Alley Gato

So let’s see.  Me and my bike are getting a long fairly predictably.  By that I mean that since it’s a salvaged bike it works about 75% of the time.  The rest of the time it does really annoying shit – the chain falls off, it jumps gears, the wheel starts wobbling out of nowhere, or the chain breaks completely.  What all that means is that I’m looking to build a new bike.  Since I’ve yet to jump on the fixed gear bandwagon, and it’s really just getting rolling (yarf) here, timing seems good.  I want to build the thing with a flip-flop hub so I’ve got options.  To start assembling the things I need I asked on the forum the fixie kids here have about where to find a frame.  (It seems like in general second-hand stuff isn’t all that acessible in Spain, I think people just keep things. Forever.)  So, via that I met this kid, Coco, that told me about the Alley Cat on Saturday. He also gave me the opportunity to buy this frame that he ahd managed to bend on his first day riding it (which I did not take him up on, but thanks, anyway).  Also, the process of meeting up with him got me more lost that I’ve yet been in Madrid.  Pretty ridiculous. 

Long story short, I went to the race on Saturday.  I did not ride (just imagine, an alley cat in a city you barely know after dark on a bike that can’t hold it’s chain for more than 20 minutes).  But I did hang out and meet the kids and take some photos.  There are a few more here.  Supposedly I’m also helping them screenprint shirts for the up coming Hell in South event in two weeks.

Saturday ride…

There an endless number of bike-lane promoting rides to go on here.  I went to this one because it was through the north-west part of Madrid, where I haven’t really spent much time.  While it was kind of interesting, most of the newer parts of Madrid have a really similar feel to them.  Plus, we were totally ‘escorted’ by the police and at several points were made to wait over in the parking lane for long periods of time – I assumed this was to let all the traffic pass, which seem a little self defeating. Oh well.  One this that is super cool about the rides like this here are the kids. 

 There are always lots of kids, both on their own bikes and on the backs of their folks’.

I found it!

A house that is.  Which means that I move in on Oct 1 to a room with a window.

Also, that means I have an address:

C/ Canarias, 15 5C

28045 Madrid Spain

I think.  I’m going to check on the postal code.

The new roommates will be Xavi, the spaniard and Bryan, the irishman.

Star Wars!

Today I rode the elevator to the very top in the Corte Ingles, which is really just a big department store.  It does function a little more like a combo of a Super Target (i.e. there are groceries), Sears (lotsa appliances), and Nordstrom’s (fancy clothes) but they also have automotive stuff and travel services.  It’s intense.  Also, the answers about where to find things are usually either in Corte or in a chino (yeah, well, a chino is kind of like a dollar store, they have a little of everything, i.e. Dollar General, and tend to be run by Asian people).

BUT, when I got to the top, seven or so floor later, there was a giant Star Wars exhibit. It was cool, tons of action figures and scenes and some mannequins and life size Darth Vader!!!!  Plus, tons of micromachines scenes and toys. And adults playing with light sabers.

Woah…

Today I saw a bunch of these wheatpasted up near my school.  I haven’t gotten a chance to ask anyone about them yet, but really it seems to speak for itself.

It says, roughly,”Take a guess, who comes last? For your rights: home, work education and health.  If you are Spanish, you’re always first. National Front”

Man, look at those drawings.  Pretty ugly stuff.  

More later after I run it by someone who actually knows about the politics here, but it seems obvious – racist anti-immigrant backlash.

The search goes on…and on…and on…

It’s not that I don’t have a house.  The issue is that the room that I have currently is very small, which would be workable, but it doesn’t have a WINDOW.  You may think, as I did, that one can adjust to things, that as long as it’s temporary it doesn’t really matter, that maybe this is part of why we have electricity or even that

Entrance, Calle del Olivar, 8

that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.  If you were me and you though those things about living in a windowless room, you would be wrong.  It is far more disorienting than you may think.  Call me a weenie, I’m ready to move out.  I’ve been in there for almost 2 weeks now and even though there is a light switch right directly over the bed I still have this brief moment of frantic waving and groping trying to find it.  The bed doesn’t move, but sill I have to think about how I’m laying in order to find the wall.

