My favourite shy guy of all time. Flamenco singer Antonio “El Arenero”

Antonio González Garzón (1925-2004) was a flamenco singer (cantaor) from Triana (trianero), Seville. He was also known as "El Arenero" (one who deals with sand) because of having been engaged in hauling sand from the river bed of Guadalquivir. From an early age he took part in the get-togethers of flamenco enthusiasts at different flamenco clubs in Triana, but, as he had always been afraid of singing in public, didn't come through until 1976. He didn't live all his life in Triana, though, but moved to San Diego neighbourhood in the North District of Seville. 

El Arenero singing. Image taken from the blog Iniciación al Flamenco (An Introduction to Flamenco)

El Arenero, having been an outstanding performer of Gypsy songs of Soleá style, was also known for singing Siguiriyas and Martinetes (other song forms that belong to Gypsy folk art category). He was accompanied on guitar by different Sevillian flamenco guitarists (tocaores), including Quique Paredes, Jose Luis Postigo, Manuel Domínguez "El Rubio", Ricardo Miño, etc. About his shyness - I find it adorable. I think, it added a depth, complexity and certain special nuance to his work. Below you have some YouTube videos of him perfoming pure Gypsy folk art (Cante Jondo).

Por Soleares de Triana:

Por Seguiriyas:

For more, see these videos: Soleá de Triana, Soleá del Zurraque de Triana, El Arenero llevado a TV por El Rubio.

Dance music by local voices. Rasel

There's a kind of a known singer, Rasel, who lives in my town, 5 minutes walk from my home. He's a young Sevillian guy, sexy as hell. I don't personally think too much of his music, but in the following piece, his famous collaborator, Carlos Baute, virtually looks and sounds like a total party killer. Look and decide yourselves:

Me pones tierno (You make me tender) by Rasel, feat. Carlos Baute:

I think, that's one groovy song alright, with such a hot tune, both melodic and catching. It so makes me move my hips. Great work, boy next door! 

Bars that date back to the early 20th century - La Bodega Mariano Camacho

La Bodega Mariano Camacho is a wine bar worth a visit when in Seville, during the snail season in particular. It's probably one on the best places in Seville to enjoy an appetizer (tapa) of snails (caracoles) seasoned with a spicy peppery flavour and richly served on a saucer. Another of the attractions of this bar you can not miss is its beer. The beer is always excellently cooled down to serving temperature and poured with care and attention. The fame of pouring perfect beer and serving Seville's best snails means this bar is usually pretty full, especially in the summer, but don't let that deter you from going - the waiters are fast.

Stew of snails and beer. Photos by Association Apoloybaco

Notwithstanding its evident antiquity, the narrow streets of the old town of Seville still provide an ample selection of modernised bars and cafés with trendy bar equipment and new décor in contemporary colours and classic lines, but La Bodega Mariano Camacho isn't interested in any of that, choosing instead to play the card of all the grace of an old bar. 

Old floor of the bar. Photo by Susanne Vogel

It has this uneven ceramic floor typical in older-style bars, particularly in unrenovated buildings. Your bill is written in chalk right on the bar counter. You have to use the almost nonexistent ladies' room with only a curtain to it, no door, and you have to ask the waiters to let you pass by the bar to enter it.

Interior of the bar. Photo by Association Apoloybaco

A real old time feel here. You can tell the interior has remained virtually unchanged over a long period of time, for more than hundred years. La Bodega Mariano Camacho is a symbol of the bars' Seville from the early twentieth century to the present day. It resides in a characteristic 18th-century house-palace located in the Pumarejo Square (Plaza de Pumarejo), in Seville's old town (Casco Antiguo) neighbourhood of San Gil.

View to the bar from the Pumarejo Square. Photo by Yelp Search

A bar where I feel like home - El Urbano

El Urbano (The Urban) is another bar in Seville that I find to be exceptionally comfortable. It's a cocktail bar decorated with the intention to give it an impression of street. Tables and chairs create an atmosphere as if it were a terrace, and there are many stepping stones laid on the ground to sit on. There are lamp posts, street benches and other street elements along both sides of its walkways. Men's room simulates a phone booth of London, it's red and all. Besides, you can watch in through the windows. Fortunately, it's not the case of ladies' room. 

Entrance of El Urbano. Image taken from a hotel searching site Trivago España

For me, it's not about the surroundings there. It's about people. These free and easy bohemians I miss so much. It just has a very hometowny kind of feel. It somehow brings together the types of people I understand best and feel comfortable with. It may be because the play rock, including the rock of the world. And this is something that knows no generational limits, attracting enthusiasts of all ages, which is exactly what I like in a bar.

