Oct 12
We had to get up early to get to the airport to fly to Sevilla. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain so the idea of taking a cab to Plaza Catalunya and standing around waiting for the bus didn’t seem that enticing. We wound up taking a cab all the way to the airport. On the plus side it was warm and dry. On the downside, it was very expensive (about 50 Euros, ouch!).
The flight was largely uneventful, but it was a bumpy ride. We took the Airport Shuttle downtown and then caught a taxi to the Hotel Bécquer on Reyes Católicos. Despite arriving at about 10am, we were able to check right in and freshen up. The hotel was somewhat older, but very clean and neat. We wandered over to the cathedral through the narrow streets and found a little outdoor café at the edge of the old Jewish quarter of the city, behind the cathedral where we had a drink and some lunch. By this time, we were really settling in to the whole Spanish experience. Conversations began to turn to subjects like how comfortable we felt in Europe and how easy it was to see us retiring there
After lunch, we walked through the old quarter, starting at the Patio de la Banderas, and a park, looping around and then back through the center of town. Across from the Cathedral, we wound up listening to some street musicians, including a jazz band with violin, guitar, accordion and percussion. Eventually, we wandered back to the Hotel and changed for dinner.
For dinner, we decided that we would cross the river and check out the restaurants and bars in the Triana neighborhood. We had a drink across the Puente de Isabel II in a bar in the old bridge tower. There was a very nice view of the city from the rooftop bar and the sunset reflecting off the Cathedral’s Rose Window, but Laura was not pleased with the wine and (since it was only sold by the bottle) the waiter, who did not speak English, wanted payment etc.
Anyway, after getting some help from a couple of American students who were able to talk to the waiter, Laura got another glass of wine (not much better), so we finished our drinks and walked down the street along the river and found a restaurant with outdoor tables.
We went inside with the waiter so that Laura could sample their white wine. It passed the test, so we decided we would stay. I had a fairly mediocre dish of paella, but the view was great and it was a pleasant evening to be outside. Particularly in Sevilla, but probably in other places in Spain, you will come across Restaurants which have these glossy menus showing the various Paellas that are available. Whenever you see them, don’t order the Paella. It’s prepackaged, possibly even microwaved. By the time we finished eating, it was starting to chill down quite a bit. We walked back to the hotel and had a drink at the bar before turning in.
Oct 13
It was overcast and chilly in the morning. We found a little bar for breakfast up the street from the hotel. I wound up having another ham and cheese baguette. I also had some wonderful fresh squeezed orange juice (zumo el naranja). Laura may have just had toast and coffee. After breakfast, we walked over to the cathedral for a visit.
The cathedral of Sevilla is the largest gothic cathedral and the third largest cathedral of any kind (behind St. Paul’s in London and St. Peter’s in the Vatican) in the world. It is also very elaborately decorated in the interior, with a beautiful choir and organ and a 65’ x about 20’ High Altar carved with scenes from the life of Christ and painted with gold leaf. The Altar took about 80 years to complete. It is also the resting place of Christopher Columbus, who had quite a journey after his death. As noted in Wikipedia:
Columbus's remains were first interred at Valladolid, then at the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville (southern Spain) by the will of his son Diego, who had been governor of Hispaniola. In 1542 the remains were transferred to Colonial Santo Domingo, in the present-day Dominican Republic. In 1795, when France took over the entire island of Hispaniola, Columbus's remains were moved to Havana, Cuba. After Cuba became independent following the Spanish-American War in 1898, the remains were moved back to Spain, to the Cathedral of Seville, where they were placed on an elaborate catafalque.
Before leaving, we climbed the 330’ Giralda tower for a fantastic view of the city. The tower is unique in that it does not have stairs, but rather an inclined walkway, which is much easier on the thighs and much less claustrophobic than many medieval towers. It was originally built as a minaret for the mosque that preceded the cathedral and the walkway was designed so that a horse could carry the muezzin to the top for his 5 times daily call to prayer. The bell tower was added after it became part of the cathedral. As we got to the top of the tower, the fog and clouds were beginning to burn off.
We decided to take a walk through the Old Quarter to get to Plaza Santa Cruz. Again we managed to get ourselves pretty lost and would up at the Plaza del Salvador (?), which was farther away from Plaza Santa Cruz than we were when we started. After consulting the map, we started to make our way back eventually finding ourselves in a sunny little square (where the rest Carmela was) and then a few more turns and we were at Plaza Santa Cruz, which was a complete surprise because it was a little shaded park, rather than a real commercial Plaza. There were a couple of restaurants, but it was pretty sleepy looking, so we headed back to Plaza by the Calle Santa Maria La Blanca and sat down at a table in front of Restaurant/Bar Carmella and ordered the Plata del Dia, which was spinach and garbanzos, and some curried chicken. The espinaca was not quite as tasty as the one in Barcelona, but I sampled it and it was still good (no prosciutto and not as much garlic). I ordered a Cerveza Negra (Alhambra) which turned out to be very, very good. After this very late lunch, we did a little shopping and went back to Plaza Santa Cruz to pick up tickets for the Flamenco show at El Gallo.
We walked through a large park behind the Old Quarter and the Alcazar, towards the river. Among the highlights was a statue commemorating Columbus, Ferdinand and Isabella. We walked in a loop, passing by the new light rail line, past the University and a Palace by the river, and then back to the cathedral area where we stopped and listened to some street musicians. The first was a solo singer-guitar player who had a tambourine contraption on his ankle that he used for percussion as he played some pretty good delta blues. He also had a little toy attached to his foot on a string that had Bart Simpson and one of the other Simpson’s and they appeared to dance as he tapped his foot.
Further up the street, we listened again to the quintet with guitar, drums, accordion, and fiddle playing old jazz tunes and standards. Tired after a full day, we wandered back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner and the evening ahead.
That evening, we went back to the Santa Cruz neighborhood for drinks, stopping at a couple of bars for drinks before having an outdoor dinner. Then we had a drink at a little bar Las Teresas, eventually ordering tapas of fresh local cheese. There was a local fellow next to us who was ordering tapas and Laura thought one looked pretty interesting, so she asked him what it was. He spoke very little English, but was a teacher and enjoyed trying to talk to us about Sevilla and his job. He was eating swordfish in a tomato sauce. By this time, it was getting close to the time for the Flamenco show, so we paid our bill and walked down to Plaza Santa Cruz and got in line for the show.
