Out on 4th April, The Contract is just one of a few new releases our Yelmo cinema tickets competition winner might choose to see.
Jenny Balu came out of the hat to scoop her prize of five tickets to use at Madrid multiplex Yelmo Cine Ideal.
She correctly answered the following questions:

Daniel Day Lewis won an Academy Award in 1989 for Best Actor for which film?
My Left Foot

Name the film which Daniel Day Lewis was nominated for Best Actor for the part as Gerry Conlon in 1993?
In The Name Of The Father

Well done to her, another five cinema tickets can be won in April’s cinema competition in European Vibe Magazine.

by Peter Moore

This month I met up with Matt Seaton to discuss writing books and riding bikes. You can see the full interview in the latest issue of European Vibe, which is due out any time now! In the meantime, here you can read a review of the book in question, The Escape Artist, a memoir about a passion for cycling and the loss of someone close to you.

The Escape Artist 

In The Escape Artist, the bicycle is the star. From the first page to the last, the machine is present with a silent omnipotence that propels the story forward, and pulls the reader through the pages. From the prologue, a detailed reconstruction of a weekend practice run across the Kentish downs, to the final pages which deal with an amateur race at a ‘bleak’ London racetrack, the bicycle remains the only constant in Seaton’s life, as his world revolves and changes around him.

Ostensibly, The Escape Artist is a sporting memoir. Whilst passing through the town centre today, you could find a copy of it at a bookstore nestled snugly between its supposed peers: Paul Kimmage’s Rough Ride, or Samuel Abt’s rather self explanatory, Off to the Races: 25 years of cycling journalism. Seaton’s book, however, carries a wider scope than these: during the early throws of the book he is an idealistic teenager on a subconscious search for a passion; after the discovery of the bicycle it then accompanies him to Cambridge University, then to ‘quixotic’ dalliance with the Communist Party and later, more significantly, it provides him with a constant escape from the realities of growing older and then losing his first wife, the journalist Ruth Picardie, to breast cancer.

From test run to finished product

Seaton’s style is at once both elegant and perceptive. Years working as a freelance journalist and editor have left him with a developed flair that engages the reader and his immediacy strikes an empathy with the keen cyclist. It is clear that Seaton has developed a deep and lasting emotional connection with the bicycle, which at times verges upon becoming a character in its own right; illustrated no better than when he notes how one, ‘must always obey the bike’s mechanical imperative, it’s instinctual quest for perpetual motion.’

Embroiled in the intricacies of test-runs, bicycle maintenance and the accompanying culture, Seaton is a man very much in his element. His descriptions are lucid and detailed to the extent that at one point he spends six pages describing the practical benefits of the cyclist shaving their legs. ‘It made my proud’, he writes, like claiming ‘…the badge of membership to a select fraternity.’ But whilst the cycling narrative flows fluidly, and with little hint of a pause, maddening ambiguities begin to emerge in his documentation of his life away from the bike, and in particular his evolving relationship with his wife.

What perhaps is most surprising is the fact that Seaton deals with their relationship with such little emotion and even less sentimentality. Many key scenes from their relationship gain significance in the book, simply through their omission. We learn nothing of their wedding day, Ruth’s initial misdiagnosis for breast cancer and almost nothing of her final days. Oddly, one of the more extended passages documenting their decade-long relationship is of their struggles to have children, and Seaton’s subsequent anxieties that he may have a low sperm count as a result of his spent in the saddle. In the same passage, he documents an episode during which he was charged with giving Ruth a hormone injection as part of a course of IVF therapy. As a reader, it is telling that he neglects to convey any feeling of warmth within their relationship, that he uses this particular IVF injection as a bridged introduction to the scourge of drugs in cycling. Once more, the reader can sense that Seaton is desperate to get back to more comfortable territory, but as the reader you are left clamouring for more.

Telling silence

This sense of ambiguity lingers, quite possibly because the initial scope for the book was too broad. Whereas much of the detail relating to bicycles and the surrounding culture is of interest to thousands of amateur cyclists, many other interesting areas of Seaton’s life were mentioned almost in passing, but not elaborated upon. His early life at public school, his university career, his early career working on left-wing magazines and his struggles to raise a young family alone are all areas that find their way into the book, but then only as shadows, and they are always given up at the first opportunity in favour of another section revolving around the bike.

Seaton’s general thesis is clear. He uses the bicycle to ameliorate the pressures and problems of his daily life, he is the ‘escape artist’ and as such the book is telling and personal. Perhaps we can learn as much about Seaton through his omissions, his British stubbornness to address the central issues and grab the story by the scruff of the neck, as we can from the detail that he has included. The book has its shortcomings, but, it does reach the heart of the seductive draw that attracts hundreds of thousands of cyclists to the sport. In this other world, Seaton can escape from the trudge of reality, and enter a place full of narcissism of introspection. The cyclist, Seaton writes, can become an ‘engineers of themselves… his legs smooth and gleaming.’ And when Seaton muse falls upon this other world, then that is when The Escape Artist is at its strongest. It is a memorable and vivid account that will be remembered as much for its omissions and ambiguities as its elegant descriptions of a life spent on two wheels.

by Khilen Mehta

The Cim&Art Foundation was set up to organise and operate an International Film Festival with the aim of making the film Festival one of the world’s leading cultural focal points.  This year from the 28th March- 5th April 2008 the festival will be taking place in Madrid. FilmaMadrid will be a film festival dedicated exclusively to feature films with the objective of portratying cinema as a pure form of culture, as opposed to mere spectacle.

