Tonight I learned about Quintin.
I could go live with him in Sevilla in September if I wanted.
Yesterday they showed me their apartment on the outskirts of the city, and we all hung out while Concha taught class. Quintin was sleeping, as he does during the day.

This evening Jose came over for dinner. He is typically gitano looking: really thin, curly hair slightly long, very bright eyes, brown skin, sparkling earring in one ear. He sings, "Ayyy..." and then echa-s a bunch of palmaditas in a quick bulerias rhythm, slapping thighs, stamping feet and clapping, all effortlessly as it rolls out of him. He's really personable and a genuinely nice person. Another sobrino (nephew) of Concha.

After we all eat outside, including Curro, we watch a TV show which is a rundown of a ton of people in flamenco these days, all the way from Agujetas, who is one of the purest of the pure, to stuff Concha calls barbarism, because it is cheesy fusion. Then we discuss Quintin, for about an hour. I should say they discuss Quintin, and while they are discussing and arguing among themselves, they turn to me quite often and emphasise certain situations or things he's done, so I understand for sure. (This has nothing to do with them offering to rent me a room in the apartment, it's just that they are so excited about what they are saying about him, they have to make sure whoever is sitting nearby knows).

I believe that Concha treats her sons quite specially, as I've heard a lot of Andalucians do, but I thought it was a bit overboard, when they brought all his clothes from the apartment to do them for him, and a new sheets to put on his bed, and Concha explained that she brings him home cooked food once a week or he wouldn't eat.
Normally Concha is a person that seems quite out of the ordinary, but seeing her talk about her sons brings her into the realm of a normal person.

I know already that he works in the evenings at a hotel where he speaks English, and that he works all the time on his music and just stays in his room with his computer, probably mixing or engineering or whatever. He loves the Beatles and dresses and has his hair like them. He lived in London where he had a second hand, long jacket like the kind the band Oasis wears, apparently also like a police jacket (I have no idea what this is like), but his was red.

Quite a bit of time was spent trying to figure out why he wouldn't, and how to make him go see Raimundo Amador, a very famous Spanish rock guitarist, one of the best in the world, apparently, who probably would help set him on the road to grand success. Jose knows Raimundo, who has repeatedly asked to meet Quintin. Quintin doesn't care one whit about important people, or about money. He once took his guitar and sat on the street for a week busking just to try to understand what it would be like to be poor. They say that for sure he will "arrive"; anyone quite as crazy and intent on what he is doing, has got to. Concha described how when the whole family went to Japan, they all did flamenco and he played his rock music. To hear a flamenco person like Concha, a woman who knew some of the greatest people in the recent history of flamenco, be surprised and impressed by intensity in a musician is something to take note of. She says he shakes with the intensity of what he is trying to get across. She showed us pictures which were impresionante (can't think of English descriptive words right now...) She describes how her and Frasci went to see him in concert once and how he jumped really high off the stage, landed on the floor and was laying there with his body curled around his guitar playing it still. She described her own reaction which seemed to me how most mothers would react to a son carrying out such antics - slightly traumatised. Jose spent some time trying to convince Concha to get Quintin into the car and just take him to Raimundo's place, without telling him where they were going, while Concha shook her head.

What is clear to everybody is that he is really fuera de normal (out of the norm), and has quite a heavy dose of genius. The way they describe him, none of this seems like an act, or a marketing thing. He seems like a sweet person, not like a frightening 70s or 80s rock musician. He doesn't seem to care what people think, he can stay in his room for days just working. He doesn't want to work for or maybe even with anyone else, he refuses to play what other people want, because he wants to do what comes from him. The first time I heard his music was tonight when Curro handed Jose his phone, which was playing a song of Quintin's. I could hear it well enough to know it was no amateur stuff. Pretty "duro" - hard rock.

They all talk about him with a sort of awe and wonderment. This is from a mother who has been famous in her youth and has half the famous flamenco artists in Spain listed on her cell phone (I saw the names rolling past over her shoulder yesterday), a brother who plays on stage all the time, and with known people. They don't understand how he plays hard rock and sings in English, when he comes from a family steeped in traditional flamenco. They shake their heads to think how phenomenal he would be if he did flamenco.
Rafael gets up every once in a while to help narrate some anecdote about him. Like the time they were in Japan and some girl asked him to take her bracelet off, and then asked him to breathe on it. Then she took it back and said she was the happiest girl in the world.

Anyways, it seems like more than just laziness and rebellion that he doesn't wash his clothes, change his sheets, or even eat properly unless someone helps him.
Maybe not the greatest idea to live in the same apartment - lol! Though it might be fascinating.