imomus | Hip homing in Barcelona

I'm in Barcelona, and I'm wandering about 'hip homing'. That means trying to find the inevitable slummy-but-arty area with the cool secondhand clothes and records and Japanese restaurants and design and art and all that stuff.

I head for the University, thinking there might be something of that there. But, attracted by the magnificent baroque silhouettes on the nearby mountain, I move up the hill instead of down, and instead derive past lots of lovely 'old lady birdcage' buildings on leafy, scooter-noisy streets. Into my head's musical RAM as I drift comes 'Take This Waltz', Leonard Cohen's setting of Lorca. When will they build cultural relevance like that into iPods? As I glance at the attractive, summerclad Barcelona women (and they're dark and lithe, almost Japanese... or is my thing about Japanese women something to do with the fact that my first big crush was the daughter of the Spanish lecturer at Edinburgh University?) there's that dirty line about 'the cave at the tip of the lily' going through my mind. My eye patch hides a twinkle.

An e mail from Mario awaits me in the nearest internet cafe. At last, reliable information on where to find contemporary art galleries, slum regeneration, and graphic design bookstores with Japanese design books, pretty art students, and perhaps some inspiration for the article I'm supposed to be writing for the AIGA Voice while I'm here, 'The Sleep of Reason Breeds... Design'.

Mario's directions are: Liceu metro on Line 3, walk down the Barrio, turn right into the Raval district, make for the Calle Doctor Dou. The bookshop is called RAS. Beyond it there are the two contemp. art museums, MACBA and CCCB. (And hey, Jip, if you're reading this, the thing to do here on a Saturday is visit the flea market at Glories metro. Give me a call at the Hotel Pere IV: 933 209 650.)

Okay, I'm off now to check it all out. The pictures look promising, anyway.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ha, I was looking art-books in this store today,
C/ Doctor Dou is definitely a nice street

have you visited otman? i hear it's nice.

make sure to check out some Gaudi archetecture.
it's amazing- that man is a genius.

The main thing I remember from visiting his house was that he had a very wee bed.

Some chocolat-con-churros in Cafe del' Opera
(across the Opera in the Ramba) should also
be in order.

Seems this practice is like going to Cambodia to golf.

what?

what? sir?

um?

What I mean is that I vastly prefer Nick's notion of disorienteering (traveling without necessarily moving) to hip-homing (moving without necessarily traveling).

I have a feeling that I am about to be Heidegger'd.

ah, i understand. it took me a while to catch the expression.

Don't frighten if someone shout you "NEEEEEEENGG VAYA NOTAS!" or something else, it would be a natural behaivior.

si, o "MIRA, LA BRUJA AVERIA!". it's spanish hospitality, take it or leave it.

Well, I found the bookshop and the MACBA (not the Mistral Cafe, though). That whole area is fabulously vibrant, between the food market and the art places. Within minutes I was dreaming of living there.

The Austrohungaro people had organised a Momus karaoke, so when I came to the Sala Lolita there were all these people on the stage singing my songs, with a projection of the lyrics on the screen behind them! Incredible! It put me in a kittenish mood, so I performed a kittenish show.

And now I have just a few hours to look around, before catching my flight to Paris...

AHGGGGGGGGG naastyyy i want to i want to i want to, the austrohungaro people are great aren't they?they make the sweetest parties, a momus karaoke is something only they could have thought about...
i miss the hot humid weather, the sea, eating tons of cold fruit instead of drinking cold beer
anne is also thinking of moving there with xavier, and i wanted to move back before winter comes and kills me, but i feel i won't have the creative freedom i'm beginning to have here. barcelona is still very small-town-ish.

check out MACBA (museum of contemporary art) and the streets around it. lots of cool street fashion, record shops, musical instrument shops, and skate shops...

The concert was amazing.

Yikes! I've got two visitors from Barcelona today who are in
Japan trying to raise interest in their project using robots
to grow custom shaped bamboo which records the earth's
seismic activity. Or something like that ... Barcelona
very high on my list of places to visit next.

Fans of song writing experiments may find this site
entertaining:

http://songstowearpantsto.com

It seems the owner takes unusual and challenging song writing
requests by e-mail then posts the resulting mp3 on this page.
He's also got some songwriting auctioning going on at eBay.
I wonder if "Stars Forever" was an influence.

Here you can listen to a free-jazz ditty about Mr. Dressup, a heavy metal anthem entitled "Geometry is the New Calculus",
or a ska song about a samurai on an eagle titled "Skamurai".
Quite a few of the songs are pretty good. Most are funny.

I've requested a "cover of any song by Momus done klezmer style".

Don't leave without a listen to "I am Bjork". (in ARCHIVE: 0001-0033)

mario´s directions are the basic contemp art+design tour.
but the are some other things you´ll find at bcn.
just "derive" some days and you´ll find anything you want.

or

check out www.lecool.com, and maybe you can find something interesting to do (the site it´s in english and spanish).

or

tell me and i´ll try to show you some places i´ve been.

the show was really great.
the karaoke too.

saludos
max,

I made a post on your "Why I don't speak Japanese" thread. I'd appreciate if you'd read it. I put it there because it's more topical. But I wanted to make sure you read it. Also, I've been searching for your email address but have been unsuccessful because ILM is down. If you could drop me an email at psouth@uiuc.edu (that way I could ask you the questions I had and you could delete my posts here--and maybe you could alert me to some good CD stores in Japan as I've already tapped out all the Tower Records) or just respond to my post down the page, I'd be most grateful.

Thanks,
Patrick South

(And, hey, tell me more about 'Summerisle'. I've seen it in stores here and have considered buying it. I love 'Oskar Tennis Champion' but am assuming this is nothing like it, since I believe Anne Laplantine does all the music. So sell me on it. Thanks.)

Hip homing in Barcelona

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Don't forget to do Ampollot and visiting Mistral café.

Re: Don't forget to do Ampollot and visiting Mistral café.

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Barcelona

Way off topic but ...

like debord did when he could...

Momus...