'Smurfs 2' preview hosted at Júzcar, famous Spanish 'blue village'

In 2011, the traditional "white village" of Júzcar in Spain turned completely blue, as it hosted the the worldwide premiere of the blockbuster US film, "The Smurfs." Still blue today, the town saw the preview of the sequel, "Smurfs 2."

On July 23, "Smurf Town" Spain hosted a special premiere of the Smurfs' sequel movie, ten days before the film hit movie theaters nationwide.

 

Júzcar has benefited in the last couple of years from its Smurf fame, and has even recently repainted all the blue buildings in the previously typical white Andalucían village.

 

Dubbed "Pueblo Pitufo" (or Smurf Town) in Spanish, the town of only 240 residents has seen more than 210,000 tourists, gawping at its blue streets and buying Smurf-themed merchandise. Previous to that, Júzcar saw around 300 tourists per year.

 

The movie preview in the town attracted celebrities like FC Barcelona footballer Andrés Iniesta and former Miss Universe Eva González.

 

The first Smurf movie brought in €560 million in ticket sales worldwide.

 

Below is a photo of Hotel Bandolero in the blue village of Júzcar: 

 

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355516

Madrid's Atocha railway station home to 300 turtles

Anyone traveling through Madrid's main Atocha railway station in the last twenty years will remember the beautiful, tropical garden in the station's main concourse. What they might not know is that around 300 turtles have happily taken refuge there.

Basically the tropical garden has now become a welcoming refuge to homeless turtles.

There are many reasons for them being there. Some were brought there because children lost interest in them. Others because for some reason or another they could no longer keep them as pets. Another major reason is that people might not have been prepared, or able, to pay the 40% ticket price to take the turtle on a train and found a quick solution to the problem.

Whatever the reason for them being there, the station's indoor wetlands have been populated with approximately 300 turtles, giving a little glimpse of nature to passengers passing through the station.

The state railway company, Renfe, has employed Aurora Peña to look after the turtles. She told El País: “We give them animal feed, to make sure they are properly nourished.”

Indicating the turtles, grouped on rocks and other platforms in the water, surrounded by fine white sand, she said:

“This is the area we have set aside for them to lay their eggs.”

Explaining that normally turtles living in a tropical sea would head to a remote and protected beach to lay their eggs, and then incubate them, she said that the little expanse of sand in the tropical garden is the closest they will get to a beach in the Spanish capital.

At the last count of the turtles in 2012, when there were 275 animals. “We take them out one by one, we count them and we tidy them up a bit,” says Peña.

According to Peña, the population has stayed relatively stable over the years. Those that have died have been replaced by people's former pets.

Not a bad place for a turtle to end up these days, and as we can see from the video below, definitely a distraction from the boredom of waiting for your train.

The gardens alone are worth the visit. With over 7,000 plants in neatly manicured garden beds, with some reaching the station's domed ceiling, its like another world in the center of the busy city. There are reportedly around 260 different tropical species among the plants, and they even include towering palm trees.

Normally a railway station is somewhere you just pass through when on vacation, but Atocha railway station has actually received reviews on Tripadvisor, mainly for its tropical garden and inhabitants. 




To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355469

Sean Penn and Javier Bardem movie blocked by Barcelona bullfight ban

Javier Bardem and Sean Penn have been in Barcelona filming their new movie, "The Gunman," for most of July. However, they have run into a problem filming the bullfighting scene, due to the Catalan ban on the sport.

The film is being produced by French director Pierre Morel, well known for the action movies "The Transporter" and "Taken."

Morel ran into a problem while filming the latest film "The Gunman", which is set partly in Barcelona. The city's Town Hall stopped him from staging the bullfight scene in Barcelona’s La Monumental bullring, saying it would go against animal right laws recently introduced in the region.

Film producer Adrián Guerra told Catalan daily El Periódico, “The scene wasn’t actually going to take place on the arena."

“All we wanted to film were a few bullfighting passes with the cape in the streets and the bullpens, not to actually fight the animals,” he added. 

However Barcelona's Town Hall wishes to disassociate the Catalan capital from Spain’s image of a bullfight-loving society.

It now seems that Morel will get around the problem by using oxen in the scene rather than bulls. His team will have to use computer-generated imagery to make the oxen resemble Lidia bulls on screen.

The bullfighting ban in the Catalunya region was passed in Parliament in 2012 and was supported by animal rights groups, but was opposed by detractors who claimed the practice was “an asset of cultural interest.” 

