andanzas en cáceres

Saturday at Primavera Sound started out a little rough, for a number of reasons. On Friday, we’d ridden our rental bikes along the boardwalk to the venue, which was amazing. However, we raged a little hard; after having seen Girls, M83, Sleigh Bells, Rufus Wainwright, Big Star’s Third, and passing by The Cure’s stage, inebriation was well underway (more for me than for Katie and Brandon: I have little to no filter). After I insisted upon biking home rather than taking a cab, Brandon took to escorting me while Katie stayed for Araab Musik (jealous). During the half-hour bike ride back to the hostel, I crashed my bike a practically innumerable amount of times (actually, I do know the exact number, but it’s too embarrassing to admit). So I woke up with scrapes and bruises all over my body, and an indescribably painful backache. Needless to say, it was difficult to get moving and drag myself back to the festival-and back on the bike to boot…I’m such a trooper. 

Then, when we got to there, security confiscated our apparently not very well hidden drinks, so we were a little bummed at the prospect of having to pay for outrageously priced 6-10 euro beers the whole night. Since we had a little break after the Beach House show, Brandon and I ventured back out of the festival grounds to go have a normal beer. As we rounded a corner, Brandon did a double take, then whispered to me that he thought the guy chatting to our right was Jeff Tweedy, who is the lead singer of one our both of our favorite bands, Wilco. Being the nerds we are, we walked past this dude four times, trying to get the nerve up to even approach him to say hi. Finally, we realized if we didn’t give it a shot, we’d be kicking ourselves in the ass for the rest of our lives, so we valiantly walked up, interrupted the conversation, and giddily told Jeff Tweedy that we love his music. He thanked us, then proceeded to tell me my octopus tattoo was beautiful, which made my life. Brandon asked for a picture, telling him it would basically make his day-omitting that it would make our whole lives-at which point he told us he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make our day, and we melted. After the photo, we thanked him profusely, excused ourselves, practically skipped away, and sat on a nearby park bench to FLIP OUT. 

This and the Father John Misty show were absolutely the highlights of the festival, which I will detail later, but this had to get documented (while I obsessively listen to Wilco). Barcelona is amazing, and I can’t wait to write more about this trip. 

A Happy Surprise!

As we were settling into our hostel in Madrid for the night, JP called, just for chats and giggles, and we discovered he was in the city too! So the wolfpack reunited for a beer-io before we had to catch our respective trains. JP’d been in the land of baguettes since Thursday, and we’ll be in Barcelona until June 4th, so we were all very excited to see each other, cause that many days apart is the sadness.

As we parted ways, JP southbound, Brandon and I headed north, we waved like monarchs, made heart shapes with our hands, blew kisses, and cried a little. It was beautiful.

A boy sat next to me at the gate, and we read quietly in our separate bubbles for half an hour or so, until I put my book down to pull out my laptop. As I glanced his way, I saw he was reading Cormac McCarthy’s ‘All the Pretty Horses’, so I excitedly thrust my book towards him, eagerly showing him that I, too, was reading a McCarthy work, his play ‘The Sunset Limited’! (Technically I was reading ‘El Sunset Limited’, in a feeble attempt to culture myself in Spanish).

 I’ve always been excessively nosy about what strangers around me are reading, and when I chance upon somebody reading a book I’ve read before, I get unreasonably excited. When, while lazily perusing tumblr one day, I chanced upon a blog called ‘Underground New York Public Library’, all my dreams came true: I could now spy on an infinite number of strangers reading! The blog is the brainchild of a brilliant photographer who spends her free time riding the subway, capturing what to me is the essence of the city’s literary soul—the chapters and snatches of text train-goers devour as they wait for their trains or ride to their destinations. It’s really a fascinating project, one that she brings to life with her uncanny ability to find readers and photograph them beautifully.

 On the subway in Madrid, I fully wanted to go total fan-girl and take pictures of people reading to proudly send them in homage to unypl, but I don’t have the guts.

From the blog:

ABOUT UNYPL

The Underground New York Public Library is a visual library featuring the Reading-Riders of the NYC subways. This library freely lends out a reminder that we’re all capable of traveling to great depths within ourselves and as a whole. 

