Un Año de Amor

Take this for example - a gorgeous ad for the Madrid Metro.  Whether or not you believe that yes, they do have the best metro in the world, you will never for once doubt that Spanish men have the best voices in the universe.

When I lived there for a year during college, I was in that tiny minority of American females who had never seen more than one episode of Beverly Hills 90210.  References to the Peach Pit in later years I got sheerly through context. I'd nod dumbly, praying that we'd move onto referencing something I'd actually seen.  Like Tales of the Golden Monkey, starring Stephen Collins, a show I loved so much that I'd cut out of my 4-H meeting a few minutes early and run home so as not to miss anything. 

So when I arrived in Granada and lived in a boarding house with a dueña named Charo and several female Andalusian law students, I was immediately treated to the latest craze to hit Spanish t.v. - Sensación de Vivir, known in these parts as 90201. 

Seriously, I had no idea what Luke Perry sounded like in real life, but in Spanish he had this gorgeous, deep voice - authoritative, sexy and rich.  Not my thing but I could sort of see how someone like that might be rather attractive to, oh, I don't know, ANYONE WITH EARS.   And then I got back to the States and caught a rerun of 90201. Excellent, I thought - I am now familiar with the antics of Brendan, et al. 

Holy Mother of All That Is Good And Righteous.  Luke Perry in English is the WORST.  He makes Walter Payton sounds like a baritone.  Michael Jackson has a deeper voice.  THIS? This is what American girls are clamoring for? 

Not that the Spanish should be exactly congratulated for the excellence of their native t.v. offerings, which seemed to consist mostly of a version of America's Funniest Home Videos which was itself mostly clips of bulls falling onto cars, running into cars, running into each other or just generally falling down.

On second thought, I would totally watch that.