I am almost reluctant to do this, but here goes. Tomorrow a demonstration is planned against violence, insecurity and "impotence from which we suffer". The words are taken from a notice that is doing the rounds in Alcúdia, calling on people to join the demonstration, which is due to take place at 5 in the afternoon from the Magic roundabout, close to where Gabriel Marquet was seriously injured after having been attacked "without reason". He has been in a coma since the attack nearly two weeks ago. I am told that the life support is to be switched off tomorrow, though I stress that is what I have been told.
My reluctance stems from the fact that it does no-one any favours to make an issue of this, but the incident happened and the demo will go ahead - one cannot subdue the process of news, however unfortunate it might be. One of those suspected of causing the injuries that have led to Marquet's life being threatened was implicated in a previous incident that occurred "in the parking of a discotheque in the area" (says "Ultima Hora"). The suggestion is that the latest incident was if not a direct result but indirectly associated with the street drinking "botellón" that occurs by the Magic roundabout, and to which I referred the other day; this is the street drinking that was meant to have been outlawed.
The notice goes on to call on "all of Alcúdia's society" to join in the protest. It is at this point that I wonder. Word of the demo was filtering through into British circles yesterday. It was only having been told about it that I happened to find a mention in "The Bulletin". What I'm wondering is the extent to which all that Alcúdia society is being asked to join in. Likewise, I wonder to the extent that all that Alcúdia society will be inclined to join in. It may not be a Brit thing, but it still impinges upon all those who live in Alcúdia. Join in.
Crisis or no crisis, new seasons always bring changes. One of the most striking additions to the Puerto Alcúdia restaurant scene, or it will be when it's finished, is L'Almirant at what was ... ? Can't remember the name of the place. Toni's? Maybe it was a Chinese. Anyway, it's on the corner opposite Big Banana. Almirant is a terrific restaurant, the Puerto Pollensa original at any event. Quality tapas and all that. And down in the Alcúdiamar marina, the restaurant at the bottom, Caliu, is to become a fusion restaurant with chill-out. Blimey. Two fads in one. However, as one of the partners is my good friend Toni from Pippers, I can say, with reasonable certainty, that this will be a fine new development.
The new Caliu represents a further step along the road of the chic-ing of Alcúdia and its restaurants. Fabulous location right on the sea, it is an ideal spot for a sort of chill-out eaterie-cum-drinkerie. And chill-out and fusion appear to be the order of the crisis-what-crisis day. Franck from Celler El Moli in Pollensa was telling me the other day about a place he will be opening, also in Pollensa. Bistro-style, it will have a sense of chill-out. Meanwhile, up at the golf club, the restaurant has become a chill-out bar-fooderie. Taking the name of Zhan, it sounds like an Indian fast bowler whose names have been compressed into one. Lots of looking at the sun setting over the bays and all that. Fair enough, even if Café del Mar was there a long time ago. And then there is fusion, or its close culinary companion, con-fusion. I am indebted to Ben who sent me an email in which he pointed out that one of Alcúdia's several thousand Chinese restaurants had become fusioned, in the sense that it was now also a pizzeria. This does, as he rightly suggested, raise limitless possibilities as to ever more bizarre fusion styles.
Anyway, this is all good stuff, especially the chill-out. It may be somewhat after the Lord Mayor's Show, but whoever said that things needed to be cutting-edge here? I'm fully in favour of chill-out and lounge and all of that malarkey. So much so that I once thought, how many years ago was it, pre-Café del Mar, that what was needed was somewhere with a relaxed atmosphere ... . You know something? I never thought it would work.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Frankie Goes To Hollywood (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZwNXiFWsZQ). Today's title - fairly well-known rockers from the 60s onwards and now in their 60s.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Showing posts with label Chill-out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chill-out. Show all posts
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Especially For You
With no small amount of predictability, Alcúdia town hall has not exactly greeted the no-to-Es-Foguero decision with great enthusiasm, but at least it does appear to accept the decision as the emphasis now seems to be to find a way of locating the terminal anywhere that isn't behind the auditorium. It needs to be stressed that all that has actually been decided regarding the route of the train is that it will follow the so-called northern "corridor" and not the southern.
