Fountains in Brno

Four moody pictures from my four-day stay in my hometown.

What we aim for

Ricardo Almeida for 2008

I shouldn't care

Monzon for Xelibri

La prima en W.N.

Every time I go out with El Pintor, we meet some celebrity! Yesterday, we met Silvia Pantoja, a singer and a sister-in-law of Isabel Pantoja, a controversial Spanish VIP, who was recently arrested during some anti-corruption investigation. I almost forgot that we saw Silvia singing during the 2007 Pride party in Madrid. Well, she is not the best singer in the world, but it's kind of funny to meet these people with El Pintor, because I never know who is he talking about so when I ask for some details, I can practice my castellano.

Tesseract

Do androids dream of electric sheep? I think they more dream of this. Probably also of this.

You know...

that you've lived in Spain when... I found this Facebook group by accident and I cannot stop laughing. It's so hilarious and true! For example, Sammi Egan wrote at 1:31pm on August 17th, 2007 ... "when you automatically use Spanish words i.e. ayuntamiento, or ferreteria, and don't actually remember how to translate it back into English". It happened to me in France when I couldn't remember how they call "gambas" in English.

Languedoc 6.IX.-9.IX.

Figeac * Caussade * A little salad * Crema catalana?! * Toulouse * Place du Capitole * Saint-Sernin Basilica * Gégé * Gad * La Faim des Haricots ** Carcassonne * Montpellier * Pascal and Ethan * Place de la Comédie * Le Mex * Rugby game ** Croissants * Shopping at the Antigone District * Ricardo Bofill * Palavas-les-Flots * Les escargots ** Relax at the pool * Le Viaduc de Millau * Aurillac, McDonald's

Auvergne 3.IX.-5.IX.

Bastian and Marlene * Picon Bière ** Uncle Jean-Louis * Clermont-Ferrand * Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Clermont-Ferrand * Michelin * Crêperie * Le Puy-de-Dôme * La Truffade ** Seat Ibiza * The translator is sick * Salers * Les Bourriols * Le Pounti * Aunt Geneviève * Rugby boys * Steaks * Here is my crème brûlée! * Chez Lulu * Baptism

Paris 1.IX.-3.IX.

CDG Terminal 3 * RER Châtelet * Place d'Italie * Baldi * La Folie en Tête ** Michele * brunch in Le Loir dans la Théière * Place des Vosges * Beaubourg * The Studio * Promenade Plantée * Nono and Delphine * dinner in Le Plomb du Cantal ** rue Mouffetard * Panthéon * Where is my crème brûlée? * Institut du Monde Arabe * Jardin des Plantes * La Grande Mosquée * Florian, the translator * Gare de Lyon * Clermont-Ferrand

Olfactoriana

When I was visiting Paris, a friend of mine offered me a bunch of cologne samples, but I took only the one of Le Male by Jean-Paul Gaultier. Yesterday, walking from a little "i-am-just-looking-i-am-not buying" trip I passed by a perfume store and I bought 212 Sexy Men by Carolina Herrera that I tried a couple of weeks ago and I liked it a lot. I got back home and looked at the internet what people thought about it and voilà, they were all saying it's a copy of Le Male! I don't think it's the case but it's a crazy world, indeed.

OR

Kernel panic

Shadows

Salers

Toulouse

Carcassone

Palavas-les-Flots

Sweet France, Proud Albion

Tomorrow I am off for two weeks. I will miss Madrid, but more importantly, I will see my old friends and also some new places.

Karaoke with the VIPs

OK, after clearing the air with El Pintor on Saturday (and declaring to be good friends), we hit the usual spot. But as he just told me on the Messenger, I apparently sang to some Spanish celebrity who was standing next to us at the bar. I really don't know whether he is really famous, but El Pintor swears he his. As a matter of fact, I don't even remember singing to him...

Zara Summer

The Devil You Don't Know

Yesterday when I was posting the happy video of Kylie and Jason from YouTube, I went through a couple of her solo works, too. My attention caught a video to "Better the Devil You Know", an example how much can be the lyrics disconnected from the picture and the music itself. The song lyrics is so shocking and frightening that even Nick Cave called it "one of pop music's most violent and distressing" and "when Kylie Minogue sings these words, there is an innocence to her that makes the horror of this chilling lyric all the more compelling".

