Not here nor there

Yacht

2010-06-03T17:37:00.003+01:00

Black Lips

2010-03-02T00:16:00.013Z

Primavera Sound '09

2010-02-27T21:15:00.005Z

Since PS '10 is already around the corner (cannot wait for so much goodness - Pixies, Pavement, Spoon, The Fall, King Khan, Black Lips, The XX, Jeffrey Lewis, Health... say whaaat?) I thought it was about time I posted the link to the photos I took last year for 'Sup magazine.

LOTS AND LOTS OF FUN.

Kap Bambino @ BeCool, Barcelona

2009-06-04T16:56:00.001+01:00

Kap Bambino @ BeCool, Barcelona from Maria Elisa Gomez on Vimeo.

Fever Ray - Album Review

2009-04-12T15:38:00.001+01:00

Written for 'Sup Magazine

You enter a forest. It's dusk, and tall, dark trees loom over your head under a clear sky, their heartbeats clearly audible in your dreamlike state. Suddenly you hear a male voice that leads you slowly towards a clearing. You are now in the realms of the otherworldly. And then, in the middle of the clearing like an elfic princess, is Karin Dreijer Andersson. One half of the super-successful Swedish duo the Knife, the mysterious ice queen has worked her magic once again as Fever Ray, title of both project and album. Now I'm not going to say you won't find similarities between old and new (particularly in "Seven") – the voice, instantly recognizable, is there, as are the electronic sounds and the overall cryptic je-ne-sais-quoi.

But where the Knife's Silent Shout was the perfect avant-garde soundtrack to the pill-popping, new ravey 2006, Fever Ray is a more sombre and mellowed-out affair, on cue with (uh-oh, here I go) these modern times of economic recession and worldwide paranoia, when we might need stimuli of a different, more introspective kind. Think of it like an upper and a downer. The highest moment of climax comes right before the fall, and if we had new rave and 'blog-house' just a little while ago, now it's all about post-punk, back-to-the-roots lo-fi and lots of conceptual, atmospheric 'layerisms'. And this is where Fever Ray slots in - an album that transports you to its own mysterious dimension and on repeated listens lets you have a dig around.

Hence our Nordic forest. Opening track "If I Had a Heart" is its ancient gate, allowing you in to 48 minutes of exploration through its queen's subconscious and your own. In this forest there are memories of retro-futuristic landscapes, organic sounds flying around like birds, tribal drumbeats echoing in the air... and that booming male voice ("Concrete Walls/Dry and Dusty"), which turns out it’s also her through a voice transformer. There are some upbeat moments too, mind – "Triangle Walks", while not being what you’d call a 'party banger' (none of that in this record), could be like finding a Kyoto garden in bloom in the middle of the forest. Going from the cryptic to the most personal, her lyrics range from minimalistic mantras to her thoughts on motherhood or retirement: "...There’s nothing to be afraid of / ...I’m not done" ("I’m Not Done").

Suitably, "Coconut" is a fully atmospheric last track that slowly shows us the way out. Almost solely instrumental (bar the minute and a half or so of quasi-ceremonial vocals), it gradually builds up over a Blade Runner-esque synth base, taking us further inside our mind trip before fading out and leaving us with all this information and no real grasp of what the hell just happened. Or maybe it’s just me; despite my numerous attempts at coming up with a more rationalistic approach to describing this record, all my mind could do was drift back to that imaginary forest of mine, a metaphor to replace the words I couldn’t find for Fever Ray's self-titled album. This is a piece of work that invites you to daydream, to find inner worlds while listening and to make your own dark forest up.
Fever Ray's self-titled debut will be released March 24th, 2009 on Mute Records in the US.

Ladyhawke @ Razzmatazz

2009-02-19T11:31:00.005Z

It was my first time shooting a gig on B&W film, the results are so noticeably better than taking pics with my usual dSLR... still, some nice images with both cameras.
more pics here.

Lovvers @ Primavera Club

2009-01-20T22:26:00.000Z

Lovvers @ Primavera Club from Maria Elisa Gomez on Vimeo.

A very accidented interview with a bit of economics to finish off.

Mika Miko @ Primavera Club

2009-01-20T22:22:00.001Z

Mika Miko @ Primavera Club, Barcelona from Maria Elisa Gomez on Vimeo.

LA band Mika Miko played a storming set at the last Primavera Club in Barcelona, and shared their thoughts on their quasi-namesake Mika, their ill-fated (literally) visit to Germany and spitting on someone's face.

The Sound of Lucrecia

2009-01-13T22:01:00.004Z

The Sound of Lucrecia from Maria Elisa Gomez on Vimeo.

Lucrecia is a Barcelona-based, Colombian born singer-songwriter who uses her voice, a few loop pedals and an array of music-making toys to make some really pretty stuff. You can find her
here and here.

Foals @ Razzmatazz

2009-01-13T21:39:00.002Z

Foals in Barcelona from Maria Elisa Gomez on Vimeo.

A really awkward introduction, "the hair bet" and touring with Rolo Tomassi.

