My long weekend in Madrid - Day 1 (evening) - Atocha Train station; dinner at Maravillas' s in Conservatorio, Southern Madrid - The 18th of February 2016

Having accepted an invitation to stay at one of Mia's friends in Madrid Mia and I headed to our meeting point at Atocha train station soon after we landed at Barajas Adolfo Suaréz airport despite the fact that it was still quite early.

Barajas  airport painted wall

Photos of the Cibelles' square taken from the airport bus

I had been to Atocha train station several times before but because of some huge baby face sculptures standing outside one of its main entrances I didn't recognise it immediately. Once inside the layout was obviously the same though there were quite a few statues spread around that hadn't been there before.

We walked about for half an hour till we finally met Carmen. We had to catch a Renfe train and then the Southern metro so as to reach her mother's house in the Conservatorio area, where we would be staying for the next two days.

Maravillas, Carmen's mother, greeted us with an incredibly tasty dinner, after which we went to bed not only because it was fairly late already but also because we all seemed to be tired for different reasons.

On the latest film I have watched ...

I have been to see Room,  a work of fiction based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, though one can't help but think of similar stories that have occurred not so long ago, such as the Fritzl case in Austria and the Castro one in Ohio.

Most of the film is set in a 3 by 3 metre soundproof room where the main characters, mother and son, have been held captive and spent the last years of their lives (seven in the case of the mother and five in the case of the young man).

So as to "protect" him the mother has led him to believe there is nothing beyond those four walls, within which they have strengthened their bond and ultimately managed to be creative,  as creative as one can be with limited resources and a prospect of happiness that is  almost exclusively dependant on their love for each other.

What follows after they have eventually been able to  escape offers a rather intense sequence of scenes in which each of them tries to adjust to a completely different type of life and in the case of the mother a life she was unwillingly forced to leave behind as an adolescent.

Being told from the child's perspective Room is a very intense film, which makes us ponder a lot of side issues, which go well beyond the depicted situation.  The intensity of the film is reinforced by both the mother and son's interpretations which are outstanding and clearly second to none having as a consequence received  a well deserved worldwide appraisal.

"Ultimately serves as a life-affirming evocation of the durability and resilience of the human spirit. Brilliant" - Paul Mount

The latest book I have read ...

George Orwell's 1937 non-fiction book The road to Wigan Pier whose first part chronicles his experience among the miners' lives in the Northern part of England with its second part more of an essay approach on Socialism has left me astounded, not only because of the relevance many of the issues raised still resonate today but mostly because of the insightful, detailed, compassionate and direct way in which he addresses them.

 

 

I regret not having acknowledged his brilliancy when I was at University, possibly because I was too young to fully understand the context and strength of his words, though I recognise it is never too late to further explore what one wasn't able to at a younger age.

 

 

" A searing account of George Orwell's experiences of workingclass life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire, The road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, slum housing, mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity."







 

On the latest film I have watched ...

"Right now, wrong then" by Hong Sang-soo, which has been awarded two rather distinct prizes at both the 9th Asia Pacific Screen in Brisbane (best actor) and the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland (the Golden Leopard), exceeded all my expectations and had me  pondering on the details one is sometimes unconsciously unaware of and which may eventually and in many cases ultimately dictate the different outcomes and decision taking in or within a given scenario. 

I felt the way this South Korean film was presented was rather ingenious and clever in a fairly simple way - the same romantic scenario setting played out twice  with markedly different results. The first part being actually called "Right then, wrong now" as opposed to the second part which is the title of the film  "Right now, wrong then."

The two main actors were outstanding in their performances, with Jung Jae-Young having been awarded  a prize for best actor. The role he plays in the film requires quite a few deep expressions and behavioural attitudes, which are rather difficult to convey but which he masters in absolute perfection.  The degree of intimacy created by the film producer and the photography director  can't help but take the audience into the scenario setting as if we were the ones being exposed.

 

"Watching a man yearn for a woman isn't the defining characteristic of the film; it's the many intersections and little differences at play that will find Right now, wrong then a place in narrative studies courses."






 

 

 

 

 

Shopping for the children of Calheta ...

I have gone shopping for the children of Calheta, namely for those children, whose "godparents" either live out of continental Portugal or trust me with the sellecting of their presents. What seems to always get me down is not so much walking in and out of shops which are on sales so as not to spend too much but the fact that there is a group of "recurrent" godparents who simply don't care.

The fact that I've been doing this for over six years hasn't diminished my committment and whenever I go shopping I always seem to carry the image of certain (not to say most) children in the back of my mind ... the way they were when I first met them and the growing confidence and self-esteem they have been developing since they have realised and actually felt someone somewhere thought and cared about them. It's much more than the provision for the school needs and the little presents (although many of them had never had any or many ...).

Ivanilde Elena in October 2014 (left) and when I met her in 2010.

Rosana in 2010 (left) and when I handed her the presents and the godmother's letter in October 2014. 

Happiness and dreams come in small doses ... but maybe the happiness one gets by thinking about others' happiness is what really counts ...

Presents for Silvana (left) and Ivanilde Elena (right).

Presents for Patrick (left) and Eduardo (right).

An additional present for Herber (left) and presents for Ismael (right).

Presents for Artemisa (left) and Nolita (right)

I am still far from having everything ready before the trip in one and a half month's time but I am happy with  what I have managed to organise so far. Wish I could get more "godparents" involved in this process, not to mention in the actual travelling there with me. 

My regular travelling companion and "godmother" to one local girl, Marie Hélène has just become a mother herself and will possibly not fly there with me for a while, yet on the other hand Noëlle will be going there with me for the second consecutive time.

We are looking forward to setting foot in Calheta soon ... because we know how important it is for the local children ... as well as for us ...

The latest book I have read ...

"No one cares about talent. Mediocrity is easier to deal with, and less trouble." - Sergey Prokofiev's diaries 

This was one of the first sentences I was drawn to during the reading of this incredibly well written biographical book on Sergey Prokofiev (Sergey Prokofiev by Daniel Jaffé), whose life I knew very little about, with the exception of maybe a few aspects related to his musical works.

 

In a rather naive type of approach on my part I had imagined someone with his talent  and musical virtuosity would have gone through life without too many difficulties, being solely dependant on and acknowledged by what he had to offer audiences and in no way had I ever thought the political events would have forced him to shape his career and in a rather direct way suffer despite the admiration and support of key figures.

 

His notoriety came with a price and so did his return to the USSR in his final years. Prokofiev's life was particularly rich and Daniel Jaffé's biograpphy is more than a mere compehensive approach to who Prokofiev really was, once it covers his circle of friends and the women who played an important role in his life.  

 

 

"All attempts to play down to the listener not only inherently underestimate his cultural maturity and the development of his taste - they also contain an element of insincerity. And music that is insincere cannot endure."

There are plenty of black and white photographs of Prokofiev in the various stages and important moments of his life in this book, and despite being too detailed (musically speaking) at times it does nevertheless provide readers with a thorough intimate portrait of such an outstanding character that goes well beyond the simple composer.

 

 

It has taken me longer to read it than I had initially expected it would but it' s been more than worth it in as much as apart from his personal life it made me ponder on a lot of other aspects that still resonate today as far as creativity and being oneself are concerned.