Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Madrid has its very own Museum of Ham.



I knew the Spanish liked their ham, but the Museo del Jamon approaches the Japan's noodly goodness that is the Ramen Museum for sheer foodie obsessiveness. Of course I was left with only one thought: "I wonder if there's a Museum of Bacon somewhere..."

(Spotted from a coach, hence the glare.)

Statue of García Lorca in Madrid's Plaza de Santa Ana.

Madrid, Spain
June 2008

In the (rather fun) film Mr and Mrs Smith, government assassins Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt meet in a Latin American town after one (or both) of them has killed a local warlord. As Joe Strummer and The Mescalero's world music influenced Mondo Bongo plays in the background the two agents turn a spur of the moment cover into something approximating the real.

It's a very William Gibson moment, straight out the Sprawl stories, and made even more effective by the choice of music. Dig down into the rest of the song and you get a snippet of a world where national boundaries have blurred, and it's just a matter of to whom you'll sell your soul, not when. It's a very cyberpunk song, dredged out of the interstices of the world and furnished with technology.

I was patrolling a pachinko nude noodle model parlor
In the nefarious zone
Hanging out with insects under ducting
The C.I.A was on the phone
Well, such is life

Latino caribo, mondo bongo
The flower looks good in your hair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
Nobody said it was fair, oh

For the Zapatistas I'll rob my sisters
Of all the curtain and lace

Down at the bauxite mine
You get your own uniform
Have lunchtimes off
Take a monorail to your home

Checkmate, baby
God bless us and our home
Where ever we roam
Now take us home, flaquito

Latino caribo, mondo bongo
The flower looks good in your hair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
Nobody said it was fair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
The flower looks good in your hair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
Nobody said it was fair

Well, such is life.