Inside, we sat next to and talked with a fellow from Mexico, who lived in Canada, who was in Spain on a business trip. He worked for Blackberry, doing something related to Bluetooth and had been at a Trade Show in Barcelona and was taking a little vacation to Malaga, Sevilla, and Granada before heading back to Canada. We enjoyed the show. I enjoyed the guitar playing in particular. I liked to watch the interplay between the two guitar players (there were two on almost every number). I can’t really say whether this was good Flamenco or not. It was after midnight when the show was done, so we followed the crowd through the narrow streets until we got to the Cathedral and then back to the hotel.
Oct 14
It was another chilly morning. After a breakfast of grilled cheese sandwiches and coffee, we headed over to the center of town to tour the Reales Alcazares, the ancient Royal Palace, built on top of a Muslim fortress, which was built on top of a Christian Basilica. According to many sources (including Rick Steves), despite being built over many centuries and undergoing extensive renovations from time to time, it is one of the best examples of the mudejar style, which “denotes a style of Iberian architecture and decoration, particularly of Aragon and Castile, of the 12th to 16th centuries, strongly influenced by Moorish taste and workmanship.” The mudejar were Muslims who remained in Spain after the reconquista, but who did not convert to Christianity. One of the most amazing features of this style is the intricate plasterwork decoration of the walls and arches, as well as the tile decoration on the walls and floors.
Another interesting part of the Palace was the rooms which Queen Isabella set aside to manage the trade with the New World. And so we were standing where Columbus, Magellan, Vasco De Gama and others met with the King and Queen and their ministers to discuss their future voyages.
We also spent a good deal of time in the gardens, some of the best in Sevilla, with a maze, tiled benches, and numerous fountains. It was very pleasant just to sit in this peaceful place.
We wandered back through the Santa Cruz neighborhood, along the wall of the Alcazar. There was a street musician performing local folk style guitar (with some flamenco influence) that I listened to for a few minutes while Laura wandered in one of the shops. We wound up eating lunch again at Restaurante Carmella. We ordered the Plata del Dia, which was some kind of potatoes in sauce, and I ordered a cannelloni tapas. There were too many carbs and it was not quite as memorable as the previous day. While we were finishing, an old guy hobbled up and sat down at the next table and pulled out a battered old guitar and started to play some flamenco or flamenco-influenced guitar. I took his picture and gave him a coin as we left. We walked back through the center of town and over to the Plaza Del Toros and Museum of Bullfighting to take the tour.
They give a brief tour of the Arena several times an hour. The stands are all made of brick and there are about 14,000 seats. When there is a bullfight the seats are categorized as “Sun” or “Shade”, with the shady seats being much more expensive. They showed us the gate where the matadors and toreadors enter the ring and the gate where the bulls are released. They showed us the Royal Box. And then they took us underneath the stands to see a small museum, with one room of paintings and drawings of bullfighting, including one by Goya that we did not get to see because they hurried us along to the next part of the museum, where they showed costumes and capes and talked about some of the history of bullfighting. According to the guide, it originated with the Romans, perhaps as a variant of the gladiator fights. It was re-introduced in Spain as part of training for the military and gradually developed into a spectator sport with professional matadors in the early 19th Century.
After visiting the museum, we walked across the boulevard to the river and walked down to the Torre del’Oro (Golden Tower), stopping to sit and have a drink and watch the sunset.
We decided to go back to the little tapas bar that we had stopped in the previous night, so we walked back into the heart of the Santa Cruz neighborhood and grabbed an outdoor table at the Bar Las Teresas. We ordered the cheese, but through a miscommunication with the waiter we got a large plate of cheese. Then a different waiter came out and when we asked about tapas, he said that tapas were only available inside. As a result, our meal was not as varied as we had intended. We ordered the swordfish in tomato sauce to go along with the cheese that we had already gobbled up.
After dinner, we walked back through the streets and stopped at another little bar for a drink. Later, on the way home we stopped at a little bar behind the Plaza de Toros and ordered tapas that turned out to be nothing like we expected. It was a soft cheese with sweet tomato marmalade, a specialty of the house. Live and learn.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Trip to Spain, October 2010
We started thinking about going to Spain several years ago, but never quite got around to it. Earlier this year, we were reading the Washington Post and they had an article on a little town north of Barcelona called Girona. This caught my attention, since my father had been briefly imprisoned in Girona during World War II after crossing the Pyrenees with the help of the French Resistance. At the time, we had been debating whether to go to the Cinque Terre in Italy, but the article helped us settle on Spain.
First thoughts were to visit Girona and even to trace some of my father’s footsteps crossing over from France. Then we went to Cancun in July and we met a British couple there and over dinner one night we were discussing our plans and they said that they had a condo on the Mediterranean in the town of Guardamar and that they were planning to be there for a long weekend in October. It turned out that their plans and ours coincided, so we started to finalize our itinerary.
I should note here that neither Laura nor I speak much Spanish. We put together our itinerary primarily based on recommendations by the Rick Steves Travel Guides. We booked all the hotels on the internet (Venere.com).
BARCELONA
October 9, 2010
We arrived in Barcelona about 8:30am after our flight from Washington via JFK. After picking up our bags and getting some cash, we found the Airport Bus to Plaza de Catalunya and took a cab to our Hotel, down the block from the Picasso Museum in the Ribera District. We stayed at the Hotel Ciutat de Barcelona on Carrer Princesa.
The room wasn’t ready, so we stowed our bags, got a map and walked off towards La Ramblas. We walked up and down for a while enjoying the sunshine and warm weather, saw some of the street performers and went down to the waterfront and the statue of Columbus. We finally wandered into the Plaza Reial and found an outdoor café, where we ordered some drinks and some great pollo al ajillo and artichokes. The chicken had an almost pesto-like sauce loaded with garlic. Delicious. We sat and ate and watched the people, including bike tours, listening to conversations in a half dozen languages. Afterwards, we made our way back to the Hotel, rested and freshened up. The room was very nice, clean and modern, with a queen-size bed.
Later, we went out for a walk, starting out by checking out the Cathedral. From the plaza overlooking the cathedral, we took a street that we thought would take us back to La Ramblas, but the street was curved and we took all the wrong turns at the various intersections and wound up on the waterfront, about as close to La Ramblas as where we had started out. We walked along the promenade to the Columbus Statue and up La Ramblas and watched more of the street performers in action, winding up at the Market where we wandered up and down the aisles of pastries, chocolate, fish, meat, fruit, and vegetables, fresh and succulent, piled high.
