It's beginning to look a lot like...

Across the Diagonal

The street lights have finally been lit! 

I've been eagerly awaiting the holiday lights since the city started draping the lights across the streets several weeks ago.  Each neighborhood has a different pattern... and I'm gonna photograph them all.  Well, maybe not all... but most... or as many as I can.

Looking down the Diagonal

Felices Fiestes!  The small El Corte Ingles at Villaroel & Diagonal

Looking up Calvet from Tranverserra de Gracia

Calvet @ Traverssera de Gracia

Displaying the Seasons

There's this gourmet food store down the street from where I live, called Semon.  They sell a variety of goodies, from baked goods to delectable, savory side-dishes, to wines, cheeses, and gourmet pantry items like spices and fancy mustards or crackers. 


I love walking by there and checking out their window displays.  These pictures were from October. 

The crown of the centerpiece

I kept hoping for a shot when I wouldn't get a glare, but that never seemed to happen.  Either they were closed, or I didn't have my camera on me.   

The base of the same centerpiece

What you do see are Sweet Potatoes (called Bonitos, or something like that), chestnuts, bay laurel, cookies called Panellots (again, i'm killing the spelling, sorry), and other stuff that I can't quite identify.

They moved on to their Xmas display - at the beginning of November.  Well, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, so I suppose it's acceptable.  Their current display is kinda meh, so I'll wait and update it when it gets interesting again. 

Speaking of x-mas, I was walking down the street last week when they were testing out the xmas lights in my area. 

looking down Bori y Fontesta

Looking down Pau Casals toward the Diagonal

Each neighborhood has a different design.  But we're gonna have to wait another few weeks to see them all lit up.  These have been dark since I took the pictures last week.

BCN: Virtual Disconnect

Dear Barcelona,

Because you have made it so frustrating to find information online about places & things within your city, you are forcing me to actually go out and wander the streets in search of things to do.  Sure, I get to stumble upon things I'd have never otherwise found - but finding out about places to go and things to do is so challenging. 

And Facebook doesn't get interesting for me until 4pm which is when all my U.S. contacts start waking up and posting... my contact list here is still rather meager.  As for Twitter - since I'm roaming, I can't really tweet at leisure - so there's no point there...

Talk about word of mouth: Sunday (May 1st) was Mother's day & Labor Day here in Europe.  At about 5pm, we heard a helicopter circling overhead here in my mom's 'hood.  But I didn't even realize how unusual that was until my mom pointed it out (helicopters circling overhead was the norm when I lived in Koreatown, Miracle Mile & MacArthur Park adjacent in L.A.)... Mick was over for lunch & after he left, he called and said the whole Zona Alta was on lock-down with police barricades shutting down access into the area.  Why?  Dunno... Think they had anything on the evening news?  Newp.  You know how we found out what was going on?  Mum went to the hairdressers, and that's how she got the skinny.  Old fashioned gossip at the hairdresser's.  Apparently there were some discontented unemployed rioters and anarchists protesting the banks due to the "crisis" (unemployment is 22% here), and they were throwing bricks and white paint at the bank windows all around town.  But there's no reporting anywhere!!! 

I know more about what's going on in Los Angeles than here.  sigh.  Even getting a connection here with my Mac is a tedious effort:  the Wi-Fi (pronounced wee fee) keeps going out, and I have to call up Telefonica to have them adjust their router (pronounced rooter) every few days so they can switch the channels to help me connect. 

Well, my return flight to LA is in less than 10 days... we'll see if there are things that I'll miss when i'm there until my return to BCN (not including people). 

Thanks for letting me rant.

Good Friday & Eugene Atget

At the urging of my friend Jane, during a skype conversation that took place at 4am (her time), I bundled up to walk the deserted streets of this wet, cold, dreary Good Friday.

One of my favorite photographers is Eugene Atget - who's work I was introduced to by one of my favorite Art History professors, Maria Buszek.  There was an exhibit of Atget's photography at the Getty in Los Angeles years ago, and the beauty, yet haunting loneliness captured by his lens has stuck with me all these years.  I was hoping I could capture some of the empty Barcelona picture windows as he did of Paris.

The view up from Calle Pau Casals to Parc Turo (in La Zona Alta)

 

An elegant building off Pau Casals - usually packed with pedestrians

La Iglesia Redonda (the round church) just up the street from my mum's... this is one of my "landmarks" to know where I am (la Zona Alta)

Not so easy taking pictures when all you have is an iPhone, and most of the closed stores have roll down shades or metal grates that obscure everything.  But the streets sure were deserted.  Here's a little of what I did get here in La Zona Alta

a Futbol vignette made of chocolate... and the people in the stands are wearing blue & red for Barcelona's team - this was probably created in honor of el Classico - in which the King's Cup went to Real Madrid this past Wednesday.

