fuck yeah beach house.

took these pics thursday night at the beach house concert. really wish i had remembered to bring my camera to the AnCo concert, I was right in the front and center for both!

The car we rented to travel through Spain and France with does not receive radio transmission very well, even though it is a pretty nice car...luckily I bought the Beach House and Kings of Convenience CDs, so we have something to listen to, forever (its probably going to get stale pretty quick). 

Really excited for the trip, we start tomorrow morning. But unfortunately, I am starting to feel sick. I woke up very early this morning with a sore throat and sinus congestion. Sucks man. 

Staying in the hotel to rest tonight, found a great Spanish tv station, channel 5. Its like a comedy station or something, and there aren't very many commercials-which is great! Earlier I watched an old Spanish movie (probably from the 60s?) that was hilarious, I wish I knew what it was called.  

I already miss Barcelona, and all of the friends I've made/people I've met. I really really hope that we will be able to stay in-touch and see each other again. I would love the chance to go visit everyone in their home country and then have them come visit me in NYC or DC! That would be so much fun, and maybe cost beneficial (if they let me crash in their place-they can crash at mine).  

Real Love//Wishful Thinking

The past week has been full of long nights of staying out late in Barcelona (in the clubs and on the beach). It has consisted of Twix and kabobs at 4:00 am (on friday) and hamburgers and cereal at 5:00 am (on monday). Good food that late at night/early in the morning is the best.
I only have a few nights left in Barcelona, tonight, tomorrow, friday, and saturday. "Fly Me to the Moon Festival" is tonight and tomorrow (the Animal Collective and Beach House concert), so I only have friday and saturday to go out with friends for the last time here. I'm tired of staying out late so often, but everyone here does it, and most people do it much more than I do. However, I love meeting new and interesting people and just having fun being close to friends. When I remember that, I feel like it is almost better to go out and do my body harm by not sleeping again (versus sleeping and missing the 'fun').    

I love the 'natural' kind of simple fun more than this crazy 'fun' that does not always end happily. It brings me more happiness than anything else, the Fleet Foxies know what I mean:

**I like playing with sparklers in the park too...it may sound childish, but its unaltered 'real' fun.

Its quite true:



'If we ever meet again--will we ever?'
*will we ever meet again?

So much life is wasted in wishful thinking.
Wanting so much to meet again--how can that be possible?
Lives continue, and there is no room for the unexpected.
Little time left, it is nearly worthless to try.
What more can be done? You've waited for the last chance once again.
Wishful thinking will get you no where this time.

¿Otro por favor?

It's so hard to stay up-to-date on posts. I keep falling asleep every time i get the chance (probably because I have been staying out super late--till 5 am--all week). But yesterday, I spent the entire day sleeping, cleaning/organizing, and talking to friends for hours on Skype. I didn't ever leave the apartment, I hardly even left my room (which worried my home-stay mother), but I really needed to rest for a day.

My super-sweet, really awesome roommate left a few days ago/ I miss her a ton. She was so friendly and we got along so well! Most of the friends, that I have made here, left yesterday as well. I hope I don't have to say I will never see them again, because even though I may have only known them for a few weeks, it feels like a life time. I am going to tell everyone that I've met in Barcelona (from all over the world) that they will always have an invitation to stay with me in NYC for a few nights if they ever want to visit, which I hope they do.

Have you ever drunken a 'cortado'? I forgot how amazing coffee in Europe is....trying hard not to drink to much everyday, I don't want to become a caffeine addict. A cortado is a coffee drink (one of three that are common), it is an expresso/cappuccino I guess...anyway its so much better than anything from starbucks. I do miss iced coffee though. If I wake up late and the coffee is already cool, then I attempt to make my self an iced-soy-coffee.
Other food that is really good and not available in the US: turon, hamon serrano, Lemon flavored Fanta, and well I can't remember anything else right now. But I miss peanut butter! I found out that the restaurant/bar Dostrece has breakfast food--american breakfast food. I almost cried when I found out that I can get a pb&j bagel. More than definitely going to have one on monday morning.

