"The Red Band Society" on ABC

These days, the regional Catalan television TV3's homepage has had the news that the North American ABC was interested in buying the concept of its series "Polseres vermelles" [Red wristbands / bracelets]. The following is an unauthorized translation/summary of the main points:

The series, created by writer Albert Espinosa [whose English speaking website is here] and directed by Pau Freixas, is inspired in the daily life of a group of children in a children's hospital struggling to cope with the various diseases they suffer. The name of the series is taken from the red plastic bracelets they all wear as a type of patient's ID.

Last season, the series inspired the phenomenon "red bracelets": a legion of faithful followers, most of them teenagers, who made their parents watch, too. These youthful fans, however, did not have enough with watching TV, but moved their passion to the Internet: there sprung up a Facebook group dedicated to the series, and a blog that extends the contents of each chapter immediately after release.

 
TV3 is already working on the second season of the series, after the success of the first 13 episodes of the first season.

On Oct. 28, the Catalan daily El Punt Avui added the following: 

Yesterday it was confirmed that behind the project there a two heavyweights of the industry in Hollywood: Friends creator Marta Kauffman and the filmmaker Steven Spielberg, through his production company Dreamworks, are finalizing a deal to adapt the series under the name "The Red Band Society". Its Catalan creator Albert Espinosa yesterday confirmed via Twitter the information that had appeared in the specialized press in the U.S. 

The Planeta book prize 2011

The Planeta, named after its sponsor, the biggest Spanish media and publishing house, is probably the most generous prize in literature (600,000 EUR) after the Nobel. The article by Rosa Mora from El País could be translated like this:

"Brazilian" Planeta to Javier MoroThe author won the prize with a chronicle of Emperor Pedro I. who won independence for Brazil - Inma Chacón, runner-up with the novel "Time of sand"
Javier Moro wins the 60th edition of the Premio Planeta (601,000 EUR) with a novel whose title will be "The empire are you", a fascinating chronicle of the life of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (1798-1834), appointed Prince Regent by his father, Joao VI of Portugal.Pedro I joined the cause of independence and was appointed first Perpetual Defender of Brazil, and then emperor. He had a very hectic life and a reign that lasted nine years. History and adventures are mixed in this novel, topics that equally passionate Javier Moro (Madrid, 1955). The son of a Spanish airline executive and a French mother, the writer has traveled since very young to Africa, Asia and the Americas. He studied History and Anthropology and worked as a researcher for Dominique Lapierre and Pierre Collins.His first novel, "Paths of Freedom", appeared in 1992. Moro traveled for three years in the Amazon by plane, boat, bus and even on foot to reconstruct the story of Chico Mendes, a humble rubber tapper who became an international symbol of environmental protection. It was followed by "Jaipuur's foot", in which two young men, one injured in an accident, and another survivor of the Khmer Rouge era come together to face a pessimistic future. We also find the spirit of resistance and hope in The Mountains of the Buddha, which takes place in Tibet.As one can see, Javier Moro does not avoid the hard and controversial issues, as became apparent in Five Past Midnight in Bhopal, which he wrote with Dominique Lapierre. It discusses the toxic gases that escaped in 1984, from a Dow Chemical factory in the Indian city of Bhopal and killed 30,000 people.There followed Passion India in which Moro reconstructs the love and betrayal between the Andalusian Anita Delgado and the Maharajah of Kapurthala, in northern India. In his latest work, "The Red sari", we also find history and adventures: a European is involved in the intrigues of the Nehru-Gandhi family. The novel caused irritation in India, where they burned copies of the book and portraits of the author. [Though it is unclear for this blogger how they evaluated it as he could not find any English edition on Amazon...]Inma Chacón (Zafra, Badajoz, 1954), twin sister of the late Dulce Chacón [the more famous writer of the two], was runner-up last night (150,250 euros) with the novel "Time of sand", which portrays three women in a complex family in Spain in the early decades the twentieth century.Chacón made herself known as an author in 2005, two years after the death of her sister, with "The Indian Princess", a novel that Dulce had started. She then published "The Filipinianas", about a saga of aristocratic and travelling women. This year she has published "Nick", in which a young woman creates a fake profile on Facebook to attract a guy  from her neighborhood whom she likes.

