february 2019 finds is kinda long. and late for absolutely no good reason.
1.i’ll start with an article about the brutalist church i saw back in august. we climbed up the hill in vienna. we reached the church and were at first disappointed. a wedding was under way right there. but it turned out well. the people were welcoming so we were able to see the inside as well. a very good day.
2. another month, another bunch of comics.
- fresa y chocolate by aurelia aurito, a japanese girl born in france. you know that time when sex makes you stupid? well, it’s like she never recovered. this is the book with all the details. meh.
- lola by alejandra lunik is a book about what it feels to be a woman nowadays. each page is a different story. i liked her drawing style.
- guia del mal padre by guy delisle. it’s funny and not self-righteous.
- el dia 3 is about a metro accident that took place in
valencia on the 3rd of july 2006. there were 43 dead, 47 wounded and still nobody was considered responsible. i liked the drawing style as well as the fact that i managed to read it in valencian. - la cata by roald dahl is a story from 1945. it kept me interested throughout.
- the very cool series l’arab du futur by riad satouff. his retrospective at the pompidou center in paris has just ended a few days ago. i liked the series more than what i read by him in the past.
last, the amazeballs jimmy corrigan the smartest kid on earth by cris ware. a sad story but an unbelievably exciting book. i may want to buy it, it’s so beautiful and special. the cover is a folded poster. along the story there are cut out figures. some you can fold to create a little carousel animation! i was impressed. a lot.
3. i started the month with an art show opening. plastic murs is a low brow art gallery in ruzafa, valencia. they promote emerging local talent.
this is hungry master by dhani barragan.
4. on a very windy day, we went back to the main cemetery. it’s a very quiet place, usually inhabited by plenty of cats. that day, it was full of plastic flowers torn by the wind. not so many cats, but still.
5. we went to a drum and bass concert in a tiny bar. i had passed by the cool building several times. it’s called teatre el musical.
click here to find out more about this modern building in the heart of cabanyal.
6. i noticed that i listen to a lot of francophone music nowadays.
this is my current earworm from benjamin biolay. the official video and a live version.
7. here’s a track featuring romeo elvis.
8. eddy de pretto is a french singer. he’s very 2019, his lyrics talk about toxic masculinity and normalizing being gay. i like.
9. i watched velvet buzzsaw on netflix. i can’t say much without giving spoilers. watch it, it was ok.
10. lexie liu is a 20-year old chinese artist. she has very recently released two albums with 88rising.
11. this is a behind the scene for cardi b’s grammy outfits. the 3 outfits are 1995 vintage thierry mugler. cardi was the first woman to win a grammy for rap solo artist. watch and weep.
12. dating around is a new netflix show. 6 episodes shows 6 people on 5 blind dates each. my favourite was lex, his soft skills were so good.
13. i’m lazy when it comes to changing the music in my ipod. i’m guessing it’s because the process is not that simple. so every time i go out walking for a couple of hours, i listen to older music. recently, i came across breath control by recoil.
if you don’t know recoil, it’s the band of former depeche mode member alan wilder. i love several of their songs, each seems to be some sort of grown-up world i like to get lost in.
control freak is one of the songs on unsound methods, the first recoil album. it uses a well-known (but modified) sample from you’re all i need to get by marvin gaye ft. tammi terrell.
read here about the original motown song.
i love this mix, it’s mesmerizing.
14. naomi campbell has recently launched her youtube channel. i don’t particularly like her. but she has a career that’s hard to ignore. and i liked this video.
15. paco roca is a valencian comics author. he had a meeting with his readers a couple of weeks ago. and i was there.
- the first paco roca book i read was the very personal la casa. it’s a moving mourning book. 3 siblings are dealing with the death of their father. in the mean time, they’re trying to decide whether to sell their family home or not.
- then i read a story he did for a book including several valencian artists: valentia 1 ciudad, 36 autores y 23 historias. it was about an old man who wanted the bank to show him his money. not a bank slip. he needed to see the money to know that the bank hadn’t lost or misplaced it. from the same book, i also liked el psicologo by santi selvi and cesar sebastian.
- then, i read the fantasmagoric las calles de arena. this one was a bit too out there for me.
- la encrucijada is a collaboration between paco roca and musician jose manuel casan. he was present at the meeting i mentioned above. this book was amazing. it’s about the entire process behind the final artistic product. i liked this one so much i think i’ll buy it.
16. we went to merkato for a delayed st. valentine’s dinner. the ribeye was fabulous. we’ll go back.
17. last summer, i discovered takashi matsuo at a ceramics show in manises. we bought a fugu fish piece. he has a show at the museo de ceramica in valencia. we went to the opening but we’ll go back, to see it with less people.
18. we had a great day at the botanical garden. all the cats wanted snuggles. but all i could get was pics and videos of the paroquets munching on sweet peach flowers.
19. this is a very random highlight. zara home surprised me with great quality diy display windows. cheap and beautiful!
20. i’ve first heard about agustin fernandez mallo in this article. then i went to one of my libraries and found him in the new arrivals shelf. it was his trilogia de guerra.
21. have you ever wondered about gender stuff? if so, check out this video.
22. i enjoyed watching this japanese company move a couple’s possessions. it’s mesmerizing!
i hope you have an eventful spring!
photo and video credits: little aesthete and copyright holders
