Madrid 1983 – Aviador Dro

Nuclear Si, Por Supuesto.

Hail The Messiah – Ronaldo Makes First Appearance in Madrid

Despite being a very naughty boy in California during the summer break, Cristiano Ronaldo was welcomed to Madrid today in the manner of a messiah, with an estimated 80,000 fans packing the Santiago Bernabeu to catch their first glimpse of the Portuguese superstar football player.

The local TV news proudly reported that this number of fans turning up just for a player unveiling was a world record, beating even the welcoming of Maradona (dirty Argie cheat) to Napoli in 1984.

Frankly, this is madness, and also seems a bit desperate. Yes, it was a torrid 2008/09 season, having to watch Barca win the ‘Triple’  and, yes, we have had two weeks of absolutely scorchio weather that has made even grizzled Manchego farmers complain of being hot, but 80,000 people, waiting up to 3 hours, just to see a bloke strut down a catwalk and give a press conference? Lunacy.

The madness was even affecting the club physio who stated he was ‘amazed’ at Cristiano’s condition and that the player has “an extraordinary cardiac and lung capacity.” Riiiiiight. Whatever.

Florentino Pérez, the Real Madrid president and architect of the Ronaldo and Kaká transfers, looked on at the proceedings with a smile a kilometer wide. Let’s hope that smile is still there halfway through next season. He’s called in some serious financial favours to fund these acquisitions and he desperately needs them to pay off. He’s already started trying to cover his back by calling for a new Euro Super League only for big clubs in order to guarantee them sufficient revenues.

Summertime

at El Corte Inglés in Nuevos Ministerios, central Madrid.

Summertime

We’re Breathing Cocaine in Madrid

A joint study on pollutants in the city atmosphere by CIEMAT and CSIC has been published and the results of their tests show some surprising findings.

According to the pointy heads, air samples taken throughout different zones in the city showed traces of the following illegal drugs: cocaine, amphetamines, LSD, opiates and cannabis. In one zone they also detected heroin. The scientists were quick to point out though that the levels measured (between 98 and 240 picograms) did not pose any harm and that it would take “a thousand years of breathing to get a decent hit” (I’m paraphrasing, obviously).

La Caja Magica

Today was the start of the Mutua de Madrid Masters tennis tournament, with both the Women’s WTA and the men’s ATP events being moved from their regular autumn  slot to fit into the spring clay-court season.

The tourny is taking place in what is called ‘The Magic Box’ (La Caja Mágica), a quite stunning, brand new sporting complex which boasts 16 clay courts (3 of them inside with independent retractible roofs) in the south west of Madrid on the Manzanares river. No expense has been spared. The hangar like buildings have hi-tech soundproofing (for Rock concerts), poly-bicarbonate walls which have a ’see-through’ effect,  and every seat has an individual light beneath it (there are over 12,000 on centre court alone) which at night shine upwards through red plastic to create a neon ‘Bladerunner’ effect. Outside there are five thousand car park places, impressive landscaping with a park, bridges over lakes (although not quite finished yet) and a media centre. The architect was Dominique Perrault.

Whilst the push behind this, frankly amazing, development has come from the Spanish Tennis Federation it’s all part of Madrid’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. Last week the inspectors were in town and given the full red carpoet treatment. Madrid REALLY wants the Olympics and suffered deeply when London hi-jacked the 2012 event. Despite the fact Olympics big-wigs are usually unhappy about granting Europe two events in a row this has not dimmed the local authority’s push for the nomination so expect to see more and more developments like this in the future.

I am an (Asturian) Cider Drinker

I am a cider drinker
I drinks it all of the day
I am a cider drinker
It soothes all my troubles away

- The Wurzels

This weekend we went Asturian. Specifically, we went to Casa Parrondo (C/. Trujillos, 4) a Sidreria / restaurant located close to metro Callao down in the city centre. The set up is very Asturian with a classic wooden bar worn smooth by the elbows of drinkers down the ages and piled high with tapas, lots of pictures of Sporting Gijon (the owner is fan) and sawdust on the floor.

Casa Parrondo

For anyone who is unaware maybe I should briefly explain that Asturias, up in the North-West of the country, is where Spain’s best cider comes from (although the Basques dispute this – but then they dispute everything)  and the place where you go to drink it is called the Sidreria (Sidra = cider). Also, there is a time-honoured technique for pouring the stuff. Look at the photo left and you can see a chap in funny hat with a bottle in one hand held high above his head and a tipped glass in the other hand at his hip. The idea is you pour from the bottle in this way so that when it splashes into your glass you oxygenate it which makes it taste better (and probably does something for the alcohol as well – I’m no expert).

