¡que pena!

Alright, sorry about the long break between posts to anyone who might have been following this blog with bated breath. Just trying to learn the big city is all!

Anyway, I've spent the past week and a half trying to figure out what exactly is going on in this city. What does that consist of, you might ask. A couple of concerts, a fair number of bars, a few museum exhibits have been the order of business thus far. Last Thursday I ended up talking to a guy from Barcelona who puts on some form of clown performance about Spanish politics and the lives of Spanish artists. I won't comment on the coherence of that conversation (on the part of either participant), but the fact remains that the conversation happened. I think it ended with both of us shaking our hands muttering "¡Que pena!" ("What a shame"). On Saturday I saw a concert put on by Howe Gelb, the leader of the Tuscon, AZ - based band Giant Sand. While he could be criticized for being a little too weird for the mere sake of being weird, he is clearly a talented musician and performer. The concert, which was at this place called Neu!Club (from what I understand Neu! is a German kraut-rock band from the 70s), definitely had the highest concentration of Spanish hipsters I've seen thus far. The whole scene was kind of awkward, with the language barrier impeding some of the give and take that might have taken place with an English-speaking audience. The crowd was a lot more quiet and respectful than similar American audiences, but I have to wonder how much of that was just that people couldn't figure out what to say in their limited English.

I've managed to begin to check out the bars in neighborhoods beyond the hyper-touristy Sol area, which are a lot more to my liking. Both La Latina (that's where the clown was) and the whole Chueca/Tribunal area seem to have some fun places. I'm still exploring so hopefully I'll get more of a sense of what the city has to offer in that regard.

In somewhat unrelated news, I've started writing CD reviews for a music website based in DC called BigYawn. You can find my first review here. I also wrote a couple of blurbs for the site's top 50 of 2006. #31 and #18 are mine. I see their latest interview with a band on the homepage (link is on the right) is with The Harlem Shakes, who opened up an Olde Club show last semester and proceeded to trash my apartment after the show. They stole our paprika! Don't you worry, we ended up recovering all of our stolen spices, sheets, etc.