Pimp my republican ride

A big story here over the last week or so has concerned the optional extras some Generalitat officials have had installed in their cars. Well, one guy and one car. Ernest Benach, President del Parlament, was reported to have spent around €10,000 having a TV and a desk installed into his official car*. Sort of like a Catalan Republican Left version of Pimp My Ride, the popular prostitution-themed auto improvement show on MTV.

Now, I'm not sure, but I reckon you could get a much better 'pimped' solution for 10 large than a TV and a writing table. What about a hot tub? Or one of those light-cum-woofer systems in the boot? Obviously a bar is a must, and it must include those cool blue flourescent tube light things.

And what about rims, go faster stripes (four red ones) and a dashboard laptop?

What would you pimp your car with, if you were President of the Catalan Parliament?

=

* Apparently, Benach has now returned the pimping items and ERC are now restricting spending to all but essential expenses… but we can still have our fun, right?

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October 31, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, Politics | 3 Comments 

thebadPoll - Who should be the next US president?

thebadPoll has not had the most auspicious beginning. But I'll press on with it, stubborn as I am.

The US presidential election is now only a few days away. Barack Obama seems to have the lead across the country, including most of the 'battleground states'. But as they say: it's not over until it's over.

This week's poll is simple: who do you think should be the next US president? There are three choices: John McCain, Barack Obama or neither/someone else. As always, your comments are welcome… is this a chance for transformative change, irrelevant, more of the same?

You can vote at the top of the page, to the right of the main article area (no registration necessary).

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October 26, 2008 | Filed Under Politics, Polls | 9 Comments 

Does McCain have gout? Ask Huffington post

Now this can't have been a mistake..

Google for Obama?

[Seen here] Info on gout here.

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October 25, 2008 | Filed Under Internet computer | 3 Comments 

Aznar: send money to bankers, not environment scientists

You know when Jose Maria Aznar shows up on the Catalan morning news pontificating from a FAES lecturn, it's going to be good. Speaking at the launch of a global-warming-sceptic book by the Czech president, Aznar insisted that he believes that it's happening, but not that things are as bad as the scientists say. So far, so moderate, you might think.

But then Aznar said something rather perplexing: that we're spending too much on combatting climatic change, especially during an economic crisis. Now, aside from the fact that the main part of the current crisis is financial, not economic, per se, one wonders whether Aznar thinks the environment will wait for short-trading investment bankers to catch their breath before continuing to raise sea levels and act abnormally. Does he really think that every time the coffers look a little empty or we have a w… Argh! Nearly mentioned the war. Can't mention the war.

Aznar continued by saying that criticism of the climate change theories was treated much like being Jewish during the Inquisition, or socialist during the dictatorship. Well, he didn't put it that way but he was trying to make a point about environmentalism becoming a sort of orthodoxy.

I've two problems with this speech. Firstly, his suggestion that scientific funding ought to be cut just because of an economic crisis makes it sound as if, despite his claims to the contrary, he doesn't really believe in climat change. Not really. This leads him to his other position, the persecution complex which suggests that disagreeing with the scientists will get you thrown on the bonfire. And this coming from a politician who was hardly known or celebrated for his tolerance of views he didn't agree with.

Anyway, to test this bonfire theory of his, I propose that Aznar denigrates climate change science at every FAES function from now on. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

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October 23, 2008 | Filed Under Spain | 3 Comments 

Notes from Barcelona: my bus ride

When I first met you, I didn't understand the game.
Now I don't have to, cuz you've given me a name.

The prostitute who waited by the side of the road each evening on my bus route home on a pathetic little stool by the entrance to some sort of brick depot went missing around the beginning of September. I don't know that she's actually a missing person but she was there, waiting on her little stool most evenings as we whizzed past towards Cerdanyola and suddenly, she wasn't. I was used to her not being there some evenings: the stool being left behind the side barrier on the Carretera obviously meant that she'd been picked up… but she was always back there the next day, or the day after that.

Why you gonna raise your hand to make the pickup?
When you're gonna get sent down alone.

This time, it looked like she was gone for good. For a week or two, I found that I was worried about her. This young, pretty almost certainly eastern European girl must have been kidnapped or attacked, I thought. It was only when I realised how much earlier it was getting dark each evening that I started to think that she might still be around, just getting off the unlit road sooner each evening. I've noticed that the stool still alternates between its position in front of and behind the barrier: either she's fine or someone else, as yet unseen, has taken her spot.

