Joaquim Maria Puyal

Today, I am going to talk about Joaquim Maria Puyal, the best sports commentator ever. (I am listening to him right now, FC Barcelona is playing against Xerez.) This is (hopefully) going to be my last post on this blog, so if someone is reading this, enjoy it now cause you will not be able to read me anymore!

Joaquim Maria Puyal i Ortiga is a Catalan journalist known for his work in television and radio. He was born in 1949 in Barcelona. He got a degree in Linguistics and another in Romance Philology (which has nothing to do with his actual job at the radio station, I know). After that, he started a degree in Communication Sciences. When he was 27, he decided that he would develop his career exclusively in Catalan, because he thought that the work of journalists could play a decisive role in its normalization (after its repression during Franco's dictatorship).

In 1967 he started working with Ràdio Barcelona, a tiny radio station. He remained there for many years doing various roles until the station's director asked him if he could broadcast a soccer match. He accepted it and that is when he started his job as a sports commentator.

Puyal narrated the first Catalan-language broadcast of a soccer match since the Second Republic. During Franco's dictatorship Catalan had been forbidden in every official institution, but games had been broadcast in Catalan before the Civil War. Puyal realised he had to work with linguists to create the specialized vocabulary needed to analyse soccer (most of the words came from English: corner, offside, penalty, goal... and had its equivalent in Spanish, but not in Catalan).

After Franco's death, he made the proposal to broadcast matches in Catalan to the director of Cadena Ser, a Spanish radio station, because he thought he could do it with the democratic air that was starting to appear in Spain. Cadena SER accepted the project and the new programme was called 'Futbol en català'. The programme became quickly very successful.

In 1985 Puyal left Ràdio Barcelona and started working with Catalunya Ràdio, the most important radio station in Catalunya. Since that moment he has narrated every official match played by FC Barcelona, which makes more than 2,000 games.(He is still working with Catalunya Ràdio.)

Joaquim Maria Puyal's popularity and prestige is due as much to his radio career as to his work in television. He has directed, produced and presented various programs, all in the Catalan language.

In television, he began working on the Catalan circuit of Televisión Española. He started in 1977 presenting the programme 'Vostè pregunta'. In 1985 he signed with TV3 to direct and present the programme 'Vostè jutja', then he started with another programme with 'La vida és un xip' and then with 'Un tomb per la vida'. He collaborated with some other programmes in which he was not the presenter 'Tres pics i repicó' and 'El joc del segle'. He gave the first professional opportunity to many notable Catalan journalists such as Antoni Bassas, Xavier Bosch, Manel Fuentes, Ricard Torquemada (he works with him currently) and Mònica Terribas.

He has many awards for his work in television and in radio. Joaquim Maria Puyal is by far the most popular sports commentator in Catalan (and the best one). He is not like the sports commentators we are used to listen to, he is kind, he can talk properly, he knows everything about soccer but about many other things too. He stands out amongst his mates because he is humble and he talks like a professional, not like a plain fan (it is sad, but sports press and sports journalists are not real journalists, they are just supporters).

Listening to him, you learn lots of things about soccer and really enjoy it. He talks clearly, he expains everything about the match and the players and the most important thing: he does not talk as if he knew everything and he does not commentate on matches under his point of view, he does it as objectively as he can. If you have the chance to listen to him, instead of listening to TV sports commentators, switch on the radio and listen to him! Our frequency here is 106,7.

Romeo and Juliet

Well, as I have nothing to tell, I decided to write a song that I like. I discovered it recently, I did not use to listen to this kind of music, but a friend of mine said The Killers were an awesome (and popular) band, so I decided to listen to them so he would shut up.
This song is not very popular (I wanted to be original) and it's quite different from the songs they usually write. It is a ballad that tells a story, here you have the lyrics.
(I can't manage to find that thing so you can play the video here, but here you have the link if you are interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87cLyBR1JTo)

Romeo and Juliet, by The Killers

A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade

Laying everybody low with a love song that he made

Finds a streetlight steps out of the shade

Says something like you and me babe how about it?

