Tag Archives: barcelona

The ones that got away (concerts that is)

Damn. Its just happened again. I was listening to some Karate, which I hadn’t listened to for ages (really excellent) and was kind of thinking that I should follow up a bit. Ok so they have a “new” album I haven’t heard and an excellent live album. What? They’ve broken up…damn. OK so lets have a look at what Geoff Farina is up to : he’s still touring solo and with Glorytellers. Great news! Lets have a look at the shows…hmmm…right…they played last night right here in Barcelona. Me cag en…damn. Not again! I’ve really got to stop doing that…

Let the music play on…play on…play on…

Been really busy lately finishing off exercises for class and generally just stressed running between work and school altough it all seems to be under control in the end. Moving on to bigger and better things in class and it seems to be getting more and more interesting which is a good sign.

I’ve actually come up with a new song but have had no time to record it or re-record anything which is a bit frustrating but I’ve got so much on my plate at the moment its going to have to wait. Been using Logic almost exclusively lately and really getting into it.

Wedding weekend was crazy with lots of drinking, dancing and concert-going: craziest party weekend in a while!

30th Birthday

Thursday was my 30th and what a day! It all started with finding my bike completely wrapped in toilet paper, courtesy of Pablo and Cento, at 8 o’clock in the morning. Pretty funny and basically put a smile on my face all day. As I walked out, Pablo was there waiting to see my reaction and take photos. Was made even funnier by an old man standing in front of us on the other side of the road saying “Must of been some damn kids on the way home from the disco!”. Was a really full day as I went to work, had lunch with Cris and had three hours of music theory till about 10:30 at night. This meant I got home about 11 at night only to find 14 people jump out from hiding places (which is pretty hard in my flat) shouting “SURPRISE!”. Was a really good complete day and definately an amazing 30th. I had planned to do nothing! What happened was, of course, much better :)

Saturday was round two of celebrating my birthday (the day I had actually “planned” to celebrate, which was also a good one. Started off at one with some drinks and then lunch, and we were out and about till about three in the morning, which included a trip to Camp Nou which was great fun, especially since I hadn’t been there yet. I also got a really great present from everyone which was totally unexpected, just like the surprise party.

Thanks to everyone for making it a great birthday which will definately be remembered for many years to come!

Moltes gràcies a tothom per fer que aquest cumple hagi estat molt especial y per tots els regals : me’n recordaré de aquest cumple per molts anys!

Back in Barcelona

Just got back on Sunday and still somehow adjusting to being back after the massive change of reality. The trip was amazing and two weeks were really not enough time. I definately want to go back and the next trip should be a whole month for sure. It was such a good experience and really makes you appreciate everyday things. The main thing I bring back with me is the approachability and general kindness of Indians in general. Met some really really cool nice people. Was the most diferent place I’ve been to in my life and I can highly recomend it. I’ll be back for sure. Its really mind-blowing the way people somehow make a positive out of any situation. Also being able to speak to anyone on the street is such a good thing. The next time I go should be even better cause I already know what to expect in terms of everyday things (half the trip was probably figuring out what the hell was going on in pretty much every situation!). India is an amazing chaotic harmonic place full of contradictions that live in relatively perfect harmony :) I can really recomend the book “In Spite of The Gods”, which I just finished, as a really good account of India’s current situation, culturally and politically. Its a really easy read for a novice on all things Indian and was a bit of a guide for me as I read it while travelling and answered a lot of questions I had as well as providing explanations for many things I was puzzled by.

I’m still writing up the trip in the previous blog entry to this one (Two Weeks in India) and hopefully I’ll finish it off this week and get on to all the photos and videos…

Was basically a crash back to reality since Monday I was back at work and Tuesday night back at class.

Getting back into class and music type things, I’ve just picked up some M-Audio IE-10‘s which are by far the best (and most expensive, although not the price quoted on the M-Audio page!) headphones I’ve ever had! This are to replace some pretty nice Creative in-ear headphones (EP-630) I had that got the plug bent by being run over by a bus (see entry about that) which I kept on using even though I had to constantly wiggle the plug around in the socket and sections of frequency would cut out every now and again (like no bass all of a sudden and stuff like that). They where really quite good, although they do suffer the usual exagerated bass (which can be good depending on what you use them for), and seriously cut out outside noise. They also replace some crappy cheapo big-ass cup-like headphones I got for like €9. Anyways, exciting headphones the new ones, if headphones can be exciting, and they even have a pseudo-leather carrying case which is really useful, firstly to protect them cause they’re worth protecting and secondly cause I’ll be carrying them around pretty much every day without using them all the time so its basically a sweet deal. They really do sound amazing : great definition and really clear depth resolution (something I hadn’t actually ever heard so clear in any other headphones). Also they seem to completely cut off outside noise which is great for working with although could be dangerous if walking around in traffic. :P

Been listening to the new Slightly Stoopid album and some Fat Freddys Drop this week with my new headphones off my mobile phone, which is a sweet setup and means I’e only got one gadget instead of two to carry around. Just annoying that Nokia are still putting mini-jack plugs instead of normal jack plugs on their phones as it means you have to stick an adapter on there to plug in normal headphones. Hopefully I’ll be making some more music soon as I’ve an exam next week and then things should get quite chilled class-wise till after xmas.

