¡El diabólico ingenio de su malvado plan es magnifico!

I just wanted to write down the Spanish translation of one of my favorite lines from Star Trek. It's from the Bride of Chaotica (La Novia de Caótica) episode of Star Trek Voyager. And it sounds just as great in Spanish as in English, IMO.

"The clever fiendishness of your evil plan is brilliant!" = "¡El diabólico ingenio de su malvado plan es magnifico!"

Alex Ubago + Craig David = Spanglish

One of my favorite Spanish singer-songwriters, Alex Ubago, recently collaborated with Craig David on a Spanish translation of David's 2001 hit song Walking Away. The result is a bilingual version that is being released as a duet on David's Greatest Hits CD in Spanish speaking countries.

In an interview with them that I read in today's ¡Que!, they claimed to have communicated in Spanglish while working on the new version. David said that was because he really only knows a little Spanish. However, Ubago added, "That is until he sees a pretty [Spanish-speaking] girl, when he lets loose with perfect Castellano."



Both singer-songwriters are 27 year old Grammy winners with well established careers. Craig David, with more than 13 million CDs sold worldwide, is one of the most successful recording artists to come from Great Britain so far this century.

Alex Ubago, who accompanies himself on the guitar, is from Vitoria, Spain and has sold more than three million CDs. He has won numerous awards in Spain, Latin American and the USA. He will soon release his sixth disc, which was recorded in Argentina. I have not heard if the duet with David will be included on Ubago's CD.

David also recorded new bilingual versions of "Walking Away" with artists such as Lynnsha from France, Nek from Italy, Monrose from Germany, and Bonnie Pink from Japan for his CD's release in their respective countries.

Glossalian marketing, anyone?

Woody sighting and Woody controversy.

I was "bicing" (bicycling) down Rambla Catalunya today, on my way to a class, when all of a sudden the traffic became unbelievably slow, then essentially stopped. It was even difficult for those of us on bicycles to negotiate our way along. Turned out it was because of the throngs who had stopped on the sidewalks to watch Woody Allen work.

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I didn't sop because it would have made me late, but he seemed to be pacing out a scene. (Is that the correct lingo?) To me he looked like a nice old guy in a fishing hat. He was a little heavier than I expected. (I thought people were supposed to look heavier on film and lighter in person!)

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OK, that's all I saw, so now for the controversy. It's twofold: 1. residents are beginning to complain about traffic jams, crowds of people, special privileges alloted to El Señor Allen. 2. Opposition politicians in Barcelona's city government have accused socialist mayor Jordi Hereu of giving Señor Allen essentially carte blanche in exchange for a photo opportunity when he was in New York not so long ago.

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Well, maybe I'm oversimplifying the second point a little. Apparently, the city has invested in the project, along with the Spanish and Catalan governments. The conservative Popular Party (PP) wants to know exactly how much the city has spent. So far the response from city hall has only been to say it is under a million euros. The PP also wants to know who paid for trips the mayor city council members made to New York City to meet with Señor Allen.

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Hmmm, the plot thickens...

Friday's News in Spain: The Prince, Nature & Science; Zapatero and his ministers; local audience lacking for Spanish cinema

Prince of Asturias Foundation awards Communications prize to 'Nature' and 'Science': British and American publications ‘Science’ and ‘Nature’ have jointly received the 2007 Prince of Asturias Communications Prize. Other nominees this year included the BBC and Google. The prestigious award includes 50,000 € ($67,000 and a Joan Miró designed statuette.

This is the fifth of the Prince of Asturias awards to be announced so far this year. Other winners in 2007 have been Al Gore (the International award), Bob Dylan (Arts), Amos Oz (Literature) and Ginés Morata and Peter Lawrence (Science). Later this month the Social Science award will be announced, followed by the Sports and Concorde awards in September.

'Science' magazine is a US weekly that was first published in New York in 1880. The British journal 'Nature' dates back to 1869.

