2009/02/18

Sporting Wood For A Certain Biologist


My god. I'm so tired of being alone.

Carnival de Cádiz



Turns out there is a super shitshowzen fiesta in Cádiz this weekend that they call Carnival. When I think of Carnival I think, in this exact order, of 1) Carnies, 2)West Deptford, New Jersey's finest auto-mechanic George Carney, 3)Rodney Carney's potential as an NBA player, 4)The Simpson's episode where they go to buy a new TV and Marge finds the Chanel suit (Carnivalé! Magnetbox!) and finally 5) of large outdoor festivals.



I didn't really ever give too much of a fuck about this Manu Chao garbage till I got to Spain; Alia Kate and select company had played some of these jams for me in the past, but nay did I realize how very very popular it all was for some reason. So, I dated a girl here who really dug it, enough so to give me a copy of "Próxima Estación: Esperanza" and, in truth, it's quite good. So, thanks Allison.



I hope everyone is having the BEST BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVER! Check out Harriet Dubman when time allows.

Cuarte Ríos

Tapas are a thing to marvel at in Spain; for the cynical, a small overpriced serving of some type of meat or fish in oil, for the optimistic, a chance to whet one's lips with the unique flavors of Iberia. Here in Huelva, there are approximately 1,000 places by which to procure tapas throughout the day; the siesta is to be respected and revered to the point that one must consider 15:00 the "hora de comer"(hour of eating) as all local restaurants adhere to this principle like garlic on a pincho de pollo. The prices vary from 1.20 to 3.00 euros for a tapita, in most cases 2.00 euro is about standard. Often times you find the pricier tapas have a tad more quality; this is no surprise when you consider that the most highly valued commodity a foreigner can bring is cash. The additional baggage of looking so obviously foreign is the vacant stares that a proprietor of the bar will often produce upon your entrance, order and payment for services rendered.

Neil Young has been playing in my head ever since I got off the train from Madrid 5 (!) months ago; there's no two ways about it, everybody knows this is nowhere.



So, like the rarest of rare birds winging on by with a blood-red rose in it's beak (also you're drunk), it is a true pleasure to come across a tapas bar that offers the friendliest service, the cheapest tapas and the chillest atmosphere. Cuarte Ríos does all that and more; it's also the only bar whose outdoor seating doubles as a "botellón" every Thursday evening; for those not in the know, a botellón is a street drinking festival that students/unemployed/the young and stupid engage in at least once weekly, the standard botellón is 2 liters of rum per 3 people. Kind of brings it back to the days of "Mountain Rum" in Adrian's garage, but that's another story for another day.

The tapas are fucking delicious here; ensaladilla and it's fair skinned cousin patatas ali-oli are usually closer to ipecac syrup than savory splendor for yours truly, but at cuarte ríos there is no better companion for a cruzcampo or a DIY tinto de verano (another truly great feature of the place is the three soda bottles juxtaposed to some dirt cheap vino tinto where the customer can make as full a glass of wine as she/he wants). The montaditos, small sandwiches, feature warmed, crispy bread as the base for juicy lomo or a warm, filling slab of tortilla de patata.

The guys who work here are just trying to make working at a tapas bar as fun as possible for themselves. They joke around constantly, they do their best to speak up to 5 or 6 different languages in any given moment and they HATE on British people's accents (oh, cuarte ríos you had me at "Qué pasa tío")

The place also manages to be one of the few magnets for extremely attractive people. There is always some fine pieces of ass, on both sides lest you ladies think I've gone the way of Charlie Bukowski (slowly, but surely one tends to anyway), on display chatting it up and moving their eyes all over the room.

To sum it all up, Huelva is low on providing one with any form of fulfilling entertainment, but Cuarte Ríos is like the roughest gem amongst the thicket of landmines in some southeast asian jungle. BOOOM! Better hope you make it there without losing too many limbs in the process.

Eddie Jordan I miss you

I'm still saucy at Henry Abbott for not giving me any love for the heads up on the Benicio Del Toro-Portland Trailblazer T-Shirt on the Colbert Report, but he is the institution of basketball blogging, and did alert me to a fellow who is running a fantastic grassroots campaign out of our nation's capital:

Ernie Gone is an effort to bring an end to the madness of the Ernie Grunfeld era for the Washington Wizards. Much to the chagrin of the entire freedarko crew, most likely, EG has been doing an egregious job of putting together a roster: one of the highest payrolls in the NBA is struggling to break the 20 win plateau this season.

To make things interesting, an anonymous angry fan got his shit together and started printing t-shirts for interested parties to put on. He was offering them for free, but then got over 3,000 hits thanks to señor Abbott over at ESPN. He did take the time to respond personally to my request, and so I will return the favor and post his message.

I put some options up on Cafe Press. They aren't free, but this is the best I can do. Cafe Press makes the money, not me.

Fire Ernie is at http://www.cafepress.com/ErnieGone

All Ernie's Fault is at http://www.cafepress.com/AllHisFault

and a more generic option Want a New GM is at http://www.cafepress.com/WantNewGM

If you have any better ideas, please let me know.