No Age No Mosh

2008-10-30T11:45:00.003Z

No Age @ Apolo, Barcelona from Maria Elisa Gomez on Vimeo.

Barcelona crowds are no easy feat. Unless you're a band in the major leagues, you're playing at a festival where everyone's wasted (or English) or you play metal, chances are if you play here your crowd will just nod appreciatively and every now and then a slight attempt at moshing will be done by a brave few, only to die down quietly or be killed quietly by a big bouncer.

Thank god for teenagers then. Without the small group of keen 17 year-olds that barged their way in and started pushing people around, the boring onlookers at the front of the No Age gig wouldn't have moved from their spot, despite earnest attempts by the band to make the crowd dance. In the end, it was how it should be - guitar player atop of the amps and diving into the moshpit, a crazied audience trying to jump on stage and a concerned bouncer trying to kill it all down (not so quietly).

GIRLCORE article in Neo2

2008-10-28T12:02:00.006Z

An article I wrote about Girlcore was published in the October issue of Neo2 Magazine. Here's the text in English:

A lot has been said about GIRLCORE. That boys are not allowed in. That we’re all dykes. That we featured in that Hustler video. That we’re like a hen-night on acid. That we’re feminists. Well, this is not the place for denials, they all have a bit of truth and a bit of lie. What’s actually true is that what started as a simple joke to exclude boys from our after-party has become – in this humble and subjective scribe’s opinion – in one of the best and most fun excuses, no, obligations, to go out on a Thursday night. And one of Shoreditch’s club hits to boot.

Chaotic, decadent and DIY, at the GIRLCORE parties, apart from an en exclusively female line-up (except in our annual Dragcore night), there’s a place for everything. Pansexual weddings, beauty pageants, drag queens, hula-hula shows, Oscar evenings, breakdance, rehab, freakshows, homages to Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopez... We’re 10 girls – from countries such as Colombia, Argentina, France, US, Holland and England – that dedicate ourselves to make for a different party each month and to ensure that anyone who comes to GIRLCORE has an amazing time, leaves their cool pose at the door and ends up covered head-to-toe in glitter.

Apart from our monthly nights, we’ve started expanding the GIRLCORE empire with collaborations and external events, including a short filmed in situ for the female film festival Bird’s Eye View at the Whitechapel Gallery, a radio show at Bestival, the dance tent at the Offset Festival, the Girlcore Olympic Games at Bar Music Hall and parties all around the globe in cities Duch as NY, Moscow, Berlin, Milan and Paris.

What about Girlcore Spain? Plans are in motion. So get prepared, because the next time you hear anything about GIRLCORE it will probably be true.

Club Cobra Launch

2008-10-28T11:57:00.002Z

published in Urban Junkies:

The hip young things (us included, of course) gathered at Apolo on Thursday night to attend the launch of Club Cobra, the newest party to settle home at La [2].

A joint effort by the creators of the Boombox and Globo nights, it didn't disappoint: lots of fashionistas, dirty ghettotech and electro-pop hits and lots of hands up in the air. Highlight of the night though: an all-out battle between the diva-like promoter (a little worse for wear) and the crowd who ended up booing her offstage.

Something Fun

2008-07-27T23:20:00.002+01:00

So I went to see The Mae Shi play at Razzmatazz on Saturday. Looking back on it without the booze-induced euphoria, I can honestly say it was one of the craziest audience reactions I've seen at Razz. Did they all know who this band were? Not to underestimate the Spanish music public but it would actually surprise me. Nevertheless, people were dancing - no, jumping and kicking about like maniacs - throughout the entire set as if it was The Sex Pistols (circa 1977, not the washed-out indie bashers I saw them be at Summercase).
Except for an incident that involved me pushing and punching a guy in the back of the head for grabbing my ass, it was exactly how I expected it to be - amazing.

A year ago...

2008-07-11T11:13:00.001+01:00

I was dancing onstage with Iggy Pop in front of thousands of people. WTF.

A tribute to Garfield

2008-06-10T00:51:00.003+01:00

When I was a child, I remember having arguments with my sister about who was better: Garfield or Snoopy. My dad was a Hagar The Horrible kind of guy ("Olafo El Amargado" in spanish) and I guess my mom would've preferred Mafalda (the one who inspired me to call my pet tortoise "Bureaucracy"). I rooted for Snoopy and his philosophic ways and always found Garfield quite boring...
Here's a few videos for my sister from the peeps at LasagnaCat. Gabriela, I hope you're watching.

"Everybody comes to Squallywood..."

2008-06-09T19:54:00.002+01:00

weknowwhatyoudidlastnight.com - click to view more

This is a fraction of the people who are currently living in my old house, Squallyoaks. The photo was taken at the last *GIRLCORE* night, where the theme was "Girlcore Goes To Hollywood", and they are each holding a letter that makes up the word "Squallywood". Love it. Despite being quite happy living with three people instead of thirteen, this is the sort of thing I miss about my old household. Yes, it is a dirty, messy, mental asylum from hell (you can read some of the Squallyoaks stories in Karley's blog) but all in all, how many people can say they lived in places where walls are destroyed on demand, a fire extinguisher doubles as pet, rooms change from dance studios to photography backdrops to rehearsal studios to hostels for Romanian families to dining rooms to bedrooms all over again and all this with the unsuspecting agreement from the landlord A.K.A. "The Man"... I'd say not many, probably just the 20-odd people who have at one time or another lived at Squallyoaks.

