Monalia's World

Yesterday was a gorgeous 28 degree (about 85 F) Sunday here in Barcelona so Mark and I improvised an afternoon at the beach. It is so simple here, with no car but living so close to bus stops and 2 metro stations; in this case we walk down the block and around the corner, where we catch the number 39 bus. It takes about 10 minutes to get to Barceloneta beach on the bus. (It takes me 6 minutes on my bike if I go non-stop). The number 39 drops us off right there, and the final stop lets us off across the street from our favorite beach – the “anything goes” beach full of (mostly Spanish) naked people. There is a chiringuito (shack that sells food) directly on the beach where the bus drops us off, pumping out surf, reggae and techno grooves, but we walk along the sand to the right for a bit to get to Anything Goes Beach. Lots of naked, not gay men. Lots of older women too, of all body shapes and sizes. it is great for people watching – but not for everyone. There was a skinny and very dark naked lady who looked to be about 92 years old, wearing only a thong and a turban like scarf on her head who reminded me of a lizard. She was an evenly baked dark brown on every inch of her wrinkly body. There was a handsome, mahogany color man walking along the beach, no clothes at all but he is talking on a cell phone. I decide he must do all his business from this beach, because he is the same mahogany shade from head to toe.

Another couple walked by, looking to be in their mid 30´s, with no clothes but carrying backpacks. They were Spanish, but probably from Madrid or somewhere with no beach. Catalans have a lot of conviction. A plump family of 3, all naked, playing with a beach ball, plopping in the water to retrieve the ball every so often. There were also plenty of gorgeous, young bodies interspersed, with a total “live and let live” vibe. There were a variety of skin colors too, from the extremely tan (completely tan literally all over) to the English translucent white to the Senegalese purple/black. There were a few ‘giant’ men, completely naked with white skin weighing over 300 pounds, splashing and flouncing in the water like they were 9 years old.

One man, possibly a tourist, kept sitting in the sand just near the edge of the water directly in line of where people walk up and down the beach. He was completely naked and had a full erection. He would sit there with a silly look on his a face as people made their way around him and past his erect penis. He seemed to be quivering and shaking as well. Very strange.

On the way walking back along the sand to our bus stop we noticed a legless man, naked, standing on his one good leg, rinsing himself in the beach shower. This is a disturbing image in and of itself, but in the context of Anything Goes Beach its just another detail and ultimately part of the beauty.
Looking down the coast of Barcelona the mix of beautifully modern architecture, old roman era buildings and 70’s style apartment blocks seemed to match the wide variety of people gathered on the beach.

At one point, as Mark and I lay there, marvelling at what a charmed life we have, a beach vendor came up to us holding a tray of fresh coconut meat on ice. We bought and devoured the two remaining pieces he had and were transported back to memories of our little cabana in Fiji where a native would come and crack open a fresh coconut from a nearby palm tree for our breakfast every morning.

Barcelona is a city that thinks on its feet. It listens to the needs and is in touch with the rhythm of its people. On weekends and holidays the metros run frequently, and all night. On Sundays there are fewer metros because many people don’t use the metro on Sundays They stay home or walk or take a car somewhere else. I like riding my bike around the city on Sundays because there are not many cars cluttering up the roads. The pace of a city is somewhat reflected by public transport, and Barcelona has a very human rhythm.

Here are some thumbnail shots from my bike ride through the city.

I’ll start making this a regular feature of my blogs; thumbnail photos from my outtings.

Last night we had dinner with friends and then went to a bar in in our neighborhood, Gracia, that Marta invited us to, which was debuting an animated short film by her friends, whom we had met at her parties. Our Ethiopian meal was superb, and the short walk to the bar playing the film was laden with good conversation.

After dinner we walked to the Bar Helio Gabal to view what turned out to be an impressive 27 minute animated film, but not your ordinary ink and paper or slick CG animation; this film was done almost entirely with sand. To me it seems that the three guys who put this project together were complete masochists. Not only was the medium incredibly difficult to work with (I’m assuming here) but the images and camera moves they chose to portray would be difficult to film in the real world let alone one that was built entirely out of colored sand. The environments that the characters walked through were beautiful and stark, very film noir, with unseen sources of light creating hard rim lights on the characters faces. Gold highlights on faces that would fall of into darkness and shadow. Heads turn towards the camera as light and shadow plays across their face. Mysterious clouds of steam rise and part to reveal distant figures moving in a train station then are quickly enveloped by the steam again. As the character sits in his seat on the train he looks out the window, buildings pass by, some close and some distant. The parallax between the buildings as they pass by is perfect and we find it hard to believe they are doing this with sand. The camera turns back to the face of the man on the train seen through the window from the outside. Subtle reflections in the glass mix together with the light and shadow that is passing over his face. The camera then moves back into the train car, this time from 5 or 6 rows in front of the man sitting in his seat. There are people in the seats in front of him and the camera very slowly zooms through the people to center on the man in the seat. The parallax of the people moving past the camera is again perfect and I found myself wondering if they could have made this project any more difficult on themselves.

Mark talked to one the directors of the film afterwards and asked him a few questions. One thing he wanted to know was if they had used story boards to plot out the scenes and the look. The director replied, just the first part of the film was story boarded. There were three of them working on the concept of the film for about 6 months. There were two animators and a traditional artist, which helps to explain the seamless marriage of beautiful images and the brain numbing technical aspect of moving bits of sand to bring these images to life. They worked for another 6 months together in an isolated location in the hills outside of Barcelona and are such gluttons for punishment that they probably flogged themselves in between takes of these extremely difficult looking sand animations.

I just love the film and art scene in Barcelona. Its really fresh. There’s an optimism and energy reminiscent of Ginsberg, Neil Cassidy, Dharma Bums et al. Unjaded. Determined against all odds. Art for art’s sake.