What I've been listening too a ton this weeked:



*best song on the album. funny how she doesn't sound that great live, but she sings on most of their best songs.



*I love: 'if I could just leave my body for the night!' It is such an integral part of human nature--the want to feel 'free' and 'alive' and 'connected to the universe'.

How fast must a Zebra run until it starts to look grey?

OMG. Just found one of the most amazing things on the interwebz. Go here, and then move the mouse around a little.

Today I walked around, ended up in a place I've never been before. found myself in a side street of Las Ramblas with several music stores/record shops all in a row. The second one was the best (lower prices, less commercial, more vinyl) so I bought Teen Dream-Beach House and Riot in an Empty Street-Kings of Convenience (two not-so-new albums that I've always wanted).

This week has been great so far, and its only Wednesday. My really good friend from home (that I have known since kindergarden) is spending the summer in Portugal and Spain and came to Barcelona. We got to see each other and it was wonderful. Afterwards I went to the beach at Barceloneta, where all of the nightclubs are (like Shoko and OpiumMar) and met my roommate, some friends I've met in Spain, and met a few more people. Its really great how easy it is to make friends here, I love that everyone is so open and friendly.

Here are some photos from recent excursions:

I really wanna go outside.

Yo.
I like the aesthetic that the Cults always tend to have. This video seems pretty powerful:




You probably know by now, I <3 Pandy Burr. Can't wait to see AnCo in a week and a half!! Omg, that reminds me that I NEED to get tickets ASAP! I hope I can get another "all-access" pass and get the chance to meet them, it would really make my life, but it would be very hard to control my excitement. I wouldn't want to freak them out...




I like the way he described writing music; it seems like writing music is very personal to him, I 'get' that:

Hey! Its a wonderful kind of day!

I listened to the "Arthur" (the kid's TV show with the Anteater) theme song, I can't believe I still know most of the words! haha, and I forgot how good it is, its like a child-appropriate reggae.

The concert that I worked at on friday for my internship had a really good Spanish reggae band play. I've never been to a reggae concert before....I have never sen so many people with dreadlocks/smoking weed all at the same time in one place. It was an interesting experience, I wish I had taken photos.

http://stereomood.com/activity/summer
^^listening to that right now.

feels like summer. feels good. don't want to go back home that bad. I just want home to come to me...all of my friends and stuff could just suddenly appear and I could live in Barcelona, going out all the time, and doing whatever I felt like. The weather is so great here, right now, sitting on the porch is perfect. However, this week it did rain on wednesday and thursday. We were celebrating a friend's birthday with a party at the beach, but we got poured on around 3 am. It was bad, but we had had a great time anyway.

I think the most exciting thing that has happened this week, would be running into the German boys that I met on Wednesday night twice on thursday! Haha, what are the chances? It was really cute, but I still don't remember their names....oh well, I think they left already. I ran into my favorite of them on the stairs of the Metro, I was going down, and they were going up. They yelled "hey" at me while passing, but I kept walking a little, then turned around and yelled "hey" back. It kinda made my day a little.

Too much.

damn, i am too busy to write a full post!
i'll get back to this soon.

out of tune pianos cause me stress.

hi.
bought a book of Yann Tiersen's piano work (1994-2003). love it. it costed 30 Euros (like 45 American Dollars) but I think it is worth it. now i just wish i had a piano to myself here in Spain that I could practice on.
strangely, the office in which I have work was originally used as a choir society practice area/office for the director of the choir. there are still a ton of photos and trophies that belong to them in the office. In the next room over, a larger carpeted room, there is a bunch of chairs and an old up-right piano, and i think a mini organ? I haven't lifted the lid to see what it is, but it has two huge pedals on the bottom. Maybe when no one is around I will go and check them out and play a little (I feel very much out of practice). I miss playing music a lot...every time I see people playing for change on the street I feel the urge to ask them if I can join in, or play their instrument. But that probably isn't the best idea, sometimes I will come across a musician in the metro or alleyway who is actually very talented and looks pretty normal (more like, mentally stable), so I might toss them up to one Euro, which is quite a bit i think.