Some Squallyoaks photos taken before my camera broke

Folk bit

2008-06-07T23:31:00.003+01:00

Bon Iver is Justin Vernon. After breaking up with his old band, he decided to move to a cabin in the middle of nowhere (the Wisconsin mountains, to be more exact) and spent three months quietly crafting his amazing contribution to the folk landscape. This is the video for "The Wolves Act I and II", from his album For Emma, forever ago.

Pop bit

2008-06-06T19:37:00.002+01:00

Solange Knowles - "I Decided"
this might be a good one for summer...

(what's Che Guevara doing there though? I wonder what he'd think.)

Something Amazing pt. 4

2008-06-05T22:47:00.000+01:00

I want this DVD.

"Asshole!!!"

2008-06-05T14:58:00.002+01:00

Coming out of some hotel at 8am after a long night of Primavera shenanigans, Karley decided to come up to some random guy, who had just probably stepped off a plane, and call him an Asshole. Immediately afterwards she lugged herself at him and hugged him as if he was a long-lost friend. Later that night we found out he was Brent Knopf, from Menomena. Thankfully there were no hard feelings and we actually talked politics with him after playing an amazing gig at Primavera. He said he'll vote for McCain (erm...)

Something Amazing pt. 3

2008-06-04T23:24:00.003+01:00

MGMT - Time To Pretend
Uploaded by gotmullet

A tribe of futuristic hippie hipster warriors who live in a utopian commune and hold the secret ritual that will let us know what was of that future that we always dreamt of. Do you need any other explanation to why MGMT is my favourite band right this minute?

Unfortunately for me I have to add them to my long list of "bands I didn't realize what a COMMUNAL mistake it would be to miss". In other words, they played at Primavera Sound but I was too late to watch them...

Here's the lyrics to "Time to Pretend", which will make my reasons even clearer:

"I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life.
Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.
I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and fuck with the stars.
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.

This is our decision, to live fast and die young.
We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.
Yeah, it's overwhelming, but what else can we do.
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute.

Forget about our mothers and our friends
We're fated to pretend
To pretend
We're fated to pretend
To pretend

I'll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms
I'll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world
I'll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home
Yeah, I'll miss the boredem and the freedom and the time spent alone.

There's really nothing, nothing we can do
Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew.
The models will have children, we'll get a divorce
We'll find some more models, everything must run its course.

We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end
We were fated to pretend
To pretend
We're fated to pretend
To pretend"

A few things that would make my life better

2008-03-20T19:29:00.008Z

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

2008-01-08T21:21:00.001Z

These are insightful days in the telenovela/comedy/drama that is my life. These phases usually come at times when I find myself yet again at the bottom end of the rollercoaster. Ever since the forced uprooting things have not gone to plan - if there was ever one - and despite those many great things that come with moving to a new (and beautiful) city, in the greater scheme of things I am deeper in the labyrinth than ever. This is all part of the game though, and self-victimization is usually the wrong pathway to take.
The best thing to do when life kicks you in the face is to get up, dust yourself off and learn how to avoid getting kicked in the same place again. Not easy, I know, but better than throwing yourself off a balcony, innit?

So to Maslow's pyramid (big up to the amazing Kate Moross who was the one to introduce me to mr. Maslow - you can see her own version of the pyramid here). I found this little piece of triangular information particularly relevant for times like these, when you need a complete regrouping of your own internal troops in order to charge into future battles.

My right hand holds this pyramid, my left one a Bukowski book. Counterproductive?

MSN conversations

2008-01-07T14:48:00.000Z

- "Is my destiny to be
not what I want to be
or what I aspire to be
but to be a quiet observer
of what others are?
And if so,
would it make it easier if I knew?"

- "It would be sad"

- "It's already sad"

- "Well at least the door is open.
To close it would be the sad thing...
...If more financially rewarding."

Something beautiful Pt. 1

2007-12-23T18:30:00.001Z

Something Amazing Pt. 2

2007-12-21T17:49:00.000Z

Introducing... pt. 1

2007-12-19T19:09:00.000Z

My NGBF. It was love at first sight.

Introducing... Abra. A fashionable and handsome 20 year-old with a penchant for Russ Meyer movies. He came from Alicante almost two years ago and - from what he's been telling me - has been setting the standard in the discerning club circuit with his fashion choices. In his own words, "everyone copies me". As one of the stars of www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com (Barcelona's answer to The Cobra Snake), anything he wears can immediately become source of inspiration to the hundreds of visitors to the site. He started the leggings-for-man trend in Barcelona when, inspired by MIA and the beginnings of New Rave in London, he strutted his stuff in the most colourful lycra when all around him guys were just about coming round to tight-fitted jeans (ok, that might be an exaggeration and my apologies to the Barcelonian male species, but you haven't given me much proof of your fashion credentials so far!).

