What do you expect?

Christmas Day – and the cold/sore throat/headache which has been lurking underneath my insistence on good health has chosen today to come to the surface during Day 1 of our annual visit to Terrassa.  Merry bloody day indeed.

            However, such minor inconveniences to enjoyment must not be allowed to interfere with the inexorable progress of Family Entertainment.  The Grand Gathering of the Clans is set for lunchtime and I am hoping that a liberal application of Cava to my internal parts will see me through the experience.

            Christmas Eve, which is when Catalans give presents, was fine with a meal that included my favourite concoction of a salmon, cream cheese, tuna and ham layered bread that goes down a treat – with the previously mentioned Cava.

            The most intriguing of my presents was an ancient looking pot with two spouts and a circular carrying handle on the top.  It was decorated with Catalans dancing and I was informed that it was hand made and of tradition design.  It is of earthenware and the theory is that in some magical way it keeps the water or wine inside cool in spite of the ambient temperature.  As Toni immediately informed me, it will be ideal for the Third Floor and I rather like the idea of drinking water from something that looks like a modified poron.  I realise that the last word of the last sentence may also need some explanation, but there again that is why Google exists!

            I have brought my OU books with me and, perhaps more compellingly my drafts of the poem on which I was working in Castelldefels.  It remains to be see if either of these worthy projects gets a moment of my attention while here!

            The poem is proving to be much more difficult to cope with than the continuing chapters of the OU course books.  In the poem I have an image that I am loath to leave out, but I am not at all convinced by its inclusion at the moment.  It is one of those nice ideas (at least to me) but one which is too strong to stand alone and I am struggling to find a development which will justify its use.  Who was it said that it is sometimes necessary to ‘kill your darlings’ when writing?  Well, this may well be one of those times.  We shall see.

            Terrassa is cold, or rather, colder than Castelldefels.  The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the temperature may well be in double figures, so we can’t really complain.  But one still needs to be fortified to meet the demands of the day and, to my horror, I have discovered that Toni’s mum only has herb and green tea!  Even as I type I am waiting, vainly I fear, for two green tea teabags to give a bit of colour to the minute amount of milk added to the mix.  At the end of this paragraph I will attempt a few sips and hope for the best.

            I did.  And, while not exactly to my taste, there is enough of a suggestion of that smoky Chinese dustiness to the flavour to make me believe that it is a valid taste experience.  There are also, I now discover after further sips, overtones of cut grass.  Ah well, perhaps it is doing something for the list of symptoms that I started the day with.  One can but hope.

            The political situation in Spain continues to defy settlement with some of the Barons of PSOE (the equivalent of the Labour Party) speaking out forcefully against any possible pact with Podemos because of the insistence of the leadership of Podemos of making a referendum on the future of Catalonia within Spain an essential element for any pact agreement.

            I have a fear that the fears of Catalonia breaking away from Spain may well be used as a (cynical) reason for other pacts.  I also fear that if agreement on a government is not made within the statutory period outlined in the Constitution then the ‘Unity of Spain’ banner may well be unfurled by the two major parties to get their lost voters back and we return to a bipartisan political system which has allowed the two major parties to rip off the public purse since the foundation of democracy in this country after the dictatorship of Franco.  Although the placing of what turns out to be far too much power in the hands of the political parties was understandable as a bulwark against the past, there is a real need now for the relationship between politics and modern life in Spain to be redefined.  The present situation is an ideal moment for that to happen, but the giving up of power is never easy and is never voluntary – so the next few months in this country are going to be replete with screams of anguish as power bases are threatened.

            An important, if not key, player in this new and exciting situation is the so-called King of Spain.  After the abdication of his elephant killing, philandering and hypocritical father, the present ‘king’ was installed on the throne by the machinations of PP and PSOE.  There was no provision in the Constitution for abdication and so the two political parties took it upon themselves to invest the new King.  The request (which I fully supported) for a referendum to find out if Spain actually wanted a monarch was ignored by the king-makers and it will be interesting to see what their creation says in the ‘King’s’ Speech today.

           

            Presumably the ‘King’ (who appears to be a perfectly charming and tall man) will aspire to find his moment, just as his father did during the attempted coup by the colonels when he told the soldiers to return to their barracks and accept the young democracy.  The present ‘King’ has the Constitutional duty to call on the winner of the election (PP with 29% of the vote) to form a government.  If Bromo is unable to do that, then the ‘King’ will call on the leader of the opposition to try and form a government.  After three months if no government has been formed then the nuclear option is to call another general election.

            The leader of the C’s (a particularly nasty right-wing party) has called for a Grand Coalition of PP, C’s and PSOE to unite as a front to exclude Podemos (which got more seats and votes than the C’s) to defend the unity of Spain.  In my view, such a grouping would be a disaster of monumental proportions with Old Corruption winning and continuing.

            Meanwhile, life goes on of course, and people are more concerned about family, presents, eating and how to get rid of the kids than Grand Questions about the political state of the country.  That may be a cynical view of mine, and it is certainly true that more people are talking about politics in an urgent and exciting way than they did previously, when they merely shook their heads over the new stories of rapacity that emerged in every television broadcast.  The times have changed and I hope to god that the people of Spain do not throw away an opportunity to make the transition to a new and potentially refreshing political situation.