I'm exhausted now
Too burnt to sleep
I'll be burnt tomorrow

My bus journey home is generally quick and uneventful. The traffic's not too bad and it's nicer than being stuck in a train where you don't see much for the first half of the journey. I catch the bus just accross Meridiana from where Avinguda de Rio de Janeiro starts, about eight minutes' brisk walk from my office. The bus follows Meridiana out of Barcelona and then bears right along the Carretera Cerdanyola-Barcelona through the rather ugly towns of Montcada i Reixach and Ripollet.

All year you've been hanging around like you wuz waiting for the forty bus
Holding fifteen hundred in cash, trying to move in on us

The bit of Montcada I see from the bus consists of about three landmarks, namely the Bar Gran Casino, a bridge named FC Barcelona - Zaragoza (theories about the name are welcome - I suspect a local lad played in the Barça squad), and a large-looking brothel called La Mezquita De Oro (once mentioned by Guirilandia), whose red lamps are lit by around seven each evening.

Thirty trucks from seventeen states
Move out staggered through the night
It's a tough job but temporary

I'm not one of those people who can stroll up to the bus stop and see the bus arrive twenty seconds later. This is partly because I live where I do, and the buses here seem to have quite random schedules. It's also because I'm just not that good at remembering schedules. One of my first memories of primary school is a feeling of total confusion caused by the fact that other children seemed to know intuitively that there was a correct time to get their maths books out, or have lunch. I was totally oblivious to the timetable and even now, I often forget regular events, even ones I look forward to like Easter and Barça games.

It's a case, it's a case, it's a case
Of over against

So it is that I inevitably wait for quite some time at the bus stop, or turn up to see the A3 or A4 cruising away, its doors firmly shut. This isn't too bad, though, because I always have a self-inflicted ear damage machine with me.

Lyrics from the album Sweet Sixteen by Royal Trux.

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October 16, 2008 | Filed Under Home | 3 Comments 

thebadPoll - Historical memory

I've just started reading The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge by Paul Preston and I'm finding it to be an interesting, though terribly sad, piece of work. One of Preston's main hypotheses seems to be that the way Spain suffered under dictatorship for so many years after the Civil War meant that it was very difficult for the Spanish people to ever truly reconcile themselves to what had happened, and what they and their neighbours had done.

Anyone living in Spain will have noticed that the Civil War and following dictatorship continue to be not just the cataclysmic events of Spain's 20th century but also reference points which are sure to be mentioned sooner or later in almost any discussion about Spanish politics, culture, society or even geography. Only yesterday, I saw on the Catalan news that plans are still afoot to give and official pardon to Catalan president Lluis Companys, 68 years after he was executed at Montjuïc fort. And many families continue to struggle for the right to exhume the bodies of relatives left in mass graves throughout the country.

There seems to be both a political and a personal angle to the way the Civil War is so frequently conjured up, and I have little doubt that this experience is different in Catalonia than in other parts of Spain.

This week's poll asks: What's the best way to deal with Spain's historical memory?

You can vote in the sidebar to the right, and of course, leave comments on this post in the traditional manner. With this poll, you may select up to two options, as they're not all mutually exclusive.

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October 16, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, Politics, Polls, Spain | 7 Comments 

thebadPoll - should everyone understand Catalan?

I've been planning to add a polls feature to thebadrash for quite some time. Then South of Watford and Iberian Notes did it, so I thought I'd better hold off for a bit. Anyway, here's the first one, and I've chosen a topic which has come up, yet again, in the Catalan news.

The Constitutional court in Madrid is deliberating on potential changes to the Catalan statute of autonomy, approved by referendum here about two years ago. One of the clauses that might be removed is the bit that says that people living in Catalonia should know Catalan. It's basically copied from the Spanish constitution, which makes a similar demand in support of Spanish.

So my question is simple: in your opinion, should people living and working in Catalonia be able to understand Catalan? You can vote below in this post, or at the top of the sidebar to the right >>>>

UPDATE: By the way, I'll try to run at least one of these each week, so it'll be a regular feature. Of course, as well as voting, you are more than welcome to comment on the question or your response using the traditional comments system. Let me know if you have any problems voting, too.

