Lately I’ve been enjoying long walks around my neighbourhood -Poble Sec-.
My favourite walk is to get up to the Montjuic mountain to after lay in the grass near some ponds full of water lilies and tadpoles.
Soon I’ll select some places to eat and visit on Poble Sec in case you are visiting Barcelona for your vacations. ;)
Below are some pics I took last week...

Flower fields at the Montjuic mountain.


My cat with the organic tiny tomatoes at our balcony :)


Did you knew that Barcelona’s trees are full of pigeons and parrots? These three were so funny eating rice left on the sidewalk!
(In Spain is an antique tradition to throw grains of uncooked rice to the wedding couples when they get out of the church.)


Trees at Montjuic.


These are two passifloras at my balcony. I adore these plant, it seem to come from outer space.


Gardens at Montjuic.


More gardens at Montjuic.


Water lilies!


Plants at the Montjuic mountain.


Ohh... I love these trees.

Today is the first day of my Blackberry Detox Program -scary!!- :/
Decided it's time to disconnect from 24/7 e-mails and so.
Now I feel a little bit more bohemian ;)

These pictures are from Olyva's Spring-Summer'09 collection photographed by Las Coleccionistas.
Summertime a la barcelonesa!

Since I started writing this blog I've received many e-mails from different people asking me to recommend them "not-so-known places" to visit in Barcelona.
Weeks ago I started to work on a Google map gathering some of my favourite places in the city, personal recommendations for independent travelers... Indie music venues, vintage shops, design bookstores, art galleries, gourmet shops, hip bars, useful places, etc.

It's a work in progress so I'll be updating the map, adding more spots and so on...
Hope you find it useful :)


View Indie Barcelona by Pop-pervert.com in a larger map

Desde que comencé pop-pervert.com he ido recibiendo bastantes correos de diferentes personas pidiendome que les recomiende sitios "alternativos" que visitar en Barcelona.
Hace unas semanas comencé a trabajar en un Google map recopilando algunos de mis sitios preferidos en la ciudad que van desde salas donde ver conciertos de música independiente hasta tiendas de ropa vintage, pasando por librerías especializadas en diseño, galerías de arte, tiendas gourmet, bares modernillos y de todo un poco.

Iré actualizando semanalmente el mapa, añadiendo más lugares.
¡Que disfruteis el paseo! ;)

Tonight we are attending to the Tim Biskup exhibition at Iguapop Gallery.
See you there :)



Esta noche vamos a la inauguración de la expo de Tim Biskup en la galería Iguapop.
Allí nos vemos ;)

Last week we went to Miscelänea gallery to see "Home Sweet Home", an art show by Cristófol Pons and Aleksandra Kopff.

La semana pasada fuimos a la inauguración de la exposición de Cristófol Pons y Aleksandra Kopff "Home Sweet Home" en la galería Miscelänea.


And below more drawings by Aleksandra Kopff. Y aqui abajo teneis más dibujos de Aleksandra Kopff.

*Curators Mery and Amanda Cuesta have organized at Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona "Quinquis de los 80: Cine, prensa y calle" an art exhibition about spanish "kink" counterculture and gangs in the eighties.
Tonight I'm attending to the vernissage at CCCB.
Below some images from the exhibition and here a Las Grecas music video, gorgeous!









**Mery y Amanda Cuesta han comisariado una exposición en el Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona llamada Quinquis de los 80: Cine, prensa y calle.
Si quereis ver a El Torete y sus secuaces en acción una vez más esta expo es una oportunidad de oro!
Esta noche es la inauguración en el CCCB, en el post pego algunas imágenes de la expo para que vayais abriendo boca y en este link el video de "Te estoy amando locamente" de Las Grecas!

*Yesterday spent the day in Cadaqués, a well-known catalan fishing village near France. Five minutes far from this small town, at Port Lligat bay you can visit Salvador Dali's former house.
We spent a great day in such a beautiful village!
Below some pictures + have a nice Sunday!











**Ayer pasamos un dia precioso en Cadaqués. Un pueblecito pescador situado en la Costa Brava catalana, muy cerca de Francia; donde Salvador Dalí tenía su casa con vistas.
Aqui teneis algunas fotos. Si teneis la oportunidad, no dudeis en visitarlo!
Feliz domingo.

Today I'm really happy to at last share with you one of the new designs made for Cineplexx! (usually am really impacient when it comes to wait for months to show the projects I'm involved in... )

Mejor digital single is out today thanks to Cherry Red Records. The single contains "Mejor", a delightful, festive, tropical song great for sunny days; "Paint It Black", a pensive and mantric cover of The Rolling Stones and a previously unreleased folkie demo "Sentada".

Download it now to start the week a little warmer, tropical and happier!

Some recommended spots in Barcelona's Raval neighbourhood...
(in case you are here for Easter time ;)

Still Light
C/ Notariat
Unique designer clothes and great selection of magazines and books (even delightful books from Nieves!) Below image from Via Snella, swedish fashion for men only available in Barcelona thanks to Still Light.


