Any kind of reader would be nice, but this is special: I’m trying to get hold of a book by Miguel Villanueva, El carnaval de Cádiz durante la Segunda República (1931-1936). Ensayo sobre un carnaval atrevido. I’ve tried without success to contact the publishers, Fundación Viprén, as well as Viprén itself, and, although the book…
Such was the worldwide stir caused by my revelation that the Sweeney Todd story is at least a century older than previously thought that I know many of you will be impatient to read this new story of sinister stylists across the water. It’s from a French tutor, Méthode rationnelle suivant pas à pas la…
The university tower: The convent church over at the Spanish castle district: A rather superior old folks’ home: I’m a bit ambivalent about straight lines. Flying into Amsterdam the order below makes me want to weep, but I wouldn’t mind living in the third of these.
Manuel Fraga goes into a bar, walks up to a man eating tripe, punches him in the face, and starts eating the tripe himself. “What on earth do you think you’re doing?” cries the man. “I paid for that!” “Fuck off,” snarls Fraga, “los callos son míos.” (The Salvador Dalí version of this has a…
Neither man nor beast, was this what Kafka had in mind? This cartoon by the great James Ensor of the once great resort of Oostende is in the Gent Fine Arts Museum, which I most enjoyed. Dutch art is generally speaking familiar, but cross the border and there’s a whole new collective of ne’er-do-wells requiring…
Below the Burcht at Leiden: … and on a Gent lamp post: Faced with global warming, Dutch civic Canutes are off somewhere else contemplating amongst other engineering wonders the construction of (a) a great new channel to sea to prevent flooding from upstream on the major rivers, and (b) a megalopolis to the East to…
This is a crucial element in what remains of French realist writing in the 1920s and 30s, which, for this reason and others, was more popular than praised. Based on some reading and no maths, I would venture that in a book of (x + y) pages (not counting the open letter of support from…