Merry Christmas!!!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Crhistmas weekend (I): About St Mortiz, a door and a long party night

Last weekend was one of those you really hard a difficult time to recover about afterwards, and to remember as well. I’ll try my best to explain how things were, but I cannot guarantee any accuracy on it.

Part A. Ben Crouchs Tavern
77a Wells St, London, W1P 3RE

First of all, we met on the Ben Crouchs Tavern, a pub in Fizrovia very close to Oxford Street. For those not too familiar with London, Oxford Street is the main shopping street, dividing the shopping area composed by Carnabby Street and Regent Market in the south and the Soho in the north. Whatever. The fact is this pub is a really cool one, and it really deserves to be paid another visit at least. With a goth deco unanderstandably messed with Chistmas motives and fairly good music, the place is superb for several early drinks on a Friday night, and there we were to prove it. I had had a couple before with my jobmates, and as more and more people joint and the Guinness pints and tequila shots were downed, it was clear enough right from the beginning that wasn’t going to be a happy ending night. But that’s anticipating, isn’t it?

We where quite a lot of people over there, mostly the usual suspects: Teo, Pablo, Diana, Aux, Justin, Cara, Cesar, Vlad, Juan, Cesar&Cesar and myself if my memory is not failing, and I reckon it isn’t. The music type turned around quite a lot of times, as we stayed in the pub for easily three of four hours. Beers, as I said before, were mainly Guinnes (always your best mate in a nite out), Staropramen and the classic Fosters/Carling combo. Just if Diana wouldn’t have asked the Mexican stuff so far everything would have been alright…


Once they closed the pub, we had one of those Spanish discussions for 20’ about where going later. Yeah, we were something as 50% Spanish people in the group, so we had to somehow share our national tradition about being stupidly cold on the street trying to find out where ‘the perfect night’ it. This is obviously bullshit, but we don’t care and we love it, don’t we? At the end, and losing Justin on the way, we decided that a club called St Moritz, in front of Waxy O’connnors, was the best option. I had never been there, so why not trying?

Part B: St Moritz
159 Wardour Street, London, W1V 3TA

The club itself was nice enough. Located in a basement (as there is a fine swiss restaurant in the fist floor, hence the name), it was quite empty at our arrival but soon enough people came in a fairly friendly mood. The music was nice, 90’s classics as Blur, Pulp, Smashing Pumpkins and so on, and beer was alright, even when they served it in plastic glasses as almost everywhere after 1 am in London. Before I had time to settle down everybody was sort of dancing with someone, known or unknown, friend or pretty bird willing to be hunted for good. And on the top of all that, they had some tables to have a relaxed chat if you weren’t up for the global madness, which was suitable as well. All in all, a good option for a weekend in a place quieter and smaller than Metro, but mainly for that reason also more intimistic. The entrance cover was just £5, again better than average in London, and paying for the drinks wasn’t really a pain.

Just a problem about the place. The toilets door is opened towards the wrong way, if you know what I mean: from the inside to the outside. That is really clever in a place where people are supposed to go to drink booze, isn’t it?

From then on, everything is an speculation. I remember being waiting in the toilets, outside as it was one of those with a single loo you have to queue for. The next I remember is being in the floor, waking up and bleeding. These are my guesses:

1. (The annoying one).Some drunk thug punched me from my backside.

2. (The most likely one). Someone left from the toilet opening the door quite suddenly, hitting me on my temple on the way. I fell to the floor afterwards, and lost conscience for just 5-10 seconds.

3. (The pathetic one). I was so drunk I just fell off incosncious.

However it was, the result was the same one: stitches, a consistent wound very close to my eyebrow (besides the one I got in Munich, but that’s a different story) and another one below my chin. Fortunately Cara was really the nicest person ever at that time and, helped by Juan, they got me some plasters in the pub (amazing the medical aid kit they had, just as it was something common to have that sort of problems over there). My brother, by the way, was looking for someone with any blood in his garnment just in case it was the option one the one that took place (my brother is shorter than I am, so this was quite hilarious). The most hilarious thing, though, involved Cara. Just after sticking the second plaster in my face, she looked at me and, after all her help, I expected something like ‘do u want a cab?’, or ‘do you wanna go to Hospital to have a look at that?’, or something of the like. No way. ‘What do you want to drink?’ she said!!! (You have to say it in Irish accent to get the whole picture J). Of course, I asked for a Carling and I carried on partying, until I fell down from the stairs something as an hour later and my brother decided that at that point I was seriously risking my life and it was time to go home and get some rest.

