2023-10-13 19:03
I'm afraid it's goodbye.But thanks for the memories...and thanks for reading!After 14 years here and 832 posts, and my intro to online posting, it's all over because I've found someone new t… Read More
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Standing In A Spanish Doorway Blog
bretthetherington.blogspot.com
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A blog on social / public issues / education and cultural life in Catalonia, Spain and wider Europe.
2023-10-07 08:46
2023-10-04 16:04
Standing in a Spanish Doorway: Spanish Government Complaint Box Causes Boomerang ...: "The Spanish Minister of Employment and Social Security,Fátima Bañez, has launched a … Read More
2023-09-30 15:19
Photo: https://www.corneliakraft.com/When Nadia was running downstairsfrom the 6th floor, doing up her dressing gown,cursing the wind and her mistakeshe came across the boy from door 4… Read More
2023-09-24 20:12
https://open.spotify.com/episode/01ogjKyUpngHPNpQMcuneGReally informative chat with a guy who clearly knows his literature (and I don't just say that because because he's complimentary about… Read More
2023-09-16 09:22
2023-09-10 20:27
They wanted to stop the depopulation of the municipality... and they did it![Edited photo by Francisco Lomero]"In mid-June, an all-female independent group, Women for the Municipality… Read More
2023-09-04 12:38
"This song is dedicated to all the people...who make of a touch and a look, something far superior to the language of words." Read More
2023-08-30 10:03
Japanese pictorial map of Europe from the year 1932 Read More
2023-08-24 21:53
[Illustration: Leonardo Berbesi]"The history of the dish begins with the persecution of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, during the 16th century. Many of them ended up in England, taking t… Read More
2023-08-17 08:04
6 years ago today I spoke to ABCTV (Australia) about the Barcelona terror attacks. Driven by fanatical religious extremists, a white van zig-zagged down Las Ramblas. Fourteen peopl… Read More
2023-08-13 18:27
Standing in a Spanish Doorway: "You Hated Spain": (Ted Hughes, below) [A poem by Ted Hughes, which I dedicate to my twin-brother Matt (a poet) Read More
2023-08-05 16:26
Thanks for your very complimentary words, Andrew M..."I found Brett's very personal account of his travels through Spain a moving and very rewarding read. His affection for the country… Read More
2023-07-27 19:29
"Two masters of the fanciful and philosophical, together...""For more than half a century, this unusual yet organic cross-pollination of genius remained an almost… Read More
2023-07-17 15:47
A captivating short documentary on Etsuro Sotoo, the Japanese immigrant stone cutter who ended up being a chief supervisor at the Sagrada Familia cathedral (still under constructio… Read More
2023-07-08 20:43
Reading two short extracts and doing a Q and A session with an audience at Fahrenheit 451, an independent bookshop in Barcelona.
Gary Gibson from Blanquerna Ramon Llull University kindly in… Read More
2023-07-02 16:55
2023-06-26 06:22
[ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP via Getty Images][ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP via Getty Images][Pic: ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP via Getty Images]Moroccan politicians are discussing how to stop their country being a dump… Read More
2023-06-18 17:09
I'm happy to say I'll be launching my non-fiction book,"Slow Travels in Unsung Spain" at this unique independent bookshop:Fahrenheit 451(C/- de la Ribera, 8, [El Born] BARCELONA [M… Read More
2023-06-15 21:38
On the same day that the neighbouring region's new ultra right culture Minister is installed,...at a cafe in a coastal town in Catalonia a Black man is refused service by a waiter who racial… Read More
2023-06-11 20:41
"In Barcelona I didn't have the impression that the absence of my father was definitive. I thought it could come at any moment. We saw his family, his parents, his grandmother...It was his h… Read More
2023-06-05 11:24
Standing in a Spanish Doorway: Spanish Government Complaint Box Causes Boomerang ...: "The Spanish Minister of Employment and Social Security,Fátima Bañez, has launched a … Read More
2023-05-25 06:03
"The festivity of the Maya comes from pagan rites and dates from the medieval age, appearing in ancient documents. It takes place every year in the beginning of May and celebrates the beginn… Read More
2023-05-21 10:07
News video of the school where my wife Paula teaches.(Of course, not all the students/families there are "foreigners" because there's plenty of local Catalan/Spanish kids too.)"These days th… Read More
2023-05-14 17:49
Jordi Corominas i Julián: Clotilde Cerdà en Mujeres Malditas: "A biography of Clotilde Cerdà, multifaceted and [relatively] unknown." You can listen to it at the l… Read More
