Barcelona 0 - 1 Real Madrid

Last night Real Madrid defeated Barcelona in Camp Nou Stadium, 1-0. A sad loss in front of the majority of the 98,000 persons in attendance and certainly NOT the holiday "gift" Barcelona was expecting, being favored for the match-up.

The single goal was scored in the first half by Real Madrid's Julio Baptista from Brazil, giving Real not only the eventual win but also a 7-point lead in La Liga.

FC Barcelona has a short Christmas and New Years break until hosting visiting Alcoyano on 2 January 2008.

Barça meets Real Madrid again in Madrid's Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on 7 May 2008. Let's see if FC Barcelona can turn the tables.

FC Barcelona, Real Madrid Football Grudge Match

It's that time again...

"LET'S GET READY TO..."
(...you know what - it's trademarked)

FC Barcelona faces Real Madrid in their first meeting of this season on the Estadio Camp Nou turf on December 23, 2007 (unless the date changes - which happens sometimes).

This time, Real Madrid has more to lose than FC Barcelona as Real Madrid is leading the Spanish Primera Division, just ahead of Barça.

While watching this football game will likely be a pay-per-view event (how can it NOT be??), one can likely catch it in any Barcelona bar, Madrid bar, or likely ANY BAR in Spain!

One can ALSO MOST CERTAINLY listen live to the game via any one of the number of online radio stations listed on the Barcelona Radio, TV, Movies, and Movies page on BarcelonaMan.com. Radio Nacional de España is a likely choice for the football broadcast as is MARCA. Of course, the broadcast will be given in Spanish. Or if you're listening through one of the Barcelona radio station, then, in Catalán.

Finally, for those who don't understand Spanish or Catalán, you can watch the ESPNsoccernet, click Europe, then Spanish La Liga, then Scores, and choose your team/matchup, then click Gamecast (live, graphical and textual play-by-play action).

Their NEXT meeting of this season will be in Madrid's Estadio Santiago Bernabéau on May 7, 2008.

Whom do I want to win? Can I choose a 2-2 tie??

Cirque du Soleil's DELIRIUM in Barcelona

Cirque du Soleil's DELIRIUM
tour is coming to Barcelona!!!

Upcoming DELIRIUM show dates for Barcelona AND Valencia are listed below. If they're not sold out yet, be sure to try to see this incredible performance. You'll REALLY be glad you did.

Valencia, ES Feria Valencia	2007/12/13 - 21h30 2007/12/14 - 21h30 2007/12/15 - 21h30 2007/12/16 - 21h00
Barcelona, ES PALAU SANT JORDI	2007/12/19 - 21h30 2007/12/20 - 21h30 2007/12/21 - 21h30 2007/12/22 - 18h00 2007/12/22 - 21h30

I was VERY fortunate to get into last Saturday night's DELIRIUM show in Madrid. All the other shows were sold out but they'd added one show to Saturday to accommodate the demand. And thanks goodness they did! WHAT A SHOW!

It was 1 hour and 40 minutes of music, sights, sounds, and incredible dancing, spinning, jumping, balancing, and dangling!

THE MUSIC is largely live (listen to music clips HERE), performed by live bands and professional singers - many times the vocal artists were suspended by wires and floating above the action below. From the African drummers to the Rock Bands and professional singers it is an audio experience worth owning on any CD - or better yet, on DVD!

Watch a short video of Delirium:
( press play )

From their website:

About DELIRIUM

An urban tale
With visually stunning tableaux in which music and projections meld together seamlessly, DELIRIUM is a contemporary urban tale, a quest for balance in a world increasingly out of sync with reality. Bill – the main character – is an ordinary man living inside a bubble, more and more recluse in a society where even relationships are “virtual,” and where television and computers have become ubiquitous devices that isolate us from one another.

A delirious sensory folly
Everything in Bill’s urban life further draws him into an imaginary, virtual world. On his journey he meets myriad characters that bring him little by little on the cusp of growth and change. He eventually learns to ground his energy into the real world. At the end of his voyage, Bill contaminates the people of his planet and enlists them in his quest for balance.

DELIRIUM is a delirious sensory folly where music unites space, individual and society in a world marked by solitude and isolation. The subtext of DELIRIUM is the notion that, in life, we must join together—escape our solitary cocoons—to survive.