New Songs on Electromite

Finally got some new songs up on Electromite : Fruscness, Berimbim and Getting Up.

I’m still getting used to making music with my home studio but its all coming together, slowly but steadily. Some songs are maybe a little more electronic than I like usually but it is actually fun making them. I just got myself a short mic stand which really helps with recording guitar and I am soon to re-record everything for my other album Dreamery, which is all acoustic, to finally get the quality of the recordings up to a decent level. I’ve got another song for Dreamery recorded but I’m not putting it up until I’ve rerecorded the others as some sort of incentive to get it done!

Anyways, have a listen to the new songs over in the sidebar or on my music page and let me know what you think…

SCUBA and my Car

In the end my car has been sorted out (with a little help) and so I decided not to bin it. It would of been a shame and the thing was I would not have got another one so I would have been without a car. It should still make it for a couple more years and it does come in handy quite often so its a good thing.

And with the car fixed, managed to get to the beach and finally finish of the PADI Open Water Diver course! Hopefully we’ll go do a dive soon but if not we’ll use the free dive we get with the course soon enough. The last dives were actually fun this time as we were just the two of us with an instructor all for ourselves so we were actually just cruising around and looking at stuff relaxed. Thebest dives so far.

Been biking around a bit and recently went for a really long ride around the city just looking for cool spots to ride and found a few. There are some places that you really have to wonder as to why they were built like that. Many places make me think the architect was a skater and now some make me think a biker. :)

SCUBA Diving, biking, possible car putting-to-sleep and music

This weekend Cris and I almost made it to the end of our Padi Open Water Scuba Certificaiton, which we’re now finishing off with the Alpha diving school in Barcelona, but didn’t manage to finish it off due to a minor technicality : my trusty steed (a.k.a. Opel Corsa) looks like its finally given up on me. There was a general engine warning light followed by the engine stopping and refusing to start again. We were on our way back from Tossa, were we’d been doing the first two of four dives we had to do to finish it all off. Anyways, its not the end of the world as this way we get a rest before doing the last two, which we’ll be doing this Sunday, which might not be such a bad thing seeing as the week’s runup to the dives had been mental with long classes, an exam and several pool dives that left us, by the end of the day on Friday after the sea dives, completely exhausted and generally aching. Its quite a lot of fun but the amount of equipment and the weight of it all is pretty mental.

As far as the car is concerned, I’m still talking to the insurance to try and see what to do about the car. Its kind of at the point were if the repair is too expensive, it might be time to send the old Corsa up to the place were my turtles and budgies went, so now I need to find a massive toilet and… :P

The long easter weekend ended up being quite chilled in the end as lots of resting was done. Still been out on my new bike and getting more and more into it. Been getting a bit more fluid on the downhill tracks I’ve been doing and started getting into dirt jumps a bit, albeit small ones at the moment, and still trying to get my landings dialed proper. Its good fun though and the fact that catching the train and funicular gets you pretty much to the top of the hill makes it all that much easier to evolve as you can keep going back even with just a couple of hours to spare.

Been getting more and more into the home music making and hope to have some more tracks done soon. Still have my tracks pretty much split down what I consider electronic and analogue/acoustic which looks like the way I’ll be going for the time being.

Hope everyone had a good long weekend…

Xmas and New Year

What a xmas and new year’s this year!

Update with photos soon… :)

Català Nivell Bàsic

Ja tinc el nivell bàsic de català!

Já é oficial! Demorou mas acho que valeu a pena. Acho que agora vou fazer uma pausa e já seguirei com o próximo nivel quando achar que vale a pena mas, de momento, preciso de umas férias das aulas…é lixado estudar outra vez depois de tantos anos.

Pra quem quiser, tá tudo no site do Consorci Per La Normalització Lingüística e, ao menos o nivell basic, é tudo grátis menos os livros. Muito aconselhável pra quem tiver cá a viver…

New Pipes

I’ve decided that pipe smoking is a good thing and I picked up two new pipes from a place here in Barcelona that’s having a closing down sale and everything is 50% off. Smoking the new pipes made me realize the state the pipe I picked up in the market was in. What was I smoking?! Anyways, the two new ones are excellent and really mellow and comfortable. Think I will only smoke the old pipes at home though and I’ll stick with pre-rolled rollies when out and about. I am definately smoking less thought which is good. Anyways, anyone wondering about pipes, I highly recomend it : excellent way to chill after any hectic day. I’ve even found a good tobaconist with a huge stock of all kinds of tobacco and pipes and you name it. Off for a pipe while I study for my catalan exam…hopefully two weeks from now I will have catalan level B certification!

The New Pipes