Paranoid Critical Salvador Dali Retrospective in Madrid

Dalí: All of the poetic suggestions and all of the plastic possibilities

April 27 - September 2, 2013 at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid

'I don't do drugs. I am drugs.' - Salvador Dali 

Through a selection of over two hundred works (paintings, sculptures, drawings...) organized into eleven sections that follow something of a chronological order, this exhibition encourages visitors to rethink the place occupied by Salvador Dalí in the history of 20th century art, suggesting that his importance as a figure and his legacy stretch beyond his role as the architect of surrealism. The exhibition – the subtitle of which comes from his article "San Sebastián" (1927) which constituted his first artistic manifesto – examines how this controversial and prolific creator, of unmatched imagination, was capable of generating perturbing art that speaks directly to spectators. An art that, reflecting the scientific discoveries of the times, explores and expands the boundaries of consciousness and of sensorial and cognitive experience.

'All of the poetic suggestions and all of the plastic possibilities' presents Dalí as an omnivorous and visionary artist who used himself as an object of study, and whose actions in the public arena, whether calculated or improvised, made him an essential figure in the sphere of contemporary representation. The exhibition focuses primarily on his surrealist period. Special attention is devoted to his paranoid-critical method, which he developed as a mechanism for the transformation and subversion of reality, allowing the final interpretation of a work to depend totally on the viewer. Dalí's works in connection with the painting The Angelus (1857-59) by Jean-François Millet – which the Catalan artist went so far as to describe as the richest pictorial work in unconscious thoughts to have ever existed – is where this method reached its highest expression.

The works on display, which begin with a selection of the pieces that Dalí created at the beginning of his career and during his time at the Student Residence of Madrid (including some of his early self-portraits and drawings from the series Los Putrefactos – The Putrid), also contain references to his mystical and nuclear stage (in which religious and scientific themes predominate) and to some of his set design projects (his collaborations with filmmakers such as Buñuel, Hitchcock and Walt Disney, his stage designs for ballets and plays...). At the same time, it takes a critical look at his role as an agitator of the masses and as a media showman, it dedicates a specific section to his autobiographical book The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí (an effective symbiosis of the Dalí the illustrator and Dalí the writer) and it shows how from the 1970s to the end of his career his fascination with science and technology led him to explore new languages such as stereoscopy and holography.

'Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.' - Salvador Dali 

Was it a bird? A plane? No, it was a Christmas meteorite!

In the early morning of Christmas Eve, "people in the streets, on the roads and in the fields saw a magnificent globe of fire appear, dazzling with extraordinary brilliance, shining with the colors of the rainbow, overpowering the light of the moon and descending majestically from the sky."

This is the account of Rafael Martínez Fortún, a farmer from the town of Molina de Segura, Murcia, who witnessed the impact of the largest meteorite ever to fall in Spain. The object fell on his property on December 24, 1858. Fortún's story, and that of other witnesses, appears in the most recent issue of Astronomy & Geophysics, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the event.

One witnesses said that at 2:45am the sky was suddenly lit by “a huge star of a brightness that eclipsed the moon, and it moved directly overhead towards the north.”Someone else described, “a ball of such brilliant fire and beautiful colors, that it looked as if one of the stars was falling to the Earth from the sky." Another passage mentioned that, "it passed so low over this city, so close to the cathedral tower" that those who saw it thought it was going to hit the steeple. Although it missed the church and landed several kilometers away, its impact caused such a tremor that it woke up the town's residents.

Interestingly, there seem to be no references to people thinking at the time that the event had anything to do with Christmas or might be a religious sign of some sort. Indeed, the quotes that I've read seem all very matter of fact and rational. Of course, this may be because Fortún collected the testimony and prepared the original report to accompany the meteorite as a gift to, "one of the scientific museums of the Kingdom so that it can be made available to men of science, who can study it with all due attention.” So, who knows what unscientific sounding reactions he may have omitted.

The bulk of the meteorite (112.5 kilograms of the original 144) is on display in Madrid's National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN), where it has been exhibited since 1863, when Fortún made a donation of it and his report. Other parts of the object were given to such institutions as Britain's Natural History Museum, the Field Museum in Chicago, and (finally, a religious connection of some sort) the Vatican’s meteorite collection.

