Midnight Sun

In the Northern Hemisphere, June has the shortest nights of the year.

Besides, the area south of the Arctic Circle to the North Pole has permanent daylight during most of this month; when at least part of the Sun's disk is visible above the horizon 24 hours of the day, we call it the midnight sun.

This event is visible at the Arctic Circle from approximately June 12th until July 1st. The number of days per year with potential midnight sun increases the farther one goes towards the North Pole. This place gets, indeed, the midnight sun for half year, since there is only one sunrise and one sunset by the time around the equinox.

During June too, many areas south of the Arctic Circle experience the white nights: there is light all night, but the sun disk is not visible for the full 24 hours.

Likewise, places from latitudes between 48.5ºN and 60ºN do not experience total darkness, since twilight continues all night. And the higher the latitude, the lighter the sky.

You can read more about it here.

Read this post in Catalan.

Anne Frank

Comité Cisne was a pop band from Spain that existed between the years 1984 and 1991.

In 1987, they released a song called "Ana Frank", in which they paid tribute to this well-known writer, who died at a very young age in the Holocaust.

Els Segadors

Catalonia's national anthem is called "Els Segadors" ("The Reapers").

The lyrics make reference to the blood-stained Corpus Christi (Corpus de Sang) event, which was part of the Thirty Years' War that took place in several European countries between 1618 and 1648.

That Corpus of Blood took place in Barcelona on June 7th, 1640. It led to the Catalan Revolt, in which the Catalans fought the troops of King Philip IV of Castile.

The anthem's melody was first recorded in 1900. It is uncertain how it originated, but it could have been inspired by a Ladino version of Ein K'Eloheinu, which is a Jewish prayer.

The next video will allow you to listen to the anthem. It contains, as well, the lyrics in Catalan and English:

I would like to point out that this video was not created by me. I assume, therefore, that its author is the person who uploaded it.

Read this post in Catalan.

Catalonia

Catalonia, whose capital is the city of Barcelona, has been my home for the past 13 years. It is my country: a nation with more than one thousand years of history, and yet without a state of its own. It is currently an autonomous community of Spain, but many of its inhabitants are longing for independence.

These are the nation's flag and coat of arms:

Catalonia, whose area is 32,114 square kilometers (12,399 square miles), occupies the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, which in turn is located in southwestern Europe. While it is geographically bathed by the Mediterranean Sea and bound to the north by the Pyrenees, it limits politically with France, Andorra and the lands of Aragon and Valencia - these last two currently belong to Spain too.

According to Spanish laws, Catalonia is divided into four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona; nonetheless, the Catalan laws recognize another type of administrative division, which is historical to the territory: the vegueria. Nowadays, there are eight vegueries:

• Àmbit metropolità de Barcelona
• Alt Pirineu (excluding Val d'Aran, which is a historical and autonomous Occitan county)
• Camp de Tarragona
• Comarques Centrals
• Comarques Gironines
• Penedès
• Ponent
• Terres de l'Ebre

Catalonia's type of government is a devolved one as it is stated on Catalonia's Statute of Autonomy. The body of government is the Generalitat de Catalunya, whose inception dates from 1283. It was abolished in 1714 and restored again in 1977. It had also been active between the years 1931 and 1939.

As of 2014, the country's total population was 7,504,000 inhabitants. These inhabitants are the Catalans and most of them are bilingual in Catalan (the country's own and main language, evolved from Vulgar Latin by the 9th century) and Spanish. In Val d'Aran, another language is spoken: Occitan (it is also named Aranese there), which shares a common origin with Catalan.

Catalonia's national anthem is called "Els Segadors" ("The Reapers").

If you want to read news about Catalonia, you can do it for free here.

Read this post in Catalan.

Slaughterhouse

I wrote "Slaughterhouse" in 2008 for Go Ape - a band in which I was the lead singer.

These next words describe the miserable life of animals in factory farms:

Welcome to your worst nightmare... reality!