Jasonrolling

I was 14 years old back then and Jason was über hot (BTW: not my style now, but whatever). It's frikkin' 20 years ago! (In the meantime, Kylie became an icon, who would have guessed).

Skákavka

VarioLFR.E, Registration number 1596, Public Transportation Services in Brno, Purchased in December 2006
I particularly like the headlights, as they remind me of the eyes of a jumping spider, the one and only spider I can handle.

Bargain hunter

I know I should be ashamed of myself for such a shallowness and consumerism, but it kinda made me happy to get a €40 Benetton pink shirt for €9 and €90 T2[in] shoes for €30.
BTW, today I have discovered an amazingly delicious drink they sell in EROSKI as their own brand. Called Té Verde, it contains juices of maracuja, lime and apple and a green tea extract. I have to admit that I really love that store.

Beauty

Pumped-storage hydroelectric plant Dlouhé Stráně underwent a asphalt surface reconstruction and is being filled with water again. Elected a No.1 "wonder" of the Czech Republic in 2005, it's one of the biggest plants of its kind in Europe.

The Metro's World of Gossips

The only free newspaper that is published in Madrid in August is Metro. The next-to-last page is specially designed for tourists, because it's entirely in English. One can find a gossip column that I find incredibly funny. Today they published a little note about Britney Spears as she is being put on the covers of all U.S. gossip magazines because of her continuous troubles with raising her kids. The Star magazine published a headline: "Britney to her kids: You were both mistakes!". Now a little excerpt from that Metro article: "We don't see what the big damn deal is. If we had a nickel for every time our parents called us mistakes, we would have enough money to buy Britney's babies and raise them as our own. Girlfriend needs money for mojitos." Brilliant.
UPDATE (five hours and dos cafés after): Now I don't think that this particular one was so entertaining anymore. Oh, those desperate mornings... Anyways...

Where is my mind?

Walking from the RENFE station at the Autónoma, on one of the benches I saw a canister with some red liquid, resembling kalimotxo. I thought: 'Oh my, it must have been some mini botellón'. Close to the canister, there was some yellow plastic string, but I didn't pay enough attention what kind it was. A little bit further down my way, voilà, there was another still life, absolutely identical, a canister with red liquid and a yellow string. I thought: 'C'mon, this is completely ridiculous, what was happening here?' and then, all of a sudden, I saw a guy with a string trimmer.

Weeds

The first four episodes of the third season of Weeds leaked on the internet. While still unreleased on Showtime, they are surprisingly in a DVD quality. Thou shalt not steal.

Terremoto

Today at 9:47am, Spain was hit by an earthquake of a 5.1 magnitude with the epicentre in Ciudad Real. Apparently, it was noticed around the whole country, Madrid included. Fortunately, I was sleeping deeply at that moment. Sometimes it's not such a bad idea to go for a couple of drinks, particularly with El Pintor, who, by the way, looks more and more like Jesus.

Vacances françaises

Yesterday, I bought airplane tickets for my trip to France in September. I can't wait to see all my friends there. Moreover, I will be travelling with Stephanienounette! Alegría total.
UPDATE: To get myself into the French mood, we went to see "Ratatouille" yesterday. C'est magnifique!

The Mirror Universe

Mr. Spock 2008

After months of speculations, it was finally announced that Zachary Quinto will play young Spock in the new Star Trek movie. Honestly, who else can play that role? Zac looks exactly like young Leonard Nimoy. It's a perfect choice, thanks guys!

Luxury

As they are closing the RENFE tunnel in 7 days, I bought again the general Madrid Transportes coupon for both the metro and the cercanías services. Today, I've travelled through Nuevos Ministerios again. The station is so spacious, light and clean, a perfect opposite to the Recoletos one. There is a reason we call it "Manhattan" with Gabriel, with Recoletos being "Queens". One week of luxury!