At the edge of the Market, we found a wine shop where they were doing a tasting, so we bought some tickets and tasted some red wine, white wine, and cava (Spanish version of Champagne). I liked the red, Laura really liked the white. We bought a couple of bottles of the white wine.
We walked back to La Ramblas and found an outdoor spot where we could have another glass of wine and watch the street performers. After the drink, we were getting hungry, so we started to walk back towards the hotel. Not knowing the customs of Spain, we didn’t realize that you couldn’t get a sit-down dinner until at least 8 pm. So we went into a Restaurant and thought we might have some Tapas and another drink, but then decided that we didn’t really think the menu options were that great, so we walked on, eventually we decided on a place that was about a block from our Hotel. The food was not that great, but we were hungry so it was very welcome. I was drinking beer at this point and we started to watch the drama of a young American coming on to two young Spanish women. He would talk to them together, then talk to them individually, then go off to hit on some other women, then introduce one or two other of his friends. We were at a small table just removed from the bar and this was all happening at the bar.
Eventually, we got involved (or Laura got involved) in conversation with one of the guys – I think after the women had wandered off and left the “player” alone with his mates. They were an interesting (!) crew. The American, was 23, and wearing an “I Just Got Laid” T-Shirt. He lived in Barcelona and had known the two girls that he was chatting with most of the evening about 3 years earlier (maybe in school?). One was married, but he was still interested in her. He also had an English friend, Andy, who was 29 and from Liverpool and had been living in Barcelona for about 6 years, and was currently selling advertising for Google. Towards the end of the evening, Andy got a piece of paper and pen from the Bartender and had to write down his top things to do in Barcelona. We eventually lost the list (which also had contact information), so I can’t say whether we saw everything on it or not. We definitely went to his #1 spot and a couple of others. The third member of the crew was an older man, about 50, who was from Costa Rica, but had been an American citizen and lived for a time in Minneapolis. He moved to Spain to avoid alimony from a nasty divorce. He was very happy that his kids were now gravitating towards him after years of not seeing them. Around midnight we finally had our fill of drinks and our “friends” had drifted off, so we went back to the hotel and crashed.
Sunday, Oct 10
There were no clocks in the room, which apparently is very common in Spain and we didn’t think to ask for a wakeup call. Anyway, we wound up getting up pretty late and went looking for some breakfast. We thought we’d go to the Picasso Museum, just down the street. We could tell that it was raining, but not much else. Turns out it was also pretty chilly. After wandering around for awhile, we found a little café/bar about two blocks from the hotel. We had café con leche and I wound up having a ham and cheese sandwich on a roll and Laura had a small omelet. After our breakfast, we huddled under our umbrella and walked the short walk over to the Picasso Museum. The rain had eased up a bit, but the queue for the Museum stretched almost all the way to the local church. We decided that we needed to pursue plan B (not that we had one at that point). It was Sunday morning, and it was drizzling off and on, so we ducked into the church. It felt a little strange since the service was going on and we were really just tourists, but we had a look around, enjoyed the stained glass and the interior and then ducked out.
At that point we decided we should take the Metro and see the Gaudi Cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, which is near the top of most lists of things to see in Barcelona. That would potentially kill three birds with one stone. We would get to ride the Metro (a treat in itself and a test of whether you can follow a map and buy the right tickets), get out of the rain for a bit, and finally, see one of the major sites in town. We managed to get the tickets very easily from the Vending machine. We managed to navigate a transfer, get on the trains in the proper direction and wound up at the Cathedral. At the stop, there were (as there often is) two exits and we had no idea which one we should take. As we were walking up the steps Laura said something about how we probably wouldn’t be able to figure out where the Cathedral was. As she was saying this we got to the top of the stairs and I turned around and of course, it was right there across the street. Fortunately, it had stopped raining at that point. We walked through a park across from the Cathedral to get a better view of the front (so we thought). From the side we were looking at, it looks very much like an old gothic cathedral, which makes sense, since it was started in about 1880 when neo-gothic was still in fashion (think Washington’s National Cathedral). But it also has an odd look to it, almost as though the sculptures and carvings and front are melting.
It is very hard to describe. Anyway, we found our way to the ticket line, which was long, but not as long as the Picasso Museum, and the weather was warming up. The actual entrance is around the opposite side, so as we moved along we got to slowly see the Cathedral changing from Gothic to something much more modern. When you finally get around to the front (or is it the back, or neither) the entrance is very modern in design. Once inside, you are treated to beautiful stained glass windows and an inside which is at once gothic and modern. As with a gothic church you have massive towering columns holding up the ceiling. However, Gaudi used more modern principles to create columns that branch at the top to distribute the weight and that also look like trees. To emphasize that, his trees are anchored by a canopy of “leaves”, so you feel like you are standing in a forest. Also unlike most gothic cathedrals, the interior is light and airy with more windows. Gaudi worked on the cathedral from 1882 until his death in 1926, and work has continued in fits and starts ever since. Recent estimates suggest it will be completed in 20 to 50 years.
After the cathedral, we walked up the street from the Metro station and found an outdoor café (Babilonia) for some wine and a late lunch. We had a tasty meal of gambas al ajillo and hummus. After that, we hopped back on the metro and got in line for the Picasso Museum.
Again the line was long, but shorter than in the morning and since it was closed on Mondays, it was now or never. We waited about ½ an hour and to our surprise much of the reason for the long lines (aside from the rain) was that Sunday was free. The Museo Picasso is particularly interesting because it concentrates primarily on his early work, before cubism. So it has drawings and paintings starting from when he was 13-14 years old. As you see him develop over 10-15 years, you find a painter who was able to draw and paint quite remarkable realistic works and had a firm foundation and even classical training. Few, if any, of these early works would be considered masterpieces, but they are very solid and provide a completely different perspective on Picasso and his art. The museum also has drawings and posters that he created as a young artist living in Barcelona and a few later works that he donated toward the end of his life. One interesting collection are a number of studies (deconstructions really) that he did based on a painting by the Spanish artist Velasquez called Las Meninas.
We ate that night near the hotel on the Carrer Argenterias at a restaurant called Taller de Tapas. Among other things Laura had the spinach and garbanzos with a little prosciutto and a lot of garlic, which she got me to eat a little of, and I have to say that it was excellent (and I really don’t like cooked spinach). That was so unusual and tasty, that I can’t recall anything else that we had to eat that night.
By the end of the evening, if not before, we had decided to abandon the plan to take a day trip to Girona. We were having too much fun in Barcelona.