The festival will be small with a maximum of 20 films to be shown; the party atmosphere typically associated with such events to be removed and focus instead on both the high level of films shown and on the audience in attendance. Teatro Arenal, located on calle Mayor, will be hosting the festival, as well as holding press conferences, film screenings and movie premieres. This will be the first editon of the Madrid International Film festival. The first edition will have three sections, the Official section, the International Opera Prima section and the Second developing Spanish project.

Make sure you look out for any famous stars making an appearance near you…

Black Tracks presenter Chris Wright and the station he broadcasts for, Radio Vallekas, are featured in the brand new April issue of European Vibe.
You will find European Vibe Magazine at the usual distribution points around Madrid from tomorrow (Friday 28th March)!

Here is the full interview with the Durham DJ on the radio in Madrid:interview by Ryan Craggs
Ryan Craggs
Chris Wright

How did an Englishman end up broadcasting here in Madrid?

By chance, I had a bad knee injury at the time and was feeling quite low. I needed something to make me feel alive again and, as I’d done a Radio Show before while living in Columbus, Ohio, I thought that was the way to go.

How long have you been doing this?

About 8 months.

You employ rotating genres of music. Why is that?

Radio Stations seem to always enjoy pigeon-holing music by genres so I thought I´d be different and join the dots between the different genres and help Black Music as a whole gain more popularity in Madrid and Spain. Also, it’s a new format.

What makes you choose these genres?

These are the genres I like under the black music umbrella. The concept came to me over a few beers and thought it was a good way to explore different genres while adding my own anecdotes and stories.

What audience are you speaking to?

I’d say 25 to 35, who are sick of the commercial crap that we’re forced to swallow listening to popular Radio. Listeners who like Radio 3 in Spain and 6 music in the UK..

Could you name any influences on the format of your show or the way you present yourself on-air?

Craig Charles’ Funk and Soul show on the BBC Six Radio and also some PBS Stations in the US.

What do you make of what they’re doing at Radio Vallekas?

It’s good to see people getting involved, doing things and helping the community.

What do you hope to accomplish through your program?

Get people moving (foot tapping, head nodding, dancing).

What’s the best part about doing the program?

Discovering new tunes and bouncing round the radio studio like a mad man on a Sunday morning.

What’s the worst part about doing the program? Any challenges?

My shows are live Sunday morning from 11am to midday and that says it all. However, they’re moving me to a more civilized time, so I must be doing something right.

Did you ever dream you’d end up here doing this?

I dream a lot of things some stay longer than others….this was one of those.

What do other people think about an English-speaking DJ on the radio in Madrid?

Most people in Madrid think its something unique, but without the format and tunes being good it doesn’t matter if it’s in Spanish or English, they wouldn’t be arsed listening to me. The other people at the station think it’s cool. They’re all for diversity as it adds colour to what they do.

When/where will you be DJing in Madrid? How can people get more info on your show and future events?

I’m deejaying at Bambalam Café in La Latina and my first gig is Sunday April 13th from 5-10pm.

More information: www.myspace.com/blacktracksespana

Listen to any Black Track programme, whenever you want as a podcast: http://blacktracks.mypodcast.com/

 by Khilen Mehta

In June 1961, the president of Finland, Arvi Kivimaa proposed at the 9th World Congress of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) that a World Theatre Day should be created.  Ever since, each year on the 27th March, World Theatre Day has been celebrated in many and varied ways by ITI National Centres, of which there are now almost 100 throughout the world. World Theatre Day was set up to “to promote international exchange of knowledge and practice in the domain of the performing arts, to stimulate creation and increase cooperation between theatre people, to make public opinion aware of the necessity of taking artistic creation into consideration in the domain of development, to deepen mutual understanding in order to participate in strengthening peace and friendship among peoples, to join in the defence of the ideals and aims of UNESCO.”  The activities that will take place across the world today are seen as attempts to realise these objectives.

Tonight, Madrid will once again don its performing hats and take to the theatres and the streets.  Over 60 different arenas will open their doors with special discounts on tickets in order to provide the crowds with spectacular performances and talks with reknowned actors. In Plaza Dali, and at the CaixaForum, there are special dance and theatre productions lined up especially for children. This year is also the first year that both the Prado and the Reina Sofía will open their doors to the public to inaugurate this festival and will be holding special art exhibitions. For the more youthful crowd, a hip-hop and breakdance company with light up the Templo de Debod with some guaranteed jaw dropping moves.

Watch out tomorrow for some tired faces!!