 

But enough about that.  I am still looking for a house.  I go and see houses almost everyday, or at least every other day…and there is frequently something strange.  There are many places that have been ill-advisedly divided and subdivided to create more rooms, places where there are no windows, places where they don’t want me for being a student, places where there are unspecified numbers of others living in

Hall, Calle del Olivar, 8

 rooms whose doors don’t open, children who tell me not to open the fridge, people who ask absolutely no questions about me at all…there’s a little of everything.  This is just some venting, but after three-plus weeks I’m tired!

Really, I would like to stay where I am, the guys that live here, Chema and Alvaro are super great and the location is pretty unbeatable.  The neighborhood is Lavapies/Tirso de Molina and it’s very diverse.  There are people from all different parts of the world doing all manner of things.  There are a lot of artsy things, divey bars, radical bookstore, etc.  Also we are really close to the center of the city and only about 15 minutes from the Retiro.  In other words, its a winner, other than the fact that it’s a cave.

But, no worries, it’ll happen given enough time…

La Noche en Blanco

Every year for some number of years now Madrid has this big street party that lasts until 6 a.m.  There are a large variety of arts things that happen, concerts, and installations of all kinds at a whole bunch of venues around the center of the city.  It was last Saturday.  If you read the previous post, you already know, I was tired.  But the Noche en Blanco cannot be denied.  Plans were made to meet up at Shelby’s, which is a shared apartment with up to 10 people.  It seems little wild, but also really interesting.  Some people are there for one months, others for six or more and there are folks from everywhere.  So Shelby’s there.  He made some food, we drank some booze, some Brazilians, an Argentine and a Canadian showed up, there was much loudness and then Morgan and Oriana showed up.  More eating, drinking (booze, juice, coca-cola, lemon soda and coffee, in any combo or not) and then we set off, into the night.

Mostly we saw other people.  Tens of thousands of them.  We were trying to head towards the Puerto de Alcala to be illuminated by giant lights, but we were waylaid by a giant crowd waiting to see a tightrope walker.  It is pretty incredible to be on the main streets of Madrid in the middle of the night with so many people.  They shut the city down for this night.  It’s pretty amazing when it’s happening to see no traffic except of foot and bike and stroller and rollerblade, but then when you see those same spaces occupied by bazillions of cars its even wilder.  Then, the tightrope walked chickened out because of the wind and we 4 were scattered in the crowd.

 

We were eventually reunited, but in the end I went home only really having seen some inflated tubes stuck to the side of a building and some light up kisses projected on another.

El Retiro

On Friday night I went to a birthday party in this occupied lot a few blocks down from my house.  I am still no sure whose birthday it was, but it was nice.  The space is really pleasant – it’s behind this wall with sheets of metal on top to make it taller, but then you get inside and there are trees and it’s quieter and it almost works like a portal.  Anyhow, from there we rode bikes to Vallecas.  This is about a 40-minute ride and we didn’t even leave the party until about midnight.  Then, of course, we got lost.  But in the end it was fun – big outdoor stage and 2 bands.  The first we saw was a ska group from Argentina.  Just to vacillate a little more on the saxophone topic, it didn’t mind it in this case.  They were fun, and then a group played from here.  Names you ask? I have no idea.  In the fashion of the Madrileno, I didn’t make it to bed until at least 5:30.

So.  Needless to say, I wasn’t in shape to do very much on Saturday.  I decided that going to the park sounded nice and set off towards Madrid’s famous Parque El Buen Retiro.  As someone in class said, it’s kind of like the Central Park of Madrid.  Very nice and tidy.  There is also a botanical gardens there that is supposed to be super great, but I haven’t made it yet.  So I went and sat around and read and drew and watched 

people and without really choosing to I listened to this guy next to me huff and whoosh his way through a calisthenics routine.  There were a lot of people playing with their poi (I just want to add that while I was looking for a photo of this I came across a website called “feraltech”. for serious.) And, they were taking it really seriously – it was as though I was in the ‘private poi lessons’ sections of the park.

