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i came back to lyon just in time to partake in this crazy electro music festival called les nuits sonores. it basically takes over the whole city and turns everything into a techno party. above is a picture of the street in front of alexandre’s apartment.
here’s a shot from his window.
the above combo of three pictures is of a cloudy day in (ironically named) puerta del sol - or the door of the sun - which is the times square / tourist trap / pickpocket heaven of madrid.
i came to madrid almost ten years ago with my high school spanish class and experienced the city through 17 year-old on-a-tour-bus eyes. this time, although my level of spanish comprehension is comparable, i feel like i am getting a much richer experience.
last time we stayed at sol, in a ritzy hotel that had bidets - something me and my roomate mike were fascinated with. however, we didn’t, in any way understand the extent of the diversity of the city or it’s many neighborhoods. this time, jess and i have made particular effort to explore the neighborhoods of malesaña, la latina and chueca on the suggestion of my friend natalie. this weekend is supposedly the largest party weekend in all of spain, and i happen to be spending this night in the internet room of our hostel with several other euro-destitutes glued to g-chat and facebook instead of participating in monstrous fiestas.
that didn’t stop jess and i from visiting about 6 different bars eating tapas and drinking for the last several horus.
that’s just how we do in spain.
i always heard that the spanish were severe party-ers, but i had conveniently chosen to deny it. alas, after last night’s debauchery (which i will not go into on this blog), i have learned otherwise.
so tonight i take a break and save up for tomorrow’s festivities.
el dos de mayo (the second of may) is like american independence day or french bastille day - except with more alcohol, public intoxication and many more cigarettes. boundaries between public space and pub space seem to be non existent here, but somehow everyone seems to get along and stay happy and safe.
i have many more pictures to post of various architecture and fascinating things here in madrid (as well as some photos from my escapades in la parc de la tet d’or in lyon), but i will endeavor to post those when the sun is on my side.
until then… aurevoir - adios.
ladies and germs, let me introduce you to… miranda.
a few days ago my friend bobby sent me this little gem :
needless to say, i was fascinated. i love a good internet meme, especial one that features tone-deaf singing, AND massive egos. i immediately became hooked and watched as many of miranda’s videos as i could stand.
at this point, i would highly suggest you do the same before reading on. check out her youtube channel here. i highly suggest her all i want for christams is you, love shack, and of course her ubiquitous single ladies music video (which apparently requires youtube age verification… i guess a leotard over jeans is too scandalous for the 18 and unders).
much more / the TRUTH about miranda (SPOILER ALERT) after the jump…
(more…)
i’ve been addicted to this last.fm radio station for the last three days :
http://www.last.fm/listen/globaltags/8bit
some of my favorite artists include :
virt
Herbert Weixelbaum
Venetian Snares
Bit Shifter
Evil Wezil
Coleco Music
…where’d you put the keys, girl?
look at this ridiculousness. tori amos donned a silver lamé dressing gown, white chunky boots, mounted a horse and made art. ah, the nineties. i can safely say it swayed me. i remember looking at this image, from the ‘winter’ single, and thinking it was the most beautiful thing i’ve ever seen.
things are gonna change so fast.
friday night, kourtney and i went out to these clubs that are really boats (bateaux) on the rhone river. we were brought there by our francais friends. i had such a good time that i brought katie back the next night after a delicious dinner at le nord. here’s a shot of our dinner. lots o ‘ fish :
this was the best salmon i’ve ever tasted. the owner of this place owns a couple other brasseries one for each cardinal direction. his name is paul bocuse. yum.
so i’m trying to write a george michael-esque soul power ballad for tina’s piece and i stumbled upon this album in my research. twenty five is this amazing retrospective of the master’s work (in the recording studio of course) and includes 29 remastered tracks and a shit load of music videos. i highly suggest purchasing this baby on itunes for the meager price of $34.99.
also in my “research” i found that mr. m will totally be playing madison square garden on july 23. holy shit do you want to go with me? let’s buy tickets.
so i took a disco nap tonight at 7pm. that’s when you go to sleep for a few hours before hitting up the club. i put on my favorite-band-du-moment, the knife, and dozed away, ignoring my buzzing cellphone and my cat pawing at my face.
the disco nap totally failed because i just woke up (it’s now 11:47pm) and i’m pooped, but i did apparently, in one state of consciousness or another listen to two albums by the knife, in their entirety, in my sleep.
the brother-sister duo from sweden released a couple of albums in the past couple years and is now on a hiatus so olof dreijer (one half of the knife) can dj on his own apparently. lame. the beats and style of their sound is truly phenomenal and karin dreijer andersson’s awesome, creepy, svensk voice rocks out on tracks like, ‘heartbeats,’ ‘take my breath away,’ and ‘is it medicine,’ from their 2003 album ‘deep cuts.’ their (fourth-ish) album ’silent shout’ is also pretty funk-a-delic. the title track is vocodorama with a phat beat - something i could imagine being played at the pavilion on fire island; math music with a gay ass beat.
the other attraction of this duo is that these two swedes are f’in hot. especially olof. check him out in this kick-ass video for their single, ‘pass this on’ - he’s in blue, dancing with the drag queen :
to learn more about the knife, visit the official band website or this wikipedia article.
so i just recently worked on this amazing piece by kristina satter called, ‘the knockout blow.’ the above image is from a video i made for the piece featuring jess looking like a freak. this piece was fucking amazing (if i do say so myself). i should have posted about this four days ago to tell you all to come see it (’you all’ - who reads this anyway?) but alas i was too busy working on it.
aside from doing some crazy video (which i’ll hopefully be able to post on this site soon) i also wrote a bunch of songs from the amazingly ridiculous text that tina wrote. it was an utter joy. the score ended up being kind of soul-funk-jazz-musical theater-ass jams, and was received very well.
don’t feel bad if you missed it though, we’ll be back at the ontological hysteric theater in august, with some new songs and awse moves.
(btw, tina is a genius who uses words like “awse”)
the piece also featured eliza bent and julia sirna-frest - two kick ass performers with kick-ass pipes - and of course the ‘diminutive and charming’ jess barbagallo playing a fucking werewolf slut. how is this not the coolest thing in the world?! oh wait.. it is.
if i were megaman and i had a million lives
i would walk through the fire for you
i could shoot energy from a hole in my arm
and if it’s cold, i’d keep you warm with my helmet.