Oh joyous day…Jason turned 35 on July 18th. To celebrate we met a few friends at one our favorites plaças (Virreina) for a few drinks. Monica got us the greatest gift….a small BBQ for grilling (we have been unable to break it in though, the access to the rooftop is locked) Well the fun didn’t stop there. The surprises this town holds…cool bars hidden on small streets just a stone throw from our apartment.
Hear ye, hear ye, come one, come all to Summercase. A two day event with !!!, Air, Bloc Party, DJ Shadow, The Flaming Lips, James, LCD Soundsystem, Editors, Phoenix, Arcade Fire, The Maccabees, PJ Harvey, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and on and on and on.
Summercase is, above all, a sonic banquet of the highest order, a Homeric gourmet feast for all tastes where you can discover the delights of James, tragic toasts from Arcade Fire, multicolored feast from the Flaming Lips, and disco burgers flipped by LCD Soundsystem.
Above is from the program, I think there is something lost in the translation. If you are really interested in finding out all the details about the event you can go to their webpage summercase.com .
I have to say “muchas gracias” to the two most helpful resources we have found since moving to Barcelona.
First is Anna and Meetup.com….they have been not only welcoming but loads of fun!
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Second is Moleskine.
Thank you Ed & Paul for sending it to us. It has been a lifesaver and a memory saver on more than one occasion. We have already amassed quite a good list of shops, bars, and restaurants throughout the city.
Moleskine website
Moleskine City Blogs
Detour /moleskine exhibition
Jason you absolutely amaze and frighten me. Corrie what did he have to do to get you to let him keep this thing?
Maybe I should bury it in a box next to the dead pigeon in the back yard. Or may it should just go in the trash. Or maybe I could take it to the the hazardous materials disposal place.
Christ.
LOL
We thought having Casey Moore’s 3 blocks from us in Tempe was cool…for drinking & walking. Well now we have something even better! VELCRO. Not just walking distance, but actual 4 steps door-to-door staggering, we can see the entrance to the bar from our balcony (and spit on it if we wanted too). It is a very trendy little bar, with surprisingly a lot of English speakers hanging out in it. Oh, they make the best pina coladas (coconut around the rim, and a real cherry not that maraschino crap)! (Jason has to jump in here and mention that they make a totally tits caipharina, too!) Can’t wait to become a regular….
So sprinkled throughout Graçia (the district of Barcelona we live in) there are a number of large open squares hidden until you turn a corner and stumble into one. Most of the buildings in the city are several stories tall and the streets very narrow, so you cannot tell that there is a square around the next corner. But once you find them, they are a very interesting place to sit drink and coffee or beer, and people watch.
I have successfully navigated the murky shoals of the Spanish import customs system. And it was neither easy nor cheap!
My new buddy José and I headed for the airport in José’s cab and arrived around 10:00, about 20 minutes after the plane had landed. Just finding the customs area was hard - I called the shipping company and had them talk to José. That worked well, there’s no way we would have found it otherwise.
After talking with the shipping company on the phone, I was estimating I’d be about 45 minutes, so José and I contracted for him to hang around for an hour. Yeah, whoops - my first encounter with Spanish bureaucracy consisted of puzzled looks from them and claims that they had no idea what I was talking about. It finally turned out that they did know what I was talking about, but the paperwork hadn’t arrived yet. They told me to “go smoke a cigarette or drink a beer” and come back later. As an aside, the crap-ass cafeteria in the Spanish customs building has better sandwiches than most gourmet places Stateside.
Corrie has been writing arts-related Spain crap on her personal blog at Fat Ballerinas. If you’re all artsy-fartsy and stuff, go read her vapid ramblings! (I suspect I sleep on the couch tonight)
Surprise! Our apartment isn’t the size of a closet!
We were pleasantly amazed to see that our new living arrangements for the next 6 months are actually spacious, and super spiffy. Our new address is:
Carrer de Vallfogona 7, 2:2
08012 Barcelona, Cataluña
España
Ahh… the thrill of international travel. The excitement of knowing you will soon be in a foreign country, but first you have to get there. Wednesday morning started at the Sanctuary Resort to a lovely wake up call at 5:30am and the sudden realization that I had had too much to drink the night before. Hangovers are bad enough without the prospect of flying.
Large bottle of water in hand, Jason and I found our way to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (thank you Dave!). With six pieces of luggage in tow, we found the line for American Airlines (our connection to Chicago for Aer Lingus) about 2 miles later we found the end of the line. Almost 2 hours and 10 feet later, we had a stroke of luck. The guy in front of us was on the same flight and was also catching an international connection, and he was jumping line. So we followed…..(at this point I should mention it is about 25 minutes before our flight is supposed to take off). The counter was taking all international travelers priority and within 5 minutes we had our tickets and luggage checked in.