Elinor Nauen

Why do use the past tense in “I went to the beach this morning”? Surely this morning is not the past! Merce explained to her class (Spanish speakers learning English, taught in Barcelona) that you do so many things on vacation that even this morning feels like long ago, hence the past tense.

The nuances of past, present & future:  Read More 

My friend Abel came by to say fins aviat on his way home to Spain. He's a Bukowski scholar who got in touch a few years ago because we'd featured a nude Bukowski on our 1978 KOFF calendar. He gave me a copy of a book he edited, Bukowski on Cats, 1 of 3 (on writing, on  Read More 

I worked on a project the other day that is about getting more states to use vote-by-mail (VBM) by accepting digital signatures—which the IRS & many other federal and state governments do. I know that in the three states that are entirely VBM, many more people vote. I know it’s the future (as are all things digital).

But… among my earliest & most treasured memories is that of going with my dad when he voted over at Sioux Falls College. I got to pull that big lever & he made sure I understood that what I did mattered. As a refugee & naturalized citizen, he didn’t take voting for granted.

Part of what I like is running into neighbors at my polling place, getting the sticker that announces "I voted," even waiting on line. I lived in Colorado in 1972. While we were still in a long line, someone announced that the election was over and Nixon had won. I was incensed: What about me?! What about MY vote?

Making this civic, communal duty into a private & utilitarian act rubs me the wrong way. I often mention Nelson Mandela standing under the hot sun for hours as a way to show how much voting matters in places where people don’t have or didn’t have or had to fight for that right. Women in this country went to jail for the right to vote.

I know I’m sounding a little buggy-whip right about now, but voting is something I can't be cynical about or indifferent to. I know it is or should be only the beginning of civic engagement, and that it's not the fault of the process if ignorant, crazy pols are elected but of citizens who don't bother finding out about the issues and candidates.

We wandered into a huge park near the Prado, where we took our shoes off & fell asleep on the grass, then found this rose garden. The wildly trained arbors were the loveliest part, the combo of art & artlessness, of small & tall.

Likewise, Spain was a perfect combination of activity (mostly walking all day & admiring the architecture) & indolence—long dinners.

According to Merce, a Spanish expression we don't have is sobremesa (on or over the table), meaning that after the plates are cleared away is when people really settle in for conversation. Here, once our meal is done, we are expected to pay the check and get going. I began to enjoy letting myself lounge over a meal once I realized no one was trying to get rid of me.  Read More 

My first favorite place in Barcelona was the Palace of Music. I found an apartment for sale across the street, but it felt a little too much like St Marks Place. Merce, my friend from Barcelona who now lives near Girona, said the acoustics are amazing & she goes to many concerts there. It's sometimes stunning to realize that the world is full of complete cities. I'm no Hank Snow—I've by no means been everywhere. Read More 

We interrupt our regularly scheduled travelogue to recount what I saw and heard on my block yesterday:
* A giant turtle gobbling lettuce; its shell must have been 3' across.
* A guy on a unicycle on the sidewalk.
* Someone saying earnestly: "be fair to the nation."

I love 5th Street!

Alisa bought eyedrops here, a very old shop, on the Ramblas in Barcelona. I like the pictures I took of people, businesses, unremarkable buildings better than those of La Familia Sagrada, Gaudí's masterpiece cathedral, which look like postcards, except out of focus.

I like churches, don't get me wrong, but I'm interested in people, what they do, what they say, what they want.  Read More 

Naturally I was thrilled to be in Seville, because it's where Byron's Don Juan was born, & thrilled to see many trees full of oranges, all out of reach alas (I'd need to be 6 feet tall or have a stool). I did buy this little oil on pressed board painting to hand over my desk & remind me of our trip. I also bought a little bottle of bitter orange perfume but it gave me a rash. The Moorish tiles were pretty wonderful too. Read More 

This is the place in Spain I want to go back to. I could get a little room, take immersion Catalan, walk around the 14th-century stones. Part of it, for sure, is my good friend Merce, who lives nearby in the village of Romanyà de la Silva. Part of it is that it's a slower-paced version of Barcelona. I can see myself walking the same streets every day, running into Merce or Isabella, eating the best potato omelette that I had in Spain at the same restaurant. I saw the old Jewish quarter & the birthplace of the scholar Nachmanides (the Ramban), red flowers in pots on windowsills, and many Catalan separatist flags.  Read More 

