A highlight of my stay in Valladolid, Spain was my group’s trip to the city’s nationally-recognized museum of religious sculpture at Colegio de San Gregorio. The museum hosts an incredible collection of religious sculptures and paintings from the 15th – 18th centuries. Highlights from my visit are below and, as always, all photos from my visit (nearly 200!) can be seen on my Flickr.
I spent a long afternoon with friends in the city of Salamanca last week. We covered most of the city but I wish we could have stayed longer to enjoy more of it.
Here is Rick Steves with a wonderful introduction to Salamanca followed by my photos (full set also on my Flickr):
The Fiesta de San Fermin is an annual festival held in Pamplona, Spain most famous for the daily encierro a.k.a. the running of the bulls. The event was thrilling and tiring (my friends and I slept on a patch of lawn outside the bullring alongside hundreds of others without accomodations) but well worth it. I’m definitely going to return to Pamplona a few more times while I’m still able to. Some of my favorite photos are below. You can see the entire set on my Flickr.
It was on this day in 1936 when Francisco Franco (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde, 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) led Spanish military forces in the Canary Islands in a coup d’etat against the Second Spanish Republic, Spain’s government at the time.
The coup failed and launched the Spanish Civil War were right-wing groups (Bando Nacional, FE de las JONS, CEDA, Carlistas) led by Franco fought and eventually overthrew the left-wing government of Spain (Frente Popular composed of PSOE, PCE, POUM, Banda Republicana) in 1939.
Spanish History Channel documentary La España de Franco (Franco’s Spain).
Franco then ruled Spain as dictator until his death in 1975.
Franco’s burial.
I have lived in Valladolid for nearly two weeks now and my time here so far has been incredible. The city is small enough to cover by foot which I’ve grown accustomed to. Most streets are small and, today, I realized that I have yet to see a pickup truck, Escalade or other large vehicle in the city. The buses are the largest vehicles here.
Anyway, enjoy the photos below and make sure to see them all on my Flickr page.
It was fifty years ago today that author/journalist Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in his home in Ketchum, Idaho with the aid of one of his shotguns. Depression, alcoholism and a number of head injuries broke him into a state of disrepair.
Hemingway was infamous for his zest for life (or, rather, danger and excess). He was an avid athlete in high school and maintained a lifelong passion for boxing. He was also an avid sportsman who enjoyed fishing (re: Big Two-Hearted River, The Old Man and The Sea), hunting and the outdoors.
He volunteered for the Red Cross near the Italian front in the first World War where he suffered injuries from shrapnel, witnessed the bombing of Smyrna during the Greco-Turkish war, worked as a war correspondent in Spain during that country’s civil war where he wrote The Fifth Column in Madrid during the Siege of Madrid and was at the D-Day Landing and liberation of Paris in World War II. A bout of pneumonia kept him away from the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge. A few of these experiences formed the basis of his most famous novels A Farewell to Arms and For Whom The Bell Tolls.
Continue reading “The Only Adventure Left was Death: Ernest Hemingway’s Suicide”
Today is the big day:
Photo by marcp_dmoz
I am currently sitting in the airport (barring any issues) and am about to board my flight to Dallas – London – Madrid. From there, it’s a bus ride to Valladolid where I’ll be living/studying for the next month.
I am beyond excited…this is my first time visiting Spain as well as Europe in particular. I have a few trips within the country planned. I wish I had more money to see more of Europe but that’s a trip for another time.
I have a few posts scheduled to post automatically as well so this page won’t be too quiet while I’m out eating tapas and wine.
Nos vemoz en Españia!
Here are some old shots of Tera Melos at The Echo earlier this year (click any picture to see the full set):
There isn’t, unfortunately, much known about Telephunken, the Funk/Electronic trio featuring Ernesto “DJ Telephunken” Sanchez, bassist/VJ Sergio Zamavirde and drummer Fernando Parrilla.
The trio was once an Indie-Pop group from Zaragoza who later moved to Madrid and morphed into a Latin-Funk-Dance machine. The group has a handful of releases most notably Antibalas and Que Viva El Ritmo!!! Other than that, there’s not much else. I’ll have to pin Sanchez down in Madrid to learn more.
Watch the band’s short documentary on their trip to SXSW 2010:
Listen to “Shake Your Monkey:”
Sanchez also creates some killer mixes blending Hip-Hop, Funk, Rock and Jazz such as:
George Orwell would have been 108 on June 25th 2011 had he somehow managed to kick tuberculosis in the yarbles and been one of the lucky few who live past 98.
Orwell (born Eric Arthur Blair) was a writer who, after many years struggling as a bookshop clerk, freelancer, BBC radio host and columnist, came to fame after the publication of his last novel 1984, an anti-utopian/dystopian tale of a totalitarian future. The book introduced the public at large to Orwell’s long-held political views of anti-totalitarianism:
As Orwell wrote in his essay Why I Write:
Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.
To mark the occasion, I’ve chosen my favorite quotes from his fiction and non-fiction novels (that I’ve read) to highlight his views as they matured over the course of his life and work.
Continue reading “George Orwell: A Literary Giant’s Quest for Democratic Socialism”
Afroxander (aka Iván Fernández) 