Chao amig@s,

Carloz

P.S. Read the articles I based this post on at the SINC (Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas / Scientific Information and News), and city of Molina de Segura's websites. The Molina de Segura website has a photo of the meteorite, as well as an audio version of the article.

World Press Photo winners on exhibit at The Contemporary Culture Center of Barcelona (CCCB)

Through 14 December CCCB is showing 185 winning photographs of the 2007 World Press Photo competition. The exposition collects the best photographs published in the press last year. This year's winning image of an American soldier resting in a bunker in Afganistan was taken by Briton Tim Hetherington.

The competition had over 5,000 works submitted by photographers from 125 countries. 177 Spanish photographers participated in the contest and four of those were awarded prizes: Emilio Morenatti, Miguel Riopa, Cristina García Rodero and Lorena Ros. (Lorena Ros is a Catalonian photojournalist who currently lives in New York City.)

The World Press Photo exhibition will travel to some 90 cities around the globe. Approximately two million people will have seen the exhibition by the time the tour ends.

Here is a link to 12 slides from the exhibition: World Press Photo montage.

Here is a link to the CCCB website's page about the exhibition: World Press Photo 2007 International professional photojournalism exhibition.

CCCB
C/ Montalegre, 5
08001 Barcelona
Tel: 93 306 41 00
Admission: 4.50 (Free admission on the first Wednesday of each month. If you have a Barcelona library card, entry is free between 11am and 14pm daily.)

Chao amig@s,

Carloz

A sample of things to do in Barcelona for 5 euros and under

There are always cheap things to do in Barcelona, including some that are free. For example, the web site BarcelonaGratis.com provides up to date listings of free activities, including exhibitions, concerts, festivals, cinema, sports, children's events, etc. (By the way, the site is only available in Spanish.) It also maintains a list of the days of the month when local museums offer free admission. (Most museums in Barcelona are free on the first Sunday of each month, but a few are free on other days. Check the list for details.)

And believe it or not, it is still possible to find a full meal for 5 euros -- at least one day a week, that is! I noticed recently that Charleston's, one of the restaurants on Paseo Joan De Borbon, now has a 5 euro lunch menu on Fridays; the rest of the week it's 8.50, which is still a good price. As I mentioned in an earlier post, don't let the name Charleston's fool you, as it's Spanish food that's on offer there -- although, no paella.

Charleston's
Paseo Joan de Borbo, 2
Barceloneta
Barcelona
Open from 7h to 22h daily

For more examples of free and low cost things to do in BCN, below is a list of things to do on the weekend I am writing this. It's taken from an article in today's La Vanguardia newspaper called: 10 Citas culturales por menos de 5 euros. (10 cultural events for less than 5 euros.) Here's my translation of the listings in the article:

-Free-

Raval Culture Festival
a hundred or so neighborhood organizations offer a constellation of activities all weekend long. Concerts ranging from gospel to Pakistani music, hip-hop to Brazilian batucada. Photography expositions, too. Sunday Nov. 15th at 16.30h a series of videos made by residents on the topic of the Raval neighborhood will be shown at the CCCB. Through Sunday. http://www.totraval.org/

Joan Petit in concert
Mallorcan singer / musician Joan Petit in concert at Heliogabal Musical Bar. Petit, who worked with the British group The Wedding Present in 2006, is on the verge of releasing his first CD. Saturday the 14th at 22h. www.myspace.com/welovepetit ,

Macba Collection
Macba exhibits 17 works of minimalist artists, their influencers and some they've influenced, including Buren, Wharol, Flavin, Mangol, Bell, Sonnier, Haacke, Saws, Matta-Clarck. The video artist John Baldessari adds a brushstroke of humor to the exposition space through his video "Baldessari Singing". http://www.macba.es/

Transglossador Slam Festival
The art of improvisation to music is not the unique providence of Rap and Hip-hop. Artists such as Abd The Malik can slam to a Brel song. The third Transglossador Slam Festival offers slam workshops, as well as performances and improvisations of various of groups, such as De Caláis and Rapsodes. Saturday from 18,30. http://www.farinera.org/

La Felpa
BTOY Exposition
Ilia Mayer and Andrea Michaelsson, two art illustrators, with exhibitions at the BAC (Barcelona Art Contemporaneo) show their their work in Gracia's La Felpa on Saturday from of 12.30 to 21.30. http://www.thisisbtoy.com/

-4 euros-

American Modern at the Joan Miró Museum
A showing of works by more than one hundred 20th century American artists, including George Bellows, John Singer Sargent, Arthur Davies, Marsden Hartley, Joseph Cornell, Thomas Hart Benton, John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Milton Avery, Mark Rothko, Willem of Kooning, Cy Twombly, Richard Diebenkorn, Martin Puryear and Robert Mangold.