            By way of contrast (or is it a sort of comment on the situation?) I am re-reading The Portrait of Dorian Gray on my smartphone.  While waiting for my padel lesson I pass the time by reading the lapidary prose of Dear Oscar and relish the exhaustingly bon mot stuffed ‘dialogue’ that his deracinated characters lavish on the intimidated reader.  I must admit I am reading it from the point of view of an English teacher, as I remember that the WJEC once set it as a set text.  It was a choice rather than obligatory, but as I am reading the book I am wondering exactly what teacher would choose such a book and, having chosen it how the hell they would teach it to, say, a mixed class of Cardiff school kids?

            The story itself is simple and the mechanics of the plot are melodramatic and rely on the sort of coincidence than Dickens would have relished – that is easily taught.  But the style and the range of reference is much more difficult to teach in any meaningful way.  Well, such concerns are behind me now and only present themselves as abstract conundrums to be teased at leisure.  That is the sort of luxury of feeling which permeates the whole novel!  I am thoroughly enjoying it!

            And now to prepare myself for the Christmas Meal.  What this means, in effect, is ensuring that my smartphone is fully charged so that I can carry on reading when the opportunity arises!

Politics and Poetry - there's a title to put everyone off!

Toni, with all the professional aplomb of a Big Game Hunter, managed to dispatch a mosquito that had the temerity to show its face in the bedroom this morning, after the pernicious insect had taken a sip of my Group A+ for his breakfast! Armed only with his trusty electric tennis racquet, Toni waged a battle which ended with that satisfying phutt! of my vaporising blood inside the fried carapace of the impudent insect. If only the power-hungry squabbling political insects now filling our television screens could be eliminated as easily!

And so, with what you have to admit is a masterly segue from mosquitoes to the present political climate in Spain, I can continue to shake my head in woeful disbelief at what appears to be happening in the country as the politicians scrabble for power and consider their options.

The situation at present is that no party has an overall majority. PP, the right wing Conservative party has the largest number of seats; the second party is PSOE, the Spanish equivalent of the Labour Party. The other two main parties are Podemos, a left-wing party promising wide-ranging changes in the way that Spain is governed. Podemos gained more seats than the newly founded right-wing party C's, which is beloved by anti-Catalans and Big Business.

PP joining with the C's are still too small a combination to command a majority in parliament and so the empty-headed leader of the C's has proposed a grand grouping of PP with C's and PSOE. The stuff of nightmares! From the C's point of view this would be a combination of all those parties who are opposed to the breaking up of Spain and, much more importantly, it would give the leader of the C's an opportunity to pretend that he was in government.

At present, Bromo (the so-called Prime Minister of Spain) is having talks with the leader of PSOE – and those two parties together could command a majority.

If I want to be cynical (and I do) then I could say that the two parties in these talks, PP and PSOE, are the parties who have flip-flopped power between each other and so have most to lose by the break up of the previous two party state of politics in Spain. I would also say that both of these parties are, thanks to their entrenched positions of power in the country, systemically corrupt – with PP being almost comically so. They can both see their cosy relationships with power and money slipping away from them. They have everything to lose, so their frantic attempts to retain what power they can will result, I am sure, in moral compromises that would make a Mafia Capo blush.

With the excuse of 'keeping Spain together' they could use the very real threat of Catalan separation to form a Government of The Damned bringing together the two discredited parties in an un-holy alliance to protect their interests. The whole idea sends shivers of disgust through me!

Any alliance between PSOE and PP will inevitably result in the implosion of PSOE and they would have to be utter idiots to think of keeping Bromo (or even worse the poison dwarf who is his deputy) in power as it will destroy the party. However the blandishment of power has ever been one of the greatest impediments to clear sight!

A more dangerous way forward is one which appears to be getting clearer, moment by moment. Podemos has made it clear that one of the major elements which would have to be incorporated as policy for any pact that they make is the provision of a referendum about independence for Catalonia. POSE has equally made it clear that they are not prepared to consider that. There are no other ways of forming a working majority in parliament than PP/PSOE or PSOE/Podemos/smaller parties, or PP/PSOE/C's – so the possibility of another election looms. Which nobody in their right minds wants.

However, it could be of benefit to the two major parties. They could say that they had done their best to form a government, but the question of the separation of Spain had kept them apart. The election could therefore be presented to the electorate on a 'Future of a United Spain' ticket with the two major parties presenting themselves as different aspects of policy but united by a shared concept of 'Spain'. This is a very risky strategy and it could backfire dramatically – but the media are firmly on the side of the established parties and they can and will stir up a fire-storm of right-wing feeling to try and get the 4 million PP 'lost votes' back.

Bromo is going to meet the leader of C's on Monday – now there is a conversation to miss!

Meanwhile, as political parties bad mouth each other and squabble, I am pleased to announce that my New Poems Blog is heading towards 2,000 visits! I post new poems as I write them and, although they may be changed in future revisions, they are a useful source base for what I have done and when. These poems also have, at least the more recent ones, a short description of the manner of their production and thoughts about their final forms.

It is an interesting experience reading some of the earlier poems where I become a 'reader' rather than a 'writer' – always a stimulating experience.

If you would like to read my poems please click on the link below:

http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es

Aftermath!