Then I left.

Then I accidentally walked past this nice used book market.  While there were only a few stalls open on Saturday, there are a lot and the variety and quality of the books seemed pretty good.  

But most exciting was this:Which, I guess, is so that when your 5 year old gets to work and there’s no where to put their bike they can fold it and put it under their desk. Right?

punks!

Last night I ventured out to a punk show way out in Mostoles, which is more or less at the very end of the metro, SW of town.  The show is billed as alternative fiestas or Mostoles, because I believe there are some concerts for normals happening now too.  But….the show was cool.  Mostly I wanted to go and see Kiste Ovariko (Ovarian Cyst) because I had seen something about them and they are all ladies and pretty young too.  They were playing when I got there, and were pretty good.  They were being loud and yelling at the audience and played a cover of “Soy Lesbiana” (I don’t know whose song that is, ?).  Pretty excellent.  Then the second band played and that was fine except that at one point they brought out a saxophone.  In the past I’ve taken a pretty hardline stance against the sax, but it was starting to relax, that is until last night.  I mean it wasn’t bad but would’ve been better without.  Then Etxando Mierda played, they bill themselves as punk-hardcore.  I also thought they were pretty good – the combo of female and male vocals was rad.

What else….the space, La Casika, was awesome.  Like a lot of the social centers in Madrid, it is a squat.  There was a building there that looked pretty good, I didn’t go in.  The show was on a stage in a large

patio/parking-type area.  There was a bar and some trees – really nice.  Also cool was the fact that they had a variety of things including diners and juice for sale at the bar and not just beer.  The walls were all painted with different things, including the typical stencils but also some really nice spray paint murals.  I didn’t really talk to anyone, still working up to it, but one kid did tell me that I missed the best band, which apparently is the Subestimados (the oi! band on the bill).

One thing that is pretty big in the punk scene here, from the looks of it is anti-fascist stuff.  There was a

pretty strong contigent of skins at the show and several song were dedicated to this kid, Carlos Palomino that was killed by Nazis last year.  He was attacked in a metro station  and died of his injuries, another person he as with was also severely injured.  There is apparently a growing group of young Nazi’s in Madrid, they use the recent increases in immigration here as a way of getting permission to have marches and rallies.  So, for example, the big mural behind the stage was centered around a portrait of Carlos (and some other folks) and “BLOOD FOR BLOOD”.  Also, lots of gear for sale with the logo of the Mostoles antifascist group, which happens to be brass knuckles.  Other than that the punk were the punks – the was a large number of long, not charged mohawks, especially on ladies.  Overall, I was really glad I went, even when it took an hour and a half to get home.

back to school

As of today I have completed a week of classes.  Things are going okay.  The main concern among the nursing students is that the teacher is new (in Spain) and doesn’t seem to know what’s going on really.  She clearly knows her shit in terms of nursing, but as far as teaching goes it seems a little more questionable.  Also, she’s using the notes from the previous teacher (and the powerpoints and, apparently, the tests).  It is also a little confusing to have the same teacher in the same classroom for 3 classes, two of which have labs.  And, said classroom is where ALL of my classes are.  I have high hopes that she’ll get it figured out. Yesterday I got my bike back (Morgan was gracious enough to bring it to me).  That always makes things nicer, but I do spend a lot of time going in what amounts to be circles since I’m still not very oriented.

One of the things that makes Madrid nice is the narrow, curving streets. This also makes it pretty confusing to get around.  The bike helps a lot with this and if you can see in the picture there aren’t usually curbs on narrow streets, so riding the wrong way is not totally insane.  If you check out a map, you can really tell.  I was really surprised by how Madrid looked when I got here.  I think that mostly speaks to a lack of really considering what it might look like.  It’s nice too because it means that the buildings are small – maybe 15 apartments.  Madrid seems to be a pretty human scale for being a city of 5.5 million.  In general things don’t go too far voer 6 floors (except for the 4 towers of Mordor – the link has cool time-lapses of the construction, but seriously, that shit looks so out of place) You really only feel the press of the people if you ride the metro at the wrong time or try and drive during the day.