For someone who currently lives in Madrid, I don’t write nearly enough about this great city. I guess it’s like the saying goes: the grass always seems greener on the other side. Well, the grass is rarely green in dry, sunny Spain – but the sky is (famously) blue, the buildings vibrant, and the lifestyle even more so. So let’s back-track and return to a few of the places I’ve been (re)discovering these past few weeks…
So you’ve climbed the Spanish Steps, tossed a coin in the Trevi fountain and been herded into the Sistine Chapel; now what? Rome hides over 10,000 years of secrets. Book a room at the Parco dei Principi Grand Hotel, get on that plane, and explore some of these hidden Roman gems:
London is an expensive city, sometimes prohibitively so, but this doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it. Here are a few pointers for those visiting London on a budget.
Pop up stores seem to be, well, popping up everywhere in Madrid. A trend that had its moment in the U.S a few years ago, is now catching on in the Spanish capital. And at a time when it is virtually impossible to open a small business and survive; artisans, boutique owners, and even cinemas are opting for the more pocket-friendly and mass-drawing option of the pop-up store. As temperatures rise, there are a few ephemeral spots that will only be around this summer…
Spain is not exactly well known for its contemporary art… Velazquez, Goya, Sorolla; these are the names that come to mind when I tell visiting friends which artists’ works to see if they come to Spain. But this summer, the city of Madrid Is Pop. The Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza, two of Madrid’s most prominent (and, it just so happens, my favorite) museums picked the ironic and critical pop art as the main theme of their current exhibits.
A few months ago I was staring at a blank page, trying to come up with a story, when I remembered a writing exercise I started in a workshop once: think of a place you’d go to to escape and write about it. So that’s what I did. And the result was the piece of work published just last week by Bricolage Magazine, ‘Everyone Wears Flip-Flops’. In my imagination (and story) I go back in time and space to my favorite place in the entire world.
As clearly illustrated by the New York Film Academy, only 8% of directors of general feature releases are women. And so, in response to this evident disparity, the Birds Eye View Film Festival was created, which began as just an hour-long event filled with shorts by emerging female filmmakers. Twelve years later, the festival continues to champion some of the brightest female filmmakers of our time.