Juliet says hey it's Romeo
you nearly gave me a heart attack

He's underneath the window

she's singing hey la my boyfriend's back

You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that

Anyway what you gonna do about it?

Juliet the dice were loaded from the start

And I bet and you exploded in my heart

And I forget I forget the movie song

When you gonna realise it was just that

The time was wrong Juliet?

Come up on different streets

they both were streets of shame

Both dirty both mean yes

and the dream was just the same

And I dream your dream for you

and now your dream is real

How can you look at me

as I was just another one of your deals?

Well you can fall for chains of silver

you can fall for chains of gold

You can fall for pretty strangers

and the promises they hold

You promised me everything

you promised me thick and thin

Now you just say oh Romeo

yeah you know I used to have a scene with him

Juliet when we made love you used to cry

You said I love you like the stars above

I'll love you till I die

There's a place for us

you know the movie song

When you gonna realise

it was just that the time was wrong?

Juliet...

I can't do the talk like the talk on the TV

And I can't do a love song like the way its meant to be

I can't do everything but I'd do anything for you

Can't do anything except be in love with you

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be

All I do is keep the beat the bad company

All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme

Julie I'd do the stars with you any time

Juliet when we made love you used to cry

You said I love you like the stars above

Ill love you till I die

There's a place for us

you know the movie song

When you gonna realise

it was just that the time was wrong?

Juliet...

A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade

Laying everybody low with a love song that he made

Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade

Says something like you and me babe how about it?

Movie time!

I have never understood Easter, I do not know what it is for but holidays are always welcome. It is the time of the year when everyone has so many things to do and nobody does anything. At least, that is what happens to me. When Easter is over, I always think of what I have done, and I always know it is nothing. No sport, no work, no reading, no party, no movies, no travelling, no nothing. And every time Easter approaches, I make a list of 'what to do' stuff, just like at the beginning of the year, and I am never able to carry my plans out.
So far, I think I have done way more stuff than any time before: I went to the cinema (I never find the time to go), I played tennis (it was like more than 2 years since I played for the last time), I am writing on my blog (that is work) and hopefully, we'll have a party at my place (this will be happening if my parents are not here).
Well, as I have nothing to tell, I will talk about the movies I watched these days: The Ghost Writer, The Constant Gardener and Boys don't cry.
The Ghost Writer (El escritor) is a thriller which tells the story of man who starts working as the Prime Minister's ghost writer. His predecessor died in a very unusual way, he drowned and was found on the shore. The ghost writer finds it very weird and starts investigating about it. He discovers that the Prime Minister had been hiding some irregular stuff and the ghost writer knew it, and that is why he made the previous ghost writer disappear. When the current ghost writer finds everything out, the Prime Minister realises that he is danger, so he makes his henchmen follow the ghost writer and kill him.
The Constant Gardener (El jardinero fiel) is a drama movie. Justin and Tessa meet at a conference in Kenya and start a relationship. He works for the Brithish embassy and she is an important activist who fights against the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical companies violate human rights by testing their new products on sick people. Tessa reports these crimes and wants them to stop. As she is a pain in the ass, the companies decide to make her disappear and kill her in a car 'accident'. Justin suspects that it was not an accident and starts investigating. He discovers that Tessa had found out really creepy stuff about the companies and that is why they wanted to kill her. He goes to the place where she died and shoots himself. (I was reading this and it looks like the movie doesn't make a lot of sense, but it does, I just can't express myself.)
Boys don't cry (Los chicos no lloran) is a drama movie based on a true story (this creeps me out). Teena Brandon wants to be a man, but has female genitals. He (I am going to talk about him as a man) lives at his cousin's in Lincoln cause his parents want him to take an hormone treatment to 'cure' him. He always gets in trouble to look tougher and he is due to go to court. One day, he meets some people who treat him right and starts kind of living with them for some days. They have very dysfunctional families and drink a lot. However, Brandon finds it comfortable there and stays with them. There, he meets Lana and falls in love with her. They start making out and Lana starts suspecting he is not a man and tells him it is all right, that she loves him anyway. The other guys (one of them was in love with Lana) start suspecting the same and they humiliate him and take his clothes off to see what he actually is. They see he is got female genitals and they hit him and rape him. Brandon is afraid of them and he doesn't want to tell anyone what they did to him, so he comes back to Lana's place to go away with her. When the guys go to see Lana, they think that Brandon is there and they look for him. The guy that was in love with Lana shoots him.
Well, that's enough for today, here you have them, I specially recommend Boys don't Cry and the Constant Gardener, if u want to know my opinion.

