August 27 Porchfest Nights in Benicia with Pardon the Interruption
The third and final Porchfest Nights concert is Wednesday, August 27 featuring Pardon the Interruption, a duo preview of the full band slated to play at Porchfest Benicia.
Porchfest Nights takes place at The Escape (4588 East Second Street, Suite E) in Benicia’s Industrial Park. Doors open at 6:00pm; music runs 6:30pm–8:30pm. Tickets are $18 and include a casual artist meet-and-greet. Beer and wine and snacks are available for purchase.
Porchfest Benicia 2025 returns on Saturday, September 13 with more than 40 performances across First Street and historic neighborhoods, from 1:00–5:00pm. Advance and VIP tickets are on sale now at www.porchfest-benicia.com
Proceeds from Porchfest Nights support the production of Porchfest Benicia 2025. Last year’s inaugural event drew thousands of attendees, transforming Benicia into a regional music hot spot. The Rotary Club of Benicia is acting as Porchfest Benicia and Porchfest Nights’ 501(c)(3) partner, so donations accepted are eligible for a tax deduction.
“This festival has truly captured the heart of Benicia,” said Benicia Mayor Steve Young. “It’s more than just a music event – it’s a community experience.”
La bandera escocesa comparte un lugar de honor junto a la de Andalucía en el centro de Teba.
Después de nuestra profunda inmersión en la poesía y tragedia de Federico García Lorca en Granada y Fuente Vaqueros, Alfredo y yo regresamos a casa hacia Grazalema, haciendo un desvío deliberado hasta la ciudad encumbrada de Teba.
Es un lugar donde la leyenda escocesa y la historia española se entrelazan.
La próxima semana se cumple el aniversario de la Batalla de Teba (25 de agosto de 1330), cuando las fuerzas del rey Alfonso XI de Castilla se enfrentaron a los moros de Granada. Entre los aliados de Alfonso estaba Sir James Douglas, el célebre “Black Douglas” de Escocia, cumpliendo el deseo moribundo de su rey, Robert the Bruce: llevar su corazón embalsamado a Tierra Santa.
La historia es tan dramática como cualquier balada medieval. Robert the Bruce murió en 1329, pidiendo que su corazón fuera colocado en un relicario de plata y llevado al Este en una última cruzada simbólica. Douglas, su caballero más confiable, emprendió el viaje con compañeros y se unió a la campaña de Alfonso XI contra los moros en el camino. Durante una escaramuza cerca de Teba, Douglas se vio rodeado.
La leyenda cuenta que arrojó el relicario por delante, exclamando:
“¡Ve primero como acostumbrabas, noble corazón, Douglas te seguirá o morirá!”
Así lo hizo, y así terminó la promesa de un caballero.
El corazón regresó a Escocia y fue enterrado en la Abadía de Melrose, en las Borders, mientras que el cuerpo de Robert reposa en la Abadía de Dunfermline, en Fife. El cuerpo de Douglas yace en St Bride’s Kirk, Lanarkshire.
Cada agosto, Teba recuerda este momento compartido entre Escocia y España con los Douglas Days: recreaciones medievales, música, desfiles y tartán contra el cielo andaluz. El festival comienza la próxima semana, y si hubo un lugar donde la historia y la pompa se encuentran, ese es aquí.
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Otros corazones famosos que reposan lejos de sus cuerpos:
Esta práctica de separar el corazón del cuerpo —a veces por simbolismo político, a veces por romanticismo, a veces por pura practicidad— es sorprendentemente común en la historia. La historia de Teba encaja en una tradición más amplia:
• Ricardo Corazón de León (1157–1199)
• Cuerpo: Abadía de Fontevraud, Anjou, junto a sus padres, Enrique II y Leonor de Aquitania.
• Corazón: Sellado en un ataúd de plomo e inhumado en la Catedral de Ruan, capital de su ducado de Normandía —un gesto político que consolidaba sus posesiones francesas.
• Viscera: Enterradas en Châlus, donde murió de una flecha.
• Ana Bolena (1501–1536) (legendaria)
• Ejecutada en 1536, fue enterrada en StPeter ad Vincula, Torre de Londres.