I cannot hide it

I can’t be quiet

About your values

About your acts

I am gonna try it

You gonna crack

Enter this cage

Spend all day

In this position

Fulfill my mission

Forget emotions

Insane corrosion

Oh, you’re just an object

Of my possession

C’mon now feed my obsession

Free me, free me now...

Time to go out

To slaughterhouse

You’ll see the light

Paradise

Brothers and sisters

Ahead and behind

I smell the fear

The pain of death

Try to resist

You may escape

Upside down

Screaming loud!

Oh, I feel the knife

Through my throat

Oh, I feel my blood

Pouring down...

Someday you will pay

Someday you will suffer... your desires

If you follow the link above, you will be able to listen to a demo of this song.

Lastly, I would like to stress that I do not mean to be judgmental, even though I believe in raising awareness when it comes to knowing how food is currently being produced.

READ: Vegetarian

Wind Chill

Understanding the concept of wind chill has been one of the most fascinating things I have ever learned in my life.

Wind chill is the apparent temperature felt on exposed skin because of the wind. That is, the temperature that our bodies might feel can be different from the actual air temperature.

The human body temperature is approximately 37ºC (98.6ºF). Since the air around is usually below that temperature, we are losing heat from anywhere not covered by clothing. When the air is still, we are mostly losing heat by convection.

However, when a breeze hits the face, the initial loss is from conduction: the wind cools the temperature of the skin almost to air temperature. Convection plays a part as well, helping to dissipate the warm air from the face. If the skin is wet, there will be additional cooling from the evaporation of moisture.

The stronger the wind, the faster the cooling. The lower the temperature, the more impact the wind has. Indeed, you can experience it yourself:

1. Blow the back of your hand: it will feel cooler.
2. Now, lick the back of your hand and blow: it will feel colder.
3. If you increase the speed of blowing, it will feel even colder.

This article contains information from this source.

Preventing Anxiety

Not long ago, I discussed on this blog the difference between fear and anxiety.

Anxiety is a diffuse, unpleasant, vague sense of apprehension. It is often a response to an imprecise or unknown threat.

Here is an example: you are walking down a dark street. You may be feeling a little uneasy and perhaps you are having a few butterflies in your stomach. These sensations are caused by anxiety that is related to the possibility that a stranger may jump out from behind a bush, or approach you in some other way, and harm you.

This anxiety, though, is not the result of a known or specific threat. Rather it comes from one's mind vision of the possible dangers that may result in the situation.

Anxiety is a state over anticipated events, which might not be real, that are perceived as threats.

Today, though, I would like to discuss on how to prevent anxiety.

Ocean

Come with me

Into a cool blue stream

Bleed into oceans green

Lips open wide

Drinking the tide

Reach for me

Here where the ocean sea

Melts and you sink with me

Deeper inside

I'll make you mine

Take me down

Down where their voices drown

Down where the only sound

Echoes for me

Floating away

Under the waves

Kiss me again

You'll tell me when

Salt on my lips

Cool fingertips

Under the sea

Stay here with me

This song was created by Lush, the band - not the cosmetics company (which I happen to love, by the way).

Jerusalem

Today is Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim in Hebrew). It is celebrated on the 28th day of Iyar to commemorate the reunification of Israel's capital. Although Jerusalem has been considered the capital city of the Jewish people since the time of King David – who conquered it and built it as the seat of his monarchy in approximately 1000 BCE (Before the Common -or Christian- Era) – there had never been a special day in honor of the city until the Israeli army took over the ancient, eastern part of the city (which had been under Jordanian rule since 1948) on the third day of the Six-Day War in June 1967.

The liberation of Jerusalem in 1967 marked the first time in thousands of years that the entire city of Jerusalem, the holiest in Judaism, was under Jewish sovereignty. The destruction of Jerusalem was a watershed event in Jewish history that began thousands of years of mourning for Jerusalem; so, it follows that the reunification of Jerusalem should be a joyous celebration that begins the process of reversing thousands of years of destruction and exile.