A bar where I feel like home - El Perro Andaluz

El Perro Andaluz (The Andalusian Dog) is a cultural café-bar, a fun place to go. I have been there twice. On both occasions I went there with the same friend, and I'm thankful to him for taking me to such a dreamy place for a night. I hadn't had time to expect too much, because both times it was a spontaneous decision to go there. And seriously, I had no idea what sort of music they put out, which is always a kind of sensitive issue for people like me who are really into music, but only certain types of music. In the end, it turned out that I liked the vibe of the place from the minute I walked in and I will definitely go back there again and again, and again. And you know why? Because it brought me in my mind to the night life fun in my beloved Tartu, one of the coolest university towns in Europe, a town of cosy cafés, awesome bars and amazing people.

Interior of El Perro Andaluz. Image from their Google+ profile

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, the bar in Seville. I first got amazed with with it listening to a reggae fusion music project that mixes various styles, such as reggae, ska and rumba, called La Dstyleria. It was so unspeakably cool that I couldn't quite believe they were real and I literally fell in love with all the guys on stage. For more, see their Facebook or Twitter page.

Have a look at and listen to the band in action: 

There is always a new art exhibition on display in El Perro Andaluz that is worth checking out, and there are always some bands playing for free or poetry reciting or something else going on. Staff is friendly and the beer is cold as hell (well, as ice), and the service is decent, too. Visit their Facebook or Twitter page to be updated on upcoming events.

People enjoying a poetry recital at the bar. Image taken from the blog of poetry recital series

Curiosities in Córdoba

Fixed signs indicating street names are usually of quite large tiles in Andalusia, so it's not easy to get lost. If they are there, of course, I mean, the street signs, because in many cases there's nothing you can do but “grope in the dark”. Anyway, in Córdoba, there are some funny signs stuck up on white walls not representing the real street names. Killing, though.

 

 

Street in Córdoba - Estoy perdido (I'm lost). Photos by José Manuel Gallardo and Isa

The Rosary of Aurora

On September 22 the Rosary of Aurora (La Rosario de la Aurora) was held in Tomares, in the metropolitan area of Seville. The statue of Our Lady of Sorrows (La Virgen de los Dolores) was carried in procession through the town to the Parish Church of Our Lady of Bethlehem (La Iglesia Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Belén) for the pleasure and enjoyment of the members of the congregation, the penitents of the Sacramental Brotherhood of Tomares (La Hermandad Sacramental de Tomares) and the guests. 

Our Lady of Sorrows of the Parish Church of Tomares. Photo by José Manzano

The Hail Mary Prayer (Dios te salve, María) was breathtakingly sung by all present:

Hail Mary,

Full of Grace,

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit

of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary,

Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now,

and at the hour of death.

Amen. 

And it was very solemn and beautiful, as all the processions tend to be in Tomares, in fact. Watch the video by José Javier Comas Rodríguez here and see for yourself!

When they happen to strike

It's a nuisance when there's a general strike of transport workers in Seville, but it's even worse when there's one hitting refuse collection, street cleaning and other services of the kind. You can always see the streets a bit messy, but with the waste collectors and street cleaning workers on strike, you start seeing them in a real chaos. And, the more stubborn and consistent they are, the messier and smellier it gets. 

Meanwhile in Nervion, on my way to work

People in outdoor cafés not caring about the strike time discomfort. Photo by the news site El País

Street cleaning

It was heavily raining, when I woke up this morning. Now, it wasn't the rain that was the problem. A noisy street cleaning truck was loud enough to wake me. And yes, it was washing the street while it was raining. No surprise, though, it happens every time. As a municipal worker you don't question your duties, you follow orders exactly.

Cleaning workers hosing down the steets. Photo by the news site ABCdesevilla.es

The street cleaning service in Seville provides regular mechanical sweeping and washing of streets on a scheduled basis to produce clean roadways, parking lots and walking spaces. Generally, there's no manual sweeping undertaken - any outdoor surface is to be cleaned by water and other detergents. And, there are no street flushers used on the vehicle-free paved areas for pedestrian use as there's hardly any litter picking. The street flushers are used to wash the fine dust material that remains on the road surface after the mechanical street sweepers have finished removing all the loads of dog mess and litter; from food, plastic carrier bags and bottles, empty snack bags and sweet wrappers to cigarette butts. The jet-washing of streets is a considerable source of waste in local government spending, seeing that it's done using large street cleaning water trucks with high-pressure hoses and wasting tons of water in the process. The municipalities invest, without a second thought, in modern equipment to jet wash the steets and public areas known to be used frequently. All the parts of city, continuing all over the metropolitan area, have standard rubbish bins on the streets. At least that's something, although you can't separate recyclables from other solid waste. Furthermore, waste collectors collect the waste every day and cleaning workers jet wash the streets down every single night, which for me is a waste in human resource and time, since, too often, people are careless and sloppy with no regard for the impact of their behaviour on the street environment and esthetics. Spending time with friends and family in outdoor cafés or wherever, an incredible amount of rubbish is left on the streets. No particular attention is paid to pets walked outside either, so the streets are literally covered in dog mess. Shift in mentality would work wonders for Sevillians.

