Paul Attinello

Author: paulattinello

  • Desafinado (Sitges VII)

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    There are always points in any trip or vacation when one feels out of tune with the whole idea of vacations – they can come because of overdoing it (bars, restaurants, credit cards) or contrarily from underdoing it (as though you aren’t taking advantage of whatever supposed delights were available). The conjunction of insulted annoyance…

  • Xiguerit-pocquerit (Sitges VI)

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in ,

    Tonight was the final night of the Festa Major de Sant Barthomeu, which involved a lot of people in large circles doing the Catalan national dance… which is actually quite peculiar. It’s sort of ametrical (are there about nine, or twelve, steps in irregular groupings?) and extremely restrained, to say the least – frankly it’s…

  • Out to lunch (Sitges V)

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in ,

    Today Susan and I went in to Barcelona on the train, to wander around and indulge ourselves. I wanted to do something unusual for lunch – in Sitges we have been a bit too conservative, too pedestrian, landing repeatedly at a popular Argentine steak house (pleasant but a tiny bit boring). So we were thinking…

  • Getting Out (Sitges IV)

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in ,

    After the previous two posts, sleepless and, as always, aware that one should employ every minute of vacation time rather than waste it, I went out at 3 am to Trailer, my favorite of the dance clubs here. It turns out that 3 is too early for Trailer, and it was virtually empty – I…

  • The abbot’s story

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Have I ever told you the story of the Japanese abbot? – no, of course I haven’t. It was a tale that caught my imagination, or perhaps arose into my memory, some time in the late 1980s; on my computer is an aborted text where I tried to tell it, embedded in an imagined story…

  • Temporal (Sitges III)

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in ,

    After midnight, difficult to sleep, hearing David Lang’s shimmering, wispily endless Orpheus Over and Under pieces. There is something bothering me about Neville’s illness and impending death (aside from the obvious), plus its effect on his partner Chris, plus our mutual friend Dennis’ moving away up the coast, and the possible knock-on effects of these…

  • Gloriana

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Listening to a favorite work, perhaps not one of the monuments of Western music, but, well – Britten’s Choral Dances from Gloriana, a suite of all-too-short dances that represent a miniature masque held in the Elizabethan court. I love the whole opera, too, although the best recording doesn’t seem to be available any more; of…

  • Imperturbable (Sitges II)

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Even after a demented pair of nights spent trying to keep up with Nick, a handsome, sexy younger guy – one whose approach to everything is aggressively, even competitively, sensual, and who complains in one breath about the “bubble” of Sitges (by which he means the strangely unreal effect of the desire-oriented population – and…

  • Dithering (Sitges I)

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in ,

    What do I want to do? Sitges, the little beach town down the coast from Barcelona, is designed for desires: I want to go to the beach, I want to eat dinner. I want muscat grapes, I want fideuá, I want hazelnuts in honey. I want to walk through narrow streets, I want to see…

  • Viajes

    —

    by

    paulattinello
    in

    Off to Spain tomorrow. Yes, it’s true, I got many things done today… back in eight days, then three days in London, then increasing work/administration toward the beginning of the school year…. But tomorrow, Sitges. Sun. A group of my friends, especially Susan; shopping in Barcelona; beach, sand; the clubs with handsome Spanish men. Food…