If you're not Catalan or lived in Barcelona then you probably won't find this funny, but I'd rather like to have one of these t-shirts so go vote for them to make the thing here.
Pleasethankyouverymuch.
A few new bits over at my portfolio, including the publication in an Aussie sports mag of my afternoon spent at the HQ of the Cuban cricket association. Sorry about the Ashes comment, Dad - that's the nature of writing for your audience.
More on that fire and the mysterious figures on floor 16ish. It seems that they were captured on 3 separate video cameras, that the fireman found a couple of forced doors on the second floor and in the tunnels underneath, and that some people who weren't firemen had been using radiotransmitters inside. The judge in charge of the investigation has had them hold off demolishing the building for at least 48 hours (via Nacho Escolar).
K'alebol has his answer while Barcepundit is still searching for one of his own.
It's starting to get hot in there.
"Fuck them, Ralph," he would say, "we are not like the others."
The Indy gets the one they all wanted: Steadman writing on Hunter (quick, before it's paywalled; not to be confused with the Guardian's Steadman rambling on the phone about Hunter while drafting that piece). Not quite as quotable but also great is Jon Ronson on (not) writing like Hunter and Why some video games journalists maybe should be.
And speaking of writing, I seem to be a Bolshevik revolutionary author.
But the real online revolutions are taking place elsewhere. Despite the predictions of Livejournalers everywhere, it seems that genuine bloggers and big media aren't mutually exclusive after all. At least, not if you follow the Behr.
A curio here that was all over the Spanish media at the weekend (when the referendum wasn't having the politicians out-exaggerate their own caritcatures):
Just over a week ago, as BBC News' gallery shows, the enormous Torre Windsor caught fire. A short-circuit on the 21st floor, it seems. But caption two of the BBC gallery - "No-one was thought to be in the building" - has been proven wrong by a visiting lawyer and his wife, who filmed the blaze from their hotel window.
Their footage shows at least two people moving around on floor 16ish. The offices belong to an auditor who claims there was 'nothing special' around there.
A trick of the light? Not unless it was a trick of the lights as well - they turn on the lights in a room and one of them clearly had a torch. And yes, the tape has been verified as genuine.
There were no firemen inside - five floors above, the building was in flames and falling apart. And no bodies were found anywhere in the wreckage, so they definitely got out in time. (Though further speculation concerns how, without getting any attention.)
Arsonists? Clandestine lovers? Over-eager workers? Lord Lucan and Elvis riding Shergar among the cubicles? No-one knows but it's a great story. Enter your guesses below.
Here's a Real Player video of the thing via El Mundo, who also has the story here.
From Saturday's ODNB's Life of the Day, Elizabeth Carter:
"She used to employ a sexton to wake her between 4 and 5 am by pulling a string attached to a bell hanging at the head of her bed. To keep herself awake late at night she used to wrap wet towels about her head, chew green tea, and take snuff, until she was both addicted to snuff and painfully vulnerable to debilitating headaches for the rest of her life.
"By these means she first learned Latin and Greek, then Hebrew, French, Italian, and Spanish. Later in life she also taught herself Portuguese and Arabic. When she was about twenty she studied German on the recommendation of her father and his friends who wanted her to seek a place at court. Although she decided that court life was not for her, she liked the language and towards the end of her life enjoyed conversations about German literature with Queen Charlotte."
As Samuel Johnson put it, "A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek. My old friend, Mrs Carter, could make a pudding as well as translate Epictetus from the Greek, and work a handkerchief as well as compose a poem."
So nuts to you, sunshine.
Speaking of addiction and snuff(ed), RIP HST. Lived and died in the same way: insane, of his own volition, and screw everyone else. But give the man a typewriter, a locked door and enough Mescaline to build an igloo, and he was a genius like no other.
Some people like to peek through the keyhole of the doors of perception. Hunter went straight through the wall, driving a Sherman tank.
All been busy over here - visitors, socialising, watching Real Madrid undeservedly scrape a victory. And of course ARCO, the huge international art fair held here each year.
It was immense, and exhausting, and I didn't cover nearly a quarter of what was on - and I didn't even take my camera, so you'll have to take my word for it on a lot of things. Some links though, from my personal highlights of what I saw:
* The Wooden Mirror by Daniel Rozin - just jaw-dropping. Check out the QuickTime movie (though it's not as good as the real thing - the detail it mirrors is incredible)
* Dinh Q. Lê, Vietnamese artist who hand-weaves his huge images mixing American and Vietnamese visual culture. The links don't really do justice to the work, which up close is remarkable.
* Chiharu Nishizawa (click on Pickup Artist-> Artist Information), whose work at its best is like what the Chapman brothers would paint if they'd ever had to work in offices.
* My favourite unusual art magazine La Mas Bella with their latest box of games. Which is quite literally a box of games. I first saw them - or rather their magazine vending machine - two years ago in Barcelona. I'd not heard anything from them since, so am glad they're still around.
Having produced their first three editions as a magazine, they decided to challenge themselves, their would-be contributors and the shops that stock it a little more. Hence the Tupperware, the tin can, the wine bottle, the collection of slides, the rifle targets, the stencils and flags and, if you have €30 to spare, you really should get my favourite, the wallet. It's an amazing and witty object and the final word in bespoke artist commissions.
ARCO was far more full of nonsense and pretension of course, as these things always are. But these brief thrills I found were enough to make their point: when anyone says you can't do something, be the bear.
"You know, like they used to do in cinemas"
A new DVD rental shop called La Luciérnaga (the glow-worm) has opened near my flat in Madrid, and they've come up with something rather cool. When you rent a film from them, you also get an extra DVD with one or more film shorts on it, to watch before the main feature.
Even more spiffing, they're also mining the Creative Commons to find cool, suitably licensed shorts that they can distribute to a wider audience.
The main limitation is that the film has to have a Spanish audio track or subtitles (or be silent).
If you're interested and don't live anywhere near, send me a download link to your film with some info, and I'll burn a DVD and take it along to them. Your Madrileño fan club starts here.
On a happier note, Rising Slowly fortuitously chose my birthday as the occasion to post one of my photos on their excellent weather blog. Cold but true, folks.
It's not often one's birthday begins with the greeting "Are you ok?". A small car bomb it seems, 17 "slightly injured" including shock. The bomb went off in the Exhibition district, where the Mexican president was due to turn up and open the unusual modern art show, ARCO (I'll be going along tomorrow I think).
The slogan pasted everywhere for the visit of the Olympic inspectors is "Ready for You". Terms and conditions may apply.
For those who like that sort of thing, there's plenty of all-new pictures up on my portfolio site.
It's so unfair. I walked past the Panasonic shop and stopped in my tracks drooling. Why? This is why.
It's digital. Let's repeat that. It's DIGITAL! With a juicy 2.0 Leica lens and a lovely bounce flash option. Oh it's stupidly overpriced for what it is, and only 5 megapixels at that. But Oh. Mm. Ee. Aaah.
Design doing what it does best - going back to what works.