 

Spain has voted. And it is time to consider what the people of Spain, or at least those people of Spain who could be bothered to vote, have done.

On the positive side it is clear that 71% of the voters did not want Bromo and his bunch of shameless criminals to continue 'governing' this country. The conservative PP party lost 4 million votes compared with their showing in the last election – which at least is something. It shows that relentless discovery of astonishing corruption does have some effect on die-hard right-wing voters. Unfortunately many of those votes were transferred to a nasty little newcomer party in the form of the 'centre-right' C's.

The situation now is that while PP had the largest number of votes (Shame Spain!) it is nowhere near an overall majority. It cannot even form a government with the seats of the C's and it is very difficult to see any of the other parties wanting to link their precarious vote to the toxic poison of PP.

The appalling picture of what happens to small parties when they give one of the larger parties the working majority they need is clearly remembered from the recent fate of the Lib Dems in the UK. Although Bromo (as I call the walking joke of a Prime Minister we have still) is in no way an intellectual equal of That Woman, he has managed to provoke a similar quantity of opprobrium. He has also surrounded himself with a bunch of grotesques as ministers where, when a group photograph of them is taken, the graphic work of Goya comes appropriately to mind, especially in the etching called, “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”! Still, it has to be admitted, that when I see a group of incompetent, chiselling, mendacious, arrogant, sneering liars, the 29% of voters who lowered themselves to vote for PP must presumably see stability and competence! God help us all!

Spain is capable of odd alliances. Fifteen or so years ago PP found themselves in government thanks to the support of Catalan (!) and Basque (!) independence parties! I think it is highly unlikely that will happen in this election (!) but PP have shown themselves quite shameless in the way that they have treated reality over the past four years and so I firmly believe them capable of anything, absolutely anything to retain power. It is also in their very immediate interests to keep power, as their misuse of government is the only thing that has kept so many of their illustrious criminal ranks out of prison. Who knows what might happen if actual justice was allowed to operate free from the political manipulation of the ruling party? Especially if they weren't if you see what I mean. After the recent local elections when PP were kicked out of what had been strongholds for many years, the paper shredders were working overtime getting rid of the evidence that might (and should) be used against them!

One of the fundamental problems in Spain is a direct result of Franco. When the dictator finally died the form of democracy that was set up gave the political parties what is now seen to be far too much power. They were thought to be the safe repository of the democratic ideal and, to a certain extent that was true. But, over time, the power of the parties led to its own insidious form of corruption and the judiciary is far too close to the politicians; the separation which is necessary for the fair distribution of justice is woefully lacking in this country.

The use of lists of candidates in elections, where the voter does not put a cross or a number next to a particular candidate, but instead chooses a printed list of candidates from one party is also a disaster. The list is a single party's collection of candidates who could fill all the available seats for a particular area if all the votes were just for them. The order in which the candidates are printed is very important as the number of votes will elect candidates in numerical order progressing down the list. It means that candidates feel much more loyalty to their party than to their electorate, as their position on the list is crucial in their election: the higher up the list you are, the more it is like being in a 'safe seat' in the UK. The lower down you are the more problematic your election becomes. You therefore need to work within the party to ensure that your name is printed as high in the list as possible: the party decides, not the people!

So, we have a 'hung' parliament. Bromo, as the 'winner', will be given the chance to form a government and I shudder with horrified anticipation at what shameless inducements Bromo will offer to future partners in crime to get them to shore up his discredited sleaze.

Happy Christmas to us all!

Democracy in action!

It is better that I write this now rather than wait until tomorrow when my bile might have reached the levels of vicious incoherence!

Spain has gone to the polls.

The choice they had is illustrated in the picture above: from left to right we have the leader of PSOE, Podemos, C's and the tiny malicious dwarf on the right is the deputy leader of PP, sent to that particular debate because the Prime Minister was too scared to take part.

They have now closed and, in one of the most excitingly unpredictable political battles in the history of Spanish democracy there has been as turnout of less than 60%! It perhaps demonstrates just how much damage has been done by the elected kelptocracy of terminally corrupt politicians who have been governing Spain for the last few years. The imposition of a so-called king by the nefarious complicity of the two old major political parties; the almost boring daily revelations of mendacious and selfish behaviour by PP members past and present; the use of public money as personal cash by the politicos and, until the election campaign an almost monastic silence on the part of the Prime Minister when it came to explaining to the Spanish public just what his bunch of criminals was doing and had done – these are just a few of the concerns (to put it mildly) that voters have had about the election. However you explain it, the poor level of participation seems to me to be an absolute condemnation of the political system here in Spain at the moment.

We have been told by ALL the previous polls that the end result of this election will be that the largely discredited party of the Conservatives, PP, will 'win' the election but lose their overall majority. The equivalent of the Labour party, PSOE will come second. In third place will be the new right-wing party of Ciudadanos, C's, led by a photogenic lawyer and ex-competitive swimmer with not a single coherent philosophical political idea in his pretty little head but the acquisition of power and stopping Catalonia breaking away from Spain. In fourth place will be Podemos, a new left-wing party which, in my opinion, has the best and most radical ideas for transforming Spain for the better.

