Sephy’s Platzish

You don’t have to listen to the whole video, but make sure you listen to the first part - it’s not in English, but I dare you to not get it stuck into your head. And that backing track, it’s something else

I think that the name of Palito Ortega started to be known in Spain first as a writer. I want to remember now the first song Palito Ortega song that was recorded here in Spain. It was recorded by a friend, a singer of the time named Ricard E. And this first song, from 17 or 18 years ago already, said:

Al lado
Al lado
Justo al lado
Justo al lado
Vive
Vive
La que me tiene un amorado
ilusionado, trastornado
yo la tengo de vecina por desgracia
está viviendo justo al lado
bien el lado
justo al lado

Or, to say in English (very roughly):

At the side
Alongside
Lives
That I have a lover,
I’m disillusioned, upset that
I have an unfortunate neighbor alongside
well the side
alongside (and it repeats)

So, without further ado, Al Lado written by Palito Ortega and performed by some random Spanish guy on TV -

This is always a fun time of the year for someone who, like me, is a fan of lists; especially those lists that chronicle the year that has passed. Some lists of this type are the ones that Yahoo have put out with the top searches of the year. What’s interesting is that all ten of the top searches here are somehow celebrity-related, while in the other ones that they provide internationally (Australia, Germany, Spain, Canada, Italy, UK/Ireland, France) there are only one or two celebrity searches listed.

Some tidbits from these searches -

• Rockstar Supernova wound up on the Canadian list - number 4 overall, number 2 in entertainment. It didn’t appear in any other list
• Of all the sports figures, the only racers that made the list were: Michael Schumacher (Germany - #4 Male Star), Fernando Alonso (Spain - #2 Athlete) and the late Peter Brock (Australia - #1 Sport, #2 Male Celebrity). Honourable mention for this goes to the Bathurst 1000, which wound up as the #10 Sport search Down Under.
• Germans love porn. The number three search overall for 2006 there was “Erotik”. Shockingly, it doesn’t appear anywhere else in the world.
• The UK are just about as celebrity-obsessed as we are, with the number 1 search overall being Heather Mills (McCartney), and numbers 2 and three are Big Brother and this year’s winner, Pete Burns.

Don’t be surprised to pop in here one day (or if you’re using RSS, for an item to appear in your feed list) and find me fleshing out the significance of some of these search terms around the world. If anything, it will be a way for me to find out who “Chris Brown” is (#8 overall, USA). Also, maybe an insight into the habits of non-english users of the web (considering that the number 1 search in Germany is Weather, this should be interesting)

…to “El Bloke” (Telemundo English for ‘the block”, which the proper Spanish spelling should be “el bloque”)

The main program in El Bloke is “Vas o No Vas” - which, if you’re familiar with TV show logos is exactly what it purports to be - “Deal or No Deal” in Spanish

Tonight’s contestant is Alba, who has brought her mother Tita along with her. As you can see, she has just turned down an offer of $23,000. After the break, she gets to choose her suitcase (portafolio/s in spanish).

She lucks out as it only contains $100, and the producers want us to know that, because of this, the offer will go up!

And does it ever! Now, the bank (who calls, but we have this elaborate presentation with a model) is offering $14,000 more - only because two of the three highest prizes are still available, $100,000 and $125,000.

So, what does she do? Reject that offer! “¡No Voy!” she says and opens the next case which has……

Of course, this is great news as the offer is sure to go up, but our host wants to have Tita stand with the banking model for the big reveal of the contents of the suitcase, along with the reveal of the banker’s new offer, which is….

Considering that some of the plans for the moneys they’d win is to have some kind of surgery for a hernia, along with a trip for Tita and her grandkids, this would be enough - considering the previous offers, it would make sense to take that offer…but…

She rejects it; again the producers remind us that $50,000 is a good offer, but they want to continue playing, so we select the next suitcase, number 21, which has the top available prize, $125,000; the host’s face while talking to the banker portends the bad news about to be levelled -
And here’s the offer -

In this set of photos, we see some more information provided to us by the producers (she has decided to turn down the new offer, but there is still that $100,000 out there). After she selects the case - unlucky number 13 - a temptation is offered. Here the producers are lazy and didn’t even change the placard in the suitcase from the last temptation offer.

She’s decided to turn down the offer, and go with case #13…let’s hope it’s a low number…
Oh no! Surely the offer is going to go down…but by how much? Here comes the banker’s model with the suitcase and the offer…

Ouch! But, as she says, they came with nothing and even if they leave with a little bit, it was a great experience, so “No Voy” she says and she goes on to open the final suitcase.

It’s a show that is quite easy to follow, and I think it’s more fun because there seems to be a natural energy to it rather than the US English version with Howie Mandel; then again, I think it might be that there isn’t as much of the rowdiness you see in the English-language crowd along with the fact that the people on the Spanish version seem more humble, and quite frankly, more docile; that makes it a pleasant viewing experience - of course the models help watching

I was just watching our local Spanish-language TV station, and they had an ad on for coverage of the upcoming elections. In the past, I doubt that you would have seen spanish coverage of a mid-term election, but I think that because the station is distributed to most of the state via cable, they are putting this together, with reporters with the main candidates running (i.e. the Gubernatorial candidates).

Of course, the fact that the spot aired immediately prior to that was in English makes me wonder sometimes; especially since it’s a commercial provided by the Government.

Another sign of the times is that you are seeing more Spanish in daily life is that you’re starting to see mainstream products have bilingual elements. Witness below, the Betty Crocker cake mix that proudly proclaims that it has instructions in Spanish:

Eventually, I think that it might turn into a situation like Canada where both languages will be seen as acceptible in daily life; ironically, in my area there was a time before the first World War that businesses would actually put out “We Speak English” signs because most of the people in the city at the time spoke German.