Boston

A weekend celebration of friendship and love

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In the early 90s I was working at a boutique investment bank in Madrid, when a new intern straight out of college came in from Atlanta. I was only a few years out of college and had just returned to Madrid a few months before. Quill and I hit it off grandly! We went out, partied, I taught him to ski (remember, he was from Atlanta) and to ride a motorcycle. We had a great time, and we became close friends.

Daniel was the Director of the Writing Studio at Walnut Hill; I admired his capacity for quick wit and deep thought. I once had him give us a master class on Neruda’s 20 Poemas de amor, I was flabbergasted by how he dissected Neruda’s work. We left Walnut Hill at about the same time. He teaches English at Emory in Atlanta.

Bob was my student at Walnut Hill. After graduation he went to the New England Conservatory where I would occasionally go to his recitals and concerts. He eventually landed a position with the Atlanta Symphony, and we sort of lost touch for a few years until Film Club reunited us.

Bill was also my student at Walnut Hill, he plays the viola. He checked in with me when he went to audition for the Naples Symphony. We had dinner and a cigar, and caught up. When he read my blog post about JoJo Rabbit, he was inspired to start Film Club with a few other misfits.

Bob got married this weekend, so I got on a plane to Atlanta and went to see all these dear, dear friends.

Quill took me to lunch to an amazing Venezuelan restaurant where I had the best arepa I have had in a long, long time. I last saw him when I rolled into Atlanta on my motorcycle looking at PhD programs in 2011. We caught up, chatted, and remembered old times.

Daniel met me for coffee at a great little coffee shop aptly called The Reading Room. We sat al fresco and caught up on our lives since leaving old Boston.

Bob was getting married, so he did not have a lot of time for chitchat, but we did have a few conversations. Also, I talk to him every month during our Film Club meetings!

Bill invites me to his concerts when his orchestra plays in Miami, plus he spent his Summer in Madrid, but I still loved seeing him and hanging out with him. And I also get to see him in Film Club!

The wedding was beautiful. Although I have been to a few weddings, you could really feel the love in this one. Yes, everything was perfect down to the last detail: The ceremony was intimate and included one of Bob’s best friend on the piano (so you know it was good), Alina’s dress was perfect for her, the cocktails were delicious, as was dinner, the dancing was on point, etc., etc. but all that means little compared to the joy of love being celebrated. I really enjoyed it!

My heart is still overflowing with the love and friendship I experienced this weekend.

The Holdovers, an ode to Stoicism.

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One of the many blessings of Film Club, beyond the fellowship and deep discussions, is that every few months you watch a jewel of a film. This month’s theme was Boarding Schools, and the repertoire was: Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants (1987), Netflix’s version of Matilda (2022)(ok, not a boarding school, but it might as well be), Robin Williams’ classic Dead Poets Society (1989) and a film I had never heard of: The Holdovers (2023).

There are many factors that make The Holdovers a fantastic film -at least for me: it is filmed in two main locations I know and love well, New England boarding schools, and Boston, my beloved old Bostonia, Paul Giamatti, wonderful photography, and an insightful narrative.

As I mentioned the film starts in a New England boarding school (it was filmed in half a dozen of them, including a scene in Waltham, home of my alma mater Bentley College), so we have the whole school as the cast. Christmas break arrives and the cast is narrowed to five students who are stuck in school over break with a teacher (Giamatti) and the cook. The dad of one of these holdovers, the CEO of a helicopter manufacturer will eventually pick up his son and the rest of the boys -except one, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) to take them skiing. The brunt of the story is then the three holdovers: the student, history teacher Mr. Hunham, and the cook, Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

Yes, the film touches on the inequalities of the “legacy students” -children of wealthy alumni, family dynamics, class inequalities, etc. But those are accessory to the plot.

What could these three different people have in common? You might ask. Well, what we all have in common: our brokenness. And this is where the film shines. The big clue comes when Hunham, gives his two Christmas companions copies of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations “For my money, it’s like the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita all rolled up into one.” At the end of the film, we will see a box full of the books, Hunham’s go to present, apparently.

Stoicism is less a philosophy and more of a way of life: understanding what is under our control, and if it is beyond our control, there is not much we can do about it but accept it. (I recently wrote about this here). Of course, it is difficult for us to become full, real stoics, it is a lifetime process. Our three protagonists -eventually only the two men in their “field trip” to Boston, struggle with their issues. Despite the obvious age difference, we see these two men are basically the same, a mirror image in their brokenness.

