Month archive for February, 2008

Water crisis

Posted: February 29th 2008 17:38.

But not in Pedralbes:

If only shots were that cheap at my local.

The Lapithæ, a people of Thessaly who nearly exterminated the Centaura in a quarrel which arose at the nuptials of Pirithous

Posted: February 29th 2008 13:11.

All but one, now living in a back garden in c/ Sors, Barcelona.

A heathen named Guiri

Posted: February 27th 2008 19:17.

“The Mahávansa and the Rájaratnákari state, that the king Walakanabhaya, or according to the latter work, Deveny Paetissa, caused the temple of a heathen named Girrie (doubtless Giri) to be destroyed, and caused to be constructed upon its site twelve temples consecrated to Sákya, which communicated with each other; and in the midst of which [...]

Sales of Catalan-language fiction in English translation on Amazon

Posted: February 27th 2008 13:01. Last modified: February 27th 2008 13:09

Ferran Mascarell said a couple of months back that
Frankfurt perseguia tres objectius: millorar la presència de la literatura catalana en el món, entendre el paper fonamental de l’edició catalana amb els seus cinc segles d’història al darrere i ensenyar al món l’existència d’una cultura forta, plena i integral. El primer objectiu suposo que ha funcionat, [...]

Bar Morryssom

Posted: February 26th 2008 10:16.

This example of hostelries unable to spell their own name is rather interesting because of the two signs Bar Morrisson is clearly older than Bar Morryssom. Does this mark a decline in Spanish literacy–they used to be able to spell it–or are they merely trying to please various orthographical markets? (Background: Spanish speakers find it [...]

Professor Blumenbach of Göttingen’s views on beauty in women

Posted: February 25th 2008 15:56. Last modified: February 27th 2009 12:53

T Bell, MD, Kalogynomia, or the laws of female beauty (1821):
Professor Blumenbach of Göttingen, whose profound science and perfect impartiality no one can doubt, does not hesitate to say, that the English are the most beautiful people on the globe. Nor is this wonderful when we consider that ENGLAND, perhaps exclusively, presents the combination [...]

Apparent gender confusion in French “native-speakers”

Posted: February 25th 2008 13:12. Last modified: February 25th 2008 13:20

It is slightly strange that this should surprise anyone, since Romance languages are notorious for their variation in the attribution of gender to nouns (Latin neuter -> almost universally Romance masculine, but you then get swaps, and doubling ups, and all kinds of mayhem in the various modern languages/dialects). One wonders whether the regional background [...]

Birthday pics

Posted: February 25th 2008 11:50. Last modified: February 25th 2008 12:09

Thanks all for kind wishes. Cake under attack from fish:

Afterwards I got to go walkies, and chose one of the old junkie trails to Can Tunis, made vaguely notorious in rather different form (before they built the freaking motorway and destroyed the old port and beaches) in Juli Vallmitjana’s interesting (he helped Picasso get dirty) [...]

Etymology of Montjuïc/Mountjoy/Montjoie

Posted: February 22nd 2008 15:33. Last modified: June 3rd 2009 20:27

“Jewish mountain” is currently hot favourite in Barcelona council offices because it is believed that this will attract well-off tourists from New York and Israel. Joan Amades says that at the end of the C19th, local sailors referred to gardens of St Bertrand as fossa del jueu, “the Jewish grave”, and indeed there were Jewish [...]

Catalan government censors Montjuïc castle from Google Earth

Posted: February 22nd 2008 11:24. Last modified: February 22nd 2008 11:28

I was wondering where it (and another landmark which I will post here as soon as I remember which it was) had gone to. Stefan Geens has the low-down, as usual. The ICC is on the mountain, so it’s not like they can have been unaware of it. Does this have something to do with [...]

Location of public executions in Barcelona in the 1830s

Posted: February 21st 2008 18:16.

Does anyone happen to know where murderers were done away with at that stage? Some kind of reference would be most helpful.

Al Museu de la ciutat hi guarden el biquini de la primera sueca

Posted: February 21st 2008 10:48.

