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Last year I made a post about being flamencoed out where I had been to too many concerts in a row. This week has been strange in that its been practically impossible to move without bumping into flamenco stars. Kate and I have often talked about how much we dont post because of being accused of name dropping but the fact is if you live in a small place where with many people on the flamenco scene, you cant help but meet them on a regular basis.
It started on sunday with a near miss in the car. I had been playing at the chumbera and on the way back through a narrow lane the Albaicin came head to head with a black mercedes that was going the wrong way up a one way hill. I was about to get out and start shouting only to find the driver was Joaquin Cortés. So instead we managed to squeeze past each other and I let him continue the wrong way up the hill.
On tuesday Jingle phoned me and said there was a good gig on with some surprise guests on Nerja beach so I drove down to take a look. I was glad I did. Jingle started to play and was joined by Marcial Heredia on Guitar. Marcial has one of the most brutal right hands i have ever seen. His thumb work is easily as punchy as Gerardos. Later Ascuncion Heredia (a cousin) joined on vocals and "El Chato de Velez" joined the line up as well on vocals and palmas.
EL Chato, Ascuncion Heredia, Marcial Heredia, Jingle
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Things got better as more Heredias turned up: I met my friend Joaquin Heredia at the bar and then out of nowhere Marcials sister Chonchi turned up and sang the second half.
I had someone take this especially to annoy Ricardo
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Ah yes! The flamenco cross roads! It's funny you know, all I can account for this week is a sore back and ribs from playing the guitar. With us both it's the thrill of achievement, but I got no pics to prove it so I better leave it at that.
July is definitely the best month to come to Granada for flamenco. It just explodes with activity. Sorry I missed you Pimiento playing at the Chumbera. Did Joquin get out of his car ? Did you see how small he is ? I got such a shock when I met him.
Life has just been hectic. We also missed Emilio playing with Chekara, but heard the recording that was made and it was amazing, Maya on violin, wonderful Andalusi music. They then went off to Morocco to play a few gigs, hopefully this will become a regular show with loads more concerts all over the world !
Your beach gig looked fun. I love Marciel and sorry we missed him playing with Jingle. We headed down to beach Sunday with Emilio and Maya for a much earned rest. Harold telling wild stories of bullet proof cars, bodyguards, mafia, mariachi and mad Mexican drivers on his recent trip out there with Farruquito. Emilio delighting us by singing Bulerías about Maya and her pet rabbit and Harold being a vegetarian. Not easy to get the word vegetariano in to a song and for it to sound good LOL
Looking forward to Matic's visit after San Lucar. Hopefully there will be some great flamenco happenings for him or we will be accused of making it all up
uh oh. i guess im going to have to pack my own food in my guitar case when i go to spain.
Yeah, its a real problem if you are a vegetarian here. Pork is pretty much considered a vegetable (or at least not really meat) and is added to most dishes. If you like Gazpacho, green salad, cheese, falafel, ice cream, bread, olives, fruit, tortilla, wine , beer...then thats pretty much all there is.
If you are vegan then forget coming to Andalucia....you will probably starve!
Pork is pretty much considered a vegetable (or at least not really meat)
When we were at our place near Almeria a few weeks ago we went into a little tapas bar in the village - fairly traditional place, not used to tourists. Dave isn't vegetarian, he eats fish, as long as it doesn't look like a fish!
So I said that we didn't eat meat, and they said, what about chicken?! I said no to that and then they said what about jamon?
Pork is pretty much considered a vegetable (or at least not really meat) and is added to most dishes.
Hi Pim man,
That's the funniest thing I've read here all month.
Diff is that most poor folk don't really think about it and just eat anything nutritional.
Hey man, my village reached the National news today!!
The Aberdeen Council slapped a banning order on our local amateur Pipe Band, from practising outside in the Summer evenings (between 7-9 pm) because a local resident complained that it was distrurbing her evening TV viewing. (English bastard of course! )
I know the Pipe Major personally, a fine and enthusiastic piper from the Hebrides and very skilled and knowledgable in the purist tradition.