The video below shows scenes of the filming in Barcelona.

The film is an adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchete's 1981 war novel, "The Prone Gunman."

The plot of the movie is an international spy must clear his name in order to save himself from the organization that he used to work for. Main stars: Idris Elba, Javier Bardem, Sean Penn.



To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355441

World's oldest man credits Anacin and a banana a day for longevity

Born in Salamanca, Spain in 1901, and now living in the USA, 112-year-old Salustiano Sánchez Blázquez has now been announced the world's oldest man, as Japan's Jiroemon Kimura passed away on June 12 at the age of 116.

Now officially named the oldest living man on Earth by the Guinness Book of Records, Blázquez has credited his longevity to a combination of pain killers and bananas.

 

Succeeding Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who died on June 12 at the age of 116, Blázquez is currently the only male born in 1901 with proof of birth, giving him the award of being the oldest man alive. 

 

Nicknamed Shorty by his friends, the 112-year-old former coal miner now lives close to Niagara Falls in upstate New York in the US. 

 

However, he was born on June 8, 1901 in the village of El Tejado de Béjar in Salamanca province, Spain. As he was growing up, Blázquez was well known for his musical prowess, playing a "dulzaina", (a Spanish double reed instrument in the oboe family). 

Blázquez earned pocket money playing the instrument at weddings and village celebrations and attended school until he was 10. He now considers himself self-taught. 

 

At the age of 17, he moved to Cuba to work on the sugar plantations.  He then traveled to the US, entering via the iconic immigration center on Ellis Island in 1920. 

Blázquez worked as a miner in Kentucky before finally settling in the Niagara area, close to the Canadian border, where he has lived ever since. Blázquez married the love of his life, Pearl, in 1934 and his children include a 76-year-old son, John, and 69-year-old daughter Irene. He also has seven grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. 

 

His hobbies include crossword puzzles, nightly gin rummy games with friends and gardening. 

 

He remains humble despite the prestigious award and “does not feel he has accomplished anything special because he happens to be living longer than other men.”

 

In a statement, Blázquez said that he had lived to such an old age due to a daily dose of six tablets of Anacin (a pain-reliever containing aspirin and caffeine) and a banana. 

 

However, his daughter, 69-year-old Irene Johnson, says, "I think it's just because he's an independent, stubborn man." 

 

Anacin's manufacturer, Insight Pharmaceuticals was happy to hear that their product may have helped him live so long and will now be exploring the possibility of a new product: 

 

"Historically, apples are the fruit most associated with staying healthy and avoiding doctors," said marketing vice-president Jennifer Moyer.

 

"Our scientists had never looked into the banana before. But now that the certified oldest man in the world credits bananas and Anacin as his life-extending combo, we're certainly going to explore whether a new 'Bananacin' product makes sense.

 

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355439

Memorial service for Spain's train crash victims set for Monday

A spokesman for the local archdiocese has announced that a memorial service for the 78 dead in the train crash will be held at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela on Monday evening. The American victim of the crash has been named.

"We expect the service to take place on Monday at 7:00 pm [1700 GMT] in the cathedral," the spokesman said.

Three days after the crash, 81 people remain in hospital and 31 of these are in a serious condition, after the worst railway accident in Spain since 1944.

Flags have been flying at half-mast countrywide as the people of Spain mourn for the dead.

In Spain, the dead are normally buried one or two days after passing away. Officials confirmed on Friday that funerals were being organized for the victims as quickly as possible. However, their "priority remains attending to the injured, supporting the families and identifying the victims".

While the cause of the accident is still unconfirmed, officials suspect that the train was traveling at twice the speed limit when it jumped the tracks, slamming into a concrete wall. As reported by Digital Journal earlier on Saturday, police have detained the train driver, Francisco José Garzón Amo, on suspicion of reckless homicide.

American victim named:

The American victim has now been named in the media. According to Catholic Church officials from the diocese where she worked, a Virginia woman, 47-year-old Ana María Córdoba, was on her way to visit her son, who had just completed a Catholic pilgrimage, "Way of St. James," known in Spanish as "El Camino de Santiago." This pilgrimage was featured recently in a film, "The Way," starring Martin Sheen.

Córdoba was the only American killed in the crash and she was traveling with her husband Philippe and her daughter, who are both in a stable condition in hospital.

