Friday, October 13, 2023

New post and Last post: Please join me now over on my new Substack page

I'm afraid it's goodbye.

But thanks for the memories...and thanks for reading!

After 14 years here and 832 posts, and my intro to online posting, it's all over because I've found someone new to share my life with! Well, you know what I mean...

Please join me now over on my new Substack page: https://bretthetherington.substack.com/

All my old blogposts are there so for nostalgia's sake we are not really parting are we?



Wednesday, October 4, 2023

"Sacedoncillo" (An abandoned town) composed and performed by Alba Asensi [& Manolo López]

 


Spanish Government Complaint Box Causes Boomerang ...(Reposted from archives Oct. 2013)



Standing in a Spanish Doorway: Spanish Government Complaint Box Causes Boomerang ...: "The Spanish Minister of Employment and Social Security,Fátima Bañez, has launched a “complaint box” to combat workplace fraud.   ...

"...The move has sparked controversy in the blogosphere and on social networks, and created a boomerang effect against the Spanish government: the first complaints received through the new system were directed at the government itself and members of the political sphere, not at ordinary citizens as intended." 

Saturday, September 30, 2023

"90 seconds exactly" (Translated from the Catalan original “Tot just noranta segons” with the author, Antoni Cardona)

 

Photo: https://www.corneliakraft.com/

When Nadia was running downstairs

from the 6th floor, doing up her dressing gown,

cursing the wind and her mistake

she came across the boy from door 4, floor 4

the one who never says good morning


She put the brakes on her crazy run

having seen the second floor was wet,

she was about to fall near the front door:

her slippers were loose

and she hadn’t found the money nor time

to go to the shoe-repairer 

…her precious headcovering flew

and landed at Magda’s feet

the new postwoman, who took it and put it

with sound judgement on a parked motorbike.

Then Fatima, from the halal supermarket, fell

in love with its bright colours,

and although she didn’t wear it,

against her mother’s advice,

she took it thinking to give it

to her close friend Raissa,

who would never dare to go outside

without a hijab covering her hair.

And from the doorway, when Nadia sees

Fatima taking the headscarf off the motorbike,

and the great joy she had on her face

she gave up her claim on the very thing

that Karim, her husband,

didn’t know

was a gift from a clandestine love

with whom, years before,

in Morocco, Nadia had dreamt of a future.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tot  just noranta segons 


Mentre la Nàdia baixava l’escala corrents

des d’un sisè pis, cordant-se la bata,

maleint la ventada i el seu error;

es creuava amb el noi del quart quarta, 

aquell que sempre li nega el bon dia;

la cursa boja frenava uns instants 

veient el terra mullat de la planta segona;

ensopegava a prop de la porta d’entrada: 

les sabatilles li anaven balderes 

i no havia trobat el moment ni els diners 

per dur al sabater...


...el seu objecte preuat voleiava

fins aterrar just als peus de la Magda, 

la nova cartera, que amb molt bon criteri 

el deixava damunt d’una moto aparcada.

Al moment la Fàtima, del súper halal

s’enamorava de la peça de roba 

de colors tan llampants,

 i malgrat que, desoint els consells de sa mare,

ella  no en duia, la prenia pensant 

regalar-la a la Raissa, l’íntima amiga

que mai no gosaria anar pel carrer

 sense hijab cobrint-li els cabells. 


I quan la Nàdia veu, des del portal, 

la Fàtima amb el vel a les mans,

i amb quanta il·lusió aquesta se’l mira,

renuncia a reclamar el mocador 

que el seu home, en Karim, 

no sap que va ser el regal 

d’un amor clandestí

amb qui, uns quants anys enrere, 

al Marroc, la Nàdia somiava un futur.

  

Antoni Cardona i Torras

2022


Sunday, September 24, 2023

The Sobremesa Podcast: "More than Quixote – unusual books on Spain with David Price from Secret Kingdoms"


https://open.spotify.com/episode/01ogjKyUpngHPNpQMcuneG



















Really informative chat with a guy who clearly knows his literature (and I don't just say that because because he's complimentary about my latest work here.)
 
Miguel de Cervantes - The Banks of Algeas/ The Great Sultana
María de Zayas y Sotomayor - Exemplary Tales of Love and Tales of Disillusion
Maria Dueñas- a Vineyard in Andalusia
Salvador Dali, Marx brothers - Giraffes on Horseback Salad
Gerald Brenan - South of Granada/ Spanish Labyrinth / The Literature of the Spanish People
Almudena Grande - Ages of Lulu/ The Frozen Heart


Sunday, September 10, 2023

"Women-led local council revives a small Spanish town against all odds"

 They wanted to stop the depopulation of the municipality... and they did it!