As any good film does, The Holdovers makes the viewer consider their lives and how to deal with their issues, and at the same time enjoy a wonderful cast, beautiful photography, great early seventies music and Paul Giamatti.

Enjoy the 70s style trailer:

70s style trailer is classic!

My 21st move and Frasier

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The landlady from whom I have rented for the last three years did not renew my rent. So, I had to find a new place. If you did not know this, inflation in South Florida is crazy. After COVID, when inflation surged across the world, many folks chose Florida’s lack of personal income tax as a way to compensate for inflation -that, and the very lax and libertarian attitude. People rushed to South Florida, provoking mad inflation. Finding a place in my budget was tricky, I had to seriously downsize from a townhouse to a tiny apartment for $200 more than I originally paid for the townhouse, yikes. Fortunately, it includes water and internet, and it has all sorts of amenities. I can’t complain, just compared to my miniscule Boston Back Bay studio when I started this blog a little over ten years ago, this is the lap of luxury.

Move #21 was a total nightmare. The apartment owner’s association does not allow moving on weekends, and I had planned my move for a Saturday, so I had to rush to move in on a Friday, they charge $100 to use the cargo elevator, etc. . Not only that, but although the apartment was freshly painted and had some new appliances installed, the previous tenant had left behind his furniture, and the fellow who was supposed to take it away for the landlady reneged at the last moment, leaving the clearing out to me, and to Tyler a wonderful old student who volunteered to help me on a Friday, God bless him.

Moving, it does not matter if 2 miles (my case) or 2 countries is very stressful, right up there with with divorce, death of a loved one, illness, and so on. Add a bucket full of variables kicking in and you have the move from hell…

I think my only TV reference in all of this blog was to the 90s series Frasier, when Frasier, Kelsey Grammer, recites Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses. No spoilers: Frasier is a radio psychiatrist, but more importantly a hilarious snob, a gourmet, pedantic, bon vivant (you might also know him from Cheers, where he spun off from), at any rate, he lives in a fancy apartment in Seattle where he dukes it out with his equally snobbish brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce). So, with some obvious differences, I did fancy that I was making a Frasier move living in a fancy apartment building.

I am finally settled in, and I actually just had a go at the sauna and steam room, I do feel a bit like Frasier Crane, now I just need to have the rest of the great cast of the show. Here is a clip from Youtube of Frasier for you:

On bicycles and cycling

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For as long as I can remember I have been riding bicycles. I can count having had over ten bicycles through my life, some of which got a lot of miles on them, a couple of them were stolen from my front door!

But I do not want to bore you with my history of bicycles and bicycle riding, of riding around Switzerland as a teenager, of riding in different countries, and so on. I just want to motivate you to get on a bike and ride! Pedal as hard as you can, feel the wind in your face, you are creating that speed, it is all you!

Although some people obsess over their rides, I have to agree with the once great Lance Armstrong and say that

“It’s not about the bike.”

Lance Armstrong

In fact, I still ride an Orbea mountain bike I bought in 1990 (it’s the one on the photo). Just get out there and ride.

Not only are bicycles fun to ride, but they are also very practical. I used to ride to work in Boston and Madrid, long, long before it became the hipster thing to do. I still ride to chores around the village in the Summer. Unfortunately, I have not gotten around to getting a bicycle in Florida. One of these days…

So, if you do not have a bicycle get one, there are great used ones on Craigslist or Wallapop, then get going!

PS: The Camino: For the record, I am against doing the Camino de Santiago on a bike. This might be difficult to understand, but on a bicycle, you are going too fast to focus on your journey, on the spirituality of what you are doing, you are mostly focusing on not cracking your head open and on staying on your bike. I see folks on amazing electric bicycles and what they are really doing is a great excursion on the path of the Camino, but they are not doing the Camino. I do respect folks on vintage bikes or on plain vanilla bikes, not the hi-tech stuff!!

On Pizza

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Disclaimer: Google recently had a pizza doodle which included a cute game, but I was planning this blog before that. Ok, now we can move on.

Like languages, pizza is a relatively modern variation of an ancient dish, basically jazzed up flatbreads that you can taste all around the Mediterranean basin: Coca in Spain, pita in Greece, etc. Of course, pizza wins the popularity contest due to Southern Italians immigrating everywhere and taking their recipes with them, grazie.

