2009 Madrid Flamenco Festival, Suma Flamenca

Sunday Classical Music and Lomo de Buey

Another GREAT Menú del Día in Madrid

Swine Flu Fear Fuels Economy
Fear stimulates the economy - and the H1N1 Swine Flu virus "pandemic" scare is helping a lot during this worldwide economic crisis. In other times wars were started to pull us out of recession and put people to work.The big "winners" of such a scare are the pharmaceutical companies. Other big winners are the media outlets themselves, many of which have never had higher TV ratings, higher newspaper sales, or greater circulation. Secondary winners go to those in the health care-related industry, whether privately or publicly driven institutions, hiring more personnel, opening up new health centers under the guise of "Better Serving Joe Citizen", and justifying alread

Late Night, Cold Air, Open Windows
If there's something I love it's cool, fresh air late at night. Sure, it's only about midnight here in Madrid but after the recent time change it seems even later. And now that we're well into autumn the night time low temperatures are lower and the typically nonexistent humidity is even less nonexistent. Say, is it possible to be less than non-existent? Regardless, the skies are clear and the stars are staring down at me as bright as can be.That's why I love autumn and even winter - particularly when the heat's turned off. In the USA, and many other parts of the world, when the heat's turned on for the autumn/winter it's on until late spring and no one would think to open the w

Last Day of October 2009 in Madrid
Today's Halloween, we've already changed our clocks back 1-hour, and the temperatures are getting a little cooler - but only a little. Some of the leaves have gone from green to brown, seemingly overnight, bypassing the oranges, reds, and yellows we would see in many parts of the USA.NFL football is in full-swing although it's hard to notice from Madrid. I catch a game or two each week, whether live on Sunday afternoon or as tape-delayed on a weekday, but it's not the same. NCAA football games come and go an there's n

Halloween in Spain
Don't anyone tell me that Halloween doesn't exist in Spain. IT DOES! And the wave of popularity becomes higher and higher with every passing year - world economic crisis or not. A recent visit to Carrefour Supermarket/Store proved that Spain is very aware of the "holiday". There, they were selling artificial Jack-O-Lanters with scary faces, Halloween makeup, costumes, loads of accessories and even some candy (although I didn't notice an

Helping a Fallen Neighbor - LITERALLY!
"If you live long enough you'll see nearly everything."I'm sure this quote is true for average people. Today I came another step closer to realizing it as I was walking through the neighborhood this morning at 8am.Only one block from my building was where the elderly 80-plus year old woman, no taller than 4 foot 10 inches, shouted in my direction in such a hushed voice I wasn't sure she was even talking to me. When I turned to see her looking my way, walking slowly and asking for something, I was sure she was panhandling. But when the surrounding traffic noise passed and her slight voice was clearer. She was sa