Music festivals in Barcelona 2012

I still think that Barcelona is an ideal venue for live music festivals: nice weather, an international airport and great variety of accomodation. If you have the time and money, come to Primavera Sound [Spring Sound] from May 30 to June 3, you will already be able to take a bath in the Mediterranean... If you are into electronic music, come to Sonar 2012 about ten days later...

The Ramon Llull literary prize 2012

The original news story in Catalan was written by Lluís Llort and published in El Punt Avui here. The following is an unauthorized translation: 

"An accelerated Llull"

Last evening, at the Palau de la Generalitat [seat of the regional Catalan government] and chaired by President Mas, took place the ceremony of the 32nd Ramon Llull literary prize, the highest doted (90,000 euros) one for a Catalan book, organized by the Catalan government and the Planeta publishing house, which will publish the winning novel. This year's winner is Imma Monsó (Lleida, 1958) with the novel "The Fast Woman", which she presented in the competition as "We will be brief" and under the pseudonym of Alice Nes; it was chosen from 58 original manuscripts that participated this year.

Vincent Villatoro, president of the Institut Ramon Llull [cultural institution modeled after the British Council or the Cervantes Institute], before presenting the winner had some words of remembrance for the recently deceased Carlos Pujol, writer, critic and jury member for 31 years. The members of this year's jury were Sam Abrams, Laura Borras, Leonello Brandolino, Teresa Colom, Pere Gimferrer, Gemma Lienas and Emili Rosales.

The first thing Imma Monsó did was to formally thank for the award and stress that it made her feel "very happy", though her facial expression never corroborated this. She then read a few lines of the novel and explained it with a well-structured speech, delivered maybe a little too fast due to her nervousness or to the influence of her novel's main character: "The fast woman is rooted in the wind, so it is like saying she's uprooted."

The main character is a psychiatrist, childless and with a sick father. "She does not have a free minute, which is her main goal in life. She does everything at a rapid pace, perhaps determined by neurological factors, and in fact the her life's motto is "the quicker the better", applied to the buying of bread, cutting of her hair or opening a drawer, "said Monsó.

As in nearly all of her works, including "Like a holiday", "A veritable character" and "A man of his word", the family has a lot of weight: "The novel is a privileged area to talk about families. It is a work about family conflicts, especially between the protagonist, her father and her brother." The protagonist is a woman who runs a lot, always fast, "as any person today living in an urban environment."

It is a vindication of the slow, perhaps in the way of Kundera, "a metaphor of the times we live in, dominated by the immediacy, which is the source of the hardships we suffer, from the ethical to the economical; is the supremacy of time over space, you cannot fit into a mold that is constantly changing, ..." she said, adding: "We are forced to live under the speed's dictatorship, everything must be in real time, as they call it. "The work includes other issues, too: "There is a generally little-treated relationship, that between father and daughter; there is also a house in a provincial town in which have lived three generations; I talked about doctors' manias, because I like that topic, and about the thirst for art. I also wanted to make a tribute to friendship and dedicate a part to personal crises, such as the depression suffered by the protagonist, in active form, of course."
The work is structured in chapters that alternate between first person and present tense, and third person  and the past, between speed and reflection. "I made a great effort not to cut too much, as I normally do; thus, this is my thickest book. I am satisfied, but not entirely; who ends a novel and remains totally satisfied is either stupid or naive." She had also some autocriticism: "Maybe they will say that my characters are peculiar... It is true that often I put them on the edge of neurosis. This time I have been more meticulous with the creation of the characters." The distressing rhythm of some parts of the work and the protagonist has a harmful element: "From the very beginning or towards the end, but I always end up being the character, and with this novel I ended up very badly ...".
Monsó confessed why she took part in the competition: "Because I have been translated into several languages, but never into French, and the fact that the prize includes this translation makes me excited." And she ended by vindicating the fact of reading, doing it "fully and trying to generate a literature that seeks to create readers, and not to count them."

 
As far as this blogger could find out, none of Monsó's novels have been translated into English. Here you can read a short biography in English and see her bibliography on the pages of the Catalan Writers' Association. There is also an informative Wikipedia entry here.

Today in History: 300th anniversary Frederik II "the Great"

The Wikipedia has an exhaustive article here. If you read German you will find a host of news articles on hin on zeit.de, spiegel.de, etc. these days.

Catalan authors: Quim Monzó

Quim Monzó (Barcelona, 1952) is probably the most international of Catalan authors and one of the most widely read contemporaneans. His works have been translated to a host of other languages. He has a very informative homepage, here, where you also find the references to the English versions of some of his books, and what is more, some links to articles, etc. of his published in English. Amazon.com lists three books of his available in English.
Several times a week he writes columns in the op-ed section of La Vanguardia, the most prestigious of Catalan dailies (though it started out as a Spanish newspaper more than 125 years ago, and only in 2011 adopted a Catalan version). He comments on daily life, political events, or articles he read in foreign-language journals not in reach of most of his readers. The Wikipedia article dedicated to Monzó has all the relevant biographical information and links to some shorter prose of his, here.

75th anniversary of Miguel de Unamuno's death

He was a Spanish writer, philosopher, etc. from the Basque country, specialized in Portuguese culture and also interested in Catalan literature. He had a lot of quarrels with right-wing authority, and he died half a year after General Franco's coup that he originally welcomed. One finds more information in the Wikipedia article in English here, a lot more in the Spanish one here.

Catalan brands: a work in progress

Munich "Gresca" 2005

A few weeks ago I started this article on Catalan brands. Some of them are really famous and maybe you weren't aware that they were Catalan. As I do not find the time to write a complete text in one go, I will start with some notes and go on as I find the time.
Borges are dealing in nuts and other dry fruits. They are headquartered in Reus, Tarragona province.
Chupa Chups, maker of lollypops, might be the best-known Catalan brand worldwide (second only to FC Barcelona, of course). They started out in Barcelona but the original owners sold out. One can find their corporate history and more information on their official website in Spanish here, or in the Wikipedia entry here.
If we stick with an alphabetical order, the next brand would be Custo Barcelona (corporate website and online store here). I guess that the city of Barcelona really subsidised some of the fashion designer Custo's projects to have the city name as part of the brand.
Next in line would be Desigual, another fashion brand coming from Barcelona (corporate website here).
Munich started out as a sports-shoe maker and then discovered the market for high-priced fashionable sports shoes (their corporate website is here).
Mango was started by a Turkish entrepreneur residing in Catalonia. Their online shop is here.
Seat is the only "Spanish" automaker, though owned by Volkswagen.

all real Cava sparkling wine comes from Sant Sadurni d'Anoia, close to Barcelona

El País recently had this article on top Spanish retail companies.

11.11.11: lottery day in Spain

Today more or less every inhabitant of the peninsula will be attentive to a lottery draw by ONCE ("Eleven"): there will be a main price of 11 M EUR, 11 prices of 1 M EUR each, and then thousands more of more modest cash prices. Yesterday the organization announced that all of their tickets had been sold - at a price of 5,- EUR each. "ONCE" means "11" in Spanish but is the acronym of  the "Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles" (National Organization of Spanish Blinds/Visually Challenged). It started as a self-help group more than 70 years ago, and now is a powerful foundation with worthy aims. Their webpages are multi-lingual and to get an idea you can start here.