Mildred Pierce

So I´ve just finished watching the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce with the redoubtable Kate Winslet. I think she deserved an Emmy for eyebrow work alone - formidable.

In terms of the series itself, the main theme is the relationship between Mildred and her daughter Veda. Veda is a narcissistic nightmare and Mildred a self-sacrificing enabler. I liked the fact that they managed to convey every character´s flaws. It´s clear that Mildred is controlling and judgemental, Veda is spoiled and a manipulative snob (young actress Morgan Turner is astonishing in her ability to irritate), Monty is weak and irresponsible, Burt is a philanderer but a pretty good guy - throw them all together and you get a heck of an American potboiler.

And I loved the sets. I was convinced they´d found some little Spanish Revival bungalow in California somewhere - but it turns out they built the interiors themselves.

They found most of the locations back on Long Island of all places, since much has been lost in California. I have to say they did a remarkable job evoking the time and the place.

One of the nice things about the miniseries format is that they have time to show you quiet moments to reveal character without steaming ahead through the plot. I think the Director Todd Haynes did a remarkable job of creating a woman´s world in the Depression, and on the ideas of wealth, work and class in America. There´s great use of glass and reflection to great advantage (Saul Leiter´s photography was an inspiration). I thought that was a masterful metaphor for how we observe/present something. Are you seeing through the character or projecting a preconceived image onto them? Are they reflecting what you want to see? A very interesting choice for being observed/judged.

Source

Source

Is it credible that Veda becomes a successful opera singer in a matter of months? Could Mildred possibly be so blind to her daughter´s character for so long? Debatable, but it´s all in the original novel by James M. Caine (The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) and Double Indemnity (1943).

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I´ve got a serious case of kitchen envy.

For more on the production design click here.

More old kitchens

Happened across this article about the discovery of an old kitchen in a huge old house. Check out that stove.

And discovered another historical re-enaction on Youtube - A Tudor Christmas Feast. The same cast as the Victorian Farm and Edwardian farm, this time in a Tudor Manor. Gorgeous old house, old kitchen, old recipes - oh my! In four parts of about 15 minutes each.

**Warning to vegetarians - contains skinning, boning and carving of various dead animals.

Camiño de Santiago

First some updates:

Beer bottled!

Sales contract on the ruin signed by us and one of the sellers - it´s on its way back to the lawyer in Galicia who´s supposed to get the final signature Friday. Once the deposit has been paid, we should be good to go on to closing. Whew!

So since I feel slightly more confident that we´re actually going to buy a property this time. I thought I would go ahead a reveal a bit more about its environs at least.

The house is near the town of Melide, in the Province of La Coruña, not far from the border with Lugo.




Melide is a market town, dating from the middle ages. It´s about 75 kilometers from La Coruña, 50 from Santiago de Compostela and 50 from Lugo. It also happens to be on 2 of the major routes of the Camino de Santiago, Jacobeo, or the Way of St. James.

The Camino is a pilgrimage dating to the 9th century, when the bones of the apostle St. James were supposedly discovered in Santiago de Compostela. A small church was built by Alfonso II (protagonist of the Reconquest underway in Asturias).


It grew

Over time, the route was supplied with hospitals, bridges and protection (Knights Templars!)for pilgrims by the Church and Asturian Kings. By the 12th century, Santiago was designated by Pope Calixto II in 1270 as a pilgrimage of plenury indulgence (along with Canterbury, Rome and Jerusalem )the completion of which would absolve you from all sin. In 1139 the Monks of Cluny publish the Codex Calixtinus,a sort of medieval ¨Rough Guide to Santiago¨ for the traveller.

As I mentioned, there are various routes to Santiago. By far the most famous and usual is the so-called French Way, which starts out in St Jean Pied de Port, France, crosses the Pyrennees, and moves across northern Spain. Apart from that one, there is the northern route, which follows the coastline through Asturias and into Galicia before cutting down toward Santiago. Alternatively, there´s the ¨Primitive¨ route over the mountains through Asturias and Galicia. There´s also a route up through Portugal. And the cheeky English just hopped on a boat and landed in Ferrol, which is just a hop skip and a jump to Santiago following the English route.