It turns out that ALL the previous polls might be wrong about the 4^th placed party. Most of the polls and some of the early results seem to indicate that Podemos will be the 3^rd party and could even overtake the PSOE and be 2^nd. I am not a great conspiracy theory believer, but it doesn't take very much imagination to see the powers that be have been making it their job to denigrate a political party that threatens their cosy position of public extortion that they have enjoyed with the two 'great' political parties of the past. Television time and slant has been almost laughably against Podemos and in favour of the telegenic leader of C's. If it turns out that ALL the polls were wrong again (cf. The UK e.g.) then I think that the pollsters should be charged under the mis-selling of goods act or equivalent.

I still find it incredible that a quarter of those who turned out to vote were able to cast a vote for PP. I truly cannot imagine a more horrendous build up to an election than the series of televised disasters that were the daily staple of our political viewing. In spite of the obvious corruption and the flaccid attempts to deal with it, people are still prepared to lower their intelligence and put the PP list into their voting envelopes. To be fair, the present projections of the losses of PP seats is little short of a disaster and the few, desultory people waiting outside the (illegally built) headquarters in Madrid show the true feelings about the size of the potential failure to retain power.

We still have over half the vote to be counted but the general trends seem clear and Podemos seems to be well ahead of its erstwhile more powerful competitor C's. If the seat allocation stays as it is then there is no clear winner and no clear way for the foundation of a coalition. The next week or so promises to be a very interesting one.

Podemos needs to be very careful about their pact partners as recent history has shown that the smaller parties have suffered at the succeeding election to their participation.

We live in interesting times. And they promise to continue.

I, of course, was unable to take part in this election because it was a National Election and my vote is confined to local elections. I can therefore look from my non-participatory heights and take a sadly academic view of the compromise that the country will have to deal with.

Who knows what tomorrow might reveal!

All fall down!

It is over half a century since I last fell off a bike – which would seem to suggest to the perspicacious reader that that fifty year record has been smashed. As indeed has my pride.

Let me rush to my own balanced defence. The machine culprit in my discomfort (because of course, the fault cannot be mine) was not my trusty big bike with basket, but rather a newfangled purchase which needs a certain amount of explanation.

As part of a master plan for completely invented situations, I managed to persuade myself that what I really needed was to support a Kickstarter project for the world's smallest collapsible electric bike. Which I now have. Setting it up was a little more complicated than it should have been because I ignored my generational position and thought that I could do it with the minimum of instruction. I couldn't. And it took for ever for me to discover that there were written instructions as well as photographs in the twenty page booklet – that was obviously far too long for me to read through before I started pushing buttons and making things telescope.

Or not. Eventually I managed (with Toni's help) to get the thing to some sort of completion. The battery looks like an oversized can of Coke – though a bloody sight heavier. And the battery needed to soak up power for a few hours until it was ready to attach to the bike – which gave me a period to practice sitting on the thing. Which was not quite as easy as you would imagine. The bike is an A-frame construction, which looks quite odd and feels even odder when you are sitting on it – especially when the seat has not been adjusted properly. And that fault, I maintain was the reason that I fell, in slow motion, onto the surface of an empty road.

Let me hasten to say that I was not injured, merely a scabbed knee (now there's a regression to childhood!) a knocked elbow and bruised hand. Reading through that, it actually seems worse than it was, I did (after a few shocked seconds) get to my feet and continue cycling, making sure that I kept my weight forward to keep the seat from going backward.

It was an experience. The small solid wheels made sure that I experienced every crack in the surface and I gripped the handlebars for all I was worth. Peddling to make the battery kick in was a new and very disturbing experience. But one that I am sure that I will get used to and, who knows, it might actually become part of my multi-system form of transport to make my weekly visits to Barcelona more efficient and cheaper. My plan was to cycle to the station, take a train to Barcelona, cycle to my meeting place and then do all that in reverse on the way back. Hmm. The more I read all that the less likely it is to happen. But it was a good idea. Probably is a good idea if I can make the experience a little more natural. This is very much work in progress.

And I have been using the car more than the bike since The Fall. But I have to admit that this is pure laziness rather than some deep seated trauma.

Anything but the essay!

My displacement syndrome has driven me to write a poem rather than complete the first part of the three essays that I have to write before Thursday. Amazingly enough it is a poem about swimming. Well, sort of. It certainly starts with my irritation about a young swimmer who was substantially faster than I and sort of turns into a musing about all things transitory. Or very few things transitory as I restricted the poem to a sonnet's length – even if I didn't follow any of any of the sonnet rules apart form the line numbers. Anyway, it is on my poetry blog at stephen m rees new poems or possibly its all one word, but in some combination of my name and new poems you will find any new poetic writing which I have been shameless enough to post.

The OU essay writing is going amazingly slowly and, given the number of days left before I have to hand in three academically respectable pieces of work on the Renaissance, it is going to have to speed up in fairly short order. I always tell myself that I work better under pressure – though my only real concession to that is cancelling my attendance at the Wednesday meeting of the Poetry Group in Barcelona. And that is the day before I have to hand the bloody things in. Which doesnt say a great deal about how I feel my planning is about to go! Never mind, I can always settle my nerves by telling myself that anything is better than nothing. Not quite the standard that I was aiming for, but let's be real about this!

