Spanish views from a small town

If this had been a regular year, the Son Do Camiño festival would probably have taken place back in June at the Monte do Gozo venue, an open air amphitheater outside Santiago. Since this is a Jacobean Holy Year, big names would have come to the bash, which would have had record crowds. However, these are not regular times, even though it is Holy Year. The big names will have to wait for next year.  Instead of a solid four day crush of concerts, they have been strung out into various weekends from July to August, with a maximum of two groups each Saturday evening. There is no tent city, no food trucks, no stages to choose from, no crush of people. Last night, Loquillo was on stage. We bought tickets for his concert, warily, not completely sure that in these times we should crowd into an amphitheater, even with our vaccinations complete.  Loquillo is an old rocker from Spain's glorious movida years, those 1980's of explosion of youth and music, the first generation to grow into...

Every January 1st, we watch the New Year's Day Concert from Vienna. It's become a tradition in our home to watch it as we get lunch underway. Every year, I revel in the shots from different areas in Vienna and the Austrian countryside, accompanied by beautiful music. Every year I envy those sitting in the Golden Hall. Every year, I entertain thoughts of someday visiting Vienna, and if I'm very lucky, sitting and listening to that concert. But sitting there is not that simple. First, you have to create an account with the Vienna Philharmonica, and sign up for tickets for one of three year-end concerts, between February 1st and the 28th. The three concerts are the Preview Concert, on December 30th, the New Year's Eve Concert, on the 31st, and the New Year's Day Concert. The prices are different, and are not that inaccessible. For the big concert on January 1st (the program is the same for all three), prices range from €35 to €1,200. I would imagine, however, that the ...

Yesterday afternoon, not even twenty-four hours after getting tested, my daughter got a call. She is negative for Covid-19. She simply had a little spring cold. With this virus, every little sniffle becomes suspect, and we tend to forget that other illnesses, much more benign, still exist and infect us. So, she has now fully installed herself in the house. My solitary days are over.  Life is slowly getting back into its regular grooves. Now that we can move a bit more, I am going to go back to shopping on Saturday afternoons in the next township, where there are some supermarket chains I frequent that don't exist in my township. But I will still try to stock up to not have to run out in the middle of the week. I don't want to be exposed to many people without any reason yet, even though the number of infected is going down in our region.  I am also getting back into the groove of moving my body every morning. Last week I went walking for a half hour almost every day. Thi...

So, school will end when it's supposed to end, the 21st of June. There will be, however, extra activities in schools during the month of July. They will be voluntary, and supposedly, will involve more games rather than sit-down classes. It doesn't matter. Almost a month of class has been lost and will not be recovered. Almost a month, because a week of the quarantine was Holy Week vacation. But, though students are receiving classwork by email and school websites, it's all review work. Nothing new is being explained or shown. I have only heard of one teacher, in high school, giving a class online with his students. I don't envy the teachers who have to design classwork for September to include two marking periods' work in one. I just got an email today about the José Luís Perales concert we are going to in June. It's been rescheduled. To March 27th, 2021. I realize it's better to reschedule it for much later than the end of August, for example. But. That. ...

Now that we're getting old, we're going out to concerts. Last year, we camped out at the Resurrection Fest, and saw Scorpions, in July. Then we drove to A Coruña to see The Pretenders at the Festival do Noroeste, in August. This year, we saw Mark Knopfler in A Coruña, in May, and last Saturday we went to the music festival in Santiago, O Son do Camiño, to see Iggy Pop. We've been to other concerts at the Monte do Gozo, the hill outside Santiago that shares an amphitheatre with a pilgrims' hostel complex. The first was in 1993 to see Bruce Springsteen. The second was to see Bob Dylan in 2004. Back then, the amphitheatre had seats and was more comfortable. Then, at the oversold Bruce Springsteen concert a few years ago, the seats were filled in to sell more tickets and now the seats are simply low ledges difficult for a fifty-year old to sit on in any kind of comfort.  But sitting was done only in between acts. When we arrived, at just after eight in the evening, the ...