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October 9, 2008 | Filed Under Catalonia, Language, Polls | 31 Comments 

'That one' - more interesting language from McCain

ThatOne! (May be Photoshopped)

ThatOne! (May be Photoshopped)

Continuing my policy of not commenting on the US presidential election, except where it touches on other topics I find more interesting, I couldn't resist taking a look at McCain's use of language in last night's 'town hall' debate. It's worth noting that Obama is widely seen as having won the debate, despite this 'town hall' nonsense apparently being one of McCain's big strengths. McCain has not seen the polling bounce he was looking for, so we can expect the negative campaigning to get worse.

What I really wanted to look at, though, was McCain's use of language during the debate. Firstly, his clumsy use of the salutation "My friends", a technique for winning votes which is not far removed from the door to door salesman's use of terms like "mate", "boss" or "darling". It won't work on enough people to swing any state and the sooner McCain stops trying to pretend he's not as aristocratic as Bush, the better. Bush gets away with it: McCain looks like he's terrified of getting caught out.

But the really interesting phrase that fell out of McCain's old, aristocratic mouth was when he referred to Obama as "That one", while refusing to even look at his opponent. While the BBC is reporting this phrase as making it look like "McCain wouldn't, or perhaps couldn't, say Obama's name", it seems to me that McCain wasn't just not saying something: he was obviously making some sort of point.

"That one" might sound simply rude the first time you hear it. But the expression actually carries some pretty nasty connotations. Some commentators on various sites have made it clear that "That one" is nothing less than an encoding of "That nigger", still in use in some southern states of the US. Therefore, it looks likely that McCain was using a code which will appeal to a certain part of his support base. Those who are as sick as he is of this "uppity" black man. How dare "that one" act like he can do whatever he likes?

The encodings that politicians use, especially in the build up to an election, are, I reckon, of great importance. Note how no one is capable of saying the words "working class" in an election campaign nowadays: everyone's been told they're midddle class now and they're damned if they're going to be relegated.

I actually think it would be hilarious if McCain and Palin won this election. What an indictment of the slavishly right-wing politics of the Democratic party it would be. And the chance of being there at the end of the world has to be something we could all be proud of. I mean, you've got to laugh, really. Right?

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October 8, 2008 | Filed Under Language | 3 Comments 

Is it just me or do they look like they're dancing?

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October 4, 2008 | Filed Under Rants | Leave a Comment 

Geek point: Little Big Planet rocks

The regular reader will know that I rarely touch on anything remotely connected to my professional life (i.e. being a geek) on this blog. There are plenty of good reasons for this 'rule' and I'm not about to break it. I do, however, want to say that Gemma and I have been testing the Little Big Planet beta for Playstation 3 and it's absolutely stunning.

At its heart a platform title, LBP features a cute character fashioned from sackcloth (and called 'Sackboy') who you have to guide by jumping, running and grabbing, through a variety of levels which test both dexterity (well, accurate button-pushing) and nouse. The game's graphics are wonderful: crisp, cute and remiscent of childhood (the cardboard cutout castles used as a background in some levels look like they've been cut out by some kid). Stephen Fry (unfairly referred to by some wag as 'the stupid person's idea of an intelligent person') provides the voiceover and guides you through the first few levels, and even the in-game music is good.

But Little Big Planet is much more than a simple platform game. Its motto is "Play. Create. Share." for a reason: you can create and share your very own levels within the game. Gemma and I haven't got onto making our own yet, but the idea is pretty simple. You can create your own level on the PS3, filling it with obstacles, beasties and er.. stickers, then when you're done, you upload it to the Playstation Network, where anyone can try your level, tag it and 'heart' it if they like. We've tried out several designs created by other beta testers (there are hundreds of them) and some have been really very impressive. Apparently, the best level designed at this stage will be included in the full game when it's released in around three weeks' time.

Little Big Planet is one of the first PS3-only titles to really impress me (Drake's Fortune is also pretty good). It's easy to learn but many of the levels we've tried have been tricky. This is a game I'm sure we'll be playing in two years' time. We might have even created our own level by then.

Little Big Planet - Playstation 3 - 1/1

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October 4, 2008 | Filed Under General, Internet computer | 1 Comment 

Fox News and the 'split' vote

If you haven't seen this video, it's quite amusing. A Fox News Channel roving reporter asks the customers in a diner somewhere in Pennsylvania who they're planning to vote for, and the vast majority raise their hands for Barack Obama.

YouTube Preview Image

My question: does the word 'split' always imply 'into equal parts'? Or does the presence of a couple of McCain supporters actually make the 'split' word accurate, if still misleading?

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October 2, 2008 | Filed Under Language, Politics | 4 Comments 

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