You may have noticed that there has been a variety of fonts and styles in the presentation of the blog. This is because I have changed my computer (or one of them at least) and, under strict instructions from Toni I am only using free-source programs, so this page has been created in LibreOffice Writer – and it does not seem to interact exactly in the same way as Word. The fault is probably mine: the User is always wrong! And I am working to try and find a way that the program will start behaving in a way that I want it to, rather than doing what the hell it want to in spite of what I try. It is an education. Of sorts.

And this is the first of my experiments.

A necessary draft!

As is so often the case, I open by bemoaning the fact that my writing is not going well. Not that I do not have much to say, that is not the problem, it is matching what I have to say with the dictates of the essay title we have been given. As is also the case, I am heartened by the cries of despair that emanate from the forums which are there, ostensibly, to keep some sense of calm cohesion among the disparate student body of a distance learning community. It doesn't work of course. The forums are much more efficient of whipping up hysteria than allaying it. Still, I gain a perverse sense of well-being from the heartfelt cries of academic desolation, as they tend to show up the triviality of my own sense of mild frustration!

Come hell and/or high weather I will have a rough draft of the first of the three essays that I have to write by the end of the night. Or not. One mustn't set one's expectations too high! It is a sure sign of my exasperation that I have been driven to write notes for the essay! Clearly following (at last) the strict advice that I have given to generations of schoolchildren. Following your own advice! How bizarre is that?

The first essay is a sort of compare-and-contrast – which should, of course, be academic bread and butter to me. And it is, to a certain extent, but it is the little bit 'extra' in the title that is causing all the problems.

We have to account for the differences in the artworks that we are comparing by relating our observations to the way in which they were made. As the artworks are respectively a gilded bronze plaque and a group of three statues, you could well ask what the hell I know about casting and gilding bronze and producing sculpture!

Well, I have to admit, I know a little more about the lost-wax method of casting than is probably natural for someone who is never going to get even remotely near to anyone adopting it (I have, after all, watched the sections of the CDs that we have been given as part of our course) and, as for statues, I always remember reading Michelangelo's supremely unhelpful observation that sculpture was quite easy, all you have to do is chip away the bits of stone that you don't need to allow the figure to emerge. That reminds me of one of my frighteningly intelligent tutors in university who helpfully told us that he always started with the bits of a work of art that he didn't understand. - the exact opposite to what I taught the kids!

But, there again, I didn't have the sort of first at Oxford where the faculty had to stand up and applaud when he went for his viva for his degree! Or was that just a story told us to make us in awe of him? What I do know is that he once slept on the floor of my room in Hall for political reasons that now escape me. And it was because of him that I made my first and only nervous telephone call to The Daily Worker (does that Communist rag still exist?) and delivered a report written by him, down the line, to a journalist! God, I haven't thought about that for umpteen years! And he must now be a professor somewhere or other, or professor emeritus now given the passing of time! I must look him up.

I have and he is. And, what is more I think that I will order some of his books. His High Anglican faith comes as something of a shock, but I am sure that it just as valid as my Anglican Atheism!

All this typing is displacement activity (again) when I should be writing pellucid prose studded with coruscating insights into Renaissance Art. With a capital 'A'!

Allons-y!

Music and other concerns!

To say that the Liceu's production of Benvenuto Cellini was 'busy' is an understatement along the lines of saying that PP in Spain is 'dishonest'. With stilt-walkers, drum beaters, giant swinging skulls, an enormous golden head, back projection, front projection, acrobats, flag wavers, moving sets, fire, dramatic lighting and a camp pope, there is enough going on to keep even the most reluctant opera goer amused.

Whether it all works, of course is something else.

This production is designed and directed by Terry Gilliam, with co-direction and choreography by Leah Hausman, and Aaron Marsden also credited with design, so a certain amount of scenic Surrealism is to be expected. It may have been the lacklustre audience that the production I saw had, but the participants seemed to be working too hard for too little response. The circus troupe parading through the auditorium with a coloured paper ticker-tape shower was perhaps giving too much too soon and added to that much of the 'acting' was hammy in the extreme.

And that is one of the problems with the piece: what exactly is it? The opera exists in various versions and experts have said that it is difficult to know exactly what Berlioz had in mind for it. Originally it was conceived as an opéra comique with spoken dialogue and musical numbers, but this was not the opera that was performed in 1838 when the piece had become a through-sung performance. The opera was then cut and revised so that there are now at least three 'versions' of the show to choose when contemplating a (rare) performance.

Perhaps this lack of clarity is reflected in the sense of discomfort that I had in watching parts of the opera. There are elements of pure farce (in the best Brian Rix - there's a name from the past! - tradition) with lovers hiding when the father of the object of their attention comes home; there is the 'tables' approach to the action which could be funny; individual characters are presented as absurdly pompous or as outrageously camp, the latter most blatantly in the character of Pope Clement VII (well sung by Eric Halfvarson) who arrived on stage processing through a pair of massive swing doors, atop a wheeled set of stairs and encased in a sort of armour of over-the-top ecclesiastical garments which opened to allow him to descend the stairs in a mincing fashion to join the action. His appearance was like a cross between the ancient emperor from Turandot and Bella Lugosi, except, of course, I cannot remember either of those wearing an ostentatious gold cross and false glittering metallic finger stalls! And there's a murder, a real death in all this visual melange.

