VIII Peñiscola International Jazz Festival

Jazz Peñiscola

Once again some of the top jazz artists and groups in the world will converge on Peñíscola in July.

The giant of the blues world B. B. King is undoubtedly the major attraction of the 8th edition of this festival, that over the years has become one of the foremost on the summer musical agenda of Spain.  The American legend offers a special concert on July 20 in the port area of Peniscola, a venue with capacity for 4,000 people. This concert will be the first of three that he will offer in Spain. He will without doubt be the big attraction but not the only one because the festival also features other leading figures from the jazz world.
The Jeff Lorber Fusion will be charged with opening the festival with a concert in the Palau de Congressos on 8 July. On 15 July will be Lucky Peterson, Lucky Peterson, another American musician who plays contemporary blues, fusing soul, R&B, gospel and rock and roll. The last two concerts will feature two of the best  female vocalists of the current jazz scene: Cassandra Wilson (22 July) and Roberta Gambarini (29 July).
As in past editions there will be free performances on Thursday nights in the  Plaza Santa María and at the Don Carlos Hotel on Saturday evenings. There will aso be three free master classes on the afternoons of 14, 21 and 28 July . In addition the Street Marching Band will offer it’s now traditional processions on the evenings of the concerts in the Palau de Congressos.
A pamphlet giving full details of the festival can be download from
http://accesible.culturalcas.com/UserFiles/File/programacion_2011/Palau-JAZZP__11-Programa-WEB2.pdf

Programme

07 July 23:00h – Access to Palau de Congressos de Peñíscola
Jazz Street Marching Band
08 July 23:00 h. – Palau de Congressos de Peñíscola
Jeff Lorber Fusion
09 July 19:00h – Hotel Don Carlos
Gipsy Jazz Hot
14 July 17:00h – Palau de Congressos de Peñíscola.
Master Class by Ronald Baker
14 July 23:00 h. – Plaza Santa María
Ronald Baker Quartet
15 July 23:00 h. – Palau de Congressos de Peñíscola
Lucky Peterson
16 July 19:00h – Hotel Don Carlos
Amadeu Marín
21 July 17:00h – Palau de Congressos de Peñíscola
Master Class by Rene Marie
21 July 23:00 h. – Plaza Santa María
Rene Marie
22 July 23:00 h. – Palau de Congressos de Peñíscola
Cassandra Wilson
23 July 19:00h – Hotel Don Carlos
Arantxa Domíngez
28 July 17:00h – Palau de Congressos de Peñíscola
Master Class by Marc Fosset
28 July 23:00 h. – Plaza Santa María
Marc Fosset Quartet
29 July 23:00 h. – Palau de Congressos de Peñíscola
Roberta Gambarini
30 July 19:00h – Hotel Don Carlos
Paco Albiol & The Funky Talks

Castellon Airport has still not requested the permits to fly

An article yesterday  in El País claimed that almost three months after the inauguration of the  airport  the essential documentation to request permission from the Ministry of Development for flights to start remains in the capital of La Plana . According to the airport there are “thousands of documents and plans” that have not yet been sent to Madrid for approval due to “lack of interest” by the Valencian Government.
Aerocas, the public company managing Castellon airport began last month to submit documents to the State Agency for Aviation Safety (AESA) of the Ministry of Development that must supervise and approve the documentation for authorizing flights within six months, according to the brand new Air Navigation Act. The half-year period could be longer as time stands still until the airport officials remedy any error or deficiency identified by the technicians of the state enterprise.
So far, according to the airport, documentation has been sent regarding the safety of the infrastructure and the operation of the fire department, among other issues. However the essential documentation still has not been sent to Madrid.
These sources foresee that it would be difficult for planes to land before Christmas. This further delay puts at risk the the 2012 campaign to capture tourists to the region. The campaigns for next summer take place in the Autumn making it almost impossible to broker deals to bring passengers if the airport still lacks permission.
Leaders of PP of Valencia and Castellón quickly diverted criticism to the central government for a perceived lack of political will of the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Mercadona: Why a low-price retailer is thriving

Mercadona´s revenues

Few domestic firms are prospering in crisis-racked Spain, but Mercadona is. Spain’s largest supermarket (by sales) has enjoyed double-digit growth for most of the past decade. When Juan Roig, the chairman, took over in 1981, Mercadona had only eight shops, all in Valencia. Today it has 1,310 and annual sales of €16.5 billion ($23.8 billion). Spain’s economic troubles seem to have made it stronger. Profits dipped in 2009, but surged again by 47% in 2010 after some forceful cost-cutting.