Barcelona Reykjavik
C/ Doctor Dou 12
Best organic bakery in Barcelona. I get hungry just to think about this place...

Kasparo Bar
Plaça de Vicenç Martorell 4
Great sunny terrace to chill-out a little while enjoying their homemade ice tea.

Ras
C/ Doctor Dou 10
Bookshop specialized on arts, design and architecture. Also art gallery inside!


Biocenter
C/Pintor Fortuny 25
Yummy healthy vegetarian restaurant.

Yesterday attended to the Cildo Meireles exhibition at MACBA and got crazy about Babel (the radio tower you can see below), in the whole exhibition space the only lights were the ones from the transistor radios and the sound was a crazy mix of all the cassettes, radio stations and so on...


After MACBA went to another museum, but in the middle of the walk I got surprised again by these temporary city lights The Barcelona Council has installed in Ronda Sant Antoni. They are so strange that I can’t even describe them... all kind of materials mixed (concrete, wood, plastic, metal...), they are so not-designed that seem really modern indeed!

And tonight... MINIFESTIVAL at Apolo[2]

Talented Glasgow musician Ally Kerr is visiting us for the first time! Come and listen to some of his beautiful sweet pop songs.
The rest of the lineup will be Cranes, Chris Cacavas Orchestra, Hugo Race and many more...

...HEY! HO! LET’S GO!

I’m very happy that really soon MACBA is hosting some theme concerts on Tropicalia!!
Here you can see all the details.
Below “Domingo no parque” by Gilberto Gil+Os Mutantes.


And now for something completely different...
Yesterday received a copy of the magazine below containing a six page interview with Sir Alan The Gallant ;)

Here you can download the pdf to read the whole interview (spanish only sorry).

Since Airwalker EP was released I’ve been a big fan of Jeremy Jay. And now I’m really happy that he’s coming to play this Saturday in Barcelona!
Here’s the video from the “Beautiful Rebel” song...
Enjoy and have a nice day*

...well, not really.
But received today the new Xfuns issue featuring an interview avec moi.
Really happy to be featured in the same issue than my beloved Tea Time Studio and brilliant Megan Whitmarsh (among many more talented people!)...

Here’s the whole (bilingual english/chinese) interview on a pdf.

*Thanks for the magazines Pat :)

Tomorrow begins this fantastic art show at Iguapop Gallery (Barcelona).
Deutsch gallery Helium Cowboy takes Iguapop and showcases many talented artists...

Below three of them:


Stephen Smith (Neasden Control Centre)


Nina Braun


Arturo Sandoval III (Friends with you)

See you there and happy friday*

Sorry for not posting all these days, I needed badly some vacations... to bake cookies, watch movies, go to exhibitions, ignore the computer a little bit... you know, Christmas things ;)

Happy 2009 and beyond everybody, wish peace and love are visiting us a little bit more than in the past. I wish, I hope.

Personally for me, Christmas = Wham :)


listen to this “Last Christmas” cover by Erlend Oye (Kings of Convenience). Beautiful.

NOTE:

Hola hola.
For 2009 I’ve made a few changes at pop-pervert, hope you like them.
As the blog document was getting really heavy to work with on Rapidweaver, I started another different document from scratch. Anyhow you can still visit the pop-pervert 2007-2008 archives here.

ABOUT THIS BLOG:

My name is Ana Montiel, I am 27 and live in Barcelona, I work in different areas such as illustration, pattern design, graphic design, fashion, art, special editorial content... always trying to keep myself as open to as many disciplines as possible, trying new things to reach versatile and different results on my projects.

I write this blog as a sort of "inspirational diary", featuring a selection of things that blow my mind. This weblog also works to showcase my creative process. A place where I upload drafts, sneak-a-peaks and so on from my projects.

I am the co-founder (together with my super business development partner Alex Bedoya) and creative director at Alan the Gallant, a multi-talent design bureau.
Through Sir Alan we offer a wide range of services for art-sensitive companies and people with good taste in general. :)
Before we were known as itte studio, in those days we were working on more corporate projects but now we are more freestyle, experimental and happy. ;)

Also as Alan the Gallant we have created a pattern design brand called Pattern Tales®. Pattern Tales is a neo-ornamental brand producing high quality non-woven limited edition wallpapers that you can buy on Gallant Tales, Alan’s online store.

Years ago, I was half of Colectivo Koleko, won 2 art prizes, produced several exhibitions and had a great time.
Now, I'm working again on different art approaches as Ana Montiel (or AMON ) and hopefully there will be some exhibitions and collaborations soon, I'll write about the updates on pop-pervert.com
I am always looking for art spaces and galleries to exhibit my work, as well as collaborate on art submissions and in art magazines. These are always welcome!
So if you are interested feel free to contact me.

Well, thanks for visiting and reading.
:)


ps: Oh! ...and the name Pop Pervert comes from my obsession with music and pop culture, I must confess that I am a total music addict, listening to new bands everyday and always researching further and further into many musical fields. Long live good music!