And the fact that I haven't mentioned the music yet speaks volumes for this production.

It is not music that I know, apart that is form the snatch of melody from the fiesta which later was used by Berlioz as the basis for the Roman Carnival Overture. So I came fresh to this opera and was open to be impressed.

The title role was taken by John Osborn, who sang it competently, but not in a way to take me with him through the production. I felt that he was straining in the upper register – but then, what tenor would not given the music written for him by Berlioz – and I found his acting a little wooden.

Teresa (the love interest) was played by Kathryn Lewek and she was more than a match for challenge of the role, though she was sometimes drowned by the excellent orchestra, the Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu conducted by Josep Pons, a fault I am prepared to forgive because of the magnificent performance the orchestra gave.

For me the stand-out performance was given by Annalisa Stroppa as Ascanio a replacement for Lidia Vinyes-Curtis who was scheduled to sing the role in the performance I saw. This is a 'breeches' role and it is always a delight to see what characteristics are adopted by the singer to emphasise the masculinity of the character: Stroppa was a delight to watch as, legs akimbo, chest out, hands on hips she made the man! Her singing was exceptional and she was always a commanding presence on stage.

I was surprised not to see on the cast list credits to the troupe of jugglers, acrobats and dancers who added so much to the feel of this piece. The sinisterly androgynous Master of Ceremonies with his painted skin and cracking whip added a touch (perhaps more than a touch) of depravity to an opera that always seemed on the cusp of descending into total mayhem and incoherence.

Did I enjoy this opera? On balance, yes I did. Not only is it an opera that I can now tick that I have seen and heard, but its Piranesi influenced scenery and sheer vitality will stay with me for a long time.

And, of course, the sound, the sheer sound of the chorus (Cor del Gran Teatre del Liceu) which in many ways was the true star of the production.

The first of the OU essays is slowly getting written. I have decided that today will (WILL) see a draft of the first of the three pieces that I have to write – anything less will make the timetable for completion impossible. Though, there again, I always hear David's, “Don't worry Stephen, it will get done!” echoing in my head. And I suppose that's true, but I am aiming to do more than simply get the essays done.

I am enjoying this course on the Renaissance much more than I did the Modern Art course just completed. I suppose that artists or 'artists' had not yet got into their pseudo-intellectual stride and so much of what the practitioners wrote was more practically orientated than wallowing in theory. And it is a bloody sight easier to read and understand!

I take it as a good sign that the opera was about Benvenuto Cellini who was, after all, himself a Renaissance man, or at least goldsmith (or godsmith as I first typed it! Given what he managed to create, perhaps the typo is not too far from the truth!) and I am going to take his easy way with evidence as my inspiration for the sort of writing that I am going to produce for my essays. Cellini's 'Autobiography' which I read when I was in college in the Penguin Classics (black & serious) edition was an absolute delight to read. It was recommended by the English and the history departments- though, to be fair I think that it was regarded as 'informed literature' by both!

I have a great deal to do to find out details of the art works that I am supposed to be writing about, and I will give you some of the questions that I need answers to: Who commissioned each work of art? Was there a contract? Does that contract exist? Who designed the font? Who decided on the artists? Where exactly was the font positioned? Who the hell is the sculptor, of whom I have never heard? Were the statues supposed to be where they now are? What is the cross of St John made of – surely not marble? What is the significance of the bird (eagle?) on the base of the half column behind the three statues? Were the blind windows (and is that what they are called) intended to be the background for the statues? And so on. In a way I am delighted that I am in a position to have to answer, or bluff my way through, these questions. And I am paying (heftily) to do so!

I have discovered that one other person (as well as an appalled Toni) listened to my infamous but-he-doesn't-speak-the-language radio interview – Ramon, the owner of the take-away (how little that description tells you about the foodie delights that he provides) who merely said that he was listening to the radio and heard a voice which he told himself could only be me!

This is not the first time that this has happened. A very early broadcast (!) of mine was for WNO when I had to enthuse about an opera that I had neither seen nor heard. This was broadcast live on a Sunday evening when no-one was listening. But, come Monday morning, I was greeted by one of my pupils who asked if I had been on the radio the previous day! In a similar way one friend recalled driving in North Wales along narrow and difficult roads while listening to the radio and almost swerving to oblivion as my dulcet tones emanated from the loudspeaker! It is nice to have an effect or affect – or possibly both depending on how you read the sentence!

And now writing. A simple draft before bedtime will suffice.

Aftermath

corruption

Still reeling from the onslaught against the Spanish language that my interview yesterday represented, Toni has decided to produce an English translation of what exactly I said. He is dressing up this enterprise in the guise of an exercise in IT which aids his course, but I know it is part of his attempt to expose my astonishing lack of linguistic ability in any language other than English to the wider world! Luckily my self confidence (bordering, some would say, on downright arrogance) was enough, not only to provide me with sufficient reserves of energy to get through the interview, but also was sufficient to encourage my positive enjoyment of the whole experience!

          People will soon be able to judge for themselves as the whole débâcle will be readily available to enjoy and digest!