The final bit involved Teo, as when we leaved the place he was in the door of the club with her sister and one of his eyes in even a worse state than mine. He went for the option 1, it seems, as he found a drunk thug indeed, with amazing punching skills to make the problem bigger. St Moritz was really trying to kill us one by one…

Best advertisement ever

The best advertisement ever, thanks to my friend Wessel.

If you think the Church or Don Federico would allow something like this to be broadcasted in Spain, you should stop drinking.

Link:

Jeff Mills: Let there be techno

The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH

I’ve never really been a fan of electronic music, of any kind of it to be fair. Very likely the reason for this might very well be the fact that there is no tradition of this kind of music in Getafe (my hometown, recently famous not just because of the football team but because of the corrupt-but-funny Mayor we have), and even If there had been any I’d always stuck to the Rockn’n Roll thing. I’ve always considered myself as a quite open minded guy when music is concerned, and so it never really was a problem to a house music club if that was the plan. Never enjoyed it too much, never suffered too much either.

This is starting to change. There are several facts that may explain my recent approach to electronic music. The first and main one is that, as opposite as in Spain, here enjoying electronic music and clubbing is not a synonym of wearing sportswear, have a shaved head with a dodgy crest and being an aggressive moron. In other words, you can be a normal chap and enjoy techno clubbing in huge places where yes, maybe everybody is having drugs, but that’s just the only point that makes any different if compared with any other type of place. And, bloody hell, everybody takes drugs everywhere here in London (easy mate, I don’t), so really that’s not a point at all.

The second, and more plausible one, is the quality of the music. It’s not the same Paco Pil than Carl Cox, and it’s not the same thing Garnier than Chimo Bayo, no matters how funny the latter is. There is no bakalao here in London, the closest thing is just Trance music, but fairly well edited and recorded. Also, it seems that almost everybody is able to spot a whole bunch of differences between techno, house, acid house, techno house, trance, drum and bass, hardcore, electro and God knows how many more different styles. I can’t, but I’m starting to improve on this as well. And when you start to pay attention, you realize that not everything is just ’chunda chunda’, but that as it seems fairly easy to tell the difference between Ska, Grunge, Brit Pop, rock or Industrial music, the same thing is in the electronic side.

Anyway, all this is about yesterday. Jeff Mills presented in ICA in London a new mix of a classic, ‘X-102 Discovers the Rings of Saturn’. And was a really amazing night, I have to say.
First, let’s frame Mr. Mills. This guy is one of the most revolutionary DJs in music. He and some friends of Detroit invented Techno music as it is understood today, something as 25 years ago. He is 45 now, and in person he really looks like more like my father than like a techno DJ. Altogether with Mike Banks he founded Underground Resistance, the foundations for pretty much all the techno we listen today. And he is an absolute gentleman and a professional of the music, indeed a musician would be the most accurate world. He does not take drugs, he rarely drinks and while performing live he doesn’t behave as a stupid overexcited clown, focusing on the music and the performance instead.

Second, let’s talk about the project (and all this was said in the Q&A chat we had later). X-102 was a project accomplished by Robert Hood, Mike Banks and Jeff Mills (the three of them alive techno legends) on 1992, and, willing to immerse themselves in an unknown world, the used the solar system and more concretely Saturn (because of the analogy of its rings and a vinyl shape) to create new sound and a concept album, one of the firsts in electronic music ever created. As the physical reality of the planets was so overwhelming that it was no possible to translate it literally into sounds, they opted for imagining what kind of sounds may hear someone who went to Saturn for the first time. As at that time no images or solid information about the planets was available, they just created a composition using the geometries and inspirations they had at that moment. It took them 3 months to create it, and I can promise it’s a lovely piece of art.

Some years later, Nasa Cassini/Huygen probe got amazing pictures of the whole solar system and nebulas, including some impressive ones about Saturn. It handed an incredible opportunity to Mr. Mills to reedit the original work and add images to it, creating an impressive effect.
And finally, he decided to go in a limited tour to show his work. Just four cities (Barcelona, in Sonar last year), Milan, Berlin and London have been lucky enough to enjoy it. And the venue he decided to do it in London was ICA.

ICA is a contemporary arts centre in London. It is one of those places that make you think how differently is culture understood here an in Spain, for instance. The opportunity of go to the cinema, enjoy live music in an amazing bar, enjoy modern painting in a museum, or attend to any type of interesting event, all of it in the same venue in Trafalgar Square and opened seven days a week until 1 am… well, that’s not the sort of thing Gallardon, Aguirre or Zapatero think about when they have culture in mind, is it? It’s more like: let’s make it boring, so they will not come, so they will not think, and so they will stay on their places watching Factor X or Big Brother. Fuck off!!!