It’s quite a tricky process and that’s the reason for all the sawdust – it soaks up all the cider that gets spilt by enthusiastic madrileño beginners. Madrid Uno is proud to say he got the hang of things quite quickly and only spilt a few drops. Well,  perhaps it was  closer to half a pint but after three or four bottles things got quite hazy. Whilst the cider isn’t strong (about 4 per cent or so) it does seem to have more of a kick than say lager or ale.

We also had some excellent Asturian cheese and and some ‘Patatas al cabrales’ to soak it up. Very fun atmosphere and nobody minds too much if you splash them – as long as you’re making an effort not to.

Sala BarCo

Madrid half emptied for Easter – and walking around the centre of town over the weekend was very pleasant as the rushing and bumping and elbowing that normally occurs was absent. It also meant most of the cafes, bars and nightclubs weren’t packed to the rafters (as is usual), so myself and four friends took the opportunity on Friday to make a proper night of it in our old hunting ground of Malasaña.

We started with drinks and tapas in plaza de San Ildefonso at Restaurante Conhache. Too cold to sit at the outside terrace, which was deserted, we went inside, which was also deserted. This is almost unheard of as Conhache is the only drinks establishment in the square and is thus SUPER popular. We reveled in the space. For dinner (at a suitable Madrileño time – i.e nigh on midnight) we went to Madrid Madriz, a popular cafe close to metro Tribunal. Again, this can be a very popular spot because it’s cheap, stays open late and the food is served fast – food like burger and chips, sausage and chips, bacon egg and chips, spam and chips. No, that last one was a fib, but you get the idea.

Suitably prepped, we headed off into the maze of old, narrow streets that make up this zone. My companions were all old-hands at the Malasaña scene and knew exactly where they wanted to go. We had ‘copas’ and a boogie at five different places, some of which are covered in the Madrid Nightclubbing section of my main website blog, but for this entry I just wanted to write about a new establishment for me, Sala BarCo.

Located on calle del Barco (geddit?) and open most nights it’s best known for live concerts on the funky-jazz-blues side of things, with some flamenco fusion. But after 1.00am (and we arrived at 0200hrs) it’s DJ time, playing funky hip-hop with a latin tinge. 8 euros to get in but you get a drink with that. The crowd were 20s to 30s and cool. I mean this in the sense that I didn’t see any coke-heads (rare in this part of town) and dressed casually but fashionably. Plus, they were digging the music, which again is rare because at times, and I say this with a deep love of the people, most Madrileños are more interested in the sound of their own voice than the entertainment, whatever entertainment it may be.

Again, because of the holidays, the place was not full which meant we had lots of room and getting to the bar was easy. Maybe this lack of crush influences my thoughts about the place, because I thought it was great. My compadres told me that it can be absolutely rammed at weekends and I’m not sure that I would like that. One other thing in its favour – it has the best acoustics and best sound equipment I have heard in years. The ceilings have been properly covered with sound insulation materials and the speakers, amps, mixing desks etc. were top drawer. Clear, crisp top notes, profound and well formed bass – it really augmented the experience.

Trawling around YouTube I found loads of videos of concerts at Sala Barco, but i thought this one (below) was quite cute. You gotta dig the Spanish accent singing Dr. Feelgood!

Introducing El Canto del Loco

Currently in Argentina touring their latest album, El Canto del Loco, or ECDL as their fans often refer to them, are a pop / rock band from Madrid.

Founded by Daniel Martín García (aka Dani) and Ivan Alejandro Ganchegui (who would leave in 2002 ), they were later joined by guitarist David Otero Martín, drummer Alejandro Velazquez Insua (Jandro), and bassist José Ruiz Casares (aka Chema). They’re signed to Sony and have released 8 albums.

Here’s their video for the single ‘Peter Pan’ – which was released in 2008 and made No.1 in Spain.

Spain Under A Blanket Of Snow

When the TV news shows Mallorca blanketed under a carpet of snow (and the local football team making snowmen on the pitch at the stadium) you know it’s really cold outside without having to leave your flat.

However, I braved the streets last night and here in Madrid the digital displays on the bus shelters were registering temperatures of -3 celsius. Following on from heavy snowfalls during almost the entire day, this meant a lot of freezing on roads and walkways and smaller streets that had not been gritted were quite perilous for cars and pedestrians alike. But most people seemed to be enjoying the challenge, everyone wrapped up like Scandawegians and with the odd snowball fight going on. Several locals told me they hadn’t seen snow this deep in over twenty years.

The picture above shows what central town looked like at midday.

Latest Facebook Group in Madrid

The latest group on facebook that’s become popular in Madrid is the

Odio a los muñecos de Papa Noel colgando en los balcones!!!’s

For non-Spanish speakers, that’s the ‘I Hate the Father Christmas Dolls Placed on People’s Balconies‘ group, and as of today it has 18,427 ‘fans’. Here’s a photo of the sort of thing that’s annoying them: