November 1st 2012. The day after Hallowe’en. I’m on my way to the Sala Razzmatazz—a gig venue located near the Poblenou district of Barcelona. The streets round here are big and wide and completely deserted. With the clocks going back last weekend, it’s already dark, and in spite of the ample …
Book Review: The Art of Character, by David Corbett
There’s a chapter in Chuck Palahniuk’s book, Stranger Than Fiction, in which the author explains how, every year, he finds himself having to re-buy a copy of each of Amy Hempel’s works, having given them all away to friends or fellow writers. In recent years, I’ve found myself doing the same thing …
Remembering Norm
The last time I saw Warren—or Norm, as he was widely and affectionately known—he was standing in the middle of the road by Deanshanger roundabout with a big grin on his face. An enormous HGV was in the process of towing his car out of the bushes after he’d taken the roundabout a little too fast and …
My Five Fave Food Places in Barcelona
Food is awesome, and I try to eat as much of it as possible, every day. Barcelona has some great places to do this—though it must be said, my diet is mostly comprised of the eight or nine varieties of Rana brand ravioli (as my friend Alejandro says, “You can’t go wrong with Rana!”). This should give …
Sounds of the Old Town
The seasons are changing. The sycamores along Passeig de Picasso are shedding their seeds, the temperature is dropping—particularly at night—and, slowly but surely, the number of tourists wandering the streets is finally dwindling. Ironically—or perhaps serendipitously—these changes arrive at a time …