This post brought to you by Heineken

It seems to me that bars here in Spain are much more inclined to give out free stuff when you order a drink than the bars I know in the US. On evenings with a specific sponsor, if you order a mixed drink with Brugal or Ballentine or Beefeater or whichever other brand has a representative in a bar that night, you are given a scratch off card that you bring to a little table to claim your Brugal or Ballentine or Beefeater or whichever other brand promotional item. Sunglasses, bracelets, and bottle openers are three of the most consistent prizes.

Sometimes though these sponsorships get a bit out of control.

For example, several months ago, I went to Sileno (a bar in Estepa) for 2 Heinekens and walked away with a pair of binoculars, a keychain bottle opener, and a book called Discos historicos y discos que haran historia -- Historical disks and disks that will make history. Walking out of a bar with more drink-sponsored trinkets than the total number of drinks you've consumed that evening is both over the top and awesome.

After leaving it in my desk drawer for two and a half months, I rediscovered this wonder of a book. Which brings me to the current post. A list, courtesy of Heineken, of some of the most influential music disks of the past half a century or so.



1950s and 1960s

Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (1956)
Louis Prima: The Wildest! (1956)
Miles Davis: Birth Of Cool (1957)
Little Richard: Here's Little Richard (1957)
Billie Holiday: Lady In Satin (1958)
Tito Puente And His Orchestra: Dance Mania, Vol. 1 (1958)
Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Gershwin Song Book (1959)
Ray Charles: The Genius of Ray Charles (1959)
The Everly Brothers: A Date With The Everly Brothers (1960)
James Brown: Live At The Apollo (1963)
The Rolling Stones: The Rolling Stones (1964)
The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Otis Redding: Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965)
The Beach Boys: The Beach Boys Today! (1965)
B.B.King: Live At The Regal (1965)
Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
The Who: My Generation (1965)
Jerry Lee Lewis: Live At The Star Club, Hamburg (1965)

The Kinks: Face To Face (1966)
The Mamas And The Papas: If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears (1966)
Simon And Garfunkel: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme (1966)
John Mayall's Blues Breakers: John Mayall's Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton (1966)
Nina Simone: Wild Is The Wind (1966)
The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground And Nico (1967)
The Doors: The Doors (1967)
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Johnny Cash: Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison (1968)
Aretha Franklin: Aretha: Lady Soul (1968)
Sly And The Family Stone: Stand! (1969)
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Green River (1969)
The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (1969)
Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin (1969)

1970s

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (1970)
Deep Purple: In Rock (1970)
Santana: Abraxas (1970)
Marvin Gaye: What's Going On (1971)
Carole King: Tapestry (1971)
John Lennon: Imagine (1971)
Janis Joplin: Pearl (1971)
David Bowie: Hunky Dory (1971)
Neil Young: Harvest (1972)
Lou Reed: Transformer (1972)
Stevie Wonder: Talking Book (1972)
ZZ Top: Tres Hombres (1973)
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells (1973)
Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies (1973)
Iggy And The Stooges: Raw Power (1973)
Supertramp: Crime Of The Century (1974)
Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (1975)
Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here (1975)
Eagles: Hotel California (1976)
Abba: Arrival (1976)
Ramones: Ramones (1976)
The Clash: The Clash (1977)
David Bowie: "Heroes" (1977)

1980s

AC/DC: Back In Black (1980)
Pretenders: Pretenders (1980)
Madness: The Rise And Fall (1982)
The Cure: Pornography (1982)
Michael Jackson: Thriller (1982)
Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (1983)
Prince And The Revolution: Purple Rain (1984)
Tina Turner: Private Dancer (1984)
Bruce Springsteen: Born In The USA (1984)
A-ha: Hunting High And Low (1985)
Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms (1985)
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Psychocandy (1985)
Kate Bush: Hounds Of Love (1985)
Metallica: Master Of Puppets (1986)
Dinosaur Jr.: You're Living All Over Me (1987)
George Michael: Faith (1987)
Guns N' Roses: Appetite For Destruction (1987)
US: The Joshua Tree (1987)
Pet Shop Boys: Actually (1987)
Tacy Chapman: Tracy Chapman (1988)
Madonna: Like A Prayer (1989)
The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses (1989)