So put it altogether, add my friend Cesar into the mix, and get an amazing night as a result. A projection of Mill’s X-102 images and music in a cinema, with the volume at maximum level in the dolby sourround system, and with a small crowd (around 300 lucky chaps) respectfully listening it and enjoying an unique experience… well, what else can I say.

On the top of that, add cheap beer you can drink while watching paintings or even watching the movie, a Question and Answers chat afterwards with Jeff Mills (as the group was small it was really interesting to interchange opinions and experiences with the man, even if I obviously not participated actively), and the afterparty in ICA’s bar, hosted by him with his always incredible Detroit techno and an also amazing guest… well, what can I really add?

Yes, the morning after the hung over was horrible. And yes, we paid 3.50 for a small glass of pistachios. And yes, you cannot do that everyday simply because at that music volume you would finish deaf off in a couple of weeks.

An incredible experience.

PS: I'll add some pictures later, and some linking as well. But I wanted to post it before the weekend, now I remember it :)

Carling Academy: anything more to say?

Carling Academy Islington N1 Centre 16 Parkfield Street London N1 0PS

There is nothing more exciting and entertaining that unplanned nights. It´s been a while since I realized about this for good, but I´m nothing but confirming it here in London. You may have a huge pub crawl organized with your best friends and their she-friends and, of course, the outcome of the night will be a bloody pain in the ass. In the other hand, meet some but not too many friends in a pub for a chilling evening with nothing else than having some Staropramen in mind, and you end up discovering there is a club in London called as your nickname. And with good music, good mood and fairly cheap priced beers.

So we started, Juanfran and me, in a pub called the Camden Head, but not in Camden, but in Ingliston, an area I didn´t know at all before coming to live here and that fortunately is an endless source of Pintofcarlingplease posts. When you meet in a Friday at 7pm you know what the outcome is going to be, of course: a more blur and funny world, at least for that night. And so far so good, with several drinks and another five friends on board conforming a fairly international crew (four Spaniards, a French and Welshman), we started that such a Spanish thing consisting in wasting half of the night in order to try to decide which is the next place to go. Not this time, as Juanfran proposed a club he remembered wasn´t too bad around the corner: the Carling Academy. Of course, with that name it was a compulsory thing to try, even if it was just for a one-off. And I reckon it will not be a one-off, as we all enjoyed the place all the way through.

Carling Academy, unfortunately, is a chain... yeah, I know, this is supposed to be an authenthic blog and bla bla bla bla. You see the cross, there, in the explorer, up in the right? Just press it, is it such a complicated thing? Hehehe, just kidding... there are Academies in Oxford, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, and so on. I´ll talk about the one I know: the Islington one (there are another two in London, in Brixton and somewhere else).The club is just a typical London club, with two different rooms: an 80´s and a 90´s one. The 80´s, smaller, is more like a bar and they play classic 80s stuff: Van Allen, Aerosmith, etc etc etc. Packed with nice looking chicks, it is good fun.

However, the one I liked more is the 90´s one. Bigger, this is a real club indeed, with DJs playing music and random groups of people scattered through all over the place. They play classic 90´s stuff, that is, the kind of music they used to play on the radio while I was a teenager and I started to go out. Oasis, Blur, Green Day and all the usual suspects altogether, those guys up there know how to make you shake your ass with the music. The place is big enough (800 people is the official capacity, but I guess more people than that can squeeze there) to allow you to lose your friends for a while if you are interested on that, and, just in case you feel the music is becoming a bit cheesy, you have always the pretty enjoyable 80´s room. A good deal, hence. And if you are lucky enough, you may assist to a great gig as well. Bands as The Cure, Prodigy, Franz Fer or Muse have played there since its opening at 2003.

About the drinks (and we had quite a lot), there are obviously spirits and two beers: Carling and Carling Extra Cold . Just joking, but almost everybody drinks Carling over there. They give you custom Carling Academy glasses with just one problem (but a big one): plastic glasses. I know this is a common thing in most clubs in London (while you don´t get straight the can without glass), but I still can´t get used to it.

Prices fair, cheap even. A Carling was less than 3 quid, which is very likely the cheapest you may find in a Club in London. Not too sure about spirits, but I guess those were quite overpriced, as the cloak room (2 pounds to leave your coat there). I cannot remember how much was the door cover, but I want to remember it was around 6 pints. Again, affordable. And enjoyable, which is the actual point!

The trendy Foundry

84-86 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3JL

What an unexpected surprise. Right in the middle of Old Street (not just the area, but the bloody street itself), the Foundry is one of those places you may have passed besides quite a lot of times in your life, specially if you live in London (as I do), you go out frequently in Old Street (as I recently do, as most of my friends live in that shithole) and you fancy trendy looking buildings (as the Foundry one is).

