Month: January 2015

Culebra y lápiz del 26 Anibestiario de Kukuxumusu

A trip to Sanfermin with Kukuxumusu

Kukuxumusu celebrates its 26 historic years under the name of the 26th anniv-bestiary with an open invitation to vote your favorite all-time T-shirt drawings from a selection of 100 at the web site 26anibestiario.kukuxumusu.com.

From the results obtained, the top ten voted T-shirts will be reprinted and, from among the participants, there will be a draw made with the prize of a trip to Sanfermin 2015 for the winner.

At the web page of this event, up to a 100 drawings will be activated, in categories, and everyone can select their favorites from among the whole list. The page will be open and running until next June and from the T-shirt drawings chosen by the participants, the top 10 T-shirts will be reprinted from with the selection. Obviously, from among the range of 100 drawings, there will be one category solely dedicated to Sanfermin drawings and these will be pinned up as soon as the categories are fully sorted out by us.

There also exists the possibility of participating in another manner – by sending in stories and accounts from fans of Kukuxumusu about their experiences with the Kukuxumusu trademark, its products, meeting up with the founder-members or even some of the workers from the early days, so that we can all get to know what lies behind the company and its 26 years of hilarious drawings. Did you fall in love while wearing a Kukuxumusu t-shirt? Did you come across anyone wearing a Kukuxumusu T-shirt while you were on the top of a live volcano?… tell it all here.

Si no tienes un duro no te hace caso nadie

Si no tienes un duro, no te hace caso nadie, dice la canción. A quien sí les hacen caso es a todos los txistularis y gaiteros que tocan juntos tras el txupinazo en medio de la plaza ante sus fieles devotos.

El video está grabado desde uno de los balcones que Sanfermin.com by Locals pone a disposición para sus clientes, tanto para el Chupinazo como para el encierro. Como se puede ver, un lugar inigualable para gente de Pamplona y de donde venga.

Josef Koudelka 1976 © Magnum Photos

A view of Sanfermin from Josef Kouldeka

It can be an interesting and constructive experience to look back at former years of the “fiesta de Sanfermin” to check out some of the aspects of the fiestas in the old days. Some things have changed and disappeared while others have changed for the better. And one of the best ways to do this is by checking out some of the material that the Magnum Photo Agency has accumulated over the years from such renowned photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Inge Morat, or Josef Koudelka, among many others who worked with this agency.

Today, we would recommend taking a look at some of the work of Josef Koudelka who took photos of the fiestas between 1972 and 1978 in Pamplona. Some of his photos can be seen at the Magnum web site, where it is also possible to acquire copies of his photos and where you can also find some of this author’s books.

Some of the snapshots and images defy explanation such as the one below, – A Running of the Bulls? The Bull Ring?

sanfermin.com

Esquire announces that it will broadcast live the Running of the Bulls

Esquire Network has just announced today some of their forthcoming projects for 2015 and once again they plan to broadcast the Running of the Bulls live next July. Matt Hanna, Head of Original Programs at Esquire Network, made the announcement today and he justifies his new programming for 2015 thanks to the success achieved with audience figures which increased by some 21% from the previous year. Above all, there was a big increase in their male audience of men between the ages of 18 and 40 years.

The Running of the Bulls was defined at the presentation of the new programming as the best-known cultural icon of the whole world and he stressed that the broadcasting of the event would be live. As well as the live 2014 broadcasts, he also underlined the role of John Hemingway, grandson of Ernest Hemingway in the success of the event. John was, of course, Kukuxumusu guiri del año when he was given their foreigner-of-the-year award in 2013.

The Sanfermin Running of the Bulls on the video of Marca España for 2015

Accompanied by the phrase “the personality that makes us unique” –Y la personalidad que nos hace únicos- the Pamplona Running of the Bulls has been included in the 2015 video to celebrate España brand. The other events which accompany the announcement of the running of the Bulls are some shots of some flamenco hand-clapping, a colla castellera -a Catalonian human pillar of bodies being formed– which appears just before the bullrunning, and some images of a falla -a paper-maché monument from the traditional fiestas in Valencia-, which appears after the bullrunning shots.

The particular Running of the Bulls which was chosen for the video corresponds to the one that was run on the morning of the 7th of July, 2014, being precisely the second 30 seconds of the first minute of the run with the Torrestrella fighting bulls and which registered the first goring of last year’s fiestas. You can check for full information about that bullrunning at encierro del 7 de julio de 2014 en sanfermin.com. In the images you can see the bulls running half-way up the slope of Santo Domingo with the animals still in a tight compact group and running close behind the runners. The video was shot by the national TV channel RTVE for the Oficina del Alto Comisionado of the National Government as part of the Marca España video compilation.

This is yet another example of how seductive the Pamplona Running of the Bulls proves to be in attracting foreign visitors and tourists and in reinforcing the singularity of many Spanish traditions. The video can be seen at the web page of marcaespaña and it was also used as the first commercial announcement of the new year broadcast with a selection of images over 59 seconds after the chimes of the bells to announce the arrival of New Year 2015.

A video of the Sanfermin Running of the Bulls is chosen as the third best 360º of 2014

A video of the Sanfermin 2014 Bullrunning on the 9th of July and shot in the latest 360 degree technique by Opanibia Films has been selected by the principal media firm in this sector –360Heros.com– as one of the10 best scenes filmed in 2014. 360Heros is a USA web site which is considered a reference within the sector of filming in 360 degrees with GoPro Hero cameras. This prestige site is due to the fact that 360Heros avails of a world-wide server that allows these videos to be reproduced and because they create and commercialize the most-used supports to achieve spherical images with these types of cameras.

Opanibia Films used one of the 360Heros supports in order to record the video which has now been acclaimed. The video sequence was filmed from the balcony of the bar CerveceríaTxirrintxa in Calle Estafeta, right in front of the Kukuxumusu T-shirt store. In addition, the sequence shows (0:22? seconds) a goring which took place in the bullrunning that same day. (Check out the Running of the bulls with the Victoriano del Río bulls on the 9th of July at Sanfermin.com)