• Una leyenda de Suffolk dice que su corazón fue secretamente removido e inhumado en la iglesia de St Mary, en Erwarton, cerca de su hogar familiar. No hay pruebas, pero la tradición local persiste.
• Maria Estuardo (1542–1587) (según la versión tradicional)
• Ejecutada en el Castillo de Fotheringhay; inicialmente enterrada en la Catedral de Peterborough y luego trasladada a la Abadía de Westminster.
• Algunas tradiciones sostienen que su corazón embalsamado fue secretamente enterrado en Haddington, East Lothian —como un acto de devolver su corazón a Escocia.
• Voltaire (1694–1778)
• Cuerpo: Intervenido en el Panteón, París, como héroe de la Ilustración.
• Corazón: Conservado en una urna en la Bibliothèque Nationale, con la inscripción:
“Su espíritu está en todas partes, y su corazón está aquí.”
• Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
• Cuerpo: Cementerio del Père Lachaise, París.
• Corazón: Contrabandeado por su hermana Ludwika hasta Varsovia en un frasco de coñac, cumpliendo su deseo de descansar en su tierra natal. Está en la Iglesia de la Santa Cruz, en un pilar.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
• Se ahogó en el Golfo de Spezia, Italia.
• Durante la cremación en la playa, su corazón —posiblemente calcificado por la tuberculosis— se negó a arder. Mary Shelley lo mantuvo envuelto en seda hasta que fue enterrado con su hijo en Bournemouth.
• Lord Byron (1788–1824)
• Murió en Missolonghi, Grecia, durante la Guerra de Independencia.
• Su cuerpo fue devuelto a Inglaterra para enterramiento, pero su corazón y vísceras fueron inhumados en Grecia. Alfredo y yo visitamos el monumento encalado allí —un silencioso testimonio de la devoción de Byron por la libertad griega.
• Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
• Cenizas: Esquina de los Poetas en la Abadía de Westminster.
• Corazón: Enterrado en Stinsford, Dorset —aunque la tradición del pueblo dice que una gata se lo llevó antes del entierro, lo que llevó a reemplazarlo por un corazón de cerdo. La mayoría de los historiadores llama a esta leyenda rural un mito macabro.
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Desde Melrose hasta Missolonghi, desde Ruan hasta Varsovia, estos sepulcros divididos cuentan una verdad común: el corazón —en la vida y en la leyenda— pertenece donde el amor, la lealtad y el anhelo son más fuertes.
Y aquí, en Teba, esa verdad se cuenta cada agosto, cuando ondean las banderas, suenan las gaitas y las calles recuerdan el día en que un caballero escocés, lejos de casa, cumplió la última promesa de su rey.
Of Hearts and Heroes in Teba by David Eugene Perry
The Scottish flag shares pride of place alongside that of Andalucía in the center of Teba
After our deep dive into the poetry and tragedy of Federico García Lorca in Granada and Fuentes Vaqueros, Alfredo and I drove homeward toward Grazalema — with a deliberate detour to the hilltop town of Teba.
It is a place where Scottish legend and Spanish history intertwine.
Next week marks the anniversary of the Battle of Teba (August 25, 1330), when the forces of King Alfonso XI of Castile clashed with the Moors of Granada. Among Alfonso’s allies was Sir James Douglas, the famed “Black Douglas” of Scotland, fulfilling the dying wish of his king, Robert the Bruce: to carry his embalmed heart to the Holy Land.
The story is as dramatic as any medieval ballad. Robert the Bruce had died in 1329, asking that his heart be placed in a silver reliquary and borne east in a final symbolic crusade. Douglas, his most trusted knight, set out with companions and joined Alfonso XI’s campaign against the Moors along the way. During a skirmish outside Teba, Douglas found himself surrounded. Legend says he hurled the casket forward, calling, “Go first as thou wert wont, noble heart, Douglas will follow thee or die!” He did, and so ended a knight’s vow.
The heart made it back to Scotland, buried at Melrose Abbey in the Borders, while Robert’s body rests at Dunfermline Abbey in Fife. Douglas’s body lies in St Bride’s Kirk, Lanarkshire.
