talk to me in my sleep, in Catalan.

May 13, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, Home, Spain | 4 Comments

Happy birthday, dead geniuses!

Today is the anniversary of the birth of not only Søren Kierkegaard but also Karl Marx. So whether you dig dialectical materialism or swing to existentialism (or take a spoonful of each), today's a pretty good day to kick back with a pipe or a treatise on the organisation of the church in Denmark and just chillax. As Marx would have put it.

May 5, 2008 | Filed Under Home | Leave a Comment