“I have in my mind the most masterly farts which, however, would be impossible to reproduce.” The farting policeman explains nevertheless how to perform the “Imperial”, the “Terminator” and the “Saturday Night”, which may or may not refer to the comparable artistic frustrations no doubt suffered by the admirable Mr Travolta.

The papers are running their usual “worst weather ever” stories, but 163 years ago here massive floods signalled an end to a period of abnormal cold–snow lay on the land around town–and a Norwegian brig was lost in storms at the mouth of the Llobregat.

Over at Michael Gilleland’s place. I am laid low by village water, which comes out of the hill unpurified, which is fine, but which ravages stomachs lacking the correct ecology of flora and fauna, which is tough on me and even tougher on the porcelain. Beware the great god Fart under such circumstances.

I rather like NATO’s new designs for the Zaragoza expo. More likely to put it on the map than take it off it, if you ask me.

Thanks to MM (with a little help from BB) for news of the English musician who used to play bugle calls on his rifle using a mouthpiece inserted into the barrel. The photograph recalls the following Spanish joke:
Two hippies from Gracia are shrooming in the woods when they find a shotgun.
“Hey man, get that,” says […]

Papel Continuo: Noticias del Mundo was the Spanish version of the American shambloid, Weekly World News. Issue 41 announced that whole office was off to the Caribbean to investigate some weird stuff, and it was the last to appear. Check out Vampire Child, The Man With 12,310 Children, and The Woman With Three Brains here.

Given the spectacular contribution of Iberian merchants to the spice trade, why is it that none of my local friends will go anywhere near a lamb vindaloo?

Here, with a flurry of thanks to the hermeneuticists of Bavaria, is the odd one out amongst tales of late nineteenth and early twentieth century German commercial activities in Iberia and the Maghreb:
One of the first German missions was that of Colonel von Conring to Marrakesh in about 1878 to present to Mulai Hassan some […]

Lots of sites promise, but I still haven’t found one that delivers serious historical weather data outside of the US, the UK and other dominions of Anglocabronia. I’ll roast a baby lamb for the winning respondent.

I want to do something quite simple: change from Vodafone to Movistar or Amena-Orange so I get reception in the Pyrenees, while keeping the same phone (a stream-personalised Nokia 3310), number and pre-pay accountability. When I say this shop assistants laugh uneasily and reach under the counter for the bat, and online things are no […]

Mr B has been struck through and through by gastric flu. Let that be a lesson.

Mr B may be between jobs, but there’s no end to the man’s industry. Here he is in action up at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.
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“The world is inhabited by two categories of people,” anticipated officer Fumero to himself as he slunk after the couple through the Plaza Real and into the Calle de […]

Here’s a good bunch of Pontevedra photos by Colin Davies chronicling the frenzied destruction of those not-particularly-interesting buildings that nevertheless make Spain look the way it looks. If your dwelling is in a pre-1850 zone, then the chance is that things will stay more or less the way they are, but most everything from the […]

Here’s an old foreshadow–give or take the odd sacrifice–of a recent nocturnal trip in the English translation by Grace Frick of Yourcenar’s Hadrian:
A few days before the departure from Antioch I went to offer sacrifice, as in other years, on the summit of Mount Casius. The ascent was made by night; just as for Aetna, […]

After struggling for 10 minutes, a well-dressed young man manages to set fire to a container just off Carmen, steps back, takes out what looks like an expensive video camera in order to film his work, and is immediately robbed by two Moroccan lads. Try explaining that to Mummy and Daddy. Other faves:

Several hoodies breaking […]

The other day I serendipited upon a review in Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië (1853) of Abraham Benjamin Cohen Stuart’s translation of what sounds like an absolutely brilliant Javanese epic poem dealing with the life and loves of one Baron Sakendher, Geschiedenis van Baron Sakendher. Een Javaansch verhaal van vertaling, […]

Check some great photos by David Bryan of a tornado off Castelldefels, south of Barcelona.

