Live music in Santander, March 2015

Spring has finally arrived; life is good, and music is everywhere.

• 1 March: Jam Manouche @ Rubicón, Calle del Sol 4
  Good old and new themes — such as Ni Oui Ni Non by Zaz.
• 3 March: La chica de ayer @ Canela Bar, Plaza de Cañadio
  Vicky García Ortega (vocal) and Pepe Santos (piano) interpret Spanish schlagers of ’80s. If you grew in Spain about that time, you’d probably appreciate the choice of material; I didn’t.
• 5 March: George Cables and Javier Colina @ Salón de actos de la Fundación Botín, Pedrueca 1
  Some very fine jazz from this American—Spanish duo.
• 10 March: Autómatas Tiernos @ Canela Bar
  Jazz, (gypsy and simply) swing and bossa nova standards sung by fabulously multilingual Lidia Gil Calvo accompanied by Carlos Expósito (bass), Tato Francés (drums) and Paco Gijón (guitar).
• 11 March: Santander-Tokio Jazz Quartet @ Rubicón
  Featuring Tsuyoshi Furuhashi (tenor sax, flute), Antonio Gamaza (piano), Roberto Gamaza (drums) and Álex Zabala (double bass).
• 12 March: Bolero Night with Denise @ Desafinado Wine & Jazz, Barrio Las Mazas 15, Liencres
  Denise Rivas Espíndola (vocal) & Eduardo Nápoles (piano).
• 17 March: Paolo Latrónica @ Canela Bar
  Paolo (and guests), armed with acoustic guitar, treated us to rock classics: Ticket To Ride, Money For Nothing, Have You Ever Seen The Rain... Aaah.
• 19 March: Comité Rock @ El Cazurro, Playa de La Arnía, Liencres
  Another night of high-energy, highway-themed classic rock: Highway Star and Highway To Hell in one evening, what else could you ask for?
• 20 March: The Clams @ El Almacén de Little Bobby, Calle del Sol 20
  An evening of soul, rock’n’roll and blues by this sexy all-Clam band!

• 25 March: Los Cisneros Quartet @ Rubicón
  Milton Rodríguez (guitar), Juan Sabastián Vázquez (piano), Arturo Valero (double bass) and César de Frías (drums) play minimalistic, original and beautiful contemporary jazz.
• 16 March: Bolero Night with Mabel Sierra @ Desafinado Wine & Jazz, Barrio Las Mazas 15, Liencres
  By now, I’ve seen three very different projects of Mabel Sierra. I liked this program best of the three. Tactful piano support by Eduardo Nápoles leaves a lot of space for Mabel’s voice. From cool to playful to tragicomic, her versions of boleros and other standards never cease to surprise.
• 29 March: Rädio Lulú @ Rubicón
  Formed some five years ago by Leticia Robles (vocal) and Emilio Sáiz (guitar) as acoustic project, the current incarnation of Rädio Lulú is augmented by David Álvarez ‘Pizo’ (bass) and Luis Gonzaga B. Martínez ‘Lugobama’ (drums). Feel-good swing, twist and rockabilly repertoire.

• 31 March: GOU Music @ Canela Bar
  Jazz/bossa nova/funk/electronica chillout featuring Chema Armengou (DJ set), Sergio Mayoral (trumpet) and Mabel Sierra (vocal).

See you in April!

Monólogos de la vagina (Coño) Santander 2015

By some reason, I’ve never seen The Vagina Monologues in English, even though some years ago the play made it as far as Saffron Walden. At last, I made up for it. Tonight’s show in Naútica was sold out. I was lucky to buy my ticket (only €5!) couple of weeks ago at Bar Bolero, c/San Celedonio, 35. All proceeds are going to the charities, Asociación Centro de Asistencia a Víctimas de Agresiones Sexuales (CAVAS) and Asociación Ciudadana Cántabra Antisida (ACCAS).

