Columnists

The Bankers. Después de estar un mes sin bateria, perdido por Edimburgo, tomándose cervezas, y teniendo al dandy de garrafón Julio Martines de Artola dando por saco, intentanto ocupar su lugar, volvemos con un concierto acústico el 22.11 en el bar Tribbiani. Rock on!!
myspace.com/thebaaaankers

Tiffany Carter has 8 siblings, 6 of them her second cousins, because she is from a small, depraved mountain town where people actually do still bugger livestock. After dropping out of high school at fifteen (no longer her proudest accomplishment), she went on to study philosophy at a large, urban university where she was neither mugged in parking decks nor buggered by her professors as might have been expected or desired. And afterwards, in an attempt to flee herself and one version of adulthood and the responsibilities it is rumored to entail, she moved to Berlin, there to embark on an unwanted career as a native-English-speaking ventriloquist and meet a dapper gentleman from Vallvidrera. She threw herself at him long and hard without being arrested even once, and things worked out well in the end, though not without the standard histrionics and idle threats. But having spent over three years in Barcelona as an illegal immigrant, nothing has really become any clearer in any other aspect of her life (something she can now complain about in four languages), although in the grips of her last manic episode she did find BCN WEEK, where she has done various things in various capacities, had a few drunken outbursts and alienated many of our friends. She's currently listed as copy editor though she hasn't actually done any copy editing lately, and she sometimes manages to turn in her column La Cuina Guarra (though never by deadline), which has really taken a nosedive in quality of late. Hopefully someday something will come of this or at least one of things she undertakes, such as the novel she claimed to be writing over a year ago, the bar she says she's going to open with a friend, or the hilarious country duo "Les Jordis" she started with fellow displaced yokel Nuria Ferrer that has met for band practice approximately 5 times since its inception.

Jordi Corominas i Julián nació en Barcelona, pero no tiene nacionalidad. Le gusta pasear, escribir, besar y reír. Es codirector de www.calidoscopio.net y en navidad cerrará una etapa con la publicación de su segunda novela: Colors.
www.corominasijulian.blogspot.com

When Isolde Dosrius Déulafeu was a happy little girl, she learned very early the lying art. Now, arrogant and ambitious woman, she get married with Catalan man (arrogant and ambitious man, of course!).

Patricio Fernández Abregu es periodista, actor frustrado y apasionado del teatro, lo que hace ser un crítico sin escrúpulos dispuesto a dar caña a todos los que, por diferentes circunstancias, pisan las tablas sin darlo todo o menospreciar tan noble arte.

Núria Ferrer goes to the movies to indulge in her Haribo™ habit away from prying eyes. She calls no country home.

Simon Friel was made in Mancunia but resides in Poble Sec. He has recently been published in the 2008 edition of Ping Pong, the literary journal from the Henry Miller library, and will soon be featured in an anthology showcasing writers from the "Offbeat Generation". He is currently finishing his first novel, Murmur.

David Guillén colabora con diversas publicaciones enfocadas al arte y la cultura contemporánea. El pasado año presentó su primera exposición como comisario artístico, y en la actualidad edita su propia revista de arte: Lube Magazine.

Anna Gurney calls it "my war on destroying the planet," other people call it a rather weak monthly column bent on preaching morals she doesn't live up to herself. She strongly believes, however, that being a bit of a hypocrite is better than doing nothing and that the root of all evil is lack of awareness and empathy. She has lived in the same place for a record 18 months now, and switches roles daily between maths teacher, student, tour guide, extreme sports enthusiast, wannabe investigative journalist, slut, red wine guzzler and vegetable. Beneath the sophisticated exterior is a hippy, dreaming of living in a commune, where she can have a go on other peoples' children and avoid the horror and commitment of having her own. Anna is easily confused if you ask questions about her future, so please don't.
www.gurneysjourneys.com

Michael Jones wasted a good seven years of his precious youth playing rock ‘n’ roll in suburban basements while working in event production, political/environmental activism and far too many restaurants. Immediately after casting his first ballot in a (Bushit) presidential election, and while the powers-that-be were still counting votes, Michael sold off his musical equipment and junk and arrived in Barcelona just in time for New Year’s 2001. He came armed only with determination, $220, one acquaintance, a few Mexican slang words, and skills reminiscent of Siddhartha (fasting, meditating, and waiting). After a fledgling year or more on the piss, Michael’s once again settled into a life steeped in the arts. A working actor and songwriter, he has used BCN WEEK as the fuel to the fire of his ever-growing literary ambitions.

