Bye Bye

The French choreographer Maurice Bejart is dead, at the good age of 80. His choreography to the tune of Maurice Ravel's Bolero is of course his most famous.

Marianne debunks the view of Sarkozy as an inflexible president who will not give in to strikers etc. Examples? It only took medicine interns a few days of strike to make the government change its mind on a reform that would put an end to a grant they get if they go practice in rural areas. The fishermen managed to gain 6 months free of employment tax and charges after only 12 hours. we're gonna be so disappointed.

Oh la la and another dead, that of the terrific Spanish actor and director Fernando Fernan Gomez. I can hear his low voice in my head right now, in the movie El espiritu de la colmena. He was 86. Reading the El Pais article, I found out he also wrote plays, including Las bicicletas son para el verano, a classic that a lot of French students in Spanish have to read! What a man.

Ole

The Toro de Osborne started its life 50 years ago as advertising for the 'Veterano' brandy of the food company Grupo Osborne. Today it has totally transcended its status and role, and is one of the most recognised Spanish symbols today. When you see it, you know you are in Spain.
An exhibition is being held in Madrid to celebrate.

Feliz cumpleanos!

More Dolly

She is really quite funny that woman! 2You'd be amazed just how much money it takes to make a person look so cheap!" hahaha Enjoy

Random

The Economist goes to Dollywood (Dolly Parton's theme park in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee) and says you can learn a lot about real America there: "People do not fly to Dollywood; they drive there in big cars full of squabbling children. East-coast accents, let alone foreign ones, are rare. The park is thus an excellent window on what people in this part of the American heartland like". And they are patriotic, feel strongly about God, celebrate their own folk culture and music. But they are tolerant too.

Love the Bad Science section in the Guardian, where Ben Goldacre fights against spin and madness and champions good science and research. "In the media, you get one expert saying one thing, and another saying something else. Who do you believe? The devil is in the detail" and he looks at the details and looks for the truth. An good example is his thoughts about the figures used by anti-abortionists. Go reason!

Cloudspotting

Argentina, October 07

Thanks to my brother, who took this on his holidays in Argentina!

Son De La Frontera - Fiesta