Farewell to one of my heroes, the writer & racer Denise McCluggage. Her 88 years were packed with adventures and firsts. She raced at Sebring & elsewhere, beating such drivers as Stirling Moss. She was a sportswriter for major newspapers in the 1950s when that was, needless to say, practically unheard of for a woman. She knew Steve McQueen as a fellow MG owner, was married to actor Mike Conrad, went everywhere, did everything the hell she felt like.

She was also incredibly generous. I contacted her (of course) when I was putting together  Read More 

I intended to stay in Spain in this blog for as long as possible but got derailed by Johnny having to have an angiogram & stent. Too much hospital of late, & I'm exhausted, but my question is: am I supposed to tell people? Is it the kind of thing one's family should be told as  Read More 

So much of Barcelona is about Gaudí, of course. His architecture professor said, We have just graduated either a madman or a genius. His genius lies as much in getting someone to pay for his crazy schemes as the work itself. It still seems so far out—I can only imagine how it struck Spaniards of a hundred years ago.

A Spanish friend told me this afternoon that the Japanese tried to buy this giant unfinished cathedral, with the intention of dismantling it, shipping it to Japan, and recreating it there. I couldn't find any confirmation of that but did learn that "Japanese general public discovered Gaudi in 1980 by an advertising film made in Park Güell, for the Japanese whisky mark Yamasaki, of the Suntory group close to Osaka. And since then the Japanese invade Barcelona."

Still a little jet-lagged, more on Gaudí to come—this wasn't even my favorite of his buildings. Read More 

Our first night in Spain we ate at El Glop, which was on our street, San Lluis in the Gracia district. I had crispy grilled skinny asparagus, and Alisa & Robyn shared paella. My most polished sentence in Catalan was "I don't eat meat, ham, or fish" but it didn't always help. Even when I was assured that a dish was vegetables only, it often had bits of ham. I ate potato omelets, plenty of vegetables, toast with butter & jam, excellent coffee, & my new favorite drink: tinto de verano, a sort of wine cooler.  Read More 

Such a wonderful trip in every way. Now I'm staggering, trying to stay awake till 10 p.m. Will start with the reminiscences & review tomorrow.

I'm leaving in a couple of hours for Spain (Barcelona, Seville, Madrid). My first real vacation in years (not counting family events, high school reunions or business trips.) I'm pretty sure I won't be able to blog while I'm out of the country. And even though Europe is on the grid, I'm looking forward to being off it.

In Seville was he born, a pleasant city,
Famous for oranges and women,—he
Who has not seen it will be much to pity,
So says the proverb, and I quite agree;
Of all the Spanish towns is none more pretty,
Cadiz perhaps, but that you soon may see.
—Byron, from Don Juan

Until May!
 Read More 

Are there two kinds of artists, the ones obsessed with beauty (art for art's sake) and the truth-tellers, who grab you to explain, who have a point to make?

Saul Leiter was clearly the former: "Saul had a love of beauty," wrote his former assistant Tony Cenicola, now a NYT photographer. "He didn’t like art that was harsh. He had a way of seeing  Read More 

It's Didi not Derek but the magnolia trees are blooming. I can live with it.

Especially as I go to Spain in 2 days. Did my laundry: As Nicole said, that's the first step in packing.

I love being an extra in others' lives. Maybe one day they wonder what ever became of Elinor, how we fell out of touch, what chugged them to the West Coast & me to New York. Maybe they remember one funny thing I said & not even me who said it. It's fine to be close & then not close, even fine to make a big mistake &  Read More 

Apparently this was seen by Google doing its maps. I don't know why it doesn't surprise me that a bunch of people in Japan would walk around in papier-mâché bird heads.

The Barrell drive-in (root beer, burgers, fries) was on Minnesota Avenue in Sioux Falls, just a few blocks from my house. It was part of the cruising circuit ("the loop") from 1939 until it closed in 1976. I suppose every town in the country once had a drive-in like it.

