More Urban Graffiti - Or is it?

Any regular readers will know I love the Graffiti in Barcelona and it seems to have taken a shift in recent years to more planned style of graffiti with transfers ala Banksy, or pre-prepared copies that are pasted around the city like posters on the metro air vents.

So it's still fun for me when I find the cool ones that combine a piece of existing urban architecture - like a road sign - and transforming it into something completely different like this kind of thing. How cool is that? Ghostbusters on a no entry sign?!

So it's been awhile, but I saw another cool one  - perhaps more politically-laden in its message this time - just the other day. Et voila:

Same kind of thing, I know, but rings true with the oppression and impotence many sections of society are feeling at the moment with so much corruption and injustice on every single news bulletin all day every day. I assumed it was a one-off, and have qactually had this post ready for over 2 weeks. Then I saw this:

And this...

 And this...

And finally this...(quite probably my favourite)

So here's me thinking this is a fair bit of effort for some individual/s to go to and made me think it might be something else. A reliable guy I know who saw me taking photos, told me that it was "the guys with the reflective jackets on from the council" who put them up there. ?! Why on earth would the council be doing this ? Surely they might have dressed like that to "look" official and nobody asks them questions right? Or am I missing some kind of initiative from the council and road signs?! Please enlighten me if anyone does happen to know what it's all about - leave me a comment below! 

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Barcelona Harley Days

This weekend sees the return of Barcelona Harley Days, on the 5th, 6th and 7th July, in what's becoming a welcome annual event at the Fira de Barcelona. It's a coming together of the different walks of life that own and are passionate about those mean machines, and it's a whole lot of fun, too. 

 I took my kids last year (advance warning, you will see a lot of my kids in these pics!) as the stuff that's on during the day is great fun, and all free to walk around. We started the day with a live rock concert - they were really good, and very into it, considering it was the early afternoon!!

 My son at his first rock concert, head-banging with a hat on. There are hundreds of bikes of varying different styles, some super-tuned (there's a Gaudi bike. I kid you not. With a stuffed panther on the back). Some of the models you can get close enough to but those at the entrance are owned by the festival goers, so be respectful of their babies.

 Inside the day-park if I can call it that, there's loads to be entertained by apart from the rock concert, with bikes to try out, simulators on rudders (to have the experience of really "riding", a thorough history lesson, merchandising and care products, etc.

 There are activities specifically designed for the little ones (and the "big" little ones, with fairground rides just after the main bike bit) such as the moving surfboard thing - think a bucking bronco, but a surfboard instead. No, I don't know what that has to do with Harley Davidson either, but it was fun for my lad!

 Go on son!

...balance of a gazelle...

 And you can guess what happened next.

 So back inside for loads of pics with loads of bikes. These ones are exhibition bikes, so you're very welcome to hop on and have a little fantasy drive.

 More of the same. Sorry, I did warn you.

 Some cool backdrops.

 So my daughter obviously was doing the "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" thing with her mouth like a REAL HARLEY ENGINE. Loudly.

So this one is cool. The screen on the background has various different videos, and you get your photo taken by the Harley girls and then your photo gets put up on their website later in the day!! Cool or what?! www.me-on-a-harley.com

 You can't see that very well, but you get the idea...

 So if you look carefully, you'll see me there, taking an "arty" pic!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand then my son joined in with the "brrrrrrrr..." inevitable really, hell, I wanted to do it!!! hahaha!!!! All in all, great fun, really well organised, and thoroughly friendly people. The thing goes on day and night, and there were a few party goes in full leathers that had had a fair few beers, and they were dancing around with my kids, all fun and games. So if you can spare a few hours this weekend, head on down!! Plaça España metro station.

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Gaudi gets his own Google Doodle

It would have been Gaudi's 161st birthday this year, and this week, none other than Google has shone its own kind of praise on the crazy-talented Catalan architect, with his very own Google doodle. Google typically re-writes the letters in a funny way, characteristic of the person they are honouring, so this time it's no  different, with different parts of Barcelona and his buildings spelling out the word. Barcelona has 9 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and Gaudi is responsible for 7 of those 9. Take a bow, sir, take a bow.

Cool eh? Recognise them all? If you don't, then there's a very good explanation here.

