How hard can it be? I’ve posted about this before. You walk up. You order. They ask your name. Bada bing. If its noisy and they are courteous, they’ll ask your name again. The danger there lies within. The baristas at Starbuck’s have provided me with plenty of laughs in the past. They never seem to get my name right. Bruno. B-R-U-N-O. Not Brun, not Bernal, or even not Bernard. I’ve had Bernice. The best and probably most outrageous was last year, Prune. Well, coming in a close second was one I got last week. Barone. Well, I am part Sicilian

Video de Canal Cuatro

Test

Video de Canal Cuatro

Unlike 2005 when the big and well armed Jandilla bull reeked havoc on the cobble stone streets in Pamplona by goring a record eight mozos, the 2008 vintage of Jandilla ganaderia sprinted through the streets of Pamplona and huried into the corrals once in the Plaza de Toros. In the days corrida Pepin Liria and El Fandi each cut an ear.

Video de Canal Cuatro

An American was knocked unconscious while a Spanish man was plucked from a monton and gored in the thigh by the debuting El Ventorrillo toros. Other than those details, it was a lackluster run for the 4th Encierro of the 2008 Fiesta de San Fermin in Pamplona. In the day corrida the Ventorrillos toros performed well where Salvador Cortés was the only matador to cut an ear.

Video de Canal Cuatro

The Fuente Ymbro toros who ran on the third day didn’t cause havoc but did manage to gore the second mozo of the 2008 version of the San Fermines. Marcus Wolf, 22, of Bakersfield California failed to negotiate the curve onto Estafeta, fell onto a monton of other mozos and was promptly gored in his upper butt cheek. It was the most serious injury of the morning but not the most spectacular. Seconds before Wolf met his faith, an unidentified mozo hurdled a fallen mozo but was bumped by an on rushing toro. The momentum of both runner and toro caused the mozo to roll over the back of the toro bravo, legs in the air. It provided for great pictures and video below. Another bull did break from the herd and cause moments of concern in the on Telefonica and in the Callejon. In the days corrida, Sebastian Castella received a violent voltereta an was injured in the scrotum. El Cid cut an ear while Miguel Angel Perera cut one as well with petition for a second.

Video de Canal Cuatro

Pretty much an uneventful Encierro in Pamplona this morning. The toros from Cebada Gago injured 5 mozos, one of them a 31 year old Spanish man with a puntazo on his right thigh.

Video de Canal Cuatro

Last year the rights to televise the Encierro in Pamplona were muscled away from Television Española (TVE) by the French network Canal Plus. Where the quality of the broadcast lacked was TVE’s inability to televise the toros entering the plaza and eventually the corrals of the Plaza de Toros. Despite the coverage being bad last year, it was however the only method to watch the Encierros live in my living room. Well, suffice to say this year’s TVE’s coverage has gotten worse. Besides losing the video feed at the start of the run, TVE’s coverage is plagued with drunk interviews, run on commentary and panel conversations full of “who cares” opinions. So beyond that, the first Encierro featuring the Conde de la Corte ganaderia featured 9 to 10 injuries, one of which was a goring and a lone toro who turned back on the crowd a couple of time and tossed one or two mozos in the plaza before making it into the corrals. Lets see if TVE can get their shit together on day two. In the mean time enjoy the superior coverage of Spanish network El Cuatro and compare it to the catch up job of the pobres from TVE. Its funny what a lack of funding will get you.

Video de Canal Cuatro

Y los pobres de TVE…

Today being July 6th means tomorrow is the 7th and with that starts the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. In this day and age, if you can’t be there the next best thing is the internet. DBB will post all the Encierros as I did last year (only to have YouTube pull the plug, ¡Bastardos!). Please take a look at the video retrospective below from Television Española on the history of Los Encierros.

We took some time off away from work, school, bulls, life and went to Hawai’i to relax. I actually worked a couple of days but after that we hit all the tourist spots along with driving the rental to off the beaten path discoveries. Good times were had snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, eating shrimp at Punalu’u's Shrimp Shack and Mango Pancakes at Diamond Head Market Grill in Waikiki.