Oct 11
After Breakfast at the Hotel, we took the Metro to Park Guell, which was at the top of Andy’s list of things to see and do in Barcelona. It was a bit difficult to figure out how to get there by Metro and it took me a while (from the map) to figure out which was the closest stop, but we made it (take the Metro to Valcarca station). From the Metro, we followed the signs to the park and as we turned the corner, the street quite literally rose up towards the sky. Actually, it wasn’t a street, since no car could have climbed it. There were a combination of stairs and outdoor escalators (uncovered). Unfortunately, not all of the escalators were working, so it was quite a workout.
This way in to the Park gets you to the pinnacle of a very large hill, where the city of Barcelona spreads out in front of you with views of the Mediterranean, La Sagrada Familia, and Montjuic, a smaller mountain park near the waterfront. Behind, there is an even larger mountain. The Park was designed by Gaudi and was originally intended to be a wealthy gated community of about 60 houses, but only a couple of the houses were ever built and it never caught on and then World War I and other economic turmoil intervened and it was eventually sold to the city as a park.
As we climbed the last bit, to get to the very top, we encountered some musicians. One was playing an unusual instrument that resembled a covered metal serving dish. What he was playing was partly percussion and partly similar to playing water glasses and creating a similar sound. It was very new age. I kick myself later for not thinking of taking a little video clip of it. At the very top there was a guy playing percussion and didgeridoo. It was very interesting world beat sound.
From the top, we wandered down towards the large central plaza of the park. On the way, we encountered a pretty good reggae band and then on the Plaza itself there was a duo or trio playing a more traditional flamenco influenced blend of music. The Central Plaza and the Market which is underneath the Central Plaza are one of the main works completed by Gaudi in the Park along with aqueducts and other infrastructure. We walked down the steps from the market and then toured the porter’s house, which is a little museum. After finishing our tour of the Park, we walked down to the Lessups Metro Stop (definitely better than starting at Lessups and trying to walk up to the top of the Park) and headed back to the Passeig de Gracia Metro stop to see a couple more Gaudi buildings and the Block of Discord. We stopped for lunch in a trendy little restaurant, which was on the second floor of a large building. You had to take one of those old elevators up. It looked pretty fancy and the meal was very good, but it was surprisingly reasonable. Laura had some kind of salad and I had chicken skewers in an Asian Sesame Sauce. We also had some deep-fried artichoke, which tasted a bit like French fries cooked in olive oil. The Block of Discord is a block of buildings in distinctly different, and some would say clashing, architectural styles. One of them is a Gaudi. We hopped back on the Metro and rode down to the waterfront.
We took a walk through the Parc de la Ciutadella, which is near the site of Barcelona Olympic village and not far from our hotel. As often happens, we took the wrong turn out of the Metro station and wound up a little off course, but after walking for about 15 minutes, we checked the map, made a course correction and found our way back to the park, which had a lovely fountain which was built for the 1888 World’s Fair. It also has a zoo, which we did not see and several museums housed in buildings left over from the Fair. Eventually, we got back to the hotel.
In the evening, we walked over to the Cathedral and wandered through some of the back streets looking for a little bar that was a hangout of Picasso’s more than 100 years ago. After going round in circles and not really finding anything, we wound up on a large boulevard, which was crowded with people and had lots of fancy stores lining it. After about a block, Laura said that she really didn’t like the crowd, so we ducked down an alleyway and at the first corner, of course we found El Quatre Gats (4Gats.com). We went in for a drink and it’s a wonderful little place, so we had another drink. We were charging our camera, so we were not able to get any pictures. However, there was a Japanese girl at the next table and she had a great camera. We talked to her a little bit and she agreed to take our picture and send it to us (probably won’t happen).
First thoughts were to visit Girona and even to trace some of my father’s footsteps crossing over from France. Then we went to Cancun in July and we met a British couple there and over dinner one night we were discussing our plans and they said that they had a condo on the Mediterranean in the town of Guardamar and that they were planning to be there for a long weekend in October. It turned out that their plans and ours coincided, so we started to finalize our itinerary.
I should note here that neither Laura nor I speak much Spanish. We put together our itinerary primarily based on recommendations by the Rick Steves Travel Guides. We booked all the hotels on the internet (Venere.com).
BARCELONA
October 9, 2010
We arrived in Barcelona about 8:30am after our flight from Washington via JFK. After picking up our bags and getting some cash, we found the Airport Bus to Plaza de Catalunya and took a cab to our Hotel, down the block from the Picasso Museum in the Ribera District. We stayed at the Hotel Ciutat de Barcelona on Carrer Princesa.
The room wasn’t ready, so we stowed our bags, got a map and walked off towards La Ramblas. We walked up and down for a while enjoying the sunshine and warm weather, saw some of the street performers and went down to the waterfront and the statue of Columbus. We finally wandered into the Plaza Reial and found an outdoor café, where we ordered some drinks and some great pollo al ajillo and artichokes. The chicken had an almost pesto-like sauce loaded with garlic. Delicious. We sat and ate and watched the people, including bike tours, listening to conversations in a half dozen languages. Afterwards, we made our way back to the Hotel, rested and freshened up. The room was very nice, clean and modern, with a queen-size bed.
Later, we went out for a walk, starting out by checking out the Cathedral. From the plaza overlooking the cathedral, we took a street that we thought would take us back to La Ramblas, but the street was curved and we took all the wrong turns at the various intersections and wound up on the waterfront, about as close to La Ramblas as where we had started out. We walked along the promenade to the Columbus Statue and up La Ramblas and watched more of the street performers in action, winding up at the Market where we wandered up and down the aisles of pastries, chocolate, fish, meat, fruit, and vegetables, fresh and succulent, piled high.
At the edge of the Market, we found a wine shop where they were doing a tasting, so we bought some tickets and tasted some red wine, white wine, and cava (Spanish version of Champagne). I liked the red, Laura really liked the white. We bought a couple of bottles of the white wine.
We walked back to La Ramblas and found an outdoor spot where we could have another glass of wine and watch the street performers. After the drink, we were getting hungry, so we started to walk back towards the hotel. Not knowing the customs of Spain, we didn’t realize that you couldn’t get a sit-down dinner until at least 8 pm. So we went into a Restaurant and thought we might have some Tapas and another drink, but then decided that we didn’t really think the menu options were that great, so we walked on, eventually we decided on a place that was about a block from our Hotel. The food was not that great, but we were hungry so it was very welcome. I was drinking beer at this point and we started to watch the drama of a young American coming on to two young Spanish women. He would talk to them together, then talk to them individually, then go off to hit on some other women, then introduce one or two other of his friends. We were at a small table just removed from the bar and this was all happening at the bar.
