The capital's Olympic hotel splurge has left it with over 50 five-star institutions, 30 more than six years ago.
"If people were buying stars we wouldn't have so many zero-, one- and two-star institutions that have been through the process," he said.
"Just because accreditation agencies charge the universities, that doesn't mean they are biased," he said, adding that, "If people were buying stars we wouldn't have so many zero-, one- and two-star institutions that have been through the process".
Fancy Aspen asserts itself again back in town at the Little Nell, another five-star institution that hosts jazz nights at the Jas Cafe (Curtis Stigers played the night I was there).
For 30 years, Juan Mari Arzak, a mentor of Ferran Adrià, has been showing off his technical wizardry and culinary humor at his namesake restaurant, Arzak (Avenida Alcalde Jose Elosegui 273; 34-943-27-84-65; www.arzak.es), a three-Michelin-star institution in an old country house.
Though he is unassuming in person, he has become known as something of a gadfly in the art establishment, with work that uses humorous text, draftsmanship and careful painting to lampoon some of its biggest stars and institutions.
It caters to the higher educational needs of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts and is a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accredited four-star level institution.
"Impresario" may not have something for everyone, but it has an awful lot for anyone interested in what made this unlikely star, and the institution he created, run.
When John II formed the Order of the Star (1351), an institution imitated by the great lords for their clientages, chivalry stood incorporated as the most distinguished of religious confraternities.
What changed his attitude was a half-Cuban boy in the orphanage, twice his age, the star of the institution and the pet of the staff, who won a national competition on state TV for reciting poetry.
This was Chloe before she became Chloe, Rosario before she became Rosario, two actors before they became cultural institutions, stars we now hold close to ourselves.