The Prince of Asturias Foundation, headed by Spanish Crown Prince Filipe, awards eight prizes every year. It was founded in 1980 with the objectives of, "strengthening the links between the Principality of Asturias and its Prince and of contributing to upholding and promoting all those scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form the heritage of humanity."

Zapatero makes cabinet changes ahead of election: Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has announced a cabinet reshuffle, including the dismissal of three ministers -- Jordi Sevilla (Public Administration), Carmen Calvo (Culture) and María Antonia Trujillo (Housing).

Elena Salgado will move from Health to Public Administration. Cesar Antonio Molina of the Cervantes Institute becomes Culture Minister, molecular biology investigator, Bernat Soria, becomes Health Minister and parliament vice-president, Carmen Chacón, becomes Housing Minister. Chacón, at 36, is the youngest minister in the government and arguably has the most difficult portfolio in that Spanish citizens are experiencing a housing "shortage" while a corruption and speculation support a real estate boom in tourist areas.

Opposition Popular Party (PP) leader, Mariano Rajoy reacted to the changes by saying: "There is no crisis. This is simply a cosmetic operation which can't disguise the fact that this government lacks any credibility."

Reportedly Zapatero had decided a few weeks ago on making the changes and that he would announce them after the State of the Nation debate.

An election is due to be called by net spring. Polls show Zapatero's socialist PSOE party as more popular than the PP.

Top 25 movies in Spain -- not 1 Spanish: El Mundo reported that so far in 2007 there has not been a Spanish movie in the top 25 films at the Spanish box office! Out of a total of 45.8 million movie tickets sold in Spain since January, only 3.7 million were for films from Spain.

Click here to see the list of the 25 most popular films in Spain during the first half of 2007 and here to see the 10 most popular Spanish films.

Tuesday's Spanish News: Spaniards Killed in Yemen; Eurocontrol and air travel; Idealista.com and housing prices; El Señor Woody Allen en Barcelona

Spanish Tourists Killed in Yemen: The top story in all the papers today was about the 7 Spaniards and 2 Yemenis killed by a suicide bomber's car bomb. The attack seemed to be aimed at tourists in general, as the car drove through a gate and into a line of tourist vehicles at the Queen of Sheba temple in Marib. This was at least the 4th terrorist attack in Yemen since 17 American sailors died and 39 were injured in a suicide attack on the US Navy ship, the USS Cole.

According to ADN, the web site of the Spanish Foreign Ministry has stated for quite some time that Yemen is a dangerous place to visit and requires maximum vigilance. The paper went on to point out, however, that the web site does not maintain a list of dangerous countries, as the British Foreign Office does. On the Spanish web site, one must first select a country and then read about it to see if there are warnings about travel there.

The Spanish tourists had arranged their trip to Yemen through the Barcelona travel agency, Banoa, which specializes in adventure travel.

In the better news department, low-cost airlines are growing in Spain: According to Eurocontrol (European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation), low cost airlines, such as Catalonia's Vueling and England's EasyJet, now control 25% of the country's market, as opposed to 16% in Europe as a whole. The organization cited the growth of business in the Spanish low cost sector at 36% since January of this year, while the major airlines only saw a 15% growth.

In the mixed news for home buyers department: According to idealista.com while Barcelona's housing prices fell 3% this past quarter (the area's first decrease since 2001), Madrid's prices remained nearly the same with an increase of o.1% and the third largest city, Valencia, saw an increase of 1.2%. Idealista cited the continued influence of the America's Cup as a reason for Valencia's increase.

Woody Allen's Summer Project 2007: That is the temporary name given to the director's next movie, set to start filming in Barcelona on Monday. At a press conference in Barcelona yesterday, El Sr. Allen, as Spanish Culture Minister Carmen Calvo referred to him, said that he was looking forward "with great, great enthusiasm" to shooting the film in the city. "I want to write a love letter to Barcelona and from Barcelona to the rest of the world," Allen said. He claimed that he wanted to depict Barcelona, "the same way I presented Manhattan to the world through my eyes."

