One night in Gracia, wine, and 50s ads

It was a late Tuesday night. Carlos and I were out of wine and headed to Gran de Gracia to see if we could get anymore from the Opencor store, which is open later than regular grocery stores. On the way there, we came across a pile of decades-old belongings that someone had thrown out onto the sidewalk. I can tell you that because of the wine, we picked up most of it and took it back home (without more wine in hand). Now with a clear mind, I find that our late-night pickup is pretty interesting:



Old suitcase, full of books. Dates range from the 30s to the 80s, most of them from the 50s. National Geographics in English, Readers Digests in Spanish, La Hora XXV which seems to be a medical magazine, some trashy comics, catalan comics, and a few random letters, stamps, language books, etc.

The arithmetic book is from 1933.

Honestly I'm more interested in the ads and logos of the time. Here's what I found:

Reader's Digest is full of alcohol ads like this for Gran Garvey Brandy. Most are for brandy or sherry.

Guess the year! go!!

An old map with Diagonal's old name, Generalisimo Franco. Very cool because the street we live on now is included in this small section.

From Reader's Digest, the olivetti 84. Hm... modern magnetic typewriter something?

hahahaha this car is HUGE

THE BEST LIQUOR ALL THE TIME!! (or so they say)

Modern diagram for a watch

This picture for the Vespa ad could have easily been taken last week, but it's from 1954.

I just really like the logo - Jabon Maja (Soap)

"The Intellectual Capacity of a Negro."
uhm... Reader's Digest, 1954.

Minolta auto zoom 8E!

Philips sho' went all out.

Firestone logo hasn't changed much, nor have Pirelli, Special K, Del Monte, or Sherwin Williams.

Beat Anorexia!!
He did it. No worries here! This one is from a medical magazine.

The man with the... Black Pruritis!!

Panemón Forte..

!!!!
From the other side of the map.

Random photos from today

A few random photos from around Barcelona...

"Obama British Africa"... bar? I'm assuming so, but so far I haven't been able to find any more information about this business on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes. Neither Carlos nor I have seen it before today and I haven't found any info about it online. Maybe I will have to swing by for a drink one day...

Chestnuts (and yams) roasting on an open fire...

I haven't had any yet, but these chestnut stands are popular around Barcelona. Apparently they are mostly run by women who travel from Galicia in Northen Spain. It's so Christmassy!

This was a really cool drawing until someone lame tagged it.

It's really popular to have some sort of artistic statement at the entrance of apartment buildings. Usually, they are some 70s-style aberration of a tree sculpture. This is one of the only 2-D attempts and was really interesting to study as you walked by on the street. Now it's still interesting to see, but it really bothers me that yet another person used graffiti as a tool for vandalism rather than artistic expression. More on graffiti in Barcelona later.