With theatre, you never know. I expected the show to be engaging and provoking. But I frankly did not expect the cast of volunteers to act so professionally. Nor did I expect me understanding almost everything they were saying. Mind you, there is a lot of serious stuff in the play, some of the monologues would make you angry, or even make you cry, but most of them were unashamedly hilarious. The final one, La mujer que amaba hacer felices a otras vaginas, was performed by Esther García-Lago, who was conducting a “choir” (the rest of the troupe) having their different types of orgasms. And of course, I did not expect to find me myself shouting Coño! from the first row of the auditorium (Reconquistando el coño). Only now I realise how long I was waiting for this moment. Orgasmafantastic.

Los Monólogos de la Vagina Santander 2015

Por orden de aparición, los siguentes monólogos y actrices / Monologues and actresses, in order of appearance:

• Narradora — Beatriz Morán
• Introducción — Carmen Martín, Lucía Lopez-Areal & Miriam Bustillo
• Pelos — Noelia Fernández
• Lista del “usaría y diría” — Alicia Riva, Isabel González & Beatriz Riva
• La inundación — Gloria Ferrer
• El taller de la vagina — Eva María Prado, Carmen Higuera & Isabel Fernández
• Feliz dato vaginal — Paula Navarro
• Porque le gustaba verla — Beatriz de León
• Dato vaginal no tan feliz — Kim Ingebritsen
• Mi vagina furiosa — Carla San Miguel
• Mataron a la mujer dentro de mí — Miriam Bustillo, Mª Lucía Iglesias & María García
• Mi vagina era mi aldea — Gema Martínez & Raquel Miramón
• La paparrucha en el país de las maravillas — Celina Rizzi & Cristina Pérez
• Reconquistando el coño — Pilar Iglesias
• Se le preguntó a una niña de seis años — Ana Rodríguez
• Mi falda Corta — Carmen Martín
• Yo estaba allí — Alicia Riva
• La mujer que amaba hacer felices a otras vaginas — Esther García-Lago

The Clams live

Once again, El Almacén de Little Bobby brings to Santander another great outfit I’ve never heard of before. This is, I imagine, how The Commitments should have sounded if they were an all-girl band. So, what’s on a menu? A healthy portion of soul, rock’n’roll and blues standards and the band’s own songs well worthy of the classics, all served with great sense of humour. To start with, the charming madrileñas (that’s right) bear the same surname. As befits the true soul sisters. The three frontladies, Aída Clam (lead vocal), Almu Clam (trumpet and vocals), Patri Clam (trombone and vocals) were doing almost a cabaret act. The Clams made the audience to sing and dance and laugh and forget about the usual (that is, horrible) weather outside.

After the show, I had a chat with the lead singer and asked if, by any chance, they’ve got any CDs for sale. She said, yesterday we were playing in León and all were sold out. But wait, she said, let me check, we may have one or two left. In fact there was one, which was given to me as a gift. Which was very nice.

Tonight’s line-up: Aída Clam (lead vocal), Almu Clam (trumpet and vocals), Henar Clam (guitar), Marina Clam (bass), Maylin Clam (drums and vocals) and Patri Clam (trombone and vocals).

Tonight’s playlist (photo taken with kind permission of the band).

Ella o yo

a film by Bernarda Pagés

This week’s homework in Advanced Spanish Language and Culture course is based on this charming Argentinian short. No subtitles there, so I had to watch it a few times to be able to answer all the questions, and still I can’t say that I did catch everything. The closing theme is Sur o no sur by Kevin Johansen.

Live music in Santander, February 2015

Man, there was a lot of it!