The interesting times in which we live have now extended to the immediate political situation here in Catalonia. The local government has taken the first steps in declaring Independence from Spain. The whole situation is complicated by the fact that the acting president of Catalonia is tainted by his close association with Puyol (the ex president of Catalonia) who is fighting against the avalanche of overwhelmingly damming evidence which demonstrates that he and his clan have been little more than a “criminal organisation” (as they have already been termed in the press and by some legal authorities) and their criminality is being used by the terminally corrupt national government of PP to deflect attention from their own nefarious doings so that the population at large fears that an Independent Catalonia will be corruption writ large.

          The FACT that there are numerous criminal cases pending which demonstrate with shocking clarity the bare faced rapacity of the ruling PP party has now been shunted into the background of the general population's consciousness and they are concentrated instead on the very real threat of Catalonia breaking away (totally and utterly illegally according to the hands-wet-with-blood government of Spain) and the breathtakingly audacious corruption of notable Catalans. Thus showing clearly and indisputably that Catalonia must be kept securely in the safe hands of irremediably rapacious ignoramuses which form the so-called legal government of Spain. The fact that this group of kleptomaniacs and compulsive liars can even think about presenting themselves as some sort of legitimate force for good just goes to show that any old group of mendacious curs can get away with anything as long as they keep their nerve and keep on lying as proficiently as they have been doing for the whole time that they have been in what they like to term 'government.'

          When I say that I have more respect for the Evil Old Bitch (you know who I mean) than for Bromo, my name for the so-called President of Spain, it just goes to show how much contempt I have for the be-suited cretins who occupy positions of power in the present sad joke that is Spanish government.

          I tend to think that I do more work trying to attribute Machiavellian intelligence to the way that events are presented by the dead heads in PP than they actually deserve. With the build up to the General Election on the 20th December, they are either being deucedly clever or astonishingly stupid in the way that their strategy is developing.

           Having listened to some of the half-brains who seem to speak for this apology for a government with some sort of assumed authority, I can hardly believe that they have a coherent political brain cell to spark to action, yet it is possible to work out a terminally cynical approach to the electorate which speaks of some sort of primal intelligence.

           As an intelligent member of PP is an obvious oxymoron, I have to admit (and indeed we know because of the way that their finances have been laid out to an unbelieving public) that they have enough cash from various crooked sources to buy in the intelligence that they do not possess themselves. And shame on those with Neanderthal Plus brains who have sold themselves to the amoeba-like slime that sits on the PP benches in parliament to further their despicable causes, i.e. themselves.

           So, at the moment, we here in Catalonia are waiting for the political parties that make up the majority in our local parliament for independence to come to some sort of agreement about who is going to be president. The last vote for Artur Mas to be president was defeated – and rightly so. But what the immediate future holds is difficult to say. Bromo has stated that he, himself, personally will not allow the break up of Spain – which is a bit like saying that the magma refuses to allow the volcano to blow. He and his party seem to have gone out of their way to antagonise Catalans and then they act with shocked surprise when Catalans respond as if they are ungrateful for their abuse.

          When I first arrived in Catalonia I was all in favour of a united Spain, feeling that the country would be much more powerful and coherent if all the constituent parts of the country were linked together. I still feel that is true, but the present PP government with the dictatorial use of their absolute majority have changed my mind markedly. PP have gone out of their way to make it clear that they despise Catalonia, only valuing the money they can suck from the country. Well, enough is enough.

          PP and PSOE (the equivalent of Conservative and Labour in British terms) have colluded in the creation of a completely unconstitutional so-called king, they are colluding in the suppression of Catalan independence, they are colluding in the suppression of a multi-party democracy and, above all, they are colluding in maintaining the status quo to ensure their own position in the troughs that they have fed from for far too long. A plague, as the Bard rightly said, on both their houses.

           Spain has a democratic system whereby you vote for a 'list' of candidates for each political party. The number of votes given to each party determines the number of candidates 'elected' on each list. Thus, if you are candidate 1 on PP's list you are guaranteed a place in parliament, and so on down the list according to the number of votes cast. In other words the scheming, conniving, corrupt members of a party do not need to worry about a particular constituency to get elected; as long as they are near the top of the 'list' they will succeed. It also follows that individual members of the party owe more allegiance to the party rather than to any constituency made up of voters in a particular location.

          It also means that utterly disgraceful party hacks like Rita from Valencia, who ripped off the people of that region to satisfy her own inflated opinion of what she felt she deserved, are not cast into the otter darkness (with wailing and gnashing of teeth) after her party (PP!) is justly thrown out, but is instead promoted to the Senate, where the overblown apology for honesty can continue to milk the state!

          Whatever you think of Cameron and his exclusive brethren of upper class take-it-all opportunists, they look like honesty personified when compared with their openly rapacious parallels in Spain!

Peregrinating Kate of the Barcelona Poetry Group is going back to California for the winter, but her crown as leader of our group has been gifted to another member who is going to take over the task of ensuring that the meetings continue until the middle of December when we will have a Christmas recess until the middle of January.

           Last night's meeting was on the theme of 'Returning' and I read out the opening page of Rebecca as my contribution to the initial responses. Sandy read a stunning poem which referenced her post traumatic shock syndrome from her time as a military doctor. It's poems like that which make me even more eager to read through her latest book which has accompanying poems by her sister. The publication date is December 1st and that is something to look forward to as I have demanded that her sister in the states send copies to Spain as soon as it is published!

