Great day...

Time to close the door on a number of things in the past. Today's weather is PERFECT!! and classes were canceled for Ash Wednesday (gotta love Jesuit-run universities). What am I doing indoors? Hasta la próxima...

A profile of Spanish politics

No one has ever accused the Spanish of a simple democratic system. In contrast to our two-party system in America (and at times in the past three parties, and at one point even four major contending parties), Spain has a many parties all with good chances to win seats and perhaps even presidency. A basic article on Spain's government would tell you that this the country is a Constitutional Monarchy or a Parliamentary Monarchy, however this is true in name only. The full title of Spain's government (which is the windy 'parliamentary representative democratic consitutional monarchy'), perhaps gives us slightly more insight but this still is misleading. So what is the face of Spanish politics?

'While our official name makes our government appear like France,' says Professor Raúl G. of the University of Deusto, 'in truth Spain is much closer to a federation. Though not as tightly bound as Germany, which is a federation in the truest sense of the word, but still functioning much like one with the United States of America somewhere between Spain and Germany.'

But the king is not completely without power. Among them, the king - currently Juan Carlos I - has many priveleges we would expect with our executive branch in America: among them, the ability to grant reprieves and pardons, the title Commander in Chief, the commander of armed forces, the ability to remove the President from office, to formally declare war or peace with nations (though only after approval from the General Courts). Aside from the few but important powers King Juan Carlos I enjoys, the rest is decided democratically.

The two largest parties are the conservative Partido Popular and the center-leftPartido Socialista Obrero Español (currently in power after the Partido Popular lost significant support after supporting George Bush in Iraq), both usually go neck and neck in elections. The far-left Unida Izquierda is the third most popular, followed by the combined conservative Cataluñan parties and then the Basque Nationalist Party at number 5 (the impossibly difficult-to-pronounce Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea).

From a glance as simple as this, one would think that the Basque Nationalists are represented by only one major party. This is not the case. One might grow suspicious of such a conclusion when one looks at the numbers. In last year's congressional elections, the BNP only received 300,000+ votes, yet the city of Bilbao alone has 2,500,000 citizens. Clearly something must be up.

If I feel like it, I'll finish this post. Now I'm bored.

.99 €

I want you to look at the picture above taken digitally by me.

That is a plane ticket to Paris from Madrid. If you cannot speak Spanish, try your darndest to figure out the cost.

Have you got it?

That's right...

99 cents in euros. And after tariffs, under €20.

Santander...

I went to Santander yesterday with some others. Santander is a port city of 184,000, located in the mid-north and is based a little on tourism and very heavily on banking. Located in the territory of Cantabria, it is outside of Basque Country so I can actually read the street signs. The beaches there are very beautiful. There the rocks are black, the sand is white, the shells are purple and the starfish are green. I also visited one of the king's palace (wasn't allowed inside) and got to check out his zoo, which is open to the public. The zoo is small and centers around Antartic creatures - penguins, seals, etc... Unfortunately almost none of the medieval buildings survive: in 1941 a tremendous fire burned for two days and destroyed the old sector.



And now for something completely different. The native (alcoholic) drink of the Basque is called Bacharan, made from fermented blackberries. On its own it has a slightly thick consistency similar to Kahlua and tastes like licorice. The drink is popular at parties and is most often mixed with Coca-cola. Bacharan's flavor changes quickly when mixed with other drinks to create surprising new tastes. For instance, the licorice taste of Bacharan is completely lost when mixed with coffee (which is easily my favorite mix) and becomes a very rich treat suitable to accompany deserts. The new taste that is created from mixing the two tastes like a tart form of chocolate (very odd to think about, and very unique), and is so strong that it is served in very small quantities as drinking anything more than a sip would be overkill.

Orson Welles, who loved the Basque land, made a documentary of the place. And for those who speak Euskera: Orson Welles Euskal Herriari buruz egindako dokumentalaren zati batzuk. If you would like to watch this interesting documentary, see below...

A photo from Superbowl Sunday with a short description...

As I wrote in a previous post, I went to Bar Zear-bide a little while back to celebrate the most American of pasttimes: watching commercials during some dumb, 5 hour-long show about two captains who hate each other. No, I'm not talking The Hunt for Red October, nor Crimson Tide, nor U571. Did you know that the show networks air in the space they can't fit commercials into is called the Superbowl? It's true. Wikipedia it if you haven't heard of it. Anyways, at this party to watch commericials, there was some random guy who was blazed out of his mind on marijuana and had a good amount of beer. For most of the night, he stood completely upright, eyes closed, slowly drinking out of a completely empty glass. Everyone kind of enjoyed his presence in a schadenfreude sort-of sense. Eventually he put the glass down and leaned back against the wall. He fell asleep. Standing up. Everyone started laughing and taking photos with him. Here is some evidence:

ugh

Can I go just one day without spending money?!

Something different...

I am tired of talking about Spain. All I have to say is that this place is ridiculously expensive; there's no getting around that.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Damien Rice's O album and I figured I'd put down a list of my favorite few albums from each year spanning back to 2002, when I first began to deeply care about music.