1990s

Depache Mode: Violator (1990)
Pixies: Bossanova (1990)
Public Enemy: Fear Of A Black Planet (1990)
Sinead O'Connor: I DO Not Want What I Haven't Got (1990)
Neil Young And Crazy Horse: Ragged Glory (1990)
Nirvana: Nevermind (1991)
Crowded House: Woodface (1991)
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
Pearl Jam: Ten (1991)
Massive Attack: Blue Lines (1991)
Metallica: Metallica (1991)
Morrissey: "Your Arsenal" (1992)
Lemonheads: It's A Shame About Ray (1992)
Rage Against The Machine: Rage Against The Machine (1992)
R.E.M.: Automatic For The People (1992)
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: Henry's Dream (1992)
Suede: Suede (1993)
The Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream (1993)
Blur: Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)
Jamiroquai: Emergency On Planet Earth (1993)
Bjork: Debut (1993)
Portishead: Dummy (1994)
Soundgarden: Superunknown (1994)
The Offspring: Smash (1994)
Blur: Parklife (1994)
Suede: Dog Man Star (1994)
Nirvana: MTV NUnplugged in NYC (1994)
Green Day: Dookie (1994)

Foo Fighters: Foo Fighters (1995)
Garbage: Garbage (1995)
Elastica: Elastica (1995)
Supergrass: I Should Coco (1995)
Radiohead: The Bends (1995)
Pulp: Different Class (1995)
Alanis Morissette: Jagged LIttle Pill (1995)
Oasis: (What's The Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
The Charlatans: Tellin' Stories (1996)
Manic Street Preachers: Everything Must Go (1996)
Marilyn Manson: Antichrist Superstar (1996)
Fiona Apple: Tidal (1996)
Radiohead: OK Computer (1997)
Blur: Blur (1997)
Robbie Williams: Life Thru A Lens (1997)
David Gray: White Ladder (1998)
Hole: Celebrity Skin (1998)
Travis: The Man Who (1999)
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Californication (1999)
Skunk Anansie: Post Orgasmic Chill (1999)
Nitin Sawhney: Beyond Skin (1999)

2000s
Radiohead: Kid A (2000)
U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000)
P.J. Harvey: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (2000)
Coldplay: Parachutes (2000)
The Avalanches: Since I Left You (2000)
Bjork: Vespertine (2001)
Ryan Adams: Gold (2001)
The White Stripes: White Blood Cells (2001)
The Strokes: Is This It (2001)
The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2002)
Doves: The Last Broadcast (2002)
The Hives: Your New Favorite Band (2002)
Radiohead: Hail To The Thief (2003)
The Darkness: Permission To Land (2003)
The White Stripes: Elephant (2003)
Amy Winehouse: Frank (2003)
Scissor Sisters: Scissor Sisters (2004)
Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand (2004)
Rufus Wainwright: Want Two (2004)
The Killers: Hot Fuss (2004)
Kings Of Leon: Aha Shake Heartbreak (2004)
Arcade Fire: Funeral (2004)
Beck: Guero (2005)
Muse: Black Holes & Revelations (2006)
Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)

Police - Monkey Relations in Gibraltar

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Gibraltar with my Belgian roommate Emilie and 13 people from Estepa's Escuela de Idiomas. For those who don't know, it's a funny little region on the tip of Southern Spain that's owned by the UK. It used to be strategic for the British military, but now I'm not really sure what's there other than tourism and tax free cigarettes, chocolate, and cigarettes sunglasses, and an interesting group of proud half-English-speaking, half-Spanish-speaking Gibralarians.


And, of course, monkeys. The monkeys were at least 50% of my reason for going, and they did not disappoint.

Here's a police officer. They have a funny relationship with the monkeys because technically they're supposed to be telling the tourists not to touch the monkeys, but then the monkeys climb all over the place-- all over the tour buses and trees and benches and police officers. Here's one example of a weird police/monkey relationship in Gibraltar.

Walking

The human body is neat. I like to walk.

I read this description of walking the other day. Now I want to go hiking.

"Backpacking with my family in Teton wilderness, I am recurrently struck by the question of footing. With each step, the food has to come down somewhere. Climbing or descending over boulder fields, steep inclines, on and off trails, our feet make split-second decisions for us about where and how to come down, what angle, how much pressure, heel or toe, rotated or straight. The kids don't ever ask: 'Daddy, where do I put my feet? Should I step on this rock or that one?' They just do it, and I've noticed that they find a way --they choose where to put their feet at each step, and it's not simply where I put mine.

What this says to me is that our feet find their own way. Watching my own, I am amazed at how many different places and ways I might put my foot down with each step, and how out of this unfolding momentary potential, the foot ultimately commits to one way, executes with full weight on it (or less if it's a hazardous situation), and then lets go as the next foot makes its choice and I move forward. All this occurs virtually without thinking, except at the occasional tricky spots where thought and experience do come into play and I might have to give my youngest child, Serena, a hand. But that is the exception, not the rule. Ordinarily we are not looking at our feet and thinking about each step. We are looking out, ahead on the trail, and our brain, taking it all in, makes split-second decisions for us that put the food down in a way that conforms to the needs of the terrain underfoot in that moment.

