Sita’s Uncle

DevilDucky – Fatboy Slim: The Joker
Via Cute Overload
What’s not to like?

Bath and Taunton and Quantocks

It’s nearing the end of a marathon three days. On Friday evening Sita was involved in some kind of field “research” as part of her Tequila Diploma course from the Universidad de Guadalajara. She and a dozen or so classmates went on a University-sponsored pub crawl around Guadalajara which took in El Sin Rival, La Fuente, La Maestranza and Los Famosos Equipales to name but a few. Because some of us have to work for a living I arranged to meet up with them at the end of it all at 8 in Los Equipales. I got there at 7:30 so I could have a chance to catch up a bit, after looking like the lonliest gringo in el centro historico for 90 minutes or so and a couple of their speciality drink, nalgas alegres (rum, grenadine, orange crush and a splash of wine and ice) they phoned the bar to say they’d be there soon. And what a happy bunch they were too. Dr. Jaime (pictured) is the bloke who gave us the masterclass on Mayahuel and friends way back when, in the picture he’s holding a popular botana (bar snack) called viril. It looks innocuous enough, but it is sliced, marinated bull’s penis. I tried it once 8 years ago, Cesar told me what it was and I didn’t believe him. I spat it to the other side of the bar when I realised he wasn’t joking and still have occasional nightmares… anyway, back to the bar… I had a fine old time chatting with everyone while we were plied with free tequila-based drinks, eventually we all decided to move on to a more salubrious atmosphere and ended up in a bar with a cover band doing Green Day, Pearl Jam, Lenny Kravitz and suchlike in Chapultepec somewhere. It was a great evening all in all, nice to be out with such a friendly crowd. I hope they invite me along on more of these scientific field trips…

Que mas? Well Saturday morning, after another fry-up, we got our stuff together browsed the map of Jalisco and decided on Tapalpa instead of Mazamitla. Sita had been grilling her Mexican colleagues on the best places to visit in the mountains and Tapalpa was highly recommended. It’s recently been awarded the status of Pueblo Magico (Magic Town) which means it’s officially recognised as a lovely place and gets cash thrown at it to entice the likes of Sita and me. It only took a couple of hours to get there along a toll dual carriageway which goes down through what looks like a dry lake then we left it to take the winding road up the mountains. Before entering the town we saw all kinds of signs for parapenting. There’s powerful thermal currents and steep cliffs to jump off. Me Dad’s into all the parapenting lark and if we haven’t been deported or bankrupted by October I’ll definitely take him there and have a go myself too. You know you’re in the town because your average driving speed drops to 5 mph as the streets are inexpertly cobbled. It brought back fond memories of the exhaust pipe making a bid for freedom in Puerto Vallarta at new year, but luckily the welding job held up nicely.

We went to the tourist info place and found the last room available at Hotel Hacienda, very nice if not too well sound-proofed and went for a wander round the town. It’s very well conserved. I couldn’t make much progress with my cars that resemble where they’re parked because all the buildings were painted the same colour, off-white and ox-blood. There were a couple though… and . We had a coffee and watched the local fresas playing with spud guns (I think) and soaked up the atmosphere. Then we fired up the altima and went off first to see the reservoir where there’s an odd mix of cacti and pines, then over to see the Piedrotas (big stones). They’re a little like the tors in Dartmoor, but less wide spread. They’ve been there a fair while and the Otomi indians used them as handy chopping boards for human sacrifices. I should also mention that the air was gorgeous. It’s not something you notice if you haven’t been living in a city of 4 million odd where 80% of cars don’t have catalytic converters and there’s a fairly cavalier attitude to forest fires, but it was a refreshing change. We drove back to the pueblo and had a swift pint in front a TV with Chivas vs. Tigres on. At half time we had a nap and then out to hunt down a Spanish tapas bar/restaurant that Sita’d spotted earlier. Ole, Ola, or some such title.

We got a table on the balcony and the undivided attention of Omar, the waiter there. We had some fantastic food (I knew when I started this blog that a lot of it would be about eating habits…) cheeses, jamon serrano, lomo, chicken, cake… and took our time. There was a v. talented couple playing acoustic guitar for ambience. When they played Obladi by the Beatles though, i took it upon myself to make a request, Cavatina (theme from The Deerhunter/ Take Hart’s The Gallery), which they didn’t know. A bit more wine later, I asked for anything from El concierto de Aranjuez or Recuerdos de la Alhambra, and fair play they knew both of them and did perfect renditions. Omar told us about the area, his views on tequila (reposado and anejo are mierda, apparently, full of chemicals and bourbon contaminants), his mate who got his parapent mangled in an updraught and just managed to save himself with a back-up chute, and the history of Tapalpa. He recommended we con our way into the country club to get decent views of the volcanos and after brekky the next day we did just that. After that we took the non-toll road back to Gwod and had a bit of a rest until the evening when Victor, Sarah and Jose came round for the Superbowl and pizza. By the end of it I was starting to vaguely understand the game but I’ll not be making a habit of it. Also, the superbowl is famous for its adverts in the states (it’s what usually makes it bearable), we just got local ads for banks and mobile phones though. I had a look at a few of the American ads on google video, and don’t think I missed much… T’was another late night though, today should be a lot more tranquil. i think we’re going to see the Johnny Cash biopic tonight, and I’ll probably be out with me camera again this ‘avo. I’m glad I have today off work because of the Constitution holiday or summink, cos, as I may have mentioned before, I’m not as young as I used to be. So all in all, a solidly entertaining weekend peopled with friendly folk and gorgeous countryside, life is good.

