HOW TO SURVIVE THE GREAT SOUTHWEST FREEZE

of course the swedes insisted that the weather was fine -- it's been an average of minus twenty where they had come from -- and their countrypeople, or at least the people of whatever countries send their rowers to train on the guadalquivir in the winter, were out training today like on any other on the river that never freezes. still, even if the southwestern end of the iberian peninsula wasn't blessed with the curse of unexpected snow, the second siberian cold front did have temperatures below freezing for the second consecutive weekend in seville, which was enough to get the people talking about the freakish weather -- and talking, freakishly, inside. so maybe it was just the freak coincidence of so few people being out on the streets that made the trip so lonely for the woman from bilbao last weekend, but it is also true that it can be difficult to get sevillians to open up and talk about anything but the weather -- even under non-freak circumstances. and so she talked to the "interesting" looking...american (was what he turned out to be)...at the cafe. she's gone back to the basque country, though (where it actually did snow), leaving seville behind to talk with itself about the weather. sometimes there's just not much else. the dance show at cicus on thursday, even if the dancer was undeniably talented and the choreography undeniably "interesting," was just too reminiscent of the cliched modernism of the cafe scene from "funny face." (although you know you know people who would have really liked it.) he was even in all black, just like the swedes when they left for the rock show at fun club (jesus christ, seville), but it's only fair to suppose that maybe the dancer's palette was an aspect of the flamenco he incorporated into his performance. and, undeniably, the flamenco touches worked in places, although the symphonic piece to which the choreography was set seemed to limit a flamenco interpretation rather than encourage it. and what was the music, they ask when you say that you might rather have listened to a symphony play it than watch the dancer dance to a recording. but although the performance was titled "le badinage," the music as you recall it wasn't anything like the baroque piece by that same title by marin marais. not to worry, because it suffices to say that the performance wasn't bad, and it also happens to happen that the discovery of marais turns out to be the perfect soundtrack to another cold friday night at home.