2023-05-07 06:16
The Second Spanish Republic led pedagogical missions to 7,000 towns and villages, creating 5,522 libraries with more than 600,000 books Read More
2023-05-01 15:08
DRAGON: Alejandra Pizarnik / ‘I write against fear’: Alejandra Pizarnik Alejandra Pizarnik: ‘I write against fear’ Fifty years after she took her own life at age 36… Read More
2023-04-15 15:24
On April 8, 1973, Pablo Picasso put down the brush for the last time. 50 years later, the Spanish painter leaves behind an abundant body of work, rich in tens of thousands of paintings, engr… Read More
2023-04-09 17:15
"In the early seventies, when people of my generation were starting [senior high school], we were forced to choose between science and letters. That poverty [of choice] forever impoverished… Read More
2023-04-04 17:56
Standing in a Spanish Doorway: "The Day That Keeps On Giving" (My latest article ...: [Photo: Jasar - Granollers] A man slices a dragon's head off (saving a princess) and he then gives… Read More
2023-03-26 11:31
"It is estimated that by 2050 half of the beaches on the Mediterranean coast will have disappeared. The rise in sea level already threatens the El Maresme railway line, the most used in Cata… Read More
2023-03-19 20:51
Video focusing on the volunteer work of John French, an Australian artist (and friend of mine) living in Barcelona. MOSS, the skating group organisation he leads is helping to create new wat… Read More
2023-03-08 15:23
[Raquel Acosta is one of Spain's most high-profile carvers (Credit: Josu Acosta)] "Carving legs of Iberian ham in bars, restaurants and at events has traditionally been a man's j… Read More
2023-03-06 10:20
On Twitter, the explanation from Siqi Chen@blader:·Mar 3"okay so AI can literally read our minds now. a team from osaka was able to reconstruct visual images from mri scan data u… Read More
2023-02-28 21:42
The Guardian recently published an article by Sarah Watling with [arguably] lesser-known books about the Spanish Civil War that are available in English. Literary Rambles bl… Read More
2023-02-24 16:53
Rightly describing George Orwell as "one of the great commentators of his own era." Personally, I'd go further and say of any era in the English language. Orwell had an ability to get t… Read More
![[sic]: LÃmite, [Feb. 2013]](https://cdn.blogarama.com/images/posts_thumbs_site_id/13849/1384853-1059845866.w320.jpg "[sic]: LÃmite, [Feb. 2013]")
2023-02-19 15:58
[sic]: Límite: Read More
2023-02-14 21:12
[This article* was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, Feb. 2023.]The Barcelona street named after Granados. ANDREU PUIG.A huge boat is sinking in The English Channel. A m… Read More
2023-02-04 08:44
[Pic: Reuters: Nacho Doce]"Nearly 4 per cent of Spanish households in the fourth income decile — a segment typically viewed as middle class — have spent more than half of their i… Read More
2023-01-29 12:44
(*Translated into Catalan below with Antoni Cardona)La mà que va signar el paper va enderrocar una ciutat;Cinc dits sobirans van posar taxes a l’alè,Van duplicar el… Read More
2023-01-22 21:59
Messi arives in Argentina with the World Cup. EFE.[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, January 2023.]Is the legend now complete? Is it a case of all… Read More
2023-01-14 21:58
Humbled and honoured to be found next to the brilliant Robert Hughes at independent Come In bookshop in Barcelona. (Thanks to Leigh for photo.) Read More
2023-01-06 10:24
[Greenwich Park parched by the heat and lack of rain on 12 August 2022. Photo by Alisdare Hickson. Source: Wikimedia Commons.]Water privatization has catastrophic results, as shown by F… Read More
2023-01-04 09:35
"Yanis Varoufakis is an economist, professor and left-wing Greek politician. Yanis has taught at several universities in Britain, Australia, Greece, and the United States. He became the fina… Read More
2023-01-01 20:55
"Lunja is brave. A warrior. Born in a small Catalan village, of Amazigh origin, an indigenous [group] of North Africa, from childhood she confronts racism, poverty,...sometimes even her own… Read More
2022-12-24 11:46
[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, Dec. 2022 under the title “Promenade of multitudes”]A really good book is a universe away from its marketing.One vi… Read More
2022-12-22 16:58
Standing in a Spanish Doorway: Orwell's Barcelona, December 1936 (& who really ar...: It was at a moment in Barcelona, of this same time, late in December 1936, that George Orwell chos… Read More
2022-12-18 22:18
"EPE reports that Spain’s first ‘micro-casas’ are now available for rental. The 847 abodes, (500 of them are just twenty-five square metres) are in a macro-complex in an in… Read More
2022-12-11 22:08
"The Banco de España confirms that company profits grew seven times more than wages in 2022. The institution says that companies have transferred the increase in costs to sales… Read More