-4.10 euros–

Palau de La Virreina
De facto: Joan Fontcuberta 1982-2008 -- photography as documentation.
A sample of 50 of the photographers images at the Palau of the Virreina. The photos are somewhere between documentary and fiction, with humanist and philosophical inspiration. Until February 8. www.bcn.cat/virreinacentredelaimatge/castella/home.htm

-4.50 euros-

Ciné Mélies
Several movies showing in the original language with Spanish subtitles. One movie now playing is L'Heure d'été (Las horas del Verano / Summer Hours), directed by Olivier Assayas; starring Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, and Jeanne Balibar, who won the best actress award at this past September's San Sebastian Film Festival. http://www.cinesmelies.net/

CCCB Independent Film Festival
More than 78 movies from 33 countries. http://alternativa.cccb.org/2008/ct/

-5 euros-

Mostra de Teatre del Raval (Raval Theatre Presents)
The Raval Theatre itself is the epicenter of this festival, with 15 plays selected for presentation. This weekend a play by children for adults premieres: "Un día, una hora..." is based on numerous stories told by children to Argentine Javier Villafañe in 1980s. Until December 7. http://www.mostradeteatredebarcelona.com/

Disfrutadlo amig@s,

Carloz

Arty in the street!

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Barcelona is a city with a wealth of public art, especially sculpture. Two of my favorites crown each end of Rambla Cataluña: Josep Granyer's Thinking Bull and Coquettish Giraffe.

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Until June 15th these anthropomorphic forms are joined by 17 fantastic female figures created by the Spanish sculptor and painter Manolo Valdés for the outdoor exhibition "Manolo Valdés in Barcelona: Monumental sculptures." Yesterday a friend and I had the pleasure of strolling among these bronze beauties before and after a quiet lunch at one of the Rambla's many sidewalk cafés. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
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No matter which end of the exhibition a visitor starts from, you are greeted by enormous heads of women: 'Lilie', a large head of a woman with a hat, looks out over Gran Via,one of Barcelona's busiest boulevards; and a few blocks away, at Consell de Cent Street, 'Irene I' and 'Irene II', their heads adorned by twisting metallic abstractions, welcome passersby. Valdés produced these three sculptures, along with a fourth one called 'Odalisca', especially for this exhibition. Other pieces on display include 'La Dama', 'Queen Mariana', 'Colossus' and 'Las Meninas'.

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The series of sculptures called 'Las Meninas' (Spanish for Ladies in Waiting) were particular favorites of both my friend and myself. The five figures, named after and inspired by Velázquez' 1656 painting of a little Spanish princess and her attendants, are apparently among the most famous of Valdés' works. These particular statues range from life sized to larger than life, whereas all of the other works on display are quite huge.

Interestingly Barcelona's Picasso Museum currently has an exhibition of art works inspired by the same Velázquez classic. Called Forgetting Velázquez, it is a series of fifty-eight oil paintings by the artist that, according to the museum's website, explores, “Picasso's links with the tradition of Spanish painting, and with Velázquez in particular, while proposing new readings of the series Las Meninas, thanks in part to the numerous subsequent interpretations and contributions made by various contemporary artists.” Sounds like another good Sunday destination – indeed, any day, if you're a visitor instead of a weekday working resident like me.
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By the way, the Valdés Rambla Catalunya exhibition is part of the Arte en la Calle (Art in the Street) program funded by the non-profit arm of Spain's largest savings bank, La Caixa. Last year's Rambla Cataluña exhibition was an equally impressive show of gigantic works by Poland's Igor Mitoraj.

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Chao amig@s,
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Carloz

Now, where did we put that sculpture? You know, the 34 ton one. Oh, nevermind, let's just get a new one!

