Heaps (Farruco @ Sadler's Wells review, Mujeres @ Sadler's Wells review)

OK, need to catch up...

I didn't enjoy Los Farruco very much. Very raw and talented performers, but I don't think it's a style that works well in a big theatre. I also found it quite repetitive: "Oh! another really fast footwork!" and I didn't like the way they always ended their routine right at the front of the stage, arms up, facing the audience, waiting for applause. Don't milk it man.

Mujeres, however, was sublimissime. Very contemporary, but still traditional, with bata de cola, abanicos, castanets, it all mixed beautifully. The 3 dancers (Merche Esmeralda, Belen Maya and Rocio Molina) were just great: sharp and gracious, beautiful hands, beautfiul facial expressions. They really knew what they were doing. Big winner that night, the singer Diana Navarro, who appeared as guest-artist during the show. She sang with an amazing voice, at the same time flamenca, arabic, fadista and more. She blew us away.

The Guardian tells us about the 10 best places to eat tapas in Granada. I want to go back!

30 Rock is back on Thursday the 10th of April on NBC. The season 1 DVDs are out next week.

Big things happening in 2 weeks - scary, necessary and exciting. Will keep you posted.

Super cute story in the NYTimes of Public School 59, in the Bronx, where they love Irish dancing. We need more of that (I mean people, and young kids in particular, dancing, not necessarily Irish dancing, though it's nice!)

The Strange Trip

A real classic directed by Fernando Fernan Gomez, El extrano viaje centres on the going-ons of a family of 3 grown siblings in a small village. Ignacia, the eldest of three, dominates the lives of her slightly dumb sister and brother Paquita and Venancio.

This is a very funny movie, especially if you like your humour very black, and, visually, it sometimes parodies Psycho, to great effect. The gags are matched by some quite scary moments, and a mystery that unfolds with more humour than you would imagine. The movie is also good at portraying the tension and oppresion of life in a small Castillan village, where people gossip a lot and life seems to have stopped for some (the sight of the village's women looking a younger girls dancing the twist is hilarious) In that respect, it reminded me of Clouzot's Le Corbeau.

Highly recommended!


El extrano viaje was shown as part of the British Film Institute's Spain (un)censored season. Tonight was the last showing, but they will be showing many more movies over the next 3 weeks! Go! Go! Go!

El Roto

We need fervent catholics, or, if there aren't any, anticlerical fanatics

El Roto publishes a cartoon daily in El Pais

See this article for background

Back in the limelight

The wonderful Luz Casal has managed to wack out the tumour that was diagnosed in her breast earlier this year, and has a new album out in Spain. It's already Disco de Oro (40 000 units sold)
Rock on girl! Short hair suits her well by the way!

Find out more about her new album Vida Toxica and her forthcoming tour on her website!

Spain (un)censored @ the BFI

La Caza (the hunt), Carlos Saura, 1965

Very exciting season this January at the British Film Institute on the South Bank: a selection of films made by brave film makers under Franco's dictatorship. From Carlos Saura to Juan Antonio Bardem and Victor Erice and Luis Bunuel, the names are huge. Expect to see some amazing movies! I am going to 6 screenings in a week, and particularly recommend The Spirit of the beehive (probably the best Spanish movie ever), The Hunt, Viridiana and Welcome Mr Marshall (a funny one!).

All those movies cleverly manage to criticize and denounce the regime they were made under and convey the state of Spanish society at the time. Some are inspired by the Nouvelle Vague techniques, others are more classical, but they are all strong pieces of film making that have influenced Spanish cinema up to now. We looked at quite a few of these when I studied Spanish cinema in Granada, I can't wait to see them again, considering few of them are available on DVD in the UK. Book now!

The Spirit of the Beehive, Victor Erice, 1973

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!

Adolfo Suarez is 75 / Morphoses review

In 1976, a few months after the death of Franco, the new head of the Spanish state, the King Juan Carlos II, named Adolfo Suarez president of the government. his task: bring democracy to Spain.
Today, Adolfo Suarez is 75. El Pais celebrates his birthday by asking some of his colleagues to remember his best moment, in what is a good portrait and informational article about the Transition. Read on!