Of course, from the outside it looks just as another Shoreditch dive, with the aggravating point of looking ´modern´ (in the worst meaning of the word). Back in Madrid, when you have to decide if you wanna live for long or if you wanna die early and leave a nice carcass because all the booze you are having is just piss, well, at that time you (I) decide that going out in Malasaña is not an option anymore. When you are asked for a preposterous amount of money for a drink, and right after you get the first sip you are paying for as fucking gold and you realize it is pure biohazard stuff… well, then you, again and again, decide that going out in Malasaña is not an option anymore. And that place, the Foundry, definitely looked like from the outside as one of those again and again places.

By no means. Luckily, London is not Madrid, and Old Street is not Malasaña. In fact, Old Street is more the ´Huertas´ type of area, with an incoherent of bars mixing techno (Aquarium, opened until 11am, but that´s another history), rock, brit pop or whatever you have in mind without involving Bisbal (if you are planning commiting suicide just visit his fan club and jump) or Spanish crap. And luckily too, I can assert the Foundry is a great place, and for quite a lot of different reasons, indeed. And I am quite sure that I am (funnily) not too sure which one would I select, if I had to. Maybe its so cool deco, completely stuffed with second hand furniture randomly distributed around the place. Or maybe its so many old screens and ancient monitors and computers, playing random images sometimes poetic and sometimes just absurd, but funny and interesting nevertheless. Or maybe, just maybe, the toilets, where graffiti is allowed and everybody seems to help themselves: not a single inch of floor, ceiling or wall can be found without a clever message or a smart drawing, or, hell, the same bullshit about racists and punks blaming each other you may find wherever loo in the word you end pissing in.

The lecture room is also pretty good stuff. The poetry room they call it… well, whatever they want. Just because it has some shelves and books on it is not a good reason enough to call it a poetry room, but, hell, who am I to complain? With plenty of places to sit down and enjoy a drink and a good conversation with friends, the Foundry is, as a conclusion, a great place to go.

As I´ve said before, this place looks right this sort of place you overpay for everything. Not the case, though. A pint of Carling is just 2.60 quid (an awesome price in London in a late opening pub), and Stella is only slightly more expensive than that, 2.90. Top up that with a good looking and nice waitress who seems to enjoy her job more than she should, and you have the perfect cocktail. At least, the most perfect one you can afford with 2.60 :).

About the people, well, an incredible mixture of the classic trendy crowd and bike couriers outside enjoying a well deserved pint. Thankfully, not too pretentious any of them, and some even funny, as the self styled DJ who asked silence to everybody just to wish all of us to enjoy a great night. Everybody wears whatever they want, which by the way is not really something special anywhere in London , and everybody seems really pleased to have met themselves. Good for them all, long life for the Queen, and good for me while I can have a big mouthed laugh about how crazy sometimes they are.

Finally, the music. Sometimes is hard electronic stuff, I´ve heard, which doesn´t make much sense under my opinion as most people is just sit down and talking. Both days I´ve been there the music was sort of chill out, quite aloud but bearable all the time.

I´ll be back.

Congratulations!!!

We have another potential twitter/bloger in the world (thanks to sbs and Elena), and this is something to celebrate!! Congratulations my friend, I'll have a pint on you three!!

And my best desire is Jorge will comply with this quote I read yesterday:

"The cure for unhappiness is happiness, I don't care what anybody says!"
Elizabeth McCracken, Niagara Falls Over Again.

Spot the differences

It will not be possible to spot the differences... I was trying to find a picture of 'Castellana 45' (my former job colleagues back in Madrid know quite well what dodgy place I am talking about) and my new desk... 7 differences would be too many, I´m afraid:



1. Now I have light and sunshine (yes, even in London)
2. My own desk. Everyday.
3. My own PC (I hate laptops everyday a little more)
4. My 45'' wide screen (yes, it is actually mine and nobody else's :D )
5. Snooker Gran Prix semifinals in my 45'' wide screen
6. My mug, my plant and my telephone. Even if I´m not a manager
7. Leaving it while it is still daylight outside (again, yes, even in London)

Que viene el Koko!!! (Koko´s coming :D)

1A Camden High Street, London, NW1 7JE
I know it´s been a long time since the last post. I have been busy (and you know what I mean ;)), sorry about that.

So Koko. This is just a great place to enjoy a night out. Apart of the problem that going to Camden involves if you are not around (we spent quite a lot of money going and coming back by cab), the real thing is it worth it the trip. And I can effortlessly recommend it to everybody who comes to London, for a month, a week or just a night out.

