BLOG

Last year, I merely celebrated Saint Jordi's Day in the fashion that one should when one's household is half Catalan. But this year, through amazingly skillful planning I was actually in the heart of Catalonia to see the celebration at its fullest in Barcelona, Girona, and Figueres.       My original post last year talked about how this is the Catalan equivalent of Valentine's Day in the US. This was mostly true, but I discovered that there is another angle to it as well. Since it is just a Catalan holiday, it is also a time for Catalan pride and nationalism to come out and shine for the day. The best way to put this in terms that Americans would understand is to say that Saint Jordi's (George in English) is a blend between Valentine's Day and the 4th of July. Probably an odd concept to wrap your head around initially, but when you're in the thick of it, it makes a great deal of sense.       It isn't a celebration that's just in Barcelona, although that is the center of it. You see celebrations of one degree or another through every town throughout Catalonia. You see roses and books everywhere. I have to say that despite seeing some guys walking around with a pile of roses to give to all the women in their families, the guys get off easy. They only have to get the flowers. Women have the harder part in trying to figure out what book to get the guys. After all, that is the exchange; a rose for a book. But, this is changing these days and there are those couples who both give each other books.       Of course, much like you can find all things "stars and stripes" in preparation for the 4th of July for the US, you can find all things roses and red/gold (the Catalan colors.) We had lunch in a place with a special St. Jordi's menu with the red and gold colors splayed across the dishes. There was a tea shop we went to where they can "red" and "gold" teas with rose petals. And absolutely, of course, there are Catalan flags everywhere, both displayed and to buy. One small thing to note for those visiting Catalonia on this day is that beyond the fact that it's one of the few days when locals outnumber tourists on Las Ramblas, there are different Calatan flags one will see and there a reason for this. There is the standard one of red and gold stripes, which is the official flag. Then there is another one with a red star at the top of it, which is the flag for an independent Catalonia. A small thing that most might overlook, but it is a definitive statement. The only Spanish flags you'll see out during the day are the ones for the old republic, which Franco overthrew in his coup that consist of a flag of red, yellow, and purple. A salute to what could have been better times 60 years ago I suppose.       It's a fun holiday and a shame that April 23rd never really gets that much coverage in guidebooks to Spain for some reason, as it's a cool to witness and you don't have to be Catalan to do the whole rose and book exchange.

While in Madrid, I had the chance to see the film Elegy, which is yet to be released in the US. Rarely has this been the case as movies released in the US often take 1-2 years to make it to Europe, so everything that in the English language is playing when I visit here came out forever and ago.       Despite being an English language film, the reason it has come out so much earlier is because Penelope Cruz is Spanish as as well as the director, Isabel Coixet who is actually Catalan. So, without spoiling the ending or any plot bits for those back home, I'll kick out a review a bit ahead of the curve, since it appears to be getting a limited release when it does come to the US at the end of June.       Overall, I didn't much care for the film. The script is decent and the directing is quite well executed by Coixet. The cinematography is quite good as well. But, the film just never really clicks. To a large degree, I blame the producers and actors. Ben Kingsley and Cruz should never have been put in the same scenes together. Their chemistry is awful. I've never really cared for Cruz's acting that much and this is just another example of her not really shining. In the scenes where she doesn't appear and it's just Kingsley, the film works quite well. It happens to showcase what is probably the best performance by Dennis Hopper that I've ever seen and the scenes with him and Kingsley are great to watch. The scenes with Patricia Clarkson and Kingsley also work very well. It's to the point where I'm wondering if it is indeed the producer's fault for working to get Cruz in to the film for her name or if there is something that Coixet was trying to do with Cruz and Kingsley that didn't work or I didn't get. I don't think that it helped that these were the first bedroom scenes that Kingsley has ever done in his 40+ years of acting.       On a completely subjective note, the story is also something that didn't really appeal to me. It's set in New York and is very much what I consider to be a New York type of story in that it's a pandering view of a few individuals who don't have to worry about any real life concerns (like paying the electric bill or cleaning the shower.) At no point did I ever really feel like I was given a reason to give a damn what happens to the two main characters. Not good.       On a five scale, I'd probably give it a two and a half. It might appeal more to some than others, especially for those who live in NYC and must love these types of films as they keep getting produced. If however one is a tremendous fan of Cruz's breasts, then by all means, I wish you happy viewing as you will get a tremendous dose.       Watch a small chunk of the film if you're interested.

