Awesome 3D graphics work in clay and other materials by Irma Gruenholz, an illustrator from Madrid.

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‘Indecent sinners, you are!’ screamed a Spanish granny, waving her cane at a gaggle of naked cyclists. Across the street, a passerby dropped his shopping bags, stripped to his tennies, and sprinted off to join the pack. This is Madrid’s annual Ciclonudista, a bike event in which hundreds of brazen activists gather in the nude for a rollicking ride to raise awareness for bicycle culture in the Spanish capital.

In conjunction with Critical Mass and the World Naked Bike Ride day, Ciclonudista calls for a safer, greener, and more bike-friendly city, beginning with the creation of bike lanes in Madrid. Complete with a police escort, traffic came to a complete standstill as the mass careened down boulevards and plazas in a whirlwind of breasts, butts and spokes. Riders were armed with wigs, masks, blow horns and boom boxes strapped to their baskets. They used squirt guns to ward off the myriad of bystanders, who whipped out cameras at the sight of a white rump. That this year’s ride fell on a cold and rainy Saturday merely hindered activists from reveling in the fountains outside the Royal Palace as they had in past years.

There’s a bold sense of shape and colour in the work of Madrid-based freelance illustrator and designer, Gary Fernandez, who creates organic fashion art.

With talent beyond their years and humility to grasp their weight of their predecessors, Madrid’s Talk! have earned their salt as being the only active Hammond trio of young musicians in the city. While replacing the bass with an organ is nothing new, what sets Talk! apart is not innovation, but the unharnessed ferocity with which they pay ode to the beastly Hammond organ.

Talk! surges with the rhythm, precision, and pathos that gave life to 60’s jazz, stoking the coals that ignited organ giants like Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGrift, Jack McDuff, and Richard “Groove” Holmes. Their sound is dark and smoky, punctuated by fevered solos that send the crowd reeling. Talk! is Jon Sande on organ, Lucas Vázquez on guitar, and Beny Grooves on drums. In late April the boys will release their lauded first single-a 45 recorded completely on analogue by Spanish producer Carlo Coupé on the label Lontano Records.

Each one of these Bracelaces by Itunube is turned into an elegant drawing on the skin using different kinds of lace combined with leather, metal components and glass beads. They’re just US$25 in the Lost At E Minor store.

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From a small Madrid-based boutique chocolatier comes the fantastic ChocoLate Orgániko. Made of 100% organic chocolate sourced in the Caribbean, the brand boasts too many cool sweets to list. But, we’ll still try. There’s green anise, fleur de sel, olive oil, and Ethiopian coffee beautifully paired with rich, deep dark chocolate.

There’s also a white chocolate collection which sees this sweet variety matched with lemon and red pepper or honey and almonds, among other tantalizing flavors. Bon bons, cocoas, and a whole plethora of mixed collections are also on their list, all creatively fused with inventive ingredients and sublime natural chocolate. And then there is the design. Like the purity of ChocoLate Orgániko, the design too is minimalist though its simplicity still shouts. The graphic packaging is full of bright colors and rad typeface that is hard to miss. But with chocolate this good, you won’t want to anyway.

Each one of these Bracelaces by Itunube is turned into an elegant drawing on the skin using different kinds of lace combined with leather, metal components and glass beads. They’re just US$25 in the Lost At E Minor store.

Dinner at La Terraza del Casino in Madrid is, without a doubt, a once-in-a-lifetime gastronomic experience. Commanding views of Madrid at night are overtaken only by the even more breathtaking, sometimes absurd, always surprising, cuisine. Executive Chef Paco Roncero, protégée to the infamous Ferrán Adrià of Barcelona’s El Bulli fame, is the master behind this untouchably creative, gastronomic achievement. Here, there is no menu.

And as the food arrives, it is clear that nothing is as it seems. Sublime olive oil butter is offered up in what looks like a miniature tube of toothpaste, then a walnut and truffle sponge is followed by ‘Chocolate – grass’ and ‘SpherifiCAted Olives’. The latter is served, jiggling, on a porcelain spoon, to be downed in one bite that instantaneously bursts and oozes on the tongue. A dozen-plus small dishes later, dessert arrives: ‘Coulant – Nitro with hazelnut dust’, prepared tableside, liquid nitrogen steaming out of its container and all. The whole experience – from dessert to tapas and everything in between – is an awe-inspiring molecular gastronomy masterpiece, saturated with transcendent flavors and dazzling creations.

Located on an unassuming side street in central Madrid, El Mollete is a simple restaurant serving knock-out local dishes. Sliced potatoes cooked in olive oil are topped with salty, smoky, fried eggs broken just before serving to release their oozing, deep yellow yolks.

Croquettes filled with creamy gorgonzola and silky pureed potatoes are beautifully crisp on their breaded outside and sublimely soft in the center. When paired with regional wines, these and other mouth-watering specialities are supremely satisfying, rich, and indulgent Madrileño eats. With space for only 26 diners, reservations are a must at this tiny spot, but it’s well worth planning ahead to experience this exceptional, off-the-beaten path joint. [photo via Jared Crebs]

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Herzog and de Meuron, the Swiss architects, have led the way with this re-use of the existing building fabric of CaixaForum in Madrid. Rather than being slavish to the existing openings, the building has been cut away for a contemporary practicality. We think this is an example of heritage not getting in the way of progress. Check out a similar concept of a previous post re-using the city fabric, where we were dreaming of such thing.

These ‘social revitalizing air-trees’ are placed in a formation through a new urban development in Madrid to focus and configure social activites. Created by Urban Ecosystems they take to a new level the concept of a meeting place, and contribute on many levels, including energy, shade, oxygen and focus. [read also about an Eco Lighthouse in the UK]