Sometime in October of this year, Richard Serra's "Equal Parallel / Guernica Bengasi" will be back on display in Madrid's Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, according to new director, Manuel Borja-Villel. Except this time it will be an exact duplicate created by the artist for the museum, which somehow "misplaced" the original! This story goes back some years:
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The Reina Sofia commissioned the original sculpture in 1986 and it was delivered to the museum the next year. In 1990 it was stored in the warehouse of a company that specialized in storing large pieces of art. Tomás Llorens was the museum director at that time.

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In 2005 the next museum director, Ana Martinez de Aguilar, decided to retrieve the work, so that it could be put on display again. The only problem was that the storage company had gone bankrupt in 1998, and no one could account for the 34,473 kilo sculpture. According to a recent story in El País, the last written record of its still being in storage dates to 1992.

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Since the loss was discovered, police have searched for the the four 1.5 meter wide slabs of metal that make up the sculpture, but three years later the case remains unsolved. Some individuals have suggested that the work may have been sold as scrap or melted down by someone who did not recognize it as a work of art. (Having seen some of Richard Serra's work, I can understand how this would be possible.)
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Before resigning from the Reina Sofia last year, Ms. Martínez de Aguilar was able to get the sculptor to agree to create a copy for the museum at cost -- $99,000. (The museum paid about $220,000 for the original.) The agreement between the artist and museum stipulates that should the original be found, they will mutually decide which pieces will be destroyed, the originals or the duplicates, so that there will be only one work in existence.
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Oh, and Serra also made the museum promise that it wouldn't misplace this one.
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Hasta siempre amig@s,
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Carloz

From modern Barcelona to an ancient Iberian village (Pueblo Iberico) Part 2

Walking uphill on Puig Castellar Ave. soon brings you to the neighborhood public market, Singuerlin, which takes it's name from the barrio. Although it is in a rather uninteresting modern building, it still boasts the usual vendors of fresh fish, meat, cheese, fruit, vegetables, nuts, bread, etc. Indeed, it's a good place to pick up items for a picnic in the wooded hills of the Serralada de Marina park above.

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Turn left at the market on Singuerlin Street and then take a right on Catalunya Ave. to continue the steep walk through the neighborhood of apartment buildings and single family dwellings -- some ugly, some attractive, some plain. When you reach the end of Catalunya Ave. at Primavera Ave, take a left and walk until it ends at Ausias Marc Street, where you take a right until this little street ends at the intersection of Dante and Roger de Flors. Look to the left for the stairway built into hillside, which goes up to Garcilaso de la Vega Street, where you turn right. Up ahead is a little circle with a city bus shelter, but take a right on the street right before the circle -- Marcelli Calvet street. Just a few meters ahead there is a water fountain and a bench that mark the end of this little street and the beginning of one of several nature trails in the park: Torrent de Les Bruixes. (Click here for a photo taken at last October's celebration of the 20th anniversary of the trail's restoration.)

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The path winds it's way up the hill, with markers pointing out the variety of flora and fauna native to the area. After about 30 minutes there is a wide dirt road that cuts across the trail. Here you have the choice of crossing and continuing directly up to the Iberian Village at the top of the hill, or of turning right and walking along the gradually rising road. The trail gets pretty steep from this point on, so unless you're prepared for a rather sturdy hike, take the road and follow the signs to Poblat Iberic Puig Castellar. (Although, you may want to take a short side trip to the medieval Ermita de Sant Climent that is about a 2o minute walk to the east. If so, just follow the signs there.)

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After about another 15 minutes, you reach the entrance to the little park that holds the archaeological excavation of the Iberian Village of Puig Castellar. At the base of the excavation site a nice little area has been developed, including stone benches and a wooden deck that stretches out from the hill. This is an excellent spot for taking in the magnificent views of the Besos river, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Badalona, Barcelona, and, of course the Mediterranean.

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Once you walk through the gate and onto the grounds, there are several signs in Catalan, Spanish and English that cover the history of the indigenous Iberian people, outline the fortified village that was located here some 2,500 years ago, mention the archaeological discoveries made at the beginning of the 20th century and describe the preservation of the site. For example, the signs let visitors know that the remains of the village were discovered by Ferran de Segarra in 1902 and that relics from the bed are preserved in the Museum of Archeology of Catalonia in Barcelona and at the Torre Balldovina Museum in Santa Coloma de Gramenet.