Abra Dallesandro

As any true hipster would do, as soon as the spray-on look spread around one too many manly legs, he stopped wearing it and moved on to his next fixation: Joe Dallesandro. For those of you who are not familiar with this beautiful specimen of God's creatures, he was one of Andy Warhol's Superstars, appeared in several of his movies and is a shining star in gay iconography. One of his staple looks was a bandana tied around his forehead, his flowing raven locks cascading from within it. Cue Abra, all chiseled features and asymmetric haircut, channeling the Joe Dallesandro look around the streets of Barcelona. A few months on, and it is now the norm to find at least two Dallesandro lookalikes in the clubs of the city.

At the Bonde Do Role show. Yee-haw!

As before, this was not to be missed by our hero's eagle fashion eye, who swiftly moved the bandana from his forehead to his neck in order to become a cowboy, now together with slightly-too-small denim or leather waistcoats, checked shirts, tight-fitting jeans and to top it all off in the right way, a cowboy hat casually slung backwards as if he had just stepped off his horse. His Wild West Saloons in this case being parties like Maricapop, Club Tropicana and Boombox Barcelona (unrelated to the London one), or clubs like Apolo and Razzmatazz.
A hard look to imitate from head to toe without blowing your own copycat whistle, but as any other fashion trend, if you take small details you can give a little highlight to your overall look. In this case, since every gay moderno's wardrobe already counted with at least one D'Allessandro bandana, it was only logical that this was the detail to be kept and now every other boy (and girl, actually!) has one around their neck.

Trend researchers: take note.

What's next for Abra? He's now opted for a very casual, toned-down look, the kind that is hard to be copied due to its brilliantly achieved simplicity. Then again, he has started wearing bright plastic Hawaiian lei's around his neck...

(all photos by www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com)

It's a Rant. With capital R.

2007-12-16T06:10:00.000Z

Me having an ugly day. But hey.
(photo by www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com)

I just realized. I actually won't be living in London for at least two years, or ever. Had you thought about that? Cos I'm only just coming round to the thought. It's weird, isn't it?
Up until about a week ago, my body was here, in Spain, but my mind was somewhere else. Definitely not here. I think it was half in London, in the life I forcedly left there, and half in all the lingering thoughts I had about my future. But now it's starting to seem more of a fact that my life will have to be made in Barcelona, Spain, for the next few years. Bizarre. Things can change in a second, without you making any plans, and suddenly you have to change your whole life plan (I don't think I actually had a life plan but if I did it was certainly not like this).

So here I am. Now let's put ourselves in two little situations:
One. Imagine you get a phonecall, telling you you'll be the singer in a band and you're going on tour with them really soon, to an amazing place you never thought you'd go to before you were rich. All expenses paid. And you get to fulfill a long-life dream (let's not kid ourselves, who wouldn't love to be a rockstar?). Then it all goes to shit, just because you come from a country that needs a visa even to go to the corner shop.
Two. You're blind. You come from Belarus. You had to leave your country because you're a buddhist, and despite it supposedly being a democracy, you're persecuted because of your beliefs. So now you're in Spain, as a political refugee, and you have to get a permit that allows you to go see your mother in Russia because your dad died two months ago. If you don't get that permit, you can't leave the country, or return.

These are both true stories. Isn't it all a bit messed up? This coming from the point of view of The Immigrant. The one who has to go through a whole load of shit just because he or she thought it might be a good idea to try things out in a different country. If you're European or even American you might not always think about these things. You know, same when you sometimes think what's the use of learning another language if everyone speaks English. But these things happen, and they sometimes bug us.

But I don't wanna be a preacher. It's almost seven in the morning and I just came back from watching Princess Superstar being a bit of a disappointment, and these words are almost typing themselves... I promise the next entry will have a bit more details about what I've been up to over here and all these amazing people I've met and these fun fun parties I've been to and all that jazz. But for now, I think I'm going to bed!!

Something Amazing

2007-12-02T18:13:00.000Z

Music is my boyfriend and no one likes him

2007-11-29T00:52:00.000Z

Let's leave the Mayan prophecies alone for a minute. I want to talk about music. Or lack of thereof.

The thing is, it's only until I moved here that I realize how much I miss being able to talk music with people. It's not as if I'm particularly gifted, knowledgeable or obsessive in that department. In fact, quite the opposite. But I do need to be able to discuss the merits (in this case, none, and I'm a fan) of the new Spice Girls single. Or have someone to be excited with about the fact that Liars are playing Barcelona soon. You get my drift.

At work, luckily enough, there's two TVs showing VH1 all the time. But it is to my surprise that every time I make a comment about any particular video showing at any given time - and this usually happens after every single video - I am met with blank stares. The most I have got out of people when saying how sick James Blunt makes me feel and how he looks like a psycho (and I could go on and on, I mean, how does he get all those supermodels to even lick his face let alone have sex with him?) was someone saying "oh yeah what a soppy ballad". That's a start, I guess...