It didn´t look like it was going to be an amazing night, though. A friend from Madrid came to visit me, and we spent the best part of the evening having some drinks in the City (you know I love Fleet Street, don´t you)? After that we went to a pub in Old Street, where we were supposed to meet Oscar&Oscar, and so we did. And luckily for us, they where in the mood for a long hard party night, and we were too. And Victor, and some of his Portuguese and English friends as well… where to go? Koko. Just remember it. Koko.

It is an old theatre that opened for the first time on 1900 and is located just in front of the Purple Turtle (a Reading´s classic that has its bigger sister here in Camden). The queue as we arrived was certainly scaring and discouraging, but you know how it works here in the UK: everybody keeps the line, nobody jumps the queue and in a fairly civilized way you are in. You pay a quid for the wardrobe, you try to get cash from the ATM (and you are not successful at it), and you go deep in it. And as soon as you get through the main corridor, you are right in the middle of an amazing old fashioned theatre, with its 7 different floors (where the stall seats are), with several bars scattered around them.

Of course, as proper tourists, the first thing we did was going til the very last floor, so we could say ´aaaaaaaalaaaaaaaaa´ (ghossssshhhhhhhhhh, if you wanna translate it in a quite poor way). It is really impressing the view from there, even more if there is a gig going on the lower floor, as it was the case. For those who read this from Barcelona, just imagine La Paloma, and add 7 floors with seats, bars and people partying around it. Just enjoyable.


I cannot remember the band playing that nite, but they were good enough to enjoy a couple of songs and bad enough to realize at the third one that what we had to do was moving forward to the bar (any of them) and get some drinks. I had to queue quite a lot to get’em, but sometimes it seems you are supposed to wait. The waitress was nice, but clumsy. And I am one of those who prefer an efficient waitress to a good looking one… but that´s another story.

This is quite probably the only reasonable problem the club has: prices. A can of Red Stripe is 3.50 (fair enough), but spirits are clearly not affordable: over a fiver the double. Therefore getting fucking pissed before getting there is quite a good option. Listen to me: just enjoy for a while the different stalls and boxes, be a naughty guy if you have a nice chick in your side and, if you don´t, go downstairs as it is right there where the party is. And the girls. And the music. And the drums the drums the drums the drums the drums the drums the drums…

As Susana reads this blog now I will not be too explicit :). But I have not ever been in a place with such a good nice-to-not ratio girls. Quite a lot of Spanish and Italians (it was bank holiday back in Italy), but also Nordics, English and wherever you wanted to select. As I am in a relationship the experience was just like being in the theatre (again)… admiring a very good piece of God´s work.

Between all this, Victor´s always crazy friends (I cannot ever remember their names) helped to contribute to a reckless night. Nevertheless, it seems to me this is one of those clubs you can have a good time whoever you go with. Again, while you don´t drink in the bar, but before you get in…

The music helped as well. Not the most famous songs, but mostly indie and indie-electronic music, with an DJ evolving from Daft Punk and Chemical Brothers to more Britis stuff, like brit pop and so on, and, of course, the always colossal closing for a night the ´Last Nite´ (Strokes) is. Can you really ask for something else? Yes, an Euromillon winning. That was an obvious one, dude...

Armani Metal

Remember how excited I was about the Metallica gig I went to in the O2?
Well...

Live music at the Dice Club

Old Blue Last 38 Great Eastern St, EC2A 3ES

The first rule of the Dice Club is anybody speaks about the Dice Club.

:D

This interesting event is one of those itinerant clubs here in London, broadening music perspectives of all those who have what it takes to go out on Sunday. As my friend Victor works everyday but Sundays, for me it is a great chance to go to several gigs at least once every two weeks, which is when the club gathers...

Well, this sound as a quite stupid thing, doesn't it? We had pretty good fun. First of all, the place: this last time, at the Old Blue Last, in Shoreditch. Shoreditch, in the borough of Hackney (East London), is one of those buzzing areas in London that so easily you can love or hate. Ugly, dirty, with loads of petty fried chicken takeaways, it also hosts some of the most interesting clubs, bars or pubs in London. Quite close to Old Street as well, it is a great place for start the night out and move to the latter later on when the clubbing moods are high.

The Old Blue Last is a nice place to enjoy a night out. It has a couple of floor, the ground one where the pub itself is and the first one, where gigs take place. As an advantage compared to most places with this structure, they have a bar in the fist floor, so you can enjoy the music and have several Becks pints at the same time. And I say Becks because of the three different beers I tried, I have to say that one was the only really drinkable, I'm afraid.