Due to the young age of this holiday, there is still not much that makes it unique in terms of customs and traditions. It is gradually becoming a pilgrimage day, when thousands of Israelis travel to Jerusalem to demonstrate solidarity with the city, including the historical "Old City", where Jews were denied access during Jordanian rule (1948-1967). The march ends at the Kotel (Western Wall), one of the ancient retaining walls surrounding the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.

This is of special importance to the state of Israel, since the international community has never approved the reunification of the city under Israeli sovereignty, and many countries have not recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State. Indeed, the United Nations “partition plan” of The British Mandate of Palestine of November 1947 assigned a status of “International City” to Jerusalem.

READ: Israel - Facts & Personal Experience

Why Not Just One Cigarette?

As a person that quit smoking, I have mostly forgotten that I have ever smoked... until I see someone doing it.

I am being honest when I proclaim that I do not miss smoking at all, since it was a costly addiction that brought more stress to my life, worse health, bad smell, and a less attractive look. Why would I choose that again? Why would I want to become a slave again? 

After being clean for more than a year, I can only be grateful for having my freedom back and mostly positive things. Some of those are: temperance, feeling physically and mentally better, being able to smell and value food and drinks, more money in my bank account, and an improved sex life.

READ: Ex-Smoker

At times, though, there is a question popping up: what if I had just one?

That mostly happens when I am in company of some good friends that happen to be smokers and I am in a very good mood - a situation that could also be enhanced by alcohol, so I have to be very careful. It could be very easy to give in and think: "One will not make a difference; I am not an addict anymore."

It could also happen in a very low moment, as when my father died after this past Rosh Hashanah: everybody was doing it, so why could not I?

Missing That Someone

Missing someone, they say, is self-centered. I self-center you more than ever. ~ Saša Stanišić

Love is missing someone whenever you’re apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you’re close in heart. ~ Kay Knudsen

Missing someone is a part of loving them. If you’re never apart, you'll never really know how strong your love is. ~ Helen Fielding

Primavera Sound 2015

This year, I'm going to see several artists live at Barcelona's Primavera Sound on Saturday, May 30th, 2015.

The timetable is set and this is my choice:

• Swans: 7:25 to 9:55 pm - RockDeLux stage.
• Tori Amos: 8:30 to 9:30 pm - RayBan stage.
• Einstürzende Neubauten: 9:40 to 10:40 pm - ATP stage.
• Babes in Toyland: 11:45 pm to 12:40 am - ATP stage.

It's almost perfect, except for one thing: why doesn't Swans start earlier? Why do they have to partly overlap with Tori Amos? I'll have to leave the Swans concert halfway to go to the Tori Amos one...

At least, Swans seem to be coming every year to Barcelona: they've done so in the past 3 years. I hope they're here again in 2016!

Tori Amos, however, is playing in Barcelona for the first time in her career. It'll be my first time seeing her live as well - I've been a fan since the late 90s. This opportunity is, obviously, not to be missed: it's a dream coming true and I'm feeling very grateful!

UPDATE (05/31/2015):

It turned out that Swans were finally going to start at 5:45 and finish at 8:45 pm. Sadly, I learned that too late. Indeed, I got to the festival at 7pm and I could have still enjoyed part of their concert.

However, since I saw that The Vaselines were going to perform from 7:30 to 8:15 pm, I decided to drop Swans and chose to see them. It's a band that I know very little, but I was curious to get to know them more. What I didn't know, though, was that their concert was held in a limited capacity and an extra ticket was needed. Therefore, I had to give up on that idea too.

Eventually, I got to eat a lovely vegan dinner in no rush and see 3 full awesome acts: Tori Amos, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Babes in Toyland.

Pomegranate

Lately, I have been finding myself craving pomegranate juice. Some of you will raise your eyebrows and say: "How does he dare? He is almost always drinking it."

Well, that is not a lie, but what I actually miss is the real homemade juice, and not the one you can easily buy at the store. Indeed, that one usually comes mixed with apple juice; and I am sorry, but the flavor is not the same.

My friends, we have to wait until September. That marks the beginning of the season - it lasts until February - in which we will have pomegranates available in any grocery in the Northern Hemisphere.