Genoa

Not many things to tell, as usual, but I found something to write about and I'd better not postpone it cause I know I'll get lazy later on.
Last week it was Magdalena, our local holidays. I just love them, the town changes completely, heaps of people on the streets any time of the day, lots of things to do. I love it cause Cs is pretty boring during the year, every Saturday looks the same and it feels like monotony has taken the town and the people. That is why during Magdalena people get crazy and become different and friendlier for a week.
Well, I was not in Cs the whole week, I was here just for the weekends, which are pretty much the best days of Magdalena. The rest of the time I went to Genoa to visit my brother (he is there on an Erasmus scholarship) and I loved it! I think it was not because the city was so nice, but because I saw what Erasmus life is like. I stayed at my brother's place with him and his flatmates (three Spanish girls) and some friends of his flatmates (six people) and my parents stayed in a hostel. We went to see the city, which I found beautiful and very singular. It is a very uneven place, the town is built like between a mountain and the sea, so it is full of stairs and alleys that lead you to the most unexpected places. Besides, it was the best time for us to go to a city, visiting it when you have someone who has explored it before to show you around! We were in Genoa for two days, then we went to Cinque Terre (five lovely villages by the sea), Portofino (that would be our Benidorm but without apartments, just little houses by the sea and painted in different and cheerful colours) and Milan (which was a brief visit cause we had to arrive at the hostel quite soon in the afternoon).
I was feeling sick for those days (I always get sick when I spend many days going out) so I stayed at home for a whole day. My brother was like really nice to me while I was there, we usually get on, but I was surprised to see how he took care of me while I was sick. We had some interesting chats about the experience of living abroad, our lives in general and my parents and it was a long time since I had talked to him like that, so easily cause we understand each other, because when he was here we didn't talk so much about this kind of stuff.
Well, going back to Genoa, I got to know my brother's flatmates and they were just so nice! They were studying (well, they enrolled on some classes) different things and doing random stuff during the day. As they are Erasmus students, they do not have many hours of classes, so they have lots of time to travel, party or do whatever they want. Every night, my brother's friends got together at my brother's place and sat there just talking or drinking (if they were going to go out). I left Genoa feeling like going out with them, besides, they were saying all the time: "you can't leave Genoa without going out with us, come back!" and you know, I really wanted to, I wanted to know what an Erasmus party feels like on my very person, cause somehow, I felt that that city had caught me in some way.
Maybe it was because I am looking forward to my Erasmus year or because I am willing to live on my own and have a little of independence from my parents, I don't know, but what I know is that when I'm on my Erasmus year, I'll make the most of it!

Soldiers

This is my attempt to translate a song from Spanish to English. It is called "Soldados", by Skalariak, one of my favourite groups. This one is not the song I like most, but I was trying to translate some other songs and they were too hard (this is my first translation to English), so decided to try it with this one.
I know the lyrics by heart since I was a child, because of my brother's influence. I remember so many trips in my car listening to this cassette (it was not even a CD!) and asking my brother to turn the volume down cause I didn't like it. Then, as the time went by, I started appreciating their music and nowadays I love it.

I look out of the window and I see soldiers
They walk all together at a brisk pase
Handgun on their waist, shotgun in their hands
The street is silence, I can only hear their steps
their steps

On one side, soldiers; on the other, a lady
with bags in her hands, it's time to go grocery shopping
Walking decidedly, alone in the old street
She walks towards them, without slowing down

Without slowing down, no, no!

She does not fear any of them
She doesn't change her direction, power can't intimidate her
The ironmen go through by force
War, war,
to those who want to move me!

