Horse With No Name

The horse, the horse of course. The Mr. Ed roundabout to offer a name, not that it is has one, or not one that I know of. Alcúdia's most famous landmark. The horse that isn't a horse of course; well not to everyone it isn't. But horse it is, despite any similarity to a farm animal with two legs and a beak. Look the horse roundabout sculpture up on the internet and it is usually described as being orange. I would have said more a brick reddish. At least it was. It's showing its age. It's the old nag roundabout; the waiting for the knacker's yard rotonda. It needs a coat of paint. It has not faded to old grey mare so much as been weather-beaten to variable shades of sand. They should opt for something more durable. Plastic perhaps. I was sure I saw a giant Homer Simpson bouncy castle in Puerto Pollensa yesterday. That would be a good idea for a roundabout. A huge rubber or plastic, vivid yellow Homer wobbling around in the wind.

I was trying to research these roundabout sculptures. I found a piece from "The Diario" dated 20 March 2006. It expressed the concerns of Balearic artists who were worried about the selection process for sculptures and the fact that the responsible artist's name was not identified. The same artists also wanted an independent commission of experts to select the art and to avoid an "increase in the visual contamination of public spaces". I suppose this would mean that Homer would never find a place on a roundabout.

I'm wondering if anything ever came of this. It seems an oddity that there could be a commission for roundabout sculpture, but they take this stuff seriously. As for identifying a sculptor's name, it does look as though there is some sort of plaque for the "eels" roundabout in Playa de Muro. But I wonder quite how many people will dare to cross the road onto the roundabout to examine said plaque. I'm not. Then there is "visual contamination". What an excellent expression. Does the Las Gaviotas deckchair qualify as such? Personally, I quite like it.

But if all this roundabout art is so important, and it must cost a few centimos which therefore means that it is important, why does there appear to be no website devoted to it? I once received an enquiry from someone doing a school project on Alcúdia who wanted to know the sculptors responsible for the horse and the "linkin' donuts" of the Magic roundabout. I did manage to find out, but alas have completely forgotten not only who they were but also how I came by the information.

All the money that is spent on adorning all these roundabouts, you would think there might be some sort of "catalogue" to tell you about them. If nothing else, they are a talking-point and useful points of reference. There again, it's an expensive way of provoking discussion in a bar. A plastic Homer would be a lot cheaper (so long as they didn't pay image rights).


And apropos of nothing other than the fact that I was there... Shamrock in Puerto Alcúdia. Don't know, Girls Aloud seemed to have turned up and Wayne Rooney is at the back of the photo. Very odd. He'd been pasting Spurs on the TV, barely an hour before. Oh, and you can see Fernando, the man, in the second row.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "I'm Mandy, Fly Me", 10cc. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ANr-OXMork). Today's title - a country, a big one.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

Do The Hustle

Those of you who have been avid readers of this blog over the past two and a half years might well recall that I have been less than complimentary about bars (and indeed restaurants) that style themselves a particular way with nary a jot of authenticity or with a smattering thereof. This reproach has been reserved no more than for so-called British or Irish bars, wherein the absence of anyone vaguely British or Irish has led me to question the claim of Britishness or Irishness. I am still inclined to a view that, as with food or drink that apes something of a distinct origin, there should be a -style suffix attached. So, for instance, champagne becomes champagne-style or Melton Mowbray pies become Melton Mowbray-style pies. Similarly, a British bar without any Brits would be a British-style bar.

Well, I have some cause to rethink this, and the impetus for this is Shamrock in Puerto Alcúdia. Now there are no Irish knocking around in the ownership, Fernando is most definitely not Irish. Any Irish behind the bar? Don't think so. But Irish Bar it is. What I have rethought is that the owning nationality doesn't matter if the whole package is right. And by the whole package I most definitely do not mean an Irish bar replete, as Ardal O'Hanlon put it so well, with bits of old tin and bikes hanging from the walls, making the place "look like a f*****' skip". There is one like that in these parts, but not Shamrock. No, what matters is that the people running the place have a clear idea of what plays well with the punter and deliver, and Shamrock is going a long way to doing just this. The nightly live music, in itself not necessarily Irish, is a promise that is being fulfilled, and there should be cheers all round for a live-music venue. The place does also have a good atmosphere, and it's kind of reassuring to even find some oldish local folk (Spanish) coming in for the music.

Beyond the Guinness and the Murphys, it could be any bar, let's be brutally honest. The Irish line is marketing, let's also be honest. But it doesn't matter, and besides it isn't just any bar because it has tapped into a real need, that of regular live music, and is forging a very good reputation on the back of both that and the overall ambience of the place. An early contender for bar of the year, methinks.

Shamrock is on C/. Torreta next to the Piscis Hotel and the main parking in the port of Alcudia. Open every evening from 19:00 at the moment and from 13:00 in the season. No food, just drinks and music, and there will be quizzes and bingo coming along. The photo, as you can see, is of the local band, The Hustlers, a rock and blues act.


QUIZ: Yesterday - Paul Anka. Today's title - who?

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)