Music in motion
Injecting new life into the 21 songs chosen among Cirque du Soleil’s most memorable musical moments, DELIRIUM is based on a musical rather than an acrobatic structure—a first for Cirque du Soleil. Melodies, musicians and singers are the driving force of this show that features a series of tableaux made up of images ranging from prerecorded visuals to manipulated live feeds that create interactions between the artists and the audience. Featuring new texts in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, the 21 remixed melodies mark a significant departure from the music Cirque du Soleil fans have come to expect.

The music of DELIRIUM—“urban tribal beats” that combine percussive driven pop and electronic music with melodious ballads and world rhythm sounds—take the audience on an incandescent journey into the musical realm of Cirque du Soleil and the aerial world of Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon.

Barcelona.com: Who Owns It?

Believe it or not, the domain name BARCELONA.com is NOT owned by the City of Barcelona - but by an American company in the State of Delaware by Barcelona.com, Inc. ("Bcom, Inc.")

Surprised? Maybe so. Maybe not. Maybe you don't care. The STORY of the path and battle for the domain name of Barcelona.com is long, murky, and messy.

There are 4 Steps here:

• Step 1: The registration of Barcelona.com
• Step 2: WIPO arbitration favors transfer of domain name to Barcelona
  
• Step 3: The USA District Court upholds WIPO's decision to transfer name
• Step 4: The appeal, reversal of decision by the USA Eastern District Court

Now - and nearly always - Barcelona.com has been a Barcelona city focused travel and tourism portal. It's quite possibly THE MOST visited Barcelona-related website on the internet - although the City of Barcelona's website, http://www.barcelona.es/ , is a big player with its own English version and categories on all things regarding tourism.

Step 1) Barcelona.com was registered as a domain name in 1996 in the USA by a man and his wife - both Spanish citizens.

The 1999 complaint was made to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers"ICANN") and the World Intellectual Property Organization Court in Virginia, USA but then reversed by the District Court of Appeals in the same state for the abbreviated following reasons. (see full transcript HERE - interesting reading but with lots of "Legal Speak")

When we apply the Lanham Act, not Spanish law, in determining whether Bcom, Inc.’s registration and use of is unlawful, the ineluctable conclusion follows that Bcom, Inc.’s registration and use of the name "Barcelona" is not unlawful. Under the Lanham Act, and apparently even under Spanish law, the City Council could not obtain a trademark interest in a purely descriptive geographical designation that refers only to the City of Barcelona. See 15 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(2); see also Spanish Trademark Law of 1988, Art. 11(1)(c) (forbidding registration of marks consisting exclusively of "geographical origin"). Under United States trademark law, a geographic designation can obtain trademark protection if that designation acquires secondary meaning. See, e.g., Resorts of Pinehurst, Inc. v. Pinehurst Nat’l Corp., 148 F.3d 417, 421 (4th Cir. 1998). On the record in this case, however, there was no evidence that the public — in the United States or elsewhere — associates "Barcelona" with anything other than the City itself. Indeed, the Chief Director of the City Council submitted an affidavit stating that "[t]he City does not own and is not using any trademarks in the United States, to identify any goods or services." Therefore, under United States trademark law, "Barcelona" should have been treated as a purely descriptive geographical term entitled to no trademark protection. See 15 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(2). It follows then that there was nothing unlawful about Nogueras’ registration of , nor is there anything unlawful under United States trademark law about Bcom, Inc.’s continued use of that domain name.

For these reasons, we conclude that Bcom, Inc. established entitlement to relief under 15 U.S.C. § 1114(2)(D)(v) with respect to the domain name , and accordingly we reverse the district court’s ruling in this regard.

Step 2) The (original) Decision in favor of the City of Barcelona...

Read the original 2000 World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center (a.k.a."WIPO") case and decision below:

WIPO Decision: Excelentisimo Ayuntamiento de Barcelona v. Barcelona.com Inc. - Text of [2000] decision to transfer Barcelona.com from Barcelona.com Inc. to Excelentisimo Ayuntamiento de Barcelona by panelist Marino Porzio.

Step 3) The case in the USA Eastern District Court upholding the WIPO case in favor of The City of Barcelona...