2022-12-06 16:24
Sometimes it is necessary, essentialthat a man dies for a peopleBut an entire people must never diefor a single man:Remember this, Sepharad.Make sure to keep the bridges of dialogue safeand… Read More
2022-12-04 08:25
Doctors across most of Spain are on strike (Madrid) or planning strikes (Catalonia included: 25,26 january) They are protesting the continuation of government under-funding, salary free… Read More
2022-11-30 21:54
Standing in a Spanish Doorway: Ladino - "On what a dying language leaves behind": "My grandmother’s mother tongue was Ladino—old Spanish, the language of the Sephardic Jews.&n&hell…Read More
2022-11-27 21:05
"Why doesn’t the 1978 Constitution of Spain include the word “landscape”? Why doesn’t a Coastline Conservatory such as the French one exist in Spain?… Read More
2022-11-20 21:24
"Switzerland is Europe’s best country to drive in, new research has revealed.Spain comes in seventh place, with 627 cars per 1,000 people, low road traffic deaths with 3.15 p… Read More
2022-11-15 21:52
"Here lived Damia Aleixendri Curto, born 1909, exiled, deported 1941, Mauthausen, assassinated, 25.3.1942." (My photo of a plaque I found in a street pavement in Vilafranca del P… Read More
2022-11-12 21:31
A presentation at the design studio Casa de Carlota for creatives with special needs.Climate change, habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, ocean plastics, food insecurity and the… Read More
2022-11-06 20:35
"Rishi Sunak has taken over as British PM, the richest-ever person to hold the job. He’s already promising austerity for the poorest, with public services like the NHS in danger as nev… Read More
2022-10-30 18:20
My friend, the wonderful British writer and journalist David Baird shared his knowledge of the maquis in the Frigiliana area of Malaga province (where he has lived since the 1970s)… Read More
2022-10-29 16:40
The human voice at its best. Singing live to an audience. Strong and brave and tender Read More
2022-10-23 14:11
(This poem was first published in Burrow here at Old Water Rat’s Publishing )soft lines of fog treesnot the desertbut quiet like the desertwe look at the stars to see what w… Read More
2022-10-17 10:24
Cars and vans parked in a street. QUIM PUIG.[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, Oct. 2022.]The following is based on current and factual information&hell&hell…Read More
2022-10-03 07:57
In Slow Travels in Unsung Spain, I needed a destination. One of the reasons I wrote the book was this man, the great author, Antonio Muñoz Molina. In Andalucia's Ubeda, his… Read More
2022-09-25 16:53
Lovely sentiments about Slow Travels in Unsung Spain by a reader this week. Thanks a million, Emma! Read More
2022-09-18 17:27
(Photo: Allan Warren)The book must always come before the author,” said Nobel Prize winner, VS Naipaul. Unlike another genius such as James Baldwin, Napaul spent his entire brilli… Read More
2022-09-10 17:07
Isidra says:"This is an unusual travel book...Being a Spaniard myself, I really enjoyed the mix of literary musings, historical facts and sightseeing that Hetherington offers...As the… Read More
2022-09-07 15:32
Enjoying the great views (and later a glass of cava sparkling wine) at Unlimited Barcelona in Plaça Urquinaona.Highly recommended! (Full disclosure: We were given a free vis… Read More
2022-08-27 18:02
4 surprising tributes stamped into power-poles next to vines on the edge of town, Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues (where I live.)" El Cid (1045 – July 10, 1099), whose birth name was Rodr… Read More
2022-08-22 22:07
A REpost because so little has changed if I am answering the same question this year...Standing in a Spanish Doorway: "So, how was your summer?" -- My latest opinion co...: When peopl… Read More
2022-08-14 17:49
More reader's words I greatly appreciate:"This is a nicely paced book.He weaves in some Spanish history, art and modern Spanish literature...He keenly feels how it is for an outsider to be i… Read More
2022-08-06 15:27
"On Monday, the world’s eyes were on a ship leaving the port of Odesa — carrying 26,000 tons of Ukrainian corn, it was the first such shipment since Russia&rsqu&hell…Read More
2022-07-31 13:19
[This article was first published under the title "Summer at its widest" in Catalonia Today, July 2022.]15 summers ago (my first full one here) the CCCB, or Centre de Cultura Contempor&agrav&hell…Read More
2022-07-18 13:43
With Lara Hyams @ABC News In-depth I talked about the current extreme heatwave and wildfires that are the latest symptom of #climatecrisis in #Spain and across most of southern Europe Read More
2022-07-17 21:11
Standing in a Spanish Doorway: "Swarms, floods and marauders:" the language of th...: "... the ability to influence thought matters a great deal. George Orwell recognised this, inventing N… Read More
