Soundtrack
Music That Defined an Era: Quinqui Rumba and the Sound of 1970s Spain
A playlist from 1970s Spain with stories from the edges before they were softened, exported, and repackaged
Keith Christiansen
Oddities
A Parrot Became a Local Legend. Then It Died.
Inside the bizarre true story of Ravachol, Spain’s most infamous bird
culture
Nothing is Wrong. Nothing Works.
What it feels like to live in a place that wasn’t built for you
Table & Foraging
Fabada, Vacuum-Sealed
A market in Gijón, a bag of beans, and how to cook Asturias anywhere
living abroad
Not Rejected. Just Not Inside.
What it feels like to live in the space between being accepted and actually belonging
Soundtrack
Paris, 1980. Nobody Knew What This Was. They Were Devo.
They expected chanson. They got Devo.
culture
What a Walk in Asturias Taught Me About Writing
Walks in Spain, vermouth bars, and the strange way ideas show up
Soundtrack
Oingo Boingo and the Art of Precise Weirdness
How “Private Life” turned paranoia, xylophones, and horn stabs into one of the strangest dance songs of 1982.
Soundtrack
The Night Bowie Turned Network Television Strange
Bowie, Klaus Nomi, and the Night SNL Went Fully Alien
Soundtrack
The Ghetto Brothers and the Sound of a Bronx That Refused to Collapse
How a gang from the South Bronx helped create the conditions for hip-hop.
Table & Foraging
The French Ate a Million Songbirds. But Not Lizards.
culinary tradition & endangered songbirds, and how people decide just what counts as food — with a recipe I hope to never make
Soundtrack
Os Mutantes and the Beautiful Chaos of Tropicália
Os Mutantes, Jorge Ben, and the Beautiful Chaos of Tropicália