People here say that the runner-up is normally the worthier novel; the first price goes to the bigger name author and guarantees a good profit on the novel. I don't know how credible this theory is, as this year six of the ten finalists had presented their entries under a pseudonym.

Spain making (negative) headlines again

Today on the title pages of the online editions of the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. Not really encouraging - but that is what we have been watching on TV news for quite a while now... While its football teams and national team are world class, the economy is going from one downgrade to the next - one of the founders of FC Barcelona was a Swiss immigrant (Johann Gamper); he could have brought other skills too...

Remembering Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

His death is today's top news. I've never owned any of the company's products but have been impressed with their keyboards, the iPad, and the quality of the iPhone's photos.
Recently a column in La Vanguardia's culture supplement made me aware of his Commencement address at Stanford University in 2005, to be read here, or to be seen on youtube here.

Here is a collection of obituaries from today's media:
A quite comprehensive approach you can find in The Guardian, here, with these headlines:

Computing 'visionary', 56, had resigned as chief executive in August after suffering from pancreatic cancer
Obituary: Apple chairman, inventor and entrepreneur
Tributes: the world remembers a visionary
The life and career of Apple's driving force
Dan Gillmor: a man of contradiction and genius
Apple insiders remember life working for Jobs
From parents' garage to world power
In pictures: Jobs and Apple - the highlights
Steve Jobs quotes: the man in his own words

The New York Times coverage, here. The Wall Street Journal's, here. The Washington Post's, here, does not open with a recent picture of the sick man, but one of the earlier days.
The FT's John Gapper in his blog, their Tech Hub lists quite a lot of influential people and their condolences via Twitter, etc. here. Their editorial comment, here, is only for registered users.
The Economist's obituary is here. And another piece here.
Wired.com is all black today, here.
Engadget.com, the world's most important blog on gadgets - and often critical with the premium prices of Apple products - stresses Steve Job's own words, here.

These will be sufficient if one wants to get an idea of the man and his vision.
(And I need to get some work done...)

Remembering Josep Maria de Sagarra, 1894-1961

The Catalan daily El Punt Avui has a long article on this writer today, the 50th anniversary of his death, here.
Some of the thoughts expressed there: the novel Vida Privada ["Private Life"] (1932) is undoubtedly a classic, and de Sagarra one of the great Catalan writers of the 20th century. He was born into an aristocratic family, studied law and was meant to become a diplomat but then became a writer. He worked as a journalist in the 1920s and 30s, also as a foreign correspondent. A lot of his columns of the intellectual who observes his surroundings and cherishes the good life ("bon vivant") were later made into books, e.g. Cafè, copa i puro ["Coffee, brandy and cigar"], L'Aperitiu ["The appetizer"], or El be negre ["The black lamb"]. He was a popular theatre author, too. Also wrote travel books and novels, as well as his memories (Les memòries, 1954).

The English-speaking Wikipedia does not an entry on him, but the Catalan culture ministry offers an exhaustive English introduction here.

The FT focuses on Spain again

The Financial Times ("Spain, not Greece, may be the biggest eurozone threat", insight piece by Charles Dumas) warns about a possibly disastrous economic future for Spain (again). It stresses the importance of non-financial sector debts and compares the country to Japan in the late 1990s and names the measures the Japanese took to get out of that situation - which are out of the question for Spain as e.g. it cannot devalue its currency (the Euro) nor run large budget deficits. The main points are cited below, the full article is here.

But Spain’s current situation is in several respects far worse than Japan’s back then. First, Japan had a currency, which devalued in real terms by 20 per cent over the six years to 2002, aiding adjustment. Spain is fixed in the euro.
Second, having a currency, Japan also had a monetary policy – the famous “ZIRP”, zero-interest-rate-policy. Spain’s monetary conditions are set by the ECB in Frankfurt, with recent tightening that could hardly be more unsuitable for Spain.
Third, Japan had an independent fiscal policy, and ran large budget deficits to offset private-sector debt repayment via financial surpluses. Spain is under orders from its eurozone “partners” to slash its deficits, “no matter how politically painful” to quote Wolfgang Schäuble, German finance minister, in Financial Times columns recently.
Fourth, Japan had (and has) flexible wages – downward in nominal terms as well as upward. In the six years from 1997, as recession hit, average nominal weekly wages fell by 1¼ per cent a year – and they have continued to fall (on average) since then, though more slowly. Spain, by contrast, has a consistent inflation record and in many cases index-linked wage increases. Lastly, Japan was handling its problems in a broadly expansionary world economy, which Spain regrettably cannot hope for.
The chances are high of a Spanish asset price slide and banking crisis, with stagnation (at best) or depression, if it sticks in the euro.

