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San Isidro Madrid 15 May 2008
2008-05-15 23:15:00
What a perfect day it was for today's Madrid 's Patron Saint, San Isidro el Labrador. The weather could not have been more perfect. Many people seemed to stay away in the morning because of the cool temperatures and mostly cloudy skies, no doubt fearing rain - but it never happened. I was watching the festivities on TeleMadrid this morning and they noted the low turn-out so I took my opportunity to go early, arriving at the line at about 11:45am to drink water "with curing powers" at the fountain alongside the Ermita del Santo - La Ermita de San Isidro. The line went fast, about 25 minutes (which is REALLY fast, usually taking an hour), and I happily took a glass (yes, a glass made of glass) filled with water from the fountain behind the stand. I had to wonder how many people had drunk from the same glass from which I was now drinking. Hmmm... But fine. I was there, I had no refillable bottle as others had brought, so I took my chances and hoped the water's "healing powers" would ...
More About: 2008

Madrid Gym Observations
2008-05-14 16:20:00
Today's blog entry is somewhat of a rant and has little to do with Madrid or with Spain - I hope.DISCLAIMER: The following is not intended to generalize about all health clubs in Madrid or the exercise professionals working in them. It's only my personal experience with one gym in Madrid.I like to go to the gym. Well, I don't LIKE to go but I know that if I don't I'll have more difficulty living daily life in the present AND in the future. I do it not because I love the pain, the heavy breathing, the constant sweating, the hot and humid locker rooms, the frequently empty toilet paper dispensers, and certainly not to look like many of the 20-somethings I see around me with their "fit and trim and hardly exercise to get that way".I do it also to avoid - or to stave off - becoming overweight, which is a greater challenge with every passing year. I do like having visible muscles and a flat stomach but haven't had the latter for quite awhile now even though I only eat two meals a d...
More About: Health , Observations

2008 San Isidro: Madrid Patron Saint Celebration
2008-05-13 12:03:00
2008's San Isidro is upon us here in Madrid , Spain. The official day for San Isidro, Madrid's patron saint, is 15 May but San Isidro Events are planned for an entire month. Thursday, May 15th, is THE day.The "Pradera de San Isidro", which are the gardens or park grounds around the Ermita de San Isidro (the San Isidro Chapel - not to be confused with the church of the same name in downtown Madrid), is fortunately located very near me and is the location where Goya created many of his famous paintings of the city of Madrid more than 200 years ago. The Pradera de San Isidro is already lined with its stands and kiosks, the amusement park rides have been assembled, and the musical stage has been constructed. The only thing which remains are the people. The area will open Wednesday night at 8pm.Going to the "Romería" (saint's day party of the local village) in the Pradera de San Isidro is a love-hate situation. I LOVE going to see all the children and older folks dressed in traditional...
More About: Celebration , Saint , Patron , 2008

Madrid Spring: Easy and Simple
2008-04-28 00:26:00
Sunday night, 11pm. I just had my dinner (leftovers from lunch) of baked chicken (in soy sauce) and chicken croquets along with a rosé Peñascal wine. Very good. Slightly effervescent. I was having my dinner at the table in the sitting room, near the television, and am watching the movie "Apocalypse Now" - in English. Thank goodness for satellite television where you can choose either the "original version" or the default Spanish version. I MUCH prefer watching American movies in English than in Spanish. I like hearing the actor's voices, no matter their native language.Odd weekend here in Madrid . The weather was absolutely perfect, nearly summerlike - and I didn't even leave the house, not since Friday afternoon when I came back from the shopping. Most of the weekend entailed work, playing videogames, watching movies, and reading the newspapers. Oh, and lots of cooking. While I don't do it very often, I really love to cook here. I probably cook much more here than I ever did in C...
More About: General , Spring , Simple , Easy