Every August, Teba remembers this shared Scottish-Spanish moment with Douglas Days — medieval reenactments, music, parades, and tartan against the Andalusian sky. The festival begins next week, and if ever there was a place where history and pageantry meet, it is here.
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Other famous hearts that lie far from their bodies:
This tradition of separating heart from body — sometimes for political symbolism, sometimes for romance, sometimes for sheer practicality — is surprisingly common in history. Teba’s tale fits into a longer lineage:
Richard the Lionheart (1157–1199)
• Body: Fontevraud Abbey, Anjou, alongside his parents, Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
• Heart: Sealed in a lead casket and buried in Rouen Cathedral, capital of his Duchy of Normandy — a political gesture cementing his French holdings.
• Viscera: Buried at Châlus, where he died from an arrow wound.
Anne Boleyn (1501–1536)(legendary)
• Beheaded in 1536, she was buried in St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London.
• Suffolk legend says her heart was secretly removed and interred at St Mary’s Church, Erwarton, near her family home. No proof survives, but local tradition holds fast to the tale.
Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–1587)(traditional account)
• Executed at Fotheringhay Castle; initially buried at Peterborough Cathedral, later reinterred in Westminster Abbey.
• Some traditions claim her embalmed heart was secretly buried in Haddington, East Lothian — an act of returning her heart to Scotland.
Voltaire (1694–1778)
• Body: Interred in the Panthéon, Paris, as a hero of the Enlightenment.
• Heart: Preserved in an urn at the Bibliothèque Nationale, inscribed, “His spirit is everywhere, and his heart is here.”
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
• Body: Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.
• Heart: Smuggled by his sister Ludwika to Warsaw in a jar of cognac, fulfilling his wish to rest in his homeland. It lies in the Holy Cross Church, enshrined in a pillar.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
• Drowned in the Gulf of Spezia, Italy.
• During the beach cremation, his heart — possibly calcified from tuberculosis — refused to burn. Mary Shelley kept it wrapped in silk until it was buried with their son in Bournemouth.
Lord Byron (1788–1824)
• Died in Missolonghi, Greece, during the War of Independence.
• His body was returned to England for burial, but his heart and viscera were interred in Greece. Alfredo and I visited the whitewashed monument there — a quiet testament to Byron’s devotion to Greek freedom.
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
• Ashes: Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner.
• Heart: Buried in Stinsford, Dorset — though village lore says a cat made off with it before burial, prompting its replacement with a pig’s heart. Most historians call this a macabre rural myth.
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From Melrose to Missolonghi, Rouen to Warsaw, these divided burials tell a common truth: the heart — in life and legend — belongs where love, loyalty, and longing are strongest.
And here in Teba, that truth is told every August, when the banners fly, the bagpipes sound, and the streets remember the day a Scottish knight, far from home, kept his king’s last promise.
24 Hours in the Land of Lorca — by David Eugene Perry
Tuesday, August 12 Grazalema is a wonderful base for exploring Andalucía. So today, Alfredo and I will visit one of our favorite cities, Granada: exploring the world of its most famous literary figure, García Lorca.
After dropping Alfredo’s parents in Antequera for the high-speed AV train to Madrid, from whence they’ll continue on to their home in Santander, we explore the Neolithic 5000-year-old Dolmens nearby. These three megalithic burial chambers continue to amaze with their seemingly indestructible construction and astronomical orientation.
Next stop: Granada, to check-in to the lovely Vincci AlbayzinHotel (where we’ve stayed twice before): centrally located, very reasonably priced and with its own underground parking. Also, the breakfast is one of the best we’ve ever enjoyed.
While we wait for our room to get ready, we have a vermut and beer at the iconic Granados Bar just adjacent, including terrific tapas with our drinks. Granada is known for its tasty little bites with “copas.” Next to the door is this historic plaque:
“THIS IS A SPECIAL PLACE
Since 1900, three generations of the Granados family have run this legendary tavern with more than one hundred years of history. What began as an alpargatería (espadrille workshop) at the dawn of the 20th century is today one of the establishments that best represents the essence of the tavern tradition — a timeless place.
When travelers of the early 20th century passed along this Carrera del Genil, they would stop here to water their animals and enjoy a glass of its famous wine. Unforgettable figures such as Falla, Lorca, Dalí, Ayala, and Morente have all passed through here. There is so much of the past in this central corner of Granada that no one can bear to see it disappear.
