Great Spanish commercials (or music videos)

Going beyond the usually banal jingles associated with Spanish brands, these two commercials feature really inventive songs and are practically music videos in and of themselves. Check out this hilarious 80's-channeling dance video of "The Polyesters" (which seeks to equalize housework between the sexes while selling Puntomatic laundry detergent to men):



And this one for IKEA has music written by Toni M. Mir y Joaquim Molins of Trafalgar 13, and sung by Joao Oliveira y Jordi Guerrero of LaRUMBÉ:

Oct. 12: Día de something

I'm really not sure why there are so many different names for the same holiday, this past Friday, October 12: in Latin America it's known as Día de la Raza, here it's called Día de la hispanidad but it's also known as the religious festival Día de Nuestra Señora Pilar. It's Columbus Day in the states. For Spain it's supposed to be a nationalist holiday, for Spain's former colonies it's supposed to be a day to assert indigenous pride and memorialize the beginning of their unfortunate conquest, and for the US, it's supposed to be a holiday to celebrate their being discovered (sounds an awful lot like a Hollywood aspiration, being discovered).

Anyways, we went out with several friends to celebrate and pretty much missed the whole VivAmerica concert-on-wheels. I did snag this photo of the Dominican rappers, but they were the last of four floats to pass and we weren't interested in fighting the crowd up to hear Carlos Vives' crooning. We took advantage of the lights of the oncoming cleaner trucks to take pictures, including the one at the beginning of this post; as one friend pictured commented, there we have representation, from left to right, from Mexico, the US (that's me!), the Czech Republic, the Filipines, US/Spain, Colombia, Mexico and Panama. I think the most important thing we commemorated was our shared friendship, more than nationality or language. We wandered away from the Paseo de la Castellana and the crowds to celebrate elsewhere, eating tapas, dancing in an Irish pub, and later going out for churros con chocolate. You can thank the New World for the latter treat!

De marcha en Madrid

Friday night A. and I went out, leaving the house at 12 midnight. We met up with his friends/master's classmates at one of their flats near Las Ventas bullring (I still haven't seen a bull fight, though I'm fairly against them).

This was the first time I had met the bunch and I could tell right off they were a fun and smart bunch (something that can't be said for previous groups of A's colleagues). How do I know this? The first topic of discussion we launched into was film; we swapped recommendations for Estrellas de la línea, Amores Perros, Pi, María Full of Grace, Yesterday, and Lord of War, among others.

Around 3 a.m. we caught a night bus to a discoteca called La Botellita on the Paseo de la Castellana by the sculpture garden. We danced to funky '80s songs like Alaska y Dinarama's "Ni tú ni nadie" and Maná's "Clavado en un bar" (pictures forthcoming!). Most of the group we were with are Latin American, so there was no shortage of rhythm and energy. Toward the end, I started falling asleep on my feet in spite of myself, but we went strong until 6 a.m. (when the metro started up again). It was impressive to see the vast numbers of young folks stumbling into the station with us (and some promptly falling asleep once seated).

Late-night clubbing is not something I'd recommend doing nightly (pricey admission, way-too-smoky, requires time to catch up on zzzzz's, etc.), but at least trying it is an essential part of Madrid culture.

Madrid's Olympic miscalculation?

Anyone else notice the uncanny resemblance between the logo chosen for Madrid's 2016 Olympic Games bid...


and that of the Eat-5-Fruits-and-Veggies-A-Day campaign that I see in Spain on spinach packaging...?



Plus, making the middle finger the brightest color certainly distracts me even more. Although it could be a good thing for Madrid to host the Olympics, that logo definitely counts as a strike against them. Even more puzzling, how come you can only buy plastic-bagged spinach here?

Animation at AniMadrid

This weekend we watched a some fun short animated films at the AniMadrid festival, which continues for the next week. The 8th annual festival is actually being held outside of Madrid proper in a suburb called Pozuelo de Alarcón. We caught the cercanía train at the nearest stop and 3 stops later (about 20 minutes) got off in the small town. The walk to the Casa de Cultura was around 20 minutes but pleasant; the path is along manicured parks and it was sunset time. We watched a free bunch of cartoons on the theme of toys, ranging from the 1930's to more modern ones. There were quite a lot of racial charicatures in the old ones, including a short called "The Old Plantation." Our favorite short was the 1972 BAFTA-wining Tchou-tchou. Very cute and very inventive Canadian story.

We're planning to return later this week to watch some of the competition entries. I figure we can afford the tickets (3€).

La noche en lluvia

Strange Fruit's The Field performance is at least available as online video

I so looking forward to participate in Madrid's Noche en Blanco this past weekend, to see some of the more than 175 musical and other performances making up what was billed as an all-night cultural extravaganza. Unfortunately, the whole endeavor failed, in my opinion, due to an unseasonal, unusually strong rainstorm and overcrowding. A. and I got up to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium around 9 p.m. Saturday hoping to see "pole" dancers from the Sydney-based company Strange Fruit, but was canceled due to rain.

We took the (very packed) metro back to the Paseo del Prado area but by then it was pouring. At least we had brought ponchos. Most of the other outdoor acts were cut short or canceled, meaning we missed the tightrope-walking "Les Etoiles" among many other interesting acts. A disappointing night for us and many other madrileños (some of whom waited more than 2 hours to enter indoor museum exhibits). More problems are enumerated in the Madrid press articles here and here. Hopefully the organizers will be able to make some precautionary weather-related adjustments for next year.

Make time for Manda Bala

Nothing says Brazil like frogs, corruption, and extortion. Why do I say this? Watch this movie and you will understand. I saw the film Manda Bala at Sundance and it is everything the poster claims it is.I just saw today that Manda Bala is being released in the US (albeit on a small scale for such a great movie). Watch the trailer, and then see if you can get to one of the screenings. Go see this movie! It is so worth it!