GOING BOWLING IN BARCELONA
As the second most popular participation sport in the world it attracts people of all ages and sizes, especially since its one of those sports which doesn’t require physical fitness and strength (unless of course you want to act hard and bowl with the heaviest ball on the rack…) It’s also a really good alternative to the more usual types of social entertainment, and a lot of bowling alleys also have a bar so no need to compromise there.
Nowadays, bowling alleys are divided into separate lanes of regulation length with gutters running down the sides, waiting to scoop up any off centre balls. Bowling as entertainment as opposed to sport is as straightforward as it could get – with mechanised positioning of the pins linked to a computer scoring system which also directs the players’ games, knowing the rules is simply an added bonus. Anyone can have a go.
If you fancy giving bowling a shot there are plenty of places to choose from.
- One of the best can be found in Barcelona’s biggest shopping centre La Maquinista (Metro Sant Andreu, line 1). Tel: 93 5042100 This has a great bowling alley, complete with a bar, disco music and UV bowling balls that glow when you chuck them towards the pins. www.newparkbowling.com
- Another important indoor bowling centre is the Bowling Pedralbes, Av. Dr. Gregorio Marañón, 11 Bajos, Tel. 933 330 352. www.bowlingpedralbes.com
- The other is a Namco Station. It has 20 lines, 7 pool tables, more than 60 arcade machines and free parking. (Av. Diagonal, 3, Barcelona). Tel. 933 562 500. www.namco.es/namco-b.html
FROM THE MICROSCOPE TO THE UNIVERSE
David Bestué and Marc Vives have been working together for some time on a series of installations called Accions [Actions]. One of their latest works is called Accions a l’Univers [Actions in the Universe]. It is a large installation that offers us a journey from the microscopic world to the Universe.
The work, which is part of the “la Caixa” Contemporary Art Foundation’s collection, takes a nod at the human body, the mind, the end of the world and 20th-century art. Now on at the Barcelona CaixaForum, it is a vehicle for the artists to put the spotlight on viewers’ experiences.
Where: CaixaForum de Barcelona, Av. Ferrer i Guàrdia, 6-8. 08038 Barcelona
Exhibition Open: until 29th of April, 2012, Monday to Friday from 10:00 – 20:00h, Saturdays and Holidays from 10:00 – 21:00h
Tickets: free entrance
DISNEY ON ICE – “DARE TO DREAM” SHOW
Get tangles up with the newest thrilling show to hit the ice, Disney on Ice presents “Dare to Dream”. Experience Disney’s hilarious hair-rising escapade, “Tangled”; as Rapunzel, her unlikely companion, Flynn, and Maxomus, embark on an uproarious journey that takes adventure to new lengths! Boogue to beat of the bayou with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen from “The Princess and the Frog”, in a magical, musical journey that all begins with a fateful kiss. And fanciful dreams become reality as Cindirella meets her Prince Charming, with a glass slipper fit for an unforgettable fantasy come true. All your favourite princesses take to the ice in a spectacular finale at the ultimate Disney Princess event of the lifetime!
Place: Palau Sant Jordi (Passeig Olimpic, s/n, Barcelona)
When: from 1st until 4th of March, 2012
Price: 25 – 49€
Where to buy tickets: www.servicaixa,com, www.ticketmaster.es
MICHEL TELÓ in CONCERT
Michel Teló is a Brazilian singer and composer. Before his solo act, he was a vocalist in various bands, most notably Grupo Tradição. His biggest national and international hit is “Ai se eu te pego!“, a number1 in most European countries.
The release of the live album Michel Teló – Ao Vivo was an even bigger success and awarded Teló a gold disc. This culminated in a huge concert on September 16th 2011 attended by reportedly 50 thousand people in a double ticket, which included Teló and João Bosco & Vinícius at Terraço Daslu. Throughout 2011 Michel Teló made over 240 shows. According to Forbes magazine, Teló’s “Fugidinha Tour” was attended by more than 17 million people and Teló has reportedly made $18 million dollars in 2011.
