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.

Back to routine

We haven't posted for a while! Maybe it's because time for travel is over and we're busy with daily life. School, searching for a job, etc... nothing too exciting. We did go to Parc Guell again, but it was still filled with tourists. Las Ramblas is slowing down, some mornings it's all but empty, but on a nice Saturday you'll still find it busy. Today is the coldest day I've seen so far - only 47 degrees F - and it's SNOWING less than 2 hours north of here!! So excited!

We have been cooking every day, of course, and we like to use this camera even when we're not doing anything exciting:

Farm-fresh vegetables, eggs, and meats!

Chicken, beer, and liquid smoke...

Carlos' birthday chocolate-peanutbutter-cupcakes. Somehow there are still 3 left!

Oh yeah and... we do go to the gym. A lot.

A bit of architecture

Barcelona is a city filled with diverse architecture. Since it´s got thousands of years of history and multiple cultures contributing, there are some interesting things to see. Here´s just a bit of what you can see in a day.

Detail of a church in the Born district.

and again

Hm I think I was about to say something.. oh wait this isn´t about me!

Arc de Triomf in Barcelona. Better picture next time..

blech. new and very expensive apartment complex called the Windsor. It overlooks the med sea. At least it has a cool cafe in the bottom floor.

These apartments are NEW and so nice looking. This picture doesn´t do them justice.

As you can see, most of the pictures we have have been very overcast. It´s been raining almost every day we´ve been here and is supposed to continue for another half a week or so. :(

Hopefully we will get to use our Eurail train passes to go to northern Italy or southern France very soon. It´s raining in these places too for another week!

Barcelona is filled with firecracker explosions right now. I think what is happening is that a festival is coming up at the end of the month, so they´re already selling explosives for that day. Since there is no school today, all the kids are out blowing things up! The problem is that they aren´t the fancy 4th of July style ones with fun colors and movements, they´re just... explosives. Being in a big city where it´s all apartments, the sounds echo and amplify off of the cement and brick walls. punk kids. I should throw my leftover cooking oil out the window and onto them.

FYI: if you want to see more of Barcelona in photos, here´s a link: http://barcelona.photobloggers.org/2007/05/26/shoot-barcelona/