Apparently, the signmaker accidentally added an extra "l" & gave a discount if the owner took the sign as-is, thus condemning at least 2 generations of Sioux Falls kids to a lifetime of trying "barrell," "barell" & "barrel" & still never being sure which spelling is right.  Read More 

May one note that spring allergies are worse than icy winter rain?

And with that, home I go to sneeze & suffer.

I don't know why I never stopped & looked at this row of three houses before; I know I must have walked by them many times. While un-Manhattan-like, they look like houses everywhere else I've ever been, so they somehow never jumped out at me as being unusual. Yet there they are on 18th Street, where they've been since the 1850s. The front lawns are  Read More 

I don't even want to run a marathon. My knees give out after 30 minutes on the cross-trainer. But I kind of sort of want to run THIS marathon. I wonder if I could do it.

It costs 11,900 euros, about $12,500 right now. For that, they fly you from & back to Svalbard (where I've long wanted to go) to the North Pole camp, put you up there for 2 or 3 days, and provide helicopter flights, professional photography, & (uh-oh)  Read More 

The 53 stations of the Tokaido were rest areas along a 300-mile-long coastal route from Edo (Tokyo) to Kyoto. They were originally places where travelers had to present a permit in order to continue their journey. How great it would be to walk in Hiroshige's footsteps & see what the whole stretch is like today.

Hiroshige made his famous series of woodcuts in the 1830s. A later artist,  Read More 

Not a hint of green & we're almost halfway through April. Such a strange year it's been, weatherly. Today it was awfully grand to sit outside without feeling like it was making a statement.

The Passover home stretch, so no work today. I've written this to post automatically. It's a taste of the end of the month when I'll be away & not posting for 10 days. More on that anon.

So relieved to go by B&H this afternoon & to find the place intact. They just need their gas hooked up & then they'll open, probably early next week. They're a couple of doors up from where the explosion two weeks ago took down 3 buildings.

And happy to see a local campaign to support them. They are a beloved neighborhood institution & support not only their workers but many of us. Two of the guys who work there were the first people to visit Johnny in the hospital after his accident in 2012. They sent him juice & soup every day, and wouldn't let me pay for anything until I threatened to stop coming in. I can't say enough good things about them, let alone their French toast.  Read More 

How cool that we got a green light show to celebrate St Paddy's Day! (I know I'm a little late with this.) And when was the last time there was an Irish pope? Never. There has never been an Irish pope. I guess this gorgeous sky was to make up for that. What colors are as deeply connected to a country as green with Ireland? Blue with ...? Orange with ... the Netherlands but I don't think people in general feel strongly about Holland. Red, white & blue with several countries but a color scheme isn't the same as a color. And no one ever says  Read More 

Check out Lally's terrific riff on Frank Sinatra: "I've always been impressed with humans who can extend the natural talents of our species beyond what anyone previously thought was possible. The great artists and scientists and athletes and thinkers and leaders etc. Sinatra was one of those."

Billie Holiday, born 100 years ago today, may not have been as tenaciously devoted to craft & technique, but she can blow your head off. It's the old dilemma: technique or passion—but great artists, like great lovers, have both.

Sinatra's mean attitude toward women is what comes out to me in his singing. Johnny says all singers learned from him—if you can understand Johnny Cash's words, it's because he understood Sinatra's phrasing.

Billie Holiday just seems beyond understanding.

Not so much comparing, just thinking about why I hands down prefer Holiday.

Also see: Frank O'Hara's fantastic poem "The Day Lady Died." Is there a great, moving poem about Sinatra?

No blog yesterday because it was Day 2 of Passover/Pesach. Days 1, 2, 7, and 8 are holidays, while 3 through 6 are what are called intermediate days. The distinction doesn't matter as much as that it's matzoh matzoh all the time matzoh. (I was sick of it by the end of the 1st seder.) I have this idea that my problem with Pesach is that it comes at the same time as spring allergies. That it's not the holiday or even the matzoh but the sneezing lightheadedness. I will try to be amusing for the rest of the week but I will prolly be sour & grumpy.  Read More