- By Ferenz Jacobs
- Filed in: Perfect Days
Tarannà, c/ Viladomat, 23
“She is lovely. She is flirtatious. She is passionate. Others call her Barna. Or, mistakenly, Barça, which only refers to the football club. Or, shortened, BCN. But I don’t call her by her nicknames. After several years of being together I began taking her beaches for granted, I got bored with her modernist buildings and I was not quite sure where things were heading. To beat the seven-year itch I moved to another part of town. There I discovered new eating-places. Barcelona knows the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.
My perfect date in the city is on a sunny day in June. When I wake up in the morning some raindrops fall. Then the sun starts to shine like it is already summer and I have a late breakfast at Tarannà (c/ Viladomat, 23). Tarannà is the Catalan word for mood. And this place with a brick wall on one end, Parisian metro tiles on the other and vintage furniture certainly brings me in a good mood. I usually choose sweet muffins to accompany my glass of breakfast orange juice, but their savoury sandwiches are also really appetising. Read the rest of this article…
Above is the beautiful video by Pau García Laita. Summer Barcelona is produced using a tilt-shift photography effect. It took me a few scenes to realise I was watching the real thing and not just a model. It’s Barcelona in miniature!
Summer Barcelona by Pau García Laita
Filmed during the summer of 2012 this video has just been released on Vimeo. It uses a great track by Croquet Club called If You Really Care.
Pau is a 22 year-old freelance film-maker from Barcelona whose main interest is extreme sports filming. I asked him about the video and the techniques he used. Read the rest of this article…
- By Maria
- Filed in: Perfect Days
Plaça del Sol
“Me and Barcelona have a passionate relationship. It was love at first sight. Barcelona seduced me on its birthday, on the Mercè in September when everyone was invited to celebrate. We met on a dark street in Raval, where I was wined with sangría and dined with the cheapest and most heavenly tapas I had ever eaten. We looked at pictures of bullfighters on the wall and I was star struck. We went down to the port, bought a bottle of cava, laid down to watch the fireworks. “I never want to leave your side” I said quietly, so I didn’t. 5 years later we are still in love, a love equally as passionate as the first day we met.
…a swim in the ocean…
Barcelona is a master of all that is seduction. We meet in embraces on hot summer nights in dark narrow gothic streets, we steal kisses under the moonlight on the stairs of Santa Maria del Mar, and we get drunk on cheap wine in a restaurant in the Raval that has been there for a hundred years or more. We dance until the first rays of sun in the morning at the Port Olimpic, and end it all with a swim in the ocean when the city is just waking up. It’s the best date you’ve ever had, but it never ends. Read the rest of this article…
This is a bit of a lame post. Pretty much a copy and paste job. But I’ve never been to this event in the years I’ve been here so I don’t have much to say about it. But I like the idea behind it. Recycling old stuff and reinventing it into art and designer objects. Artistic recycling.
Drap-Art 2012: International Recycling Art Festival of Catalonia
The event is held at the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) and surrounding spaces between Friday Oct 5th (today) and Sunday October 14th.
From the website…
Drap-Art is a showcase of the trends in art that make use of objets trouvés and waste materials as a resource. It is a platform for emerging artists and designers around the world, who use trash as raw material, it is a forum for discussion of theories and urban utopias. Drap-Art is a meeting place for specialists with a public in search of alternatives, in a world that seems to be doomed to destruction.
So this year I’m going to make a special effort to get along to it. There’s a Drap-Art Boutique where you can buy things too. Though the prices may be a bit steep for us mere mortals. Read the rest of this article…
The fascinating Wild & Wonderful in Barcelona series continues with a documentary on long-term Barcelona resident Tom Chant.
From the website…
Wild and Wonderful Episode 2: English experimental and free jazz musician Tom Chant.
A long-term resident in Barcelona Tom is currently active groups including the Cinematic Orchestra, the Eddie Prévost Trio, Sucette – a computer music duo with Ben Drew, Marseille Figs – a country, pop, free-jazz racket and the London Improvisers Orchestra and Barcelona based IED8 and Banda de Improvisadores de Barcelona (BIB). Tom bought his first soprano saxophone in 1995. His first recordings from this period were with the Sycophants, on the Ninja Tune and Lo Recordings record labels. In 1997 Tom began recording with Jason Swinscoe, founder of The Cinematic Orchestra.
Tom Chant: Wild & Wonderful in BCN Episode 2
Wild & Wonderful in BCN links
- By Joel Serra Bevin
- Filed in: Perfect Days
Playa de la Mar Bella
“Barcelona… the city that Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations described as “the most exciting place to eat in the Western world”.
The perfect day in Barcelona would fall in late September, when the stinging heat gives way to long barmy nights. Barcelona is the only global city with access to incredible beaches via public transport (Sydney and Rio de Janeiro also come to mind), so a morning swim at Playa de la Mar Bella is obligatory.
Breakfast in Spain does not hold the same status as it does in the UK (Full English) or Latin America (Calentado), but a slice of melon draped with jamon, some fresh mato cheese with honey and the caffeine kick of a cortado is a nice way to start the day.
Shops and galleries begin opening at 10am in Barcelona so a visit to the Picasso Museum, the Ferran Adrià & El Bulli exhibition and Roca Gallery will easily fill a few hours and have you thinking about lunch. Read the rest of this article…
Festa al Cel 2012 – Let your imagination fly away
Did you think La Mercè was over? Think again. There are events running right up until the end of September. And the annual Barcelona air show, the Festa al Cel, is one of the final events of this year’s festival. Between 10am and 2pm on September 30th the beaches of Mar Bella and Nova Mar Bella are the place to be. The skies above the sea host a spectacular display of all types of flying machines.
The Spanish Air Force, the Spanish Navy, the Spanish Army, aerobatics champions, and international performers both civilian and military take to the skies in light aircraft, helicopters, sea planes, state-of-the-art jets and even a passenger plane for a colourful and sometimes ear-splitting show of flying technology both old and new. Read the rest of this article…