Growing up in Franco’s Spain, I was not exposed to pizza until high school in London, specifically Pizza on the Park on Hyde Park Corner (now closed and turned into a fancy hotel). It was love at first bite! American pizza during college was different, but still delicious, the most memorable one being Pizzeria Regina in Boston’s North End. Through the years, as I moved around, I discovered great pizza joints, Napoli in El Escorial, The Upper Crust in Boston, Italian Pizzeria (IP) in Chapel Hill -they also showed European football, which was a great plus!, and NAP in Madrid.

In my old age, my taste buds require simple, few, but delicious ingredients, (I have written before about the “Minder is meer” less is more adage) so nowadays I only eat Margherita pizza which should only have three ingredients plus the dough: mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce (which should have a bit of garlic), and basil (plus obviously olive oil and salt).

Due to its heavy New Yorker population, South Florida has decent pizza. Almost every week I meet my friend Manuel for some great pizza at County Line in Juno Beach. Here in Boynton, there is Pizza Rox which makes a textbook pizza and has a great selection of local beers, and Frankie’s. Recently I have also discovered my friend Arlene’s great pizza place in West Palm Beach, Pizza Al Fresco set in a lovely Spanish patio with awesome staff!

My pizza fever has been compounded by a guy called David Portnoy who does pizza reviews on the internet. I confess that I have gotten to the point where I can guess the points he is going to give the pizza he is reviewing before he does! Check out his pizza review app Onebite and one of his many reviews below!

The secrets to a great pizza are a screaming hot oven (800 F – 450 C), fluffy, airy dough so you get the bubble – you need the bubble! And simple, excellent ingredients. Enjoy.

What is your favorite pizza place? What are your thoughts on pizza? Let me know in the comments!

Bentley College (now University)

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This blog was born with the start of my search for a PhD program, so that process and the subsequent studies were very well documented here. Eventually, a few months ago I wrote about my master’s experience at Simmons, but I have never written about my bachelor’s degree.

I was living in London when I had to choose university. I really wanted a small liberal arts school in New England to study Business (at the time I did not appreciate that liberal arts and business do not mix that well. That was a mistake, which I can write about in a later post). My final choice was Bentley College (now University), just outside Boston, and what an experience it was!

Bentley was the perfect space for me to bloom. I loved my management courses (not so much my accounting, finance, number courses in general) and I really developed my leadership skills, becoming President of the International Club, International Representative to the Student Government, and finally Student Government Representative to the Board of Trustees, where I met Jere Dykema, my first mentor. I also grew into my art appreciation, spending Saturdays at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and what little pocket money I had on Season Tickets to the Boston Ballet, DJing the Classical Music Program at the College radio station WBTY “Sunday Night at the Pops”, writing a weekly column in the Vanguard newspaper, playing soccer with the International Club, establishing the Model United Nations program, debating the Oxford Union, and generally just walking around, taking in the history, architecture, and vibe of all the different Boston neighborhoods.

But the most important part of my university days was the connections and friends I made. Most of my best friends to this day I met in college –you know who you are. I also made great relationships with professors, like Aaron Nurick who would become a mentor, and with administrators like the great Bob Minetti.

In conclusion, yes university is about education and learning, but more importantly, at least in my case, was to grow as a person and to make lifelong friends.

Simmons College (now University)

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Simmons University acting as UMass Dartmouth

If you at all follow this blog, one of the best in the inter-web, you know I have lately been catching up on my film viewing.

I recently watched Patriots Day starring Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon, about the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013. Without spoilers, one of the bombers is a student at UMass Dartmouth, and when they show a panorama shot of the university, it is not UMass Dartmouth at all, (According to Imdb, UMass Dartmouth did not allow filming on its campus) it is my beloved Simmons College (now University) where I got my Masters!! And I realized I had never written about that experience on my blog.

My teaching adventure started by being a substitute teacher at Newburyport School District in 2005. I got my first real job teaching at Milton High School in the Fall of 2006. The school was rough, I had a lot to learn in a tough environment. Fortunately, I had a great boss who supported me, she recommended that if I wanted to pursue a career in teaching I should get a master’s degree. So I did my research: Only a few universities had evening programs for Spanish: Boston College, Boston University and Simmons. Guess which one had the best value and was closest to home?