There are a lot of theories floating around about the existence of a route pre-Christian Spain, used by the Celts and/or Romans. The goal was Finisterre on the Atlantic coast, to watch the death of the sun on the western horizon and thus be ¨reborn¨. One of the euphamisms for the camino is the ¨Via Láctea¨ or Milky Way, clearly visible and parallel in the night sky and was supposedly used to guide ancient travellers east to west. Sadly, celtiberia.net has convinced me that most of that is completely unsubstantiated by archeological evidence and likey to romantic ¨Celtic¨ new-agey nonsense. Which is a huge shame because I´m a sucker for romantic celticism.



The scallop shell is the traditional symbol for the pilgrim, representing various lines all converging in at the same destination point.

Anyway, the pilgrims have been passing through for a long time, although it was much more popular early on and had fallen into disuse by the 19th century. Given political events of the 20th century, I suppose it´s not surprising that walking across Spain was considered unappealing, but even up until 1985 there were only about 700 pilgrims noted annually. Approved methods of travel are on foot, bicycle, and horseback. You are provided with a ¨passport¨ or credencial and can receive stamps at approved shelters, refugios and sanctioned offices to prove you´ve gone the distance. The Camino was declared a part of World Heritage by UNESCO.

Lately, a big tourism push has pumped up those numbers to 200,000 this year - a so-called Jubilee year (when St. James´ Day falls on a Sunday. The next will be 2021, 2027, and 2032). There has been a huge amount of money spent on infrastructure for the Camino for albergues/hostals, restaurants, bridges and path maintenance, etc, over the years. When we were house hunting we were told that within a certain distance of the Camino, the appearance of your house had to conform with certain historical/planning regulations. There are also subsidies for improvements.

Of course the Camino is no longer strictly religious. It´s highly convenient for enthusiasts of long-distance biking or hiking, family vacations, and for those who just want to escape and like to walk.



For more:
http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/
http://www.xacobeo.es/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James

La Coruña

We´re back.

After a French air traffic controller strike delayed my departure for the States by a day, and then KLM managed to lose my suitcase in Amsterdam on the return, I was ready for a vacation.

We had 2 fabulous weeks in Galicia, based in La Coruña. V´s father´s family is from the city so V has about 30 cousins and assorted aunts and uncles there. We usually stay at the Hotel Palas (V likes to say that as though it were the ¨Palace¨) which is very basic but centrally located, clean and reasonably priced. But since we were staying 2 weeks and not 2 days, we opted for a studio apartment. What we didn´t realize was that there would be nothing but the room - no utensils, no dishware, no sheets, no toilet paper. Of the 150 € we saved over the hotel, we spent approximately 100€ on stuff from the Chinese dollar store down the street.

But for the entire 2 weeks it only rained twice - at night. Which pretty much balances out the 8 straight days of rain we had in June.



I have neither the figure nor the disposition for the beach - I get bored and can only read on my stomach, but the beach at Santa Cristina was a real discovery. We have gone by bus on trips before we bought the car, but it´s time consuming and confusing. With the car, though, it was about 15 minutes outside La Coruña and a great day - places to eat, great beach with almost no people (during the week), just lovely. We had a fabulous mariscada (giant platter of grilled fish/seafood) salad and a bottle of wine for about 45€ at a place just across the street from the sand.


Photo: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mapeofotograficodeespana/discuss/72157603825643302/

We also like to hang out in the historic part of La Coruña, but it´s not that big and after you´ve visited your favorite places a couple of times, it´s charm fades. But we found a new spot - O Viñedo - with a killer Raxo (pork loin with garlic and parsely) garnished with roasted red peppers and french fries for 7€.

Since we´re now mobile - we got around a bit as well - Santo Andres de Teixido (A SAN ANDRÉS DE TEIXIDO vai de morto quen non foi de vivo - you have to visit after you´re dead if you don´t get there while alive, according to the Galician saying),



the northernmost point of Galicia at Bares, and we travelled a bit up and down the Camiño de Santiago along the French route.

I will not say much more, but I think we have finally found our spot. It has it´s drawbacks - collapsed or collapsing walls, the roof is down, no plumbing or wiring. But the location is beautiful and private with 2000 m2 of garden, a barn, and still only about 4 kilometers from the village of Melide with all necessary services (and awesome pulpo). I don´t want to jinx it - so I´ll say no more, but encouragement for the undertaking is welcome.



Yes those are saplings and wild blackberries growing in the ¨living room¨.