Yeah, I know, I won't shut up about jamón. It's freakin' delicious and the only place I can get it in great abundance is in Spain because Spaniards love it so much that they don't want to export it to the US in any large amount. Now that's a smart people.       One of the first experiences (as well as the best) that I had with jamón was at this place in Figueres called, La Cabaña, which just means, 'the cabin'. They make their own jamón from the regular levels up to pata negra, which is one of the highest grades (and yes that does literally mean, 'black duck'.) The place readily makes up for its rather odd location and basic ambiance with delicious meats, cheeses, pan con tomata, and a good list of the local wines.       It's because of the outward appearance that a great many people would probably skip the place. Nestled between a couple of strip club/whore houses on the northern outskirts of Figueres, along the highway to the French border, most people would find it about as welcoming as a gas station bathroom. Dining outside means listening to the large semi trucks rambling down the highway in front of you, but who cares and I think the jamón makes you deaf to the noise anyways, so one can just eat and enjoy.       So, after so much chatting about it, how does one find this place? This is not easy and it's what makes the chase of this elusive house of meats so enjoyable. Their business card says, "At Kilometer 760, exit Highway Number 3 in the direction of Figueres." It's not the easiest place to get to. For those who are bold, I believe that on Google Maps, it's right here, but that's something of a guess without an exact address.

The misconceptions of Spain by those who visit are too numerous to list. At the top are some of my favorites, such as, "They're such a musical people!", "They have a real zest for life!", "It's just a constant party in Spain!" Obviously to assume one thing or another about a group of people, no matter how easy it may seem, paints you the color ass in the end; a color I have known to take from time to time.       Spain is a lovely, wonderful country and I have enjoyed every minute I've been in it, both last year and this, as well as what are to be many more in the future. While the generalizations of Spain can get out of control at times, the ones regarding the fact that Spaniards love jamón are very much true. I love jamón and anyone who visits the country, unless a staunch non-meat eating fundamentalist will love jamón too. And it's also true that Spaniards do enjoy life on what may seem like a greater level than those living in Northern countries. They also enjoy the sun more simply because they actually know what it looks like, unlike when one lives in London.       But for visitors, when you ride the train from the Barcelona airport to the center, you may find that things are even better than your guidebook would have allowed you to imagine. If for instance a group of 10 sixteen year-old girls get on and start singing and clapping "flamenco style" without any prompting, suddenly all those stereotypes seem a bit more real and a grin springs forth from your jet lagged face as you get ready to hit the Ramblas, sangría, and those damned sombreros.       Once again though, things aren't what they seem and truth is in the eye of what the tourist wants to believe as true. The clip I posted below was from when #1 Fan and I left the Barcelona airport two days ago. A group of drunk, trashy, suburban girls got on the airport train to go in to the center. No, this was not the Spanish zest for life you hear in their song. These were a group of Catalonia transplants being about as classy as a strip club as they went out for a Saturday night on the town, bottle of Fanta mixed with vodka in hand, jabbering away in Spanish, not Catalan (again, how is the Spanish language in danger of extinction in Catalonia?) Have a listen and enjoy. And be on the listen for ¿porque no te callas? somewhere in the middle as they quote the "genius" of the king sometime back. The kids are still loving that one.