I’ve bumped into a number of Moorish poet-princes, but I’d never heard of poet-princess Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (994-1091). There’s a sensible, sourced account (in Spanish) here, and then there’s this. I had my doubts about Wijdan al shommari, and thought I’d be able to nail him/her on the basis of his/her (?) version of a […]

Mediaeval local legal codes, fueros, all contain passages like the following, taken from the Fuero de Bejár (1290s):

Unlike Carlos, I’m actually rather fond of Albacete, and not just because its ugliness is on a smaller scale than Birmingham’s. Although generally more energy tends to be devoted to damnation than to praise, I found out the other night, flicking through a book called Historia de la provincia de Albacete, that I’m not the […]

Swot it sounds like. No Spanish angle to this either, curse it.

El País this morning seems still to be backing the “It wos Bush wot dunnit” hypothesis. This is because they are being paid to do so by the Russians–although they still haven’t managed to get the hammers and sickles up there in the clouds. (Thanks Dave)

New Labour aren’t in the Bible (via Al El), but then neither are the dinosaurs, except in Florida (via Popbitch). (One of Dinosaur Adventure Land’s leading researchers is Dean “Million Volt Man” Ortner.)

Broken lightning conductor on a stork chimney in Barbastro.

The bad news is that the UK is about to become a net importer of hydrocarbons; the good news, that we are now selling services to fascist regimes in Central Asia as well as colonising the lexicons of Middle Eastern analysts who, it seems, have stopped measuring oil supplies in barrels:

“My Lord, I had forgott the Fart.”

Job 1:
While [the messenger to Job] was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

All last year industry and sections of the PP were saying that there was no way that Spain could meet its Kyoto targets, currently being overshot by more than 100% as a result of the PP’s fine economic record (see below). Economics minister Rato was mugged by a bunch of industrialists in early December in […]

Lots of people in Barcelona don’t have piped gas, but it doesn’t matter at all. When their canister of butane is about to run out, a man comes along the street yelling BUTAAAANNNNOOO!!!! and, after a brief conversation, he climbs up six flights of stairs with a new one on his back. Easy!
It used to […]

Everyone says that the following picture, taken near Barcelona’s Forum site, is of a large solar panel cluster:

Een … twee meer fotos van mijn favoriete krachtcentrale, Sant Adrià de Besòs, gekiekt tijdens de wandeling van Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona) naar Montgat (Maresme).

Nom: Aleksandr Sergueevich Dzasokhov
Ocupació: President de la República de Osetia del Nord i Alania
Passatemps: Caminant a peu amb els seus amics.
És excepcional: hi ha pocs polítics russos que no surten de i/o representen l’indústria energètica.

When we went down to the beach last Saturday to see how much of it had survived last week’s storms, a little old man was sitting on the wooden decking of the walkway drinking beer. We sat next to him and exchanged pleasantries while he finished one can and opened another. Thus emboldened, our Cordovan […]

Toen ik in Londen werkte, nam ik af en toe een paar uurtjes vrij onder het smoesje van een vergadering met partners in Covent Garden. En dan kon ik mooi naar het National Gallery (nog steeds gratis) en Turner. En die kon nou echt een treintje schilderen.

These two energetic logos are on one of my favourite day-off wanders: from the Plaça d’Espanya through the old backstreets of working class Sants up to Collblanc, then a slalom down through the drab poverty of l’Hospitalet, finishing up with wander down the ceramic-ridden old road back to the Plaça d’Espanya.
The first logo adorns […]

Un nou article de Richard A Muller en la Technology Review del MIT és pessimista sobre la producció de l’hidrogen. Hi ha dues opcions funcionals:

Why a power station on the edge of Badalona is the most important religious building in Barcelona
The press has chattered for years about the replacement of traditional places of worship with secular cathedrals. So, asks this liberal atheist, is it time to treasure the power station at Sant Adrià de Besòs (which is much better […]