Last Sunday night I went to meet Metronomy, who were supporting Bloc Party, at a little bar in town. I wanna meet up with every single person who comes here from England. Makes me feel a little bit closer to home! (so keep that in mind for the future.) Considering my lack of friends, I was lucky I managed to convince Flavia - my only female housemate who's single - to come with me with the promise of nice chat and some drinks. She has been a godsend, since every time I actually manage to get her to come out, she's the perfect party partner. I don't know how much it says about me that I, twenty-five, am the one who's always trying to get her, twenty, to stay out for just that little bit longer.

Thanks to Joe Metronomy and Carmelita's lovely hubby Gordy, I got some tickets to see the show on Monday. So after inviting Flavia I told everyone I know (all of about ten people) if they wanted to come. When I told them it was for Bloc Party, the unanimous response I got was, "Who?". I never thought it would be so difficult to find people to go to a gig for free! "Loonelyyyy, I am so loonelyyyy, I have nobodyyyy, oooof my oooown... " (to be sang with Chipmunks voice)

I finally went to the gig with Flavia and Laura, a mexican girl who lives with another friend of mine. Metronomy were amazing, better than any other time I've seen them and from the looks of it their newly acquired sound engineer is really doing a great job. This being the first time I've seen them in such a big venue, it was amazing how much they filled the space, sounding rather more like a live band than an electronic act. The vocals sounded clearer than the other times I'd seen them and I was won over by Joe's voice. Add to that their ass-busting choreographic moves, and you've got a 10 in the Maria-is-a-Loser-but-Loves-Music Chart.

This was the first time I'd seen Bloc Party (hearing them from a campsite at Glastonbury doesn't count), and they surpassed all my expectations. Since I don't especially listen to them that often, I'd forgotten how it was for me when I heard them for the first time on record, particularly the insane drumbeats and the range and sheer beauty of Kele's voice. Well, this gig made me remember what it was like. They seemed to me like truly accomplished musicians, each to their own right, and you can tell from their pre-gig preparations that they've reached a level of professionalism that guarantees an amazing performance (I even found myself closing my eyes in a couple of songs. I get a 10 in the Maria-is-a-Loser loser chart but I just kinda felt like it... I guess this doesn't only happen to Drowned In Sound forum users. It can happen to you and me and your neighbour).

I am not losing faith in the Spanish love of music yet though. I know I have only been here for two weeks, and it takes time to meet people who are into what you are. On the other hand, every friend you make meets different needs and shares different little bits of your life, and I am lucky enough to be living with people that despite being different to me, are all amazingly nice people who I can spend time and have good conversations with, as well as genuinely worrying with my worries and trying to make me feel a part of the household. I also have other old friends who I just need time to start making memories together with. So it's not that bad, really. I'm just moaning.

Now, can anyone please send me any of the following? prettyprettyplease...
-Animal Collective
-Battles
-Tom Vek
-The Blow
-Life Without Buildings
-The Knife
-Postal Service

(these are only but a few of the files that recently disappeared from my iTunes to never be seen again, about 1GB of music lost!)

my email: gomez.mariaelisa@gmail.com
my AIM: pocahontasonx

I would be forever grateful.

Squinx you later.

Rainy nights and imaginary friends

2007-11-21T01:18:00.001Z

Photo by Monica. Artwork by Maria@assholeartists.com

Despite a slightly tough few days (after my fun fun weekend had ended and real life started) I'm feeling a bit more upbeat about things over here. I've started a job today, working three hours a day in a little restaurant near my house. It does give me a bit of routine as well as much-needed CASH! Despite not wanting to go back to the "catering business" after years of breaking my back serving people food I want to eat and drinks I want to drink, the opportunity arose through a friend and it would've been foolish not to take it. You know the drill, if you've worked as a waitress once you can do it twice, thrice or thousandice. I guess I do have a manual skill I can use anywhere in the world! Drab.

I'm still getting used to my new home, which is probably not home yet but will be as soon as I know whether I get to stay here or not. My sleeping arrangements are thus: Two big square cushions on the floor, covered with a tie-dye sarong, fold out to a bed where my feet stick out when I go to sleep but don't in the morning, since said cushions have been slowly sliding apart throughout the night so that my bum fits nicely in the gap between them. On the upside, I've got a walk-in wardrobe. Or as other people might wanna call it, a toilet with an "Out of Service" sign on the door with all my clothes still in the bags where I packed them (albeit a lot messier). These are not reasons to complain though. Monica and her housemates have been kind enough to let me stay here and have made me feel right at home, include me in their communal meals and ask me how my day was. I couldn't ask for more (ok, maybe if they didn't ask for so many cigarettes... )

The other thing about "my room" is that it's always night-time and it's always raining. I explain: Since the living room sits on what used to be the social centre which sits on what used to be a hairdressers, there are metal shutters that are always closed so that our lives are not in the open to random passers-by. This means lamps and halogen lights all day. And when it's silent, you can hear the water from the whole building trickle down the pipes and there you have it: rainy night! All I wanna do is stay in bed, eat, watch TV and smoke cigarettes...