Yes, that's right, Madrid has fired a warning shot across the bow of the design world in Spain. Their aim was pointed squarely in the direction of Barcelona, Spain's design center. It's just that this attempt comes somewhere around two decades two late.       This all boils down to the new Terminal 4 and I suppose the number one issue I have with the new terminal (which is the newest and most heavily designed of the four) is that is was just done so that Madrid could thumb their noses at the rest of Spain and dance around singing, "Neener, neener, neener. We're the capital. Ha, ha, ha-ha, ha." Definitely not the best approach for a country dealing with extremely strong and prevalent secessionist groups.       So, instead of spreading out the flow of air traffic for intercontinental flights like we do in the US, they decided to force everything to bounce through Madrid when the destination is outside Europe. This isn't to say that if you're flying on British Airways or Air France to or from the US, that you have to go through Madrid to get to Barcelona, but if you're flying on Iberia, you damned well better believe that you're going to touch down at Barajas before getting to continue on. So naturally, this construction is going to be self-fulfilling in that there will indeed be much more air traffic at Barajas than say, Sevilla, Granada, or Barcelona because of the mandate to force more traffic to go through there. Such is the thinking in Madrid. And such is the reason that an ETA terrorist blew up a massive chunk of this new terminal in December of 2006. These things don't make people happy.       Looking past the political ramifications of this terminal, there is the fact that it sucks. The design is not something I care for on an artistic level, but that's a completely subjective thing. The biggest problem is that it's pointless and doesn't work. For instance:       What the hell are those big exhaust pipe looking things on the floor? Will they reheat my tea that grew cold from the lengthy ride on the Metro to the airport?       Why are the trash cans only 30 cm deep (a foot for metric-so-scary-land)?       Why is it that when people walk through a door that is clearly marked for those arriving to pass through that an alarm goes off at irregular intervals?       Why can people not figure out how to open the bathroom door to leave?       Why is it that when there is the least bit unfriendly weather (heavy rain in this instance) that they have to only run one of their two runways? SFO runs every damned runway even when there's fog.       And most importantly, how is it in a building that isn't even two years old, the ceiling leaks like a sieve when is rains?       It's for these and a number of other reasons that I vote this 21st century construct a massive failure, despite the fact it won the Stirling Prize; a prize that obviously weights federal masturbation higher than passenger usability. If it doesn't I'm at a loss for why this catastrophe won an award other than the fact it built wavy ceilings to scale never before imagined possible. It's crazy that on so many level, it's actually less usable than LAX despite all the money that went in to this gigantic potato chip.

At this point, I am no expert on Madrid. I've spent nearly three days here and most of that was in the rain. But, it's been a good taste of the city and enough to have a few thoughts on it.       Overall, it's an interesting town. Obviously at 5.5 million people it is the biggest city in Spain and it definitely feels that way with it's massive sprawl, due it's cornfield-esque starting point in the absolute and very flat heart of Spain. So, it's only sensible that there would be a great many things to see in Madrid and a great many things to do. As I mentioned previously, a lot of the activities are based around being outside, but it's the case that there are many things to see indoors as well. The museums for instance, are excellent. The Prado tops the list with one of the most amazing collections of art that I've ever seen. Countless works that I've only seen in art textbooks are here, like the Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch or Las Meninas by Velázquez among countless others.       Then there is the Reina Sofía Museum, which has a good number of known works, but at a cost of great controversy. For instance, it has Dalí's most famous works, which were basically stolen from Figueres to give this very new museum something to show. Then of course there is Guernica by Picasso which was only supposed to hang in The Prado once it was returned to Spain, but now hangs in the Reina Sofía. Beyond these famous works, the museum feels quite empty and haphazard as the collection was built artificially. But, if you're an art fan, you will absolutely have to go and see these paintings, which is what the federal government was scheming to bank upon.       Beyond cultural displays, Madrid is a great town to walk around. It is relatively flat and there are a lot of neighborhoods to see. The only thing that I couldn't get in to was how austere these neighborhoods were. Maybe it was just the rain, but you'd walk in to one neighborhood and it would be all bars on a street. Then, you walk in to another and it's all restaurants. Then another would be all pensions or just houses. There was no variety to what was in each neighborhood making them a bit off-putting and not terribly welcoming to hang out in. By contrast, I could probably spend the rest of my life in just Eixample or the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona. Lavapies (feet washer in English) by contrast is best for cheap going out and is pretty dead during most of the day.       Towering above all of this though is the fact that Madrid is a capital and capitals have big freakin' buildings. Whether it's the Royal Palace or even just the post office, everything is on a huge, monumental scale that was indeed intended to dwarf the common citizen and make them awestruck at the capital of their country. These buildings are grand and impressive, but not approachable. I think this is where my main problem with Madrid lies in the fact that I have a lot of trouble really digging in to it.       Don't get me wrong in this, Madrid is definitely worth visiting, but if you haven't seen other Spanish cities like Barcelona or Sevilla, make it a city of less priority on your Spain checklist of sites. Any trip of 3-4 days there is bound to be a great time; especially if done when the weather and thusly the businesses are more welcoming. After all, a 1.50€ glass of good red wine in a bar and affordable jamón in the restaurants, is pretty hard to beat when it comes to startin' up the good times.