Went to see the show of new ballet company Morphoses, set up by Christopher Wheeldon, one of the most successful living choreographer, and it was really good. The reviews were pretty mixed (The Guardian loved it, the Financial Times not at all) I really enjoyed it, though you could tell the company is new and it is quite a financial gamble: the programme was rather short (4 ballets of 20,7,27 and 20 minutes respectively) with many Pas de Deux (ie less ballet dancers to pay!), costumes borrowed from other companies and little stage design. But the pieces were very good and the dancers amazing. Wheeldon gave credit to the choreographer he is inspired by (Balanchine and Forsythe) before presenting a new ballet, Fools' Paradise.


One of the member of the company is Aesha Ash, a great ballerina, tall, with shapes, really long legs, and black! And there aren't many, as this article from the NY Times reported a few months ago. She was great, in a William Forsythe's Pas de Deux. Can't wait to see more of her.

Volver wins plenty of Goyas

The Academy of Spanish cinema awarded Pedro Almodovar yesterday evening. His movie Volver won the best director, best soundtrack and best movie prize. Penelope Cruz won best actress, and Carmen Maura best actress in a supporting role.
Almodovar has always had a tempestuous relationship with the Academy, but, the night they love him, he isnt there! Oh well...

Pan's Labyrinth won most prizes though, and is up for more Oscar nominations, it must be said.

EL Roto

We would make people laugh if we were not scaring them.
El Roto, 10/01/07
El Roto draws daily in El Pais

Spanish Goyas

The Goyas are Spanish cinema's own awards. Alastriste, Volver and Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) received 15, 14 and 13 nominations respectively. The competition will be fierce!
The award ceremony will be held at the end of January.

No more bullfights in Barcelona?

The owner of Barcelona's bullring will not be running bullfights in 2008.
The plaza de toros Monumental was built in 1913 and, as well as bullfights during the season (around march to september), also hosts concerts.
The decision is apparently purely economic, and has nothing to do with the Barcelona townhall's decision to call the town "antitaurina" (against bullfights). With every bullfight, the owner was losing € 24 000. Simple as that. Animal lovers, please shut up and stop boasting, it has nothing to do with you!

So, the question is, is it a sign of the end of bullfights?

Obiang in Spain

Great! Teodoro Obiang, the president of Equatorial Guinea, was supposed to visit the Spanish Parliament this morning, but it was all cancelled

The official reason is timetable organisation apparently, not the opposition of the MPs of PNV (Nationalist Basque party), IU (Izquierda Unida, left) and ERC (Republican Catalan party) to the visit. Of course!

Why such opposition? Simple. Equatorial Guinea has the second highest income in the world at about £ 26 000 per head, thanks to oil revenues from its Zafaro oil field. But it also comes bottom in the United Nations' Human Development Index, which measures quality of life says the Guardian

Teodoro Obiang has $ 700 million in foreign bank acounts, and was recently re-elected with 97% of the votes. According to a 1999 report by the International Monetary Fund, oil companies received “by far the most generous tax and profit-sharing provisions in the region.” The state received only 15 to 40 percent of the revenues from its oil fields, while the norm in sub-Saharan Africa was 45 to 90 percent.

Glad to see a Parliament care about human rights for once!

More can be read on the corruption in Equatorial Guinea in this Mother Jones article

Mecano!

Ana Torroja, lead singer of the major Spanish band of the 80s, Mecano, did a tour of 42 dates around Spain this summer to celebrate the 25th birthday of the band (no longer together) and to promote her album, Me cuesta tanto olvidarte, which includes 13 new versions of Mecano classics.

Apparently, the tour was quite a success. The last date, yesterday in Madrid, got a good review in El Pais this morning.

Dalai Lama, Hijo de la Luna, El 7 de septiembre, Mujer contra mujer... Mecano made it big in France as well, thanks to well translated lyrics and what a voice has la Torroja! I remember learning Un ano mas in my Spanish class when I was 13, and everyone asked the teacher to copy the song on a tape for us.

Tonight we are celebrating my sister's 35th birthday and 10th wedding anniversary. I am pretty sure Dalai Lama will be played at some point!!