Granada: Alhambra, Albayzin, Sacromonte
2008-04-03 13:19:00
GranadaMan Visits Granada, Spain!Photo: Plaza Nueva, Granada CityWow. What a trip. I realize I say that after every trip but it always seems to be true, one trip outdoing the previous one. Or maybe that's simply the magic and mystery of Spain. It always leaves you wanting more. It always leaves you wanting to return.This morning, March 31, 2008, I'm writing at about 7:30am from the train from Granada returning to Madrid. The train is nearly empty. My car has 3 persons including me and the other 2 are asleep. The sun is still down but I can see the embers of an imminent sunrise, a few dots of light on the mountains north of Granada. Just beautiful. Peaceful.Five nights were planned for Granada but I got a bonus 6th night due to the hour change - without my knowledge. I left Madrid from Atocha train station at about 7:30am last Tuesday, March 25th 2008 and had a fast-moving 5-hour train ride on the standard RENFE train. No high speed AVE trains are in the works for this stretch just...
More About: Alhambra , Granada

Semana Santa in Spain
2008-03-14 22:56:00
Semana Santa , or Holy Week, is in near-full-throttle position here in Spain . While today's only Friday evening, one notices immediately fewer cars in the streets and the more traffic on Spain's highways. Madrid, on the other hand, will be comparatively tranquil with little traffic and lots of available parking spaces as seemingly half the population leaves town.SOME PEOPLE like students, teachers, and some businesses, take the entire week off while many others only close only on "Jueves Santo" or Holy Thursday and through Easter weekend.Other people will go to the family home in the "pueblo" for rest and relaxation while many others go down south to Sevilla, Granada, Córdoba, Cádiz, or the beaches of Málaga.Still others will take advantage of the free time to fly to France or Germany or even to the United States where the exchange rate is VERY favorable for those carrying Euros.VERY unfortunately, the weather forecasts for Holy Week in Spain are not very positive, expecting cloudy...
More About: Semana

11 March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings Anniversary
2008-03-11 23:46:00
It really does seem like only yesterday. But in fact, 4 years have passed since the March 11, 2004 Train Bombings in Madrid by terrorists. It was a day when it seemed that time stopped altogether. Nothing else in the world existed.In Columbus, Ohio, the night before the train bombings, I set my computer to record Madrid morning's radio news which I did every night. The next morning, upon awaking, I'd burn the saved MP3 file to a CD-RW and then take it to work and listen there.But this particular morning was different - and would never be forgotten. I turned on my computer as usual, eating my cereal while going to the Spanish news websites. And that's when I saw it.I'd recently been able to subscribe to TVEinternational through my cable service and so I turned on the TV immediately - at about 5am or 11am local Spain time. To my horror I saw the the horrible aftermath just 2 hours after the bombings took place. Atocha Train Station was chaos as were the streets surrounding it. The...
More About: Anniversary

Zapatero re-elected as Spain's President
2008-03-10 00:06:00
With the elections nearly over and 95% of the votes already counted, both the conservative party Partido Popular ("PP") and the socialist party Partido Socialista Obrero Español ("PSOE") have acknowledged the victory of PSOE's José Luis Rodriquez Zapatero to be Spain's president for another 4-years. Mariano Rajoy, PP's party elect, has already called Zapatero congratulating him on his victory.Today, Sunday 9 March 2008 was my FIRST President ial election experience here in Spain. And what an experience it was. I cannot vote as I don't (yet) have citizenship but I went with some friends whom did vote first thing this morning.First of all, I love the Spanish voting system whereas the elections ALWAYS take place on a Sunday so more people are available and free to vote. NOT like when elections take place on a weekday/workday and a real effort has to be made, ask for work time off to vote, etcetera. I also like the "rule" which says no party, no candidate, no media outlet can make ne...

International Working Women Day
2008-03-08 10:32:00
As in most of the rest of "The Modern World", Spain recognizes working women in all the media outlets - including THIS one. Today is it, 8 March 2008. http://www.internationalwomensday.com/htt p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International _W omen's_DayEven I've noticed an obvious shift in sex of traditionally male positions. Most notably, to me, is the number of female doctors - at least in Madrid - in the hospitals and local doctors offices. The doctor I had when I first moved to Madrid 2 years ago was a man. Shortly after "joining", that man left and was replaced by a 50-something woman. We get along very well, as well as with the man before her. But in waiting for my turn to see my doctor I can't help but notice that ALL the doctors at my doctor's office (called a "Centro de Salud" or "Ambulatorio") - except for one man - are women! One time I took a friend to a "Centro de Salud" in downtown Madrid after a non-life-threatening accident and he was attended by not one but two female doc...
More About: Women , Working