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After reading about the site, head up to the crest of the hill for a walk through the ruins. Signs in Catalan point out the remains of defensive constructions, a water system and the grid of streets, among other things. Structurally the village had an elliptical form, consisting of three longitudinal streets with lined with several structures. It is estimated that more than 200 people lived there. The village economy was based on agriculture, animal husbandry, metallurgy, textiles and trade.

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The lower section of the town was defended by a wall of stone and clay, the remains of which are easy to spot. The dwellings, which date from the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, were small -- only one or two rooms -- and were built of granite and slate, with roofs believed to have been made of branches and mud. One has been re-built, so that visitors can look inside for a glimpse of what life around the hearth must have been like.

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At the very top of the hill is a very simple little belvedere-like shelter for sitting and absorbing the surroundings, from the ancient at your feet, to the modern kilometers below.

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Chao amig@s,

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Carloz

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P.S. The Serralada de Marina park website has a nice little walking itinerary laid out from the Balldovina Museum (which is near the center of Santa Caloma de Gramenet) to Puig Castellar.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

If you haven't been yet, go! If you have, then you know why I say this.
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The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao provided me with one of the best museum experiences I have ever had -- and art museums are not my favorite types of museums. I usually prefer history museums. However, this art museum is fascinating on so many different levels, that I think it would appeal to almost everyone. Words like light, joy, curiosity, wonder, fun, dynamic, fresh, imagination, inspiration, relaxation, meditation and activity come to mind when remembering the full day I spent there. Indeed, I arrived just after the 10am opening and stayed until it closed at 8pm.
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Of course, the museum building and the site itself are a true wonder of a work of art. It is well worth taking the time to use the audio guide provided for a tour of the grounds and interior of the "titanium icon," which both echos and compliments the Guggenheim Museum building in New York City. Nestled between Bilbao's Nervión River and its Moyúa neighborhood, the limestone, glass and titanium structure billows out like a series of giant sails caught in the wind.
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On the riverside is a curving walkway that winds around fountains and works of art, such as Louise Bourgeois' Maman (French for "Mama"), a giant spider cast from of bronze, stainless steel and marble. Just past Maman, the building stretches beneath the modern Puente de la Salve bridge that spans the river. Then the museum shoots up a limestone tower-like facade on the opposite side of the bridge. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Bilbao Guggenheim, a Red Arch designed by Daniel Buren was added to the bridge in 2007. It is well worth the walk up the stairs set into the tower to see the views of the museum, the bridge, the river and the city.

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On the side of the building facing Iparraguire Street, visitors are welcomed to the museum's entry plaza by another artistic beast: Jeff Koons' 40 meter tall Puppy, a giant flower sculpture constructed of a steel frame covered by 6500 kilos of earth and 40,000 plants. (On a stroll around the museum area a few nights later, I saw a frisky little cat playing with some of the flowers at Puppy's base.)
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Inside the building there is a bright reception area with friendly people prepared to greet visitors in English, Spanish or Basque -- and probably a few other languages, as well. After paying the 10.50 euro entrance fee, a hand-held audio guide device is provided, with a choice of several languages.
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The next room is the atrium, which is warm and welcoming, despite it's size. Measuring 650 square meters, it rises 50 meters to the skylight above, and has a glass curtain looking out towards the river on one side. On the other sides it is encased in limestone and includes a couple of glass elevators and an open air stairwell. (For those who don't like heights, there are also an enclosed stairwell and an enclosed elevator.)
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On the day I visited, we were greeted by Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa's large cream colored fabric panel dangling down from the floor above, with the following question painted on it in red and black letters: "¿Habeis cedido a vuestro deseo?" ("Have you all given into your desires?)
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Just outside the atrium is a large terrace, covered by a limestone canopy supported by a central column. The terrace looks over a shallow pond installed next to the river. The terrace holds Jeff Koons' Tulips, while the pond sports two water-art-works: Fire Fountain by Yves Klein and Fog Sculpture # 08025 by Fujiko Nakaya.
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Back inside the building, the exhibition spaces extend out and up from the atrium. There were two exhibitions when I was there:

• Art in the USA: 300 Years of Innovation, which surveyed the history of the country's visual arts through approximately 200 works of art filling the galleries on the first and second floors floors of the building, and


• Chacun à son goût (Each to their own taste), a selection of works by 12 artists who were Basque by either origin or residency. These were displayed in the exhibition spaces on the third floor.

