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See #2

1. Read a lot of books

Finished more than my one-a-week quota! Among this year’s favorites:

– Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg, about an artistic, highly-strung family living in Italy under Mussolini.
– Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Enard imagines that Michelangelo lived in Istanbul for a year to build the bridge over the Bosphorus.
– Exhalation by Ted Chiang, science fiction stories with big brains and hearts.
– The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai opens in Chicago in 1985, when a mysterious disease stalks the gay community, then continues in Paris 2015, when a mother searches for the daughter who left her.
– Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday, a fictionalized account of the author’s affair with the much older Philip Roth–her deft portrayal of the balance of power shows exactly why such relationships are problematic.

* For the books I am currently reading, follow us on Instagram.

2. Adopted Buffy the rodent slayer

Buffy, Jacob’s sister, is from the family of cats that has lived downstairs in my building for many years. Several times a week she would present the guards with a freshly-killed rat that was almost as big as she was. After she gave birth to four kittens she looked so scrawny and exhausted that after the kittens were weaned I decided to adopt her. Now the vicious killer is a sweetie.

3. Watched a lot of movies and TV series. Among this year’s favorite movies:

– Once Upon A Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino. Saw it five times at the cinema. The second time some schmuck in the front row was on his iPad the whole movie and I would’ve strangled him but that would require taking my eyes off the screen.
– Avengers Endgame by the Russo Brothers. Okay, more of a theme park, but loved it—never has the lifting of a hammer been so exciting.
– Uncut Gems by the Safdie Brothers. Everyone go home, that Oscar is Adam Sandler’s.
– The Irishman by Martin Scorsese. Requires multiple viewings to appreciate every part of its greatness, so there are advantages to having it on Netflix.
– Marriage Story by Noah Baumbach. His parents’ divorce was the subject of The Squid and The Whale. This is about his own divorce, and though it is comparatively civilized it still turns the couple inside-out.
– Pain and Glory by Pedro Almodovar. The quietest Almodovar, and the most moving. Hollywood has never figured out what to do with Antonio Banderas (and Penelope Cruz), but in his own idiom he is a master.

4. The Sanity Maintenance Program on Studio B.

Writers, filmmakers, artists, actors, therapists talk about how they keep their balance in a world that grows bonkers by the day. Watch the episodes here.

5. Published The Collected Stories of Jessica Zafra

Got the book?

6. Did book events (See previous posts)

7. Literary residency in Spain

Read my Spain diary.

Read Last Tour with Carlos Celdran in BusinessWorld.

8. Walked a lot, got more health-conscious.
9. Got used to having white hair.

Anti-anti-aging

10. Fed a lot of cats.

The last stop in my research on the life of the Spanish Civil War poet Miguel Hernandez was Jaen in Andalucia, a three-hour car ride from Orihuela.

Andalucia sounds like the home of the Andals of Westeros (e.g. Jorah the Andal); the name is believed to have been derived from Vandals, some of the Goths who took over the Roman Empire (I imagine them doing this to the music of Siouxsie and the Banshees or Sisters of Mercy).

In 90s Filipino gayspeak, Andalucia—anda for short—means money. (“Wala akong anda.”) Must find out how that happened. I associate Andalucia with Un Chien Andalou, the film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali, with the memorable razor blade in eyeball scene.

The papers and personal effects of Miguel Hernandez are kept in a vault at the Diputacion de Jaen. The architecture of this public building recalls the area’s Moorish past.

This is the Spain I had expected from Bunuel movies: arid, rocky, desert-like. Everyone I met gleefully informed me that there are 69 million olive trees in Jaen. The temperature is in the low 20s Celsius, but when I step into the blazing noonday sunshine I feel like I’m being photocopied.

My research is done. On to Madrid! Never thought I’d miss being in a big, noisy city.

I am writing an essay on the poet Miguel Hernandez for a book that is being produced by Instituto Cervantes Manila. My research begins in Hernandez’s hometown of Orihuela in the Valencia region. (Valencia as in oranges and Arroz a la Valenciana.)

In Plaza Ramon Sije in the old town, there is a palace for sale for 4 million euros. I don’t know how many rooms it has, but there are 14 bathrooms. If they threw in a noble title like Marques de Orihuela, I’m sure it would sell faster.

Calle Mayor, the main street of the old town, at rush hour. Temperatures in the 30s Celsius, blazing sunshine. Now I know why siesta was invented.

This is the house where Miguel Hernandez grew up.

The Episcopal Palace has been turned into a Museum of the Sacred Arts. The star of the collection: The Temptation of Saint Thomas Aquinas by Diego Velasquez.