Washing of containers. Image taken from the official website of Carmona

Washing of tools and equipment. Photo by the open public tenders' site desevilla.org

Wasting in human resources and energy. Photo by the open public tenders' site desevilla.org

As the sign says, potable water is not used for this work. Photo by Carlos Navarro Antolín

Andalusian folk songs by Antonio Mairena

Here you have some YouTube videos of Antonio Mairena perfoming Andalusian folk art with Gypsy influence (flamenco). 

Por Malagueñas: 

Por Fandangos:

Por Cantiñas:

Gypsy songs by Antonio Mairena

Antonio Cruz García (1909-1983), known as Antonio Mairena, was a noted flamenco singer (cantaor) from Mairena del Alcor, born in a Gypsy family. In his twenties he moved to Seville, where he quickly began to gain fame as a true artist. Antonio Mairena worked with many talented flamenco guitarists (tocaores); like Sevillians Niño Ricardo; Eduardo El de La Malena; Pedro Peña, El Lebrijano's brother; Melchor de Marchena and Enrique de Melchor, father and son; Cordovan Juan Muñoz "El Tomate"; Manuel Moreno from Jerez; and, Paco Aguilera from Barcelona.

Antonio Mairena in the Pureza Street (Triana, Seville). Image taken from Garrancho's blog 

Antonio Mairena spending time with cantaores Pepe Torre, El Chocolate and Pepe Pinto. Image taken from Garrancho's blog

Antonio Mairena was a really productive cantaor. There's a wide variety of his work available on the Internet, which is why I divide it into two to present it to you in parts. First, below you have some YouTube videos of him perfoming pure Gypsy folk art (Cante Jondo).

Por Bulerías:

Por Soleá:

Por Seguiriyas:

Por Tangos-Tientos:

Por Tonás, Martinetes y Livianas:

Por Romances:

Car vs public transport

Having or not a private car in Seville is not a social status issue, but a lifestyle that one can choose to lead when deciding how to better reconcile work and family life. Car will win in many cases. Not in my case since I couldn't possibly stand the annoying process of finding a place to leave it and seeing later that it's been parked in. Can you imagine? Having many things to do, but being completely fenced in at the busiest hour, without any hope to get out. No parking culture whatsoever. So, it's trains and buses to work for me.

All these "lovely" dents on sheet metal

 

Parking on pavement and zebra crossing markings. Photos by ABCdesevilla.es

Double-parked cars in the Torneo Street. Photo by Rocio Ruz published on the ABCdesevilla website

Piled cars in the Feria Street. Reported by Noelia Márquez from the news site DiariodeDevilla

Police taking no action against parking double or triple. Image taken from a forum post  on Sevilla 21.com

The most densely populated cities and towns in Andalusia

Here's a list of Andalusia's most densely populated municipalities, all ranking in the top 20 with nearly 2000 inhabitants per km². The information about the number of inhabitants comes from the census carried out by the National Statistics Institute in 2011, while the area of each municipality has been taken from the National Geographic Institute. Note that the population density of Spain is 92.13 people per km² (see a map on www.populationlabs.com).

Municipality	Density per km² (people)
1. Cádiz 2. Castilleja de la Cuesta 3. Fuengirola 4. Armilla 5. Seville 6. Tomares 7. Maracena 8. San Juan de Aznalfarache 9. Gines 10. La Línea de la Concepción 11. Torremolinos 12. Cájar 13. Huétor Vega 14. San Fernando 15. Granada 16. Mairena del Aljarafe 17. Benalmádena 18. Camas 19. Ogíjares 20. Churriana de la Vega	8,162.9 7,928.2 7,189.7 5,064.3 4,989.5 4,732.2 4,622.6 4,561.5 4,547.9 3,365.0 3,342.2 2,946.2 2,802.4 2,744.9 2,713.0 2,383.4 2,380.1 2,209.4 1,934.1 1,925.7

Source: Classora Rankings Group

Most densely populated municipalities in Andalusia. Image taken from Classora's website