Alan said he was also pleased to be filming for the first time in a non-English speaking country. He joked that he tried to learn Spanish when he was a child but, "the truth is I never paid much attention in class."

The film will star Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

Spain’s Saturday News Highlights: The pájaros are coming! Will the Ratistas, too? Well, golf won’t be coming to Girona

Originally posted by Carloz on 30 June, 2007 at http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/

Singer-songwriters Joaquín Sabina (Andalusia 1949) and Joan Manuel Serrat (Catalonia 1943) started their Dos Pájaros de un Tiro (Two Birds in One Shot) Tour to a standing-room only crowd in Zaragoza last night. For the next six months the singers, who were icons of the transition to democracy in the 70’s and 80s, will perform more than 60 concerts throughout Spain and Latin America.

Both were exiles during Franco’s rule — Sabina living in London and Serrat in Mexico. Until now Sabina and Serrat were not a duo, but two indivdual stars with their own styles and hits. For the tour they are performing each others songs jointly and individually. The two will reach Madrid in September (three concerts scheduled, two already sold out) and Barcelona in October (two concerts, one already sold out). The final concert of the tour will be in Montevideo, Uruguay on December 20th.

Here’s the tour’s official web site: http://www.dospajarosdeuntiro.es/

More re Rato: Speculation continues about IMF chief Ricardo Rato’s early resignation and planned return to Spain this autumn. There was talk in the media today of Rato followers making preparations to convince him to return to Spain’s political life as well. El Pais pointed out that Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy doesn’t have one “Ratista” on his team.

Conservationists applaud decison to halt two housing construction plans in Catalonia: The Planning Commission of Girona Province has rejected a proposal to build 1,000 new homes on 85 hectares in a woooded area situated between the developments of Lloret Blau and Lloret Verd in Lloret de Mar. The Commission also denied permission to construct 370 new homes and a golf course in Garrigoles, where only 155 people currently live. In their campiagn against the golf course, conservationsists crossed out the name of Garrigoles on the sign at the entrance to the town and hung one with “Garrigolf” next to it!

Responses

By: Colin on July 1st, 2007 at 2:35 am

Too many golf courses in Spain as it is - though having said that I guess they bring money into the country and provide jobs for people.

By: Carloz on July 1st, 2007 at 12:35 pm

Yes, too many golf courses — and way too many houses!! As the European Parliament declared recently, the huge construction projects do not respond to real needs of the people of Spain! (See: http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/in-fridays-news/) What Spain needs more of is sustainable development and efforts to diversify its job market. While I think it’s basically a good thing that Spain has such a great tourism industry, there really needs to be a push to develop jobs in areas other than leisure and tourism.

Wednesday’s News…………BCN’s El Grec Festival; Spain 2, Catalonia 1; and Thierry Henry’s Shirt

Originally posted by Carloz on June, 2007 at http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/

EL GREC, Barcelona’s Summer Festival has begun! Last night saw the premiere of the 31st El Grec Festival, Barcelona’s summer performing arts festival, with Sacred Monsters, a dance performance by Sylvie Guillem (France) and Akram Khan (India). According to El Periodico de Catalunya, the duo surprised the public at the Montjuic amphitheater and heated up the festival’s cool first night.

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El Grec is geard toward everyone, including hip-hop fans this year. Popular musical performances (e.g., Barcelona Big Latin Ensemble, Laurie Anderson, Jorge Drexler, Antony and the Johnsons) and family entertainment (Circus Night, the Wizard of Oz), will be held along with classic works, like Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale and Goldoni’s La famiglia dell’antiquario. New works like La Fura dels Baus’ Imperium will alternate with innovative dance and theater, like that of Nau Ivanov, La Caldera de Gracia and the Sant Andreu Teatre.