Sez Damià Pons. (Thanks JD)

Not the Mataró I know

Posted: February 20th 2008 19:21. Last modified: February 20th 2008 19:26

A short story “El lobo de las sierras” published in The new monthly magazine in 1851 evokes a typical day in the life of a British railway engineer on the Catalan coast (the Mataro-Barcelona line opened in 1848):
It was enough to have disquieted a man of stouter nerves than Tom, who, torn, stupid and intoxicated [...]

Yet another facking neo-Gothic historical thriller set in Barcelona

Posted: February 20th 2008 18:21. Last modified: February 20th 2008 18:36

“En plena disputa per les obres de l’AVE, que amenacen amb danyar l’estructura de la Sagrada Família, Manuel Otaño, un sacerdot jesuïta que treballa al Vaticà, torna a Barcelona per a supervisar les obres del projecte més ambiciós d’Antoni Gaudí. Aviat es veurà embolicat en una intriga que girarà entorn d’un manuscrit oposat que podria [...]

Quantitative analysis by language of Barcelona publications in British Library Integrated Catalogue

Posted: February 19th 2008 19:33. Last modified: February 19th 2008 19:41

The Catalan government continues to claim that public use of Catalan was prohibited during the dictatorship, but everyone sensible now agrees that this was not so, and that publishing in Catalan–which is what we are interested in today–was never banned.
Xavi Caballé today posted several lists estimating numbers of publications in Catalan (where?) for some [...]

Jordi the singing pig

Posted: February 19th 2008 10:48. Last modified: February 19th 2008 10:49

The window display is so abundant that it’s difficult to see inside, so it might have been the butcher himself singing this morning in the shop at Asturias 47, Gracia, Barcelona.

UPyD manifesto

Posted: February 18th 2008 17:39.

Here.

Bar Kentumy

Posted: February 18th 2008 11:39. Last modified: February 22nd 2008 13:27

I imagine this bears the same relation in terms of intellectual property to Barcelona’s famous Bar Kentucky as Women’Secret does to Victoria’s Secret, but I’m not a twisted knickers expert, in public at least.

Haute cuisine

Posted: February 15th 2008 11:12. Last modified: February 14th 2008 11:22

Some British pubs take their French rather literally:

Fellow hippies will know that if you stack your chips right on the day of the winter solstice and then chant a magic spell, the sun’s rays will fall in such a way as to create a shadow image of pretty much whichever megalithic construction you fancy.

Yet another example of “If you’re from Catalonia/Belgium/Hampshire, then you must speak Catalan/Belgian/Hampshire”

Posted: February 14th 2008 13:33.

“You speak Spanish?” he asked.
“No!” someone shouted out. “But he probably speaks Mexican!”

My 5% bookstore - new stuff



Spanish history

Modern Spanish fiction

Spanish classics

On this day

Barcelona

  • March 21 1848 

    En Barcelona como en otras partes comienza hoy la primavera, que en honor de la verdad no suele ser aqui la estacion mas hermosa del año. Cierto que ya los árboles comienzan á echar hoja, y que la linda y olorosa violeta alfombra los jardines y ribazos, y que le hacen cortejo otras flores; per...

Josep Pla, Palafrugell (1918-9)

  • 21 de març de 1918 En aquest país tenim un costum molt curiós. Quan ens trobem, al carrer, dues persones, cara a cara, no tenim, a penes, res a dir-nos. Però, una vegada acomiadats i fets set o vuit passos, se’ns ocorren tot d’una una sèrie de coses urgents a dir a la persona que hem deixat fa un moment. [...]
  • 21 de març de 1919 Inici de la primavera. Biblioteca. Tot traduint Renard penso que és més important dominar un ofici qualsevol que posseir una curiositat dilatada, vastíssima. La curiositat es pot improvisar; un ofici, no. La curiositat és superficialment agradable, però deixa una certa buidor amarga per dintre. Un ofici és monòton i pesat, però té moments d’una voluptuositat [...]

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