Americans dominate in Barcelona... as tourists

The original story by Antònia Justícia from today's La Vanguardia newspaper is here. 
The following is a google-translator aided, shortened, unauthorized version:

The United States is again the major emitter of (foreign) tourists to Barcelona. Direct air links and cruises from BCN help | Tourist season from March to November | More than half of Americans come to Barcelona for a cruise | Six airlines with a total of 42 flights a week connect BCN to major American cities | In July foreigners spent almost 220 million euros in BCN, 19.3% more | More than three million overnight stays of 1.5 M tourists
Antònia Justícia
After 9/11 Americans lost their status as numerally most important group of visitors to the city. Now, ten years later, the U.S. has returned to the top spot in the ranking of "emitter" countries, significantly ahead of France, Italy and Britain. With 340,497 American visitors until the end of July, nearly 30,000 more than France, the second biggest emitter so far this year, the United States is poised to set a new record. All in a positive context: July and August closed with 16.5% more tourists -in fact, Barcelona is the European city that has grown most in volume of tourists this August, according to analysis by the local tourism authority-; spending on international credit cards are growing around 18% and overnight stays in the city have increased by 11%.
The main reasons for the boom are the status of Barcelona as the Mediterranean's most important cruise port and a significant growth in nonstop flights connecting El Prat airport with various U.S. cities. About 60.5% of all U.S. tourists that visited Barcelona during the first half of the year came to go on a cruise of the Mediterranean. If expectations are met, the port will close 2011 with 2.5 million cruise passengers, 17% of those, 425,000 would be Americans. This figure could end up much higher if the upward trend continues, as there are now five carriers operating from the port of Barcelona exclusively with U.S. clients: Holland America, Princess, Crystal, Disney (with the Disney Magic) and Carnival (with the Carnival Magic).
There are also cruise lines with multinational guests, such as Royal Caribbean, Norwergian, Celebrity and Silversea. Royal Caribbean this year expects to carry 100,000 U.S. passengers from Barcelona. These have the choice between six airlines and 42 weekly flights connecting Barcelona almost daily with cities like New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago or Miami. An offer that began to develop in 2006 and has had a  multiplier effect with each new flight.
"We know they are attracted by the "brand" Barcelona because it combines food, art, sports, culture and entertainment with cutting-edge infrastructures," said Marc Pedrol, director of marketing and communications for Royal Caribbean. The arrival of Disney Magic last season in Barcelona has also contributed to the increase, bringing a new profile American tourist: the family. "Traditionally the American tourist has been rather senior, but recently the average age has fallen somewhat. ... There are still few families but Disney will support this market, " analyze Ana Pujols and Montse Miquel, responsible for reservations and Public Relations Officer, respectively, at Le Meridien hotel, traditionally catering to well-heeled Americans. [Blogger's comment: It is a fine hotel with a good location on the Ramblas but if you are willing to spend that much money on a hotel you might also want to have a look at Hotel W (like Meridien a member of Starwood) or Hotel Arts that are on the beach...]
Promotional campaigns have also been successful, claims Turisme de Barcelona. Earlier this year, in a CNN report on unforgettable places, three experts put Barcelona as the fourth preferred travel destination in the world to discover in 2011. "People are in love with Barcelona, ​​and this is a fact that has taken years of work," claimed yesterday Gaspart, who added: "And the fame of FC Barcelona also has helped us a lot."
The municipal tourism agency is not only satisfied with the U.S. market recovery. Also the fact that Barcelona closed the most outstanding summer in its history. The months of July and August saw an increase of 16.5% of tourists). These figures have placed Barcelona as the European city with the highest tourism growth this past August. The outlook for September and October, according Gaspart are also excellent, though Gaspart would like to increase profitability ("milk" the tourists more...).
Results which, despite the crisis, denoting good health of tourism in Barcelona. A city that, according to the evolution of people registered every month, has established itself as a tourist destination throughout the year. Here the time between March and November can be considered high season.

(Blogger's comment: you should also come for Christmas shopping in December; and on January 7 start the winter sales - still more clothes shopping...)