Inside, the present coexists with pieces of history: bottles and cases of original beer, even the pole with which the night watchman of the era would light the lamps of that 1900 Granada. All this turns the Taberna Granados into a unique museum.
From this corner, more than a century later, one continues to gaze out at the city. That is why this tavern is a place to discover.”
Later, we have a fab Moroccan dinner at “Tajin Dar” where we had eaten once before. Then we take an enchanting night tour of The Alhambra, with a lovely English couple and our terrific guide, Natalia. We had done the Alhambra twice before: once early morning just as it opened and once during the heat of the afternoon. We’re beat by the time we get back to the hotel after a 22,000 step day at 12:52am — so already Wednesday. After a shower, we collapse right into bed.
Wednesday, August 13 We slept un-interrupted: both of us beat by yesterday’s power-walking. Neither of us awoke ‘til past 8am: 2 hours off our usual. We thought of a return to Granados Bar for coffee — since Lorca frequented here — but it’s not open mornings. So, across the alameda to the equally historic Ysla (desde 1897) with their confession worthy pastries including one dedicated to Pope Pius IX:Ysla’s Piononos.
“The Pionono
The origins of a tradition
We have been handcrafting piononos® since 1897
The history of the Pionono® begins in 1897, when Ceferino Isla created a cake in homage to Pope Pius IX (Pio Nono), who in 1854 had proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
The cake recalls the papal figure: cylindrical and somewhat plump in shape (sponge cake soaked and rolled onto itself), dressed like the Pope in a white mozzetta (paper cup in which the soaked sponge cake is placed), and topped with a crown of sweetened and toasted cream placed on the sponge cake cylinder (symbolizing the zucchetto with which the Pope covers his crown).”
Of course we split one. 🙂 Pretty sure Lorca ate a few in his day.
Now, we head to Lorca’s nearby hometown of Fuente Vaqueros (our third visit) and the museum now in his house. On our last excursion to Granada we visited his family’s summer home — in the middle of a park dedicated to his memory. It was from there that Fascist thugs took Lorca and later murdered him, throwing his body into an un-marked grave. It has never been found.
In Fuente Vaqueros we find that the museum only opens for guided tours every hour on the hour starting at 10am. The museum is closed on Mondays. Note: the website and its contact info for reservations is notoriously casually responsive. As we arrive at 11:10am, we’ll need wait. So, we walk the central square — flanked by statues of its homeboy hero — and have a vermut in Bar Málaga, of course, graced by a photo of Lorca. At 11:50am, we go to get our tickets and there’s easily 25 people waiting. And, que suerte, Wednesdays is free admission! Another note: the docents are extremely well informed and the tour is great. However, it’s fully guided and non-flexible. Once you’re in there’s no early exit. It’s an hour commitment.
The spirit of Lorca is everywhere in and around “his city”: Granada. The airport is named for him, a cultural center, streets, plazas and thousands of tourist tchotchkes and t-shirts bear his image.
Since I was in college and studied his plays, Federico del Sagrada Corazón de Jesús García Lorca has fascinated me. When I founded the nonprofit Rainbow Honor Walk in San Francisco I made sure his memorial plaque was one of the first to be installed. As he is a character in the book on which I’m working, Thorns of the 15 Roses, the great Andalucían writer is much on my mind this trip.
After our visit, as we enter the freeway from Fuente Vaqueros, right in front of us a jet takes off from the runway of Lorca International. If time travel was possible and universes could collide outside of fiction, a young Federíco could have seen it lift to the skies.
Today on the anniversary of her birth, we celebrate the life and legacy of Rainbow Honor Walk honoree Gladys Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960).
A trailblazing blues singer, pianist, and performer of the Harlem Renaissance, Bentley defied gender norms with her tuxedo-clad performances and unapologetic expression of her lesbian identity. Her powerful voice, bold stage presence, and barrier-breaking career made her a pioneer for both LGBTQ+ visibility and African American artistry in a time of profound discrimination.
Read Dr. Bill Lipsky’s tribute in the SF Bay Times at the link below.