The sound quality was average, even bad I'd say. That didn't matter too much, as we were there for fucking-loud-and-punk music, but maybe for a different type of concert it may be a relevant problem.

What about the bands? Here we go...

1. Joy-Rides

Awesome band, the most punk thing I’ve been into for a while. Joy-rides do not play punk music, though. Indeed, they do not play music. They use noises, loud instruments, in a weird and difficult to describe mixture. They used a megaphone in several songs, so the frontman was able to go and blend with the crowd, offering his sweat for free to everyone who wanted to be around.

All the instrument were quite discordant, and melody is a word they have to learn yet. But Energy is not. The singer transmitted really a lot every single time he pushed through in any song, specially in the anthem ‘I do what I like!’. This mate, covered in black plasters, completely wasted and trying to guess which was the next song every time, and the very well-looking bass player (she was completely drunk), were incredibly good inspiring the audience. They had a song the drummer was not good enough to play (as he was drunk as well), so they got the Guillotines guitar player to perform it… they seemed to be very good friends, both bands.

As stated, they did not play good music. They are mind blowers. But we all enjoyed the show. And that is the point.



2. Vile Imbeciles

Vile Imbeciles proved to be good musicians, lack of real spirit. Quite noisy as well, they did not really generate a big impression, even while they were much better musicians than Joy-Rides.




3. The Guillotines

Great band, and a cool mixture of both previous bands best elements as well. Good music (Great Music, indeed) and loads of energy. The very beginning was a declaration of principles: they asked the crowd if we where drunk. Nooooooooooo, we answered… so they got a scotch bottle and they started to pure booze in the front rows thirsty spectators, me one of them.


After feeling the hot stuff in our throats, everyone was ready for a great gig, and they didn’t hesitate to perform their best. The guitar player and Joe Coles (the singer) where brilliant, but all the other guys where really good as well. Bass player look (Heidi Heelz) was kind of the Crow Medicine singer, and, at the end, everything finished as a great huge punk party. Really good stuff...



Complains? Well, the delay all the gigs started with, granting me a bad hungover the next day. Such a hard life...

Credit Crunch in London

Call me cruel if you want, but yesterday me and a friend, before the Metallica concert (see previous post) went to Canary Wharf, to Lehman Brothers building, in order to see if any broker was living with all his stuff in a cardboard box. I know it is not a funny thing (mainly for the one who losses its job), but watching wasted yuppies queuing, some of them crying, some of them in shock, that was quite a picture.

Indeed, I don't know if people back in Spain realizes how big this thing is. Yesterday 5.000 Lehman guys were virtually sacked just in London, Merril Lynch (what the fuck... Merril Lynch mate!) was saved at the last moment, and who knows about AIG... people are even starting to talk about Goldman Sachs, wether its assets and securities situation is much better-off than all the others one... and tax-payers are funding former overwhelming risks (see Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or Bearn Stearn in the States, and Northern Rock in the UK): capitalism on its worse and most unnaceptable version. Or like my friend disier says, the new trend in 'neoconomics': corporate losses nationalization.

All those Lehman guys had all their bonus (the biggest chunk in their income) paid in equity that is completely worthless now. FT is talking about 100,000 employement cuts in the medium term just in London. Those guys have no real chances to get a new equivalent job in the short term. A quite bizarre image were people waiting in line in Starbucks to hand their cv to some recruiting consultants who where just waiting there... we are talking about 2,000 pounds designer suits wearing guys.

Maybe here in London a particle accelerator was not needed to create a black hole.

But let's be optimistic. There is still beer in the pubs :D.

O2 Arena: Seek and Destroy

O2 Arena. Greenwich, Greater London, SE10 0, UK

Yes, they did it again. My first concert in the O2 (the best concerts venue I have ever been in my life), and it had to be Metallica. And not the 'St Anger' Metallica, not at all... we are talking about the old Metallica, it is, the new Metallica, or if you prefer it, Death Magnetic Metallica. Whatever you prefer.

The O2 is an amazing place. It is true you feel as in El Corte Ingles as you go by the automatic stairs, and it seems quite as a commercial Mall with so many shops, restaurants and bars. But once you are inside of the venue itself, the sound quality is the best ever. And visibility is incredible, wherever you sit down (or stand up, if it is a Metallica gig what we are talking about!).


Just some ingredients for the best metal recipe on earth:

1. Tickets prized at 5 pounds. Wherever you had your location (because the O2 is just as a cinema, you have your numbered sit), it was just 5 quid. You had to register in Metallica´s website, though, or have a friend as good as Cesar, who got the tickets for me :D

2. Be a cheeky bastard. Leave your sit and, with your three friends, go to the VIP area. Row 3, just 20 meters far from James Hetfield & Co. All the superb chicks around us were famous, I am quite sure about that. In fact, we talked about buying Hello! magazine in order to check who they actually were...


