Once upon a time Pere Quart (Joan Oliver to his friends) composed some often wickedly funny verses that were published with drawings by Xavier Nogués under the title Bestiari in Barcelona in 1937. His treatise on the camel and the dromedary is reminiscent of one by Ogden Nash that I blogged into melodious Catalan a…
You can do night-time walks in some places, but not round Torre Baró (blogged here, walk here). This week it was the turn of a part-time teacher of guitar and sevillanas, murdered next to his car and sleepy girlfriend with a 9 mm Civil War pistol for reasons presumably unrelated to his left-hand technique. Honestly,…
… by Mohammed VI of Morocco is the Maghrebi story making the international headlines today, Reporters Without Borders even going to the ridiculous lengths of expressing gratitude to the king for freeing someone who shouldn’t have been banged up in the first place. What most of the papers miss is that – apart from the…
The inimitable John Chappell is still warming up for the general elections, but up in Girona Francesc Ferrer is in full flow. Apparently some fatxendes (~rich pillocks) asked him what a republican politician was doing at a reception for the Three Kings. Another man would have said that he was there for the sweets (and,…
La notícia en la International Herald Tribune (via Prandial Post) de que el FBI estigui buscant a gent equipada d’almanacs no ha de sorprendre’ns: segons William B Breuer en The Spy Who Spent the War in Bed And Other Bizarre Tales from World War II, els espies nazis als EUA utilitzaven fonts similars per a…
The sardana was encouraged by the Francoist state and suffered its greatest difficulties during the period of revolutionary anarcho-syndicalist and Stalinist control
Gironese secessionist politico Francesc Ferrer, an obsessive self-publicist with what looks like an advanced persecution complex, has always unjustly been reduced to scribbling in green on the margins of global discourse. Fortunately the man has now started publishing a distinctly Gogolian blog on his splendid website. Here’s a contribution for 2003/12/20: AUTHORITARIANISM The decicision [sic]…
Moving house, so orders may take longer until mid-February - mail me first if in doubt. Shop deliveries free on foot in Leeds LS1-8 & LS13. Dismiss