Secret forest: April 2010

>> Wednesday, 28 April 2010

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>> Sunday, 25 April 2010

I never thought that an almost wordless film about a group of monks could be so enjoyable and exhilarating. I am always looking for some silence so that I can write, and this time I found it in a film. Its director commented the following:

“My film does not have to answer all the questions… Today, we’re literally flooded with information. What’s missing — and what one must find out on one’s own — is the meaning of things. My film also wants to be a film about the viewer himself, about his perceptions, his thoughts. He should focus on himself. It is also a film about contemplation. [...] I think this is the only way that I was able to make this film; by not giving the viewer any directions, but leaving him his freedom.” Director, Philip Gröning. Source: Life4Seekers.

Wordless Wednesday: Book Sculpture

>> Wednesday, 21 April 2010

By Mike Stilkey. I first saw it at Dailyartfixx.

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The Week

>> Monday, 19 April 2010

We are entering the most intense week of the year for any Catalan publishing house. I already tried to explain here what happens every 23rd April, St. George's Day, in my land. It mostly consists in buying books and roses in a festive day to give to the loved ones.

On Friday, throughout Catalonia will be set up around 400 outlets of books, 200 of which concentrated in the city of Barcelona. Last year, booksellers earned about 20 million euros in that one single day, which represents between 8 and 10% of the annual turnover of Catalan books.

As regards roses, florists sold last St. George day 6 million units, in a population of about 8 million people. That is to say, on Sant Jordi day they sell 60% of the roses that are purchased annually in Catalonia. Each rose is sold individually. They come wrapped in cellophane, accompanied with a little Catalan flag and a spike. and the red ones are the most successful by far. I found on the net this photo of a proper Sant Jordi rose.

It is only Monday, and I am already impatient!

Back To Write And Why

>> Thursday, 15 April 2010

These past few days I came back to work on my novella with a renewed zeal and the resolution to end it once and for all. Whenever I start writing again I am quite sure that from that point forward I will write every day, continously, as it always should have been. And when, for whatever reason, I stop writing I am convinced I will not write never again. I wonder why this is so.

The fact is that when I write I ask myself more questions than usual (not the Big Ones though), and somehow these unanswered questions will appear in the book. So, I feel a bit like the Little Prince, who never ceased to ask questions. It is good to feel like the Little Prince from time to time.

Where Did You Go

>> Monday, 12 April 2010

Lately, I've gone back to the Britpop in the nineties. Anyone out here with a song stuck in their mind?

Slight Return

Where did you go
when things went wrong for you,
when the knives came out for you?
Where did you go?
All you needed was a friend.
You just have to ask and then...

you don't have to have the solution,
you've got to understand the problem,
and don't go hoping for a miracle.
All this will fade away
so I'm coming home.

What did you learn,
locked away all on your own,
chance and your head all blown
What did you learn,
It was unfortunate,
you missed your chance to find out that
(chorus)

Wordless Wednesday: A Cake With A Chick

>> Wednesday, 7 April 2010

I said I had to buy an impressive cake to my goddaughter, and that is what I did! It is a Catalan Easter cake (and, well, that explains the chick on it).

That is a proud chick on a cake!

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Happy Easter

>> Sunday, 4 April 2010

Be welcome to a new chapter on Catalan traditions. Since I do not know exactly how are the Easter eggs from other countries, I will focus on our own. Started out as cakes with an egg in them, we call them Mona, after the Latin mŭnda, "clean, nice food". Interestingly, and regardless of this etymology, "mona" is also the Catalan noun for "monkey"... which does not enlighten the smiling lady riddle, I fear. See the evolution of the Mona (not Lisa's, and not monkeys'!) from the eighteenth century to the present:

The second one is the sort of Mona that made me dream when I was a child. That is exactly what I got every Easter from my godfather, for in Catalonia godparents give the Mona to their godchildren on Easter Sunday. The day after, Easter Monday, the family or a group of friends go together somewhere, usually outdoors, to "eat the Mona" (this is the expression; we actually eat a proper meal and then, if there is some room for it and if we have remembered to take it with us, we try a slice of Mona). My godmother, in contrast, had no interest in Christian traditions and on Easter used to give me some money. The Mona was always delicious, although I hated candied fruit and I was "only" interested in chocolate, jam, almonds, dyed butter, and a little star not for eating that never failed to appear:

Today, I have to hurry and buy an impressive Mona to my dear goddaughter. Come to that, my goddaughter is like a cross between a monkey and a distinguished smiling lady. Have a happy Easter!