Article:
"Court rules against barcelona.com"
Published Tuesday 5th March 2002

A Spanish travel site is considering an appeal against a US court's decision to strip it of its domain name.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia upheld an earlier ruling ordering the owners of barcelona.com had to hand over the domain to the Barcelona City Council. (more ...)

The Final (?) Step 4) Successful reversal and appeal; returning Barcelona.com to its original owners.

An abbreviation of the same case can be read on the iBusinessLaw.info article below:

Clarity and Good Sense from the 4th Circuit on ACPA [Domain Names] -- posted at 10:10 pm
6/3/2003
The Fourth Circuit yesterday reversed one of the most outrageous cybersquatting decisions to emerge from the Eastern District of Virginia. Barcelona.com, Inc. v. Excelentisimo Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, No. 02-1396 (4th. Cir. Jun. 2, 2003). The appellate decision stands as perhaps the most cogent statement of the jurisdictional and substantive basis for “review” of UDRP decisions by a federal court. (more ...)

The aforementioned Barcelona.com case was truly unusual, practically setting precedent because the ruling was contrary to the vast majority of WIPO decisions relative to geographic identifier domain disputes.

Not surprisingly, in great part due to the "path" of the Barcelona.com domain name, all subsequent WIPO cases on geographic identifier domain disputes have not ruled in favor of the city/country authority in claiming a domain name except for some very special circumstances.

So to sum up this mess, the domain name of Barcelona.com remains - at least for now - with its original owners whom acted fast, first, and with a plan. Who would've thought - or WOULDN'T have thought - it would become (one of) the largest Barcelona portals on the Internet?

Barcelona Chip by AMD

Intel's biggest computer microprocessor rival, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.), has a newer, better, faster micro chip call the "Barcelona chip". The city of Barcelona should be flattered, right?

The latest news from AMD is that the microchip's release will be delayed until the first quarter of 2008, causing not-so-hushed giggles from the Intel Corportation camp.

December 6, 2007 Article: AMD'S Barcelona Chip Sees More Delays

What does this little Barcelona news snippet have to do with Barcelona, Spain? Not much! Surely AMD is hoping the name-branding will give its new microchip a flashy, artsy, modernistic ring.

BarcelonaMan's FIRST Barcelona Blog Entry

Welcome to BarcelonaMan's Blog!

It's all gotta start somewhere, doesn't it? So here goes, BarcelonaMan's first foray into blogging.

Here I'll discuss Barcelona's news items and events - some political and some sports - while also entertaining readers with my own personal experiences, Barcelona photos, favorite Barcelona restaurants and monuments, and even some entries on Barcelona lodgings.

But why Barcelona? And who is this BarcelonaMan guy? Both are good questions.

According to Wikipedia's page on Barcelona, the Catalán city is populated by 1.6 MILLION inhabitants. Many of those citizens are of Catalán heritage. A strong minority are from many other places in Spain - and the world - making it a kind of Spanish melting pot, if you will.

If you're not Spanish you probably don't know the following... MANY Catalánes don't feel Spanish.

HUH?! HOW can one be a citizen of XYZ Nation and NOT feel a national in the country in which you live??

Many Catalánes, instead, feel Catalán and would very much prefer NOT to be part of the nation of Spain but rather their own country, their own governing entity. They'd like to become a kind of ANDORRA if possible. This alone makes Barcelona unique - but it's certainly not the ONLY thing.

The obvious aspect of ARTISTIC Barcelona is unavoidable and I'll go into some detail about that here.

Simply walking the streets, beachfront, and and Gothic Quarter of Barcelona really tells the whole story. While every European city has its own "Old Town", Barcelona's is most definitely unique.

And just who is BarcelonaMan?? I'm one of the MANY Barcelona visitors whom fell in love with the city after only the first visit. Yes. It had quite a profound affect on me. So much so that I wanted to share my passion with others whom may have similar afflictions, having been bitten by the Barcelona Bug!

In early 2006 I started www.BarcelonaMan.com in order to help assuage my passion for the Catalán Capital. It helped - A LOT - but this new Barcelona Blog allows me to better express myself and share experiences about the city in an progressive format.

It's my sincere hope that you'll find this Barcelona Blog interesting, informative, and even entertaining.

Saludos, BarcelonaMan