Eventually, we got involved (or Laura got involved) in conversation with one of the guys – I think after the women had wandered off and left the “player” alone with his mates. They were an interesting (!) crew. The American, was 23, and wearing an “I Just Got Laid” T-Shirt. He lived in Barcelona and had known the two girls that he was chatting with most of the evening about 3 years earlier (maybe in school?). One was married, but he was still interested in her. He also had an English friend, Andy, who was 29 and from Liverpool and had been living in Barcelona for about 6 years, and was currently selling advertising for Google. Towards the end of the evening, Andy got a piece of paper and pen from the Bartender and had to write down his top things to do in Barcelona. We eventually lost the list (which also had contact information), so I can’t say whether we saw everything on it or not. We definitely went to his #1 spot and a couple of others. The third member of the crew was an older man, about 50, who was from Costa Rica, but had been an American citizen and lived for a time in Minneapolis. He moved to Spain to avoid alimony from a nasty divorce. He was very happy that his kids were now gravitating towards him after years of not seeing them. Around midnight we finally had our fill of drinks and our “friends” had drifted off, so we went back to the hotel and crashed.
Sunday, Oct 10
There were no clocks in the room, which apparently is very common in Spain and we didn’t think to ask for a wakeup call. Anyway, we wound up getting up pretty late and went looking for some breakfast. We thought we’d go to the Picasso Museum, just down the street. We could tell that it was raining, but not much else. Turns out it was also pretty chilly. After wandering around for awhile, we found a little café/bar about two blocks from the hotel. We had café con leche and I wound up having a ham and cheese sandwich on a roll and Laura had a small omelet. After our breakfast, we huddled under our umbrella and walked the short walk over to the Picasso Museum. The rain had eased up a bit, but the queue for the Museum stretched almost all the way to the local church. We decided that we needed to pursue plan B (not that we had one at that point). It was Sunday morning, and it was drizzling off and on, so we ducked into the church. It felt a little strange since the service was going on and we were really just tourists, but we had a look around, enjoyed the stained glass and the interior and then ducked out.
At that point we decided we should take the Metro and see the Gaudi Cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, which is near the top of most lists of things to see in Barcelona. That would potentially kill three birds with one stone. We would get to ride the Metro (a treat in itself and a test of whether you can follow a map and buy the right tickets), get out of the rain for a bit, and finally, see one of the major sites in town. We managed to get the tickets very easily from the Vending machine. We managed to navigate a transfer, get on the trains in the proper direction and wound up at the Cathedral. At the stop, there were (as there often is) two exits and we had no idea which one we should take. As we were walking up the steps Laura said something about how we probably wouldn’t be able to figure out where the Cathedral was. As she was saying this we got to the top of the stairs and I turned around and of course, it was right there across the street. Fortunately, it had stopped raining at that point. We walked through a park across from the Cathedral to get a better view of the front (so we thought). From the side we were looking at, it looks very much like an old gothic cathedral, which makes sense, since it was started in about 1880 when neo-gothic was still in fashion (think Washington’s National Cathedral). But it also has an odd look to it, almost as though the sculptures and carvings and front are melting.
It is very hard to describe. Anyway, we found our way to the ticket line, which was long, but not as long as the Picasso Museum, and the weather was warming up. The actual entrance is around the opposite side, so as we moved along we got to slowly see the Cathedral changing from Gothic to something much more modern. When you finally get around to the front (or is it the back, or neither) the entrance is very modern in design. Once inside, you are treated to beautiful stained glass windows and an inside which is at once gothic and modern. As with a gothic church you have massive towering columns holding up the ceiling. However, Gaudi used more modern principles to create columns that branch at the top to distribute the weight and that also look like trees. To emphasize that, his trees are anchored by a canopy of “leaves”, so you feel like you are standing in a forest. Also unlike most gothic cathedrals, the interior is light and airy with more windows. Gaudi worked on the cathedral from 1882 until his death in 1926, and work has continued in fits and starts ever since. Recent estimates suggest it will be completed in 20 to 50 years.
After the cathedral, we walked up the street from the Metro station and found an outdoor café (Babilonia) for some wine and a late lunch. We had a tasty meal of gambas al ajillo and hummus. After that, we hopped back on the metro and got in line for the Picasso Museum.
Again the line was long, but shorter than in the morning and since it was closed on Mondays, it was now or never. We waited about ½ an hour and to our surprise much of the reason for the long lines (aside from the rain) was that Sunday was free. The Museo Picasso is particularly interesting because it concentrates primarily on his early work, before cubism. So it has drawings and paintings starting from when he was 13-14 years old. As you see him develop over 10-15 years, you find a painter who was able to draw and paint quite remarkable realistic works and had a firm foundation and even classical training. Few, if any, of these early works would be considered masterpieces, but they are very solid and provide a completely different perspective on Picasso and his art. The museum also has drawings and posters that he created as a young artist living in Barcelona and a few later works that he donated toward the end of his life. One interesting collection are a number of studies (deconstructions really) that he did based on a painting by the Spanish artist Velasquez called Las Meninas.
We ate that night near the hotel on the Carrer Argenterias at a restaurant called Taller de Tapas. Among other things Laura had the spinach and garbanzos with a little prosciutto and a lot of garlic, which she got me to eat a little of, and I have to say that it was excellent (and I really don’t like cooked spinach). That was so unusual and tasty, that I can’t recall anything else that we had to eat that night.
By the end of the evening, if not before, we had decided to abandon the plan to take a day trip to Girona. We were having too much fun in Barcelona.
Oct 11
After Breakfast at the Hotel, we took the Metro to Park Guell, which was at the top of Andy’s list of things to see and do in Barcelona. It was a bit difficult to figure out how to get there by Metro and it took me a while (from the map) to figure out which was the closest stop, but we made it (take the Metro to Valcarca station). From the Metro, we followed the signs to the park and as we turned the corner, the street quite literally rose up towards the sky. Actually, it wasn’t a street, since no car could have climbed it. There were a combination of stairs and outdoor escalators (uncovered). Unfortunately, not all of the escalators were working, so it was quite a workout.
This way in to the Park gets you to the pinnacle of a very large hill, where the city of Barcelona spreads out in front of you with views of the Mediterranean, La Sagrada Familia, and Montjuic, a smaller mountain park near the waterfront. Behind, there is an even larger mountain. The Park was designed by Gaudi and was originally intended to be a wealthy gated community of about 60 houses, but only a couple of the houses were ever built and it never caught on and then World War I and other economic turmoil intervened and it was eventually sold to the city as a park.
