The Blogger interface automatically defaults to Spanish here in Barcelona. I assume that it determines this from my IP address here at the internet cafe. Lots of other things also show up in Spanish. This is probably pretty helpful for the Spanish speakers here, but my Español is limited to what I learned in those two years in high school, so my essentially third grade vocabulary is getting a workout.
Barcelona, you’ll be interested to know, is beautiful. Well, beautiful aside from the sewage smell that appears all too frequently. The site of the Primavera festival is also nice. It was apparently built for the Olympics and is situated right on the Mediterranean. So there is always a cool breeze blowing across the festival grounds. At night, this gets a little cold, but honestly, I was colder at the ZZ Top show in Austin, so it’s not much to complain about. Not complaining isn’t my style though, so I would like to point out that despite its other charms, the festival grounds lack trash cans–I think I counted three official ones. This leads to a lot of trash dodging while walking around.
Interesting sights in line: The British guy wearing a Daniel Johnston shirt and the Japanese guy wearing the Slint shirt. Unexpected.
Interesting sight at the show: Whereas at one time you might have seen a sea of lighters if you looked down on a crowd at any concert, now you see a sea of little LCD displays as people take pictures and videos, or worse yet, call their friends and yell out ¨I’m watching The White Stripes!¨ Or ¨Estoy mirando Las Rayas Blancas.¨ Whatever.
Brief rundown of what I saw last night:
The Melvins–Awesome as ever. Now with two drummers. They took a bold stand against the Vietnam war, playing ¨Feel Like I’m Fixing To Die Rag.¨
Slint–They played Spiderland and were suitably tight. I imagine this would have been really impressive in a small club. As always, the festival setting sucks some of the air out of this sort of performance. Still, they were good. And they are also featuring a new member.
Smashing Pumpkins–Billy Corgan can’t sing in tune or in rhythm to save his life. From what I could tell this is the original lineup. Corgan and Iha were definitely there and the bassist looked as if she might be D’arcy and the drumming sounded like Chamberlain.
Fennesz + Mike Patton–Electronics + vocal manipulation. It was as noisy as you imagine.
Fujiya & Miyagi–Guitar, bass, electronics. None of whom are Japanese. Wax on. Wax off.
The White Stripes–There did seem to be an awful lot of sound for two people. The stage looked really big for the two people that occupied it–especially since Meg White’s drums were pushed all the way over to the left and were facing Jack White, who ran around trying to fill up all that empty space.
Ooh, they just started playing ¨Numa Numa¨ here at the internet cafe. Time to push ¨Publicar Entrada¨ and go.
Update:
I’ve been informed that The Smashing Pumpkins bassist was not D’arcy and Iha wasn’t there at all. So much for my eyesight. Apparently it was just Corgan and Iha. And unfortunately no flying shoes.
I’m really jealous.
Our man in Barcelona. Via Con Dios Justin. Keep us informed.
I’ve got to say though, some of that stuff sounds awfully boring. I agree about stuff like Slint being more fitted to a small club. That goes for half of the stuff you mentioned.
Smashing Pumpkins? I saw them at a Lollapalooza but had to leave because of them (they were last anyway).
I remember once, my old bandmate Bob met Mr. Corgan at a party and Mr. Corgan was going on and on about how rough it was to get something new going. Poor Bob finally told Ol’ Billy to “hang in there.”
Did I already tell that story?
P.S. Get into a tapas place and tell us what the next great Spanish snack is gonna be.
Didn’t the Smashing Pumpkins play after the Beastie Boys in lolapalooza? yeah that was a mistake. If my failing memory serves me, the beastie boys tore up that stage, and left the smashing pumpkins lookin a little stupid trying to follow up.
I thnk that may have been my last festival too. gee that was a long time ago. Nick Cave playing to something like 30 people at 3 in the afternoon was definitely a bizarre/awesome experience. And i did get some great close up pictures of Mr. Cave on stage before being chased by a guard trying to take away the little instamatic camera i had smuggled in. he didnt catch me. hehe.
