Weekend Update

Flamenco isn't really even supposed to be good here; it's an Andalucian thing, and this is definitely not Anadalucia. Still, we are in Spain (sorry, Catalunyans), and when flamenco's good it's amazing so we took a chance on Saturday with a flamenco place that gets mixed reviews. It wasn't that bad. But it was a little cheesy; the singer had moments of both brilliance and awfulness; and at a few points during the show I got the distinct impression that the performers were mocking the audience. Oh well; whenever I finally get back to Sevilla I'll really appreciate the good stuff.

The weather over the weekend was absolutely beautiful. Perfect. On Sunday we went to Park Güell (the Gaudí park), which continues to be one of my favorite places in the whole world, and drank overpriced sangria and got sunburned. I'm pretty sure this isn't just me being a sucker for Europe: Food for the masses here is so much better than in the US. The tortilla was cold; the tuna was dry; the olives weren't great; but still, we were eating tortilla (española) and tuna and olives and sangria at a public park. In the US it would be soda or bad coffee and pretzels and nachos with that awful bright orange fast-congealing cheese product. Anyway, later on Sunday the bad flamenco was more than made up for with a concert by Vengo a Cantautar--more like a collective than a group or band. There seemed to be about 30 different performers, constantly changing who was performing and doing all kinds of different stuff. (iTunes lists the genre of their CD as Unclassifiable.) There was this one women playing an accordion. Now I've never thought of the accordion as anything but jokey, but she was pretty sensual with hers; it sounded really good.

Yesterday the weather got shitty again and, I hate to bask in someone else's discomfort, but I'm feeling so vindicated. My friend from New York, home of record snowfall and six-month winters, is freezing. It's not just me--when it gets cold here it's way colder than what the thermometer implies. I still don't understand, but at least I have some validation.