I enjoyed both exhibitions -- almost as much as the building itself! Art in the USA will run until April 27, 2008; Chacun à son goût until February 3, 2008.
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Chao amig@s,
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P.S. The Guggenheim Bilbao web site offers a great virtual tour.

An Introduction to the Barcelona City History Museum

For only 5 euros it is possible to visit the excellent Barcelona City History Museum (Museo de la Historia de la Ciudad / Museu d'Història de la Ciutat). In fact, the museum is actually six different museums, which makes the admission price an incredible bargain -- less than a euro a museum! The six museums that the one ticket admits you to are:

1. The Monumental Ensemble of King's Plaza (Conjunto Monumental de La Plaza del Rey / Conjunt Monumental de la Plaça del Rei), located in the Gothic quarter at the corner of Pl. del Rei and c/ del Verguer.

2. The Saint Catherine Archaeologiacal Interpretation Site (Espacio Arqueológico de Interpretación de Santa Caterina / Espai Arqueològic d'Interpretació de Santa Caterina), located in the Saint Catherine Public Market on Pl. Joan Capri, which is just a few blocks from Pl. del Rei.

3. Air Raid Shelter 307 - Historical Interpretation Center (Refugio Antiaéreo 307 - Centro de Interpretación Historico / Refugi Antiaeri 307 - Centre d'Interpretación Històrica), dating from the Spanish Civil War and located at Nou de las Ramblas 169 at the base of Montjuic Hill.

4. The Park Güell Interpretation Center (Centro de Interpretación del Parque Güell / Cebtre d'Interpretacío del Park Güell), located in a pavilion at the entrance to the Gaudí designed Park Güell on c/ Olot.

5. Museum-Monastery of Pedralbes (Museo-Monasterio de Pedralbes / Museu-Monestir de Pedralbes), located at Baixada del Monestir 9, in the Northwestern corner of the city.

6. The Verdaguer Museum-House (Museo-Casa Verdaguer / Museu-Casa Verdaguer), located at Carreterra de l'Església 104 in the Collserola Natural Woodland Park in the hills in the North of the city.

The museum was established in 1943. Originally it consisted mostly of the archaeological site at Pl. del Rei and a collection of items that had been displayed at the 1929 World's Fair City of Barcelona Pavilion. Over the years its collection has increased through donations, bequests, acquisitions and discoveries from various archaeological excavations. Today the collection is so large that it cannot be shown in its entirety. It is made up of items dating from from the Neolithic age to today and includes:

• gold and silver work, stone objects, glass objects, stone and marble sculptures, coins, buttons, medals, objects from trade guilds, cloth, fans, sculptures, carvings, educational objects, models, tools, weapons, municipal symbols, measuring devices, architectural material, furniture, small decorative and commemorative objects, etc. ;
• pottery (bowls, oil containers, jars, water jugs, pitchers, amphorae, etc.);
• Roman portraits, mosaics, tombstones, milestones, etc., mainly from excavations carried out in the Roman city walls;
• Roman and Hebrew epigraphs;
• Gothic altarpieces, paintings, wall-paintings, drawings, engravings, etc.
• books, documents, letters, etc., written in languages such as Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish and Catalan;

In the coming months, I will write posts about the museums in this amazing system that I have had the pleasure of visiting.

Hasta entonces amig@s,

Carloz

Spain's Sunday News: Dalí, Photos, DNA, Music and Money, Money, Money, Money

Dalí Photos - El Pais announced today that Salvador Dalís former photographer and personal assistant, Robert Descharnes, is exhibiting 147 of the thousands of photos he took of Dalí and his muse, Gala, at the Municipal Museum of Cadaqués until January of next year. The photos focus on the Catalan artist's relationship with the coastal town and the nearby village of Port Lligat.

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The 83 year old French photographer said he is computerizing and cataloguing the more than 60,000 photographs that he took of Dalí and Gala over 40 years of friendship with the couple.

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Note: this photo (Dalí with ocelot) was not taken by Robert Descharnes, but by Roger Higgins.