This doesn't mean that there is no wrong way to step. You do have to be careful and sense your footing. It's just that the eyes and the brain are very good at rapid assessment of terrain and giving detailed directions to torso, limbs, and feet, so that the whole process of taking a step on rough ground is one of exquisite balance in motion, even with the complication of boots and heavy packs. There is built-in mindfulness here. Rough terrain brings it out in us. And if we do a trail ten times, we'll each solve the problem of each footstep differently each time. Covering ground on foot always unfolds out of the uniqueness of the present moment."

-from Jon Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go There You Are (127-128)

Photo of the view from El Chorro, an area near Antequera where Viola (my co-auxiliar in Casariche) and I went for a hike about 3 days after I typed up this post

For more info about El Chorro:
http://www.andalucia.com/antequera/chorro/home.htm

Strawberry Pie

Two French boys just stopped by my apartment in Estepa, Spain to ask for some sugar for a strawberry pie they're making. And to invite me to come eat it with them and a few friends. I'm pleased. :)

Hostel Food Post

I've been thinking about food. Here's a blog entry about the concoctions people in hostels pull together to save money while traveling.

For lunches I'm more inclined to make sandwiches, but the bit about an ungodly amount of pasta heaped with cheese for dinner is right on.

I'm not sure I agree with the bit about French travelers, but overall, it's pretty in line with my experience.

In any case, it's fun to think about food.

http://traveleatrepeat.com/2010/03/05/my-mom-told-me-its-not-polite-to-stare/

Early Thanksgiving

I'm about to head to La Roda, a tiny pueblo about 15 km from Estepa, to celebrate my first of two Thanksgivings. I'll be celebrating this one with Viola, the other American auxiliar de conversacion working in my school. Can't wait :) I've made 2 loaves of zucchini bread and bought ginger (for the pie, I'm assuming) and a bottle of wine.

In light of Thanksgiving, I've been thinking about how much I've been around complaining and correction and discontentment lately. Some of it from within myself, but even more so from some of the people around me. Which, of course, influences my own perspective on people and situations. In negative way. So.... the best way of counteracting that is probably the practice of Thankfulness. For big and little things. In spite of any momentary annoyance, confusion, loneliness, or unpleasantless (Which truly, there isn't all that much of here. Overall things are quite nice and slow and pleasant, though sometimes a bit uneventful.)

Anyhow, with that, here's the beginning of a list of a few of the things I'm currently particularly thankful for.

*Thanksgiving at Viola's house!
*Having plenty
*My zucchini bread came out perfectly this time in spite of being baked in a toaster oven
*My toaster oven
*The postal service (and the letters from good friends that it brings)
*Skype
*Finding funny and/or classy postcards to send to friends
*Mandarin oranges
*My pocket dictionary
*Having had a good education
*Mom bought a plane ticket to come visit!
*Kids waving at me from the school bus as they're leaving every afternoon
*Lunch on Wednesday with Nuria
*Living with people that I have to speak Spanish with
*Knowing people in town I can speak English with
*Siblings
*Internet access
*Yesterday's trip to Cordoba
*Conversations with MiguelAngel on the way to school and back. And his awesome taste in books. And the fact that he makes good recommendations, has a bunch of them, and lets me borrow them.
*The Manolito Gafotas book series
*Potable water
*Freedom of expression
*Windy days
*The sun
*Music (and the ability to listen to it digitally in the absence of live music...)
*Fresh bread every Sunday
*Potlucks
*Salsa class
*Kids in matching outfits
*The inclusion of and presence of elderly people in Spanish society
*Having time to rest. And to think. Even if I don't use it very intentionally or well sometimes.
*My 5th grade science class
*Bilingual education programs
*Warm blankets
*Tables with the heaters underneath in the teachers lounge
*the Tienda China

fail

This past Monday was a failure of a day. The only two things I did well were eating some bread for dinner--though one could argue that having just bread for dinner is a fail also-- and drinking a beer. A few highlights among the fails of the day:

NIE card
Waking up at 7:30 and spending a total of 5 hours on the bus (about 2.5 hours each way to and from Sevilla) to try to get my NIE card (a national identity card for foreigners--also what I need to get paid at my job here). After waiting in line at the office for half an hour, it turned out that they couldn't do anything that day so I have to come back again in two weeks to try again. Stuart, my Scottish friend who's also teaching English for the year, shouldn't have had any problem getting his NIE paperwork taken care of because the process for people within the EU is much easier, but the computer was broken in the office where he was supposed to go. So we both called it a wasted trip, went out for a beer, and took the bus home.

