Things That Make You Go Hmm ...

Or. Things that make you wonder why they bother. Number One: Playa de Muro's market.

Well a whole new series beckons. Maybe. But anyway to kick-off, we're back to the market. As you may have previously appreciated, I can kind of give markets a miss especially in summer. However, there are those who can't get enough of them, though in the case of Playa de Muro's market they may make an exception. I happened to take a wander along its length on Monday. One can wander freely and unmolested in Playa de Muro's market. No crowds getting in your way. No obvious signs of anyone about to steal your valuables. No, thank God, South American Indian pipe-players. Even they seem to have stopped bothering. Presumably there are more suckers at some other market who might be willing to hand over hard cash for a CD with Andean interpretations of John Denver classics (sic).

There were, let's just say, not that many people about. There were plenty of traders sitting around looking bored and eager to pounce on the odd stray tourist, but otherwise ... . The clue to all this may lie in the name - Playa de Muro. What you read is what you get. Playa. Beach. That's the whole point of Playa de Muro. The only point to be honest. The market is an artificiality. Whereas people actually go out of their way to attend markets in Alcúdia and Pollensa, does anyone actually make the trip to Playa de Muro from, say, the port of Alcúdia in order to buy some cheap shorts or some luggage? No, I don't imagine that they do.

Being Playa de Muro, the market is linear. Like everything else in Playa de Muro it exists in a straight line for the simple reason that Playa de Muro is a straight line - of main road and beach. There are no streets weaving into an old town interior and littered with stalls; no architectural antiquity to lend an air of authenticity to the tradition of the market as a place of historical commerce. There is just the contemporary commerce of the hotels and the Boulevard Group's glassy facade. It's not as if it is a market for local socialising and provisions, as are those for instance in Alcúdia or Pollensa; it is purely a tourist invention minus the fruit and veg, plants and produce of the markets to which people do go. The old-established markets have character because of the character of their locations. A market that takes place parallel to a main road has little or none, save for that wrought by the wrecker's-yard of the numerous ancient vans and cars of the stallholders lining the main road that could have been parked up by Del Boy and Rodders. And it's also not as if hard-pressed bars and restaurants are necessarily deriving any benefit from the market's presence; well certainly not those that have closed down. Wonder though I frequently do quite why people would wish to hack around a market under a boiling sun, there is the fact that, for many a Joe-tourist, the market is the most intimate he is likely to be or wish to be with what is simplistically described as a "real" Mallorca; so long, that is, as it is a market in a traditional setting, which is not the case with Playa de Muro's.

The market was, until a couple of years ago, held on a Saturday when someone realised that Saturday, being a big transfer day, might not be the the best day. So it was switched to Monday in the hope that it would prove more profitable. Not from what I can make out. The thing is that when the sun's a-blazing and the playa is right opposite offering its watery delights, a market of almost uniformly similar wares is unlikely to attract the masses away from those delights. And it doesn't. Why do they bother? Makes you go hmm ... . Don't know.


SPANAIR
The Madrid crash could hardly have come at a worse time for the Mallorca-based airline Spanair. The airline's owners, SAS, had wanted to offload it but were unable to, resulting in major cutbacks in jobs. Pilots had been threatening strike action because of the apparent disorganisation at the airline. While it might suit some to present the tragedy in Madrid as indicative of a malaise at the company, such a conclusion would be harsh unless investigations unearth anything that might suggest so. It should be noted that Spanair had a very good safety record. Yet it has not exactly enjoyed a great reputation. A common nickname for the airline is "Spanner"; for some, it was an airline to be avoided. And now, following the crash, one wonders how many more might think twice or three times about flying Spanair. Again, such a conclusion would be harsh, but it is almost inevitable. What was a problem largely of economic difficulties will now be one of even greater and emotional negative perception. In 2006 Spanair had the "highest sales figures for a single company" (27 July: With Good Company) in Mallorca; it has been a significant force on the island. But that significance was dwindling even before the crash; the question now is whether it can recover or whether the flames of Barajas will come to engulf one of the island's major companies.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Jimmy Helms who was also in Londonbeat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez1dxW8jLgE). Today's title - industrial-named dance music duo from the '90s.

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