The NYC Reading-Riders are a plentiful and diverse group. They’re engaged in a simultaneous journey, one that takes them towards their daily pursuits as well as towards a greater sense of themselves and our world. This project takes a closer look at them in celebration and revelation. 

I’m Ourit. I take and post these pictures along with some behind the scenes stories and thoughts. I’m fascinated by how we apply ourselves to stories and discourse. In so doing, we shape the course of who we understand ourselves to be.

Best New York Public Library ever. Amazing. I need those shoes. Also, I’m in love.

unypl:

“Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things,” by  Michael Braungart 

Read Cradle to Cradle

May 8th, y’all. 

jonnygutierrez:

People of North Carolina vote against Amendment 1 on May 8th!!! It affects everyone not just the gays!! Go out and vote!!! 

(via jonnygutierrez-deactivated20120)

Today we discovered the intense joy fresh baguettes bring. I don’t know why we haven’t tried this before…there’s shops everywhere where you can buy ‘pan recien hecho’, which means freshly baked bread. On a whim we ducked into one after class and bought one, for 50 centimos. It was warm, and biting into it was transcendental. I’ll never be the same again. I finally understand why bread is so popular here, it was a mystery until now.

I find this fascinating..

symmetrism:

Art’s great nudes have gone skinny

Italian artist Anna Utopia Giordano has created a visual re-imagination of historic nude paintings, had the subjects conformed their bodies to what the 21st century considers an ideal of beauty. The results are revealing—and quite shocking in what they say about the modern attitude toward women’s bodies.

(via metalhearts)

(That means April showers bring May flowers! Our students taught us that!)

On Sunday it rained for the first time since we’ve been here. Which means it hadn’t rained from January 23d to March 31st (at least). I took all kinds of pictures, but somehow my camera lost them. It even thundered a little. And a burst of lightning burnt up Juande’s computer. 

But then on Monday JP and I went to the market to buy ridiculous t-shirts (see exhibit a)

exhibit a

and while we were out it started pouring buckets, so we ducked into a handy nearby shelter, just in time to escape the HAIL that started pelting Cáceres. It was awesome, and I bought a majestically ridiculous shirt too, only mine has a very serious wolf in the background and a motorcycle in the foreground. Pictures to come. 

So the rain was great, and it cooled things down in the best way. It’s been a nice chilly reprieve from the stifling heat. Today Brandon and I went on an excursion to Guareña, the town our friend Juande is from, and we were explaining to his family how hot we think it is here..they basically told us to just wait until May and June. It’s gonna be ridiculous.

Guareña was awesome. Juande’s family was super rad. We met mom, dad and little sister and had delicious jamón ibérico, queso manchego, and paella for lunch. They’re good people, I can’t wait to go back.

Juande’s dad giving Brandon a history lesson

In other news, Monday was JP’s 23rd birthday! Wooooo! To celebrate, I pulled up a dozen or so birthday songs, including the Beatles, Janis Joplin, Stevie Wonder, The Muppets, and some others, and when he came out of his room I ambushed him with my laptop and blasted the tunes whilst jumping and dancing around his general vicinity. He probably loved it. Then when he went for a run Brandon and I blew up a bunch of balloons and made a cake. That night we met up with some friends at La Traviatta, for some mellow birthday chilling. Much of this time was spent discovering who had what special talents for bending their arms in weird ways.

The boys, pre-party: Juande, Brandon, JP

Eli, Clare, Sophie. Shout out to Eli, she goes to UNCG with us, it’s her first appearance in the blog. Clare is Scottish and Sophie is Welsh!

This is only the second time we’ve seen JP’s rageface, but it is every bit as stupendous as the first time.

Marie-Anais and JP are wowed by Anne’s arm-bending prowess.

Clare and I went head-to-head in weird elbow competition. I did not win.

Brandon attempts to rip Eli’s arm off, but she is too dang flexible!

Gnawing is used as a last-ditch effort.

The end!

• JP: Hey, check out that guy over there. He must be a priest or something.
• Rachel: Yeah, definitely a priest.
• (the priest overtakes us and walks towards Plaza Mayor)
• Rachel: Whoah, check out that wizard dude!
• JP: We JUST determined he's a priest.
• Rachel: What? No way man, what are you talking about.
• JP: You don't remember anything, do you?
• Rachel: Umm
• -It's not my fault the priests dress like wizards! I mean, come on!-