In the rare moments when we are not in motion, perhaps on the train, or finally in bed at 3:30AM, C says to me ¨So. Which do you like better?" Sometimes I say Barcelona, after a walk down one of its incredibly gracious boulevards or an afternoon on the shore and back through the sinister but promising Barceloneta neighborhood where the men sing while they walk, or while being groped by a handsome young lurker in the uppermost woods of the Parc Gruell near some Roman ruins. Sometimes I say Madrid, where the short dark Spaniards glow under the benevolent light of the back room of the Eagle, and make us think of how much the Chueca has the energy of the Village in Montreal during its emergent years. Full of hot young men wanting sex at all hours. Usually, I structure a compromise. In a perfect world, we´d have an art nouveau apartment in Barcelona with frequent jaunts to Madrid for respites from the graciousness. C reminds me of all the antennae we saw in Barcelona. Cable is not an assumption there. Wouldn´t I miss my HBO? Just a little.
"Perge modo et qua te ducit via dirige gressum," said Venus to Aeneas.
3 comments:
I've just been away for the past two weeks working outdoors deep in the Yukon forest, and am enjoying catching up on life with the Farmboyz. These little sketches you've done are gorgeous! (Both the pictures and prose).
Cooper
HBO v. BCN? BCN for sure! I could live with being behind and watching all the HBO series on DVD in return for living in a modernistic wonderland replete with fresh baked goodness, coffee, and young catalunyan men dripping with sex on every corner.
Fun post but your comparison of the two cities is unfair. I've lived in both Barcelona and Madrid. Love them both, but Madrid's got more of everything. Btw, including "gracious"/"elegant" boulevards. But looking for Belle Epoque elegance and boulevards in Chueca or Lavapies is like looking for the boulevards of the Eixample in the Barri Gotic. For bourgeois elegance and turn of the century boulevards, go to the Paseos (Prado, Recoletos, Castellana) and the barrios (neighborhoods of) de Jeronimos, Salamanca, Chamberi and Arguelles, just to name a few (they're not all that far a walk from Chueca or a short subway ride in one of the world's great metro systems). And by the way, given the wonderful variety of restaurants in Madrid, your comment about Madrid cuisine is criminally uninformed. May I recommend a better guide book: TimeOut Guide to Madrid, for instance, written by long-time residents of the city. The town is a gourmand's delight.
Happy eating and screwing,
Jason Argonaut
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