Posturas impresionantes

XV Pan American Games Rio de Janeiro 2007
Cassius Duran (Brazil), 10m platform

Cassius Duran & César Castro (Brazil), synchronized 3m springboard

Die Schlamperei

I am quite angry right now. The wonderful RENFE is the target. I am already over the fact that the computer system often collapses, leaving the trains and the platform signs unmatched and that sometimes the trains have no labels at all. I digested the fact that two weeks before the closure of the aorta of Madrid, El Túnel de la Risa, almost nobody in my lab knew about it, all being surprised when I told them. But today the amateurism has reached a new level. I wanted to take the train to Cantoblanco, obviously because of the swimming pool. Last week they started remodelling of the Recoletos station by taking off the tiles and the station air is basically filled with a cement dust. As soon as I was inside the station, already using my ticket, they announced that we would have to wait 50 minutes for the next train. Imagine: breathing the cement dust for 50 minutes! They didn't bother to put any note on the door of the station, even though it's clearly a planned activity so I could save my ticket and take a metro to the Chamartín station, for instance. Ironically, on the platform there were three security guys chatting. One of them could put such a note on the door, don't you think? So I turned around and went back home. In German, there is a beautiful word that my teacher in the elementary school used a lot when describing such working morals: "die Schlamperei".

Everything's

...waiting for you!
The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown - don't wait a minute more

Alexandre Despatie

Perfection. One of the most beautiful sports. I can watch his 5353B forever.

To the End

In the '90s I couldn't care less who would win the Battle of Britpop, because neither Blur nor Oasis affected me as much as Suede did. Therefore I missed this gem from the Parklife album by Blur. L'année dernière à Marienbad revisited.

Corn syrup

There is a good reason to live in Europe.

Cruising MySpace

...and finding places I miss... Steph... I am going to call a cab... oh, wait... Ramon is calling... see you tomorrow, sweetie...

The Big One

Today I saw "Fast Food Nation", a fiction movie based on a non-fiction book sharing the same name. It's an extremely political endeavour. Yes, it's merely predictable and plain, but the strength of the message reminded me of Crash, my favourite movie of 2004. Crash was criticized for being obvious, for showing things that everybody knows. Yet it was the very same experience I carry with me, for good or bad, from the five years I spent in Southern California. Similarly, everybody knows how bad is the globalized food industry, but we do nothing about it. MEAT IS MURDER.

Sick and tired, bombed and stuff

Cpl. Trent Thomas, a Marine who faced a possible life sentence in connection with abduction and slaying of an Iraqi civilian is going to go free. He initially pleaded guilty in January as part of a deal that would have sent him to prison for 12 years. At the time, Thomas admitted having taken part in the killing, saying his unit “wanted to make a statement that Marines were sick and tired of being bombed and stuff.”

Flexibility

It's really cool how the living languages use and modify what is available around. Take the "@" sign. Couple of months ago, it was just a part of the e-mail address for me, e.g. john@gmail.com means the address of John who has an e-mail account at Gmail. Sometimes I used the sign to express "at" in general: Let's meet @ 2pm. But in Spanish I see it often being used as a gender-neutral way how to address a group of people: chic@s or tod@s. Pretty amazing, huh?

Sync

This must have been one of the best use of music in the movie. Everything fits perfectly, the picture speeds up or slows down to follow the beat. Awesome.
(Tears for Fears: Head Over Heels in Donnie Darko.)

Becks

The Beckhams are moving to LA today. I think the both sides of the Pond are happy but from opposite reasons. The Pink is the New Blog cries today: "They're almost here ... and then the fun really begins. There has been much anticipation of their arrival ... it's gonna be great having them here in town." My goodness, why are some Americans so deeply and insanely stupid?

Trustworthy

My father is a professor, he wears glasses and his build is quite impressive. Every time we went for a family vacation, he could be sure that somebody would ask him for directions at the most peculiar places. An old Italian woman would ask him where to find some tiny street in a small Italian village. Carrying a camera and a map, he would still be asked for a location of a local city council in Vienna. Well, why am I writing this... Even though I look like a 100% guiri (not from a concentrate, but wearing shorts), three families stopped me on the street today to ask me for directions. It runs in a family I am afraid.