For those who are not familiar, as you can observe above, the pomegranate (whose botanical name is Punica granatum) is a berry, the size of between a lemon and a grapefruit, 5–12 cm in diameter with a rounded shape and thick, reddish skin.

The name pomegranate derives from Latin pōmum "apple" and grānātum "seeded".

The number of seeds in a pomegranate can vary from 200 to 1400 seeds, even though some of us will assert that there are exactly 613. In fact, I will talk about that when we are closer to Rosh Hashanah.

Stones

Don't bring me flowers, please!

They are beautiful, I know.

But they eventually rot...

If you want to keep my memory alive,

Place some stones, 

So our memories weigh more...

The practice of burying the dead with flowers is almost as old as humanity. Even in prehistoric caves, some burial sites have been found with evidence that flowers were used in interment.

Jew­ish authorities, however, have often objected to this practice. Though there are scattered talmudic mentions of spices and twigs used in burial, the prevailing view was that bringing flowers derives from a pagan custom.

That is why today one rarely sees flowers on the graves in tra­ditional Jewish cemeteries. Instead there are stones, small and large, piled without pattern on the graves.

Stones generally conjure a harsh image. Indeed, it may not seem the appropriate memorial for one who has died. But stones have a special character in Judaism.

In the Bible, an altar is no more than a pile of stones, but it is on an altar that one offers to G-d.

The stone upon which Abraham takes his son to be sacrificed is called even hashityah: the foundation stone of the world.

In fact, the most sacred shrine in Judaism, after all, is a pile of stones – the wall of the Second Temple.

Flowers are surely a good metaphor for life. Life withers; it fades like a flower. As Isaiah says, “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty like the flower of the field; grass withers and flowers fade” (Isaiah 40:6-7). Therefore, one may conclude that flowers are an apt symbol of passing.

But memory is supposed to be lasting. And while flowers may be a good metaphor for the brevity of life, stones seem better suited to the permanence of memory. Stones do not die, do they?

The poem above is a creation of mine, but the article is an edited version of this one.

1986 - 2002

Recently, I have spent some days in the place I grew up before I moved to Catalonia: a village called Santa Cruz (Lians, which covers an area of 6.63 square kilometers - 2.55 square miles - and, as of 2014, it had a population of 9,900 inhabitants).

This village is located in the municipality of Oleiros, which in turn is located in the province of A Coruña (Galicia).

There they have one of the most beautiful environments I have ever seen in my life: The Santa Cruz Castle.

The castle is placed on a small island in the Ría of A Coruña, which is reached by crossing a wooden footbridge. This bridge was built in the early 2000s in order to permit easy acess. Prior to that, one depended on the sea: while the low tide allows walking on the sand, the high tide only narrowed the options to either boat transport or swimming.

Running around the island is a promenade offering a magnificent and unsurpassable view of A Coruña city, as well as of the village of Santa Cruz and its small port, which you can see on the picture above. Below, you can observe the castle and the low tide:

Read this post in Catalan.

Vegetarian

Not long ago, I wrote an entry called "Books, Mayim and Vegetarianism", in which I mentioned that for this year's World Book Day I was given as a gift a Mayim Bialik book called "Mayim's Vegan Table".

This post, though, is not going to be about that awesome book, but about how I chose a colorful and tasty life as a vegetarian in 2007.

At age 9, I learned at school that vegetarians are those people who abstain from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, fish, seafood and the flesh of any other animal), and may also include abstention from by-products of animal slaughter - By the way, I do not intend to be bitchy, but all of you who eat a plant-based diet including fish and call yourselves vegetarians need to stop it: the term for you is pescetarians. Remember, please, that vegetarians do not eat animals.

Respect Yourself

In times in which you do not seem to achieve what you want, remember to be grateful for what you already have.

Do not concentrate on what you do not have yet: it will make you unhappy.

Instead, take some time to look inside of you and around you; it may not be much, but it is quality that matters.

And last, but not least, remember that you will always have yourself, so you better respect yourself: