Wait a minute, I remember that face from somewhere. Yes, he’s back, hanging on subway walls and lampposts in Barcelona, sometimes staring out alone, sometimes looming amongst other scoundrels like Berlusconi, Aznar, and Putin. W is now part of the Catalan socialists’ red-hot, retro-designed, European Parliament election campaign. The copy: “Poden treure’ ns de la crisi els que ens hi van ficar?” Do you really think the ones who got us into this mess are going to be the ones to get us out of it?
The New Yorkers I’ve shown around Barcelona always seem to connect easily to the energy of the Catalan capital. They get its contrasts, I think, of seediness and elegance, of old and new, and its palpable creative and mercantile drive. When they return to the Big Apple, they invariably find themselves jonesing for more. For a while, that big screenfull of lovesick images in Vicki Cristina Barcelona provided a fix. But now what? I might have suggested heading downtown to eavesdrop on vacationing Catalans as they ransack Century 21. But the Institut Ramon Llull, a Catalan language and culture organization, has come up with something far more tasteful: Catalan Days — an arts mashup spanning music, dance, literature, and food. April 15 through May 20 at venues around New York City.
The Film Forum in New York City is showing Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1984 film, “Antonio Gaudi” starting today through next Tuesday, November 4. Details and tickets are available online at the Film Forum’s website. (more…)
As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need scientists prying into DNA samples to prove that Columbus was no gentleman from Verona. All you need is a day with Joan Santolaria, a geographer from Barcelona who captains the antique Catalan fishing vessel El Rafael out of the port of Palamós. The man possesses precisely the sly charm, curious intellect, quick step, and wildly curly red hair one would expect from a Catalan pirate of Columbus’s magnitude. (more…)
I love Barcelona in the winter. There’s plenty going on, and fewer hoards of visitors to share it all with. “Un cos sense limits — A Body without Limits,” through January 27th at Fundació Joan Miró is where I’d head if I were there right now. (more…)