We are still no nearer to knowing the exact location. The area by both roundabouts - Horse and Magic - are in the town hall's sights, but the government is pretty much excluding them without any further consideration because of the wetlands. Doubtless there is some environmental significance, which is lost on me, but these wetlands are not things of some wonder as is the case with Albufera; they are basically also wasteland and things of a complete lack of wonder. A spurious environmental objection should be discounted; dig them up and shove the bloody railway station on them. From the point of view of the landscape, this would be an improvement; the area around the Horse and Magic roundabouts that isn't already built on is an eyesore, and the fact is that much of it has been built on - the swimming-pool, the sports centre, etc, these were all on what were once wetlands, so why should there be any sentiment stopping the railway line? Environmental group GOB, who see the no-to-Es-Foguero decision as a result, would presumably object to more wetlands becoming dry, but for once the politicos should show some independence and not be driven by making common cause with the enviros for some potential political gain.
Wetlands and wetness of different sorts - the sea and water sports. There are in Spain a number of "estaciones náuticas" which best translate as water-sport centres. These cover all manner of things that happen on water and very often things that don't, all in the name of sport and activities. While there are "estaciones" on the mainland and also elsewhere in the Balearics, there is not one in Mallorca, but this may be about to change as Alcúdia could become one such and a part of the association of water sport centres. There are to be meetings this coming week about all this. What actually it would all mean, I don't quite know, which is why I have been trying to find out, and hopefully the chap who deals with the media (if I can call myself the media, and I think I probably can) and is currently away on business will be kind enough to get in touch. Meantime, you can see something about these centres here - http://www.estacionesnauticas.info.
You may recall that Alcúdia town hall put together a chill-out CD with which to enchant visitors at its stand at the Fitur trade fair in Madrid. I happened to notice a copy of this knocking around town hall HQ the other day with a post-it note on the box with five euros written on it. Probably they produced far too many and are now hoping to flog them off through the season. Someone, from the town hall, said to me that it wasn't much good, and so impressed by what was included on the CD was I, that I have completely forgotten. Anyway, if you can't get it through official town hall channels, I daresay a pirated copy or several will have fallen into the clutches of the luckies come April, and you'll be able to get a fake one at a knockdown price of, say, five euros.
And today of course is Valentine's Day, and I should just mention that among the bars offering an event in celebration will be Vamps with a karaoke Valentine and some grand, computer-generated bingo do. But this raises the question as to what would be karaoke Valentine favourites, and my guess would be "Saving All My Love For You" (Whitney) and as a duet - Kylie and Jason's peerless "Especially For You", which is today's title. Incidentally, the Spanish do Valentine's, though it should be noted that the Catalans have another day - Sant Jordi (George) when they give each other a rose or a book.
And while on bars and things that could help attract the masses at this time of difficulty, I note that the Indians are to produce a soft drink based on cow's urine, which should be rather less than gnat's or indeed cow's piss I should have thought if it were a cocktail with Red Bull.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - David Bowie. It was not one of his best, but from the album came something that was ok - "Golden Years" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd2clb5T8JA). Today's title - already mentioned; a Valentine's special.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
We are still no nearer to knowing the exact location. The area by both roundabouts - Horse and Magic - are in the town hall's sights, but the government is pretty much excluding them without any further consideration because of the wetlands. Doubtless there is some environmental significance, which is lost on me, but these wetlands are not things of some wonder as is the case with Albufera; they are basically also wasteland and things of a complete lack of wonder. A spurious environmental objection should be discounted; dig them up and shove the bloody railway station on them. From the point of view of the landscape, this would be an improvement; the area around the Horse and Magic roundabouts that isn't already built on is an eyesore, and the fact is that much of it has been built on - the swimming-pool, the sports centre, etc, these were all on what were once wetlands, so why should there be any sentiment stopping the railway line? Environmental group GOB, who see the no-to-Es-Foguero decision as a result, would presumably object to more wetlands becoming dry, but for once the politicos should show some independence and not be driven by making common cause with the enviros for some potential political gain.
Wetlands and wetness of different sorts - the sea and water sports. There are in Spain a number of "estaciones náuticas" which best translate as water-sport centres. These cover all manner of things that happen on water and very often things that don't, all in the name of sport and activities. While there are "estaciones" on the mainland and also elsewhere in the Balearics, there is not one in Mallorca, but this may be about to change as Alcúdia could become one such and a part of the association of water sport centres. There are to be meetings this coming week about all this. What actually it would all mean, I don't quite know, which is why I have been trying to find out, and hopefully the chap who deals with the media (if I can call myself the media, and I think I probably can) and is currently away on business will be kind enough to get in touch. Meantime, you can see something about these centres here - http://www.estacionesnauticas.info.