Something else I like to do on a rainy night is waste as much time as possible on the internet. It usually goes like this: check Myspace, check Facebook, check Gmail, check Flickr, check Hotmail, check Google Analytics, check Girlcore, check Myspace again in case I got a new message, check the blog in case someone finally decided to leave a comment, check Facebook in case there are new tagged photos and so on and so forth.
While I sit in front of my laptop with my headphones on every waking hour, my housemates spend their spare time smoking dope, playing guitar, cooking, cleaning, listening to reggae and debating philosophy in italian, among other higher purposes. I do interact from time to time, but it still seems as if my life is on the other side of this screen. When I stop posting a daily bulletin about nothing, commenting photos of people I've never met or writing about my personal life for invisible readers, don't worry. It will mean I finally have a life!

PS. I think this is the first time in a very long time that I stay in for that many days. I haven't had a proper night out since... well, does my weekend with the broken neck count? The good thing about this is that I finally went through my flickr account and sorted it out. So now i'ts www.flickr.com/photos/brixtonia/sets... the "people etc" set is particularly nostalgic.

Coming up next time... The Mayan Prophecies.

One Week On

2007-11-16T18:57:00.000Z

No, that's not me. But give me a couple of months.

It's now been a week since I came to Barcelona. A lot has happened, very little has happened. A day after my last post, I went to see my friend Julieta, who was over from London for the weekend, at the club Apolo. Thanks to the blagging skills acquired during my postgraduate in the London University of Life, I managed to sneak in for free. So the tuition fees were well worth it. The rest of the weekend was a series of coincidences as well as a mini-roadtrip, a family visit and a broken neck (almost).

Michally, me and Jen

My friend Jen, who I met at Bestival, has been driving the tour van of this amazing band from New York called Holy Hail. They are, coincidentally, supporting Bonde Do Role in their European tour and were to stop over in Barcelona for a night before heading to Madrid. So Jen + Bonde Do Role= amazing friends I get to see over here!
I went to meet Jen at the place where they were staying for the night. This was the really nice, non-hippie (yes, I'm traumatized) flat of a friend of Cat, Holy Hail's singer. Another coincidence: one of my random Flickr contacts is Gerard, who runs a website called www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com, the Barcelonian equivalent of sites like The Cobra Snake or DirtyDirtyDancing. I had myspaced him before coming here in order to find out a bit about the city and stuff to do, so it was to my surprise to find out that, coincidentally, the flat was his. What are the odds.

Welcome to Spain

We went to see him DJ at a place called Moog, and set off to Madrid the next morning. Seven hours of amazing terracota landscapes, grey rolling hills, beautiful little towns, houses in the middle of nowhere that were the exact same colour of the soil they were built on... at times I felt as if I was in Don Quixote, at times I felt as if I was in Star Wars, in the bit where they kill Darth Vader's mum before he becomes Darth Vader.
As soon as we got to Madrid we headed off to the venue, a place called Moby Dick which looks like a ship from the outside. While Holy Hail were soundchecking I waited downstairs since I didn't want their soundcheck to be my first experience of the band. Bonde arrived and it was like a little bit of my London had arrived with them. Marina's addicted to that pink Nintendo DS! (Julia: me and Pedro tried to call you but you're an asshole and didn't answer).

Holy Hail

Now Holy Hail. They were amazing. Cat (former Fannypack member) and Kevin provide the vocals (he also plays the keyboards), while Michally does the bass and Alex the drums. They sound like an optimistic and poppy new-wave (can that exist?) mixed with the best of what could be described (by me) as dreamy electro-indie-pop. Or something like that. Cat's voice takes turns between a pretty, almost naive-sounding vocal style and some unexpected but well-placed high-pitched screams. It reminds me a bit of Love is All (another band I've been obsessing about). In fact, take no notice of this attempt at a band review: I liked their music, it made me dance, I like listening to it at home and they're nice. That's all I need from a band.

Bonde in full swing

The gig went great, I got up on stage in Bonde's set (typical) and properly went off on one, perfecting my "circular head-banging" so well that I'm still nursing a sore neck. Talk about dedication to the cause.
After the gig we stayed at a friend of Gerard's who used to be Pedro Almodovar's assistant. After years of living in shit-holes, I can really say I find it hard not to gawp when I find myself in places as amazing as his flat. It was beautiful. So there are people in the world who can own a place like this before their mid-thirties! I thought the only way was the loser hedonistic squatter hippie way. Right.

After the neck-breaking, head-banging incident

Next morning I woke up early and met my cousin for breakfast. He's also a successful, talented, hard-working gay in his mid-thirties with a beautifully decorated flat. What is it with gay guys? It is now more apparent to me than ever that they're always the good-looking, well turned-out, stylish men with a great taste in interior design. Why oh why wasn't I born a gay boy?
After another long and entertaining drive back to Barcelona, we met up with Bonde again at the Apolo 2. I got a text from a friend of Marisa's called Pablo, who she had said I should definitely meet. It said he was at the venue, so I texted back saying I'd meet him after the gig. It turns out that, coincidentally, Holy Hail were friends with him, so I ended up meeting him by default... He did say after we met: "wasn't it you who was dancing like a maniac on stage?" Oops I did it again.