ATM
Attempting to withdraw money from the ATM. It's a fairly normal part of traveling and living. Should be an uneventful part of the day. I walked with Audrey (my French roommate) and her mother to the ATM on the far end of the street because since it was during the daily 3 hour "siesta time", all of the stores including the bank closer to our apartment were closed. Needed to take out 100 Euros for our WiFi installation fee and for groceries. There's a man using the ATM, so I wait for him to finish. He holds the door open for me, and I walk in and close the door behind me. Try taking out money and enter my PIN two or three different times, but even though it's a "Plus" compatible machine, it won't let me take out any money. I'll have to go to a different ATM in a couple of hours once siesta time is finished. So I take out my card and grab the door handle to leave. CLUNK. The sound of a solidly locked door. Maybe I just didn't pull hard enough. So I pull harder. CLUNK! The door doesn't even budge.

Oh right. Spanish doors sometimes have a little button that you have to push to unlock/open them. So I start looking around all over the place. On the door, next to the door, over by the light switches, on the wall with the ATM. Nothing. I try pulling at the door a few more times and increasingly frantically. Well great. Audrey and her mom are in equal parts concerned and amused and are yelling to me in French and gesturing wildly. Audrey told me later that they were thinking about how to figure out how to call the fire department. After a full minute or two, a Spanish man in his 40s came up to take out some money and after seeing my exaggerated "What the hell am I supposed to do with this!?" arm gesture/worried face/smirk, he started pointing. So I looked around by the ATM again for the button. No luck. He was still pointing and gesturing, so I moved over to the door. And there it was. A tiny little yellow button. I walked out and the three of us started laughing hysterically in relief while the Spanish man chuckled contentedly to himself. I think Spanish door makers get some sort of sick pleasure out of hiding the "open door" buttons in the most difficult places possible. Some sort of standardized button placement would make too much sense I guess. And I didn't even withdraw the money.

Groceries
Since I hadn't accomplished anything that I was planning to during the day, I decided to go buy some food for dinner and then call it a day. So after getting a little turned around on my way to Mercadona, the big grocery store in town, I wandered around the store picking out things that I recognized. As I got in line to check out I remembered that I needed some form of ID to use my credit card. And since I couldn't get money out at the ATM, I only had 20 Euros in cash. I frantically looked through my purse hoping I had at least a passport copy since those usually work. Perfect! B&W copy of my passport and a student ID card. So I stand in line still praying that the total will be under 20 Euros so I won't have to risk them turning down my tattered but still readable excuse for ID.

After having to wait for one of the store employees to come and get my eggplant, cucumbers, and lemon (I didn't know I was supposed to weight them before bringing them up) and holding up the line for a few minutes, the total came up to 26 Euros. Damn. So I pulled out my credit card and my folded up passport copy and mumbled out some broken Spanish trying to explain that that's the best I have with me. Still holding up the line. She calls her manager who, as usual, takes his sweet time coming over to look at my ragged excuse for ID and tells me that I need to bring my actual passport in. I explain that it's in my flat but that I can come back in a few minutes and somehow manage to communicate (again with some fairly extreme facial expressions and arm gestures) that my frozen foods are going to melt. So they stick the frozen ones in a fridge for me and stick the other bags under the cash register until I get back.

I walk home, try to open the door with the mailbox key a few times before switching to the correct one, grab my passport, almost get run over by a tractor on my way up the hill to Mercadona, and walk into the store out of breath and thinking only of dinner and my bed. Despite the fact that I'd convinced myself that my credit card wouldn't work for some reason after all that, in ran through just fine. So I took my groceries, which were of course a little heavier than I could manage, struggled back downhill to the apartment, and collapsed on the couch for a minute before putting my food away, eating some bread for dinner, and going to sleep with smile and a defeated sigh.




Sometimes I just feel like stopping and yelling "Just so you know, and in case it wasn't painfully obvious, I'm not from here!" Today was one of those days. I think it's funny how much I can fail at simple things when I'm not used to how they work.

So yes. Lessons learned: Governments everywhere are inefficient. Call the office to double check that you can get the paperwork done that day before buying a bus ticket. Carry more cash than you think you'll need. Weigh your produce when you're in Mercadona. Keep looking -- there's a button to open the door somewhere. And look out for tractors. :)