On February 24th Michel starts his European Tour in Lisbon (Portugal), going through the United Kingdom and Luxemburg, on March 2nd he arrives toSpain with three concerts (Madrid,Barcelona and Valencia).
Date: 3rd of March, 2012, 21:30h
Place: Sant Jordi Club (Passeig Olímpic, 5, Barcelona)
Price: 27€
Where to buy tickets: http://www.ticktackticket.com, www.ticketmaster.es, FNAC (Pl. Catalunya, 4, Diagonal, 3, Diagonal, 555)
SKIING IN CATALAN PYRENEES
Baqueira/Beret (Salardu) – 973 639010 – www.baqueira.es
Baqueria-Beret isSpain’s single largest resort and the most popular. Skiers and snowboarders of all levels are attracted to its sunny slopes, varied terrain, and lively après ski. Its86 kilometers of slopes (four green, 36 blue, 26 red, and six black) are linked by 26 modern lifts and reach a height of2500 meters altitude. The resort enjoys reliable snow cover with skiing and riding above2000 meters. Baqueira-Beret also features seven kilometers of cross-country trails. Beginners will find the large ski school welcoming with its 200 instructors who are fluent in French, English, and Spanish. Snowboarders are also well catered for with a fun park and a permanent half pipe. The après ski in Baqueira-Beret is amongst the best inCatalonia, with plenty of lively bars, pubs, and a disco.
Boi Taull Resort (Vall de Boi) – 902 406640 – www.boitaullresort.es
Boi-Taull boasts the highest ski slopes in thePyrenees, reaching up to2751 meters altitude. The resort is known for the natural, untouched surroundings of theBoiValley and excellent snow cover. The village offers plenty of traditional charm with its traditional wooden chalets. Boi-Taull’s 41 slopes appeal to all levels (eight green runs, seven blue, 19 red, and seven black). The town centre is well equipped with bars, restaurants, shops, a nightclub, spas, ski schools, and a snow park for children.
Espot Esqui (Espot) – 973 624058 – www.espotesqui.es
The resort of Espot Esqui is a firm favorite for families because of the children’s nursery, playground, and gentle beginners’ slopes. Port-Aine offers44 kilometers of terrain for all levels with a skiable height of2440 meters altitude. Non-skiers can enjoy dog sledging, snow biking, and snowshoeing.
La Molina (Molina, la) – 972 892031 – www.lamolina.com
La Molina is the oldest ski resort inSpain and continues to draw the crowds for its pretty pine tree-lined slopes, modern lift facilities, and extensive terrain. The resort’s local ski area has 40 slopes stretched across50 kilometers. All levels of skiers and snowboarders are well catered for with seven green runs, 12 blue, 15 red, and six black.
The modern lifts transport 16,000 skiers per hour. There is also four kilometers of cross-country trails through the forests. The larger resort of Masella sits next door and between them they offer more than100 kilometersof runs. Non-skiers can enjoy husky-drawn sleigh rides, snow-shoe hiking, and hot air balloons rides.
La Masella (Alp) – 972 144000 – www.masella.com
Port del Comte, S.A. (Coma, la) – 973 492301- www.portdelcomte.net
Port del Comte is surrounded by a beautiful scenery of thick pine forests. Its wide slopes are well suited for all levels, particularly families. The area is also home to the smaller, quieter resorts of Tavascan, with five slopes, and Vall de Nuria, with 10 slopes. The Catalan Pyrenees ski resorts are a 40 minutes drive fromGironaAirport and railway station.
Vallter 2000 (Setcases) – 972 136057 – www.vallter2000.com
Vallter 2000 is set above the Ter River valley and offers stunning views. The ski area stretches for19 kilometers and features 12 slopes, nine ski lifts, and an impressive585 meters of vertical descent. At2000 meters above altitude, Vallter benefits from reliable snowfall. It is a favorite for intermediate skiers and also offers a terrain park for snowboarders.
