Yes, that does mean “lots of shit”, but in Spanish it is also the thing they say (in theatre) to wish each other “bad luck” (which is good, just ask Michael Jackson about this Bad/Good conundrum). It is analogous to our expression “break a leg” (también se dice en español: ¡Rómpete una pierna!).

I offer this load of crap (in a good way) to Berkeley-based artist Mel Davis, whose exhibition of New Paintings opens today at the NavtaSchulz Gallery in Chicago. If you’re in Chicago, lucky you! Check them out — these are paintings that really have to be experienced (not merely seen on the web).

Do you suppose there is an equivalent expression to offer to painters? What’s the worst that could happen… “Frizz a brush”? “Bend a knife”? “Fracture a wrist”? “Lose an eye”?

Anyhow, dare I say it: Congratulations and good luck moving those babies. Bring on the red dots!

This morning on CBC’s The Current they were talking about the pill and contraception. I found it amusing that one of the women they interviewed was named Barbara Seaman. (If you don’t get it, try to imagine hearing this name on the radio, not reading it…)

I was all set to write a funny little blurb about peoples’ professions and their names (Dr. Bird at McGill University’s Avian Science and Conservation Centre, etc.), but after a quick search realized (of course) it’s been done many times over.

So just go on and read this… (-;

Today is el Día del Libro in Spain (Day of the Book). More importantly, in Cataluña it’s el Día de Sant Jordi (Sant Jordi — St. George — is the patron saint of Cataluña). Of course, Jordi/Jorge/George/Georges/Georgei/etc. was famous for slaying dragons and not selling books, but…

The first official “Spanish book day” was on April 23, 1931, a few weeks after Spain became a Republic. Even UNESCO got into the act in 1995, taking the Catalan idea and making April 23rd World Book and Copyright Day.

In Barcelona on Sant Jordi’s day, boys traditionally gave girls (or at least their mothers) a red rose, and girls returned the favour with a book. In these days of gender equality, anybody can give anybody a book and/or a rose. It’s a big deal — in Barcelona today almost every street-corner will have stalls selling books and roses (I wish I were there!). In Barcelona over 5.5 million roses will be sold today and book sales should exceed 19 million Euros… There are readings and book-signings by authors and many other book-related cultural events.

The rest of Spain is into it too (the book part if not the roses) — this morning, President Zapatero gave his ministers copies of poet José Ángel Valente’s book Palabra y materia. On some Renfe trains today they will distribute a special collection of poems and short stories to travellers.

As a citizen of Montréal (2005 World Book Capital), I tip my hat to Spain and Barcelona. In fact, this marks the end of our reign, so today we pass that (freshly-tipped) hat to the new World Book Capital for 2006: Turin. (With the Olympics and now this Book Capital gig, they’ve really come out from under their shroud.)

390 years ago, on April 23, 1616, William Shakespeare died. On the same date and year (though it may have been the burial date) Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra died. Of course, it was not actually the same day, because England was on the Julian calendar and Spain the Gregorian one. Close enough — here at Enlaces Ligeros we accept even the most tenuous of connections.

Actually, this article from the Christian Science Monitor explains everything far better than I am.

To celebrate el día de Sant Jordi I bought myself (I know, I know!) a copy of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia (”Jordi” + Catalonia = doubly appropriate!) . For good measure, I also picked up Steinbeck’s East of Eden and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, to add to my immense pile of “must-read” books.

I suppose I should be saying that in Catalan (perhaps someone will give me a pointer…I think it’s: feliç aniversari). Why? Because today is Catalan surrealist painter and sculptor Joan Miró’s “eleventy-third” birthday. He truly had molts anys, since he was born in 1893 (where else but in Barcelona?) and died in 1983.

If you’re ever in Barcelona and want to know more, go up Montjuïc and have a walk through the Fundació Miró.

…a rube! If you have 13 minutes to kill, why not enjoy these wacky little Rube Goldberg machines built — where else? — in Japan. A few are really impressive, others are so-so. But how long can you last before that little song drives you insane?

If you only have two minutes to kill (speaking of Rube Goldberg machines), I’d recommend that famous 2003 “Cog” commercial from Honda, if you haven’t seen it. That’s truly impressive (or insane). The new Honda ad with the choir making car sounds is fun, but I prefer Cog.

Incidentally, Swiss “kinetic installation” artists Fischli and Weiss were upset about the Honda commercial, claiming it was too similar to their work in The Way Things Go. Here’s another of their works.

¿Tienes palabra favorita? Deberías saber que la mía es melocotón (aunque no puedo comerlos por alergias…¡snif!). Puedes votar a tu favorita aquí (¡quedan 3 días!)… También es muy agradable leer aquellas listas…puedes (y puedo, y tengo que) aprender mucho.

