(forgot to post this because it's so damn forgettable) Buraka Som Sistema are exactly what i expected, and those expectations were high. They only disappointed when stooping to pandering stunts, at one point inviting a pre-selected group of talentless cute girls from the audience to flood the stage. These few moments aside it was phenomenally good. The big surprise for me this year was Gaslamp Killer, a deejay from LA that ups the stakes. Local resident and friend Cardopusher was great as always, and deserving of any good things that come his way. Omar Suleyman less interesting live than on his lofi cassettes, but still enchanting. Mulatu Astatke also excellent. A festival with even one good artist is unusual, so half a dozen is stellar programming. The sideshow of Sonar is seeing the world's party people bumbling around the Raval, unable to speak the language, getting lost, sunburned, pickpocketed, and treated rudely but still managing to have a great time. Party people are tough, able to go without sleep for days and have fun in the most punishing of circumstances. Most depressing part of any festival in Spain is the mountains of garbage generated. The mediterranean nations were�taking a siesta when the rest of europe went green. Would be so fucking easy to provide recycling containers, or, adapting to the local custom of throwing everything directly on the ground, have the cleanup crews sort this calf-deep carpet of debris, 90% of which is plastic cup, when they sweep it up. The streets of Barcelona are always full of pakistani immigrants selling cans of beer, during a festival the business is very heavy. A friend says that it's possible to see the economy of Pakistan jump up to 1% the day after a large public event in Barcelona (Sonar, Merce, football games) as the foreign wire transfers briefly boost the economy. I did a number of interviews for tv, radio, and print. Have a peek around if you speak Italian, French, or Spanish. It'd be the death of my street cred to break my�exile from the anglo-american hegemony. While we getting frivolous, peeps in Iran were getting their head's cracked. Those in power say the (fraudulent) results are simply god's will. On the contrary I see the hand of god quite clearly hucking a molotov cocktail into the basij headquarters. Or the foot of god acting via this woman below