SOMA 2019

The music festival in Castlewellan kicks off today with this singer from Scotland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4iZNTwi2Rk

De vuestro Federico

In San Sebastián De Los Reyes we had an exhibition dedicated to the world famous and well loved Spanish poet  Federico García Lorca with  this letter to his parents where he signs off saying,
 'I imagine you have received the two books. Aren't they lovely? A hug from your Federico.

The exhibition with objects on loan from La Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid and La Fundación Federico García Lorca celebrated the very happy years he spent in Madrid in the company of his friends Luis Buñuel,  Salvador Dalí , Rafael Alberti, Eduardo Ugarte and  other famous names and friends of his time.They would spend their Sundays having picnics in in El Pardo.
There are pictures and there  is even a handwritten letter from the great poet Antonio Machado congratulating him on his play Bodas De Sangre (Blood Wedding). Lorca  knew fame and good  fortune but expressed his solitude in this letter to a friend which he wrote  in 1933.
''También yo estoy sólo, aunque tú me veas acompañado porque triunfo y recibo coronas de gloria, me falta la corona divina del amor,'
Despite his friends' pleading Federico went back to his native Granada where he was executed on the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on August 18th 1936.
 You will be able to visit this itinerant exhibition in Parla in September. From there  it will travel on to  Alpedrete, Humanes and San Martín De Valdeiglesias.

A LADY OF LETTERS

Our association would like to pay tribute to the English actress who lived in Madrid and sadly died there too, Julie Davies.

Our first event as an association was a live literary performance. Julie came with fellow actor Jonathan Mellor on a cold February evening in 2010 and read poems by T.S. Eliot in a bar in Alcobendas called El Indio Mocaqua. It was so kind of them and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I will always remember Nacho´s friend there, Federico, saying that in Argentina culture and free time go together. If only. Such talented artists are as necessary as the air we breathe.

Julie and Jonathan and Jim performed extracts from The Tempest in I.E.S. Joan Miró, San Sebastián De Los Reyes and one young person came up to thank us profusely for bringing Shakespeare to their high school, saying  for him it was like a miracle.

I met Julie through Tracy our mutual friend and I remember it was when Tracy´s boy Daniel was born in 2010 and we were there together at the hospital that I broached the subject of a reading from The Wasteland and Julie said that she knew that Jonathan was fanatical about T.S. Eliot and so it came to be that we have a blog entry called T.S. Eliot in Alcobendas with Julie making a special request to read from Cats too.

I loved Miss Ruddock, the character Julie played in Alan Bennett’s play Talking Heads for TEATRO LIBERARTE. It was a truly memorable performance, absolutely brilliant.

Just like each and every leaf on a tree has access to light and rain, sunshine and air, people need the Arts.

Julie was sunshine and light with her beautiful voice.

And in her care for the planet. She was unable to throw away anything plastic.

Dear Julie, rest in peace.