You may recall that Alcúdia town hall put together a chill-out CD with which to enchant visitors at its stand at the Fitur trade fair in Madrid. I happened to notice a copy of this knocking around town hall HQ the other day with a post-it note on the box with five euros written on it. Probably they produced far too many and are now hoping to flog them off through the season. Someone, from the town hall, said to me that it wasn't much good, and so impressed by what was included on the CD was I, that I have completely forgotten. Anyway, if you can't get it through official town hall channels, I daresay a pirated copy or several will have fallen into the clutches of the luckies come April, and you'll be able to get a fake one at a knockdown price of, say, five euros.
And today of course is Valentine's Day, and I should just mention that among the bars offering an event in celebration will be Vamps with a karaoke Valentine and some grand, computer-generated bingo do. But this raises the question as to what would be karaoke Valentine favourites, and my guess would be "Saving All My Love For You" (Whitney) and as a duet - Kylie and Jason's peerless "Especially For You", which is today's title. Incidentally, the Spanish do Valentine's, though it should be noted that the Catalans have another day - Sant Jordi (George) when they give each other a rose or a book.
And while on bars and things that could help attract the masses at this time of difficulty, I note that the Indians are to produce a soft drink based on cow's urine, which should be rather less than gnat's or indeed cow's piss I should have thought if it were a cocktail with Red Bull.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - David Bowie. It was not one of his best, but from the album came something that was ok - "Golden Years" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd2clb5T8JA). Today's title - already mentioned; a Valentine's special.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Shattered Dreams
The holiday blues. Someone was talking about this on the forum the other day. Holidays, I thought. I remember them. They did start to fade into irrelevance when it occurred to me that what is virtually my back garden is what holidays largely meant - the beach. But I still do remember them. And the blues. One time sticks firmly in the mind. Returning from France in a state of terminal misery, putting the television on and being transported to the reassuringly unreal world of Mulder and Scully - suspension of reality; more suspension of reality, because holidays are just that, and the blues are the result of realising they were all a dream. The theme music for "The X-Files" will always be associated with holiday end rather than the "want to believe", or maybe it is the latter - belief in something else, a different state of being.
Holiday blues, for some, start before the holiday. The holiday is after all, or so we are told, one of the more stressful events in our lives. I've never bought that argument, but there is the potential stress for some who, as the plane is taxiing, feel the urge to dismantle the emergency exit door as they realise they are about to be spending two weeks in close proximity with those they spend the other 50 weeks of the year avoiding. Then there is the pre-holiday stress of all those calculations - how many weeks to go and then how many days. But stress is not the same as the blues; the holiday blues are a state of dissatisfied mind as, in essence, the holiday is also a state of mind. It is a state of mind of suspended reality and the blues are the return-to-reality dissonance; how can one reconcile that unreality with the grinding normality of everyday life? The response is to shrug the shoulders, say cheerily but unconvincingly that there is always next year and then head off to Tesco and search for the bottle of wine that had been a holiday companion, as though some form of memento can keep alive the holiday. It is like a bereavement; the aching sensation of loss. We can't get it out of our minds, however hard we try, and so we start counting the weeks - 50, 49, 48. The year becomes determined by the pinnacle of the fortnight, and so we wish our lives away in order to get to that pinnacle as swiftly as possible, undeterred by the fact that the holiday is but one twenty-sixth of the year; the other 25 are those of unending normality. Maybe it would be better if we didn't go on holidays.
