One of the most famous scenes in movie history was filmed in northern Spain 60 years ago - this week, after the firing of Xabi Alonso, I wrote about how a cinematic masterpiece helps explain the institution that is Real Madrid. open.substack.com/pub/brendybo...

📬Sunday read - Why Real Madrid will always be hostile land for any man with a plan. The Wild West in the middle of Spain - enjoy, share, gracias amigos!

Domingo ☀️

One of the most famous scenes in movie history was filmed in northern Spain 60 years ago - this week, after the firing of Xabi Alonso, I wrote about how a cinematic masterpiece helps explain the institution that is Real Madrid. open.substack.com/pub/brendybo...

📬Sunday read - Why Real Madrid will always be hostile land for any man with a plan. The Wild West in the middle of Spain - enjoy, share, gracias amigos!

Saturday in A Coruña ⛅️

Excellent explanation of what is going on at Real Madrid

"This may have long-term consequences for the credibility of the US financial system, but what does he care? For Donald Trump, the long run is someone else’s problem. He will be long gone. Print baby print!" David McWilliams, The Irish Times.

🗞️Weekend read with your café con leche 🇪🇸 My 10th year in Spain - finally it was time to write about the wild west that is Real Madrid. Enjoy, share, gracias.

A very insightful analysis of Real Madrid. A badly-run club so often rescued by their aura, "la heróica". As a Real Sociedad fan I was always annoyed to see that they took our best products and wasted them entirely - Illarramendi, Odriozola, now Xabi Alonso...

Excellent analysis from BB on the current: circus/basket case/shambles/disarray etc. that is Real Madrid under Florentino Perez.

After a week of late nights watching, listening, reading and writing about Real Madrid, the weekend treat 🇪🇸

🗞️Weekend read with your café con leche 🇪🇸 My 10th year in Spain - finally it was time to write about the wild west that is Real Madrid. Enjoy, share, gracias.

☔️Up to San Sebastián for Xabi Alonso now to re-acclimatize to the rain. My money is on him heading to Manchester in the summer to replace Pep Guardiola.

Five years ago in Madrid after the Filomena snow storm. Wasn’t gonna stop the Madrileños getting out for their aperitif.

The only way the Alcaraz Sinner rivalry could become more vanilla is if they started a podcast together.

🇪🇸⚽️El Clásico kicking off shortly in the Saudi Arabia Supercopa final. There’s only been 1 x 0-0 in the last 50 meetings between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

On Grok.

🗞️Sunday read with your churros ☕️ 🇻🇪The Spain reaction to Trump’s new oil policy: steal baby steal 🤦🏻‍♂️Blackface is back 🤬A divided village - Christmas lotto chaos and more🇪🇸 Been a busy one - enjoy, share, gracias amigos!

On a cold, dreary Sunday morning I saw this when buying my churros. Someone had left a small tip, the price of a coffee, with a handwritten ‘gracias’ on a napkin. I’m sure this little act of humanity and kindness (tipping doesn’t happen in Spain, even less so in bars and cafes) brightened the…

El Mundo: ‘A Reuters report found that Grok receives 10 requests every minute to remove the clothes of users.” Basement weirdos.

🗞️Sunday read with your churros ☕️ 🇻🇪The Spain reaction to Trump’s new oil policy: steal baby steal 🤦🏻‍♂️Blackface is back 🤬A divided village - Christmas lotto chaos and more🇪🇸 Been a busy one - enjoy, share, gracias amigos!

My wish for Spain for the next few years: that Emily stays in Paris. #EmilyGoHome

Only 1 of the 26 countries in the EU saw house prices fall during the period 2015-2025: Finland 🇫🇮 (-2%) Other end of the scale: Hungary 🇭🇺 (+275%) Portugal 🇵🇹 (+169%) (El País)

Irish Independent recommending Madrid-based comedy Alpha Males. I've enjoyed the first 3 seasons.