Ballet Nacional de España in Madrid
2008-03-06 09:19:00
Last night I had the honor of attending the Ballet Nacional de España: Elegía-Homenaje a A. Ruiz Soler, El Café de Chinitas. This was an homage or dedication to Antonio Ruiz Soler - a flamenco dancer, choreographer, and director born in Sevilla in 1921 and died in Madrid in 1996. He was more familiarly known as "Antonio el bailarín". So last night's ballet was ballet with a touch of flamenco.First, the place... It took place in the famed Royal Theater or El Teatro Real in Madrid, between the Plaza Isabel II and the Plaza de Oriente. (metro: OPERA) Wow. What a place. The place is grand. GRAND! And very nice. It was built in 1850 and closed in 1925 due to damages caused by the construction of the metro station, ÓPERA, just below the theater. It reopened in 1966 totally remodeled. It closed again in the mid-1990s for remodeling once again.I've been inside twice or three times before, attending classical concerts but always sitting in the uppermost seats near the ceiling. The views ar...
More About: Entertainment

Madrid AVE Train to Barcelona Now Open
2008-02-23 12:17:00
[The below blog entry is a slightly modified version of the same entry on my Barcelona Blog.]The high-speed AVE train connecting Madrid and Barcelona was finally completed and its first official trip took place on 20 February 2008. Media outlets all of Spain ran a story about it including multi-page articles on the topic with graphics, photos, interviews, and (at least) two newspapers even made an interesting "stop watch" comparison, step-by-step, of Train Travel to Barcelona versus Airplane Travel to Barcelona. I'll discuss this later. A 16-year wait has finally come to pass. FINALLY! The first high-speed train run between the two cities arrives ahead of schedule and more than 70,000 tickets have ALREADY been sold for future trips. Wow. That's incredible. The Nuts-and-Bolts: There are 17 trains going in each direction per day, from Madrid Atocha train station to Barcelona Sants train station, with a total capacity of 13,498 passengers per day. The best/fastest travel time is 2...
More About: Open

Live Music at Colonial Norte Madrid
2008-02-22 18:09:00
Photo: Exterior of Princípe Pío in Madrid at night. See in the lower righthand corner the purple neon lights and Colonial Norte sign.  The Colonial Norte "space" includes the entrance at the lower level, a restaurant on the second floor, and the discotheque, concert hall, and cocktail bar on the top floor just under the iron ceiling beams. Inside the Princípe Pío building is a mall with cinemas, restaurants, retail stores, and a supermarket. Below ground is the intercambiador for metro and local trains.Colonial Norte occupies part of the Principe Pio train station in Madrid, located at the bottom of "La Cuesta de San Vicente" and next to the big gate of the "Glorieta de San Vicente", very near the Rio Manzares river.The train station, which served northern Spain, was once called "La Estación del Norte" and was built in 1861 and designed by Gustave Eiffel. It was converted to a kind of multi-purpose mall a few years ago and has become a true commercial success. Underground, one ...
More About: Music , Entertainment , Live Music , Live

Madrid's Cine Ideal - Original Version Movies
2008-02-18 00:14:00
Cine Ideal, located on the Plaza Jacinto Benavente in Madrid near Puerta del Sol, is part of the Yelmo Cineplex chain. It's also my favorite cinema here for showing Versión Original movies in English - if they're American or English movies - but also for movies in their original version from, say, France, Romania, China, or wherever - but then with Spanish subtitles.It's also the location of nearly all of the MadridMan's Madrid Movie Club gatherings.I see all my Hollywood movies here. They have approximately 10 screens and generally run about 13 films at a time. Right now, 9 of the 13 movies are Hollywood movies, all show in their original versions with Spanish subtitles.The cinema is pretty historic too, I believe. The beautiful ceiling crown molding in most of the individual screening rooms is evidence of that. But the rest of the building is totally modern. Most of the "salas" are of decent size. One or two is downright tiny, somewhat bigger than a big-screen television, but ...
More About: Movies , Entertainment , Cine , Version

