W. H. AUDEN. THE AGE OF ANXIETY, A BAROQUE ECLOGUE

Today, The Grandma has been correcting dozens of activities all day and her head is spinning. So, this evening, she has decided to relax her body and soul by reading poetry and has chosen one of her favourite authors, W. H. Auden, the British-American poet, who was born on a day like today in 1907, and who wrote The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue, a masterpiece in literature.

Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907-29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, form, and content. Some of his best known poems are about love, such as Funeral Blues; on political and social themes, such as September 1, 1939 and The Shield of Achilles; on cultural and psychological themes, such as The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue; and on religious themes, such as For the Time Being and Horae Canonicae.

Auden was born in York and grew up in and near Birmingham in a professional, middle-class family. He attended various English independent (or public) schools and studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. After a few months in Berlin in 1928-29, he spent five years (1930-1935) teaching in British private preparatory schools.

In 1939, he moved to the United States; he became an American citizen in 1946, retaining his British citizenship. Auden taught from 1941 to 1945 in American universities, followed by occasional visiting professorships in the 1950s.

Auden came to wide public attention in 1930 with his first book, Poems; it was followed in 1932 by The Orators. Three plays written in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood between 1935 and 1938 built his reputation as a left-wing political writer. 

Auden moved to the United States partly to escape this reputation, and his work in the 1940s, including the long poems For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror, focused on religious themes. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1947 long poem The Age of Anxiety, the title of which became a popular phrase describing the modern era. From 1956 to 1961, he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford; his lectures were popular with students and faculty and served as the basis for his 1962 prose collection The Dyer's Hand.

Auden was a prolific writer of prose essays and reviews on literary, political, psychological, and religious subjects, and he worked at various times on documentary films, poetic plays, and other forms of performance. Throughout his career he was both controversial and influential. Critical views on his work ranged from sharply dismissive (treating him as a lesser figure than W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot) to strongly affirmative (as in Joseph Brodsky's statement that he had the greatest mind of the twentieth century). After his death, his poems became known to a much wider public through films, broadcasts, and popular media.

The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (1947; first UK edition, 1948) is a long poem in six parts by W. H. Auden, written mostly in a modern version of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse.

The poem deals, in eclogue form, with man's quest to find substance and identity in a shifting and increasingly industrialized world. Set in a wartime bar in New York City, Auden uses four characters -Quant, Malin, Rosetta, and Emble- to explore and develop his themes.

The poem won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1948.

A critical edition of the poem, edited by Alan Jacobs, was published by Princeton University Press in 2011.

More information: The Guardian

A poet is, before anything else, a person 
who is passionately in love with language.

W. H. Auden

CAROLINE MIKKELSEN, THE 1ST WOMAN ON ANTARCTICA

Today has been an exhausting day at work for The Grandma, who has just arrived home and just wants to read a little and rest. She has always been fascinated by those periods of history where there were still places on the planet unknown to humans, by the explorers who risked their lives to reach the most remote places on the planet. Then, she has chosen to read about Caroline Mikkelsen, the explorer who set foot on Antarctica on a day like today in 1935. Now that the planet has become small and we have mapped it, we have a whole Universe waiting to be discovered and understood.  

Caroline Mikkelsen (20 November 1906-15 September 1998) was a Danish-Norwegian explorer who on 20 February 1935 was the first woman to set foot on Antarctica, although whether this was on the mainland or an island is a matter of dispute.

Caroline Mikkelsen was born on 20 November 1906 in Denmark, later she married her first husband Norwegian Captain Klarius Mikkelsen and moved to Norway.

In the winter of 1934-1935, Mikkelsen accompanied her Norwegian husband Klarius on an Antarctic expedition sponsored by Lars Christensen, on the resupply vessel M/S Thorshavn with instructions to look for Antarctic lands that could be annexed for Norway. Mount Caroline Mikkelsen is named for her.

On 20 February 1935, the expedition made landfall somewhere on the Antarctic continental shelf. Mikkelsen left the ship and participated in raising the Norwegian flag and in building a memorial cairn. Mikkelsen never made any recorded claims to have landed on the mainland, but was initially thought to have landed on the Vestfold Hills not far from the present Davis Station. She did not publicly speak about her Antarctic voyage until sixty years after her landing in 1995 when she spoke about her journey to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten having been contacted by Davis Station Leader Diana Patterson.

In 1941, her husband Klarius died and in 1944 she married Johan Mandel from Tønsberg. Mikkelsen-Mandel died in 1998.

In 1998 and 2002, Australian researchers published historical articles in the Polar Record concluding that the landing party from the Thorshavn -and thus Mikkelsen- landed on the Tryne Islands where a marker at Mikkelsen's Cairn can still be seen today. The landing site is an approximately five kilometres from the Antarctic mainland. No alternative mainland landing site for the Mikkelsen party has been discovered, in spite of years of searching by Davis Station workers.

Consequently, Mikkelsen is regarded as the first woman to set foot on Antarctica, and Ingrid Christensen as the first to stand on the Antarctic mainland.

More information: Ocean Wide

 Problems will arise should it ever happen 
that women are admitted to base complement.

Caroline Mikkelsen 

THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE & ABDUCTION OF ADULTS

Today, The Grandma wants to share this following story by Roger Ballescà i Ruiz, and extends it not only to adults but also to teenagers who only live on social media; who base their self-esteem on the number of views they have; who have no criteria of their own because they don't make the effort to consider whether what they see or read is true or not; who let go of all their insecurities and complexes by writing toxic messages against other people; who have no ethical or moral respect for the lives of others; who have enormous emotional and social shortcomings that they believe they can make up for with followers and opinion groups; and who, without realizing it, are social prey for a future that will ignore them when they don't know how to recognize themselves beyond a tweet, a post or a like.