Reportedly there were at least five Americans injured in the train crash. 18-year-old Stephen Ward, a Mormon missionary from Bountiful, Utah told the media that the train lifted off the tracks "like a roller coaster" before smashing into the concrete wall. According to Ward, an information screen for passengers showed the train's speed as 194 kph (121 mph) moments before the crash.

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355319

Spain to limit visitor numbers for 'La Tomatina' festival

Foreign party-people wishing to participate in the crazy La Tomatina festival in Buñol, Valencia in August will have to reserve a spot first through a newly introduced ticket-only system.

Buñol Town Hall has decided to restrict the number of international revellers at this year’s event by only offering 15,000 tickets to non-locals.

While previously organizers of this world-renowned and crazy event had allowed unlimited access to both locals and tourists alike, the whole La Tomatina festival has apparently become just too big for comfort. 

Crowds of up to 50,000 people partying in the narrow streets of this small Valencian town are just too much. When watching videos of the event, it does, indeed, look like an accident just waiting to happen.  

Estefania Palacios, organizer for the ticket distributor Spaintastic told The Local:  

"Although there haven’t been any incidents, it was starting to become unbearable for the locals and also potentially more dangerous for everyone."  

"As the tomato-pelting will only take place within one fenced off street, Buñol Town Hall has decided to halve the number of participants to ensure their safety and enjoyment."

For those who want to participate, but do not yet have a ticket, apparently 90 per cent have already been sold for this year's event. People will be traveling from as far away as Australia, India, Japan and the US to attend the madness on August 28th. 

The last tickets are avalable on this website, and cost €10. Attendees will be asked to show their ID before entering the “fight zone”. 

About the festival: 

La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain. Buildings in the street are lined with plastic as protection from the mess.

In exactly one hour, tens of metric tons of overripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets, with revellers slipping and sliding in the mess and throwing tomatoes at each other. Normally around 20,000–50,000 tourists come to find out more about the tomato fight, multiplying by several times Buñol's normal population of slightly over 9,000.

There is limited accommodation for tourists attending La Tomatina, and thus many participants stay in Valencia and travel by bus or train to Buñol, about 38 km outside the city. 

 

Most of these images courtesy flydime

 To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355135

Great music festivals still to come in Spain this summer 2013

Some of the great festivals might be over already, but there is still plenty to choose from:

There is just one more day of Spain's biggest Jazz festival. You may have missed Elvis Costello and Jamie Callum, but there are plenty of other big names on stage at San Sebastián's Jazzaldia festival this weekend. 

Irie mon! Europe's biggest reggae festival is held in Benicàssim every August. This year's biggest name is none other than Bob Marley's most highly-acclaimed son, Damian.  Plenty of time to organize your flights and accommodation!

Valencia's other indie festival Arena Sound also draws in some pretty big names.  Running from 1-4 August inclusive, there is still a little time to organize yourself.

If you fancy some good traditional Flamenco, the 53rd Cante de las Minas music festival will take place from the 1st to the 10th August in the town of La Unión, in Murcia. With high-profile acts like guitarist Vicente Amigo and "cantaor" singer Diego "El Cigala", Cante de las Minas is a sure bet for anyone looking to get an authentic taste of grassroots flamenco.  Olé!

Bilbao's En Vivo festival offers anti-crisis ticket prices for punk, ska and rock lovers. Unfortunately, the Barcelona and Madrid versions have been cancelled.  Dates are 29, 30 and 31 August.

Visiting Madrid?  This Indie Rock event is perfect for those who want to see some high-profile bands in the capital. 

For a little pop.... A blend of Spanish and international mainstream acts will please all kind of music lovers attending Santander Music in northern Spain on 1, 2 and 3 August.

For those in a more classical frame of mind, Spain's oldest classical music festival takes place in the Basque city of San Sebastián, with concerts being held through the entire month of August. 

Indie music... They call it low cost, but not sure if these prices really are... At €55 for Saturday and €41 for Sunday, sounds a tad expensive. But with a strong mix of international and Spanish talent, it'll certainly make Benidorm a bit more bearable.  Only two more nights left to go, so you'll have to be quick!

ART+TECH+ROCK: Barcelona's first ever MOBA festival is set for the 13th to the 15th September. The event, which mixes music, art and new technology, could be headlined by none other than the Rolling Stones. But this isn't confirmed yet.  Hey, but its worth being in Barcelona with or without the Stones!

So, to use a classic, "Be there or be square."  Accommodation can be found for all venues here.