Day 3: Second Day of the Rest of My Life

IMAGE

I share now with you briefly. What does it mean to have a daily blog? Well, if I don´t want to go blind, I suppose it means lightly touching down every day to say hello. So I say hello. And I would also like to share a photo of the Barceloneta which I left out of the last series. It was quite a beautiful sunset:

Notice the tram right and center

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INTELLECT

I suppose this is more of an observation but seeing as I am reading Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda and constantly being absorbed by his ethnographic thought patters, I have noticed something interesting about Spanish gastronomy (one of my favorite all time subjects) which is a bit more overarching in consequence than my typical note that say bacalao a la llauna has better texture than najavas (albeit, these observations are obviously made without any actual data collecting of my own). [Yes, run on sentences are this author´s poetic privilege today since the beach is calling me to go for a jog].

But what am I saying? Well, with respect to food culture as opposed to specific dishes, I must applaud Spain for the quality of its mean. Many of you probably already know it is known for its food. But it is known for its luxurious food. Have you ever, then, wondered about what the Spanish people actually eat?

People don´t go out and eat a huge plate of seafood every night here. Recession seems to be on the tip of everyone´s tongue, even maybe mine. But that does not mean that people do not eat well when they eat the average Spanish meal.

Today I was looking for junk food specifically. Alright, it´s true, they have KFC right in the middle of town. That´s true and gross. But we must consider is the fact that Almost every block, no, wait, let me say every block, contains a bar that serves not only alcohol but food as well. I am going to draw the parallel here to the American city. Every block in Barcelona, to me, is like every city in the state of Anywhere, USA. And in every town what do we have? KFC, Taco Bell, McDonalds. You finish the list.

Those types of places in Spain, however, are luxurious. Can you imagine. It is a phenomenon that one can find American fast food here because the typical dive is not dehydrated frozen bean slurry and grade C hamburger but little bar, quarter shot of espresso, one little sandwich with Iberian ham, one little salad, two little tapas. Everything is little and relatively harmless. What does every bar have? Tortilla española. Yes, that´s right, every bar serves a very simple omelet with potatoes.

Now where am I getting with this? SPANISH BLOCK : AMERICAN SMALL TOWN ; FRIENDLY HOME COOKED SUSTAINABLE FOOD : FAST FOOD.

Ok, that´s a pretty bad rant, but you havn´t seen the music selection for the day so don´t get too upset yet if you´ve gotten this far into the reading.

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SOUND

Today I will be ridiculing not recommending or sharing. Every day the workers out on the patio listen to the same station that plays Madonna´s new hit, some sultry Spanish pop tunes and then, get this, Cher.

Yes, they play Cher´s Strong Enough. This is where I explain that this is worst song in the world. Cher sounds like a cross dresser who swallowed a handful of marbles in the majority of her recent work but this piece really takes the cake. And yes, the song is so hockey is has a key change that steps up one step.

Another wow. Now I hope you are thoroughly convinced not to visit my little blog until I give time to a real thoughtful post.

With love

-MDO