Ouch.

Some other bits and bobs:

I'm finding myself looking at things with a Londoner point of view, which is weird considering I'm Colombian. It makes me feel like a twat.
Spotted: THREE fit boys. Woop! (I'm not counting the gayboys cos that's a given)
I found two burgeoning mini-dreadlocks at the back of my head. Is it the water here? That would explain a lot.
I'm trying to keep a positive outlook overall. Despite this, I'm finding it all a bit harder than I thought, leaving all my friends, my life, my work... (oh no, scrap that, I wasn't working actually) But really, starting a new life when you haven't really chosen to do so is quite challenging. I miss every single one of you. But let's keep things 'happy'.

(All photos by www.icanteachyouhowtodoit.com)

Observations as of 09/11/2007 (From a London-trained, Colombia-born exile)

2007-11-14T12:09:00.001Z

So I´ve been here in Barcelona for a day. Slept most of the morning as the last few days/nights in London had been hectic. I´m staying with an old friend of mine(Mónica) who lives in what used to be an environmental social centre with a hippie vibe which she and her now ex-boyfriend put into motion. The centre is ertswhile "closed until further notice" so we´re sleeping in the ground floor while four other people sleep in the rooms upstairs. It is quite cosy to be surrounded by so many earthy colours and indian tie-dye.

I dedicated my afternoon to riding Mónica´s bycicle (which will be mine when she travels to Brazil in three weeks, woo hoo!) around the streets of Barcelona, starting from Gracia which is where we live down towards the centre, taking in the Raval, Ramblas, Barrio Gótico and then all the way to Plaza Espanya where she and her argentinian beau Alejandro are working nights giving information about the trains. Apparently something´s going on with Spain´s major rail network Renfe and there´s a big demonstration happening today against the company as well as the exploitation of workers, the rise in property prices and God-knows what else. Two of my new housemates spent the whole evening making placards and flyers to wave around today. Is this a sign of things to come? Will I get back to my hippie, demonstrating, politically active, spliff-smoking roots? Only time will tell. Haha.

During my bike-ride around the city, I noted a few things that probably only someone who looks at the city with fresh eyes would notice and a few more obvious ones but which I thought would still be good to mention:

It is actually a lot warmer here (sorry about the bragging, couldn´t help it!)
The best-dressed men are all gay.
There´s a pharmacy practically in every corner. (Do Spanish people get sick more often or is it just for the aesthetic pleasure?)
Tourists are all the same, in every country.
Same goes with posh people.
It´s not trucker caps like Vice said. It is "The Skullet" with a dread finish that will never go out of fashion in Spain.
Toilets are easier to flush.
Catalan sounds quite funny (No offense to catalunians, I´m definitely planning on going on catalan lessons)
There is an active reaction to fur-wearing. Or at least that´s what I gather from having been scolded about my coat in the street by a complete stranger. He just yelled behind my ear: "Oooh, freshly-killed rabbit!"
As much as I´ve made it a resolution to not think about boys (don´t snigger), I can´t help but notice I´ve only seen one fit (straight) boy in the whole day. What will happen when I do start thinking about boys?

OK so that´s it for now. I won´t go into how much I find myself comparing everything and everyone to London, or how it made me cry to see its lights below me from the plane, or how much I miss everyone I left there. That´s too cheesy and like, what´s the point in that?

Shipwreck Minotaurus

2007-02-13T22:32:00.000Z

This is where I am right now. Where is Ariadna.

Ferris Bueller, extreme sweating and other stories

2006-07-26T16:27:00.000+01:00

London is SO hot right now... and this is not only because of the thousands of things we get to see in this city every week and the amazing new bands that pop up in every corner and the outdoor events we get to attend in the summer (more of which later) and the free-drinks sponsored parties every night and everything else... BUT IT IS ACTUALLY BLOODY HOT!! I don't think we had had a summer like this in a long time if not ever...
Not that I want to complain, we spend around 8 months praying for some warmth and sunshine, but precisely because of the lack of, the city does not seem to be prepared for such temperatures (no air-con, fans, or enough outdoor swimming/watering facilities)... Plus, it seems to me that the issue of global warming becomes more and more real...

THE WORLD IS GOING TO END.
.........

Good summer things I've done so far:

Hampstead Heath - god it's fun! swimming in natural water as opposed to a swimming pool feels amazing! It's all about the density you know?
Somerset House - this is a prime spot for summer activities. Apart from being a really beautiful building, there are fountains in the middle of the courtyard where you cannot resist to get soaked! We ended up playing relay races with a team of about 15 kids who were playing there.
Brixton Lido - highlight: a gay couple with matching swimming trunks being challenged in gymnastics by a few little girls who were being coached by a former British Gymnastics Champion.

...........

Now to Ferris Bueller. Thanks to Lolo, who is the best PR/blagger/marketeer friend I have, we got some free tickets to Studio Artois, an outdoor cinema event where we were lucky enough to watch Ferris Bueller, an absolute 80s classic! I wish you could "bunk" work as Ferris bunks school...