For all the photos from Tapalpa, click hereabouts

First off, Manu Chao 101. He’s a French/Basque/Spanish bloke who used to be in (French band) Mano Negra. In ’98 or thereabouts he released his first album, Clandestino which is a fantastic mix of songs about his life as a world traveller sung in French, Spanish, English and nonsense, among other languages, (‘I’m the king of bongo baby, I’m the king of bongo bong”…). Laid back rhythms, sampled loops and irresistible grooves all feature prominently. Also there’s an effect which I’m fairly sure he nicked from an 80s electronic keychain that makes a whistling noise then arcade machine explosion which he’s well fond of. It was followed up in 2002 with Proxima Estación: Esperanza which was more of the same; and when your first album’s as good as his was this is no bad thing. In fact, Radiohead could learn from this stick-to-what-you-know approach to writing albums… but I digress. A live album came out relatively recently which I never got round to downloading, but since I’m not writing for Rolling Stone or Q, that’s allowed… All in all tuneful, politically-aware hippy music.

So what was he like on Sunday? Well we arrived at 7:30, doors were billed for 8 and we queued for quite a while building up a quite a thirst and admiring the t-shirts, listening to some kind of musical mayhem inside… we finally got in and found our seats right at the vertiginous top of the bull ring to the left of the stage and established base camp. I went to get a round of Estrella dobles in. The first bar had sold out so they sent me to the next which was also dry, I then made it to the last bar and managed to get to the front without too much elbowing only to be ignored for 15 minutes. Victor had come looking for me by this stage, and helped me get their attention but even then it took forever. I managed to get the last 5 beers in the whole stadium. Amazing if you ask me that an event like this was going to end up beer-free. This is Mexico, not Massachusetts… Victor has a conspiracy theory that they were holding back the booze to prevent trouble. But I don’t reckon so as the beer was warm and they obviously weren’t prepared… Anyroad… during the queueing about fifty people without tickets stormed the entrance gates chucking bottles and suchlike at the security staff and streaming into the building. There were a fair few flashes going off, but I haven’t managed to track down any pictures on the intarwebs. These things always happen when you’ve not got your camera. Maybe it’s time to upgrade my mobile phone… anyroad, it was a little hairy for a few minutes there, but all part of the colourful Mexican concert-going experience. And most of the broken glass missed me…

Back up the 6 flights of steps to the top of the bullring and the lights went down and Mr Chau and band took the stage setting the musical agenda for the evening. Live it is a very different beast. Studio albums rely on carefully crafted editing and samples whereas live it’s an all-out ska-fest. Even gentler numbers got the Dreadzone-at-Ashton-Court treatment, which is all well and good if you’re in the moshpit at the front, but less so for a sedate 31-year-old married bloke sitting comfortably far from the speakers. The energy from the mosh pit and crowd surfers soon worked its way around the crowd and despite the lack of booze I found myself risking my neck by jumping around on the precarious seating. The sound system left a fair bit to be desired and it was hard to hear what the between-songs patter was all about. Something about democracy. I’m guessing he thinks it’s a good thing, but we’ll never know… They played for more than two hours which is fantastic value and it was great to watch the crowd getting more anarchic and the security guards slowly edging away in growing terror. So despite major logistical problems as a spectacle it was great, far better than my last Mexican concert (Oasis in el D.F. in 1998) where everyone behaved far too normally.

Lessons learnt:

• Ticketmaster won’t accept foreign credit cards. The pendejos.
• If you go to a concert to jump around, you’ll be needing tickets at the front.
• It never hurts to bring a hip-flask of tequila and a camera phone.
• If you’re going just to hear albums recreated on stage, you’re better off going to the offy, and listening at home with the volume at 11.
• If you can’t get tickets, find 50 other fans in the same position and riot.
• If you’re after a socio-cultural spectacular with a superlative soundtrack, Manu Chao in a bullring fits the bill nicely.

Another expat’s reviewed the gig here . And even has a camera phone photo of the bullring… Tell him I sent you 🙂

Hover your mouse over the above image to see Elias‘s beautiful watercolour rendering of my butterfly pic. And if you’re feeling brave, click through and leave a comment in Spanish 😉

I wish I could draw.

Puff and Merlin’s mum came to collect them. Sita is vaguely threatening acquiring our own guineau pig, but i’ll do my utmost to avoid that one coming to pass.

In other news, I had my second interview today for the project manager position, but I won’t find out till early next week what the outcome is. This is the space to watch for news… We organised a social event for the PAPAS families last night, click that link to have a look at the pictures (only broadband for now, dial-up version coming soon…). I still faintly smell of burger fumes from barbecuing a hundred or so.

Off to celebrate (co-worker & friend) Judith & Carlos’ pre-wedding at Bittersweet Cafe tonight, tis quite a posh place so i’ll let you know if they let me in or not.

Me mum’s talking about a visit to Santa Cruz in November, which is rainy but has plenty of whale watching opportunities and that, and to meet the grand-rabbits, is the main objective. Looking forward to that, like.

That’ll be all for now, hoping to see a film or two this weekend, and I’ve still got to review House of the Spirit Levels properly before it fades from memory, so that may be it fow a few days.

And Ms.Manatee, if you’re reading this, i hope the lack of activity in your blog over the past few days is because of too much fun, or cakes, and not hurricane related. Alrighty, cheers for now, all the best,
gwyn