2022-07-10 19:24
"European MEPs from the far right, and the majority of the EPP today voted in favor of the EU Commission’s proposal to inexplicably label gas as ‘green’ in the EU&rsq&hell…Read More
2022-07-03 18:26
Turning Art Into Water for MOSS FoundationMelbourne: 6pm – 9:30pm Friday 25TH Nov 2022Barcelona: 6pm – 9:30pm Thurs 24th Nov 2022Silent Auction closes 9:30pm Friday Melbourne tim… Read More
2022-06-26 14:31
In a period of weeks where blind ignorance and Islamaphobia have been tragically demonstrated around the globe, it's apparent that the act of reading (and here I don't mean skimming racist T… Read More
2022-06-19 20:29
As a reptile – I like to think of myself as one of those lizards that runs across the hottest desert sands with a high knee action like an Olympic hurdler, though in reality I’m… Read More
2022-06-12 16:59
‘In this country, clamour is as inevitable as the air one breathes. It follows you, wherever you go, whatever you do.Motorcycles, construction sites, shouting, music, mobil… Read More
2022-06-05 20:48
"Strikingly akin to George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia.Exudes authenticity and realism. Hetherington gives us vivid pictures of the innards of Spain. A book meant more for e… Read More
2022-05-29 18:10
[Erika Lust_Pic: Monica Figueras]On a crisp but sunny early afternoon last month, I took myself to (lower) Sant Gervasi-Galvany, part of Barcelona city. I had volunteered to be intervi… Read More
2022-05-24 10:04
In this dramatic and poignant speech-like reply to an interview question [between 3:11 - 6:00] the Welsh actor talks about his miner father's unique relationship with The Great Atlanti… Read More
2022-05-21 15:44
"In Saint James' Park, London, the police apprehend a young man who is carrying a bag full of high explosives in one hand and a collection of letters sent to his grandfather by the writer Ma… Read More
2022-05-11 17:41
Not before time, one of the very finest translators of Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and French is being honoured next week. (See above for details.)His brilliant work on The Memo… Read More
2022-05-10 06:21
I just love how all their symbols (still) look like they were designed and made before about 1984. Never been updated: there's something innocent in that Read More
2022-05-08 17:39
the blintenglish events in barcelonahttps://theblint.wordpress.com/ upcoming events weekly events submit your event Their goal is: "to bring together the expat… Read More
2022-04-26 20:32
IMarking her 100th birthday, my 2009 translation of a manifesto by eleven Italian anti-racist scientists that begins with the words:“There is only one race: the hum… Read More
2022-04-20 16:09
I'm happy to say I'll be doing a signing and sales session of Slow Travels in Unsung Spain with Barcelona's Come In bookshop's stand on the international day of books and Catalonia's St… Read More
2022-04-16 18:22
(Pic: J. Losada)Barcelona is a city where plenty takes place outside the home or workplace in full view of the public. The other day, on the edge of a hospital car park, I witnessed the… Read More
2022-04-10 16:15
Here's a rare thing: me endorsing something. And I only do it when I believe something is really worth supporting.Let's Cook do a damn good job at making your lunch or dinner easier without… Read More
2022-04-04 06:36
On the other side of the planet, visting Australia a few years ago. This photo was taken in suburban Canberra, outside a house two doors away from where I grew up. &hell…Read More
2022-03-27 19:53
Highly recommended by me. Brilliant, concise current affairs summaries: done every week. I couldn't do without it.Read for free only this week here Read More
2022-03-20 16:15
[Photo: C.Morell] When I think of Catalonia what immediately comes to mind is the word ‘home’. I see the wide view across rows of vineyards, the mountains of the Pene… Read More
2022-03-13 15:43
"In this episode, [Turkish writer] Elif Shafak is focusing on the word #REFUGEE. Why are we afraid of them?" Read More
2022-03-06 11:20
"What counts are [his] encounters with the locals..." "This narrative integrates history without overburdening the text...""He's done a great job of immersing himself."https://www.amazon.com… Read More
2022-02-27 13:53
A street manhole from the Catalan town of Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues (where l've lived for more than a decade) with its altered former Spanish name under the dictatorship.The date of 1970 is wh… Read More
2022-02-23 16:14
"On 9 and 10 October 2021, the BSC hosted the Barcelona Deep Collage Festival, as part of the festivities in the Les Corts District and on the occasion of the inauguration of the centre&rsqu&hell…Read More
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