It was a funny thing cheating the VIP area bouncers, too. So Spaniards, we were there...

3. Drink beer. It´s just 3.50 per pint. I remember the last concert I was in Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid (9 euros), or in las Ventas (no booze there)... yes, this is a much more civilized country. Moreover, Becks 4 is damned good!

4. Enjoy the checklist. Just one song from the last 3 albums (apart of the very last one, of course):

- 'That Was Just Your Life'
- 'The End Of The Line'
- 'The Thing That Should Not Be'
- 'Of Wolf And Man'
- 'One'
- 'Broken, Beat And Scarred'
- 'Cyanide'
- 'Frantic'
- 'Until It Sleeps'
- 'Wherever I May Roam'
- 'For Whom The Bell Toll'
- 'The Day That Never Comes'
- 'Master Of Puppets'
- 'Blackened'

- 'Stone Cold Crazy'
- 'Jump In The Fire'
- 'Seek and Destroy'

Yes, no balads. No Nothing Else Matters (I cannot listen that song anymore since Lucie Silvas horrid cover). No unforgiven (neither unf. part II or part III). Just trash metal. Just Metallica. Back to puppets and ride the lightning days.

5. Enjoy the sound quality. The best ever, and we are talking about a 25.000 spectators venue. You could listen every single instrument in every single song. Amaaaaaaaazing.

6. "Put the fucking cameras away, put the fucking phones away. You will not become famous on YouTube with a stupid Metallica low quality video. Just enjoy the experience, enjoy the metal show. You can call you mom later". James Hetfield dixit as "silly 2.0" teenagers where watching the gig by their cameras instead of by their eyes and ears.

I loved that part :D

7. SEEK AND DESTROY!!! (This was the last song, when they launched all the Metallica balloons. Appreciate the quality of the sound of the home made video... imagine it on site, 12 rows closer than this "silly 2.0" guy who was not VIP enough... paradise LOL)



8. Feel you are a good person just for once. All the tickets money went to a charity.

9. Good friends. Cesar, Cesar and Kara: I met you quite recently, but you are legends!! (pictures of the four of us coming soon, I forgot my camera)

and 10. Go back home by boat ;)

Reflexión

¿Qué sale de Platero y Tú, tabaco con un poco de mezcla, Heraclio Fournier, 16 chinos, treses que hacen de reyes y doses que hacen de ases, dos botellas de whisky y dos de ron, todas ellas llenas y a la par vacías un rato después, y cuatro amig@s?

Acertaste. Una entrada en castellano en un blog que se supone está escrito en inglés.

Enhorabuena buddy!!!

Translation (requested by a friend):

The outcome of Platero y Tu, skunky smokes, Heraclio Fournier, 16 chips, 3-cards becoming K-cards and 2-cards promoting as aces, whisky&rum bottles (2x2) earlier full and now depressingly empty, and, of course, four friends?

You got it. A Spanish written post in an English written blog.

Congratulations, mate!!!

PS: Sbs, te salva que hoy no tocaban cervezas... :D

A new little piece of me: bookofcarling.blogspot.com

Mates,this is the opening ceremony of a new blog:

http://bookofcarlingplease.blogspot.com/

Yes, you guessed it. I speak about books on it, more accurately, about the last book I have red. So you might expect some kind of compromise between posts in this email and in the other one as I cannot be partying and reading at the same :D

It is written in Spanish. It is difficult enough for me writing about pubs in English, but there is no chance I might get something average talking about books.

Cheers!!! or... Books!!! :D

Just Camden Town

Let’s forget about pubs, just for one post, even knowing I might risk the respect of some of my groopies ;). Let’s talk about something equally good, if not even better: Camden Town.

Has somebody been in London and not in Camden? Well, maybe. Indeed, the first time I came to London I went to Portobello Market instead. Bloody mistake I’ve tried to solve taking to the former, Saturday or Sunday, sunshine or rain, to everybody who comes for a visit, no matters if it’s a long or an sporadic one. Because Camden is London itself, in its most pure essence. And even being plenty conscious my poetry in English is quite poorer than in Spanish (not saying it is good in Spanish, though), I’ll try to explain as clear as possible in this post what Camden really is.