Locally and via the Internet from pipers all over the World, the amount of protest at this action was so overwhelming that the Council had to overturn their ban!! Yaaaaay!
Someone here said " If ye canna practise the pipes here in the North o' Scotland, then whaur the hell are ye gonny practise them?"
Love it!!
Bit like that yuppie, porsche-driving family from London years ago that moved into "The Big Posh House" (with panoramic views over the countryside) in a quaint, rural English village in Somerset, installed electronic gates and security cameras and then complained to the Local Council that they were being woken up on Sundays by church bells ringing.......AND...they didn't like the smell coming from the neighbouring pig farm....
Hey Matic, you will do fine here. This house caters for veggies !!!
We have all the tapas bars well trained as well so that Harold gets veggie tapas.
We were once given a paella and I said that Harold wouldnt eat it as it had meat and fish. The waiter leant over and whispered " Si pero muy poco" which made us laugh.
Most restaurants have at least one veggie offering, pasta with tom sauce for example, or tortilla, fried aubergine is popular, garlic mushrooms, asparagus with scrambled egg, roasted red peppers or fried green peppers, marinaded tomato salad. Papas a lo pobre a favourite, great cheeses, all kinds of egg dishes, pasta, pizza, salads. Just check they have not thrown in ham or tuna as they are sort of considered flavours and dont count.
We were in a new japanese restaurant the other day and there was no veggie offerings on menu, but they quickly listed all the dishes they could do and we wondered why they did not just put them on the menu.
i dont know how it is in San Lucar but here in Granada you will be fine.
No way man...jamon is bigger than Flamenco down there. It's entirely normal to walk into a house or apartment and see an 18-pound smoked pig leg, foot and all, just sittin out on the counter top in a little stand. That stuff is a lot better for you than Frank Zappa's favorite vegetable (tobacco) though!
In Sevilla I remember spinach and garbanzo beans, croquetas, tortilla of course, and you could find pretty good pizza in Triana... I think that was about it on the vegetarian side
You will probably be living mostly on "picos", cheese, beer and second hand smoke
isn't there a high muslim and jewish population in andalucia? shouldn't pork be sort of unpopular?
I think thats a reason why pork is traditionally popular in catholic countries. Eating pork is pretty much proof you are not jewish or muslim. If you refused to eat pork then the inquisition would have something to say about it and the quantity of pork dishes here is enormous...jamon, sausages, pinchos, chorizo, lomo, bacon, chuletas, cabezada, tocino, manteca....its endless!
I dont have any references to back this up but it it wouldnt surprise me if historically the high consumption of pork was directly influenced by the catholic church.
Here they are Anthony; this is the typical scene in Spanish bars - hams hanging around collecting cigarette smoke (Pimientito sees these particular ones all the time ):
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Thats the Castañeda isnt it. You forgot to mention they also have a fine collection of bulls heads and matador swords on the wall too! However if you want to see a real pork theme bar then check out La Cueva.
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However if you want to see a real pork theme bar then check out La Cueva.
Indeed. No danger of an immediate shortage there. This discussion of Spain's Wonderful World of Trayfe would not be complete without a mention of the Ham Gallery in Madrid:
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holy swine, that's a lot of ham! at least they cut them up into parts. in chinatown, you can see the whole pig roasted just "hanging out" being displayed in front of the window collecting flies.
Your theory sounds very plausible, pimiento. my girlfriend is muslim so pork is a definite no-no. i wonder if there's any anti-semitism or islamophobia.
just curious, since there's one everywhere else, is there a mcdonald? lol.
There's a crappy dirty Macdonalds just down the road from Burger King in Recogidos. Another Macdonalds has been built with a drive -in just a tad too far from the bus station to be useful for travellers who are so inclined. They wanted one up at the Alhambra or second best down at Paseo de los tristes but failed to convince the council.
They got one built in Almuñecar, a town on the coast, within four weeks of applying for planning permission ( so frustrating for some-one who has waited two years to get her roof fixed in the Albaicín) and even had the Catholic Church bless the opening. My bet is that a lot of money changed hands !!!
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