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Dalí DNA - Descharnes revealed to El Pais that he has provided samples of Dalí's DNA to American scientific experts for the purpose of obtaining the genetic map of the surrealist icon. He apparently obtained the samples from the tubes inserted into Dalí's nose when the painter was last hospitalized. Descharnes claims that due to Dalí's genius a study of his DNA would contribute much to science.

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Test for buskers - Musicians now have to pass a test in order to perform in the Metro, Barcelona's subway system. El Pais reported that some 80 musicians auditioned yesterday before officials of the Street Musicians Association of Barcelona (Amuc BCN) and the Barcelona Transportation Metropolitan agency for permission to perform in Metro stations and trains. "The objective is to guarantee minimum standards," stated Hugo Guerrero, president of Amuc.

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Until now, permission to perform was given to anyone who registered with Amuc. Esther Ayala of TMB explained that the audition was organized because the previous system did not work well, which resulted in people who did not really know how to play or sing performing.

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Reportedly many of those who tried out yesterday were Latin-American guitarists and Eastern-European accordionists and the most were successful in their bids. "Between 85% and 90% were approved," according to Guerrero.

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Have you seen any 500 euro bills lying around? Apparently there are over 113 million of them in Spain, worth over 56,529 million euros, but they aren't seen very often. Spain's Tax Office has been has been investigating the situation for years, but to little avail. In fact, this past May a record number of 500 euro bills in circulation was reached, according to the Bank of Spain -- 64,3% of the total currency in Spain!

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Spaniards humorously refer to the bank notes as "Bin Ladens" because hardly anyone claims to have seen one. El Pais noted that over the past year the number of 200 euro notes in circulation has increased, too -- from 19 to 21 million.

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What do you think is going on?!

Spain’s Tuesday News: State Funeral; Catalonia’s Internet Project; Busy Ports; Touré’s Turn

Copied from original http://myspainblog.wordpress.com/ posting by Carloz on 26 June, 2007

Today was declared a national day of mourning, with flags flown at half-mast and a state funeral held for the six soldiers killed by a carbomb in Lebanon on Sunday. Crown Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, government ministers, dignitaries and family members of the victims attended the service in Madrid.

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The soldiers will be buried in their places of birth. Three were Spanish and three were Spanish residents originally from Colombia. 5.5% of the Spanish army is made up of immigrants, the majority Colombian and Ecuadorian.

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The fact that the soldier’s armoured personnel carrier did not have a frequency inhibitor to prevent attacks by remote control bombs has been the subject of some debate here. While the government pledged to speed up the installation of such devices, officials pointed out that Spain is no different from other UN troops in Lebanon, who do not have these special devices either.
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Internet use is healthy! The most autonomous, enterprising, sociable, inventive and active people in Catalunya are those that use the internet most frequently, as opposed to the stereotype of internet users as marginal, isolated and too introspective. That is one of the conclusions of the Open University of Catalonia’s Internet Project, a sociological study aimed at learning about the public’s use of the internet as well as user profiles. The study also found that local internet users have more friends and have less of a tendency to suffer from depression.

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The report, which was presented yesterday, shows that 30% of the most creative and innovative people in Catalonia are found among internet users. The project’s 40 investigators carried out 15,390 in-person interviews and another 40,400 via the internet between 2001 and the 2007. The regional government financed the project.

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Here’s a link to the article in El Periodico de Catalunya:

ttp://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=419101&idseccio_PK=1021

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And the busiest ports on the Mediterranean are…in Spain! According to Javier Aznar of the Maritime Museum of Barcelona’s Maritime Documentation Center, when it comes to container ships, the port of Algeciras is the busiest. Algeciras is situated between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and is also a natural connecting point between the continents of Europe and Africa. As for passenger ships, Barcelona is not only the leader in the Mediterranean, but in all of Europe.

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By the way, the Maritime Museum is a real jewel that I think many tourists fail to discover. It is located in what was for 700 years one of Spain’s Royal Shipyards! Check it out! http://www.museumaritimbarcelona.com/default.asp?idApartado=102

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And in soccer (or fútbol) it’s Touré’s turn. The day after media star Thierry Henry’s presentation to Barça fans, the spotlight touched Ivory coast midfielder, 24 year old Yaya Touré, who signed for 4 years and whom Barça will pay Monaco 9 million euros. Meanwhile, Barça is waiting to see if Rome accepts its offer for the Romanian defender Cristian Chivu.