Felicidades

On July 7th, 2003, the Mars Exploration Rover B, known as Opportunity, was sent to Mars. The probe was launched less than a month after its twin, known as Spirit. After successful landing on the Meridiani Planum, the Opportunity probe started to study a history of flowing water there. The rover mission was extended from the original 90 days to more than three years of a breathtaking flow of data with Opportunity becoming the first probe to travel more than 10 kilometers on the Martian surface!

Finally!

I can't wait to get the new Interpol album. As the first single they've picked "The Heinrich Maneuver" and it's definitely worth the longing through the two-year gap:

Spring 2008

My favourite two outfits from the Paris shows.

Redux

Sometimes, an amateur cover is better than the original.

Naturalized?

Diario ADN, Lunes 2 de julio de 2007:
Los príncipes Guillermo y Enrique presentan el gran show celebrado ayer en London Londres. WTF? I always thought they were British and baptized as William and Henry...

Orgullo 2007

La Renta

Today I've had a last chance to send my Spanish tax declaration, but what a week of nightmares. First of all, I hadn't received the certificate of my income, it must have got lost somewhere. I have to admit that I should have taken care of it a long time ago, but well... one can make mistakes, can't one? I tried to get the document through the CSIC intranet but somehow I wasn't able to finish my registration process. I thought it might be because of the Macintosh peculiarities, so I opened the website in virtualized Windows on the same computer. I got the same result, with only half of the form showing up. Totally desperate, we called a CSIC computer guru and apparently, one can access the CSIC intranet only from a computer that runs Windows and a web browser that are both SPANISH localized! I haven't heard about such a stupid excuse before, for me it just doesn't make any sense. Then I experienced a classic Mac vs. Win clash, as the software that I had to use to fill the declaration forms was only for Windows. Fortunately, the virtualized version worked well (with some manageable quirks), so I could bring my tax papers to the bank in the morning. Hallelujah!

Sponge

I feel like a sponge, constantly absorbing new music. Antonio told me about The Ark, a truly amazing band from Sweden. The following song, 'It takes a fool to remain sane', is so fabulously glamorous that it's giving me creeps:

More quirks

As the EU row over Polish demands quiets, there are other full members of the EU with similar oddities that go unnoticed in the media. Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said in April that the Soviet soldiers buried on Tõnismägi Hill in the center of Tallinn had, under one version, “been drunk and got run over by their own tank”; under another, they had been “looters shot dead”; and under yet another, “deceased patients of a nearby hospital.” Similar alarming case is the "Monument of Lihula" installation, yet another example of revisionism in modern Estonian/Baltic history. The Baltic SS-Legions, glorified on the site as fighters against Bolshevism, were directly responsible for such actions as deportations of children from the occupied Soviet territories and their deaths after "medical" experiments at a concentration camp in Salaspils, Latvia.

Someone new

Sometimes a little stupid thing changes one's mood significantly. I haven't seen or spoken to El Pintor for a LONG time. I know I shouldn't care, we have nothing in common - except the drinks in the bar, but still... I would like to know what I did wrong so I can be smarter in the future. It's even worse as the big Chueca event approaches... Well, at least one cute song from the Scandinavian breed.

Le Pavillon de la Tchécoslovaquie

Jaromír Krejcar (architect)
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne Paris 1937

The Twins strike again

Jarosław Kaczyński, the Polish prime minister, complained that Poland would have a far bigger population on which to base its EU voting power if it had not been for the Nazi invasion in September 1939 which started the war. "We are only demanding that we get back what was taken from us," he told Polish national radio. "If Poland had not had to live through the years of 1939-45, Poland would be today looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million."

Oh my, what will come next? I still cannot digest the fact that bigot and reactionary country is a member of the EU. Well, I will have to live with all the quirks that are coming from there. Analyzing such a challenge, I can ask the Czech prime minister to demand justice at the current EU meeting: If the Swedish army didn't invade the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1630s, the Czech lands would have 30 million inhabitants by now. Maybe it would be still a Kingdom, welcoming millions of monarchy-loving tourists to spend their drachmas and tollars there! And just between us, I know who to blame for the plague.

A case study

AUSTIN, Texas - An angry crowd beat a man to death after a vehicle he was riding in struck and injured a young girl.

Police believe 2,000 to 3,000 people were in the area for a Juneteenth celebration when the attack occurred Tuesday night.

