Plaza Casino World Tour

19 October, 13

La Alberca has been celebrating something for the past two weeks. I'm sure somebody knows, but most of the people just accept it and have a fiesta. Two days ago, we had the girls dancing the night away. Last night we had a Queen tribute band, Unrisen Queen.

I have to say I was pretty impressed. They played and sang very well. "Freddie Mercury" has put on a few pounds, and he seems to have fixed those big buck teeth, but other than that, they were right on the money. Maybe this was a tribute to what Queen would have become, sort of like the Eagles. Hitting all the right notes, but not quite as fast. Walking across the stage and standing in front of the mike all night, instead of doing some crazy onstage antics. Mellow and refined but still good music. One of the back-up singers did some interpretative dance to one song. Perhaps standing in front of the mic was a good idea after all.

I did not realize how big Queen was in Spain. The whole crowd, and it was a big one, knew the words to several songs I had never even heard before. We were toward the back, so it was fun to watch the crowd interact with the band. Several generations were in attendance. Abuelos would be sitting around a table on the side, drinking a cerveza and watching their nietos as the parents sang out all the lyrics. All the chicos were cruising in and out of the plaza, doing what teenagers do. Elizabeth and Julia went to the park, the location of which is still a mystery to me. Katherine hung out with several different groups of friends all night. Susan and I watched the concert with some of our friends. We all made it home at about 2:30AM.

The whole scene reminded me of a Beach Blast in Hartsville. Several hundred people gathered together, having a good time, enjoying a little Beach Music. Some people are listening. Some are dancing. Some are just walking around.

It's life at the Plaza...

Plaza Casino--Dancing the Night Away

14 October, 13

Plaza Casino is the heart of La Alberca. It is in the middle of everything, five minutes walking distance from anywhere in town. In America, we put restaurants on highly exposed corners or outparcels of larger shopping centers. I was in a high level commercial real estate class several years ago, and the professor said that McDonald's was not in the hamburger business. They were in the real estate business. Location. Location. Location.

In L.A. the mentality is a little bit different. You can't get to Plaza Casino by car. Even if you could there is no place to park. You can't see it from the road. If you were a typical tourist, you would never even know it existed. No directional signs saying, "Plaza Casino this way". Yet, everyday for el almuerzo and every night for la cena, the whole plaza is packed. It is the place you go to hang out with friends, eat some tapas, and just relax a while.

Last night, a local dance company performed on the Plaza, so it was especially packed. You have been to these performances, if you have little girls. All the four and five year olds get up on the stage in rounds and shake their little tushies.

As the girls get progressively older, they start to resemble pole dancers, wiggling this and poking out that. Somebody is gonna be mad at me for saying that. Please forgive me. I am only making observations, not judgements. The dancers are having a great time and very few of them go on to careers in pole-dancing.

Susan and I have discovered that the American songs that we have always considered acceptable for our girls to hear often have some pretty bad lyrics. In America they delete a lot of the f-bombs, but not so in Spain. A group of 10-12 year olds was dancing the night away to some pretty raunchy lyrics, but they were in English, so I guess the girls and parents had no idea.

Back in 1998, Antonio Lomba took us to a flamenco bar in Granada. It was up in the Albayzín area and the whole restaurant/stage was cut into the side of the mountain. You literally walked into a cave. As they were dancing, Antonio interpreted for me the words of one of the songs. Flamenco is all about passion, but this was way over the top. The lyrics were basically saying, "I love you so much, I want to drink up your blood." I kept looking around for bats and the undead after that. Maybe not knowing the lyrics is better.