Acquiring Spanish Citizenship
2008-02-14 09:49:00
Not to be confused by the popular book by the same name, "The New Spaniards" was the headline for an article in yesterday's free daily newspaper ADN: Madrid edition. I was reading it on the bus while heading downtown. It's also relative to a previous blog entry, "The "Spanish Image" for Travelers". The official title of the ADN article is/was:Los Nuevos Españoles22.309 Extranjeros [in Madrid] se Nacionalizaron en 2007("22,309 Foreigners [in Madrid] became Spanish Citizens in 2007")Unfortunately, I can't find a link to this article on their website but here are some of the points which I found interesting:In 2007 41% more foreigners in Madrid became Spanish citizens than in 2006Carabanchel, a Madrid district, had the highest percentage of immigrants with 23%, 59,000 totalBarajas, also a Madrid district, had the lowest percentage of immigrants with 16%, 5,400 totalMY district of Latina had second highest percentage of immigrants with 18%, 49,000 totalAccording to a census, today th...

Common Questions to MadridMan
2008-02-13 18:24:00
I suppose because relatively few people leave their native countries to live elsewhere - whether temporarily or permanently - it's an oddity to live abroad. It's probably even MORE odd for a United Statesen to leave his "Land of the Free/Home of the Brave" for some second-tier country (tongue-in-cheek ethnocentric comments), leaving all prosperity - and dreams of prosperity - behind.But WHO chooses to leave their country? Among them include refugees in war-torn countries, poor nations, people whom might have business in their destination country, to re-join family, political, social, and racial reasons are the ones which come to my mind.The following is a homemade interview of MadridMan by J.C. Ciudano... but some of the questions have been posed to me several times.Q: Was moving to Madrid for good the right choice for you?A: For me it was the right choice. Everyone has to deal with his own demons regarding leaving your family, country, and way-of-life behind. I've dealt with min...
More About: Questions , General , Common

Super Tuesday in Madrid: USA Primary Elections
2008-02-05 10:40:00
It's amazing to me that for the last 5 days, "Super Tuesday" is a headline across Spain and probably across the globe. A lot is riding on this one for both the Democrats and the Republicans - and for the world.The topic seems to be on the lips of most Spaniards as well. Just in the last 24 hours it seemed that every commercial break included a news clip about today, "Super Tuesday".Last Sunday I went to a luncheon here in Madrid with about 12 other people, mostly Spaniards. I was the only American. The American Primaries were on everyones mind. Is this normal? Do Spaniards really care that much about the PRIMARIES in the United States? I can understand the Presidential elections being of great interest to everyone in the world.... but the primaries? Maybe it's more for the novelty of the two Democrats running; one white woman and one black man. Or maybe it's the possibility of "newness" of power for a woman or for a black man in The White House - a first in US History.I'm regist...
More About: Elections , General , Primary

January Spring in Madrid(?)
2008-01-24 15:49:00
Here I am in Madrid , Spain. It's nearly 4pm and I'm watching a Spanish movie, "Adosados" (1996) after a lunch of pasta with green olives and Ribeiro white wine.The thing is, the sun is getting a little lower now, over the building being constructed across the street. But I still have the sun shining into my living room. And all the windows are open. Don't get me wrong. It's not really warm. Well, "warm" for me is a relative term. I don't know the temperature but I know that I'm perfectly comfortable in my jeans and sweatshirt. There's no wind. Definately no rain. There's no clouds in the sky. And there's almost no wind. It's an absolutely perfect day for me, but....... IT'S JANUARY 24th, 2008!!! AND THIS IS WINTER!!Last year at this time I certainly had all the windows closed and was bundled up for cold weather and cloudy skies. Okay, maybe there wasn't a cloudy sky, but it was certainly cold! Wasn't it? Maybe there is something to this whole Global Warming, Climate Cha...
More About: Environment , Spring , January

