Book Night in Madrid

Yesterday was the feast of St. George. While he's better known in England and Ethiopia for slaying a dragon, in Spain he's honored as the patron saint of books. So last night Madrid celebrated La Noche de los Libros.

In the evening the family and I went to hear friend and fellow writer Lawrence Schimel read his bilingual children's books in the park near our house. He's written a bunch of them and had the crowd of kids, including my son, paying attention as well as you can expect. I later asked my son which book he liked best and he replied, "All of them." I guess he's not going to grow up to be a critic. I'm relieved.

Later that night I went to hear some more readings. The streets were filled with bearded men. Black sweaters were everywhere, even more so than usual in Madrid. Pipe smoke wafted through the air. Bookshops had set out stalls in the streets. Why can't every night be like this?

First stop was Entrelíneas Librebar, a cozy little café in my barrio that sells used foreign books and small press Spanish titles. As I arrived couple was singing and playing a guitar, and while that had nothing to do with books they were pretty good. Next up was writer Escandar Algeet reading from his Alas de Mar y Prosa. Some nice turns of phrase; pity his audience was so small. I was the only one there who wasn't a friend of his! This happens when you're a struggling writer. Trust me, I know.

Then I headed to Bukowski Club, currently my favorite bar in Madrid. As you can imagine from the name, it's home to a lot of literary readings for hard-drinking writers. The rum and coke I had there was twice as strong as the one I got at Entrelíneas. I arrived in time to hear the last poem of Roberto Menéndez's Campo de amapolas and didn't really get a chance to size up his work. The crowd gave him loud applause as he finished, though, so I guess he did well. Next up was David Panadero reading from Terror en pildoras, a study of episodic horror films. He had some interesting insights and I wished he had stayed on stage longer. I'll probably buy his book eventually.

I did buy one book at Entrelíneas--Jack Black's You Can't Win, in a Spanish translation titled Nadie Gana. This is a Beat memoir written in 1926, a generation before the Beat movement. It was highly influential on William S. Burroughs, among others. It's published in Spain by Escalera, a small press that specializes in translating Beat Generation literature, and publishing books by Spanish writers with a similar style. I've been looking for this book for some time. It's one of those titles I've mean reading to read for years but was waiting to stumble across at just the right time. That always makes for an important reading experience. Those who believe in coincidence won't know what I'm talking about.

By this time I was tired and more than a little buzzed so I didn't make it to another of my favorite literary cafes in Madrid, Café Comercial. I write there a lot during the day and once got photographed by tourists because I fit in so well with the cafe's reputation!

So all in all I had a great time. I wasn't sure whether to put this post in my writing blog or here, but decided it had to do more with settling in Madrid than writing, since I was strictly a member of the audience. It doesn't hurt to have a bit of crossover on your blogs!

Next Time: two adventurous ways to cross Africa! Yes, I know I said that last post, but how could I skip La Noche de los Libros?

"The Bookworm" by Carl Spitzweg (1850) courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Great Movie About Illegal Immigration

I watched an excellent movie about illegal immigration to Spain last week titled 14 Kilómetros. The title is taken from the shortest distance from Morocco to Spain, a route traversed by thousands of illegal African immigrants every year. The film follows three people from Mali and Niger as they trek across vast deserts and several borders trying to make it to the First World.

This is a seriously depressing movie. Almudena couldn't even watch it to the end, despite its good acting, beautiful scenery, and a soundtrack that we intend to buy. What struck me was the similarity to movies and documentaries I've seen about illegal imigrants crossing the desert from Mexico into the U.S.--the same natural dangers, the same hostile and occasionally helpful policemen, the same exploitative smugglers. The only things different were the culture and language. It would be interesting to see how a Central American audience would react to this movie.

Highly recommended, but not if you only watch movies to escape reality.

Great Film from Nepal

I've been attending the 7th Annual Madrid Indian Film Festival, indulging in my love of foreign film. Despite the name, only about a half were from India, the rest being from various Asian and Middle Eastern countries. The best film I saw by far was Kagbeni, a Nepali film. I'd never seen a Nepali film before so I didn't know what to expect. Considering that it's one of the poorest countries in the world and just emerging from a nasty civil war, I figured I'd see a low budget effort.

Boy was I wrong! This is the best film I've seen this year. Cinemaphotographer Bidur Pandey has lots of fun with panning shots of Nepal's beautiful scenery, perfectly capturing the wonderful colors that are still vivid in my mind from my visit there more than ten years ago. The acting was well done, the scripting tight, the cultural mores are made accessible to a foreign audience, and the plot was engaging. The fact that this is Bhusan Dahal's directorial debut is simply amazing.

I won't give away the plot, but it's based on the famous story The Monkey's Paw, written by W.W. Jacobs in 1902. The story revolves around an ancient monkey's paw that can grant wishes. But as we all know, wishes come at a price. . .

If you get a chance to see this film, by all means do.