25 Tuesday Feb 2025
Posted in bluesky, social media
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The new photo viewing client for Bluesky is now available in the Apple app store. I was really looking forward to this as I would actually like to drop all my META accounts, like I did with Twitter in January. But so far Flashes just looks like a copy of all images posted to Bluesky (whereas instagram is selective). Also, for now it’s not available on desktop. Anyhow, we’ll see how it goes.
02 Thursday Jan 2025
New year, new stuff going on. Yesterday I bid farewell to Twitter, or what’s left of it. I’d been cross posting with Bluesky for the past year and a half but until recently I was still interacting more on Twitter. That began to change when Bluesky suddenly exploded in November after the US election. I noticed that even with far fewer followers on Bluesky there was a lot more engagement, and I was meeting a lot of new and interesting people. So it felt like time to move on and yesterday I tweeted for what will probably be the last time.
It’s a bit sad as I have been there so long, first with my Azahar account (March 2007) and then Sevilla Tapas (February 2009), and I’ve had so many great experiences and met so many wonderful people, but it’s also a bit of a relief. Because it hasn’t been Twitter since it was turned into X and, well, it’s time to go.
Meanwhile, I finally took the plunge and published my first Substack post yesterday. I’ve been lurking for ages and I’m subscribed to several accounts there, but so far I haven’t been sure what to do there. And well, I’m still not sure what I’m doing, but I decided if I didn’t get started then I’d just keep putting it off.
Substack is a platform that people use to promote their writing and to also monetise their content. Most offer a basic free newsletter and then “premium content” if you pay a small monthly fee. This is what I’m still thinking about, what I want to write about and if any of it would be considered “premium” by anyone. BUT I do need to move forward with both writing and making a living, especially as I haven’t been able to do the food tours since last summer because of my KNEE.
My good friend Thane Prince, renowned cookbook author and food writer, gave me some encouragement back in November, saying I need to just go for it. When I expressed all the usual insecurities she said… “Doesn’t matter, you can write about Seville, Sherry, Spain. Don’t do yourself down. Charge a modest €6 a month, get 100 folk, job done.” She suggested I could use the next month or so to plan for a launch in January.
And then suddenly it was January and I hadn’t done any planning (!!!) other than in my head. And so that’s why yesterday I just said FUCK IT and went for it. It’s an introductory post but it has made me visible and also holds me responsible to keep my word. And so, if any of you have any idea of what you think I should write about… I’m all ears!
18 Wednesday Dec 2024
Posted in restaurants, sevilla, social media, tapas bars
A few months ago Santi Temblador, local chef and owner of “fine street food” tapas bar El Cuelge, put this up on his Instagram mentioning the few “foodies” in the city who come to his place of their own accord and PAY THEIR OWN BILLS. Yep, I’m one of them. His disdain for so-called influencers is well-known by now. A few short years ago these shysters were bold enough to ask for a free meal for themselves and “a few friends” in exchange for some Instagram publicity, but now it’s even worse. Along with free grub they also want to be paid!
Anyhow, Santi went viral (again) this week when a couple of “influencer content creators” got in touch for the usual freebie and he said fine, named a date and time, and these two guys showed up. Santi filmed the whole thing, with him making a big production of preparing a mortadella montadito (basically a bologna sandwich) which he plated as if it were michelin-star quality and then presented it with a flourish along with a couple glasses of tap water. When the two influencers looked confused Santi explained that whenever people come to his door asking for a food handout this is what he gives them.
Santi, I salute you! And I look forward to visiting you and your bar again soon.
04 Wednesday Dec 2024
Posted in social media, spain
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This is either the first time or the third time this has happened, as the previous two times were on normal Wordle and this was on the Spanish version called La Palabra del Día. Whatever, I’ll take it. Now I have to decide whether to change my opening word so it can (maybe) happen again.
08 Friday Nov 2024
Posted in bluesky, change, instagram, social media, twitter
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Wow, in the past 48 hours I suddenly have a whole whack of new followers on Bluesky. I think people are realising that the end of Twitter may be nigh, or at least that they no longer want to be a part of what is rapidly becoming a fascist driven social media platform. I mean, I know it seems that I am constantly on social media, because I kind of am, but it’s not as much as it probably seems. Despite having several accounts I really only engage on Twitter and Instagram, and then mostly actually “talk” to people on Twitter, and I would miss that if Twitter was suddenly shut down or became intolerable.
Hence Bluesky. I finally managed to open an account there in June 2023, after having been “accepted on beta” the previous April. Before that I had tried all the Twitter alternatives, but this one felt the best to me. And turns out it seems to be the front runner now that everyone is fleeing Twitter.
The main issue a lot of people seem to have with Bluesky is that there is no simple way of transferring over friends and followers from other platforms, so it’s like starting from scratch. And since it’s been taking time over the past year or so to get more people to engage, growth has also been slow. I’ve been posting there since June 2023, pretty much everything that I also post on Twitter Sevilla Tapas, mostly as backup. So my content is there in case Twitter suddenly disappears, or if I finally decide to leave.
But yeah, it’s slow going finding all the friends that made Twitter such a great place to hang out. Still, I think it’s worth the effort. So far Bluesky is ad-free, has lots of cool fuctions (like a block function that actually works) and seems to be mostly bot-free. Check it out.
casa azahar 