Merienda: Not for everyone
2008-01-18 19:18:00
I JUST got back from grocery shopping ("la compra") in the neighborhood. I also went to the snack shop (they ONLY sell snacks) for "supplies" for Sunday's NFL Football playoffs. And since it was 6pm I also decided to stop for MERIENDA.I had "café con leche" - coffee with milk - and toast with olive oil and salt. My favorite. Total tab: 1.80?. It's so incredibly cheap that today I asked the bar guy if it was the correct price. I said something like, "That's for BOTH the coffee and the toast with olive oil?" and he said, "Yes. Why? What's wrong?" and I said, "Nothing. I thought it was more," not wanting to admit that I thought the price was cheap. I would've been happy paying twice that amount!What is Merienda? According to the Wikipidia page on Merienda:Spanish: "La merienda es la comida que se toma antes de la cena, a media tarde. Suele tomarse una pieza de pan con embutido, pastas o bollería, acompañado de alguna bebida, fría o caliente, como café, batido, chocolate caliente o...
More About: Food

Balconies of Madrid
2008-01-18 00:18:00
Europeans in general can be partially credited for the "invention" of the balcony. Most of these appear in HOT countries like Spain, Italy, Greece, and even southern France.To me it's amazing to see thousands of balconies around Madrid city and rarely ever see anyone ON them! Why not? I imagine it's a privacy issue. What a waste of good space and freedom. I guess a balcony is ONE thing but a terraza is quite another. On a terraza you can have your meals, sit and talk with friends or family, or just take a nap in the sun. On a balcony you can do little more than lean out over the street and pedestrians below.Now it's wintertime in Spain and the temperatures are cool to cold. In Madrid, now after midnight, it's downright cold. BUT I LOVE IT because I'm "a hot body". I'm dreading the arrival of late spring and summer. Ugh.My balcony and my kitchen are my two handy escapes from the (gas) heat of the house or just to take in some fresh air. The kitchen is handier because in there t...

Spanish Olives and Spanish Olive Oil
2008-01-13 20:32:00
To say I'm a FAN of olives and olive oil would be a gross understatement.Olives and olive oil are part of a Mediterranean diet - and certainly are part of my daily diet. It's rare if I pass one day here in Spain without eating olives and often have a dish of them with my dinner or lunch or just for an afternoon or evening snack with a can of beer. Being offered a small plate of green olives in bars is always a very welcome free tapa.Here at home I frequently make pasta or rice dishes and one of the most important ingredients is green olives. For these dishes I'll buy the small, sealed plastic bags of green manzanilla olives "Sin Hueso" - without pitts. These olives are always from the Seville area.I also always keep a good supply of canned green olives stuffed with anchovies. What?! ANCHOVIES? That's disgusting, right?! RIGHT! They were disgusting the first, second, and even third time I tried them. After that, I was hooked. And I don't even like anchovies! In Spanish , they're...
More About: Health , Food , Olive Oil

Madrid Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos de Oriente
2008-01-05 18:36:00
Today, the 5th of January 2008 - in fact, RIGHT NOW - the annual Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos de Oriente are passing down the Paseo de la Castellana and Recoletos to the Plaza de la Cibeles. It all started at 6pm local time.One can watch LIVE online on internet TV via the TeleMadrid link on MadridMan's Live Radio, TV, Music, and Movies page.Magic Kings Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar are passing down the Castellana of Madrid, tossing thousands of kilos of tiny candies to the awaiting hands of tens of thousands of children. If the children have been good all year the Reyes Magos (a.k.a. "The Three Wise Men") will come to their houses tonight and leave presents. If they've been bad, a big lump of coal will be their only gift.I left the house at about 5:45pm to go see my local neighborhood Cabalgata de los Reyes, all buzzing with childlike anticipation. The closer I got to the street down which the Cabalgata travels the more people I was passing - GOING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!! ARGH...