One of the social events of the season is the First Communion of schoolchildren. There are white outfits for the children, after-parties, costumed bands.

Of course the food is marvelous. After a two and a half hour book launch involving a flamenco singer, a children’s orchestra, and some rather overwrought dramatic readings, we had dinner at The Agus gastrobar.

And a walk around the city, which centuries ago was part of a Moorish kingdom.

I gave a talk at Espazo BenComun in Allariz, a beautiful town in Ourense (1hr10 by train from La Coruña). “Beautiful” is not an exaggeration—Allariz has actually been given the title by international agencies for revitalization and sustainable management. The population of Allariz is 7,000 (times three in the summer when tourists and people with summer houses visit). That’s about the number of people in the queue at the bank back home on Monday mornings.

My hosts own independent bookstores such as Libraria Aira das Letras, which carries their self-produced line of steampunk-themed notebooks, bookmarks and puzzles.

The Vilanova bridge over the Arnoia river dates back to the Middle Ages. (I learned that medieval bridges have a hump in the middle.)

My guides took me on a hike in Santa Mariña de Aguas Santas and the Castro in Armea, site of an archaelogical dig that has turned up a Roman hill fort.

The unfinished church is supposed to have been built over the furnace where Mariña survived burning (like Daenerys Targaryen).

The remnants of the Roman hill fort.

Afterwards, an excellent lunch at Casa Pepiñas, including breaded shrimp on skewers.

The annual international garden competition is on from May to October. The theme is Cinema. This garden replicates the house in Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle.

If La Coruña is King’s Landing, Allariz is a prettier Winterfell without White Walkers.

The Arambillet Building (1912) in Praza de Lugo (near FNAC and the Mercado). Designed by Antonio Lopez Hernandez and Julio Galan y Gonzalez Carvajal, Chief Architect for the province of La Coruña.

Casa Rey (1911) by Julio Galan, in the Crystal City on the Avenida Marina. These glassed-in balconies used to be the backs of the buildings. The glass also traps heat, very useful on cold winters. Eyebrows flew when an apartment in the building was recently sold for one million euro. I don’t know what it looks like inside, but if I had a million euro I sure would.

The RTVE office rising like a stately cake in the Mendez Nuñez Gardens near the port. There are patches of green all over the city, which has no more room to expand so older buildings are constantly renovated (but their facades are protected).

They couldn’t just leave a facade alone, they had to embellish embellish embellish. The bourgeoisie, flush with cash from their overseas ventures, wanted to show off.

The Wonenburger foundry opened in town and produced wrought-iron balconies for the early 20th century high-rises. La Coruna is surrounded by the sea so metal rusts quickly. The solution: layers of paint.

This is just the front door of Casa Tomas Da Torre (near Zara)

Easy to miss the imposing facade of 22 Calle Real in the middle of the shopping district unless you make it a habit to look up. It’s okay because the people are polite and will not bump into you.

11 San Nicolas reminds me of a hot guy who acts like he has no idea how hot he is, which makes him even hotter.

Thanks to my extremely knowledgeable guide, Margarita Parada, for pointing out the architectural beauties I would’ve missed by looking straight ahead.

My host Yolanda Castaño, founder and director of Residencia Literaria 1863, is a major Galician poet, translator, sometime TV presenter, and tireless promoter of Galician culture. She gave a talk at the University of Santiago de Compostela, a pleasant 45-minute drive from La Coruña. I tagged along.

Yolanda’s latest book, her twelfth, is a collaboration with 40 Galician comic book artists. They interpreted her poems in their own styles, some tackling the entire piece, some focusing on a line or two. The result is beautiful to look at, though I can’t read it with my kindergarten Spanish. In the first place it is in Galician, one of the official languages of Spain, which has much in common with Portuguese.

Afterwards we walked around the medieval town, which pilgrims have converged on since the 9th century when it was believed that the remains of St. James were buried here. The earliest pilgrims walked from France across the Pyrenees to the Cathedral, a journey which took months or years. The Camino de Santiago today has many routes of various degrees of difficulty. The scallop shells embedded in the stones are the symbol of the walk—the early pilgrims took them as souvenirs, and used them for eating and drinking.

It’s easy to imagine what the town must’ve looked like in the Middle Ages, with its narrow cobblestone streets, bars, and souvenir shops selling jewelry made of jet and silver. And excellent bookstores. During our tour we ran into half a dozen writers.

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the end of the pilgrimage, is undergoing renovation.

Visitors line up to embrace the image of Saint James behind the altar, and ask him to grant their requests.

Cold, blustery day, brief rainshowers and the possibility of you and your umbrella getting Mary Poppins-ed.