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READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
Sylvia and I went down the street to La Galera for lunch today -- tasty... Now I am floating on a pillow of pupusas and pollo guisado and rice and beans.
posted afternoon of November 6th, 2011: Respond ➳ More posts about Sylvia
(Made up on the spur of the moment this evening and worth remembering. It takes about 15 minutes including prep time.) A vegetarian pasta dish (vegan even, if you omit the grated cheese at serving time); for those who prefer it with meat, lamb or veal would probably go nicely in place of the beans.
Rigatoni and yellow and red
Heat salted water for the pasta.
Prep: chop a small yellow onion, a yellow bell pepper, some carrots and a yellow summer squash into bite-size pieces. (The carrot pieces should be smaller.)
When the water is nearly at a boil, heat a skillet over a medium flame. Add about a Tbsp of olive oil. When hot enough that the onions will sizzle a bit, add the onions and some salt and stir around.
Add the pasta, preferably penne or rigatoni (or wagon wheels or shells would be good, too), and a little bit of olive oil to the boiling water. Return to a boil and lower heat.
As the onions start to cook, add the carrots and some turmeric and some oregano. Keep stirring occasionally. Add the bell pepper and the squash and a little more salt.
Heat a little bit of water in a saucepan over a low flame. Drain and rinse a can of canellini or kidney beans and add to the saucepan with a splash of soy sauce. (I used kidney beans, which were the "red" -- the dish would perhaps not be as visually interesting with cannellini but I expect it would taste very nice. Broccoli would also add some nice visual/textural diversity.)
Everything should basically be ready at about the same time, 10 minutes or so after you returned the noodles to a boil. I served the noodles and vegetables in one bowl and the beans on the side because of certain family members who are not partial to beans; or they could all be mixed together. Tasty with grated asiago cheese and red wine.
posted evening of November 5th, 2011: Respond ➳ More posts about Recipes
One of the most pleasant aspects of reading Savage Detectives, I am finding to be ease with which I can identify with the narrator and his scene, can picture myself in the crowd of real visceralistas and wannabees -- picture myself perhaps not as GarcÃa Madero, who is after all just a kid*, certainly not as Lima or Belano; but as a minor character, a walk-on. It is an escapist pleasure, I am taken out of myself and out of my immediate world while I am reading (and really, it seems worth pointing out that that is an aspect of the experience of reading almost any Spanish-language text for me).
Without even spending any time/mental energy on the GarcÃa Madera - Rosario sex scene (which believe me, could divert enormous quantities of both), it is worth considering how much like or unlike reading pornography this reading experience is. I'm going to assert that they are unlike in some key ways; but given first that feeling of imagining yourself in a character's boots (and, well, in his whatever) -- how will the distinction be drawn?
*Hm, and all of a sudden I find I am casting blogging friends of mine in some of this book's key roles...
In Bolaño group read news, Richard has posted a review of Bolaño Infra: 1975-1977 -- Montserrat Madariaga Caro's examination of the poets who would become the cast of characters for Savage Detectives.
Los poetas mexicanas (supongo que los poetas en general) detestan que se les recuerde de su ignorancia.
The opening pages of Savage Detectives made me fall down laughing when I read them last time around (about two years ago now) -- they are holding up in quality the second time around and in a different language. I could not find my copy of the book (indeed I may never have owned one, perhaps it was a library book), so have bought a Spanish copy and... will see how it goes keeping up with the group read. Even if I don't end up reading the whole book (which seems like it would be a stretch), I am getting some lovely reading experience out of it.
A nice coincidence, also, for the opening paragraph to have yesterday's date on it. A good omen of sorts -- it must be exactly the right time of year to be starting this book. (Shades of October 3rd, 2005!) And GarcÃa Madero? -- he seems like sort of a brat, but in a lovable way -- I can identify with him.
I thank Rise of in lieu of a field guide for hipping me to the group read of Savage Detectives happening in January. The participants include (but are not limited to, nudge, nudge),
Midway through a third read of Zupcic's collection Dragi Sol -- I just wanted to post a few sentences about each of the stories, trying to get them straight in my mind...
Most of the stories are about the same family. The central figure is the adult son Vojislav Didic; his father, Zlatica Didic (or Slavko Didic?) emigrated from Croatia to Venezuela in the early 50's and married. Vojislav was born in 1970, and soon afterwards his father left, possibly meaning to return to Yugoslavia. Vojislav has never seen his father except in old photos.
"Return" -- Zlatica (not named here) is on the beach in Venezuela, wishing he were back home in Netretic. He decides to leave.
"The Same" -- Vojislav (not named here) is telling the history of his father's time in Yugoslavia and Italy during the second World War, and his emigration. He ends by cursing his father whom he has never known, hoping he is dead.
"Señor Gray" -- I have not read this story as closely as the others; it's not clear to me whether or how the narrator is connected to the Didic family. Señor Gray and his brother are the priests of an old religion worshipping a god named Dios Kirou; they initiate the young narrator in its illumination.
"Correspondence: Towards a Novel" -- Vojislav reads and translates his father's correspondence from the 40's and makes a case that it is a tissue of lies constructed to save the memory of his uncle Zlatko, who died during a battle between Yugoslavian and German forces in 1944.
"Who Killed You, Vinko Spolovtiva?" -- The narrator of this story is named Vinko Spolovtiva and so is his father; but they seem to be the same characters as Vojislav and Zlatica Didic. The father has gotten in touch with his grown son and arranged to meet him in Plaza BolÃvar de Valencia. The son has come armed and planning to shoot his father.
"Beautiful Life" -- The central character here appears to be Vojislav's grandfather in Netretic (although he refers to his emigrant son as Slavko, not Zlatica -- the other sons he mentions have the names of Vojislav's uncles). He is an old man riding his bicycle around Netretic, thinking about all he has lived through.
"Returning to EloÃsa" -- an old man, a senescent man, thinking about his dead lover.
"The Real Death of Vinko Spolovtiva" -- The narrator insists he has not killed his father.
"Letter to Nowhere" -- Vinko Spolovtiva writes a letter to Señor Caragrande about his name and its history. I need to read this more closely.
"Mary Monazin" -- The longest story in the collection, I am not going to try to summarize it now. The narrator is Vinko Spolovtiva -- I'm a little curious since the only other place in the book that Mary Monazin is mentioned is in the last paragraph of "The Same" -- this makes me think the narrator of that story is Vinko Spolovtiva -- I'm trying to figure out why there are the two characters Vojislav Didic and Vinko Spolovtiva? Seems like the book would be more cohesive if only one of them was here -- I haven't been able to differentiate between the two of them.
posted evening of November third, 2011: Respond ➳ More posts about Slavko Zupcic
David Futrelle of Man Boobzfinds some sketchy men's-rights activists claiming a historical icon as one of their own; his response is illustrated with some very intriguing source material. (Thanks for the link, Lindsay!)
