This article from the Times nicely sums up something Marina and I are oft complaining about in the podcasts – the dreadful state of Spanish TV, and its increasing reliance on Telebasura (TV-rubbish).

“- Antena 3 Televisión, which produces two of the most popular trash TV programmes, recorded profits of €54.3 million (£37 million) in the first quarter of this year — a rise of 42 per cent from the same period last year
- ….. telebasura shows go a long way to capturing audience share — crucial to attracting advertisers”

Unfortunately, if trash is this profitable, they’re going to keep making it!

The BBC’s Melvyn Bragg takes on the Spanish Inquisition in this week’s edition of the excellent ‘In our Time’ series (which can be downloaded as a podcast). Thanks to Marbella in the forums for the tip!

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Ben chats to Ryan from Catavino.net about Spanish wines, and discovers that it isn’t all just Rioja, Rioja, Rioja… Ryan recommends La Venencia if you are ever after a glass of sherry (Fino) in Madrid, and you can find out all about the Madrid wine dinners here, and check out his podcasts here.

Comment on/discuss this podcast in the forums.
Thanks to Ryan for the photo, Budbreak.

12 ETA members were arrested in France and Spain today, including the capture of Julen Madariaga, one of the separatist group’s founding fathers. Those arrested were said to be in charge of the terrorist group’s extortion rackets, that are suspected to be continuing despite the recent historical ceasefire.

Full reports in The Guardian and El Mundo.

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Another summer classic: Ensalada Campera (country salad), just like the abuela (granny) used to make it.

Ingredients (for four people)

1 Kg (2.2 pounds) potatoes (medium size)
1 cucumber
1 italian green pepper
1/2 small onion
2 tomatoes
2 hard boiled eggs
Salt
2 tablespoons of vinager
5 tablespoons of olive oil

Optional

1 tin of tuna

Preparation

Start by washing the potatoes and boiling them for about 20 minutes, or until tender. At the same time place the egg in cold water in a separate saucepan and count 10 minutes from the moment it starts boiling. While you let both the potatoes and the egg cool down you can chop up the cucumber, green pepper, and tomatoes into cubes, and then chop the onion very thinly. If you wish to use tuna it can be added at this point, using a fork to break it into smaller pieces while taking it out of the tin. When the egg and potatoes are cold enough to handle, peel them, chop up the egg white into small cubes and slice the potatoes into 1/2 cm (quarter inch) wide slices. Place all the ingredients in a largish dish and sprinkle with salt. Place the dish in the fridge for at least an hour so the salad is cold. Just before serving prepare the dressing: crumble the egg yolk into a bowl, add the vinager and finally add the olive oil slowly while mixing it with a small whisk. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss it.

Discuss/comment on this recipe in the forums.

Spain make it through to the next round of the world cup, after eventually beating Tunisia 3 – 1… (more pics of spectators in Madrid)

What’s all this?

An intercambio is about meeting someone of a different nationality or mother toungue and having a chat – a great way to improve how well you speak another language. In this case we are talking about Spanish and English.

We’ve realised that the Notes from Spain forums are a great place for people to get together on-line, so come in, meet people, and decide how you want to chat… on-line with skype, right there in the forums, via private messages, you decide! (You will have to register to post messages or reply to others, but that’s just to keep the spammers away.)

Enter the Notes from Spain Intercambio Forum here!

And by the way, children are welcome too!

Look out for these at cinemas if you live in the UK (no info. on rest of the world release dates yet).
-Secuestro Express – Express kidnapping in Caracas (not Spain, no, but good for your Spanish, and apparently a phenomenon on the increase in Spain).
-Lobo – Gripping real life tale of an ETA infiltrator.

74% of Catalan voters decided in favour yesterday of plans to award them even greater autonomy. Opposition leader Mariano Rajoy has asked for any reforms to be prevented from going ahead, however, claiming that the low overall 50% voter participation means that ‘two out of every three citizens [of Cataluña] have not backed the new statutes’. Spanish President Zapatero claimed that 50% was a standard turn out for this type of referendum and will back the result.

Links:
BBC News story
El Mundo (in Spanish)
NFS forum discussion

I’ve been inspired to start taking lots of photos of Madrid again. This one above is of a grandmother walking her granddaughter home in the barrio of La Latina. When Marina saw the image she pointed out that it could easily have been taken 50 years, ago… one of the wonderful things about Spain, the past is still there, floating just beneath the surface… Photo by Ben.