Several Mental Health projects nowadays treat these young people, already addicted, and the diagnoses are mainly grouped into 'the culture of the perfect image', 'body shaming', anxiety, depression, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), different eating disorders and body dysmorphia.

The challenge is great because as teachers or health personnel, we can only guide and advise these young people, but they must be the first to be aware of the situation and their families, the main ones involved in avoiding these situations and, if they are already real, in working to reverse them.

Social Media or AI are not bad per se, but it is the use that is made of them that determines their positivity or negativity: teenagers addicted to screens, famous people in their sectors who do not know how to control their degree of exposure to social media, companies that take advantage of easy customers to place their products to an audience hungry for content, or simply, adults who have begun to disappear...

 

No one knows exactly how or when it started happening, but one day, the children realized that the last of the adults had disappeared and that, definitively, they were alone as owls.

It was not a sudden or spectacular disappearance. No sirens, dramatic headlines or committee of experts. They did not all disappear at once in a big puff of smoke. They disappeared little by little, with a subtle, almost imperceptible discretion.

The first to fall were those abducted by the screens. They took up space, breathed and even said things. But their gaze escaped into a parallel universe of notifications, emails and cat videos. The children spoke to them but the words bounced off them softly.

Then the ones swallowed up by work disappeared. Adults with their agendas as a natural extension of their bodies who always promised to be there "soon", "in a while", "maybe tomorrow..." Adults in a state of promise.

Others disappeared when they decided to stop setting limits. They confused education with "do whatever you want but don't yell". They decided that children would self-regulate and would know how to decide for themselves what was best for them.

There were also those who dissolved into educational protocols, into documents full of arrows and boxes. Some were transformed into algorithms, others into international diagnostic manuals, where each discomfort found an appropriate label.

Finally, the most disturbing of all: adults who became children. They dressed the same, talked the same, wanted to be colleagues and called you "bro".

When the children noticed this, they celebrated with enthusiasm. Chocolate, unsaturated fats and screens without stopping. Not a single "no" in sight. Absolute freedom with sugary taste and video game music.

For a while everything seemed magnificent. But then things started happening.

Some children didn't know when to stop. Others didn't know what to do when there was nothing to do. Anxieties appeared without an instruction manual, sadness that was difficult to explain, anger that shot out in any direction. Without adults, no one helped put words to what was going on inside and give it meaning. No one said: "this is not right", "this is scary but it happens".

They discovered, with perplexity, that freedom without limits does not always liberate. That growing up without guidance is dizzying.

Some children began to play the role of adults, with little trace and little success. Others showed symptoms in the body, thought or behavior. Still others, sadly, faded away, without making a sound.

And the adults? Well, no one really knows where they are. Maybe they're still looking at a screen. Maybe they're working overtime. Maybe they're "on a random schedule."

The thing is, the children are still alone like owls, looking around and waiting for someone to play the adult again. And with each passing day, the question becomes more uncomfortable:

What if the disappearance of the adults wasn't a passing accident, but the natural state of things?

Roger Ballescà i Ruiz

Psychologist and psychotherapist

Centre de Salut Mental Infantil i Juvenil de Martorell

 

The challenge is great, enormous, colossal, but from the teaching and training point of view we do not give up despite being fighting against everything and everyone, despite suffering an enormous lack of prestige, despite always being the bad guys in all the stories, but we will continue working to reverse these situations and help train people of present and future generations because it is our profession, and therefore, our obligation as teachers and as citizens of the society in which we have to live.

More information: University of California

 It is okay to own a technology, 
what is not okay is to be owned by technology. 
In an overwhelming attempt to capture memories, 
people have forgotten to make memories.

Abhijit Naskar

AMALIE SKRAM, NATURALISM & NORWEGIAN LITERATURE

Today, The Grandma has been preparing new educational projects. After an intense morning of work, content creation and planning, this afternoon, she has decided to relax a bit with a good read and has chosen Scandinavian literature because she is a fierce admirer of its authors.

 

If we look at Norway and ask about its most recognized authors, they will probably tell us about The Four Greats: Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832-1910), Jonas Lie (1833-1908) and Alexander Kielland (1849-1906), who was born on a day like today, but The Grandma wants to talk about an author who was contemporary with these four writers, Amalie Skram, the most important female writer of the Modern Breakthrough.

Amalie Skram (22 August 1846-15 March 1905) was a Norwegian author and feminist who gave voice to a woman's point of view withher naturalist writing. 

In Norway, she is frequently considered the most important female writer of the Modern Breakthrough (Det moderne gjennombrudd). 

Her more notable works include a tetralogy, Hellemyrsfolket (1887-98) which portray relations within a family over four generations.

Berthe Amalie Alver was born in Bergen, Norway. Her parents were Mons Monsen Alver and Ingeborg Lovise Sivertsen. She was the only daughter in a family of five children. Her parents operated a small business, which went bankrupt when Amalie was 17 years old. Her father emigrated from Norway to the United States to avoid a term of imprisonment. Her mother was left with five children to care for.

Her mother pressured Amalie into a marriage with an older man, Bernt Ulrik August Müller, a ship captain and later mill owner. Following thirteen years of marriage and the birth of two sons she suffered a nervous breakdown, in part attributed to his infidelity. After several years in a mental hospital, she was divorced from Müller. Together with her two sons, Jacob Müller (born 1866) and Ludvig Müller (born 1868), she moved to Kristiania (now Oslo) and began her literary activities. There she met the bohemian community, including writers Arne Garborg and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, with whom she remained in contact for many years.