Died 10 years ago today. I often think how the hell did he come up with these songs. Like where do you even start? #Bowie youtu.be/AZKcl4-tcuo?...

I prefer to drill down on one story for La Comunidad, but there’s been too much happening in Spain the last few weeks. The Venezuela invasion, the winning Christmas lotto ticket chaos, the president of Andalusia region painting his face black, and more. Have a quick read⬇️

🇪🇸 Latest La Comunidad newsletter now in inboxes 📬 🇻🇪The Spain reaction to Trump in Venezuela 🤦🏻‍♂️Blackface is back 😞Christmas lotto drama 🤫The New York Times' Spain hidden gems Been a busy week - enjoy, share, gracias amigos!

Agree. Every year the same boring guff. The concept of dry January doesn't exist in Spain. Life is too short not to have a beer or glass of wine with friends during the dreariest month or the year. Wrote about it last year - link below.

"There are countless instances of X users gleefully using Grok for the casual sexual humiliation of women who just happened to have posted photos of themselves online. A technology that permits the digital undressing of a woman without her consent? What more could an incel want..

Even though everybody saw the video, these fact-checking pieces need to become the norm. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

🇪🇸 Latest La Comunidad newsletter now in inboxes 📬 🇻🇪The Spain reaction to Trump in Venezuela 🤦🏻‍♂️Blackface is back 😞Christmas lotto drama 🤫The New York Times' Spain hidden gems Been a busy week - enjoy, share, gracias amigos!

Kyiv is under a heavy attack tonight. Drones. Missiles. Explosions again and again. It would be good to see a new day. Hug your peace tightly.

When your order is scheduled to arrive between 09:00-18:00 🤡

Olive Garden is opening its first restaurant in Spain. It was good while it lasted, Madrid. A miracle really that as a city it was under the radar and an authentic Spanish city for so long.

One of Spain’s national pastimes: queueing for stuff. Lotto tickets, bread, photocopies, football tickets, everything. One woman on TVG had been queuing for 3 hours in the bitter cold for her roscón de Reyes 🍰

The New York Times: “Barcelona is grappling with overtourism.” Also The New York Times: Barcelona is one of the 52 places on the planet you should visit in 2026!!

🤦🏻‍♂️Juanma Moreno is one of the most important politicians in Spain. He recently released a book titled the ‘Manual for living together.’ Not sure where blackface fits with the idea of everybody getting along.

🤦🏻‍♂️Juanma Moreno is one of the most important politicians in Spain. He recently released a book titled the ‘Manual for living together.’ Not sure where blackface fits with the idea of everybody getting along.

Julia Molony on Emily in Paris and the real Paris.

🇬🇧Manchester United to go back to British me thinks with Carrick (the politically safe option) or Southgate (the politically nuclear option - most fans would be against him from the start). Nobody in a good job elsewhere is leaving now to take over a cash-strapped dumpster fire.

ICYMI 🇪🇸

Blue Monday 💙🇪🇸

Great article on 2026 in Spain!

Phil Lynott’s 40th anniversary today. Died at just 36. youtu.be/TguVKVwqrwU?...

🇻🇪🇪🇸 Who knows how the falling of the Maduro regime will turn out, but today there are close to 600k Venezuelans in Spain who today have esperanza - hope. Doctors, nurses, teachers, scientific researchers who had to leave their homeland and take shitty jobs…

🇪🇸Weekend read with your churros ☕️ A look at the year ahead in Spain - from elections and Formula 1 to the solar eclipse, Tour de France and Rosalía. Loads happening in Spain in 2026 - have a read here for free.

Cheers 🍻🇪🇸

The first Sunday of 2026 in A Coruña. Lovely blue sky but a brutal chill in that wind. Fresh! #Galicia

El País: "Donald Trump's decision caps off a year of impulsive, personalistic foreign policy that ignores multilateral norms. Trump is not acting here as a guarantor of democracy, but placing force above law. Other powers will take note of the new rules when they look...