From A - Z

2009-03-27T14:51:00.004+01:00

..is kind of an accidental progress. When did B first come after A and before C? And why? And does it really matter?

It can make you friends with your neighbour at school, or enemies. It can put you next to a serial killer in the phone book. It can make some pretty odd pairings on bookshelves and record collections.

And also in indexes. I've just finished reading Jacinto Antón's "Pilotos, caimanes y otras aventuras extraordinarias" - a fascinating collection of short articles published in El País over the last 15 or so years. A man with wide-ranging interests is our Jacinto. And an odd fixation for Hungarian WW2 pilots. And some truly strange pairings in its index.

Tutmosis IV, Mark Twain and Mike Tyson?

Walt Whitman, Simon Wiesenthal and Oscar Wilde?

and an inspiring run that goes from Soren Kierkergaard toRudyard Kipling, via Jean-Claude Killy, Natassia Kinski and Stephen King.

Who's next to you in the phone book?

Take 2

2009-03-12T11:50:00.004+01:00

Once upon a time there was a downshifter who wanted to fill his time usefully.

And so, back in November, he started a blog, and got some decent feedback (well, a couple), and had a follower, and published most days, and talked about his things and saving the world and consumerism and activism and all that kind of stuff.

And then this deep and dark and cold and long winter set in, his fingers were numbed by the icy wind blowing in through the ill-fitting window, Christmas came and went, and, with it, a few days away from the internet, and then he had to earn a crust and got tied up in that a bit, and lost track of things, and it kind of got left on the front-burner - bubbling away -, then the gas was turned down, then it got moved to the back, and one of these ill-winter-winds blew the flame out.

And although he never forgot about it, this first go at blogging, it suddenly lost its sparkle, and its need and its drive. And the days went by, and the winter deepened, and it got harder and harder to find the spark to continue. And then, since it was always pretty present in the blogger's mind, one day when walking around the barrio, he came across another name for it, another focus for it.

And now, suddenly, there seems to be time to get it off the ground again. A new name, simpler face, and Lord alone knows what the contents will be. But, if the name's anything to go by (and it should), it's all about the company I keep.

And that company, what is it? Well, it's people: wife, family, friends; the city that surrounds me, or the mountains when we get away, or the little village we are lucky enough to have a second place in; it's also the books and papers and magazines and web-sites I read; it's the music I listen to and the telly I watch, the (infrequent) films I see in the cinema, the opinions I have and don't have; the people I bump into when working or moving around the city. The thoughts that, unbidden, come in the middle of the night. And, finally, two cats.

And so, we could end up riffing on any or all of these, and, one hopes, the trip will be invigorating.Well, that was pretty painless all round. Easy to get back on the bike. As I said - welcome back.

The Company I Keep

From A - Z

Take 2