Random thoughts while listening to Van Morrison:

The latest frenzy of Catalunacy broke out last week over the official address kicking off Barcelona's fiesta mayor, the Mercé; for some reason, they invite somebody famous to read a speech every year. This year those responsible chose Elvira Lindo, a Madrid writer best known for the Manolito Gafotas series of children's books, and it was announced that she would make her speech in Spanish, which makes perfect sense since that is the language she speaks and everybody in Barcelona understands it. However, Esquerra Republicana, a National Socialist party, pitched a fit at the idea that Ms. Lindo would not speak in Catalan, and many stupid things were said in the nationalist me(r)dia. Fortunately, the great majority of Barcelonese understood that Ms. Lindo was an invited guest and received her hospitably, but the ERC jerks showed up at the Plaza Sant Jaume holding up opened black umbrellas in order to demonstrate their opposition to her presence.

These people are an embarrassment to Catalonia, and unfortunately they are the ones who form opinions about our region (don't forget, él que viu i treballa en Catalunya és català, so that includes me) in the rest of Spain. I have a friend in Madrid named Carlos, who is a very well-educated, creative, and intelligent guy. He once asked me, "How can you stand to live in Barcelona? I suppose there's the climate, but..." See, Carlos's image of Barcelona has been formed by these ERC clowns, and he thinks they actually represent most people here, which they don't, since they only get about 10% of the vote.

(I will add that many Barcelonese have an equally false stereotype of Madrileños, reactionary Franquista Spanish ultranationalists, which of course the great majority are not.)

The regional elections for the Generalitat, the Catalan government, are coming up on November 1, and campaigning is in full swing. No predictions here on who's going to win; I think the PSC's Jose Montilla is the favorite, but anything could happen. I suppose, out of the realistic possibilities, that I would prefer a coalition between the two most moderate and mainstream parties, Convergence and Union and the Catalan Socialists. Sure, that's voting for more of the same, but things actually function more or less pretty well around here. We're prosperous and comfortable.

Montilla is a Socialist party hack, just another politician with nothing special about him. He was the president of the PSC and Zapatero's industry minister, and he took a lot of heat from the PP when he was in the cabinet, especially over the various proposed utilities mergers. What makes him interesting is that he is not Catalan by birth. He's from Córdoba, and your more racist ERC goons call him a charnego, that is, not a real Catalan. He is the first charnego to have a serious shot at becoming premier of Catalonia since the regional government was established in 1980.

He represents the Spanish-speaking descendents of immigrants from other parts of Spain who settled in Barcelona's industrial suburbs in the '50s and '60s, and now form the majority in places like Cornellà, where Montilla was mayor for a decade, Santa Coloma, Manuela de Madre's home base, Celestino Corbacho's L'Hospitalet, Catalonia's second-largest city with nearly half a million people, and other such cities from Sant Boi to Badalona.

It looks to me like it's these people's turn to run things for a while.

They're making an enormous deal in the media over here about the school shooting yesterday in Colorado. According to the Spanish media, all American high schools are powder kegs of violence just waiting to be touched off. Doesn't sound much like Shawnee Mission South in 1983. Have things changed that muchg or is the media full of crap?

Unfortunately, Samuel Etoo got broken last night and is out for three months. Gudjohnsen and Saviola are going to have to step up. You still have to figure Barcelona as favorite for the Champions League, though, and there's no way anybody else is going to win the Spanish league.

Hello, everyone. I've been rather depressed during the last month, actually, and I haven't done very much but some proofreading for a textbook company. I haven't even been on the internet, and I haven't checked my e-mail, either--just had no interest in doing so.

One of my cats, Niau, died on August 23; he apparently died peacefully out in our house in Vallfogona. I went downstairs at about 8:30 PM, leaving him on our bed along with the other four; when I went back up to where the cats were, at about 9:30, I found him stretched out dead in his cat bed. Probably a heart attack, or he just died of being old; we don't know how old he was, but we believe at least 15, since he and his twin brother moved in with us at the end of 1995, and they were full-grown adults.

The brother, Tail, is still disoriented, since he and Niau are quite obviously identical twins and had been together all their lives. They're very distinctive-looking; they're clearly a mix between Siamese and red tabby, since they have red points instead of black ones, and red tabby stripes up the tail. The two were inseparable, always together, and usually sitting on top of somebody, especially house guests, whom they liked to make welcome. They are by far the friendliest and best-natured cats I have ever seen, much less lived with. Now, of course, Tail doesn't know where his companion is.

We buried Niau in a small plot of land that belongs to Remei in the valley down by the stream the next morning. I'd hoped it was just a bad dream, but there he was, and it was quite clear he was dead, so the only thing to do was bury him. We bought some ceramic-tile letters spelling out his name and cemented them to a stone we put on his grave.

I saw my friend Franco Aleman yesterday, though, and a couple hours of talking with him inspired me to start writing again, so regular blogging will resume tomorrow. Tonight is the Barça game, and I'm of course going down to the bar to watch it, so that's one thing I'll report on. There is a regional election coming up, an immigration crisis, a new Barcelona mayor, more merger fun in the utilities sector, police corruption, Catalooniness right and left, the inmates taking over the PP asylum, and all kinds of other fun stuff to write about.