What it all really means, and most won't admit it as they would end up going crazy is surely there is something rather better than the drudgery of back home. And so the holiday blues continue because holiday is something better. The holiday destination takes on an almost spiritual dimension; it provides a stopping-off point on the search for whatever "it" is, like Kerouac's "On The Road". As with many other things, such as sitting all day in front of a computer, humans weren't made for holidays; they weren't in the initial grand design brochure of a bit of hunting and gathering and a mere survival instinct. Unfortunately someone overlooked the power of reason. Blame who you will - philosophers such as Descartes or Sartre or the peddlers of holiday from Mr. Thomas Cook to Billy Butlin to Cliff Michelmore and Judith Chalmers and to Stelios - but holiday has become a kind of leitmotif of the human capacity to conceptualise existentialist escapism: I think therefore I'll go on holiday. Someone also overlooked the power of dreams and the striving to actualise these dreams. The brochures tell us that they are attainable - dream islands, dream beaches and so on - but they are all too fleetingly within our grasp before the transfer coach to the airport pulls up outside the hotel and the dreams are shattered. Then the tears start. And so the holiday blues kick in and another form of reasoning begins - what if the holiday destination, the one with which such a strong bond has been formed, became the reality? There are those who have come to Alcúdia and to Pollensa on holiday and have returned to live the dream. The only problem is that, for some, the dream is not what the brochure of the imagination said it was.
AMA FESTIVAL AND CHILL-OUT
Just a note to say to check out the listings on the WHAT'S ON BLOG for the AMA Festival for women's awareness happening in Pollensa this weekend and the complementary chill-out sessions on the Cala Carbó beach in Cala San Vicente from tomorrow through till Sunday. Loads of DJs and live music in the evenings for the Pollensa events and the Cala stuff sounds very very worth going to.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Jimi Hendrix (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOrpuw1J9Og). Today's title - someone hated something - who were they?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Holiday blues, for some, start before the holiday. The holiday is after all, or so we are told, one of the more stressful events in our lives. I've never bought that argument, but there is the potential stress for some who, as the plane is taxiing, feel the urge to dismantle the emergency exit door as they realise they are about to be spending two weeks in close proximity with those they spend the other 50 weeks of the year avoiding. Then there is the pre-holiday stress of all those calculations - how many weeks to go and then how many days. But stress is not the same as the blues; the holiday blues are a state of dissatisfied mind as, in essence, the holiday is also a state of mind. It is a state of mind of suspended reality and the blues are the return-to-reality dissonance; how can one reconcile that unreality with the grinding normality of everyday life? The response is to shrug the shoulders, say cheerily but unconvincingly that there is always next year and then head off to Tesco and search for the bottle of wine that had been a holiday companion, as though some form of memento can keep alive the holiday. It is like a bereavement; the aching sensation of loss. We can't get it out of our minds, however hard we try, and so we start counting the weeks - 50, 49, 48. The year becomes determined by the pinnacle of the fortnight, and so we wish our lives away in order to get to that pinnacle as swiftly as possible, undeterred by the fact that the holiday is but one twenty-sixth of the year; the other 25 are those of unending normality. Maybe it would be better if we didn't go on holidays.
What it all really means, and most won't admit it as they would end up going crazy is surely there is something rather better than the drudgery of back home. And so the holiday blues continue because holiday is something better. The holiday destination takes on an almost spiritual dimension; it provides a stopping-off point on the search for whatever "it" is, like Kerouac's "On The Road". As with many other things, such as sitting all day in front of a computer, humans weren't made for holidays; they weren't in the initial grand design brochure of a bit of hunting and gathering and a mere survival instinct. Unfortunately someone overlooked the power of reason. Blame who you will - philosophers such as Descartes or Sartre or the peddlers of holiday from Mr. Thomas Cook to Billy Butlin to Cliff Michelmore and Judith Chalmers and to Stelios - but holiday has become a kind of leitmotif of the human capacity to conceptualise existentialist escapism: I think therefore I'll go on holiday. Someone also overlooked the power of dreams and the striving to actualise these dreams. The brochures tell us that they are attainable - dream islands, dream beaches and so on - but they are all too fleetingly within our grasp before the transfer coach to the airport pulls up outside the hotel and the dreams are shattered. Then the tears start. And so the holiday blues kick in and another form of reasoning begins - what if the holiday destination, the one with which such a strong bond has been formed, became the reality? There are those who have come to Alcúdia and to Pollensa on holiday and have returned to live the dream. The only problem is that, for some, the dream is not what the brochure of the imagination said it was.