In 1884, Amalie Müller married again, this time the Danish writer Asbjørn Oluf Erik Skram (1847-1923), a son of railroad director Gustav Skram. She moved to Copenhagen, Denmark with her new husband. They had a daughter, Ida Johanne Skram (born 1889), from this union. Her obligations as housewife, mother and author as well as the public's limited acceptance for her then-radical work, led to a further breakdown in 1894, after which Amalie lived in a psychiatric hospital near Roskilde. In 1900 her second marriage was dissolved. She died six years later in Copenhagen and was buried at Bispebjerg Cemetery.

In 1882, Amalie Skram debuted (as Amalie Müller) with the short story Madam Høiers leiefolk, published in the magazine Nyt Tidsskrift. An excerpt from her first novel, Constance Ring, was first published in the magazine Tilskueren in 1885.

Her works continued until her death. She dealt with topics she knew well. Her work can be divided into three categories:

-Novels concerning marriage, which explored taboo topics such as female sexuality, and the subservient status of women in that period. These works were perceived by many as overly provocative and resulted in open hostility from some segments of society.

-Multi-generation novels, which dealt with the fate of a family over several generations. With these she explored the social institutions and conditions of the time and campaigned for change.

-Mental hospital works such as Professor Hieronimus and Paa St. Jørgen, which dealt with the primitive and brutal conditions of such institutions of the period. Her novels created a major stir in Denmark and precipitated improvements in these institutions.

She is recognized as an early and strong proponent of what has come to be known as the women's movement, setting the early European trend. Her works, which had been generally forgotten with her death, were rediscovered and received strong recognition in the 1960s. Several of her works are currently available in recent translations to English.

The Amalie Skram prize is a travel stipend that has been awarded annually since 1994 to Norwegian authors who show exceptional skill in addressing women's issues. 

The street Amalie Skrams Allé in the Valby district of Copenhagen is named after her.

A statue of Skram by Maja Refsum was unveiled at Convent Garden (Klosterhaugen) in Bergen 1949. A bronze bust by Per Ung was installed in Bispebjerg Cemetery in Copenhagen in 1996. A marble bust by Ambrosia Tønnesen is in Bergen Public Library.

More information: The History of Nordic Women's Literature

 

Hva ville det egentlig si å være sinnssyk? 
Man kunne jo glatt vekk kalle hinannens særegenheter 
og mer eller mindre brysomme

eiendommeligheter for sinnssykdom.

What would it really mean to be insane?
 One could easily call each other's peculiarities 
and more or less troublesome

peculiarities insanity.

 

Amalie Skram 

CORTO MALTESE. LIFE IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION

Anyone who knows The Grandma even a little knows about her passion for literature, art, history, sports, nature and graphic novels. And anyone who knows her well knows that her platonic love is an enigmatic sailor born in Valletta, with no future line in his hands and a tremendously attractive life.

Today, the postwoman has brought a very special package to The Grandma. It was a shipment from Joseph de Ca'th Lon from Italy and upon opening it, she has gone crazy with love to find there books, stickers and a puzzle of his beloved sailor, the incomparable and mysterious Corto Maltese. Thank you very much, Joseph, for always thinking of her despite the distance. Next Saturday you will meet again and share hobbies and emotions as always.

Le sere azzurre d'estate, andrò per i sentieri,
Punzecchiato dal grano, a calpestare erba fina:
Trasognato, ne sentirò la freschezza ai piedi.
Lascerò che il vento mi bagni il capo nudo.

Non parlerò, non penserò a niente:
Ma l'amore infinito mi salirà nell'anima,
E andrò lontano, molto lontano, come uno zingaro,
Nella Natura, -felice come con una donna.  

Corto Maltese is a series of adventure comics following the eponymous protagonist, an adventurous sailor. 

It was created by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt in 1967. The comics are highly praised as some of the most artistic and literary graphic novels ever written and have been translated into numerous languages and adapted into several animated films.

The series features Corto Maltese, an enigmatic sea captain who lives in the first three decades of the 20th century. Born in Valletta on the island of Malta on 10 July 1887, the son of a sailor from Cornwall, and a gypsy from Seville.

In his adventures full of real-world references, Corto has often crossed with real historical characters like the American author Jack London and his nurse Virginia Prentiss, the American outlaw Butch Cassidy, the German World War I flying ace Red Baron, and many others.

The character debuted in the serial Ballad of the Salty Sea, one of several Pratt stories published in the first edition of the Ivaldi Editore comics magazine Sergeant Kirk in July 1967. The story centers around smugglers and pirates in the World War I -era Pacific Islands. In 1970, Pratt moved to France and began a series of short Corto Maltese stories for the French comics magazine Pif Gadget, an arrangement lasting four years and producing many 20-page stories. In 1974 he returned to full-length stories, sending Corto to 1918 Siberia in the story Corto Maltese in Siberia, first serialised in the Italian comics magazine Linus.

In 1976, Ballad of the Salty Sea was published in book format and was awarded the prize for best foreign realistic comic album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Pratt continued to produce new stories over the next two decades, many first appearing in the eponymous comics magazine Corto Maltese (published between October 1983 and July 1993), until 1988 when the final story Mu, the Lost Continent was serialised, ending in June 1989.

Corto Maltese is a laconic sea captain adventuring during the early 20th century (1900-1920s). A rogue with a heart of gold, he is tolerant and sympathetic to the underdog. Born in Valletta on July 10, 1887, he is the son of a British sailor from Cornwall and an Andalusian–Romani witch and prostitute known as "La Niña de Gibraltar". As a boy growing up in the Jewish quarter of Córdoba, Maltese discovered that he had no fate line on his palm and therefore carved his own with his father's razor, determining that his fate was his to choose. Although maintaining a neutral position, Corto instinctively supports the disadvantaged and oppressed.