The driver had stopped to check on the little girl at the entrance to an apartment complex when a group of men attacked him, authorities said. The passenger, David Rivas Morales, 40, got out to try to help the driver, but the crowd turned on him.

Morales was beaten to death by as many as 20 men and left lying in a parking lot, police Commander Harold Piatt said.

The little girl, 3 or 4 years old, was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Soundtrack of my life

Today, a friend of mine posted a Myspace bulletin. Here is how the game works:
1. Open your music library
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button

I used my 2G iPod nano with a limited number of songs (1/10th of my iTunes library, but it still turned out pretty well:
Opening Credits: There Is a Light That Never Goes Out - The Divine Comedy (the Smiths original is a song of my life, a good beginning)
Waking up: Que Voy a Hacer Con Mi Amor - Alejandro Fernández (I am sure we have listened to this one at least once with R., still in bed)
First Day At School: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me - Sexy Sadie (weird choice)
Falling In Love: Vojáček - Bratrstvo (this is an anti-war song, so make love no war)
Fight Song: Defying Gravity - Wicked (The musical) (Elphaba was against them all)
Breaking Up: Enterlude - The Killers ('outside the sun is shining')
Depression: I Am Just a Patsy - Manic Street Preachers (this matches perfectly, it's amazing)
Recovery: Lyric - Zwan ('a road without end')
Prom: Do I Look Like a Slut? - Avenue D (actually, I didn't)
Life: Brass in Pocket - The Pretenders ('gonna use my style... gonna use my imagination')
Mental Breakdown: Promiscuous - Nelly Furtado (well, anything goes at such a time)
Flashback: Oceán - Oceán (high school)
Getting Back Together: Solo Quédate En Silencio - RBD (very kitschy, both the song and the idea)
Wedding: C'mere - Interpol ('you said today, you know exactly how I feel')
Birth of Child: One Love - Suede ('tomorrow in their eyes')
Final Battle: Shipbuilding - Robert Wyatt ('diving for dear life')
Death Scene: Life On Mars? - Seu Jorge ('take a look at the Lawman')
Funeral Song: Sudestada - Gustavo Cerati ('trataba de explicar que ya no hay vuelta atrás')
End Credits: The Space Between - Dave Matthews Band ('hope we don't take this ship down')

Italy vs. Helsinki

Laakso and Peter Jöback. The lyrics (and the video itself) cannot get more queer:

Oh, let's go to Milano, it's fashion week
and so am I
weak, in need of love, any love from anyone...
Oh no, come with me to Helsinki, where the streets are white
and so am I
wide open for love, any love from anyone...

America reinvents the style

C'mon guys... Buy an airplane ticket and come to Europe and you will see there is nothing to reinvent. Milo Ventimiglia is pretty cute, though.
To balance the shallowness of this post, the following is from a classic Woody Allen's essay, My Address to the Graduates: ‘Today, we are at a crossroad. One road leads to hopelessness and despair; the other to total extinction. Let us pray we choose wisely.'

Ultrawhite

Yesterday, the Real Madrid team won the Spanish league. Later on, the streets were occupied by either drunk yelling supporters or the excited car drivers who couldn't stop honking. Today, the ADN newspaper put a big title: "Liga blanca" and I remembered a neonazi music band from the 90s who sang: "White league, white power". The same brain capacity, I am afraid.

Parties at the Autónoma

One thing that surprises me from time to time is the generosity of the UAM towards the student parties on campus. I spent few years in the US and I am sure that something like "San Canuto" simply wouldn't be possible there. Yesterday, there was another party on campus; drunk people sleeping on the benches, trash and broken glass everywhere and three destroyed check-out machines at the RENFE station. In the morning, the poor campus workers were already cleaning the mess that "the Future of Spain" left behind.

Mika

I tried hard to avoid him, as the wide buzz usually makes me careful, but at the end, I have to admit that I like some of his music a lot. Mika is pretentious, flamboyant, kitschy and one can use many similar adjectives to describe him. He openly steals/borrows from Queen, Elton John and Scissor Sisters, yet keeps some unique style, fortunately. My favourite songs are Any other world (with the old Lebanese lady at the end bringing tears to my eyes, pretty pathetic, huh?), glamorous My interpretation, chart-successful Relax (Take it easy) and closing Happy ending.