http://listn.to/MELPmusic/player#t=0&pos=0&p=0
^good musicz, check it out.^

If you are into Salsa and/or Latin Jazz, and will be in Barcelona this weekend, I very highly recommend the first-ever Salsa & Latin Jazz Festival in Barcelona! The amazing music heros, Ruben Blades and Chucho Valdes will be playing! and I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of dancing and drinking as well, if thats what you are into. The page on Facebook is here, and the website is here.
Details: Saturday, July 16th, 6:00 pm at Poble Espanyol (Pueblo Español). Other groups playing are La Sucursal S.A. ad The AfroCuban Messengers. This festival has been organized by La Trifulca, along with Dostrece, Moritz, and many more. Tickets are about 30 €. I am going, so I hope to see you there...I will probably be working at the merch table....haha.

Is Majestical a Word?

Took a cable car up to the Castle Montjuic yesterday. It was magnificent, I should have brought my camera....I'll have to go back! It was also beautiful at night when you could see the entire city lit up from the castle at the top of the mountain. Kind of like you were up-side-down because below you was dark like space, and it happened to be extraordinarily vibrant that night.

They (people who work for the museum maybe?) played the movie Inglorious Bastards (projected) on a gigantic screen in the garden of the castle. There where possibly a thousand people or more there picnicking on the grass (or if they where smart, blankets/chairs/etc), to watch the movie. It had Spanish subtitles, so the parts that were not in English were harder to understand...especially when the subtitles are in front of a white background and blend in. We had to leave before it ended to catch the very last metro home, but I like Quentin Terrentino, so I'll have to watch it again, this time with English subtitles.
A small jazz group also played music on a stage until the sun went down, they were hard to hear from the chatter of people conversing and eating, but from what I heard, I loved it. I think they even played a Frank Sinatra song; they had a wonderful female singer.  

Yo. Here are some pics from sight-seeing in Barcelona:

*I realize now that I didn't really take as many pictures as I thought I did. Next time I will charge the battery and put more space on the SD card.

Ghe-deh?

^^ I think thats how you incorrectly pronounce guide in Spanish. Like the way Americans say it, because in Spanish, it actually ends with an a. I think its funny, I don't really know why. Its just one of those words that gets stuck in my head (like a song), and I keep saying it over and over for no reason.

Today makes one week since I've been in Barcelona. But it feels like I've been here much longer than that--but not in bad way, I've just done so much and met so many people.
Oh and exciting news! Today, on my way to my internship, two different people asked me for directions! They must have thought I was a local! I think they were both Spaniards too, because they had the accent and spoke good spanish. Unfortunately, I only know the city a little, so I had to say: "hmmm, yo no se..." and they were disappointed.

Yesterday I went to Parke Guell and Sagrada Familia. I took a ton of photos. I'll put them up soon--I am going to try to get used to my mac and use iPhoto instead of Picnik or Photoshop (which is only on my pc) because I hear it is very convenient.

While eating at a cafe, my roommate, two friends, and myself made a 'Barcelona Bucket List' yesterday on a band-aid wrapper of things we want to do in Barcelona. There is still so much left to do, and it feels like time is running out! I only have three more weeks, and they only have two.

Here are some of the things that I still feel the need to do in the next three weeks:
- shopping during las rebajas
- go to a least one nightclub right off the beach (in Barceloneta)
- shop at the flea market in El Gothico on Thursdays
- go to the beach during the day time and tan
- take the cable cars to the mountain top and bring a camera!
- go to the chocolate museum
- check out the Palaude la  Musica Catalana
- picnic at el Parc de la Creusta del Coll
- see the Font Magica de Montjuic at night
- go eat at tapas bars
...I must be missing something.

