The Street That Changed our Minds About Streets

Full width featured post generally considered the most beautiful post in the Caribbean, Cartagena in Colombia grew unimaginably wealthy as the port through which the looted gold of the new world sailed eastwards to Imperial Spain.

Turns out we have, with the likes of Sir Francis Drake (one man’s privateer is another man’s pirate) plundering the city as far back as 1586. In subsequent years, particularly those of the late 20th Century, Colombia was famous for other exports: mountains of pure cocaine, left-wing guerrilla ideology and “magic realism” from the pen of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Remember at all times that while you are seeing the world, the world will see you.

These childhood friends have overcome some serious setbacks — guitarist and vocalist Adam Haworth Stephens was in not one but two road accidents last year — so this new album’s a bit of a boon. With buddy Tyson Vogel, he certainly sounds glad to be alive on a boisterous folk-rock album that shows two mild-looking men can, like The Black Keys, make a hell of a noise.

Why now?

July sees concerts on the beaches and events in the bullring and yet more excuses to party thanks to the Summer Festival. Alternatively, the literary/arty Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias rolls into town each January. Wales or Colombia, Wales or Colombia?  The sound smacks of the KoL’s brand of macho melancholy, while Brown’s voice lends a rockabilly twang.

For all her extraordinary talent and work ethic, Bly’s appearance was decidedly unremarkable — a fact that shouldn’t matter, but one that would be repeatedly remarked upon by her critics and commentators, something we’ve made sad little progress on in discussing women’s professional, intellectual, and creative merit more than a century later.