Joe Haldeman's Blog, page 79

the other game . . .

Gay and Larry Niven and I took a bus tour of the town yesterday, with English
commentary in earphones, pretty interesting. It was the kind of tour where
you can get on and off anytime.

We got off at the Botanical Gardens. I got a smile out of Larry when I noted
it was like a zoo, except the animals stood in one place until they fell over
dead. It was a pleasant long walk.

After lunch, Gay had to go back to the fairgrounds, but Larry and I were free,
so we walked down the beach about a mile and cam...

the game! the game!

They moved the schedule around so that nobody would be speaking during the soccer game, but Martin Cruz Smith did have the slot just before it. We went to hear him talk about Gorky Park and other things, but we English-speakers made up about half the audience. Everybody else was out finding a place to sit and watch the game.

The convention committee prepared for us well – there was a big tent with a large plasma TV, maybe 250 chairs. They'd saved us seven seats up front, so we got an unobs...

Garden of Earthly Delights

Thursday was Prado Day. We got there at opening and spent the morning ogling old masters, most impressively (for me) Heironymous Bosch. A lot of Spanish painters who are relatively unfamiliar. A couple of rooms full of impressive Velasquez.

We had a quick (for Spain) lunch and then spent a couple of hours at the impressive temporary exhibit "Turner and the Masters," which showed eighty-some Turner paintings along with the classical masters he had studied in his European travels as a young ...

in Madrid

A lazy beachside brunch in Cubelles yesterday, and then off to the races. Got to Madrid after a few stupefying hours of plane, train, and automobile. Gay and I had a bite and then wandered around the hotel area for an hour or so in the 95-degree heat. It's between the train station and the bus station, so you can imagine what a wholesome neighborhood it's in.

Back at the hotel, we coagulated with a bunch of Spanish fans to watch the football match between Spain and Germany. We watched it w...

moving along

Still relaxing for a few days in Spain, before jumping back into the international sf swirl. Late dinner with Joan Manel and Merce's neighbors, an interesting couple in their eighties, still quite active. They cooked a two-kilo fish packed in salt! Very good. The wine was excellent, too; I could tell from the smell and "una beso," a kiss taste.

We had dinner on their rooftop garden, and stayed late to watch the stars. Polaris seems high for a place so warm.

We went to a small museum in the...

TFW movie

Got some "sort-of" news about the Forever War movie, in that Ridley Scott did mention it while he was talking to a bunch of film buffs at an action movie convention. Kind of rambling, but at least the movie is still on his mind –

"[Haldeman:] thought instead of writing the book about Vietnam, he'd write a book about a future idea of this perpetual war that seemed to be perpetual if you were a soldier serving in Vietnam. Why on earth were we there? What were we doing? What's the ultimate targ...

What brain?

My usual skill with names. That's Jackson Bryer and Mary.

Joe

the brain in Spain

Two papers Friday morning and then a long field trip, bus out to Gruyere, where we spent about three hours nosing around a castle and having a pleasant lunch with Jackson Breyer and Joyce.

Long train ride home, through the lovely alpine scenery that's the setting for a number of Hemingway stories and also an important part of his life story.

Then off to the closing ceremonies and cocktail party, and then out to a light dinner with Scott Donaldson and Vivian. Nice chat again.

We've known Scott a...

Hemingay conference in Lausanne

Having a great time at the Hemingway conference in Lausanne, but not much time to blog. I write a couple of pages on the novel and then go catch the Metro. Panels start at 9:00 and it takes almost an hour to get there. Lunch and more panels, and then we go out at night with old Hemingway pals – we've been attending this conference since the eighties.

Today was different . . . no programs in the afternoon because there was a cruise scheduled for lunchtime, churning through the breeze on Lake...

barbican artgallery

Quick note -- yesterday we enjoyed wandering through the The Surreal House, an exhibition at the Barbican. Mostly art from the twenties and thirties, about houses -- as homes, as perimeters, as hiding places, as metaphor for the body.

Many of the exhibits were cinematic, some too long to see entire. (Buster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill" has an obvious link to Disney's "Steamboat Willy" -- proto-Mickey Mouse as art criticism.) Interesting paintings and sculpture and "found" art. A bottle-drying ...