The character embodies the author's skepticism of national, ideological and religious assertions. Corto befriends people from all walks of life, including the murderous Russian Rasputin (no relation with the historical figure, apart from physical resemblance and some character traits), British heir Tristan Bantam, voodoo priestess Gold Mouth and Czech academic Jeremiah Steiner. He also knows and meets various real-life historical figures, including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Butch Cassidy, James Joyce, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Frederick Rolfe, Joseph Conrad, Sükhbaatar, John Reed, White Russian general Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, Enver Pasha of Turkey and Sergei Semenov, modelled after Grigory Semyonov. His acquaintances treat him with great respect, as when a telephone call to Joseph Stalin frees him from arrest when he is threatened with execution on the border of Turkey and Armenia.

Corto's favourite book is Utopia by Thomas More, but he never finishes it. He also read books by London, Lugones, Stevenson, Melville and Conrad, and quotes Rimbaud.

Corto Maltese stories range from straight historical adventure to occult dream sequences. He is present when the Red Baron is shot down, helps the Jívaro in South America, and flees Fascists in Venice, but also unwittingly helps Merlin and Oberon to defend Britain and helps Tristan Bantam to visit the lost continent of Mu.

Chronologically, the first adventure, Corto Maltese: The Early Years, happens during the Russo-Japanese War. In other albums he experiences the Great War in several locations, participates in the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution, and appears during the early stages of Fascist Italy. In a separate series by Pratt, The Desert Scorpions, Corto is said to be missing in action in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

More information: Corto Maltese

Par les soirs bleus d'été, j'irai dans les sentiers,
Picoté par les blés, fouler l'herbe menue:
Rêveur, j'en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds.
Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue.

Je ne parlerai pas, je ne penserai rien:
Mais l'amour infini me montera dans l'âme,
Et j'irai loin, bien loin, comme un bohémien,
Par la Nature, -heureux comme avec une femme. 

 

Arthur Rimbaud 

SAILING HOME AGAIN, STORMY WATERS TO BE FREE...

I am sailing, I am sailing
Home again cross the sea
I am sailing, stormy waters
To be near you, to be free

I am flying, I am flying
Like a bird cross the sky
I am flying, passing high clouds
To be near you, to be free

Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Through the dark night, far away
I am dying, forever crying
To be with you, who can say?

Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Through the dark night, far away
I am dying, forever crying
To be near you, who can say?

We are sailing, we are sailing
Home again cross the sea
We are sailing stormy waters
To be near you, to be free

Oh Lord, to be near you, to be free
Oh Lord, to be near you, to be free
Oh Lord

More information: Sail World 

 I love what I do.

Rod Stewart

GAIÀ ESTUARY PRESERVE & ROMAN VILLA OF ELS MUNTS

Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have visited the Gaià River Estuary Wildlife Preserve and the Roman Villa of Els Munts in Altafulla.

Both are passionate about birds and history, so in the same day they have been able to visit the Roman past of the region and enjoy its protected natural spaces where life has flourished unmovably since times even older than the Romans.

Tomorrow morning, if the sea and wind cooperate (which according to the forecast they will), they will return to Port Ginesta. Claire will return to Barcelona and The Grandma will stay in the neighbouring town of Castelldefels where tomorrow afternoon she has a training session with future trainers.

The mouth of the Gaià river is located by Altafulla and has areas that are permanently flooded with fresh water and attract numerous bird species, especially migratory birds. Different educational activities related to the environment are organised here.

This is an area of small dimensions, which follows the Gaià river along its last stretch into the sea. It forms an island of natural landscape made up of riverside vegetation and marshland; a contrast to the dry farmland and touristic and recreational areas around it. Some parts of the area are permanently flooded with fresh water and are a refuge for different animal species, as well as a place of rest for numerous migratory birds.

The association Hort de la Sínia organises multiple environmental education activities. Hiking and beach activities are popular here.

This area is remarkable from an ornithological point of view thanks to the presence of species such as the Kentish plover, the little ringed plover, the little grebe and the kingfisher, to name just a few. Moreover, it also provides a place of rest for some species that stop to rest and/or feed during migration, such as the purple heron, the little bittern, the squacco heron, the European golden plover and the sand martin, among others. Among the mammals, it is worth mentioning the badger, and among the reptiles, we can find species like the pond turtle, the ocellated lizard and the Mediterranean tree frog.

More information: Birding Places

The villa of "Els Munts" is a residential Roman villa built during the 2nd century C.E. The villa is located 12 km away from Tarraco in the municipality of Altafulla in Catalonia. 

Scholars have regarded the villa of Els Munts as noteworthy for its mosaics and exceptional state of preservation. As a part of Tarraco, the villa of Els Munts is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The villa of Els Munts contains several components including a bath, gardens, and temple. In total the villa had a garden, semi-basement corridor with cistern for Caius Valerius Avitus, peristyle, water cistern known locally as La Tartana, a more extensive water reservoir, dining room (triclinium), the Mithraeum -a temple dedicated to the god Mithras, porticoed corridor. The baths had a reception with an atrium and alcover stone slab floor. There were heated rooms: caldaria, tepidaria, and furnaces with hypocaustum, and cold rooms (frigidaria). A furnace, praefurnia, heated the hot rooms from below. Lastly, there were latrines which excess water from the baths used to remove the excrement.

The ancient people known as the Iberians were early inhabitants of the region. The Roman historian Livy mentions Tarraco in describing part of the origins of the Second Punic War. The villa was initially built in the 1st century CE, on top of which the remains preserved today were built in the middle of the 2nd century CE. Sometime after 175 CE but before 200 CE, a fire burned at villa of Els Munts, and the inhabitants abandoned it.