Some items fall from her bags and are on the ground
surrounding the lady, who fell because of the blow
The soldiers left her laying face down
She raises her head, now she moves her arms
her arms

I take a deep breath when I notice her looking at me
after some seconds, she got up quickly
The whole regiment moves away slowly
Because she shouts at them to look her in the eye

In the eye, no, no!

She does not fear any of them
She doesn't change her direction, power can't intimidate her
The ironmen go through by force
War, war,
to those who want to move me!

Do you really want to be elle?

Its title says it all. Elle. She. How a woman must be. Yes, I am talking about the magazine Elle.
Today, I was at my friend's place, I had never been there before, so I was taking a look at the things in her room, it was more or less like I expected it to be, a piano, heaps of books, some pictures... but then something caught my attention. She had some issues of the magazine Elle, something that I did not expect to be there at all. Now don't take me wrong, I'm not going to like her any less just because she reads the magazine (that is what she thought when I told her I was surprised to see that magazine in her room), but it's just that this magazine is horrible. I do not mean horrible because it's a fashion magazine, but because of what it represents. It's a magazine full of stereotypes, it does not only tell you what to wear, but how to be. Its articles (its few articles) are written by women all stressed out by the way they look, their biggest worries are how to make a pumpkin salad or how to have a successful career and be a mother at the same time. The vision of women it gives disgusts me. Always worried about the looks, about make-up, about children, about how their relationship could work out, about high heels and glamour and not about herselves.
Have you ever thought of the word "model"? It means something to be imitated, perfection. I do not think those sad skinny girls are to be imitated. I do not want to be like them, have you ever seen a model's face when he or she is walking down the catwalk? They do not seem happy at all, no wonder why, most of them suffer from eating disorders, nothing to be proud of. It's a sad job.
When I saw the magazine at my friend's place, I didn't feel disappointed, I felt pity, cause if she bought it, it means she cares, and if she cares, it means she feels identified with the magazine content. It makes me feel sad, I can't help it, I don't want my friends to be worried about this kind of stuff, it scares me!

Haere Mai o Aotearoa

When I went to NZ, everyone told me to write a diary. It was something I planned to do anyway, but everyone just kept repeating it. When I arrived there, the first thing my host family gave to me was a diary. 'Our last student didn't use it, so here you have, hope you write your experiences here and keep them forever. You know, most of the students understand what the experience means when they are away, many years later', mum said. What a wise woman.
Last week I read my journal for the first time after I came back, more than a year later. Wow, I did not expect it, but it moved me to tears... Many things I thought I had forgotten came to my mind, all the good things: the trips, the ball, the fireworks, Christmas at the park, the last days in town, the weekend with Anita; and the bad things: how I missed a special person so bad, the uncomfortable relationship with Maija, the days when I was feeling down, saying good-bye to all those people who made my year... but also lots of small things I didn't remember: the play, the national anthem (I can still sing the lyrics), babysitting with Jordan and Riley, my first dream in English (it didn't make much sense, something about a kidnapped guy and his elbow being tied to a sleeping bag), the rugby match, the chess hours, my first good joke in English (this took a looong time), random conversations with people...
All these things were not written in the handbook AFS sent me before leaving. It just said some abstract stuff that I found really interesting then (about life in a farm, about life in town, about school and its subjects, how to behave with the family, the driving license, legal drinking, illegal sex, travelling with people over 21...) but was very general. I'm not saying it was not true, but I think what I saw was different from what the handbook had taught me. Haere Mai o Aotearoa -- Welcome to New Zealand-- was the only thing I remember stayed the same.
But what I really felt when I was reading my diary was that I really lived the experience, everything seemed so important, when somebody invited me to their party I got really excited and when somebody let me down I could hardly keep from crying. It was like living really intensely, every little thing made me feel really happy or really upset and I remember myself saying 'Oh my God, I'm sick of getting so emotional all the time. I wish I did not care so much about everything!'. Well, now it's the other way around, I want to experience that feeling again, I want to get emotional about stupid stuff!
PS. Here you have a picture of NZ, so you can see how beautiful it is!