AMA FESTIVAL AND CHILL-OUT
Just a note to say to check out the listings on the WHAT'S ON BLOG for the AMA Festival for women's awareness happening in Pollensa this weekend and the complementary chill-out sessions on the Cala Carbó beach in Cala San Vicente from tomorrow through till Sunday. Loads of DJs and live music in the evenings for the Pollensa events and the Cala stuff sounds very very worth going to.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Jimi Hendrix (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOrpuw1J9Og). Today's title - someone hated something - who were they?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Friday, August 08, 2008
A Secret Place
Ok, let's not get over-excited; calm down, chill-out. There was even some interest coming out of Puerto Pollensa this morning, and a lady mailed me wanting more information, which was fair enough. What, what, what? Yes, friends, the chill-out zone on Puerto Alcúdia beach. The photo above, the one that isn't La Villa, may rather give you an impression. Sorry, the weather was not great this morning; mercifully there were clouds and wind after all the extreme heat. It may not show the chill-out area at its best, but to be honest I'm not sure what the fuss is all about.
The tourist office in Bellevue was also not sure. I went and had a word with Pilar this morning; Pilar who is a tower of knowledge and help. So, Pilar, asks I, this chill-out zone on the beach? Chill-out, she says, and begins to tell me about the chill-out bars Playero, in the marina and in Bonaire. No, no, says I, the chill-out zone, the one on the beach, the one that the town hall has started. What chill-out zone? There isn't one. Yes there is. Oh no there isn't. Oh yes there is. It was in the "Ultima Hora" or "Diario" months ago and there was something in "The Bulletin" the other day. Pah, or something like that, and muttering about English newspapers. But there is, Pilar, and it's the town hall's. The head of town planning was quoted the other day. What's his name? What? I can't remember, but he was talking about the chill-out zone. Give Magdelena (her boss) a call. She's on holiday. So there was a call to a lady who's something to do with technical services on the beach. I get passed to her. Hello, this chill-out zone on the beach. Why do you want to know? Eh? Because people are asking about it, because it's in the newspapers. One moment ... ... ... The phone gets cut off. I tell you what, Pilar, I'll go find it and take a photo. So I do; photos in fact. How does one find it? There is no sign anywhere. Don't whatever you do go left on the beach at the top of The Mile, go right. Go right, over the canal, and then some. Past the Playero and then a bit, and there it is. You know it is as it says so. Well some signs flapping in the wind say so. The loungers look quite nice, wooden-framed and well-cushioned with the town hall's logo on. There are a couple of speakers hanging somewhat apologetically from poles. There is no bar attached. Don't know where you get your drinks from. Remember what I said about the Son Real necropolis the other day? Is that it? The chill-out zone is a contemporary equivalent. Twelve grand for ... Well, let's just say that maybe the weather didn't show it at its best.
Anyway I go back and see Pilar and show her the photos. So now the tourist office in the area knows. Hats off for internal town hall communications. While I'm there I also ask about the WiFi zone. Why, I wonder, aren't there any signs about that either? There is publicity in the hotels. But not on the beach, as such. No. Fine. So how do you actually know about it? Pause. Em, how do you pay for it, assuming you know about it? The sunbed men. You pay them and they give you cards. Well that's something, I guess. Good to know that the million euros or whatever it was has at least got some chaps who will take your money for something that isn't publicised, unless you are in one of the hotels.
Later on, when in Puerto Pollensa and there is somewhat unexpected interest in the chill-out one, I'm told that it (the chill-out zone) has a WiFi zone. Well yes, I say, but it's the beach area not just the chill-out zone; there's a network for the beach and the hotels next to the beach. So not just the chill-out zone? No, no. Oh.
Fabulous. Publicity is everything, or would be. Someone said to me today that these things get put in place but they remain "top secret". Secret places. Strange.
LA VILLA
To other matters. A while back I mentioned that La Villa, the Chinese restaurant in Puerto Alcúdia, had a new place in Puerto Pollensa. Tonight is the official opening. There are many who will know La Villa in Alcúdia, many who will know Ray who is one of the nicest people you could meet. I would go the inauguration but I have a visceral dislike for these occasions; not because of the restaurant or bar owners, but because of the freeloaders who pitch up. I know that they are something that has to be done, but there are those who make a career of attending them. Not for me except to take some photos. But Ray has sent me some, one of which is above. La Villa in Alcúdia has long enjoyed an excellent reputation, and now it is in Puerto Pollensa.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Madonna - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJgzJTg-plc. Today's title - jazz man who was mentioned here recently in connection with Bill Withers.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Vogue, Vogue, Vogue
With some degree of coincidence following on from the piece about chill-out the other day comes a different form of chill-out - the chill-out area on the beach in Puerto Alcúdia. One is tempted to suggest, as the temperatures rise towards the 100 mark, that chill-out in the form of ice baths might be more meaningful than a part of the beach that is, well, not that much different to the rest. But vogue is everything, even if it takes some time to kick in. We've been chilling for years and now we can on the beach - after a fashion. Ho hum.