I do wish i could be in Barcelona right now… i hope you all get to take a good swim in the sea.
I love the new Melvins album. They couldn’t have done better than hooking up with and absorbing Big Business into their lineup. That song “A History of Bad Men” is my current favorite song. GOD it kicks ass. They use two drummers the way two drummers SHOULD be used.
The Melvin’s A Senile Animal is indeed fucking great.
Kilian, We did find a place that has some awesome Indian tapas. Maybe that will be the next great Spanish snack. I sure hope so.
Does anybody else remember the incident in Houston where somebody threw a shoe at Billy Corgan and he stormed off stage? And then next time he came back lots of people threw shoes at him? At least I think that was him. Nevertheless, I tried to convince this really drunk Brit that he should throw things at Billy Corgan, but he didn’t seem interested. Too bad.
Yes about the shoe, Justin. Houston is a dark hole for poser rock stars. That’s a good thing.
And yeah Cap’n Cofresi, that was the lopoooza. Smashing Pumpkins also were shown up by the PFunk All Stars and on the side stage Stereolab and Shonen Knife.
Wish I was there for the Melvins.
I detest the Smashing Pumpkins, always have, but being shown up by the P-Funk All Stars is a pretty routine occurance for virtually anyone dumb enough to play on a bill with them. So that’s no big thing. And hey Roberto, what’s up with the name change? Welcome back. You rule.
Thanks John, and everyone. It’s nice to feel welcome. But i’ll tell you, Roberto has always been my name
I think maybe you are confusing me with Carlos, which is understandable since all of us mexicans look the same. So i’ll tell you an easy way to tell us apart. Carlos is the one who writes, I’m the one who tries to make something that sounds like music.
Oh, i’m also the dipshit who corrects other people’s spanish – so kilian, it’s “vaya con dios”, not via. But i have the feeling you knew that.
Billy C is indeed a fucktard. And I remember the shoe incident. I was one of a handful of poor sods coerced into doing spoken word in a side tent at that particular looza. I got to hang out with the nice stereolab folks after, but that whole spoken word tour thing was a pathetic joke. I feel dirty now.
Run down on the tapas Justin?
I’m with you Mr. C. And thanks for the correction. Please give my best to all your better halves.
You mean “by way of with God” is not an expression in spanish?
Speaking of spanish – a question for the two Mexicans (btw I thought y’all were pirates not Mexicans) –
hay un definicion para “sopes” otra que the delicious lard filled gordita thingy?
apologies in advanced for not using the squiggly lines over the n’s and stuff.
Viva Corn Fritos,
Roberto “Kilian” Cofresi
You dont think mexican’s can be pirates?
And i dont understand what you want about sopes, you want an english word for it? in english its sopes (pronounced ‘soaps’ i imagine, or maybe its pronounced with an ‘umpty’.
As far as the squiggly thing over the n, its fairly important. for example, ‘año’ means ‘year’, but ‘ano’ means ‘anus’, ‘cono’ means ‘cone’, but ‘coño’ means ‘pussy’. so one has to be careful and use them if you dont want to wish someone a happy new anus, or order an ice cream pussy. So the easiest way (though not officially accepted by the Real Academia Española) is to use a G before the N. So ‘agno’ or ‘cogno’ would be better than ‘ano’ or ‘cono’. However you can also just use the ALT-164 command on your pc or the option-N command on your mac.
I think that’s one Mexican and one Cuban if I’m reading you right.
Pirates are a different breed entirely. Mexicans may be banditos though.
Re: Sopes, does it mean something in spanish? Just curious. We were talking about it at the taqueria last night, that’s all.
Thanks for the gn tip. I’ve seen that written before but never thought about it. The ALT doesn’t work on this laptop btw.
I am very interested in ice cream pussies and I wish all here a very happy new anus.
p.s. I think, John, that Carlos is a wrestler and Roberto is a pirate.