The owner of the villa was Caius Valerius Avitus, a duumvir for the Roman province of Tarraco. A wall painting at the site indicates this information.

The villa of Els Munts is located in the municipality of Altafulla. Approximately 12 kilometers from Tarraco, modern day Tarragona and near the mouth of the Gayà River, the villa of Els Munts sits atop the western slope of a coastal hill which is part of Cap Roig, the origin of which is the Miocene era. It overlooks the Mediterranean Ocean and is near the Via Augusta.

The villa of Els Munts is part of a museum open to the public.

More information: MNAT

 When you arise in the morning, 
think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive 
-to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

Marcus Aurelius

FROM PORT GINESTA TO ALTAFULLA, MEDITERRANEANLY

Today, with the forecast for good weather, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma got up early, had a hearty breakfast, got on their bikes and pedaled from Barcelona to Port Ginesta. It is a distance of 20 km that they covered at a sporty pace that allowed them to arrive in just under 90 minutes.

There, they had breakfast again before taking Claire's boat, loading their bikes and starting their sea crossing to Altafulla where they plan to spend this weekend.

The crossing was calm and at a speed of 6 knots they arrived at the Port of Torredembarra just in time to have lunch in the same port before taking their bikes and pedaling towards the Gran Claustre d'Altafulla.

After resting a bit in the Gran Claustre and writing this post, Claire and The Grandma have been talking to Joseph de Ca'th Lon and Alessandra, who are in Cortina d'Ampezzo where they have enjoyed the Olympic curling this morning. This evening, all of them, despite the distance, will watch the semi-finals of the French Cup, a very special football match for the Northern Star.

Tomorrow, Claire and The Grandma plan to visit the Gaià River Estuary Wildlife Preserve and the Roman Villa of Els Munts, the main reasons for this visit to Altafulla.

Altafulla is a municipality in the comarca of the Tarragonès in Catalunya. It has a population of 5,870.

The town of Altafulla has a beautifully intact old quarter crowned by the Castle of Altafulla, and an old fishing quarter dating back to the 18th century along the beach, called Baixamar or Les Botigues de Mar.

An additional medieval castle on a small promontory overlooking the sea, the Castle of the Marquises of Tamarit (private) is often thought as part of Altafulla, but it is actually located in the neighbour municipality of Tarragona. Beyond the castle is one of the last remaining forests stretching along the sea in Catalonia, part of which is a small nature preserve, under the Tamarit-Punta de la Móra Special Environmental and Landscape Protection Plan.

Altafulla is also home to the remains of the Roman villa of Els Munts, which is included in a larger UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Gaià River empties into the sea here, its last stretch being a small nature preserve and haven for songbirds (Reserva Natural de Fauna Salvatge de la Desembocadura del Gaià-Gaià River Estuary Wildlife Preserve), though due to damming upriver, it carries very little water at this last section, forming a tiny salt marsh separated from the sea by a bar of sand. This wildlife preserve is run by L'Hort de la Sínia, an ecological agriculture, learning and activities centre.

Altafulla has one of the highest median household incomes in the province of Tarragona. 

More information: Visit Altafulla

To sail successfully, you need to observe with great care. 
You need to identify what the wind 
and the water are telling you a
nd then find a way to execute, 
to reach whatever goal you've set, 
be that simply making it home or winning a race.

Diane Greene

ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN & ‘THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO’

After a windy day, today has been a day of heavy rain, so heavy that The Grandma has had a bout of laziness and has decided to stay home rereading The Gulag Archipelago, a masterpiece written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (11 December 1918-3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag prison system.

He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature. His nonfiction work The Gulag Archipelago amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state and sold tens of millions of copies.

Solzhenitsyn was born into a family that defied the Soviet anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and remained devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church. At a young age he became an atheist and embraced Marxism–Leninism. While serving as a captain in the Red Army during World War II, Solzhenitsyn was arrested by SMERSH and sentenced to eight years in the Gulag and then internal exile for criticizing Joseph Stalin in private correspondence with another field officer. As a result of his experience in prison and the camps, he gradually became a philosophically minded Eastern Orthodox Christian.

During the Khrushchev Thaw, Solzhenitsyn was released and exonerated. He started writing novels about his experiences and repression in the Soviet Union. In 1962, he published his first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -an account of Stalinist repressions- with approval from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. His last work to be published in the Soviet Union was Matryona's Place in 1963.

After Khrushchev lost power, Soviet authorities unsuccessfully tried to discourage Solzhenitsyn from writing. His novels published in other countries included Cancer Ward in 1966, In the First Circle in 1968, August 1914 in 1971 and The Gulag Archipelago in 1973.

The last novel outraged authorities and, in 1974, he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and flown to West Germany. He soon moved to Switzerland and then, in 1976, to Vermont in the United States with his family. 

He continued to write and his Soviet citizenship was restored in 1990. He returned to Russia four years later and remained there until his death in 2008.

Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk (now in Stavropol Krai, Russia). His father, Isaakiy Semyonovich Solzhenitsyn, was of Russian descent, and his mother, Taisiya Zakharovna (née Shcherbak), was of Ukrainian descent.

His educated mother encouraged his literary and scientific learnings and raised him in the Russian Orthodox faith.

The Gulag Archipelago was composed from 1958 to 1967, and has sold over thirty million copies in thirty-five languages. It was a three-volume, seven-part work on the Soviet prison camp system, which drew from Solzhenitsyn's experiences and the testimony of 256 former prisoners and Solzhenitsyn's own research into the history of the Russian penal system.

It discusses the system's origins from the founding of the Communist regime, with Vladimir Lenin having responsibility, detailing interrogation procedures, prisoner transports, prison camp culture, prisoner uprisings and revolts such as the Kengir uprising, and the practice of internal exile.