Port-Aine (Rialp) – 973 620325 – www.port-aine.com
Aransa (Aranser) -973 293051 – www.aransaski.com
Rasos de Peguera, S.A. (Berga) – 93 8211748 – www.rasos.net
Lles de Cerdanya (Lles de Cerdanya) – 973 293049 – www.lles.net
Sant Joan de l`Erm. (Castellbo) – 973 298015 – www.santjoandelerm.com
Tavascan-Pleta del Prat (Tavascan) – 973 623079 – www.tavascan.net
Tuixent-La Vansa. (Tuixen) – 973 370030 – www.tuixent-lavansa.com
Vall de Nuria (Queralbs) – 972 732020 – www.valldenuria.com
Guils Fontanera (Guils de Cerdanya) – 972 197047 – www.guils.com
Lles de Cerdanya (Lles de Cerdanya) – 973 293049 – www.lles.net
Bosc Viros (Llavorsí) – 973 622201 – www.yetiemotions.com
SHADOWS AND TRUTH
The exhbition “Shadows and Truth” consists of a selection of works that the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey added from 1990 to his art collection with the intention of giving a new approach in an era in which is criticized 
with hardness Eurocentrism, the Western hegemony and modernity. Selection responds to a geographic, multicultural approach and includes works by a group of other artists, conducted mainly during the 1980s and 1990s, but covering ideologies and policies that go back until the 1950s. Instead of displaying the art of today, this exhibition visualizes the spirit of a process. It focuses on the truth and the history of modern art in another culture, a culture that has been left in the shade and is situated in geographies for which is that there is no history, geographies that are kept out of the time and where it is believed that the custom and tradition are perpetuated unchanged.
“Shadows and Truth” presents works of artists who, in general, want to learn and explore the tradition related to Ottoman and Islamic culture, who want to carry out republican modernization and, at the same time, they want to investigate and give the meaning to the foundations of modernity and historical continuity which has taken a new form.
Where: CaixaForum de Barcelona, Av. Ferrer i Guàrdia, 6-8. 08038 Barcelona
Exhibition Open: until 4th of Marz, 2012, Monday to Friday from 10:00 – 20:00h, Saturdays and Holidays from 10:00 – 21:00h
Tickets: free entrance
13th FESTIVAL MIL.LENI in February
Michael Nyman – Vertov Sounds. Michael Laurence Nyman is a British composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion‘s The Piano. His operas include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Letters, Riddles and Writs, Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs, Facing Goya, Man and Boy: Dada, Love Counts, and Sparkie: Cage and Beyond, and he has written six concerti, four string quartets, and many other chamber works, many for his Michael Nyman Band, with and without whom he tours as a performing pianist. – Concert on 23rd of February 2012 at 21:00h.
Goran Bregovic – Champagne for Gypsies. Goran Bregović is one of the most internationally known modern 
musicians and composers of the Balkans. He currently splits his time between Paris and Belgrade, where he settled down during the Yugoslav Wars. Bregović has composed for such varied artists as Iggy Pop and Cesária Évora. He rose to fame playing guitar with his rock band Bijelo dugme. Among his better known scores are Emir Kusturica’s films (Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream, Underground). Bregović’s compositions, extending Balkan musical inspirations to innovative extremes, draw upon European classicism and Balkan rhythms. Bregović’s music carries Serbian, Greek and Romani themes and is a fusion of popular music with traditional polyphonic music from the Balkans, tango and brass bands. – Concert on 24th of February 2012 at 21:00h.
Place: Palau de la Música Catalana (carrer del Palau de la Música, 2, Barcelona)
Price: 20 – 54 €
Where to buy tickets: Box office of Palau (carrer del Palau de la Música, 4-6) Tel.entrades 902 10 12 12, www.telentrada.com
More info: www.festivalmilleni.com
UB40 in concert
UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. One of the world’s best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records.
Their hit singles include their debut “Food for Thought” and two U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number ones with “Red Red Wine” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love“. Both of these also topped the UK Singles Chart, as did the band’s version of “I Got You Babe“.