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Here’s a link to the program: http://www.barcelonafestival.com/eng/programme
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Spain is number 2 and Catalonia number 1! Spain is the world’s 2nd most popular tourist destination, and within Spain, Catalonia is the most popular Autonomous Region. Between January and May of 2007 a total of 5.1 million tourists from other countries visited Catalonia – 25.3% of all foreign tourists who came to Spain according to data presented yesterday by the secretary of Innovation, Universities and Business, Josep Huguet. The most popular areas in Catalonia were Barcelona, followed by the Costa del Maresme, the Costa del Garraf, and the Costa Daurada.

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Number 14 fever: Vendors report that Henry’s number 14 T-Shirt is fast on the road to being the second most popular seller among Barça souvenirs. Watch out Ronaldinho!

In Friday’s News: Solstice Beach Celebrations; Immigration Trends; EU Response to Spain’s Construction Boom; A Weather Prediction

Not only in Barcelona! La nit més curta també es viu a les platges catalanes. (The shortest night is lively on Catalan beaches, too.) Although I will enjoy Saint John's Night in my little neighborhood of Barceloneta, there are, of course a wide variety of celebrations throughout the city as well as throughout the Autonomous Region of Catalonia. Communities up and down the coast, as well as in the interior of the region, have special festivities. Coastal areas have fireworks displays, bonfires and all night dances on the beaches.
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For example, one of BCN’s next door neighbors, Badalona, will host Summersand, an outdoor electronic music festival with several well known DJs. Further north in Mataró, local bands will perform on the city’s beaches. Meanwhile down south in Tarragona, American ska band, The Toasters, will be appearing on Miracle beach. And the photo above is from an invitation I received to a beach party in Gava Mar.

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From one extreme to another: According to the daily newspaper-ito Que!, the neighborhoods in Barcelona with the most Saint John’s Night festivals are Horta and Sant Martí, with 12 each, followed by Sants with 11 and Gracia with 10. The most tranquil are Sant Andreu with 1, Ciutat Vella (this one's actually in my neighborhood, Barceloneta), Les Corts and Sarriá-Sant Gervasi with 2 and Nou Barris with 3.

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Well, Ciutat Vella may only have one neighborhood festival, but it is in Barceloneta and it is definitely a ¡FIESTA! I’m sure all of those neighborhoods with multiple street festivals will be fun to party in but they all lack one thing we are blessed with – A BEACH! ¡Viva la Barceloneta!

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1 in 4 in 2015: Another daily freebie, Metro, reported that if the current trend remains the same, 14.2% of the population of Spain will be immigrant by the year 2015. This was in a report by the Grupo de Estudios de Tendencias Sociales-Fundación Sistema, which also included a profile of today’s typical immigrant: an individual between 30 and 40 years old (49.6%), who rents (82%), holds a temporary job (49%) and who came to Spain without a work permit (72.4%).

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This report reminded me of an interesting article I read recently in Business Week: How Spain Thrives on Immigration. Click on the title to read the article online.

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EU scolds Spain: Today several papers reported on the fact that yesterday the European Parliament passed a motion critical of the unchecked urban development in Madrid and along the Mediterranean. The body apparently agrees with those who claim that poor regulation has combined with corruption and greed to result in a “disastrous effect” on the environment. Parliament claims that the “massive development projects do not respond to real needs.”

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Next week the European Commission plans to take the government of the Autonomous Region of Valencia to the European Court of Justice on a related matter.

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It will be interesting to see how all of this develops and what effect it may have on the construction boom in Spain.

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Surprise, surprise - good weather in Spain: The National Meteorological Institute predicts clement weather in Spain this summer. What a relief!

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Copied from original http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/ posting by Carloz on 22 June, 2007

In Today’s News: Summertime, Solsticio and Luz

A las 20.06: verano (At 8:06pm: summer): ADN2 had a photo of Stonhenge at sunrise on it’s cover, in honor of the summer solstice. I think of photo of a sunrise over the sea would have been more appropriate for Barcelona. At the end of my last class this evening, my student pointed out that we began the lesson in springtime and ended in summer. Hmmm.