The chill-out area, heralded here several months ago, as part of a programme for the beach, the centrepoint with no centre being the WiFi zone, is a sort of sun-lounger plus enclave. Add a table with a mould for a glass, a bit of muzak and hey presto chill-out. Everything has become chill-out. It's as if you need a chill-out area to escape from all the chill-out. There is nothing wrong with the idea as such, just that it is hardly anything new, albeit that it may be in Alcúdia. Elsewhere it has long been an aspect of beach life that areas are sectioned off, usually attached to a beach-bar, in which one can enjoy a drink and a sunbathe without being struck on the head by a football. No one ever thought to call them anything, least of all chill-out areas; they were just, well, there. Vogue and branding is everything. Hey, we've got a chill-out area.
What most intrigued me when reading "The Bulletin's" report on this latest manifestation was not that the town hall's spokesperson came from the tourism department, which - one might think - would be the section of the council that would front-up on the development; it was the councillor for town planning and services. I'm not altogether surprised. I had a bit of a chat recently with the tourism department. I wondered if this blog had become required reading for them. WiFi zone, computers on beaches, chill-out areas - are there not more pressing priorities? The tourism offices may be somewhat remote, as I said in another piece recently, but this is partly because of resources; they want more staff and longer opening hours, the idea of tourism patrol teams was one they quite liked. But they won't get any of it because there's no budget; it goes on prestige developments that sound good in marketing terms but are largely floss. They may be remote but they are not without a pretty good idea as to the sort of things that are needed. One might also add other parts of the town hall. Someone was bemoaning the state of the pathways around The Mile and the lack of cleaning. It's all well and good having chilled out on the beach with your laptop getting covered in sand and oil only to walk back and tread in some dog shit. The streets need to be kept pristine if only to prevent all manner of disease being caught by the lunatics who insist on walking around barefoot.
To a different matter, which kind of leads on from the item of two days ago about hotels. Is this just more rumour or is this more substantial? Alcúdia's all-inclusives will cease in 2010. The source of this is a gestor, one of the professional ranks who, one might believe, has some idea as to what is going on. Maybe. But how can they cease? They can if their licences are revoked and the town hall really does feel that they've made a bit of a pig's ear of the all-inclusive situation. I'm not convinced. There are hotels that are all-inclusives where the directors would gladly drop AI tomorrow, but the market pressures to offer it plus the diktats of the tour operators make it very difficult. Would the Macs simply stop being all-inclusive in under 24 months time? Hard to conceive. But if there is substance to all this, it could be the shining light of a new summer at the end of a very dark tunnel that this one is becoming.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Andy Fairweather-Low - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5FG3Ty3jD4. Today's title - very easy.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The chill-out area, heralded here several months ago, as part of a programme for the beach, the centrepoint with no centre being the WiFi zone, is a sort of sun-lounger plus enclave. Add a table with a mould for a glass, a bit of muzak and hey presto chill-out. Everything has become chill-out. It's as if you need a chill-out area to escape from all the chill-out. There is nothing wrong with the idea as such, just that it is hardly anything new, albeit that it may be in Alcúdia. Elsewhere it has long been an aspect of beach life that areas are sectioned off, usually attached to a beach-bar, in which one can enjoy a drink and a sunbathe without being struck on the head by a football. No one ever thought to call them anything, least of all chill-out areas; they were just, well, there. Vogue and branding is everything. Hey, we've got a chill-out area.