*Update, 7/18/11: I have officially crossed 3 things off of this list, as well as do somethings that I forgot to put on the list (go to the Picasso Museum, eat a ton of gelato).

No Harm Done.

I just saw the band Cinema dub Monks, at Dostrece, a restaurant/bar/small venue in Barcelona. I still dont really understand, but my internship also has something to do with working there, with the owner....maybe choosing bands to come play? I am not quite sure yet.

Anyway, they people I work with told me I would love it, after they heard some of my music/I told them about what I am studying. I almost didn't go because I was really tired, but I went, and they were right, I loved it.
I think they describe their music as 'experimental Japanese jazz'. Well, it is hard to understand unless you hear it (sorry this isnt the best video):




My roommate (from my home-stay) is a such a great person. I didn't believe her at first when she told me about this song:



*Its an ok song. I just wanna sing with all of my friends too, so I 'get' that.


I feel like listening to this song, its sounds like beautiful sex:




Oh, and this super cheesy dubstep song is great at 0:37 seconds, if you haven't heard it you need to:




Do you like cheesy dupstep?
Who do you think is the 'Prince of Dubstep' (via HRO)?
Do you want to sing with all of your friends (in Barcelona)?
Have you gone to any 'hip' concerts lately?

fly me to the moon.

AnCo is playing in Barcelona while I am still here? My life is complete! I regret complaining that I have to miss their concert/thinking I and would never get the chance to see them play. I am quite happy. Its for a two day festival called Fly Me to the Moon, I've never heard of it before, but it seems pretty legit. Fuck yeah, Beach House and Joanna Newson are playing too! Here's the link, if you don't believe me, sorry its in Spanish!

Got Lost. Whats New.

I got lost on the metro yesterday. Came out of the wrong exit, went back, used the correct exit, but walked a mile in the wrong direction. Then I decided that I must have got off at the wrong stop because I didn't recognize anything. So I went back to the earlier stop and walked around for another 10 minutes...Then realized I was right the first time and went back. Then I finally decided to call someone to help me. I wasted 2 metro rides...and walked over a mile in the heat. I sweated like crazy and then chugged a ton of water--room temperature water and not from the bottle, because thats frowned upon here. It did not satisfy me thirst!!!

But had a great time last night. Went to Barcaloneta with my roommate (from my homestay) and some of her friends, and some of their friends and roommates. It turned into a really good night, we met a lot of people from many different places, spoke in several different languages together, and paid a waiter 5 euros to let a few of us use the bathroom in the bar before it closed. We got home around 4:00 am. The taxi driver drove scary fast and started singing to Rihanna. But we got home safe!

We are gunna go 'bar crawling' tonight with some Brits we met last night. It'll be fun, they said they'd let us start small (so no 'bar golf' quite yet).

Oh, and below are a few pictures I that took this earlier week.

My room on the 6th floor:

a side street of Las Ramblas:

From the porch, it looks better in real life:

*Its annoying to bring my camera around, so thats why I have only taken like 10 photos and only a couple good ones. My Nikon is heavy and expensive, and I have to bring my laptop to my internship, that it is also heavy and expensive, and I have to fit them both in a purse, so its just a pain. Barcelona is known for pickpockets, so I'd rather just not risk loosing everything.

*Damn, I still haven't written anything in Spanish. I'll get to it, tomorrow...but you know, tomorrow never comes. But I promise that my Spanish has gotten so much better in such little time!

Barcelona, Day 2.

Barcelona is beautiful! I love it so far, I just wish my Spanish was a little better (but it will be soon, I've already noticed improvement), and I miss everyone/everything at home a little. My mom is going to Skype me with the puppy tomorrow! Sadly, Chuleta (my puppy) is who I miss the most. She is so cute, and I keep seeing dogs on the street that remind me of her.

