Keler Beer has launched a video commercial which features Juan Mari Arzak where in the background you can see a Sanfermin bullrunning taking place, filmed from the balconies of the Sanfermin.com offices. The images were shot on the 8th of July under the careful supervision of the media company Taupa Productions under the direction of Txarli Lonegan. It was necessary to overlap the image of the bulls entering the corner of Estafeta, with a bottle of Keler beer. The initial idea was to show the bottle of beer in the hand of a runner wearing one of the characteristic smocks from a Peña club, but the candidates drank their sample bottles beforehand and it was necessary to preplan things to get the final result shown here.

The slogan of the commercial turns on the idea of a comment off-screen made by Juan Mari Arzak which goes “Perhaps it is not for everyone. But for those who love me, they will love me forever.” With an ambiguous slant in the slogan that leaves the listener wondering whether it refers to the famous chef, to the beer, or to the two things. Juan Mari Arzak has been a regular attendant at Sanfermin fiestas for many years now, and he has many Friends in Pamplona such as Juan Mari Idoate or Mikel Urmeneta. We have good memories of him as he cheered us up while watching José Andrés prepare the recipe for the Kulumutxu drink in Sanfermin 2008.

And this is how the commercial was finally edited and presented which also coincides with the 25th anniversary celebrated this year for the three-star Michelin first awarded to his restaurant twenty-five years ago. The homage to the famous chef took place at the International Gastronomy Congress in San Sebastian and Arzak expressed his pride and satisfaction at receiving this homage. He will always have a place in our hearts.

The commercial campaign from the Nissan carmakers to promote their latest Nissan Rogue model in The USA features a bullrunning using the fighting bull as in the Sanfermin Running of the Bulls. The commercial video was specifically made to be broadcast by ABC during emission of their popular series The Grey Anatomy. The message it is putting across highlights the safety and versatility of the vehicle when faced with the obstacles and unforeseen situations created by the bulls. The Nissan Rogue is a “crossover” from Nissan which is being sold in The USA at a price of 22.700 dollars.

The Sanfermin Running of the Bulls and the fighting bull are universally united by two characteristics, bravery and force. Many trademarks worldwide make use of these qualities to bring attention to their product and with the added value of the spectacular image of the bullrunnings as a plus to these two qualities.

ispotTV. Bull Chase

The city which recreates this particular commercial video is not Pamplona because the location must adapt to the needs of exhibiting the vehicle and to the demands of the script, such as going up a stairway or taking a coffee in a square. However, in the first images we can find a faithful recreation of the bottom of Estafeta Street with the same buildings and even street lamps which adorn the actual Pamplona street.

Today we discover one of the  manga characters from the Hetalia series because in one of the comics he appears running in the Sanfermin bullrunning. Yet another instance of the important impact that the Pamplona bullrunning has across the globe even if, in this case, it is a stereotyped image which appears in the cartoon manga Japanese anime but which has a high relevance in the sector.

The character that features in the bullrunning is called Spain and his human name is  Antonio Fernandez Carriedo and he has all the typical Spanish stereotypes: he likes the siestas, the fighting bulls and eating tomatoes. In this video you can appreciate the role of this character in the series.

Hetalia: Axis Power or Hetalia World Series (in the third season on TV the name was changed to HWS). This is a Japanese cartoon series which has become a cult series and which originated in manga comics before going on to television. The author of the drawings and stories is Hidekaz Himaruya who created a series which reinterprets historical events which took place at the beginning of the XX century where the main characters have names of countries and who undergo experiences in line with these historical events. Innumerable audiovisual elaborations of the series have been made and the comics come from Gentosha Comics publishing Company while the TV cartoons are made by Studio Deen, two of the largest companies within their respective sectors.

This coming Thursday, 18th of September, a Sanfermin-style running of the Bulls will be held in New York to promote the two Tapas bars of 100 Montaditos which are located in the big apple. With an inscription fee of just 15 euros, all of which will be donated to the Nueva York Food Bank, all those who wish to participate can sign up for this running event (without real bulls of course) which will cover the 1 mile distance between the two premises of the 100 Montaditos Tapas chain. Start-off with be at 18.30 (NYC) from outside the premises at 176 Bleecker Street and it will finish, some twenty minutes later, at the premises in 177 Ludlow Street. Here is the route on Google Maps.

All those who sign up will receive a free T-shirt and a two-hour free open bar ticket for the two 100 Montaditos tapas bars. The promoters of the event point out that “San Fermín is a Spanish tradition which has been going on since the XIV century in Pamplona, Spain when a dozen fighting bulls were let loose in the streets of the city. Nowadays, thousands of runners take part in this event by running in front of the fighting bulls.”

Once again it is clear from a promotion of this kind that the Sanfermin Running of the Bulls tends to be a world-wide tourism reference when Spanish products come to be promoted or when any kind of reference is made to a physical or sportslike event. 100 montaditos promote their services by pointing out the advantages of a cold Spanish beer or having the tasty Tapas snacks of cured ham as well as other kinds of tapas which go down so well with the drinks. At the same time, they exploit the Sanfermin event, knowing that it is one of the best-known events from Spain which are recognized and known by New Yorkers.  Signing up for the run can be made at the 00 Montaditos NY web site or directly at the premises of either of the two Tapas bars and also just before the event starts off on the day.

Today it is the turn for some mathematical facts which will help us learn some figures that will justify our fear of the fighting bull and which will reveal the dangers of a fighting bull on the streets of Pamplona in Sanfermin. To begin, let us take a bull with a weight of 550 kilos and which moves at a rate of 10 kilometers per hour.