Summer solstice celebrations in Barcelona: Barcelona has it’s own unique way to observe the change of season — Sain John’s Night. (La Noche de San Juan in Spanish and La Nit de Sant Joan in Catalan.) And what a night it is - fireworks, night swims, bonfires on the beach, and of course MUSIC! I’ll write more about this special event in another post later.

Luz - a survivor! Spanish singer Luz Casal has officially thanked her fans for their well wishes and support during her treatment for breast cancer. The disease, which was detected in January of this year, forced her to cancel a world tour. Luz’ voice was one of the early ones that lured me to Spanish music. “Piensa en Mi” and “Un Año de Amor” are classics! Here’s a link to the English version of her web site: http://www.luzcasal.es/home_en.html

Copied from original http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/ posting by Carloz on 21 June, 2007

Thursday for this English teacher in Spain - Music before class!

This article has been updated and can be found on my Newsvine column.
Here's a link to the article: A Thursday For This English Teacher in Spain

In Tuesday’s News: Movie Theaters on Strike & The Rolling Stones Jazz

Ninety-three percent of Spanish cinemas did not open on Monday to protest the proposed Ley del Cine (Cinema Law) and today Spanish film stars gathered to voice their concerns. Cinema owners are opposed to a requirement that at least one of every four films shown in theaters is Spanish or European. The Federation of Spanish Cinemas claims that this would result in finacial losses as theaters would be forced to show movies that the majority of the cinema-going public would not be interested in. On the other side of the argument, the Spanish Ministry of Culture views the law as a way to protect the Spanish film industry. If the law is passed the Federation wants theater owners to receive subsidies for having to show films that don’t make the money Hollywood movies do. While the actors unions have disagreements with the proposed law as it stands now, they are not opposed to the cuota requirement. Their complaints have more to do with the an inadequate mention of actors in the new law.

The Rolling Stones are set to appear in BCN on Thursday night. (No, I don’t have tickets. Been there; done that; didn’t buy the t-shirt.) Meanwhile, some of their musicians were scheduled to play jazz versions of their reportoire at the Jazzroom of La Cova Drac on Tuesday night.

Finally, the ever topical Que newspaper-ette devoted about a third of it’s front page to the disturbing headline: MEDIA VIDA BUSCANDO LOS PAPELES. (Half a life looking for [important] papers.) The complete second page and part of the third were dedicated to the shocking revelation that many Spaniards can’t find important personal papers when they need them. Well, do you know where your tax returns, home insurance documents, passport, social security card and family book are? Do you even know what a family book is? ¿?

Copied from original http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/ posting by Carloz on 19 June, 2007

In Today’s News: Elvis Makes a Mark on Spanish Politics

My favorite article in today’s El Pais was about the newly elected city councilor in Reus (a town of 100,000 people near Barcelona) who not only dressed like Elvis for his swearing in but credited the King with posthumously guiding him to the post!

Ariel Santamaria claimed that 7 years ago Elvis appeared to him and told him to stand for office. He wasn’t succesful in his 2003 bid, but he said Elvis appeared again and told him to run for city hall — and the rest is history, or perhaps, legend…

I mean, really, next to this the main political story pales: following the recent local elections the PSOE (socialist party) has superceded the PP (conservative party) in municipal power due to its having captured the leadership in 10 provincial capitals.

Will Elvis appear to other politicians in Spain or around the globe?

P.S. Apparently this guy’s platform included promises to create a nudist pool, paint the town hall pink, plant marijuana in parks and require the local Police to carry a GPS device so that they can be easily found in case someone needs a light for a joint. He has also pledeged to to attend council meetings dressed as Elvis Presley.

Copied from original http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/ posting by Carloz on 17 June, 2007