 

 

 But seeing as it is Easter, there were some chocolate eggs & bunnies to be sold.  These were from a Patisserie called Farga.  There are multiple locations of this store - but this is on Beethoven St.

Oriol Balaguer is another confectionery paradise in the area... there is no shortage of xocolaterias (chocolate stores) in La Zona Alta.  This one is probably the most inventive in terms of the flavors, design, packaging... and their prices reflect it.  I've never seen any place like it... If you remember Boule on La Cienega - that still wouldn't even come close to Oriol Balaguer.

Next trip out, I'll use the hipstamatic lens to get some b&w shots...or antique looking images. It was just too unpleasant and windy to stand around taking digital shots from a phone.

How (not) to Capitalize on Insomnia

Last night, or rather this morning at 4:30am I had an epiphany.  Barcelona is a city where the nightlife gets started very late - like after midnight, and keeps going well beyond the 2am closing time in Los Angeles.  So why am I suffering, tossing and turning in bed until 5am and beyond?  If my body wants to be awake, let it.

I decided now would be a great time to start exploring the city at night.

Timing, as they say, is everything.

Here's the glitch:  It's Easter.  Which, unbeknownst to me starts on Thursday in this devoutly Catholic city.  Everything is shut down.  There's nary a soul on the street.  Maybe this only applies to La Zona Alta?  Aside from the fact that the wind is howling, practically uprooting the trees, there is a storm a-brewin, with the rain set to start just after midnight. Tonight might not be the night to start hitting the town.

Therefore if I can't go out, I will try this Hail Mary of an attempt to knock myself out.  Washing down a half of a clonazepam with some red wine (i know, don't mix the two)... but i'm desperate! 

In bed at 10:43 pm (or 22:43). No more late night blogging.  All electronics off.  Must. Get. Sleep.

La Zona Alta

Just like any city, Barcelona is broken down into various regions, or neighborhoods, if you will.  La Zona Alta translates into the High Zone (as in elevation).  Looking at a map of the city, it's kind of on the Upper West Side - geographically speaking.  But demographically speaking, it's definitely Upper East Side - old money, old fashioned, nice & clean with some very high end stores.  

This is where my family has lived for decades, and when my mother moved here 10 years ago, she found a place within walking distance of everyone in the family, and all of the friends of the family.  They literally all live within a five block radius of one another.  

But to me, this area is not too exciting.  That's why I'm always heading south and east - down to the Barri Gothic, or El Born - where my friend Mick lives.  

Yet there is something that I have noticed within La Zona Alta that I found rather curious:  there are so many stores selling baby clothes.  My mum needed to get a gift for her friend who just had a baby - she asked one lady on the street if "Petit Oh!" was on this next block, or the block after.  The lady didn't know of that store - but named a different store on that block.  We found the right store, made the purchase, and moved on noting how there were two stores selling cute-baby-clothes so close to one another.

The next day on my own,  I saw this store:

Gladys goose!

What stole my attention was not just the one, but the two (2nd not pictured) goose-shaped lamps perched atop the display cases in yet another shop selling cute-baby-clothes (CBC from now on).  My friends back home all know about my goose lamp that I left behind.  It was something so absurdly whimsical that I loved... I digress.

This is now the 3rd CBC store in the area, and then I really started noticing a trend.  Just down the street is a chain called le Petit Bateau, another chain called Tartine et Chocolat, and 2 doors down from T&C is another CBC store.  WTF?

You know what I have yet to see in this area?  Any of those fancy-shmancy pet stores you see all over Los Angeles - like Pour la Pooch on Beverly, or Chateau Marmutt on 3rd, or that big one that just opened about a year ago downtown.  

Yes, I know there are dozens of CBC stores in Los Angeles - but I've never seen so many in such a concentrated area.  It really got me thinking - is this the norm?  And why are so many people in Los Angeles adopting dogs rather than starting families?  

As I was discussing this all with Mick earlier today (he lived in L.A. for 10 years until 2 years ago), he pointed out that Los Angeles is a very "ME" oriented city: "oh, look at ME hiking up Runyon Canyon with my dog"... and dogs are (relatively) easy to deal with. 

But starting a family? That requires commitment, and most people in L.A. are commitment-phobes.  Myself included.  

A part of me wants to run away in terror if I see another CBC store here in the Zona Alta because it's making me feel very self-conscious.  However I moved here because I wanted needed a change.    Maybe this is one of the parts of me that needs a change?  

Or maybe it was just a sign that I can find Gladys Goose for sale here in Barcelona...