How much energy is contained in a bull of 550 kilos and which moves at 10 km/per hour?
That is the energy that hits against the hoarding or fencing along the stretch of the course, or, in a worse scenario, hits against a runner. Energy of a body in motion is called kinetic energy and comes from the formulae:

Ek=1/2mv^2

We multiply the mass per squared velocity (expressed in squared meters per second) and we divide in 2. The result, substituting the terms, is 2121.91 Joules, which is the International System Unit for Energy. As an estimate, standard safety footwear only has a resistance of 200 joules. If a bull were to dissipate all its energy on the point of some safety footwear, it would blow it to smithereens.

Now this energy, (which is neither created nor destroyed but rather transformed) we will now invert by piercing a wooden post with the horn of a bull and bring the bull to a total stop in the not inconsiderable quantity of five centimeters. That is to say, the horn makes a five centimeter orifice in the wood and the bull remains totally static.

The effort (energy) to do that gives rise to the formula:

Effort = Force * Movement

Substituting, 2121.91=F*0.05 (meters). Then F=42438.27 Newtons –International System Unit for Force-, which would be the equivalent to some 4326, 02 kilos, or just over four tons.

These 42438 N are applied around a horn with a radius of 0.5 cm. Thus, arises the concept of pressure which is force shared out over a surface. The surface of a circle is pi*R^2, where pi=3.1415927. The surface (now converted into squared meters) =7.85E-5 m2.

Thus, Pressure P=42438.27/7.85E-5=5.41E+8 Pascals=5517 kg/cm2, a pressure very similar to that found in artillery cannon. (A footnote for all you engineers, physicists and mathematicians: A spherical bull of R Radius has been assumed for this situation –spherical cow theory-.)

In conclusion, a goring with a bull’s horn has sufficient energy to destroy a runner. That point should be borne in mind by runners before they decide to enter the course. (This article was written with the help of Alfonso Aparicio, engineer.)

Un ballet inspirado en el encierro. ¿Quién se atreve con semejante locura? ¿Hacer del encierro un acto creativo? La idea dormía en una colección de grabados que el artista Antonio Eslava realizó hace muchos años. Un día se la contó a Pablo Ramos Escola, director de escena, y entre ellos surgió la magia. Conectaron, se entendieron… y aquel sueño empezó a tomar forma.

“En el arte no puedes ir mucho más allá si no te arriesgas”, apuntó ayer Eslava en la mesa redonda que se celebró en el Museo de Navarra para la presentación pública del proyecto y a la que acudió, en representación de las autoridades, el alcalde de Pamplona Enrique Maya. ¿Por qué corremos el encierro? ¿Qué nos impulsa a arriesgar la vida delante de seis toros? El artista compara la acción de grabar la madera, “hendir la madera es como hendir la carne”, con el gesto radical de correr el encierro, “un gesto absolutamente artístico, porque el hombre corre para probar sus valores, su inteligencia, su capacidad de juego”.

A partir de la poética con la que Eslava concibe ese momento radical de la fiesta, un grupo de artistas y profesionales técnicos se han alineado, como los planetas, con el objetivo de que el Ballet del Encierro se estrene en junio de 2015. Mercedes Jover hizo de anfitriona en el acto y ofreció el espacio del Museo de Navarra, el cual dirige, como escenario de la obra.

El compositor Juan José Eslava, que participó en la presentación junto con su padre, Antonio Eslava, y Pablo Ramos, expuso sus primeros bocetos musicales y explicó el papel central que tiene en la obra la txalaparta, para lo cual ha contado con la maestría de los hermanos Ugarte, que llevan años tocando en las calles durante los Sanfermines y, apuntó, “son fantásticos”.

Dos instrumentistas de primera línea, la oboista Pilar Fontalba y el percusionista Juanjo Guillem, se han unido a la aventura. Por su parte, el artista multimedia afincado en Suiza, Leandro Suárez, se encargará de las imágenes. Pero sin duda quienes más presencia tendrán en el escenario serán los tres bailarines, dos mujeres y un hombre, que pondrán movimiento a esta “impetuosa, atrevida y casi disparatada poética”, como la calificó el propio Eslava.

La mesa redonda concluyó con una conexión vía Skype con la coreógrafa e investigadora en danza Bertha Bermúdez, que trabaja en el International Coreographic Arts Center de Amsterdam. Ella aportará su experimentación en la búsqueda y documentación del llamado ‘movimiento interior’, que la ha llevado a muchos puntos del planeta. “Mi propuesta parte de entender el encierro como dualidad, entre la danza y la música, la vida y la muerte, el blanco y el negro, la escapada y el trazado del recorrido, hay infinidad de dualidades que pueden convivir en el danza”.

Al elenco de profesionales se suman, entre otros, Edurne Ibañez, que se encargará del vestuario, Koldo Tainta de la iluminación y Elkom de la dirección técnica. Sin embargo, los promotores de esta magna obra dejaron muy claro que éste es un proyecto que quiere involucrar a toda la ciudad y está abierto a nuevas propuestas y colaboraciones.

Con su seductora visión artística, Antonio Eslava, Premio Nacional de Grabado (1962), animó a confabularse en el proyecto: “Contribuid, colaborad a dar forma a esta singular poética de nuestra tierra que, como un rayo, pervive desde el Paleolítico, este juego con el toro que esconde tantas cosas y valores, un misterio hermoso. ¿Qué hacen los mozos para encontrar belleza? Corren en lo siniestro más allá de lo siniestro, y en ello roban belleza”.