What most intrigued me when reading "The Bulletin's" report on this latest manifestation was not that the town hall's spokesperson came from the tourism department, which - one might think - would be the section of the council that would front-up on the development; it was the councillor for town planning and services. I'm not altogether surprised. I had a bit of a chat recently with the tourism department. I wondered if this blog had become required reading for them. WiFi zone, computers on beaches, chill-out areas - are there not more pressing priorities? The tourism offices may be somewhat remote, as I said in another piece recently, but this is partly because of resources; they want more staff and longer opening hours, the idea of tourism patrol teams was one they quite liked. But they won't get any of it because there's no budget; it goes on prestige developments that sound good in marketing terms but are largely floss. They may be remote but they are not without a pretty good idea as to the sort of things that are needed. One might also add other parts of the town hall. Someone was bemoaning the state of the pathways around The Mile and the lack of cleaning. It's all well and good having chilled out on the beach with your laptop getting covered in sand and oil only to walk back and tread in some dog shit. The streets need to be kept pristine if only to prevent all manner of disease being caught by the lunatics who insist on walking around barefoot.
To a different matter, which kind of leads on from the item of two days ago about hotels. Is this just more rumour or is this more substantial? Alcúdia's all-inclusives will cease in 2010. The source of this is a gestor, one of the professional ranks who, one might believe, has some idea as to what is going on. Maybe. But how can they cease? They can if their licences are revoked and the town hall really does feel that they've made a bit of a pig's ear of the all-inclusive situation. I'm not convinced. There are hotels that are all-inclusives where the directors would gladly drop AI tomorrow, but the market pressures to offer it plus the diktats of the tour operators make it very difficult. Would the Macs simply stop being all-inclusive in under 24 months time? Hard to conceive. But if there is substance to all this, it could be the shining light of a new summer at the end of a very dark tunnel that this one is becoming.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Andy Fairweather-Low - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5FG3Ty3jD4. Today's title - very easy.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Sunday, August 03, 2008
The Big Chill
Summertime, and the living is easy.
A lyric and a mood that will forever be summer and summer music. But the very mention of summer in the lyric or title is too much of a giveaway. Summer music. It is more mood than overt statement of fact. The holiday plays all sorts of summer music; neither mood nor lyric. Can a karaoke "we will rock you" being belted out by a tenth-rate cabaret Freddie Mercury from a hotel stage be described as summer music? It is not summer; it is barely music. All that tribute and all that entertainment, and none of it is summer except in a temporal way - because it happens to be summer.
Mood, atmosphere, evocativeness. Suggestions of beach, sun and the idyllic sensations caused by the association of summer through music. Some twenty years or more ago I was in Zante, at a time before it had been invaded by the lager and pills battalions. At the end of Laganas beach was a bar. It was run by a couple of American-accented Demis Roussos lookalikes. It played music most of the day - out onto the beach from a couple of speakers by the entrance. The music was never anything other than laidback, cool if you like; chilled to use a more up-to-date word. Summer music. Mood and atmosphere. If only they'd known. Perhaps a whole genre might have grown from a beach-side bar in Greece rather than one in the Balearics.
Mallorca does not really have a summer music tradition, but the Balearics do, Ibiza most obviously. And it is the Ibiza tradition that can be found in Mallorca; chilled is the word, or chill-out. Summer music. The influence of Ibiza's Café del Mar runs deeper than just the pirated copies of the compilations to be found in the rucksacks and carrier bags of the lucky-lucky men. It can be heard all over; some clubs became Café del Mar shrines of impersonation. The old Mambo Playa in Playa de Muro was one; it even sub-titled itself the Sunset Bar, despite the sun setting in the opposite direction from over the sea - it was in fact Sunrise Bar but had often closed by the time of the first flickers of the new dawn. The sunset, and the music which accompanied it, was what inspired Café del Mar and especially Jose Padilla. On a recent BBC radio documentary he spoke of how he would coincide the last emotion of a track as the final flash of the sun dropped into the sea.
Chill-out, though a pejorative when it encroaches into the easy listening, largely defines the music of Café del Mar, or perhaps it's the other way round - Café del Mar has defined chill-out. That same documentary sought to create a history of chill-out that, rather tenuously, found an origination in the work of Erik Satie. It was on firmer territory with more contemporary artists such as Brian Eno and The Orb. But Café del Mar stands apart from the experimentation of "Music for Films" or the electro-influenced psychedelia of "Little Fluffy Clouds"; it took the ambient of Eno and integrated it with Latin rhythm and flamenco that typifies the style of much of the Ibiza output - one of mood, atmosphere and of the sun and beach. House and Balearic beat yes, but the trance and chill of Café del Mar is the motif of Ibiza and Balearic music - summer music. From the pioneers such as Padilla have come others - Fundación Eivissa are one of the finest. I've looked for their "Doñana", but can't find it. It is a track of breathtaking drama and emotion; it deserves to be heard widely. In its absence I have selected some others. These are summer music. Ibiza perhaps, but Mallorca as well.