On 8 August 1971, the KGB allegedly attempted to assassinate Solzhenitsyn using an unknown chemical agent (most likely ricin) with an experimental gel-based delivery method. The attempt left him seriously ill, but he survived.

Although The Gulag Archipelago was not published in the Soviet Union, it was extensively criticized by the Party-controlled Soviet press.

On 19 September 1974, it was approved a large-scale operation to discredit Solzhenitsyn and his family and cut his communications with Soviet dissidents.

In a series of writings, speeches, and interviews after his return to his native Russia in 1994, Solzhenitsyn spoke about his admiration for the local self-government he had witnessed first hand in Switzerland and New England. He praised 'the sensible and sure process of grassroots democracy, in which the local population solves most of its problems on its own, not waiting for the decisions of higher authorities.'

Solzhenitsyn died of heart failure near Moscow on 3 August 2008, at the age of 89.

More information: New Criterion

There is nothing that so assists the awakening 
of omniscience within us as insistent thoughts 
about one's own transgressions, errors, mistakes.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

AH, BUT I MAY AS WELL, TRY AND CATCH THE WIND...

Today is a special day for the city of Barcelona because it celebrates one of its three patron saints, Santa Eulàlia, the patron saint most beloved by Barcelona residents who know the history of the city and are aware of the symbolic and cultural importance of this religious figure.

The Grandma had planned to go out to enjoy the day and honour her patron saint but a strong wind advisory has stopped all outdoor events so she has stayed home reading and listening to songs that refer to the wind such as Wind of Change by Scorpions, Sempre Hi Ha Vent by Maria del Mar Bonet, Veles e Vents by Ausiàs Marc, Blowin' in the Wind by Bob Dylan, Candle in the Wind by Elton John, Against the Wind by Bob Seeger, The Wind by Cat Stevens, Wild Is the Wind by Nina Simone, Ride the Wild Wind by Queen, and one of her favourites Dust in the Wind by Kansas, a song that reminds us that time passes (tempus fugit) and we are an insignificant part of the universe. Although they are all beautiful and she can't just decide one, she has thought that today she would choose Catch The Wind by Donovan because it reminds her of the Joan Baez concert for her 75th birthday.

Despite hearing Joan Baez later at the Palau de la Música Catalana and at Festival Jardins de Pedralbes in Barcelona, at the Terramar Festival in Sitges, and at Portaferrada Festival in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, she didn't play it again in none of these four places.

Catch the Wind is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. Pye Records released Catch the Wind backed with Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do? as Donovan's debut release in the United Kingdom on 28 February 1965. The single reached No. 4 in the United Kingdom singles chart. Hickory Records released the single in the United States in April 1965, where it reached No. 23 in the United States Billboard Hot 100.

The single version of Catch the Wind was recorded at Olympic Studios in London. Donovan played guitar and sang on the recording, and was accompanied by nine session musicians: four viola players, four violin players and a string bass player. According to Donovan biographyer Lorne Murdoch, the string arrangement on the single version was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with an arrangement written by Ken Lewis of the Ivy League. He additionally opined that Donovan's commercial recording career commenced with the recording of Catch The Wind in February 1965.

In May 1965, Pye Records released a different version of Catch the Wind on Donovan's debut LP record album What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid, retitled Catch the Wind in the US. While the single version featured vocal echo and a string section, the album version lacked those elements and instead featured Donovan playing harmonica.

Cash Box described it as a medium-paced, folk-styled low-down bluesey romancer, with a Bob Dylan-like vocal. Record World likewise described it as Dylanesque.

When Epic Records was compiling Donovan's Greatest Hits in 1968, the label was either unable or unwilling to secure the rights to the original recordings of Catch the Wind" and Donovan's follow-up single, Colours. Donovan re-recorded both songs for the album, with a full backing band including Big Jim Sullivan playing guitar and Mickie Most producing.

In the chilly hours and minutes
Of uncertainty, I want to be
In the warm hold of your loving mind

To feel you all around me
And to take your hand, along the sand
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind

When sundown pales the sky
I want to hide a while, behind your smile
And everywhere I'd look, your eyes I'd find

For me to love you now
Would be the sweetest thing
That would make me sing
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind

When rain has hung the leaves with tears
I want you near, to kill my fears
To help me to leave all my blues behind

For standin' in your heart
Is where I want to be, and I long to be
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind

More information: Song of the Day for Today

The way I sing my songs leads the listener 
into a place of introspection, 
a state of mind that can trigger self-healing 
and the kind of profound rest 
you cannot get from sleep alone.

Donovan

'I LOMBARDI ALLA PRIMA CROCIATA' BY GIUSEPPE VERDI

Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and Alessandra are in Bormi, the Lombard city in the province of Sùndri, the host, along with Val de Sota, of the Men's Super G Olympic events that are being held this morning and which are the reason for their visit.

During the three-hour journey from Milàn, they have decided to choose as their soundtrack I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata, the lyrical drama written by Giuseppe Verdi that received its first performance in Milàn on a day like today in 1843, so it was a good way to remember this musical genius with his work based on the Lombards.

I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata (The Lombards on the First Crusade) is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on an epic poem by Tommaso Grossi, which was very much a child of its age; a grand historical novel with a patriotic slant.

Its first performance was given at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 11 February 1843. Verdi dedicated the score to Maria Luigia, the Habsburg Duchess of Parma, who died a few weeks after the premiere. 

In 1847, the opera was significantly revised to become Verdi's first grand opera for performances in France at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera under the title of Jérusalem.