First of all, Camden is the shops and everything but the shops at the same time. Let me explain myself. You can go shopping to Camden, that is for sure. Indeed, it is my favourite place in the whole city to get garnets, snickers or, mainly, t-shirts. Punkyfish, Goth shops as Fairygothmother, AfterDark or Elizium, Cyberdog, Hexagon, EGL (Elegant Goth Lolita) or Spank, between many others. Most of them are unique shops you can just find up there, so forget about the Zara/HM/GAP way of life. You can always go to Oxford Street if that is your way of life… and you can stop reading my blog as well. I won´t really bother, mate.

But you can enjoy a supreme day in Camden even not going into any shop, even without money in your pocket, or just several spare coins to have some food and a drink. Because Camden is alive… people, colours, weird attires, music –aloud and chilling, up to you-, Blade Runner… ok, let´s go one by one.

Shops are the best asset of Camden Town, this is something completely out of question. There are several street markets (Sat&Sun only) and loads and loads of shops everyday, all grouped in the following:

1. Camden Market, in Buck Street. The first one you find on the left side of Camden Road, pretty near to Camden Town tube station. Similar to Madrid´s Rastro, it has a lot of stalls packed in really very few physic space. Some of the t-shirt shops in the first rows sell some of the finest products in the whole market. Apart of that, it is not worth spending too much time there.

2. Inverness Market. The same than (and in front of) the previous one, but worse. Completely avoidable. Restaurants and pubs in Inverness Road are really good, though. I recommend Vinyl for having a relaxing pint if it is pissing down.

3. Camden Main Street. As you go towards Camden Locks, you pass through one of the most incredible spectacles imaginable. Loads of shops with great outside decoration and, some of them, great products inside. The electrical ballroom is a have-to, with as the Dc Martens shops (the classic boots), the tattoo studios, those classic punks, dealers hushing ‘skunk’ as you pass by, or those great pubs around. Absolutely enjoyable.

It is coooooooooooooooooool!!!

4. Camden Canal. This used to be a great place as well. And I use properly used, as this is the area that burnt a couple of years ago. A real loss, but most of the shops have relocated into Camden Lock or Camden Stables. Nevertheless, hopefully it will be back soon.

5. Camden Lock. The real thing. The hurt of Camden town, with so many classics. I´ll go on it later.

6. Camden Stables. The newest part, and the northern one too. Some of the furniture shops are avoidable, but most of the rest is also incredible. The best of it, though, are the catacombs where it is located. A lovely piece of industrial architecture in London and a lovely place to enjoy the end of the Camden visit.

Well, briefed like that it doesn’t sound such a big deal. Let’s go for my top places in more detail:

a) Cyberdog

Yeah, it is a place for tourists. I know. But it is the best shop I have ever been as well. And, even while I’m not on the posh groove, that is saying quite a lot. There used to be a dancing floor/pub right on the entrance, where some go-go dancers showed up their most intimate issues. Incredible chicks, incredible music (always mixed alive), and incredible bar. Not anymore, as they have used the same space to sell freak products. But the music and the dancers are still there… after that, you just go inside and, in a remarkable industrial environment, you can find the most not-for-human (as they say) cloths. And the spaceship model. And the changing rooms. And the tattooed psycho crew. And everything.

Cyber rave!!

b) The Lockside Lounge.

An incredible pub with a great terrace and a great interior too. Fine music, fine live bands, affordable prices and an incredible vista of Camden Locks. It will have its own post in pintofcarlingplease, sooner than later.

c) Proud Camden Gallery and Bars.

One of the new spaces gained with the Stables Market, this is another place that will have its own entry. I’ve heard some great bands there, the compartment bar is great (although they don’t serve pints, you can always go for the bottled thing), absolutely fantastic photography exhibitions, lastly related with bands as Sex Pistols or Rolling Stones, and a great local and tourists mixed mood. A must.

Goose, the band I had the chance to enjoy

d) The Blade Runner food shops.

I call them like that because you really fell as Deckard there. Asian food served in a foggy atmosphere, with Chinese bartenders, neon, spicy odours and a crazy non stopping crowd. If this is not Blade Runner, let me know what it is then. The food is cheap and fairly good, but on Sundays is quite difficult to find a quiet corner to eat it.

e) The Goth shops.

All of them. I have always been turned on by Goth birds, and I have always have some empathy for that decadent mood those guys have. There was one time I loved that clothing and music as well. And here you can find some of the best pieces of Goth cloths anywhere in the world.

f) The orange juice shop LOL


But those are just some of my favourite places. Just select yours: open your eyes, have a look at the crowd, don’t take a picture of Amy Whinehouse if you see her (she lives around the corner) neither of some Goth Lolitas: you might think it is a costume, but, for them, a costume is your boring Levis t-shirt. An uniform, speaking precisely.

And enjoy Camden, please.