Camino Articles

[E. O. Pederson]

In the past few days, and rather by accident, I came across two short
pieces that some people with an interest in the Camino might want to read.
Thanks to the late arrival of my subscription copy, I learned only
yesterday of an article in the current Grammophone Magazine (July 2004,
pp. 30-31), “Have Choir Will Travel” by James Jolly (The cover of the
issue has the note “John Eliot Gardiner on Taking the Santiago
Pilgrimage”). The article discusses a pilgrimage currently in progress by
the British conductor John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir. They
are crossing France and Spain, beginning at Jaca walking some bits of the
Camino, and presenting concerts in various venues enroute.  On St. James
Day they will be presenting a gala concert in Leon. Mr. Gardiner is one of
the best known conductors of Bach’s music currently working, but the
concerts still to come (several in France have already taken place) will
include a number of composers more closely related to the pilgrimage.
Anyone in the vicinity of the Camino with a love for vocal and choral
music would be advised to make a detour to attend the concerts. I
certainly wish I could attend one or more of them!

The second piece is in a collection by the political poet (mostly
published in the Nation Magazine), food writer and humorist Calvin
Trillin, “Pepper Chase” in Feeding a Yen (New York: Random House, 2003,
ISBN 0-375-50808-2), pp. 17-30. The article is an amusing and mouth
watering disquisition on the food of Galicia and in particular pimientos
de Padron. The pimientos are an obsession with Mr. Trillin, one that began
with an accidental visit to Santiago in the 1960s. He describes the market
in Santiago, making it sound like it should be a necessary part of the
pilgrimage. He also makes one hungry for the foods enjoyed at the end of
the trek.

I also posted this to Santiagobis. Sorry for the duplication, but at this
point I do not know how many crossovers there are.