Santi Vila says that Màrius Carol is a "disfrutón". He is also a gentleman from Barcelona and a gentleman from La Vanguardia. That's why it's not at all strange that he doesn't limit himself to giving a talk to present his new book. Historias de la canallesca (Libros de Vanguardia) entered society accompanied by a Monólogo wine tasting at the Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel.
The attendees had a great time with this "cultural and gastronomic pairing". I liked the wine, but Màrius liked it much more. He dazzled the audience with countless anecdotes from when journalism was done with typewriters, because Historias de la canallesca is about that, about the experiences (some distant and others recent) that the former director de La Vanguardia has starred for almost half a century of career.
Carol, who has worked for El Ciervo, El Correo Catalán, El Periódico and El País, landed at La Vanguardia in 1988. She tells a story about when Jordi Pujol was her boss at El Correo Catalán and then starts laughing with the anecdote , already in the age of computers, of a poorly dexterous spell checker that Soviet Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov renamed Permissive Vagina. "It was as if the correspondent had drunk all the vodka of the USSR".
It continues with an account of when Salvador Dalí was about to die in a fire and with stories of King Juan Carlos I, who accompanied him on his travels, and while he tells them, he exhibits his acting skills, gestures and interprets to the delight of the public. "I am proud to be a good person, because this is necessary to be a good journalist", concludes the author of Historias de la canallesca, which is the "anteroom" of his future memoirs.
The world's translators are not masters of Barcelona. They come from Australia, Japan, Germany, Costa Rica and countless corners where the most diverse languages are spoken. They have not seen each other for years because of covid and now, finally, they have been able to meet in person thanks to the invitation of the Professional Association of Translators and Interpreters of Catalonia. For a week they have worked from sun to sun but, like Carol, they also like to enjoy themselves and for that there is nothing better than the Barcelona spring and a good wine.
So on Wednesday night they took a vignette at the H10 Marina hotel, where they listened to the award-winning Austrian translator Margret Millischer and prepared their big meeting on Friday at the Gabriel García Márquez library. Their claims are clear and incontestable: the translator's signature must appear on the covers of the books and publishers must hire them as required by law and not by stealth, so that they can receive the copyrights that correspond to them.
To accompany a good wine nothing better than music (with permission of the French cheese). Malalletra plays at the Ona bookstore on Friday afternoon. All its components are writers that drummer Lluís Llort has entangled so that they go on stage. There is no wine, but there are some beers and the call turns out to be a very good plan.
Francesc Bombí-Vilaseca, Salvador Masip, Miquel Adam and Jordi Boixadós take charge of the guitars and little by little the audience gets up and starts dancing. The wonderful voice of Elisenda Roca helps a lot, which starts with With or without you, and ends with a version of I will survive Marta Carnicero, who may be the next Nobel Prize because she assures that she writes better than she sings and the the truth is that he sings like angels.