My first visit to Madrid has been unfortunately tarnished a tad by the fact that the weather is crap. It is the case that Madrid in general doesn't have the best weather in the world though (freezing cold winters and blistering hot summers.) Given that it's the middle of April one would have hoped for better than 10C for the high (about 50F for those in metric-so-scary-land), blustery wind, and constant, drizzling rain.       The reason that this is such is an issue, is that unlike London where the entire culture has adapted to crap weather, everything in Madrid is focused around being outside. The piles of chairs and tables sitting sadly by the doors of the cafes readily attest to this fact. It's also the case that everyone thusly runs indoors when the rain hits and if one is a tourist, then that means running in to museums, which get quite packed because of the rain.       Throughout all of this, I kept having the rhyme about the "rain in Spain" going through my head. I suppose that one outcome from this and the fact that I am most assuredly not a musical fan in any way shape or form is that I found out that this chunk of text is from the musical, My Fair Lady. It's scant solace for two days running around in weather that I wasn't prepared for, but I'll take it.

Czech Dream. At the very least it sounds like really bad porn, but for people living in Prague, in 2003, it was the name of a new, and super-duper-mega incredible hypermart that was coming their way. The only catch is that it never came. Two fellows by the name of Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda created this whole charade as a film project to show how capitalism has the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe firmly in its grasp.       This film was released quite some time ago, but it has only recently been released on video in the US by Morgan Spurlock from Super Size Me and soon to be released, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?. Yet, despite the time lapse of five years, the move is still poignant and probably even more so today as we in the Western World buy ourselves in to madness.       The parts that document the marketing process won't be the groundbreaking to those of us in the US who are the least bit familiar with the process, but it's always interesting to see how cocky people in advertising and marketing are. At one point the firm that is helping the filmmakers promote their fake store boasts, "We make people want products that don't even exist." Obviously, we don't need anymore of these people plying their trade these days, but it keeps working, so they keep marketing and they're scary bastards to watch as they play out what are essentially God Complexes.       It's a good movie though and overall it's sad to see how people all walk to the altar of the Almighty Cheap Price no matter what. For those looking to laugh at people doing exactly what Americans do who don't happen to be American, check it out. I think that people looking to see a commentary on the current direction and decline of the 21st century citizen might get a bit more out of it though.