Look Look (party time)

2006-07-17T19:25:00.000+01:00

Crystal Castles has cool t-shirts ( as seen on Akiko)

Just started the blog and already getting lazy.  Well it was a busy and long weekend, starting on Thursday when we made our way to 333 in Shoreditch to start the night with some gigs before going over to Cafe de Paris for the Young Turks night where Matthew was DJing.
Lost Penguin gave a rioutous performance  as always, with Kerri perfecting the art of "flooring" me and my friends are so fond of.  She has an energy and rapport with the audience that makes their  sometimes less-than-perfect sets  a really fun experience for everyone who sees them.  And although she pulled him to the floor midway through the set, Kevin managed to keep it cool and just asked the audience to "get her some water!".
Having set the tone for the evening, they were followed by PRE, who are equally fronted by a charismatic female lead singer, Akiko, also a member of Comanechi.    Theirs is a noisy and raw sound which has the added advantage of great stage antics.  I won't really go into much detail here because at this point I was at the bar getting some water for Kerri...   I did manage to take some photos because of my obsession with having it all in images, but other than that I spent some time talking to people who were there, including these two...

"err... Darren, you've got an African-shaped stain in your t-shirt"


Then I got to see Crystal Castles in the flesh at last, they were brought over by MEROK records all the way from Canada and are really good looking.  I really like the stuff they've got online, it sounds like good pop (I'm a big pop fan) that has been swallowed and then gurgled out by some weird  robot-like She-Ra (remember? the female counterpart to He-Man).  Unfortunately as my main aim is usually to have fun and find free drinks I'm not very good with my music reviewing skills and can't tell much from the performance  apart from the photos I took...

After a lot of dancing around and quite a bit of vodka we went to the Cafe de Paris party, organized by the Young Turks boys.  I have to say the most fun part was the ride there (once we got away from the police), with about 20 excitable and extravagant - to say the least- inebriated kids taking over the top floor of a double-decker and probably making it an unforgettable fun/nightmare ride for the rest of the passengers.   Didn't manage to take many pictures that weren't blurry, but I guess that's how I was seeing  at the time after all the booze...

"the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!"



Once we got there it kind of went downhill, with our big group splitting in the middle of the West End trying to find this place near Piccadilly, a place most of us hardly ever set foot in.  The actual venue was amazing, a big old place with swanky interiors and the kind of staircases you see in costume dramas, but to be honest I thought the drinks to be too expensive, the bouncers too keen on stopping the fun and (I don't know if it was because it was late) the crowd too scattered around which made it seem as if there wasn't enough people in the dancefloor.   One more important thing: THEY DIDN'T LET US DANCE ON THE STAGE!!!  What has the world come to??  It should be made into a law to allow us a spot of stage-dancing every time...  (they didn't allow us to la-la-la-la-limbo either)
Thankfully Matthew was there to cheer us up with some reggaeton!
Speaking of which, I've been trying to find a way of streaming some music right here on the blog, can anyone help me?

Now let's get back to it.  I am getting rather tired and the rest of the weekend was a blur, including:
Drinking lots of made-up cocktails for Luka's birthday party and taking over the birthday boy's room as a VIP girls-only den with me doing the laptop DJing
Sleeping not very much (this repeats for Saturday)
Spending four hours in IKEA Wembley with Eka, Chris, Andrea, Ellis and Theo pretending it was our own house -->see lying down on the beds, watching TV, having imaginary dinner parties in our own selected kitchens, making a random guy feel unconfortable for coming into "our" swanky flat uninvited and going crazy over the acuatic-themed children's room...
Having a barbecue over at Loquicia's Dalston mansion with Cherry Lambrini on tap and Isa on the iPod (as ever)
Isa sleeping
Party on Commercial Road and stage-invasion on Shitdisco's set
Isa sleeping
Losing my voice (this repeats for... every weekend)
A paddling pool (thankfully I was wearing a swimsuit so was the first to jump in - how very MTV Spring Break!)
Isa sleeping
A hippy festival in Shoreditch park and sleeping to the incessantly repeated tune of "Hare Krishna, Krishna Hare, Hare Rama..."
Isa sleeping


 

One More Window

2006-07-13T15:30:00.000+01:00

...to my life that is. Not content with having my life's contents spilled onto myspace and flickr, I have now decided to pour a little bit more of "brixtonianess" onto the already-quite-polluted web.
Why, you ask (or well, I do). Simply because I have nothing better to do right now.
No, seriously.

I stop on my tracks sometimes and think to myself "how did a girl who was born in the depths of the Colombian Amazon jungle (Leticia, to be more precise) end up in London in the middle of this whirlpool of creative energies?". I am amazed by every single day I live in this city, by the opportunity destiny has given me of having a year's worth of experiences every month, by being surrounded by incredible people every day, by being in the middle of something I only ever dreamed of when I was just a Colombian schoolgirl who watched Gianni Versace's death on the news with sorrow in my small amazonian house.

So this is why, actually. I want to share this sense of wonder of the world with the world.