Stapler, I will give you the lowdown on any tapas we have, but so far it’s been mostly sandwiches.
At the festival they had a sandwich named for several of the performers. There was the White Stripes, which was cheese, pesto, and sundried tomatoes; the Sonic Youth, which was some cured meat and almond paste (or something); the Wilco, which was tuna; the Patti Smith which I think was some ham concoction; and the The Fall, which was chorizo and olive paste. The Fall sandwich was only on the Spanish menu for some reason.
wow. i had no idea carlos was a mexican. orale, buey! (how do you say “umlauts” in keyboard?)
sopes are corn-masa-dough stuffed with fixings and then deep fried or else deep fried first and then topped with yumminess. i happen to be a notoriously picky sope eater. sopes that are stuffed should be sealed shut before frying. none of this fry-the-masa then slice-it-open and half- assedly stuff it. don’t disturb the dough post-fry!
best sopes i’ve had in houston: Otilia’s which are small rounds topped with beans, red sauce, and cheese.
best sopes i’ve ever had: from a lady who sold them from a blue campfire style dutch oven on a city bus in campeche, mexico when i was 8. fluffy, hot, and stuffed with beans.
That sounds good Rosa. At our taqueria, those would be gorditas and sopes are the same dough but made into a little tray with a little rim and the stuff is on top.
The owners are from Tayahua which I believe is in Zacatecas. It could be these sopes are specific to the town like the empegnadas of San Luis de Potosi.
The taqueria also serve squash flowers and black corn fungus.
Anyay I’m wondering if the word means something else…like little tray or something. Or maybe it’s an indian word. I think taco is an indian word.
Damn, RC, I may never stop laughing over “happy new anus!” That shit is killing me.
K, i dont know if sopes means anything else beyond what they are. but taco also means heel (as in a shoe), a cue (as in for playing pool), and a buddy (as in a good buddy).
and to clarify, anyone south of oklahoma is a mexican, but if you are from texas you might be a gringo-mexican, or if you are from miami, you are a cuban-mexican or if you are from the “deep” south you’re a soon-to-be-mexican. and of course anyone to the north of oklahoma is irish, unless you are from the south of oklahoma, but live to the north of oklahoma in which case you are puerto rican. If you are in oklahoma, then you’re sorry, unless you are the flaming lips in which case I dont know what to make of you, but i dont much care either.
And yes K, Roberto is a pirate, and Carlos is a masked wrestler.
And Rosa, here’s a good place that tells you how to do umlauts with a keyboard. for the PC coded letters it’s. Also, the uppercase Ñ is alt-165.
I hope you had a nice time in mexico… i do wish i lived closer so I could go more often than i do (which is never for a few years now).
oh and since you are a photo phanatic, the nick cave photos on the other comment where taken with a kodak instamatic x15F with 126 cartridge film. still my favorite camera ever; it’s over 30 years old and it has fallen in rivers and it floats, it’s been in freezing temps and it clicks, and i could easily sneak it into festivals and other places that didn’t allow cameras.
oh you know k come to think of it, gorditas i think are the slice-and-dice form of sopes. since they both are on so many menus, and are often mixed up, or “reinterpreted” by gringo uppity places, and then re-re-interpreted by mexicans trying to cater to local neighborhood tastes, then, well, it’s a wonder we can still call a tostada a tostada.
in any case, go to zacatecas! amazing place! totally treasure of the sierra madre setting. and kick ass coffee.
gran maestro, thank you for your astonishingly accurate account of the current definition of mexicans of the south of the united states. i would love to see it in pamphlet form.
r thank you thank you thank you for your description of ur camera gear set up. is it a dedicated 126 camera or is it modified?
Rosa, the instamatic i have only uses 126 film, it’s a square format, and has to be in a cartridge to be usable by this camera, and at this point I have to order it online to get any new film. I hope that answers your question.