House hunting

Photo: http://blogueiros.axena.org

Our first excursion was to the Ribeira Sacra in the southern part of Lugo province. It is an extraordinarily beautiful place, with terraced vinyards dropping down hillsides to the River Sil. It´s also a little remote.

Our agent was a chain-smoking, personable older local gent who had been targeting the foreign buyers interested in picking up a cheap stone rural place - which pretty much describes me. We´d emailed a list of properties we were interested in from the website. He drove us all over, basically telling us all real estate agents in Galicia were crooks, except for him, and eventually showed us about 20+ properties over a day and a half. Some were in better shape than others and some had more property attached, but none with a sizeable parcel. We were immediately smitten with a place built around an interior patio. He didn´t have the keys to show us the inside (that will become a theme) but hinted the owner, who recently inherited the place, needed cash. The surrounding garden belonged to a cousin, as well as a tiny sliver out front which would need to be negotiated. We decided that was the best we´d seen and he would let us know. Turned out there was another heir, in Venezuela, and she didn´t want to sell because she didn´t trust the family in Galicia. Oy.



Next trip was to Asturias, around Taramundi. Again, a spectacularly beautiful area, but remote and even more mountanous. Met a local agent who showed up late and in a 2 seat vehicle. He drove our rental car. Of the 10 properties we´d chosen from their website, he actually showed us 2. One was a barn, not a house, and wouldn´t get reclassified. He argued with us about how much land we were looking for and why we didn´t care for a place perched on a hillside with a close to vertical drop. He also broke down crying at lunch reminiscing over his childhood. We attributed that to stress, not us, and said goodbye to Asturias.




We moved on to Lugo. Met an English agent who resembled a bouncer more than anything. He met us at the train station, took us to his office and went over the properties on the website, despite the fact that we´d already emailed a list. He did drive us around and show us most of what we´d had in mind, while telling dirty jokes and assuring us that he was the only honorable RE agent in Galicia. He hinted the agent in the Ribeira Sacra was an addict. We were dazzled by a house around Vilalba (birthplace of Fraga) with a walled garden, but he didn´t have the keys to show us inside. Turned out there were 6 brothers who´d inherited the house and hadn´t spoken to one another in 20 years when he got them to agree to the listing. No negotiating the price.

We checked out a Spanish agent. He was a contractor/builder as well as selling houses. We saw a finished renovation (200K€), one under construction and a property outside Palas de Rei in Lugo. The house was beautiful,and in pretty good shape given that there was no bathroom, with a shed and an horreo and 5000m2 of land. We made a low-ball offer and were informed that the price wasn´t negotiable. This despite the fact that it was listed at 51, 49 and 47K on various web pages. We moved on. The renovated places are still for sale.

Meanwhile, V has a brother in La Coruña who works with the restaurant trade. He called after we´d got back to say that a client described the English guy as a ¨mafioso¨ and we should contact her nephew, a Galician agency. We looked at their site and emailed. Noone ever answered.

Since then we´ve gone up on a couple of separate occasions to see places, but they always turn out to be attached to something hideous and unmentioned in the description. Or too remote and too small. These trips usually involved night trains and lengthy bus rides and were exhausting as well as disappointing.

Lately, there have been Brits who again specialize in English buyers in the north of La Coruña. The first trip, once again after emailing and confirming a list, upon arrival we were told 2 had been sold, one was at an unknown address, and were taken to others. This drives V crazy, and he´s the Spanish one. This last visit we saw one of the supposedly previously sold ones, which we really liked but is basically 4 walls. Another was lovely, but too small. Another I loved, but had a brick second story which V won´t have, even though the owners accompanied us out to the house and the wife offered to show me how to make bread and empanadas in the stone oven. They´re just lovely folks, the Galicians.

Our last outing was in Pontevedra. Both places were up at the top of hills with nearly vertical roads, out where the wind turbines are. One still had clothing hung on pegs and tools set out. Apparently they were elderly and both died suddenly. Unsettling. The other had beautiful stone, but was too low for V - he´d be hitting his head on the beams. We were taken to meet the owner of the second - selling on account of a divorce. He´s very keen to sell, that was clear, and immediately dropped the price 4000. We said we´d think about it.

So now, we´ve got two possibilities, which is 2 more than before, but both require TOTAL renovation, lacking roofs, plumbing and electricity in one case.

I just want a place to grow potatoes and tomatoes. And sweet corn. And roses. And lavender, and basil. . .and have sheep . . .and chickens. . .