Grossi's original epic poem had plot complications that required the librettist to make significant changes; the historical characters portrayed in the original do not appear and the story becomes that of a fictional family and its involvement in the First Crusade. Julian Budden's analysis of the opera's origins notes: In 1843 any subject where Italians were shown united against a common enemy was dangerous, especially in Austrian Milan. Yet strangely enough it was not the police but the church that took exception to I Lombardi, since the Archbishop of Milan had heard rumours that the work contained specific elements of Catholic ritual. However, given Verdi's refusal to make any changes to the music, it is fortunate that the result of the police chief's investigations of the archbishops complaints required only very minor alterations.

While the premiere performance was a popular success, critical reactions were less enthusiastic and inevitable comparisons were made with Nabucco. However, one writer noted: If [Nabucco] created this young man's reputation, I Lombardi served to confirm it. Budden himself disagrees with this contemporary view, noting that Nabucco is all of a piece, a unity, however crude; I Lombardi is an agglomeration of heterogeneous ideas, some remarkable, some unbelievably banal.

Budden notes that for many years I Lombardi enjoyed the same kind of popularity as Nabucco, but he states that it did not fare well in Venice the following year and that it received few performances outside of Italy. However, within Italy, the opera was presented in Lucca in the summer of 1843, in Florence and Lucca in the autumn, and during the 1843/44 carnival season it was given in Trieste and Turin, while performances in 1845 were presented in Bologna and later, in the 1845/46 season, in Palermo and Mantua, in Macerata in the summer of 1846 and various other cities well in to the 1850s. Even in the late 1880s, well after Jérusalem had been given, it was presented in Florence.

This was the first of Verdi's operas to be heard in the United States, at Palmo's Opera House, on 3 March 1847 in New York. In the prior year the opera's British premiere had taken place on 12 May 1846 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, Verdi having been invited there by the theatre's impresario, Benjamin Lumley: ...I will go to London to write an opera he had written, but in the end, illness prevented him from doing so.

However, with Italy approaching unification in the 1850s and in the decade following it in 1861, I Lombardi's call to peoples' patriotic instincts seemed to keep it alive, albeit that, by 1865 when Arrigo Boito saw a performance, he remarked that the opera was beginning to show its age.

I Lombardi was presented in 1930 at La Scala in Milan as the season's opening production.

More information: Medium

 

I adore art... when I am alone with my notes, 
my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, 
and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.

 

Giuseppe Verdi

OLYMPIC GAMES, HOCKEY & 'COTOLETTA ALLA MILANESE'

Joseph de Ca'th Lon has arrived in Milàn today to watch the women's hockey match between Italy and Germany this afternoon at the Milàn Rho Ice Hockey Arena.

Before that, however, Joseph has spent some time talking to The Grandma about how he is experiencing these Winter Olympics and has stopped to taste a delicious veal Milanese.

Joseph plans to attend several events of these Olympics and will do so accompanied by Alessandra, an old friend of The Grandma's who they have known since they worked together at the San Raffaele Hospital in Segrate, near Milàn, more than twenty years ago.

Veal cutlet Milanese, in Italian Cotoletta alla milanese, is a popular variety of cotoletta from the city of Milàn, Lumbardéa. It is traditionally prepared with a veal rib chop or sirloin bone-in and made into a breaded cutlet, fried in butter.

In Milàn, a dish called lumbolos cum panitio (chops with bread) was served in 1134. It is mentioned at a banquet for the canons of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milàn. It is not known if the meat was covered in breadcrumbs or if it was served with bread as a side dish. Further evidence dates to around the 1st century BC indicating that the Romans enjoyed dishes of thin sliced meat, which was breaded and fried. The dish resembles the Austrian dish Wiener schnitzel, which originated in Austria around the 19th century; according to some, the two dishes might be related -Milàn was part of the Kingdom of Lumbardéa-Venetia, in the Austrian Empire, until 1859 -although the history of neither is clear.

Various breaded meat dishes prepared in South America, particularly in Argentina, were inspired by the cotoletta alla milanese brought by Italian immigrants and are known as milanesa. A local variation of milanesa is called milanesa a la napolitana and is made similar to veal Milanese with a preparation of cheese (mozzarella) and tomato.

If you want to help Joseph and Alessandra make the cotoletta alla milanese, here is the recipe:

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 2 veal cutlets, bone-in if possible (about 1-1.5 cm thick)
• 2 eggs
• Fine breadcrumbs (preferably homemade, unseasoned)
• Butter, clarified if possible (or a mix of butter and a little olive oil)
• Salt
• Lemon wedges (to serve)

Instructions

1. Prepare the cutlets

Gently pound the veal cutlets between two sheets of parchment paper until evenly thin, being careful not to tear the meat.

2. Egg wash

Beat the eggs lightly in a shallow bowl (do not add salt to the eggs).

3. Bread the cutlets

Dip each cutlet into the egg, letting excess drip off, then coat generously with breadcrumbs.

Press the breadcrumbs gently onto the meat — the coating should be even but not compacted.

4. Rest (optional but traditional)

Let the breaded cutlets rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes so the coating adheres well.

5. Fry

Heat a generous amount of butter in a large pan over medium heat.

When the butter is foamy but not browned, add the cutlets.

Cook for 3–4 minutes per side, until golden brown and crisp.

6. Drain and season

Transfer to paper towels to drain briefly.

Season with salt only after frying.

7. Serve

Serve immediately with lemon wedges on the side.

Tips & Tradition

-The authentic Milanese version uses veal, butter, and breadcrumbs only -no flour, no Parmesan, no herbs.

-The cutlet should be golden, crisp, and slightly wavy, not flat.

-Classic sides include arugula salad, roasted potatoes, or simply eaten on its own.

More information: Food & Wine

The thing about all my food is that 
everything is a remembered flavor. 
Maybe it's something I had as a child 
or maybe it's something I had in Milan, 
but I want it to taste better than you ever thought.