This year UB40 have another busy tour schedule including such places as, Estonia, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and finally Spain to name a few.
Date: 4th of February, 2012
Place: Sala Razzmatazz (c. Amolgàvers, 122, Barcelona)
Price: 35€
Where to buy tickets: www.rocknrock.com, www.ticketmaster.es, FNAC (Pl. Catalunya, 4, Diagonal, 3, Diagonal, 555)
FASHION AND BEAUTY IN THE OLD EGYPT
“Fashion and beauty in the old Egypt” is a journey through 3,000 years of history of fashion in the country of the Nile; and it is also a tribute to the aesthetics and the refined taste of the ancient Egyptians for the care of the body and, in particular, to the way in which way through clothing, jewellery, tattoos, perfumes and oils.
Since the sensitivity of the pair of sandals that gave a child burial to facilitate their journey to Worls Beyond, up to two copies of tunics with horizontal folds – which are not conserved more than 20 around the world and that they have been restored especially for this exhibition, passing through a varied repertoire of objects related to jewellery and cosmetics, and works in relief or in painting showing men, women, and gods who benefited of refinement and taste of a sophisticated civilization.
Curated by Elvira D’Amicone (Università degli Studi di Torino), the exhibition is made up of pieces in the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum in Barcelona and important contributions of international museums like the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna, Museo Egizio di Firenze, Museo delle Antichità Egizie di Torino – which exhibits some previously unreleased pieces – and the Víctor Balaguer Museum Library.
Where: Museu Egipci de Barcelona, c/ València, 284. Barcelona
Exhibition Open: until 20th of July 2012, Monday to Saturday from 10:00 – 20:00h, Sundays from 10:00 – 14:00h
Tickets: Adults – 11€, children, students and pensioners – 8€.
13th FESTIVAL MIL.LENI in January
Ute Lemper – The Last Tango In Berlin. The trip begins in Berlin, with the classical repertoire of Ute which can not miss Brecht and Weill and the Berlin cabaret songs. It continues in the poetic universe of the French song of Piaf, Brel, Ferre and reaches the Argentine world of the tango in the hands of Astor Piazzolla. Ute walks through the streets of Paris, Berlin, New York and Buenos Aires and allows the old ghosts, with new faces, to tell their stories of desire, love, survival, passion, dreams, past and future. Ute also plays his own songs to connect the past with the present through their personal stories. – Concert on 18th of January 2012
Salvatore Adamo – The Toi à Moi. Salvatore Adamo was born in 1943 in Comiso (Sicily). After being influenced by Italian poetry, in 1960, achieved thanks to ‘ si ‘j’osais’, that Radio Luxembourg to provide it with the first broadcast of the song. He then released two singles in Italian for Philips Belgique, a disc in English and one in Italian for Polydor. With the help of Charles Aznavour, Salvatore begins to have its first newspaper articles. In 1962 he recorded for EMI ‘in 
blue jeans et blouson d’cuir ‘ and ‘ Laissons dire’. A year later all Belgium discovers their new idol with ‘Sans toi, ma mie’. Before starting his international career, he performed at the Heysl Stadium (Brussels) in the presence of the Belgian Royal family. Then begins a tour of Turkey, Lebanon, Canada and Holland. In 1967, due to the film ‘Les Arnaud’ awarded at MIDEM in Cannes to the biggest selling album in France and Belgium in the past year. Since then, Adamo starts different tours of Japan, South America, Africa, the countries of the East and Russia. Specifically in Spain was an idol of masses that really dazzled girls with their tender love songs. – Concert on 26th of January 2012.
Place: Palau de la Música Catalana (carrer del Palau de la Música, 2, Barcelona)
Price: 30 – 54 €
Where to buy tickets: Box office of Palau (carrer del Palau de la Música, 4-6) Tel.entrades 902 10 12 12, www.telentrada.com
More info: www.festivalmilleni.com
