Hongdae, Hongik Univ Seoul

A cute café

Music in the Market

Shops, shops, shops....

 Cool sunglasses that anyone could try on.

One of the most interesting areas in Seoul is Hongik. This is a very cool area with a craft market lots of nice cafes and lively atmosphere.

Reading..... Bill Bryson's At Home

I've started reading Bill's Bryson last book 'At Home'. This is a list of entertainig anectotes, historical references and trivia related to the house, the home. The author's point of departure is a 150 year old rectory where he lives with his family in the English countryside. He presents a historical review of the different parts of the house starting with the Hall and moving towards the kitchen, the dining room,etc... I've learn the importance of the ice in everyday life,the subhuman conditions i which servants lived and even the problems of the streetlights in London in the early decades of the 20th Century

The Crystal Palace is a victorian builidng extensively mentioned in the book.

Ironic, charming and plenty of interesting data, this book's being fun.

Summer holidays in Korea (again)

I was lucky to visit Korea again this summer. Last summer we travelled all over the country and it was fantastic. However we stayed 3 days in Seoul and we were left with a feeling that we wanted to see more of the city and that is why this year we decided to visit Korea again. We stayed longer in Seoul and we visited other places that we had already visited last year and we liked the most. Despite the weather, raining nearly every single day we spend in Seoul, catching a cold the 2nd day in Seoul after rain and flood, in the end we loved it.

Seoul is a fantastic city full of things to see and do.

listening to... Belle and Sebastian

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This has been one of my summer readings.


It was originally part of a BBC radio series broadcasted in the 70s.

I would usually try to read rather than the spanish translation, the non translated version. But this book includes a serie of interviews with some of the main characters of the movie production.

It made me want to see the movie...

And I guess I'll read the rest of the stories.

Sandor Marai

Here in Barcelona there has been held an exhibition about the Hungarian writer Sandor Marai. He is one of the most prominent figures of the 20th C. Central European literature.

Marai said:

"Writers and artists have two homelands: the place when they were born linked with them through language and blood, and Paris"

In this exhibition, there was a picture of the writer with Thomas Mann.

This is a New York Times review of one of Sandor Marai books

Poet, journalist, dramatist, translator, novelist and essayist, Marai worked in just about every literary form, but for Hungarians it’s probably the diaries that excite the greatest admiration; written in a bare prose, they offer a merciless examination of himself and his era. He loved his native language, and stuck with it in exile (he could easily have switched to German) although he was well aware this decision ensured indigence and obscurity. His relations with his fellow Hungarians, however, were not very smooth. Insanely principled, he found himself isolated even within émigré circles.

Shortly before he committed suicide in San Diego in 1989, Marai oversaw the publication of “The Garrens’ Work: A Novel in Two Volumes.” This was what he judged his magnum opus, the story of the Garren family from his hometown, Kassa (now Kosice, in Slovakia).

HALLUCINATING FOUCAULT

One of the last books I have read is Patricia Dunker Hallucinating Foucault

This is a fantastic book that basically highlights the relatioship among writers and readers.

A postgraduate student is the starting point of a quest to find the object of his thesis, Paul Michel. He goes to France to meet him. Following the research path he goes to an isolated asylum and the beaches of the south of France. This is a book that celebrates the love of the student-reader towards the writer.

Duncker writes:"It cannot be proven to exist. Yet we often talk with extraordinary intensity about a writer we've discovered, loved, read, and re-read. Reading is an eerie, alien, intimate experience. We know that there is someone on the other side of writing. They are sometimes close, terrifyingly present. We listen hard."

creative act.

Jack Johnson

This weekend I have experienced this summer good vibes through music. When I listen to Jack Johnson's songs I imagine myself relaxed on beautiful beach... maybe in Australia. Anyway, we had Jack Johnson playing at Cruïlla Festival here in Barcelona. I bought the tickets months ago, as soon as I knew he was coming. The line up was completed later with other bands... Madness, Public Enemy...which wasn't bad at all.

Moments of indulgence

Sitting on a Parc de la Ciutadella bench reading a good book and drinking a coffee

Hello Kitty Cheetos

Colourful and tasty vanilla cupcakes

A nice cup of coffee

John Hersey HIROSHIMA

I 'm back after some months of rest. This is the last book I have read: John Hersey HIROSHIMA

On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped a nuclear weapon on the city or Hiroshima. Lately, I have read John Hersey HIROSHIMA that explains the consequences of this bombing in the city focusing on the experiences of six survivors.

One of the consecuences of the bombing for the survivors was the radiation sickness. The disease affected a lot of survivors and some of them never fully recovered. We see how the city recovers and begins to rebuild.

Hersey highlight the comunity spirit among these survivors together with a great degree of stoicism and personal submission.

I have been touched by this book, especially because I have been three times in Hiroshima and I have visited the Peace Memorial Museum, not far from the Atomic Bomb Dome. This was a very impressive experience.

primavera sound 2011

This year's festival was great,

These were some brilliant moments,

Pulp

Yuck

P.I.L.

Belle and Sebastian

The Flaming Lips

PJ Harvey

Grinderman

Some pictures and videos I took there:

SAINT GEORGE DAY

In Saint George's Day people exchange books and roses.













You can find DonQuixote's Cervantes,...



... Shakespeare,...


or Virginia Woolf in the streets.
There are roses everywhere.