Joan López Lloret (née Barcelona, 1969) és director de documentals. El darrer any ha estrenat als cinemes Verdi i Maldà els films Hermanos Oligor i Utopia '79.

Raúl Muniente Sariñena. Licenciado en Filosofía. Aclamado ideólogo del www.circuitoregenerador.com y de www.mismamente.org. Convencido en profundidad de la inferioridad de la filosofía de vida anglosajona en relación a la hispana. Colabora con BCN WEEK por convicción.

Lady Ondina Osborne is the astro-tripping lovechild of a fallen 7th Day Adventist and a fallen Southern Baptist. She receives her clearest signals through a combination of taking the marijuana, watching illegally-downloaded '70s Japanese porn, and staring deep into the eyes of her soulful familiar, Fat Merlin.

Rafaela Rivas es periodista, actriz y en sus ratos libres (y sólo con sus amigos más íntimos) “asesora espiritual”. Según ella, el teatro es la mejor terapia, así que lo practica a diario y no se pierde ni uno de los estrenos de la “ciutat comtal.”

Christian Schallert is the stop button in the high-paced film of everyday life, spotting things other people fail to notice. And while they may accuse him of making people look ugly and/or of making fun of Spanish culture, he sweeps the criticism softly aside. He photographs reality. www.churreriaphoto.com

Contributors

Elliotsdöttir was born on a little tropical island and spent most of her youth in between her banana country and gringolandia. When she got sick of middle class pampering, she took a coconut leaf and swam from the warm light blue waters to a cold Nordic country, Belgium. There she began her artistic education, got really scared by the massive skinhead community, and went back to her tropical paradise. She studied fine arts and advertisement, but once again got tired of mosquito bites, drugs, and not having electricity, so she took her little coconut leaf and landed in Barcelona, where she studies Illustration. Elliotsdöttir has been studying for the past 6 years, and is damn tired of it. In four years Elliotsdöttir will be 30. She speaks English (with a gringo accent) Spanish (with a Dominican accent), and Dutch (with a Flemish accent). She waits for a good paying job and papers in her tiny apartment in El Gótico.

Eli Hastings writes. Occasionally, when he thinks he's writing, he finds a toothbrush in his hand with which he is cleaning the little piece of counter behind the stove. Also, along with six smarter people of three nationalities, he tries to sell fair trade Nepalese stuff to Catalan people in a gritty Spanish neighborhood full of Muslims and Filipinos. His wife, luckily, is an international aid doctor bound for great things and will drag him along with her sometimes. But Eli just writes. Whatever you do, do not buy his first book, Falling Room, or read his blog
www.elihastings.blogspot.com.

An East-Frisian daughter from the seaside, Maren Hermans studied Media and Cultural Studies in Amsterdam, living in her perfect little house with a perfect little garden. But because good things are never good forever, she found herself a new challenge and moved to Barcelona. Besides all culture- and media-related, heavily postcolonial and lightly postmodern types of questions, Maren turned out to be obsessed by another one: wondering when everything became so difficult. Her favorite pastime is to categorize, plan and organize her own life and also -if they let her- the lives of others. As she managed to make money out of this major pain in the ass, Maren is now unofficially Barcelona’s most ambitious production assistant. Besides that, she likes to write without thinking too much. You could call this an exhalation of a troubled mind, in long and endless chains of words, glued together by wildly scattered commas, using her old school English and vocabulary from American TV series to do so. Slightly problematic, outstandingly postmodern. Maren secretly likes to read John Irving novels, is a caring mother of a lovely bunny rabbit, and one of her future projects is to get to know her neighbors by organizing weekly meetings with warm apple cake. So cute.

Jo Marvel is innocent. Of everything. After spending a good deal of her young life in silence, filling her head with fictional characters and magic tricks, Jo suddenly entered into this extroverted world with an enthusiastic, if slightly bizarre, leap out of the Sawtooth Mountains. Her comfy sneakers carried her into the Catalan puppeteering scene after trying their hand (Sneakers with hands!) at Ecuadorian street acrobatics, British physical theatre, and American and Canadian fringe festival storytelling. Between such sneakered events, Jo packed in some whitewater river guiding, patisserie training/eating, and lots of quixotic thinking. For this reason, she occasionally takes naps.