Bratrstvo

Bratrstvo (Brotherhood in English) was a cult band in Brno in early 1990s, known for its sophisticated visual style. Through its members, the band was linked to an art movement with the same name. They released three albums and ceased in 1994. I have found a website of its former member, which contains videoclips to songs Bludička (Ignis fatuus in English) and Mária and other songs as mp3 files. (Yes, I'm struck by a reunion-triggered sentimentality).

World Ocean Day

Dante's smile

Another excerpt from "The Dante Club" (slightly shortened):
>>"There is a story that Boccaccio tells of a woman in Verona where Dante was staying during his exile. She saw Dante and pointed him out to another woman, saying, 'That's Alighieri, the man who goes to Hell whenever he pleases and brings back news of the dead.' The other replied, 'Very likely. Don't you see what a dark face he has? Owing to the heat and smoke!' This made Dante smile. Do you know why I doubt the story's veracity?", Lowell continued. "Perhaps because this woman would not know of the contents of Dante's poem, " Sheldon postulated. "I do not for a second believe that Dante smiled", Lowell answered.<<

Reunion

I am in the Czech Republic right now. Yesterday, we had a 15-years-after-highschool reunion. It was kind of funny, because everybody just simply stayed the same (just with wives/husbands/kids), with a similar tolerance to gin or vodka. I had a great time!

Spelling bee

The Squid and the Whale

I had some shopping to do as I am flying to visit my parents on Wednesday. I got few CDs for my little brother and I also bought a DVD of a movie that I wanted to see for a long time. "The Squid and the Whale" is a divorce story from New York in 1980s. Incredible acting + convincing script = highly recommended. Unfortunately, the Spanish booklet is very misleading: I wouldn't call that movie "an extravagant black comedy" under any circumstances.

Black forest

My new Cercanías companion is "The Dante Club" by Matthew Pearl now. I found this sentence so haunting and eternally beautiful that I am sharing it here:
>> Lowell said, "Dante writes like Rembrandt, with a brush dipped in darkness and a gleam of hellfire as his light."<<

Trail mix

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the US farmers faced serious issues with the raising price of corn because it was increasingly used to produce so-called biofuels. As a solution, their hogs feed on a trail mix, chocolate and cookies. Apparently, this was going on for years in some areas, but it became widespread now. What kind of a sick world we live in when imported Brazilian nuts, Vietnamese cashews and Nigerian cocoa are cheaper than home-produced corn? I am sick and tired of a global economy.

The Lillywhite Sessions

LWS was a recording made by Dave Matthews Band in 2000 and produced by Steve Lillywhite. The material was never officially released and later labelled as "sad bastard songs" by Dave Matthews himself, but it leaked on the P2P networks that became the usual source of the recording, unfortunately. These deeply depressive and ultimately dark songs are the highlights of the DMB work for me. Sadly, some of them later received a modified lyrics and a more upbeat sound and were released as the Busted Stuff album in 2002. Just to compare the original depth and the subsequent banality, I am posting two verses from "Captain", a song dealing originally with suicide thoughts and which later transformed into a shallow lust song on the BS:

LWS:
... I don't want your pity,
Just the promise that I'll be alright...
BS:
...I don’t want your pity
Only the promise that you’ll stay with me tonight...
LWS:
...Why should I be hypnotized,
By the promise of a long life?...
BS:
...Oh how could I even try
to fight after falling into your arms?...

The whole LWS story, written in a pretty thrilling way, can be found here.

Elbphilharmonie

Herzog & de Meuron Architekten for Hamburg, Germany (ca. 2009)

Laughing out loud

Couple of days ago, I was searching my bookmarks for a website with protocols that was run by a former colleague of mine from Michigan. Originally, his website was hosted by the MSU servers, but I shortly realized that my browser was redirected to another website: his first name dot com. He posted some details of his life that was pretty stormy since we met and later departed, so it felt right to write him a short e-mail. He replied: "To be honest, I can't remember you." I thought he was joking, because we worked in the same lab for about seven months, but as it turned out he wasn't. I find it extremely funny and it also illustrates the shallowness of the US social skills that I am so happy to leave behind.