Mercadona’s strength is low prices. The family-owned chain does not fritter away cash on advertising. It mercilessly squeezes the suppliers of its own-brand products. These suppliers, of which there are about 100, put up with Mercadona’s squeezing because they have a long-term relationship with the company and have grown with it. Since 2009 Mercadona has shaved €2.2 billion of costs from its products, often with simple adjustments such as reducing packaging. Tight relationships with its suppliers foster innovation. For example, sticking a plastic lid on a large tin of tuna made it easier to open and increased its sales by 60% in 2010.

Even so, Mercadona does not skimp on technology or logistics. It was the first retailer in Spain to use bar-code scanners. And it owns a fully automated logistics warehouse just outside Madrid. Computers monitor deliveries from suppliers and organise shipments to stores. Robot arms stack goods in crates like a game of Tetris.

“Mercadona is unique in several ways,” says Zeynep Ton of Harvard University, who wrote a case study on the chain. Its 63,500 employees are on permanent contracts (with bonuses), work regular hours and receive 20 times more training than the staff of an average American retailer. This makes them more productive: sales per Mercadona employee were 18% higher in 2008 than at other Spanish supermarkets. Staff turnover is only 4% a year.

Employees constantly gather feedback from shoppers, whom they refer to, accurately enough, as “bosses”. Shops are designed to make shopping quick and easy. The selection is smaller than in other supermarkets, especially after Mercadona took the unpopular decision of eliminating 1,000 products from the shelves in 2009. Own-label items such as Deliplus (a line of cosmetics) account for 38 % of sales. Mercadona products were ranked number one, in terms of value for money, in a recent survey of 5,200 households by TNS, a market researcher.

There is still plenty of room to grow at home. Mercadona accounts for 13.1 % of the floor space in Spanish supermarkets, which makes it the third-largest chain in the country, after France’s Carrefour and the co-operative Eroski. It aims to enter the Italian or French market next year, probably through a small acquisition. Mr Roig doubts that the Mercadona model can simply be copied abroad. “We must learn everything from everyone,” he says.

Unlike most Spanish bosses, Mr Roig doesn’t mince his words. Earlier this year he said the only good thing about 2011 for Spain was that it would be better than 2012. “It will be worse if the Spanish people do not take up the challenge of transforming Spain,” he says, by which he means bringing its colossal welfare state under control.

Mr Roig believes that Spain has “great human capital”. That is true, but Spain’s youth unemployment rate—a staggering 45%—suggests that much of this talent is being squandered. The protesters in the plazas complain that Spain’s politicians have lost touch with how ordinary people live. That is not a mistake a supermarket can afford to make.

http://www.economist.com/node/18775460

Police beat May 15 protestors at Valencia swearing-in ceremony

At least 18 injured, including security agents and one freshman lawmaker

Violence broke out in Valencia between police and May 15 demonstrators outside the regional parliament on Thursday, as protestors gathered to wait for new lawmakers to be sworn in.

At least 18 people, including one lawmaker, were injured after national police began beating members of the public with their nightsticks, witnesses said. Five people were arrested.

The demonstrators had begun gathering outside the local parliament before dawn to wait for the deputies, and began shouting when the swearing-in ceremony began. Among other things, they were protesting against lawmakers from the Popular Party who have been targeted in corruption investigations.

When police began to dislodge the protestors from the parliament’s entrance, several officers struck demonstrators.

In a video posted on YouTube, three officers can be seen chasing a young man. When the other protestors surround the police, one officer is seen pulling out his nightstick. Then a young woman falls to the ground with a cut lip. The video also shows the crowd beginning to gather and the police lashing out with their batons.

Juan Ponce, a freshman lawmaker from the regional Compromís party who was being sworn-in, was struck on the arm by police when he went outside to speak with the protestors. Eight policemen were among the injured.

González Pons, the Popular Party spokesman, blamed Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba for the incidents, and said that if he wasn’t due to stand as Socialist candidate for prime minister he would have already had the demonstrators forcibly removed from protest camps around the country. “You either do nothing or let the police get carried away,” Pons said. “He should try focusing on solving this problem, which is becoming a problem for everybody.”

In solidarity with their Valencian counterparts, protestors in Girona have called for an all-night vigil in front of City Hall beginning on Thursday

via Police beat May 15 protestors at Valencia swearing-in ceremony · ELPAÍS.com in English.

A shower this afternoon left 27 litres per square metre in Cervera del Maestre

Heavy showers takes the Valencians by surprise.

The heavy rain this Tuesday afternoon has left 27 litres per m2 in Cervera del Maestre, 24 in Lucena del Cid and Atzeneta (Castellón), with 20.5 litres per M2 in Alcala de Xivert

The storms also left 15.4 litres per m2 in Valencia  and 13.4 in Castellón.  The Meteorological Agency forecast further moderate showers with storms until the morning when there will be a more stable environment.