As we climbed the last bit, to get to the very top, we encountered some musicians. One was playing an unusual instrument that resembled a covered metal serving dish. What he was playing was partly percussion and partly similar to playing water glasses and creating a similar sound. It was very new age. I kick myself later for not thinking of taking a little video clip of it. At the very top there was a guy playing percussion and didgeridoo. It was very interesting world beat sound.
From the top, we wandered down towards the large central plaza of the park. On the way, we encountered a pretty good reggae band and then on the Plaza itself there was a duo or trio playing a more traditional flamenco influenced blend of music. The Central Plaza and the Market which is underneath the Central Plaza are one of the main works completed by Gaudi in the Park along with aqueducts and other infrastructure. We walked down the steps from the market and then toured the porter’s house, which is a little museum. After finishing our tour of the Park, we walked down to the Lessups Metro Stop (definitely better than starting at Lessups and trying to walk up to the top of the Park) and headed back to the Passeig de Gracia Metro stop to see a couple more Gaudi buildings and the Block of Discord. We stopped for lunch in a trendy little restaurant, which was on the second floor of a large building. You had to take one of those old elevators up. It looked pretty fancy and the meal was very good, but it was surprisingly reasonable. Laura had some kind of salad and I had chicken skewers in an Asian Sesame Sauce. We also had some deep-fried artichoke, which tasted a bit like French fries cooked in olive oil. The Block of Discord is a block of buildings in distinctly different, and some would say clashing, architectural styles. One of them is a Gaudi. We hopped back on the Metro and rode down to the waterfront.
We took a walk through the Parc de la Ciutadella, which is near the site of Barcelona Olympic village and not far from our hotel. As often happens, we took the wrong turn out of the Metro station and wound up a little off course, but after walking for about 15 minutes, we checked the map, made a course correction and found our way back to the park, which had a lovely fountain which was built for the 1888 World’s Fair. It also has a zoo, which we did not see and several museums housed in buildings left over from the Fair. Eventually, we got back to the hotel.
In the evening, we walked over to the Cathedral and wandered through some of the back streets looking for a little bar that was a hangout of Picasso’s more than 100 years ago. After going round in circles and not really finding anything, we wound up on a large boulevard, which was crowded with people and had lots of fancy stores lining it. After about a block, Laura said that she really didn’t like the crowd, so we ducked down an alleyway and at the first corner, of course we found El Quatre Gats (4Gats.com). We went in for a drink and it’s a wonderful little place, so we had another drink. We were charging our camera, so we were not able to get any pictures. However, there was a Japanese girl at the next table and she had a great camera. We talked to her a little bit and she agreed to take our picture and send it to us (probably won’t happen).
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Korg, Vox, Marshall Reprise Rivalry Contest
http://repriserivalry.sonicbids.com/BandDetails2.aspx?b=17873&bn=Jim%20Heald
Click the above Link and listen to the song, a live version of "Who's This Stranger". It was recorded recently at Bangkok Blues, a funky little Thai Restaurant in Falls Church. You can vote for the song daily through August 11th. Voting just opened a couple of days ago and I was at #11 last time I checked. Pretty stiff competition, so throw me a couple votes if you can.
Thanks.
Click the above Link and listen to the song, a live version of "Who's This Stranger". It was recorded recently at Bangkok Blues, a funky little Thai Restaurant in Falls Church. You can vote for the song daily through August 11th. Voting just opened a couple of days ago and I was at #11 last time I checked. Pretty stiff competition, so throw me a couple votes if you can.
Thanks.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Midas Rock the Highway contest
http://rockthehighway.sonicbids.com/BandDetails2.aspx?b=16445&bn=Jim%20Heald
Listen to the song (Somebody Else's Problem) and vote (pretty please). This is one that you will never have heard before, unless you've been to one of a handful of live gigs where I decided to play it (and there, you'd be missing Greg Gosdin's sweet acoustic lead guitar).
I'm not going to push this very hard, since the song will probably get disqualified in the end (mentions alcohol) and it's not exactly a Corporate Jingle. I mean, I can't seriously think that Midas would consider this song for advertising.
You can vote daily through July 30th.
And, by the way, YOU can enter the contest to win cool prizes after you vote.
Listen to the song (Somebody Else's Problem) and vote (pretty please). This is one that you will never have heard before, unless you've been to one of a handful of live gigs where I decided to play it (and there, you'd be missing Greg Gosdin's sweet acoustic lead guitar).
I'm not going to push this very hard, since the song will probably get disqualified in the end (mentions alcohol) and it's not exactly a Corporate Jingle. I mean, I can't seriously think that Midas would consider this song for advertising.
You can vote daily through July 30th.
And, by the way, YOU can enter the contest to win cool prizes after you vote.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Hoyer and Boehner: Out of Touch with Working People
Sorry for the non-music content...
Recently, Steny Hoyer and John Boehner were meeting to discuss raising the retirement age to 70, as a way to ease the long-term fiscal problems of Social Security and to help with the Deficit. According to most studies of Social Security, its fiscal health is pretty good until sometime between 2037 and 2041, so we really are talking about a long-term issue here. As for the deficit, that’s a bit of a head scratcher.
Most economists will tell you that Social Security has little or nothing to do with the deficit, except that it makes a pretty good slush fund to make the deficit look smaller in the short-term. However, raising the retirement age 15 years from now (no one over 50 would be impacted in most such plans), would have no impact on current deficits, so it’s unclear what Hoyer is really thinking. Boehner, of course, is just trying to chip away at Social Security any way he can. It's in the Republican DNA. He can't help it.
Is this really the best use of our time in 2010? I mean, the country is still lurching towards a double dip recession, if not outright depression. Unemployment is still almost 10% (really almost 20%). We can’t get an extension of unemployment benefits through the Senate. The Gulf becomes more toxic every hour. Energy legislation is stalled (again in the Senate). The financial markets are still pretty much a den of thieves trying to suck every last dime out of our pockets. The housing market is in shambles and people are losing or walking away from their homes left and right. We’re still fighting two expensive wars in the Middle East, with no real end in sight. We need stimulus and jobs now, not even more unwanted people in the labor market.
If we don’t solve these problems, right now or soon, then it really doesn’t matter what shape social security is in 27 years from now. We probably won’t have a country in 2037, let alone Social Security. If we can’t create jobs, transition to a clean energy future and clean up Wall Street and the Big Banks, we’ll be a smoking ruin of a country in 25 years. But let’s look at the issue on its merits.
