The Visigoth

the visigoth

A Real Market for Barcelona's Manteros

A Real Market for Barcelona's Manteros

After years of friction with the local authorities, Barcelona’s street salesmen – manteros - might finally be able to sell goods in peace. That’s the idea of a new enterprise which would see the creation of a special bazar with 60 stalls run by the members of an association of manteros. Instead of imitation Nike shirts or Dolce Gabbana shades, however, the stall-owners would offer ’mercancía legal’; ie. arts and crafts, jewellery, African textiles, recycled goods, outlet fash

Who is: Susana Diaz

Who is: Susana Diaz

In one sentence, make it snappy: Buxom blonde, born in ’74, mother of one, Real Betis fan and a former cosmetics saleswoman, Susana Diaz is the current President of the Junta de Andalucia. Yes, but isn’t she also… Yes, just this last week Mrs. Diaz has announced she will be campaigning to become the first ever female leader of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). Who are otherwise known as: the ailing giant of Spanish Politics. Because: Like their Labour Party counte

Bowling for Columbidae: Reducing BCN's Pigeon Population

Bowling for Columbidae: Reducing BCN's Pigeon Population

Topic: Too many pigeons. How many is too many? According to the Generalitat, BCN's population of the cooing columbidae genus is currently believed to be about 85,000. One pigeon for every 20 or so humans. Or one per every four hipsters. Doesn't sound so bad, really. The problem is the infections, parasites and diseases they carry around with them. The pigeons, that is. Eg. Pigeon faeces carries over 60 forms of disease - known as zoonoses - which can be potentially harmful to

An Unfamiliar Sagrada

An Unfamiliar Sagrada

When it comes to the Expiatory Church of the Sacred Family - the Sagrada Familia - everyone sees something different. It's the honeycomb crown on the city’s skyline. It's a gospel, a bible, in stone. It's a three-dimensional intersection of helicoidal columns. It’s ‘the last great sanctuary of christendom’ (Gaudì), or 'Sugar loaves and anthills' (Nikolaus Pevsner). It's either 'the most hideous building in the world' (George Orwell) or 'a marvel of technical perfection' (Walt

Can Valldaura: Completing the Material Circle

Can Valldaura: Completing the Material Circle

High above Cerdanyola del Vallès in the hills of Collserola is a masia with a fascinating past. Its been a home to Barcelonese Counts, to Cistercian monks and to a brick factory owned by a wealthy industralist family. Now its old brick kilns are home to Valldaura Labs, a groundbreaking experiment in sustainable living whose mission is to revolutionize the way mankind interacts with his environment. Here in this modernist farmhouse, whose foundations date back to the 12th Cent

Jungle Frank: Celebration of a Spanish Eccentric

Jungle Frank: Celebration of a Spanish Eccentric

The author of sci-fi classic Dune, Frank Herbert, once said: 'Behold, as a wild ass in the desert, I go forth to work.' Substitute the desert for the jungle, and it could apply fittingly to the career of 'Wild' Frank. The Frank in question, a 47-year old from León, is impulsive, opinionated and doesn't stand about on ceremony. As likely to cuss a cameraman as leap on top of a lemur, for a number of years the veterinarian, TV presenter and former tennis coach, real name Franci

What is: A Nini

What is: A Nini

Everyone knows what a hipster is. Don't they? The word brings to mind a carefully-coiffured beard. The bare, stripped floorboards of a trendy cafe with a chalkboard. A bowl of organic muesli, perhaps, poised over a lumberjack's shirt. The imagery, the cliches are now so embedded. No-one, of course, claims to be a hipster. Though a lot of us probably seem to be one. Now, what about a 'Nini'? Hmm. A Neither-Nor? Something to do with gender, perhaps? Careful! Ok, other associati

Who Is: Iñigo Errejón

Who Is: Iñigo Errejón

Pablo Iglesias is the iconic face of Podemos, his ponytail and goatee, instantly recognizable to any Spaniard. But Iñigo Errejon is its busy little idea engine. The son of a Spanish Worker's Party member, the campaign strategist is unmistakably of the Podemos 'casta'; prodigiously young (only 32 at time of writing), and a refreshingly plain-talking academic with a background in social activism. As a student working on his doctorate in political sciences at the Universidad Com

Tres Xemeneies: The Future of a Barcelona Icon

Tres Xemeneies: The Future of a Barcelona Icon

The thermal power station has been stripped; the machinery has gone, the offices have been destroyed, the pontoons reaching out into the sea have been dismantled. All that remains are the turbine hall and the skeleton of the three iconic towers, which produce no energy. But the Central Térmica de Sant Adría, also known as 'Les Tres Xemeneies', or more euphorically, 'la Sagrada Familia de los obreros', remains an icon of the Barcelona skyline. The 200 metre tall chimney towers

The Desertification of Spain's Drylands

The Desertification of Spain's Drylands

The Guadalentín Valley in Murcia. If you've ever driven to Andalucía along Spain's east coast, chances are you've passed through it. Home to the towns of Lorca and Alhama de Murcia, it's an arid corridor making its way from the sea at Guadamar de Segura to the town of Puerto Lumbreras, backed by the stark massifs of the Sierra Espuña and Carrascoy. The Guadalentín River has been described as the wildest in Europe; bone-dry at one moment, it can fill up with a violent torrente

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