The other day I talked about our impending doom, but Madrid wasn’t totally bad.
In fact, I had two great nights there. On Monday, after I’ve arrived, my esteemed colleagues and I went to a little tapas restaurant whose name I forgot. Too bad, because it was rather spiffy. Nice food, great wine, much fun. We actually walked there from the office, so I managed to get some quick glimpses at the city. Beats driving around in a taxi.
On Tuesday, the good folks of Yahoo! Spain took us to Casa Patas, a Flamenco-themed restaurant. Really nice food, good wine (once again). Around 22:30 we’ve all been really stuffed, and wondering where to go next, when we were told that there was a Flamenco show coming up, and we had tickets.
Now, mind you, I had no idea what to expect. Flamenco had never really appeared on my radar prior to that evening.
To make it short: it was one hell of a show. There were three singers, Pepe Jiménez, José “El Flaco” and Pedro Jiménez, two guitars, Jesus Losada and Victor “El Tomate” (I am not making this up, it’s what the pamphlet said). Also, three dancers: Primitivo Daza, Miguel Canas and Rosa Jiménez. (Thanks to David for letting me use the picture.)
And quite frankly, they rocked the house.
The music was superb. The dancing was mindblowing. It was an awesome evening, and I was completely blown away. The other guys had a good time as well, and it’s been quite something!
Many thanks to both Marcos and Arno from the Madrid office for planning a great night out. Here’s hoping you’ll never come to Munich because quite frankly, I wouldn’t know how to top that. ;)
Unfortunately, I still have no idea what kind of Flamenco I had witnessed. Apparently there are around 50 different styles of Flamenco, and I am a total n00b when it comes to classifying kickass foreign ethno entertainment. :p After spending some time listening to many different artists (Pandora.com and Last.fm be praised), I hadn’t made any progress. So I’ve asked my Spanish coworkers, and they couldn’t tell me either.
Then I’ve mailed the folks at Casa Patas (in English), explaining which show I had seen, and asking whether they could tell me the subtype(s) of Flamenco that were shown this evening, and guess what I got back? A form letter, in Spanish, with a rather lengthy Word document, describing the history of Flamenco, in Spanish. Gee, thanks. I wonder what made them think I could speak Spanish, after writing them in another language. ;)
So, that didn’t help either. It means listening to more music then, hoping to find something I might like. Well, that can’t hurt, but it’s driving me nuts to listen and listen and listen and not find the right thing.
Before discovering the Internet I’ve had a bit more patience, I think.