• 1 February: Jam Manouche @ Rubicón, Calle del Sol 4
  Now already a tradition!
• 4 February: Funky Station @ Rubicón
  Funky Station, in that evening incarnation, was Sergio González (guitar and vocals), Francisco Gómez (guitar), Carlos Gutiérrez (bass and vocals) and Natxo Miralles (drums). Don’t be fooled by the band’s name: it’s not only funk, but also jazz, blues, rock’n’roll, even samba... Delightful, if somewhat directionless, mix. As it happens in Rubicón, some encores ensued featuring the guest artists who just happened to sit there at the bar.
• 5 February: Phil Grijuela and Iván Velasco @ El Cazurro, Playa de La Arnía, Liencres
  I saw these guys last month performing during La Noche Americana at Rubicón. To my surprise, the program was almost completely different. The highlights included Like a Rolling Stone and Whiskey in the Jar.
• 7 February: Gou Live @ Desafinado Wine & Jazz, Barrio Las Mazas 15, Liencres
  Chema Armengou (DJ set), Sergio Mayoral (trumpet) and Mabel Sierra (vocal) mix electronic and live music.
• 9 February: The Dustaphonics @ New Planet Rock Bar, Calle Santa Lucía 8
  The four-piece from London delivered a fantastic show.
• 13 February: Pepe Habichuela @ Salón de actos de la Fundación Botín, Pedrueca 1
  I simply had no right to miss a concert of this humble legend of flamenco (he played with Camarón de la Isla and Enrique Morente, among others). And what a concert it was! Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the names of the singer and the percussionist, who were just as outstanding as maestro himself.
• 14 February: El Pescao @ Carnival of Santoña
  I was told Santoña is about the only place in Cantabria worth visiting to see a carnival parade. Quite predictably, it was raining most of the evening, so my friends and I ended up in the big marquee in the centre of the town and saw El Pescao there. I never heard about this band before but, as I learned now, it is very popular. Lot of people actually knew the lyrics! I didn’t care much for their pop-rock songs but reggae/ska stuff was quite decent; I wish they played more of that.
• 17 February: Adriana Blu & The Sugars @ Canela Bar, Plaza de Cañadio
  A talented singer and a great band playing jazz, soul, bolero and bossa-nova standards. They are based in Santander so I hope to see them again soon.

• 18 February: Yakeen @ Rubicón
  A four-strong trio from Toulouse, comprising Adrien Aragón (steel string guitar), Matthieu Guenez (Spanish guitar), Dimitri Laboire (double bass) and a violinist who was introduced to the public as simply Matthieu. Not just another jazz manouche band, their repertoire includes compositions by Chick Corea, Paco de Lucía and Vicente Amigo. Two and a half hours (at least, not counting the interval) of pure sonic pleasure.
• 20 February: Cromática Pistona @ Café de las Artes Teatro, Calle García Morato 4
  Wow. When you see a band like this, you are spoiled for choice: either sit and stare open-mouthed; go dancing; or, if you are feeling adventurous, go dancing open-mouthed. I chose the first option, not least because I didn’t want to trip over the cables in front of the band, whereas if I went to the cable-free area, I would lose the view of them, and probably my seat. Anyway, there were more than enough people who even knew how to dance swing. (According to the band’s Facebook page, “El principal objetivo de la Cromática es lograr que el público baile sin parar en los conciertos”.) Wonderfully happy and diverse music played with lots of humour and style.

• 24 February: Hermes Quartet @ Canela Bar
  Hermes de la Torre (piano), Saúl Crespo (violin), Miguel Díez (cello) and Daniel Rodríguez (percussion) with special guests Eva Maza (vocal) y Jorge Pérez (recitative). A history of Cuban music from 1890 to the present.
• 26 February: Hula Baby @ El Cazurro
  This was the first time that I was unable to progress to the main sitting (playing, dancing) room of El Cazurro. So I and my friend stayed by the bar, enjoying beer, nice food and a view of the public trying to dance while closely-packed. As for music, it was rather straightforward good old rock’n’roll well played but, thanks to the acoustic properties of the place, I wasn’t even sure which songs were sung in Spanish and which in English.

I’m tired of winter. Thank you Cantabria for the Carnival break (unheard of in the UK, though rather short by Canarian standards) and for all this music.

Plants and planetoids

by Timur Kulikov

Pencil, paper.

Plants

Plants: “A sketch I did at school.”

Planetoids

Planetoids: “A sketch I did of a neighbourhood in space. School was rather uneventful.”

Fear of Flying

a film by Conor Finnegan

I’ve discovered this little gem thanks to Film English, a great resource for EFL teaching. Each lesson plan is built around a (deliberately) obscure short film, though of course you are free to use just a part of this plan. I was not quite sure how my preteen and teen students would react to the film. They loved it.

Just as recommended, I paused the film at about 05:25 and asked them what do they think Dougal would do. None of them guessed correctly but they had some good ideas.