           Kate brought up the idea of producing a book which could be a co-operative effort from members past and present of the poetry group. I have thought about this and so was able to share my ideas about how to make it a practical reality. This is something which can see a publication by the Spring (or more likely early summer) of next year. I hope that I will be allowed to edit the publication and see it through its various stages of production.

          The OU course continues and I am finding out just how little I know about the Renaissance – which I have said before, but each new day merely shows how superficial my previous knowledge was!

          This week sees me making a tentative start on the long three-part essay-like assignment that we have to complete. Other events and meetings are stacking up in the time left for its completion so I will have to exercise a certain amount of discipline about how I spend my time if it is to be done to my satisfaction.

          Another factor claiming time is the work (now delayed by still sitting in a folder on my desk) about the early history of swimming in public pools, which should, in time, link up with the previous work that I have done on Guevara and his paintings. It is getting to the stage where I will need to produce one of those 'fantastic' timetables that I am only forced into drawing up when there is already too little time left to do what I want to do. The notorious one that I drew up for my finals actually proved to me that I didn't have anything like enough time left to revise with anything like the thoroughness that I had intended to use. Still, lots to do – including filling out the absurdly long form for my pension. Though, thinking about it, I was able to use it as part of a poem for my next book!

Now, enough writing indulgence, time to start work.

Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation!

It has to be said that a personal Rubicon of Amazonian proportions has been, not so much crossed, as waded and staggered through: I have given my first Radio interview (dramatic pause) in Spanish!

I have left a decent paragraph space for that to sink in. Toni, who made the mistake of listening to it, is still in a state of shock.

Only I would have the bare-faced arrogance to go for a radio interview in a language that, it has to be admitted I do not speak, and wade into it live on air after having had no opportunity to consider the questions beforehand! And I didn't even have the good grace to be nervous before, during or after this event.

Let's get things into proportion. The Radio Station was our local one in Castelldefels and not the BBC World Service, and my contribution was an incidental literary segment in a programme that lasted a couple of hours. But still. Radio! And in a foreign language!

This was all in aid of publicising Flesh Can Be Bright and, it has to be said, I am prepared to do virtually anything to get publicity for that book. On Toni's strict instructions I asked for an audio copy of the whole sorry event and when it arrives I will post it on the Praetorius Books website, or at least on the Facebook Page so that the interview can add to the jollity of nations – because it adds little to the art of interviewing!

Toni says that on at least two occasions I ignored the question and went off on a path of my own and he has threatened to translate both questions and answers to show just how oblique my responses were.

When I came home (in triumph) after the event he was still slightly hysterical having listened to the interview while frantically pacing up and down the living room clawing at his face as he tried to work out what the hell I was saying. He obviously was not in the best position to follow my explanations because he actually speaks Spanish, a knowledge of which was not necessarily a help in following my discourse!

Still, the deed is done and it adds to my Spanish portfolio which also includes the interview in much more convincing Spanish (because it was translated by Toni) in our local give-away newspaper.

Having now conquered newspaper and radio, I have set my sights on television as my next target. Don't laugh, having got this far, it is only a matter of time before the bastion of the moving image falls to my mangling of the Spanish tongue!

Although the foregoing may appear to be light-hearted in its approach, I was obviously deadly serious as I truncated by usual metric mile morning swim to a mere one thousand metres so that I could arrive at the radio station in good time!

Meanwhile the OU course continues with the first of the double length essays waiting to be completed. Or started even. On the good side, I have noted that there are a series of notes from the tutorial held a couple of days ago in Durham. For some reason best known to the OU, all European students are linked with the North of England Region, where the number of EasyJet flights to the city are fairly limited. We far-flung students usually have only one face-to-face tutorial during our course and that is likely to be in London and in February.

Not the most appealing time to have a short break in England, but I hope that Toni and I will make the most of it and try and find time and a reasonable hotel to make the most of the opportunity to see more of the city. I would like him to see Clarrie's empire and who knows, we might even have time to make a wintry visit to Brighton and see just how near the sea Andrew is! Something to think about and plan.

My lessons in Padel have ground to a halt. The ten days of birthday celebrations were the ostensible reason for their pause, but there is no reason apart from physical pain that they should not restart. I am not sure how may lessons I have left from the course that I purchased, but I should take full advantage of that expensive investment – even if I have little belief that I will become a regular player of the game.

For me, the fact that Padel needs four people to make a match (it is only played as a doubles game) is a signal disadvantage as my playing of tennis, badminton and squash has always been as singles. Although I have broadcast to the city via the radio in one of the tongues of the country, I am not sure that I am quite so confident about participating in Spanish (or indeed in Catalan) in the badinage that is a necessary part of a doubles game. Though, thinking about it, that might be a powerful incentive to get to grips with a particular form of the language!

I must learn to end anything that I write with some sort of injunction to BUY THE BOOK. So I will start here and urge whoever is reading to go to the Facebook page for Praetorius Books and find out more about Flesh Can Be Bright and Autumn trees.

That is hardly the most inspiring encouragement to part with hard earned cash and splurge it on a well-worth-it book of poetry, but it is the best I can do at the moment. I will work on something which is more professional!