Jamboree is a great place,
and not so expensive

you should check the ramblas, instead of garcia, which is much more posh

Ah yes, sweet old anti-tourism : ) This is my karma for ranting against the tourists who come in DROVES to MY home town Santa Cruz, CA. And although I'd like to qualify and say I'm NOT a tourist, but a travelling musician and cultural/spiritual student (I did NOT come here for the sights), I do feel your pain, Ln, and will try not to clog up the streets with my bicycle and try not to take too many pictures in my aloha shirt. ; )

Hi Page,
Well.....everyone including you will be interested to know that my perception has changed and deepened to some degree. Some of those impressions that locals and ex-pats were giving me are still very true.....just incomplete, depending on your attitude and how you choose to look at it. First of all, my rant and the info that triggered it are focused on particular areas, i.e. 1) busking and 2) the extent of rock/alt/folk/funk/jam/indie/lo-fi/experimental/alt-pop/trance-pop/etc venues (he he, that was fun) (possibly what is thriving in Portland?).

The reports were that busking laws have tightened recently...cops checking for a license in the more touristy spots (which takes months and an audition to acquire), PLUS not a big tipping culture, PLUS a main-stream money-minded cut-throat business culture in the city that fuels one of the biggest economies in all of Spain.

One ex-pat acquaintence lived in Giuliani's NYC when he was "cleaning up" the town, getting rid of the cool bohemian textures along with the riff-raff and crime and upscaling the "image" of the city (much as has happened in many cities around the world, including SF and London). She says what's happened here is very much the same. And yes, that extends to some of the clubs and hipster hang-outs. Some have been given trouble for being alternative and music has been shut down, but I don't know the whole extent of that story. One street over from me in my neighborhood (Gracia) we stumbled upon a magical little live-work art/music space where some beautiful people were scraping by with their gorgeous lifestyle, staying true to their hearts and imagination......BUT Ingrid, from Tabasco Mexico, said that they have to move out of the city soon because the police are giving them trouble, she claims due the alternative-ness of she and her compatriots.

HOWEVER, none of this means that music is dead here!!! It thrives in so many ways. And quite ironically, I was focused enough on these dismaying reports that I missed what was right in front of my nose! There happens to be a little music club right in my hood called the Electric Cafe that has stuff almost every night, including three bands from SF this past Friday!!

And the most hilarious in-front-of-my-nose (literally!) instance is La Festa Major de Gracia. This one warrants a HUGE Oh. My. Fucking. Gawd. If Mardi Gras is still building back up since Katrina, then y'all gotta come to this one next year kids. Off the hook. There's a massive stage with a PRO sound system in my little sqaue RIGHT underneath my window. Granted, this particular stage has been mostly jukebox cover bands, but very fun and excellent and exuberant. I come home every night to literally 600 people under my window singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody and Alanis Morisette and Prince and other rock/main-stream-alt/pop hits from the 80's and 90's. Talk about under my nose!! But the rest of the square mile of steamy, cobblestone, outrageously decorated streets and squares are filled with other kinds of music: amazing swing in the jungle zone (it's REALLY like you're in a think jungle!), folk in that square, ska in the other, punk here, jazz there, and OH! here's a street that's adorned like its under water! and here's a paper machet mountain with a tunnel going through it.......you get the idea....who needs burningman? Check my tribe site soon for more blogs and PHOTS of this.

So, during high tourist season, yer gonna get some festivals like this, which are fun and lively. And year-round some great flamenco, other little gritty clubs that have survived, and a creative and inspiring culture and environment that produces waves of world-renowned contemporary music and art. And people are excited about it and talkative.

I also found out that you can busk here if you slide between the cracks and try different spots. I got up on my stilts last night and sang my heart out in the middle of Festa Gracia and made 40 euro in 2 hours and had the time of my life. And I'm just warming up.

In the end, it's still a bit of a mystery. When the honeymoon ends, it could start to seem a little limited. That's probably the place my informants are in after being here a long time or all their life. And that's the risk of getting local opinions; like all of us do, they get a little tired of home and its faults and sometimes have a hard time really seeing what IS still good. And granted, this IS a particluarly weird time in Barcelona, but I have found that to be the case EVERYWHERE.

Money-wise, possibly I won't make more than 50% or 60% of what I could in other euro towns. But the culture and beauty feed me here in other ways. I'm taking it a step at a time, and always open to taking off to France or back to London.

Good Luck!!