I came across this CNN article the other day from the end of February. It's about the dire situation you put yourself in as an American when you travel abroad and that you must, absolutely must have travel insurance. Take a minute and read it. You'll be thrilled you did as I found the article to be ludicrous, poorly written, and most importantly completely without research.       Let's take a look at this. Who is the author? It's a woman by the name of Debra Alban. She is on the regular staff of CNN and appears to be more of a producer than a writer, although she has contributed some other pieces with sweeping generalizations such as this and this. Her approach seems to be to posit some bit of "fact" and then base the rest of her article around this with little detail given the intricacies of what she is writing. This seems to be more the style of FOX News and I suppose this is all subjective to tastes, but for comparison, look at any BBC News article and you'll see that they support what they're saying with a bevy of facts to back it up. Even what are basically op-ed pieces like Mark Mardell's Euroblog are supported by on the ground experience that is pertinent, relevant, and specific. You get the feeling from Debra's article that, while it is most likely not the case, she hasn't actually been outside the US in a long, long time.       The start of her article cites a 19 year-old girl in Spain who purportedly received less than adequate health care after an accident in Spain where she shattered her kneecap at a football match. This is Alran's prime example as to the dangers of receiving health care outside the US. Let's talk about this girl whose name is Orla Buckley. She has a Bebo page where she goes by the name of Bootiejuice, which is simply prosaic to a point of transcendence. Bootiejuice lives in Ireland now and has a great many pictures up in her profile that focus around the primary activity of drinking. There is nothing wrong with this, except that for a reporter to base an article about health care outside the US on her activities, is inane. One can only assume that this girl was most probably drunk when the incident occurred (seeing as how she appears to be drunk a lot and was at a football match where drinking is the #1 fan pastime) and that her recollection of events is greatly skewed. Then of course there is the issue of Bootiejuice stating she has "intermediate" knowledge of Spanish. Americans have a wickedly bad tendency to overstate their ability with languages. By American definitions, I'm damned near the "conversational" level in about six languages: Spanish, French, Russian, Croatia, Bosnian, and Serbian. Given this and the fact that asking what was needed to be asked by Bootiejuice in Spanish is quite basic, I can only deduce that her level of the language was indeed poor despite what she says, or that she could speak the language well, but was indeed so drunk that she was unable to speak or understand anything. Thusly, faulting the hospital for not being able to explain the problem to her is blame severely misplaced.       Oh yes, there's one other big point that needs to be raised in using Bootiejuice as a source; her incident happened in 2003. This article has just recently been published in 2008. That is about half a decade which has passed since this happened. No matter the degree of verisimilitude to the event, how can this source be used? Simple. Alban couldn't find any more relevant source from a later date, because these incidents so exceedingly rare that she had to resort to cherry picking.       In all honesty, I would gladly have any kind of heath care done in Spain as opposed to the US, seeing as it it is 7th in WHO ratings and the US is 37th. Bootiejuice was actually lucky to have the accident happen in Spain, since they will treat anyone there regardless of coverage and it's easy for the American doctors to criticize about the surgery she had now, because it's always easier to criticize when you're not there. Travel insurance would have done little to help her though, unless of course she had the "evacuation" policy. I don't think people realize that travel insurance policies are a lot like extended warranties. There are rare occasions where if one is trekking through the heart of Africa they can be useful, but in day to day issues, they are about as bad as the main health care policies found in the US. For instance, a friend of the family had a mental breakdown on a recent trip to China and while she had travel insurance (and supposedly a good one) none of the cost of getting her out and back to the US was covered. Why? Because it was a mental issue and the small print didn't cover that.       In conclusion, I felt I had to bring this up as this article has been reproduced on many sites out there, since this is CNN and supposedly a reputable new agency. But, I question Debra Arlan's journalistic integrity. This article appears to be little more than a thinly veiled guise to advertise travel health insurance just in time for when people start thinking about the travel season again. The article is so bad and her arguments so weak that I wonder as to whether she was paid by an insurers group to write it? Obviously, I have to proof of this, but then again, Arlan's article puts forward next to no proof to back up her claims as well, so touché.

Obviously, wine can cost a fortune, but usually is doesn't have to. After all, a great many of us know Two Buck Chuck and find it can be tolerable at times (usually after you've had a $20 bottle to start). I find that there is a great deal of satisfaction in finding a $5 that's really good though. Of course, it can be equally satisfying to drink the $100 a bottle level of wine and just enjoy it like I did the one and only time I had a bottle of Rubicon from Rubicon Winery.       I do have a bit issue in drinking expensive wine because while it tastes great and is incredibly enjoyable at the time you drink it, there is always the cost hangover from it, which is why we currently have a bottle of sweet wine sitting the fridge, waiting for the right moment to drink. I might add that this is a 200ml bottle (about 1/4 of a normal bottle) of wine. I love sweet wine, having gained a real appreciation for it in Spain last year and this is a bottle from my cousin's neighbor at Vehovar, which is a great little winery in Slovenia. So why does it sit around? Cost and the fact we simply can't replace it once it's gone, that's why.       Okay, so this bottle is 40 Euros for 200ml.       That makes it 200 Euros for 1 liter.       There is $1.51 to 1 Euro at the moment, so that makes it $302 a liter.       There are 33.8 ounces to the liter, so this is $8.93 per ounce.       This is a bit less than half the cost of silver per ounce, which, if this wine were a metal would make it a precious metal in my book. So, while it's nowhere as expensive as gold per ounce, you can see my hesitation in drinking it as it will be the most expensive wine I've ever had once I do drink it.       While this gives me pause and I've already tasted the wine before, at some point soon the plunge will just be taken to down it because it was after all a gift and I'm just starting to be a bit Dutch at this point in not drinking it yet.