[Edited photo by Francisco Lomero]

"In mid-June, an all-female independent group, Women for the Municipality of Angüés (AMPMA), [began] its second term leading the small Aragonese town of Angüés, Spain, after winning, for the second time, an absolute majority in the municipal elections of May 28, 2023. Their term of office is today's most unique political phenomenon in Spain's democracy...

The first thing they did when they assumed the legislature in 2019 was to eliminate the mayor's salary and remove the cell phones, Christmas bonuses, and Christmas dinners of councilors paid by the City Council: Now, the positions are completely voluntary, and this saved the locality about 12 000 euros per year. In addition, they reduced energy costs by installing solar panels in the Town Hall and changing the street lighting."


Read more from source at Global Voices here.

Monday, September 4, 2023

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Fish and chips? Spain's Jews are the origin

 

[Illustration: Leonardo Berbesi]

"The history of the dish begins with the persecution of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, during the 16th century.

Many of them ended up in England, taking the fried fish with them. It was a Sephardic dish that they used to eat on Fridays.

The secret was the use of oil, which sealed the flavours, made the flour crispy and the fish very tasty.

To those islanders accustomed to lard, frying in oil seemed revolutionary…’ Later we read: ‘…A Jewish fishmonger who emigrated from Eastern Europe, named Joseph Malin, was the first to come up with the idea, in 1860, of putting fried fish and potatoes together in his store in [London's] East End…"


Found at BoT but original source is here.


Thursday, August 17, 2023

6 years ago today: Video: My latest interview with ABC TV (Australia)...

6 years ago today I spoke to ABCTV (Australia) about the Barcelona terror attacks. Driven by fanatical religious extremists, a white van zig-zagged down Las Ramblas. Fourteen people were killed and more than 100 injured.

Standing in a Spanish Doorway: Video: My latest interview with ABC TV (Australia)...I talked via Skype to host Fauziah Ibrahim about the Barcelona terror attacks of 17 August 2017....

Saturday, August 5, 2023

Yet another ⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review of my latest book

 

Thanks for your very complimentary words, Andrew M...


"I found Brett's very personal account of his travels through Spain a moving and very rewarding read

His affection for the country and its peoples shines through and his encounters with the people he meets on his travels avoid caricature and shallow conclusions

He is clearly still discovering aspects of the country he loves and enjoying the opportunity to complete the picture."


[Read the full Amazon reader review here.]

Thursday, July 27, 2023

"Salvador Dalí’s Rare 1969 Illustrations for “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Rediscovered and Resurrected"

 


       "Two masters of the fanciful and philosophical, together..."


"For more than half a century, this unusual yet organic cross-pollination of genius remained an almost mythic artifact, reserved for collectors and scholars...

Random House commissioned surrealist kingpin Salvador Dalí (May 11, 1904–January 23, 1989) to illustrate the Carroll classic for a small, exclusive edition of their book-of-the-month series. Dalí created twelve heliogravures — a frontispiece, which he signed in every copy from the edition, and one illustration for each chapter of the book."

Read more and see more of the wonderful illustrations at source here.

Monday, July 17, 2023

"Constructed Views: Stone Cut"


A captivating short documentary on Etsuro Sotoo, the Japanese immigrant stone cutter who ended up being a chief supervisor at the Sagrada Familia cathedral (still under construction) in Barcelona.


https://www.nowness.com/series/constructed-views/stone-cut-la-sagrada-familia

Saturday, July 8, 2023

Video: Launching my book "Slow Travels in Unsung Spain" in Barcelona


Reading two short extracts and doing a Q and A session with an audience at Fahrenheit 451, an independent bookshop in Barcelona. Gary Gibson from Blanquerna Ramon Llull University kindly introduced me.

Sunday, June 25, 2023

Spain smuggling rubbish into Morocco

[ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP via Getty Images]
[ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP via Getty Images]
[Pic: ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP via Getty Images]

Moroccan politicians are discussing how to stop their country being a dumping ground for Spain and Global North rubbish.
This follows revelations that eight people in Spain are being investigated for trafficking 5,700 tons of plastic waste to Morocco.

Read more from source here.

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Launch of my latest book (in Barcelona)

I'm happy to say I'll be launching my non-fiction book,

"Slow Travels in Unsung Spain" at this unique independent bookshop:
Fahrenheit 451

(C/- de la Ribera, 8, [El Born] BARCELONA 

[Metro: Barceloneta] 

Friday, 3Oth June, 7.00-8.00PM.

We'd love to see you there!

(Look inside the book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NJG91W7/ )

Thursday, June 15, 2023

A coincidence?

On the same day that the neighbouring region's new ultra right culture Minister is installed,...at a cafe in a coastal town in Catalonia a Black man is refused service by a waiter who racially insults him.