Benjamin Nathan-Serio left his beloved Broadway in '06 in search of a better life, and found it on Platja Bogatell. Though he'd been dreaming of Spain, when he woke up in Catalunya he had already signed his lease and gotten a job. Da igual. A political refugee of the Etats Units, Ben performs with IPA Productions and is a sporadic contributor to the subversive BCN WEEK. He calls his modest piso in Les Corts 'hogar', and shares it with his Dominican pareja, Paraguayan gos and Ecuadorian compañero de piso.

Ayesha Pirbhai recently moved to Barcelona from a place often called “Dirty Jersey,” U.S.A. As they say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” (or backyard, in this case). She is currently studying journalism and international relations, with a minor in the nocturnal life of Barcelona based on her empirical research. Writing and drawing are her top passions, though the scientific categorization of Catalan haircuts doesn’t fall far behind.

RECOLECTO CONCIENCIAS...
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www.fotolog.com/rev_grafica

Enrique Sanchez Enrique Sanchez is a professional procrastinator and hater with a part-time smile. He’s weaning himself slowly but surely from his procrastination habit. In the meantime he’s in the process of becoming a millionaire so he can buy a whale harpoon and a mountain somewhere where no human being is near. Naturally the whale harpoon is just in case a human comes too close to the secluded mountain. When he's not writing hate mail to blind people, Enrique takes pictures and walks a lot in the streets of BARcelona. He truly believes that you don't need to be Nubian to love black humour. If someone knows a legal way for him [to fully take advantage of the system ] to be able to live 6 months in BCN and 6 months in YUL let him know. If you overheard something in Barcelona that is worth sharing with the virtual world... let him know too. entendidoenbarcelona.wordpress.com

Tina von Thomsen vereint Gegensätze spielend, ganz wie ihre Geburtstadt München. Blaublütiges Rockchick deluxe, Recycling Freak, latent aggressiv, aber Hippy at heart, Internetjunkie mit Hang zur Esoterik, durch und durch lokalpatriotsch, jedoch von diversen Auslandsaufenthalten völlig sprachverwirrt. Aufgewachsen in einer Familie von Psychologen wurde sie schon von Kindesbeinen darauf geschult, die ungesagten Dinge wahrzunehmen. Der daraus resultierende Berufswunsch der Detektivin verhallte unerhört. Als Jüngste von vieren kam sie selten zu Wort, wodurch sich das immense Kommunikationsbedürfnis in Musik, Photographie und Schreiben kompensieren musste. Das Soziologiestudium zog sich etwas in die Länge, aufgrund diverser Nebenjobs, wie u.a. Messi-Jägerin, Expertin en chapuzero oder freie Redakteurin bei jetzt.de, sowie den eingehenden Studien des Münchner Nachtlebens und der internationalen Musikszene, insbesondere im Atomic Café. Die anschließenden beruflichen Tätigkeiten beim Fernsehen oder einer Konzertagentur brachten noch nicht das gewünschte Glück. Nach wie vor auf der Suche nach der perfekten Stadt und dem passenden Beruf ist Tina nun in Barcelona angekommen. BCN WEEK bietet ihr nun das ideale Medium die Bewohner der Stadt auf die “richtigen” Events zu aufmerksam zu machen.

Diana Xifre pasó de niña-prodigio a pseudoadulta-sin-rumbo en pocos años, nació en barnacity, creció, estudió y trabajó en la ciudad. Después de terminar la carrera de Psicología y trabajar despidiendo a gente en Human Resources, dejó todo para estudiar fotografía. Mientrastanto se sacó la carrera de solfeo, tocó el piano durante años y lo dejó, aprendió a cantar rock, a componer y ahora ensaya con dos bandas. Usa palabras como "guay", si llevara gafas serian de pasta, cocina poco y mal, y cree que sus padres quieren más al gato que a ella. Es joven y tiene ganas, así que puedes contactar con Diana para cualquier evento fotográfico, artístico, musical o creativo en general, y por 30€ escucha tus problemas y te da consejos de psicóloga.
flickr.com/photos/namorita