Going back to school -as a student- was a bit daunting, something I had not done in exactly 20 years, but I was committed and loved the idea of learning in an academic setting. I loved my teachers; they were outstanding, tough but caring. My learning curve was steep, but I enjoyed every minute! Surprisingly, I thrived, I loved it. I was lucky to study Don Quixote and Golden Age literature under Louise Cohen, Spanish film with Dolores Pelaez-Benitez, Latin American lit with Raquel Halty and Modern Latin American lit with Danisa Bonacic. I must confess it was the first time in my life I saw As, never mind straight As! I looked forward to class, I did my research and wrote my essays with enthusiasm.

My cohort was a blast: Paul, Corrinne, Andrea, Laura, John, even the undergrads were nice, I am still in touch with them thanks to social media!

Photo Cred. Andrea

Simmons campus is small, but it is a proper campus, right in the middle of Boston, next to The Museum of Fine Arts and next door to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where Simmons students have free access. I would often arrive early to have a walk around the museum! The library had been recently renovated and was a great place to work and study before class. Simmons Library Science program is considered one of the best in the country. They also have a full Olympic pool where I would sometimes swim.

Although I loved every class and every teacher, I was particularly fond of Louise Cohen and her amazing mastery of Don Quixote and Golden Age Literature. It was for her class that I wrote about Don Quixote being the grandfather of Existentialist philosophy, which you can read in this blog by clicking here.

You might ask, “wait a minute, isn’t Simmons a women only college?”. The answer is yes, but only for undergrad programs, my MA was co-ed.

Prof. Halty was the department chair would host our cohort for dinner in her beautiful Weston home during the Christmas holidays. After my graduation I stayed in touch with my professors. Prof. Halty became my mentor in helping me get into a PhD program, she was also incredibly supportive during my breakdown.

In conclusion, Simmons College was a fantastic experience for me. A small school in the heart of Boston, with top level professors, great colleagues, and amazing facilities.

New England (the region) and Manchester by the Sea (the film)

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Yes, I know it was released in 2016. So I am a little late on my movie viewing, OK? I recently watched Manchester by the Sea and loved it. It is a deeply human story set on the North Shore of Boston, in winter, an area I know and adore.

I first fell in love with New England when I moved to Boston for college in 1983. I fell in love with the Fall, with Boston, with the picture-perfect towns all around, with Walden Pond and Cape Cod, the Berkshires, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, lobster rolls, clam chowder, Dunkin Donuts, pretty much everything. After college I got the opportunity to work in Boston for a couple of years. I lived in a tiny apartment in the Back Bay and worked on the waterfront in the financial district. It was then that I really had a chance to further explore and discover. With a group of friends, the infamous Boston Gourmet Society, we would spend Summer weekends at the beach in Maine, and Winters skiing in Sugarloaf, renting a ski chalet for the season.

In 2005 I went back, and with added maturity, I really got to appreciate New England. We lived in Newburyport and Milton. Then I moved back to old Back Bay in Boston, I worked in those places and then Natick, and Cambridge and enjoyed it thoroughly. Loved the history, the food, the culture, yes, even the people!

My work during my first stay in Boston was in the financial sector, but on the second round, as a teacher and coach I got to visit schools for soccer, tennis, and fencing all over the Boston area, including Concord, Newport Rhode Island and Exeter New Hampshire! It was beautiful to see the seasons and the foliage, the towns, the forests, and the seashore.

The film Manchester by the Sea takes place during the bleak New England Winter, where everything is frozen, even the ground! Casey Affleck (not the sexy one, the one that can act) nails his performance. It is a tough, emotional film but I highly recommend it. For me it was a double whammy. As an emotional person, I really connected with the plot, and the photography of New England, specially of the North Shore, really drove home the film for me.

So, there you have it, two recommendations in one blog post: New England (the region) and Manchester by the Sea (the beautiful town AND the film). Enjoy.

The pros and cons of multiculturalism

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Moving from NYC to Boston 1988

We first moved to New York In 1977, I was 12. From there we moved to London in 1979, from there to college in Boston in 1983, and so on for back and forth between the US and Europe. As I recently wrote in my “Diversity Statement” for a job application:

I have had the privilege of growing up in multicultural and multiracial environments, cities, and schools: New York City, London, Paris, Madrid, Boston, etc., so since childhood I have been bathed in diversity: cultural, racial, religious, sexual, socioeconomic, etc. On top of that I have had the privilege of traveling widely.