11:00 pm: I'm sitting on the porch right now (on the 6th floor) and there is a building beneath us that has lots of stay cats on top of it. From what I understand, people from the surrounding apartments throw food to them. and they are all 'fixed' and maybe someone cleans up their 'living space' every once in a while. Kinda reminds me of the musical Cats.

There are a lot of customs in Spain that are not too different then anywhere else, but are just odd to foreigners. A few examples:

• Spaniards don't like to drink cold water because they think it will give them a cold/sore throat. 
• Its not normal to drink anything out of the bottle, you have to pour everything into a glass.
• Lunch is the biggest meal, but dinner is not that small either.
• Most people don't start work until 9, break for lunch at 2, go back at 4, and leave around 9.
• Most vehicles on the road are mopeds.
• Everyone is very energy conscious: there is little air conditioning, 4 different types of large recycling/garbage bins every few blocks, no one owns dryers.  
• They use military time.

*I like a lot of these things, but I am just not used to them.
I think my favorite thing about Spain right now, is that it doesn't get dark until 10:00 pm.
I also like that the metro is easy and effective---if you know where you are going. The best part is that you have to push a green button or pull a lever in order for the doors to open (they don't open automatically). haha, its fun, but I recommend anti-bacterial gel afterwords.

4:30 am: I just fell asleep on my laptop, I was quite confused when I woke up, with my head on the bottom end of the bed. Now that I got up to use the bathroom, I can't go back to sleep. I was going to write a lot more today, but I can't remember most of what I wanted to write about (because I passed out).

Oh, all clothing stores are having "Rebajes"/"Rebaixes" right now. Which means everything has to go on sale (via government required). The sales are really great, well known stores are up to 50% off, and might get to 75% by the end of the week. I can't wait to shop, but I am afraid I'll splurge (the Euro is worth 1.5 dollars).

Jet Laggg

It's 00:00 am in Barcelona right now (gotta get used to military time), and 6:00 pm in the east coast of the USA, oh right. Happy 4th! I have a little jet-lag, but its not as bad as I expected, its just weird...I hate planes, they always hurt my ears, I have ruptured my eardrum--on the right side--at least twice. It didn't rupture this time, thank goodness! But it feels all cloudy/puffy and my hearing is muffled...if that makes sense.  
I promised myself I would start writing blogs in Spanish (and english) as soon as I got to Spain, I will start tomorrow!

I'm listening to Bon Iver right now, I love how soothing it is, but it kinda reminds me of cheesy 80's love ballads. I hope that wasn't the point to it, and I hope I didn't just ruin the album for you.

If you like music blogs, you should follow or 'like' Stereotype Helsinki (link to blog) on Facebook. They upload new videos and links everyday on their facebook page.

Arcade Fire. My friend Patrick is right, Sprawl II is probably the best song on The Suburbs. But thats biased, and the rest are pretty good too--obviously (via the grammys). They supposedly released the short film directed by Spike Jones, Scenes From the Suburbs, on the interwebz. Haha! I found it! It is a available on MUBI.com, here is the link---oh, maybe you have to sign up first, before you can see it. But it is worth it.
Have you seen it? What do you think?

Adios, mis amores.

Yeah. i just got a MacBook Pro. I've never really used a mac before, and i am kinda confused, but i had to have some fun with photo booth.
Happy Cyclops:

 Siamese Twins:

I guess life is pretty good! The NYU orientation was so much better than I expected, and I can't wait to move to NYC! We walked all over the West Village and went up to Highline Park (which I have been wanting to see for a long time) and ate lots of food. All the Music Technology kids 'bonded' or whatever. We got along really well, and apparently had more fun than everyone else. I think its because we are all pretty 'chill', but you have to be a little dorky to be a Music Tech major. The Jazz Performance and the Music Composition majors all seemed pretty cool too, but I didn't really get to meet them all. 

I leave for Spain tomorrow! I am constantly anxious, but its in a good way i guess. My internship sounds like so much fun, I am working in the music business with a musician/actor. 

gotta go finish packing!!