El Escorial - Valle de los Caidos
2008-01-03 10:43:00
The village of El Escorial is an easy daytrip from Madrid. It can be done by bus or by car. The 16th century royal palace and monastery there, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, was built by King Philip II and is one of true jewels of La Comunidad de Madrid. It's also where past - and future - Spanish royals are buried.Yesterday, 4 Guys from 4 Nations visited the nearby (to Madrid) village of El Escorial by car. We were 1 person from Spain, 1 person from Denmark, 1 person from England, and 1 person from the United States. Talk about your international representation - all ambassadors for our countries in El Escorial. We tried to behave ourselves.We'd arrived at about 12:30pm at the gate to enter the "park" of Valle de los Caídos. There was a short line, not moving. We asked what was happening and the guard told us they were removing ice from the access road and putting down salt and that we should go into El Escorial and come back later. Okay. Fine. No problem.It was a cold day, very clo...
More About: Travel , General

Dia de los Santos Inocentes - How Spanish Am I REALLY?
2007-12-28 16:22:00
Today, 28 December, is Día de los Santos Inocentes in Spain and Latin America. It's also Friday. In short, it somewhat historically commemorates a Christian just-after-the-death-of-Christ legend in which King Herodes ordered the deaths of all children younger than 2 years old which were born in Bethlehem. Gruesome. Later in this entry I'll explain what this means to Spaniards today.Today I slept late. Too late - having stayed up WAY past my bedtime (as if I had one). The sun was shining and I could hear the nearby works of a building being constructed across the street. I went about my morning routine, did some work after breakfast, and decided to go get my hair cut.Got dressed and walked through the buzzing neighborhood to my local Peluquería, walked in, said hello to the barber and had a seat in the waiting-area as the finishing touches were put on a female client's hair. I said good morning and "How are we doing today?" to the old woman sitting in the waiting-area seat next to...
More About: Spanish , Santos Inocentes , Nish

Spain's Christmas Lottery
2007-12-13 21:18:00
It's not Christmas in Spain until people start lining up to buy their lottery tickets!The "Loteria de Navidad" is Spain's Christmas Lottery . The drawing takes place on the morning of December 22nd with children singing out the numbers stamped on small balls which roll out of a gigantic bingo-style ball. There are literally hundreds of winning numbers for the Christmas lottery in Spain. Some are BIG winners and some are small winners but I don't know how the winning amount is assigned to any given number.By the time the Christmas lottery tickets are available is about the same time LONG LINES begin to form to buy them. Puerta del Sol and Gran Via lottery offices are the busiest, probably because they're in the downtown. But also, theses locations are considered to be considered "Lucky" because that's where patrons have been buying their Christmas lottery tickets for years and years.Apparently it's a custom in Spain to buy Christmas lottery tickets whenever visiting another city...
More About: Money

Pedro Almodovar and Casa Ananias in Madrid
2007-12-12 19:12:00
The following Blog entry includes:CHEAP DVD shoppingmy brush-with-famea FANTASTIC restaurant reviewa relaxing non-alcoholic beer at a famous caféToday was a HISTORICAL day.I met my good English buddy Steve at the newsstand kiosk outside the famous and historical Café Comercial (historical: founded 1887) on the Glorieta de Bilbao at roughly 1:30pm. This kiosk is fantastic for finding cheap DVDs of all varieties. They have hundreds arranged by category and cost 4.50? to about 11?. They also have entire movie sets (like Star Wars, Rocky, or Alien) as well as lots of TV series. The DVDs are brand new, plastic wrapped, and are leftover no-nonsense DVDs usually sold, for example, for 2? when you buy the Saturday XYZ Newspaper. I bought the following movies: "Halloween", "Scarface", "Hotel Rwanda", and "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" All totaled: 22.50?Done with DVD Shopping so we step into the Café Comercial for a stool at the bar. Coffee for Steve. Non-alcholic beer for me - and a free tap...
More About: Entertainment , Food , Madrid , Casa , Pedro

Pac-Man Christmas Tree in Madrid
2007-12-11 19:32:00
Funny how we accidentally find things on the internet which interest us or make us laugh. This is what happened just a couple minutes ago and felt it was an appropriate, relative thing about which to make a posting.I happened upon a specific, Madrid Christmas -related posting on a technology Spanish blog (i.e. "WebLog") called Clipset.net entitled "Árbol de Navidad Comecocos, oseasé Pac-Man Xmas Tree ". In English that's "Coconut-Eating Christmas Tree, or Pac-Man Xmas Tree".It seem that in Spain, "back in the day", the popular Pac-Man video game was instead lovingly called "Comecocos" or "Coconut Eaters". Cute, huh!In the posting they said the Pac-Man Christmas Tree is apparently located in the Azca business district of Madrid. The tree is a 4-sided pyramid and shows the video game in lights complete with dot-eating ghosts and also a few stars and tiny Christmas trees thrown in to make it more Christmassy. Apparently the dot-eating ghosts are stationary and do not move around the Chr...
More About: Entertainment , General