The standard argument for raising the retirement age is that people are living longer and are healthier than they were when Social Security was started. That’s pretty much true. Steny Hoyer is 71, so he probably thinks that working into your 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s is a good idea (think Robert Byrd). “Hey, if I can do it, so can you.” The trouble with this logic is that most of us don’t have as good (easy?) a job as members of Congress and we don’t have their salaries and benefits package either.
Among the long-term unemployed, a growing percentage is over 50, and many are college graduates. Many of these are unlikely to work again. So raising the retirement age could hurt a growing number of seniors, consigning them to poverty (one of the original justifications for Social Security), dumping them on their children (no Thanks), or pushing them into menial and demeaning jobs. Related to this, who’s going to employ all these 66-70 year olds? I’m sure my employer would be salivating at the opportunity to keep me around for another four (or 8) years (NOT!). Fortunately I’m old enough that it’s not a real issue and I have a good job, but I’m not sure I’d want to do it for another 12 years. And I sure wouldn’t be looking forward to the prospect of spending my golden years bagging groceries at Publix or flipping burgers (or worse).
So, Steny, what are you thinking? That you’ll trade this mostly meaningless chip for some Republican good will on a bigger issue like climate change or single payer? That might make some sense, if you were in the Senate. And when recently (if ever) have the Republicans responded to a Democratic concession with good will? Or are you just trying to get Boehner to go farther out on a limb? There might be some sort of a game here, but why not just try solving the real problems that face us today?
If you still want to trade this for something, how about something tangible like a 32 hour work week, which could ease the unemployment problem, and make worker’s lives better today. And while you’re at it, how about a mandatory retirement age of 70 for members of Congress…
Recently, Steny Hoyer and John Boehner were meeting to discuss raising the retirement age to 70, as a way to ease the long-term fiscal problems of Social Security and to help with the Deficit. According to most studies of Social Security, its fiscal health is pretty good until sometime between 2037 and 2041, so we really are talking about a long-term issue here. As for the deficit, that’s a bit of a head scratcher.
Most economists will tell you that Social Security has little or nothing to do with the deficit, except that it makes a pretty good slush fund to make the deficit look smaller in the short-term. However, raising the retirement age 15 years from now (no one over 50 would be impacted in most such plans), would have no impact on current deficits, so it’s unclear what Hoyer is really thinking. Boehner, of course, is just trying to chip away at Social Security any way he can. It's in the Republican DNA. He can't help it.
Is this really the best use of our time in 2010? I mean, the country is still lurching towards a double dip recession, if not outright depression. Unemployment is still almost 10% (really almost 20%). We can’t get an extension of unemployment benefits through the Senate. The Gulf becomes more toxic every hour. Energy legislation is stalled (again in the Senate). The financial markets are still pretty much a den of thieves trying to suck every last dime out of our pockets. The housing market is in shambles and people are losing or walking away from their homes left and right. We’re still fighting two expensive wars in the Middle East, with no real end in sight. We need stimulus and jobs now, not even more unwanted people in the labor market.
If we don’t solve these problems, right now or soon, then it really doesn’t matter what shape social security is in 27 years from now. We probably won’t have a country in 2037, let alone Social Security. If we can’t create jobs, transition to a clean energy future and clean up Wall Street and the Big Banks, we’ll be a smoking ruin of a country in 25 years. But let’s look at the issue on its merits.
The standard argument for raising the retirement age is that people are living longer and are healthier than they were when Social Security was started. That’s pretty much true. Steny Hoyer is 71, so he probably thinks that working into your 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s is a good idea (think Robert Byrd). “Hey, if I can do it, so can you.” The trouble with this logic is that most of us don’t have as good (easy?) a job as members of Congress and we don’t have their salaries and benefits package either.
Among the long-term unemployed, a growing percentage is over 50, and many are college graduates. Many of these are unlikely to work again. So raising the retirement age could hurt a growing number of seniors, consigning them to poverty (one of the original justifications for Social Security), dumping them on their children (no Thanks), or pushing them into menial and demeaning jobs. Related to this, who’s going to employ all these 66-70 year olds? I’m sure my employer would be salivating at the opportunity to keep me around for another four (or 8) years (NOT!). Fortunately I’m old enough that it’s not a real issue and I have a good job, but I’m not sure I’d want to do it for another 12 years. And I sure wouldn’t be looking forward to the prospect of spending my golden years bagging groceries at Publix or flipping burgers (or worse).
So, Steny, what are you thinking? That you’ll trade this mostly meaningless chip for some Republican good will on a bigger issue like climate change or single payer? That might make some sense, if you were in the Senate. And when recently (if ever) have the Republicans responded to a Democratic concession with good will? Or are you just trying to get Boehner to go farther out on a limb? There might be some sort of a game here, but why not just try solving the real problems that face us today?
If you still want to trade this for something, how about something tangible like a 32 hour work week, which could ease the unemployment problem, and make worker’s lives better today. And while you’re at it, how about a mandatory retirement age of 70 for members of Congress…
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Nobody Died at Three Mile Island
It should come as no surprise really that Nuclear Power is making a comeback against a backdrop of Global Warming, Wall Street greed and an oil slick disaster of epic proportions. Indeed, many people have recently been pitching Nuclear as a green energy option. Of course, it’s really more like some crazed zombie returned from Dawn of the Dead. In the late 70’s and early 80’s I was pretty well versed in nuclear power plant economics and environmental concerns. It was a hobby of mine, but I was relieved and quite happy to move onto other things as it appeared to die as a viable option (ironically, as much because of cheap Saudi oil as anything else).
These days, I’m more ambivalent about the technology and its problems, sometimes even willing to grant it a sort of grudging “support”, along the lines sketched out by James Lovelock. In essence, the argument in favor of allowing a nuclear renaissance boils down to: we’re all screwed anyway, so why not? I mean, it’s not like the species (particularly Homo Americanus) has shown great judgment or ecological vision or compassion. We’ve pretty much had an uninterrupted celebration of greed, selfishness and stupidity in high places, at least since the late 70’s.
But then, my own innate optimism (such as it is) takes hold again, and I say Hell no. So, I’ve dusted off a song I wrote back in the 80’s about the nuclear industry, added a new verse, and will be taking it out to play in future weeks. As I mentioned, I was a bit of a geek about Nuclear issues back in the day. Before Three Mile Island, there was a 1975 accident at a power plant at Browns Ferry in Alabama. A fire started by a candle that wound up doing something like $100 million of damage. As Wikipedia puts it: “the March 22, 1975 fire started when a worker using a candle to search for air leaks accidentally set a temporary cable seal on fire. The fire spread through the wall from the temporary seal.”