Ina Garten

LEAVING L'EMPORDÀ, 'ÉS QUAN DORMO QUE HI VEIG CLAR'

Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma are on their way to Barcelona after spending a few days in El Port de la Selva where they are going to pay a final tribute to an old friend and visit another, Tina Picotes.

Yesterday they took their bicycles and went up from El Port de la Selva to the Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes, one of the most imposing and mysterious buildings from where on a clear day you can even see the Serra de l'Albera, Canigó and the Pyrenees.

On the way back, they went down through Vilajuïga and returned to El Port de la Selva along the Llançà road, a road that allows you to enjoy an extraordinarily beautiful landscape and, although you have to keep your attention on the road 100%, it allows you to stop at different places and contemplate how the sea and the mountain coexist.

 

NOTES SOBRE EL PORT DE LA SELVA per J.V. Foix

Em trobaren ajaçat a la sorra quan ja tots els banyistes havien desertat la platja. Enganxats a la nuca i a l'esquena tenia papers de totes les colors amb inscripcions de duanes i de grans hotels i balnearis exòtics. Me'ls volien arrencar, però seguien trossos de carn viva. Els ulls dels cavalls els pesquen a la cova de la Colomera quan toquen les dotze de la nit. Només en aquell instant precís es poden obrir com qui obre una ostra. Llur pupil·la flota damunt un licor tan ardent, que mai cap llavi humà no ha pogut acostar-s'hi. No els mireu mai de fit a fit, perquè us prendrà per sempre una tristesa sense fi, i la passió per les cales inabordables lligarà la vostra vida al més misteriós dels destins.

NOTES ON PORT DE LA SELVA by J.V. Foix

They found me lying in the sand when all the swimmers had already abandoned the beach. Stuck on my back and the nape of my neck were pieces of paper in all colours with inscriptions from customs houses and from grand hotels and exotic spas. They wanted to tear them from me, but chunks of live flesh came off as well. They go fishing for horses' eyes in Colomera's cave when it strikes midnight. Only at that precise instant can they be opened as one opens an oyster. Their pupils float on a liquid which burns so strongly, that no human lips have ever been able to come near. Don't ever stare at them, because an endless sadness will take hold of you for good, and the passion for inaccessible inlets will bind your life to the most mysterious of destinies.

 

They arrived on Friday with J.V. Foix and his poetry and they leave in the same way, remembering his writings about this beautiful town and what is, perhaps, his best-known poem, the one that tells us about dreams as a way to escape from reality, especially when it is harder and crueler than you can bear.

In this poem, J.V. Foix reminds us of the Occitan poets who also sang of love at night surrounded by the dreamlike atmosphere, and even reminds us of Corto Maltese, the character of Hugo Pratt, who also uses dreams as a way of refuge (or escape) in Les Cèltiques. Calderón de la Barca also told us that life was a dream and Bernat Metge took advantage of the resource of dreams to be able to criticize society and the political power of the time and avoid the established censorship, and dreams allow us to live as we want and desire, that's why our beloved Bruce Springsteen also invites us to daydream...

 

És quan plou que ballo sol
Vestit d'algues, or i escata,
Hi ha un pany de mar al revolt
I un tros de cel escarlata,
Un ocell fa un giravolt
I treu branques una mata,
El casalot del pirata
És un ample gira-sol.
Es quan plou que ballo sol
Vestit d'algues, or i escata.

És quan ric que em veig gepic
Al bassal de sota l'era,
Em vesteixo d'home antic
I empaito la masovera,
I entre pineda i garric
Planto la meva bandera;
Amb una agulla saquera
Mato el monstre que no dic.
És quan ric que em veig gepic
Al bassal de sota l'era.

És quan dormo que hi veig clar
Foll d'una dolça metzina,
Amb perles a cada mà
Visc al cor d'una petxina,
Só la font del comellar
I el jaç de la salvatgina,
-O la lluna que s'afina
En morir carena enllà.
Es quan dormo que hi veig clar
Foll d'una dolça metzina.

 

It's when it rains I dance alone
Dressed in seaweed, scales and gold,
There's a patch of sea at a bend in the road
And a piece of scarlet sky,
A bird loops the loop
And a shrub branches out,
And the pirate's manor-house
Is a broad sunflower.
It's when it rains I dance alone
Dressed in seaweed, scales and gold.

It's when I laugh I see my hunched back
In the pond below the threshing floor,
I dress up as a man from antiquity
And harass the farm-girl,
And between pine grove
And kermes oak I plant my standard;
With a sail needle
I slay the monster whose name I do not utter.
It's when I laugh I see my hunched back
In the pond below the threshing floor.

It's when I sleep I see all clearly,
Deranged by a sweet venom,
With pearls in either hand
I live in the heart of a scallop shell,
I am the spring in the gulley
And the bed
Of the wild creature,
—Or the moon who becomes more delicate
As she dies beyond the ridge—.
It's when I sleep I see all clearly,
Deranged by a sweet venom.

 

El Port de la Selva, April 1939

On he deixat les claus...

 

More information: Anglo-Catalan Society

 

I quan tot just si la tenora sona,
Pastors i estels perduts serrat enllà,
La Verge i Tu tots sols, a l'Hora Sola,
I els corns reials qui sap qui els sentirà,
Vindré mudat, al costat de la dona,
Amb els vestits de quan ens vam casar.

And then just as the woodwind tenora sounds, 
shepherds and stars lost beyond the hills, 
the Virgin and You all alone at the Single Hour, a
and who knows who will hear the royal horns, 
I shall come, having changed my clothes, beside my wife,
dressed as we were when we married.

J.V. Foix

El Port de la Selva, Christmas 1948

Onze Nadals i un Cap d'Any