Moneo II

Fun from Argentina

Moneo Yeah

After having a great time with "El Pintor" in the bar yesterday night, I decided to make a traditional check on the botanical gardens today. Passing by the Prado gallery, I remembered that they had recently opened an extension, currently without any exhibits but to appreciate the architecture. The project was initially very controversial. Designed by Rafael Moneo, who was awarded the Pritzker Price in 1996, the building is utilizing a former monastery of the Jerónimos, which ignited many protests from the residents of Madrid for violating the national heritage. Ironically, the most stunning part is a hall that is built from the cloister and which brings daylight to the three floors below. Unfortunately, the project needed 3 more years to finish and its price increased of 50%. Nevertheless, in my opinion it was worth waiting and worth the money. Totally in love with that place, I wanted to take many pictures there but my camera battery drained and I forgot to take a spare one, but I am positive I will visit La Ampliación del Museo del Prado pretty soon.

Tram

To entertain the tourists in Brno, a historic tram service was resumed on one short line, connecting the railway station and the St. Jacob's church through the main square. The cars, leased from a museum, are from 1940s. To compare the past and the present, I am posting another picture from the same city:

Guerra por el comedor

The cafeteria/dining room in our institute is a battlefield now. On the 1st of May, a contract with a private (!) company was renewed and immediately followed by a price increase. A cup of coffee is now 75c (previously 62) and the lunch price went up for the whole 1 euro. This move immediately ignited a response from the syndicate and also from the graduate students. Today, we've boycotted the comedor to support the syndicate. The trigger was the letter from the director - I think that to be in charge of such an institution should require some social skills, but what this guy replied to the open letter of the syndicate was outrageous. What is completely ridiculous is that our institute is in the middle of nowhere (40 minutes by train from the centre of Madrid) and the CSIC doesn't even subsidize the price of the lunch for its own employees.

The Greatest Bands, Pt.1: Suede

Suede was the brightest diamond of the Britpop movement. The first success came in 1989, when Suede won Gary Crowley's GLR "Demo Clash" competition with "Wonderful sometimes":
"I've heard of happy ever after
It was just a joke, but you could die laughing".
In 1993, they recorded their debut album with cryptic tracks such as "The Drowners", followed by "Dog Man Star" in 1994, the last record with Bernard Butler, including two beautiful ballads: "The Wild Ones" and "Still Life". The following album is my all-time favourite, "Coming Up" was released in 1996 and each song was so good that it could be easily a single. This video promotes "Positivity", the first single from their last album, named "A New Morning", which was released in 2002 when nobody cared about Britpop anymore.



This song came to my mind when I was walking from the train station through campus full of beautiful green trees. Spring is so beautiful.

Fortress Europe (2003)

While reading more details about the French désastre, I suddenly remembered this song by the Asian Dub Foundation.

A fragment of the lyrics:
...
2022 -A new European order
Robot guards patrolling the border
Cybernetic dogs are getting closer and closer
Armoured cars and immigration officers
A burning village in Kosovo
You bombed it out now you're telling us go home
Machine guns strut on the cliffs of Dover
Heads down people look out! we're going over
Burnin up! can we survive re-entry
Past the mines and the cybernetic sentries
Safe european homes built on wars
You don't like the effect don't produce the cause
The chip is in your head not on my shoulder
Total control just around the corner
...

Dani

Why is it so great to live in Spain? This video will be my answer next time somebody asks me why I moved here from the Land of Opportunities (and Freedom for All?). I know the music is pretty bad and the video itself is kind of amateurish, but as long as something like this can be made and aired nationwide here, there is a hope for this little part of the world.

Mucho más...

... allá de mi ventana. Today I woke up with some filmmakers yelling under my window. My street is a movie star!

Ready?!

These ads make me sick to my stomach. Yes, the boys are hot and the photographer did a good job, but c'mon, "Global warming ready"? Diesel, Diesel... you have to be kidding me. What we will really encounter are weather extremes and a spread of diseases that we don't want to hear about such as malaria and dengue fever. Yeah... cool stuff, indeed.

For Children In Need (1997)

1° de mayo