At the time that I was contemplating writing a song about TMI, I was thumbing through a book of old folk songs and came across the “Brown’s Ferry Blues”. It seemed like a perfect frame for the story I wanted to tell, though, aside from the tag line “Lord, lord I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry Blues,” there wasn’t a whole lot of the song that I could actually re-use. I did re-use half of a verse, which fits nicely with the overall flavor of the work. I revised the song again after Chernobyl, but since that time it has been gathering dust. Anyway, the words follow and I should be posting a recording of it soon. Let me know what you think and if you have verses to add, feel free to contribute.
Brown’s Ferry Blues
Fire in the morning, fire at night
When the reactor goes there won’t be no light
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Put on you coat, get on down the road
Don’t want to be around when it shoots it’s load
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Early to bed and early to rise
And your woman goes out with the other guys
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
She doesn’t want your contaminated fingers
After it’s over radiation lingers
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Nobody died at Three Mile Island
Chernobyl was just a few commies fryin
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Got a two headed mule and a three headed calf
I go out to the barn when I need a good laugh
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Deepwater oil bearing down on the coast
As Global Warming slowly turns us all into toast
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
GE Lobbyists wading into the fray
Nuclear Power’s gonna save the day
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Fire in the morning, fire at night
When the reactor goes there won’t be no light
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
One of these days it’ll be all over
We’ll sleep together in a field of clover
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
(c) 2010. Jim Heald. All Rights Reserved.
These days, I’m more ambivalent about the technology and its problems, sometimes even willing to grant it a sort of grudging “support”, along the lines sketched out by James Lovelock. In essence, the argument in favor of allowing a nuclear renaissance boils down to: we’re all screwed anyway, so why not? I mean, it’s not like the species (particularly Homo Americanus) has shown great judgment or ecological vision or compassion. We’ve pretty much had an uninterrupted celebration of greed, selfishness and stupidity in high places, at least since the late 70’s.
But then, my own innate optimism (such as it is) takes hold again, and I say Hell no. So, I’ve dusted off a song I wrote back in the 80’s about the nuclear industry, added a new verse, and will be taking it out to play in future weeks. As I mentioned, I was a bit of a geek about Nuclear issues back in the day. Before Three Mile Island, there was a 1975 accident at a power plant at Browns Ferry in Alabama. A fire started by a candle that wound up doing something like $100 million of damage. As Wikipedia puts it: “the March 22, 1975 fire started when a worker using a candle to search for air leaks accidentally set a temporary cable seal on fire. The fire spread through the wall from the temporary seal.”
At the time that I was contemplating writing a song about TMI, I was thumbing through a book of old folk songs and came across the “Brown’s Ferry Blues”. It seemed like a perfect frame for the story I wanted to tell, though, aside from the tag line “Lord, lord I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry Blues,” there wasn’t a whole lot of the song that I could actually re-use. I did re-use half of a verse, which fits nicely with the overall flavor of the work. I revised the song again after Chernobyl, but since that time it has been gathering dust. Anyway, the words follow and I should be posting a recording of it soon. Let me know what you think and if you have verses to add, feel free to contribute.
Brown’s Ferry Blues
Fire in the morning, fire at night
When the reactor goes there won’t be no light
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Put on you coat, get on down the road
Don’t want to be around when it shoots it’s load
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Early to bed and early to rise
And your woman goes out with the other guys
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
She doesn’t want your contaminated fingers
After it’s over radiation lingers
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Nobody died at Three Mile Island
Chernobyl was just a few commies fryin
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Got a two headed mule and a three headed calf
I go out to the barn when I need a good laugh
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Deepwater oil bearing down on the coast
As Global Warming slowly turns us all into toast
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
GE Lobbyists wading into the fray
Nuclear Power’s gonna save the day
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
Fire in the morning, fire at night
When the reactor goes there won’t be no light
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
One of these days it’ll be all over
We’ll sleep together in a field of clover
Lord, Lord, I’ve got the Brown’s Ferry blues
(c) 2010. Jim Heald. All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Thom Bishop, Chicago Songwriter
I recently searched the internet for Thom Bishop, a Chicago songwriter who was fairly active in the 70's and 80's. I heard him play on numerous occasions at clubs like Somebody Else's Troubles, Orphans, at Chicago Fest. Laura and I also heard him play one night at a little gay bar under the EL at Belmont(?) where I also performed on several occasions. That particular night was one of the coldest nights in Chicago History (something like -26) and I killed my transmission trying to drive that night. We all sat in the bar with our parkas on. Not sure how he managed to perform that night. He and I left Chicago at roughly the same time. He headed to LA, to pursue songwriting for movies and writing screenplays. He'd also written some musical theater pieces in Chicago.
He had pretty much vanished from the face of the earth (at least to non-friends and relatives), although he did release an album in the late 80's and another in the late 90's. Previous searches (not sure that I've tried in recent years) yielded very little, except a credit as the Music Director on a small film called American Reel.
On this most recent search, there was a link to a Wikipedia page for someone named Junior Burke. So I went to wikipedia and the mystery unravelled a bit. Thomas Burke Bishop Jr. had decided sometime in the 90's to become known as Junior Burke. Junior had recently released a CD (of old and new music - quite good, very well produced by Chicagoan Jim Tullio) and had published a novel in 2005 (the novel appears to be out of print, but used copies can be purchased through Amazon). He is also now the chair of the Kerouac Institute for Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, CO. and is working on a second novel. Check him out at www.juniorburke.com .
He had pretty much vanished from the face of the earth (at least to non-friends and relatives), although he did release an album in the late 80's and another in the late 90's. Previous searches (not sure that I've tried in recent years) yielded very little, except a credit as the Music Director on a small film called American Reel.
On this most recent search, there was a link to a Wikipedia page for someone named Junior Burke. So I went to wikipedia and the mystery unravelled a bit. Thomas Burke Bishop Jr. had decided sometime in the 90's to become known as Junior Burke. Junior had recently released a CD (of old and new music - quite good, very well produced by Chicagoan Jim Tullio) and had published a novel in 2005 (the novel appears to be out of print, but used copies can be purchased through Amazon). He is also now the chair of the Kerouac Institute for Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, CO. and is working on a second novel. Check him out at www.juniorburke.com .
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