Of course there are similar things in English. And it’s interesting to see what are the favourite English words of non-native English speakers!

Something I didn’t know: Liberal party leadership hopeful Michael Ignatieff is a Booker-nominated novelist! CBC.ca Arts has an interesting article on politicians who write.

But…surely there are many more than the five they mention in the article! What about the prolific Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who ran for President of Peru? His opponents read racy excerpts of his works to try to scandalize the voting public (and apparently it worked). Or the last President of Czechoslovakia first President of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel?

That is, according to this year’s newly-released Mercer Human Resources survey of quality of life in 350 of the world’s cities. Montréal held its ground at number 22 overall… above any city in the U.S. but behind 21 other paradises from Europe, New Zealand, Australia — and Canadian rivals Vancouver (#3), Toronto (15), and Ottawa (18).

The top American cities were Honolulu and San Francisco, at 27 and 28. Barcelona and Madrid were 44th and 45th. Still, the top positions are all relatively close; there are only 4.1 points between Barcelona (100.2 points) and Montréal (104.3) on a scale where NYC=100 points). At the bottom of the heap of surveyed cities was poor Baghdad, with a score of 14.5.

Of course, this doesn’t mean I’d actually rather live in Toronto! The survey involves many factors, including: Political, social, economic and socio-cultural environment; Medical and health considerations; Schools and education; Public services and transportation; Recreation; Consumer goods; Housing; Natural environment. It’s designed for multinational corporations looking to compare cities where their ex-pats might be asked to live.

The unmeasured (and unmeasurable) essence of quality of life is personal experience. They don’t factor in where your favourite restaurant or pub is situated, where your friends and family live. There are no scoring systems for love and memory. So take it all with a grain of salt — your results will surely vary. I suppose at least it gives the folks at Mercer a chance to get out and travel a little (I hope so)!

For full results and more on how the grading is done, you can find out straight from the horse’s mouth. Of course if you want the detailed results you need to pay the big bucks.

The 8th “Blue Metropolis Bleu” Montréal International Literary Festival is on, from April 5 to 9. I got a bunch of tickets to various readings, lectures, panels. It’s a great (if short) festival; apparently the only multilingual literary festival in the world. We’re not just talking (and reading) English and French, but also Spanish and — this year — Italian and Russian!

Yesterday I went to see Cuban-born Spanish writer José Carlos Somoza give a reading and talk (en español). He is a psychiatrist (thus writing for the pleasure of it and presumably not for the money ;-) so you can be sure he has some interesting observations on the human mind. I’d already been intrigued by his book Clara y la Penumbra (English version: The Art of Murder), so I took this opportunity to buy it. And yes, I’d decided to fork out the $18 for the book even before he sweet-talked me — he asked how long I’d lived in Spain(!) after hearing my accent.

Today I’m off to see a session called La rue Fabre, le centre de l’univers, about the Plateau Mont-Royal, Montréal’s “mythical literary location”. There’s not much detail in the description, but I assume it’s in reference to Michel Tremblay’s Chroniques du Plateau Mont-Royal characters, whose “universe” revolved around this street. Later I’ll attend a panel that looks intriguing: Metrópolis Azul: Desplazamiento, migración, literatura, which asks a panel of 5 Spanish-language authors: ¿Cuáles son los desafíos para el escritor que vive y trabaja en otra cultura y otro país? (What challenges face the writer who lives in another culture and country?) Among the panelists is the great Spanish-born poet Tomás Segovia. Because of the Spanish Civil War, his family left Spain and he lived much of his life in exile. He greatly influenced culture and literature in his adopted country of Mexico.

Tomorrow I’ll attend an interview with Michel Tremblay (Montréal’s “greatest living writer” and winner of this year’s Blue Met Grand Prix award), and later a reading by Tomás Segovia. Then more on Sunday.

You see, Montréal can be intellectual…uh, sometimes…

If you use the Gregorian calendar and the MM/DD/YY date scheme (¡Hola americanos!), then this momentous moment happens in two and a half hours (your results may vary in other time zones); it’s a veritable conjunction of digits that will never happen again. (Uh — without putting too fine a point on it, the same exciting claim of non-repetition is true for any time/date combination.)

Now hang on — don’t fret if you missed out and didn’t read this notice until the climactic episode has passed. Because it hasn’t. Here in Canada and in other sensible places we (are supposed to, at least) use the DD/MM/YY system. That means you’ve got just under a month — ’til 1:02:03am on the 4th of May, 2006 — to dust off those old doomsday forecasts.

On the other hand, if you live somewhere like Britain where they use the DD/MM/YYYY system, you’re screwed — you’ll never see anything this cool in your lifetime…but hey, don’t feel so bad, at least you’ve got that Millennium Dome!

Anyone else remember “Why too…¿Qué?”