2002 - O, by Damien Rice - Folk, Indie Folk
Classic Irish acoustic sound, light vocals, careful lyrics with some surprising elements: gospel choirs played in reverse and two hidden tracks. Every song is good enough to be a single, and the album sold so well in the UK nearly every song did. My personal favorite never made the radio cut, Cheers Darlin', an existential wedding toast from a jaded lover who missed his chance.

2003 - The Ugly Organ, by Cursive - 90's Emo, Rock
Nobody hates people quite like Tim Kasher. Well, more accurately, no one hates the dark side of people quite like Tim Kasher. Face it, we may be humans but we're still animals. We lie, steal, are infedelious and lazy. The Ugly Organ is Tim's testament of people trying to survive in a world where everyone simply wants to use you. And it works. Tim Kasher is probably one of the most gifted lyricists since the mid-90s.

2004 - More Adventurous, by Rilo Kiley, Country, Indie-country
Rilo combines nearly every genre in this CD. Usually she sticks to country feelings. Guitar twangs, light violin, southern drawl. And she has a lot of that in More Adventurous as well. But here she really attempts to braoden her horizons, in true Saddle Creek fashion, towards less country and more rock, more indie, and more experimental. The song Does He Love You? is absolutely killer, and a Portion for Foxes has clear roots in Metric (and in my opinion, does Metric one better).

2005 - Come On, Feel the Illinoise!, by Sufjan Stevens - Folk, Indie Folk, Christian
In my opinion, 2004 was a bit of a dud in music; 2005 was great. Looking back, I really really wish I went to more concerts that year cause I missed some stellar performances. Illinoise!, the only completley solid album by Sufjan to date, did several remarkable things. First, he dusted off Christian themes with fresh melodies, which was the best thing for Christian music since Johnny Cash (though considering the state of Christian music prior to him, that's not saying much at all). Secondly, its utilization of brass and woodwinds (though hardly original in itself) was done in such a way to remain surprising and enjoyable. Within the confinements of an album, he tries to cover as many Illinois landmarks, both good and ugly, as he can. From the upbeat, hagiographical Chicago, to the southern banjo feel in Jacksonville, to the harrowing, horrifying John Wayne Gacy Jr. Too bad none of Sufjan's other albums have been half as good. Only his album Michigan came even close. 2005 really produced some unforgettable albums that deserve mentioning: The New Pornographers released Twin Cinema, and Wolf Parade gave us Apologies to the Queen Mary with my favorite single from that year, I'll Believe In Anything.

Now I am finally tired and am going to bed. I was right. These blog posts are the best medicine for sleep. Agurrrrr...

Oscars!

Don't get me wrong, just like you I normally don't care about the Oscars. But my dorm is having a competition for picking the most/least right and the prizes are good enough to get me interested. Too bad there's 200 people in my dorm. Still, the odds aren't all that bad. It cost me 2 €uros to enter...

Prizes:

1st. Stereo system with DVD television
2nd. 15.6 inch LCD Television with minispeakers
3rd. Tiny HDTV
4th. 4gb iPod or something
5th. 1gb Samsung
6th. The Best of Los Tres CD (a great band who incidently are from Chile)
7th. Selections from Euskal Herria (I have no idea what that is, but Euskal means is the Basque word for addressing their own language).
For many: Two free entrances to a local cinema.
24 worst finalists: Kinder Sorpreser candy Eggs (they're kind of like Cadberry eggs).

Hopefully that stereo is mine.

Bar Zear-bide

Bar Zear-bide is one of hundreds of Basque bars in Bilbao. Like all the others, its menues are in Euskera first, Spanish second and the grafitti in its bathrooms are always in Euskera (and the occaisional English phrase). But unlike all the other Basque bars that closed early yesterday, Bar Zear-Bide stayed open late. Very late. 5 AM late. It adorned its walls last night (and last night only) with hundreds of removable American flag stickers. It hung a large American flag above the place. It rented a big screen. It put Cardinals and Steelers helmets on the beer tap's faucets. Jerseys were hung on the ceiling. All in the name of a little football.

I don't care about Arizona. And to be honest, I rather dislike the Steelers. But last night, for some reason, I decided to get very into the game. I decided to root for Arizona because I like underdogs and I remember their awwwfulll record only a few years back. I went in a large group split evenly between Arizona and Pittsburgh fans (though scant few of us cared before last night). The bar was packed with Americans (and people from other English speaking countries that showed up just for the chance to speak English). Nobody cared more about the game than Courtney, who is from Pittsburgh. Well, nobody except Taylor, who placed €70 that the Cardinals would beat the six point spread. Both Courtney and Taylor went home happy that night.

Nothing much else to say. Yesterday I ate dinner with the family of a friend. I had forgotten how good real food tastes after eating at our residencia. It was so nice for a change. mmm....

Oh yeah! The other day we found flies in our soups in the cafeteria. I went out for a ke-bab that night.