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Bowling in Barcelona

This post could carry on along some of the recent posts of mine about activities with children in Barcelona, but is one for the adults too, as it's Ten Pin Bowling in Barcelona!

As far as I could work out from a quick search on the internet, there are two places in Barcelona offering bowling - one in Pedralbes and the Zona Alta, and the one we chose, which is newpark bowling in La Maquinista shoping centre. There seemed to be one in Diagonal Mar but all the links to the web were broken so I thought it wasn't worth the risk. The one at La Maquinista was fine - free parking and it's also a rather large arcade game area, with a load of old classic Sega Games like Outrun, Afterburner, and some pretty cool air hockey tables and pool tables. But we'd gone for the bowling.

It'd been about 20 years since I'd last been bowling so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, and was hoping it would be similar as the way I remembered it. And fair play to the girl who was on (on her own, Satuday afternoon on the bar as well as the bowling desk) she took the time to explain everything, prices, shoe hire and the security bars for the kids (mine are 5 and 7).

The game was great, and the kids went first, and the bars alongside the gutter (for want of a better word, any bowlers out there feel free to correct me) came up automatically, very professional - last time I went that was manual. There were loads of different neon coloured balls to choose from with different weights, but even so they were a bit heavy for my daughter, so they had one of those handy ramps as shown in the photo above to give them a hand.

So, important things. Prices. We paid 19€ for the 4 of us with shoe hire, and took ages for the game (the toilet on the same floor as the bowling alley was out of order, so we had to keep going downstairs to the one next to Burger King. On a Saturday. But anyway.) Prices go up after 16h, and I think by chance we'd got there about 15:30, so got the cheaper price. It only goes up to around 25 € if I remember correctly so it's not a great deal of difference but still something to consider if you're looking to do more than one game. We had loads of fun, and my kids loved it as an alternative to going to the cinema or "indoor" activities as I like to call them for either a rainy day, or a really hot day when it's just too hot to wander around or run around parks. If anyone has any experience in the other one, I'd love to hear about it! Let me know in the comments!

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Facelift for La Otra Carboneria

It's not often I complain, but I had a bit of a moan to myself when I went past La Otra Carboneria a couple of months ago and saw that someone had started to cover up the amazing graffiti on the facade. At the time, I wasn't sure if it had been the administration, vandals, or whatever, although little by little the picture became clearer...

Here's the one I liked and have blogged about before. 

Pretty cool right? Everyone would crane their neck on the bus going past, or in the car and it became part of the local geography accepted by all and even the council tried to break it up (check out the bottom corner around the furniture shop, where the facade has been daubed in brown to cover up the tentacles a bit.

So, I've been waiting for a day where I've a) been walking past again and b) the weather was good for me to take another quick snap since it's been finished (a while). I think you'll agree it looks pretty impressive and a lot more colourful, too. There's also something written on the street in Catalan about fighting against prisoners or something, but I couldn't quite make that out and don't know if they're related either.

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Sonar Turns 20 !!

You know the summer is on its way when it's Sonar time. After the realllly slow and wet May, it's about bloody time for some fantastic weather and this week looks to be proving to be exactly that. And it's just in time for the return if everyone's favourite Barcelona Festival - Sonar. 13th to 16th June.

The Electronic Festival now seems to span so many different art forms it's becoming difficult to categorise but "International Festival of Advanced Music and New Media Art" sounds good enough for me. One of the big changes this year is the changing of locations for the Sonar by Day events, moving from the upper Raval around the MACBA and CCCB over to Plaça Espanya. Whether or not you believe the move is to gain 7000 more party go-ers or if the organisers have finally buckled under the pressure of neighbourhood groups  the fact of the matter is that it's moved, and will likely be louder and not annoy people as much so let's not dwell too much on that! It also means an easier link up with the night events over at Gran Via 2, let's hope.

This year sees Pet Shop Boys and Kraftwerk as the main headliners, but as always there's a whole host of shows and Dj's to boogie on down to as well as the many bars and clubs that jump on the bandwagon this week and offer their own nights.

Organisers are actually expecting less people this year -just over 85,000 according to the press releases compared to 98,000 last year. This also despite work on the night event location to allow another 7000 revelers in. Are you going? Looking forward to seeing anyone in particular ? Let me know in the comments!

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