So, while being multicultural is definitely an enriching experience, it does have its drawbacks: The first one is that you no longer “fit” into any particular “set” culture, you become a bit of an outsider whenever you are in an environment of population that is “born and bred” in a place.  The second and more insidious aspect is that you might no longer meet certain legal or bureaucratic requirements to say, work in a place.

This is what happened to me when I returned to Spain in 2018. My US degrees (Including a PhD) are not recognized in Spain to work as a teacher. Furthermore, to get all my paperwork approved and transferred and certified and triple stamped would have taken years. Besides the paperwork, there is a mentality issue. Teachers in Spain are generally not a respected, appreciated, and certainly not well remunerated part of the population. There are historical and social reasons for that, but I will leave them for another post.

Long story short: I have returned to work in the US as Assistant Professor of Spanish and Assistant Director of the Language Department at Saint Vincent de Paul, a major seminary in Boynton Beach Florida! This was not an easy decision, leaving everything behind for a job, but I could no longer live in a country that refused to acknowledge me professionally.

Desperate Literature (or interesting bookstores and libraries)

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I fell in love with literature at the American School in London with a couple of great teachers: Soledad Sprackling for Spanish Literature and James McGovern for English. But I did not fall in love with books until college.

At Bentley University I discovered the Bowles Reading Room which had beautiful books. It was glassed in from the rest of the library and every day I went there to do my homework but would invariably end up looking at the wonderful books. I loved that room so much that at the end of my studies, I donated a book about Spain to the Collection. (I contacted the librarians who got me this rare photo of the Reading Room for this post, thanks!).

Bowles Reading Room 1992 (After I graduated) (PC: Bentley Archives)

Bowles Reading Room 1992 (After I graduated) (PC: Bentley Archives)

But I would have to wait until after college to have enough disposable income to buy books, which, living in Boston, was very easy. Some days on my lunch break I would sneak to Goodspeed’s to look for treasures. Such is my love for books and literature, that years later, I ended up getting a PhD in Spanish Literature! (see previous posts)

Speaking of UNC, one of the highlights are the libraries. Plural. The old library is the Wilson Library (which is featured prominently in Robin Williams’ great film Patch Adams). I spent hours studying in this library and a couple of times studying very old books in the Rare Book Collection. The big, modern library is the Davis Library with its 7 million books. There, I soon made best friends with the Spanish book librarians Teresa and Becky. I would walk to their office deep in the heart of the library and talk books, (and gossip). This library is as close to the Borges idea of a library as I have ever been: massive and repetitive, but with a soul.

During my studies at UNC, one summer I got a Fellowship to do research at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. What an experience! To get to the rare book collection you have to pass not one, but two security checks, you cannot bring in any pens, books, phones, etc. Books there are treated with the care and reverence one would expect of -in my case- over two hundred year old books. I spent every morning that summer reading most of Francisco de Isla’s first editions, manuscripts, and other pieces attributed to him but not his. That experience is one of the highlights of my academic career. (Their coffee shop in the basement was also excellent – and subsidized! but that is for another post)

Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid

Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid

After UNC I moved to Southern Florida, which is a wasteland for books -must be the humidity. But, in 2016 I did read this great article in Vanity Fair, (to which I have subscribed and read every issue from cover to cover since around 2006) about this magical book store in Santorini called Atlantis Books.

Fast forward to 2018 when my dear friend Matthew came to visit me in Madrid. He stayed at a hotel in the old part of town. One evening after I dropped him off, around the corner from the hotel, on narrow Campomanes street, I bumped into Desperate Literature. I was ecstatic! What a discovery, what a find! A tiny bookstore, but filled with books mostly in English, with a few in Spanish and French for good measure. It was a tiny paradise, an oasis of… books!

Books in time of Covid

Books in time of Covid

I soon found out that this bookshop is part of Atlantis Books which I had read about in that Vanity Fair article. It all fit in, a collection of magical bookstores.

During this Covid-19 pandemic I found out they were sending books to folks. I ordered one and I was able to make use of my workout time to ride my bicycle to pick it up.

In conclusion: support your local -hopefully quirky- bookstores, and read.

I discovered this bookstore in Asheville NC.
Check out this quirky bookstore in Asheville North Carolina
Goodspeed’s in Boston
Bentley University library
The tiny entrance to the tiny Desperate Literature