Jose Padilla, "El Sueño de Ibiza" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WV6SovEu_Q
Fundación Eivissa, "Es Vedra" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc9OxgQtVSo
Chambao, "Verde Mar" (Fundación Eivissa) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMoW8D3_0M
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Small Faces. And when I saw this, having not seen the Small Faces for donkey's years, I thought blimey, Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher (Marriott and Laine) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=446xNbvs0a8. Today's title - film; who starred? (There are a few to choose from.) The title, by the way, lent itself to a chill festival which has been running this weekend.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
A lyric and a mood that will forever be summer and summer music. But the very mention of summer in the lyric or title is too much of a giveaway. Summer music. It is more mood than overt statement of fact. The holiday plays all sorts of summer music; neither mood nor lyric. Can a karaoke "we will rock you" being belted out by a tenth-rate cabaret Freddie Mercury from a hotel stage be described as summer music? It is not summer; it is barely music. All that tribute and all that entertainment, and none of it is summer except in a temporal way - because it happens to be summer.
Mood, atmosphere, evocativeness. Suggestions of beach, sun and the idyllic sensations caused by the association of summer through music. Some twenty years or more ago I was in Zante, at a time before it had been invaded by the lager and pills battalions. At the end of Laganas beach was a bar. It was run by a couple of American-accented Demis Roussos lookalikes. It played music most of the day - out onto the beach from a couple of speakers by the entrance. The music was never anything other than laidback, cool if you like; chilled to use a more up-to-date word. Summer music. Mood and atmosphere. If only they'd known. Perhaps a whole genre might have grown from a beach-side bar in Greece rather than one in the Balearics.
Mallorca does not really have a summer music tradition, but the Balearics do, Ibiza most obviously. And it is the Ibiza tradition that can be found in Mallorca; chilled is the word, or chill-out. Summer music. The influence of Ibiza's Café del Mar runs deeper than just the pirated copies of the compilations to be found in the rucksacks and carrier bags of the lucky-lucky men. It can be heard all over; some clubs became Café del Mar shrines of impersonation. The old Mambo Playa in Playa de Muro was one; it even sub-titled itself the Sunset Bar, despite the sun setting in the opposite direction from over the sea - it was in fact Sunrise Bar but had often closed by the time of the first flickers of the new dawn. The sunset, and the music which accompanied it, was what inspired Café del Mar and especially Jose Padilla. On a recent BBC radio documentary he spoke of how he would coincide the last emotion of a track as the final flash of the sun dropped into the sea.
Chill-out, though a pejorative when it encroaches into the easy listening, largely defines the music of Café del Mar, or perhaps it's the other way round - Café del Mar has defined chill-out. That same documentary sought to create a history of chill-out that, rather tenuously, found an origination in the work of Erik Satie. It was on firmer territory with more contemporary artists such as Brian Eno and The Orb. But Café del Mar stands apart from the experimentation of "Music for Films" or the electro-influenced psychedelia of "Little Fluffy Clouds"; it took the ambient of Eno and integrated it with Latin rhythm and flamenco that typifies the style of much of the Ibiza output - one of mood, atmosphere and of the sun and beach. House and Balearic beat yes, but the trance and chill of Café del Mar is the motif of Ibiza and Balearic music - summer music. From the pioneers such as Padilla have come others - Fundación Eivissa are one of the finest. I've looked for their "Doñana", but can't find it. It is a track of breathtaking drama and emotion; it deserves to be heard widely. In its absence I have selected some others. These are summer music. Ibiza perhaps, but Mallorca as well.
Jose Padilla, "El Sueño de Ibiza" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WV6SovEu_Q
Fundación Eivissa, "Es Vedra" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc9OxgQtVSo
Chambao, "Verde Mar" (Fundación Eivissa) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMoW8D3_0M
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Small Faces. And when I saw this, having not seen the Small Faces for donkey's years, I thought blimey, Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher (Marriott and Laine) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=446xNbvs0a8. Today's title - film; who starred? (There are a few to choose from.) The title, by the way, lent itself to a chill festival which has been running this weekend.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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