Christmas in Madrid
2007-12-10 01:22:00
Christmas in Madrid is something to experience; Christmas lights are everywhere, holiday shoppers pack the streets, and the bars and restaurants are seemingly full ALL the time!Curing Christmastime, getting from POINT A to POINT B in Madrid is generally calculated by using the following equation:normal trajectory time  X  4  =  actual trajectory timeSo if it once took you 4 minutes to casually walk from Opera to Puerta del Sol it NOW takes you 16 minutes. It could take even longer if you encounter more than 2 crowd-creating street performers/statues, more than 3 groups of families standing in the middle of the street, or more than 4 families of 5 walking shoulder to shoulder - or in the normal, meandering Spanish style.The above is a real pet peve of mine - not only in Madrid but in the world. I think Spaniards have perfected the art of walking in a blind, snakelike patter without hitting anyone. Lots of walking and suddenly stopping in the middle of the flow of ...
More About: Christmas

Cirque du Soleil's DELIRIUM in Madrid
2007-12-09 13:07:00
MadridMan joyfully witnessed yesterday's (Saturday, 6pm) Cirque du Sole il performance of DELIRIUM - created and directed by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon - at Madrid's Palacio de Deportes, near the GOYA metro station in the Barrio de Salamanca.The seats were perfect; 6th row up from the floor in the middle section, allowing perfect perspective of the middle stage and the full-length screens to the left and right.What an Audio-Visual experience it was!! The strobe lights, the projections upon thin, see-through films behind and (sometimes) in front of the performance was nothing short of spectacular.The performance lasted roughly one hour and 40 minutes. During that time I looked around the full arena to see many people staring with wide eyes and wider grins. Totally mesmerized. This event is one which overwhelms the senses like no other I've seen. It stimulates the eyes with not only the action on stage but also the lights, the images, the colors taking place on the adjacent fl...
More About: Entertainment , Madrid , Delirium

MadridMan Asks: "Where is the Love?"
2007-12-05 15:12:00
MadridMan asks on his 42nd birthday, "Where is the Love ?"The following IS NOT a self-centered attempt to garner birthday well-wishes but rather to make all of us think about the world in which we live.If the below video or its lyrics don't make you become teary eyed with thought-provoked sadness - like it does to me - then you may be breathin' but you sure ain't livin'."Where Is The Love" by the Black Eyed Peas Lyrics of song "Where Is The Love" by the Black Eyed Peas(Please read these song lyrics, carefully, slowly, mindfully...)What's wrong with the world mama? People living like ain't got no mamas I think the whole world's addicted to the drama Only attracted to the things that bring you trauma Overseas yeah we tryin' to stop terrorism But we still got terrorists here livin' In the USA the big CIA the Bloodz and the Crips and the KKK But if you only have love for your own race Then you only leave space to discriminate And to discriminate only generates hate And if...
More About: General

Neighborhood Spanish Establishments Closing
2007-12-03 19:32:00
Many times we don't even notice them - until they're gone. We walk by them day after day. On occasion we'll pop in to buy someone small. In other cases it's where we do our near-daily shopping.I'm talking about the local shops where we buy our meats, the shops where we buy our chicken, the shops where we buy our fresh daily bread, and the shops where we buy our snacks. These shops are most often owned AND operated by the same person - or maybe operated by the son or daughter of the owner.With the fast influx of foreigners into Spain from many different nations, the common ownership of cars, the prevalence of "Centros Comerciales" (i.e. Malls) on the outskirts of the city, and the sprouting "Los Chinos" (owned & operated by Chinese and selling China-made goods for cheap) throughout the neighborhood, the Spanish -owned individual shops are closing at an unsettling rate. I say it's unsettling because many Spaniards - and their families - are losing their livelihoods, and the f...
More About: Money , Neighborhood , Nish , Establishment