The Backpackers Hostel Blog

Mon14 & Tue 15 Jul

At Auditorium Forum - Ticket Hotline 902 10 12 12. International enquiries +34 933 262 946. Buy Tickets also available online from www.telentrada.com. Tickets on sale Monday 2nd June at 9.00AM.

Tom Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by one critic as sounding “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.”

With this trademark growl; his incorporation of pre-rock styles such as blues, jazz, and Vaudeville; and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music,Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including The Fisher King, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Short Cuts. He has been nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart.

Lyrically, Waits’ songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads.

(Taken from http://www.antilabelblog.com and www.wikipedia.org)

Fri 11 Jul

9pm at Sala Razzmatazz (Almogavers, 122) 25 - 30€ Buy tickets

Duffy, is a British singer-songwriter. In 2003 and was invited to appear on Wawffactor, a Welsh television show similar to Pop Idol on local station S4C. She was expected to win, but came second to winner Lisa Pedrig.

She recorded a three-song-EP in Welsh in 2004 and also appeared on two tracks on the album See You in the Morning by Mint Royale. Owen Powell of Catatonia and Richard Parfitt of Newport band 60ft Dolls, introduced Duffy in August 2004 to former Public Image Ltd. member turned music manager and part-owner of Rough Trade Records, Jeanette Lee. Lee moved Duffy to Crouch End in London, and orchestrated a meeting between Duffy and Suede’s ex-guitar player Bernard Butler.

Contracted to A&M Records during 2007, together with another rising star, Adele, Duffy was the most prominent of the so-called “new Amys” (a reference to singer Amy Winehouse. On 21 April 2008 Duffy was at the top of the Pan-European Album chart for Rockferry and the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart for “Mercy”. (Taken from http://www.iamduffy.com/ and www.wikipedia.org).

Mon 23 Jun

Picture by Marcelo Aurelio

The Saint John’s Festival is the midsummer solstice celebration. It is celebrated on 23rd June every year and is also called “La Nit de Sant Joan” - Saint John’s Night.

The summer solstice is the day of the year when the night and day are of equal length and in ancient times this was considered the most important event of the solar year.

Fire use to be the symbol of abundance, purity and fertility; that is why fire is the central element of this Festival in the form of fireworks and bonfires on the beaches.

At midnight, everybody can participate in the ritual of fire purification. The tradition is, that you should write on a paper the things you want to change in your life, throw it into the flames and then jump three times.

Each “barrio” has its own firework display and all-night bonfires. The biggest celebration is at Montjuic with a fabulous fireworks display and a massive bonfire. (Taken from www.arte-redes.com and www.barcelonayellow.com)

July and August

Wed until 11pm / Tue until 10pm at Caixa Forum (Av. Marques de Comillas, 6-8)

Concerts, Scenic Arts and Poetic Recitals, Cinema, Multimedia Performances

Tríada (Bulgarian Voices: Valya Petrova, Boryanka Dimitrova, Elena Aleksieva; Pulshar, La muerte y la primavera (Teather), EEDL (electronic music), Branquicefalias mistéricas, Ni Romeo ni Julieta, Barco de arena (Scenic Art), Sitjazz Band, Digital China (Audiovisual Thematic Concert), Los libros arden mal (tango novel), Zaharregia, txikiegia agian / Una manera de mirar (poetry and music), Binomis (Down-tempo experimental electronic + Balago Dance & Erre que Erre, Asíkides (greek music), Divine Gospel Reunion, A paso de Rosalía de Castro (poetry), Carta de una mujer desconocida (Letter from an unknown women Xu Jinglei, China, 2004, 94 min, Movie in VOSE), One Woman Blues & Swing Show, Sforzinda (Flute concert), Flamenco (Mercedes Cortés/voice, Jordi Flores/guitarra; Jesús Flores & “el Nano”/palms), Institut FATIMA (Multimedia Spectacle), December Quintet, Sunflower Zhang Yang, China, 2005, 131 min, VOSE (Movie), The Baghdad Ensemble (Classic Music from the Middle East), Fernando Lagreca (electronic pop), Vida (Poetic Recital), Ping-pong mongol Hao Ning, China, 2005, 107 min, VOSE (movie), Barbad (Classic Music from form Persia, tradicional Armenia and popular Magreb), A paso de Charles Baudelaire (Scenic art), Micro Music BCN (multimedia concert), La boda de Tuya Wang Quanan, China, 2006, 95 min, VOSE (movie), One Woman Blues & Swing Show, The Orient Express Orkestra (sefardi and klezmer music), edukando.org (electronic music), Pere Arquillué dice a Gabriel Ferrater (Scenic art).

(Taken from http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es).

See Program (just in Spanish language)