by Katie Chavez

A new entertainer has come to town, swooping down from Barcelona. His name is Luis Pardo, and the trade he plies isn’t your standard rabbit-out-of-a-hat magician’s brew. He’s a mentalist (we’ll get to that later), and a resourceful one at that – the audience doubles has his prop.

During his introduction (this is before he almost shoots himself in the head or pulls a string through his neck), Luis Pardo says that he hopes to change your perception of the world. If you’re a skeptic, he hopes to make you more open, perhaps, to the powers of the human mind. Ever heard the “mind over matter” aphorism? Yeah, me too. Well Mr. Pardo takes his money and puts it where his mouth is.

Apparently he won an award as “mentalista of the year” in 2004. So we’ll call him a Goya award winner of mentalists. And what is a mentalist, anyway? According to Wikipedia, “Mentalism is an ancient performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, use mental acuity, principles of stage magic, hypnosis and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psycho kinesis, precognition, clairvoyance or mind control.” In other words, it’s a performing art with a tradition dating back to the 16^th century, meant to entertain and astonish, and to make one wonder, maybe just a little bit, about the true extent of life’s possibilities.

While some may confuse it with being a psychic, mentalism is different. A psychic sees into your mind, a mentalist claims to control it. A psychic professes to have extra-ordinary capabilities, while a mentalist only says that he trained very hard. From what I can tell, “mentalism” is more about control and discipline than flash and flair. As Mr. Pardo points out (and as we all already know), we only use a very small portion of our brain’s potential power. And of the portion that is used, an even smaller portion of that involves our conscious mind. What Mr. Pardo does, it seems, is to expand and to master those portions. The resulting show, while sometimes predictable and ho-hum, is also sometimes mind-boggling.

The mise-en-scene of Kasual_mente could use some revamping — flash and flair it certainly isn’t: upon entering the theatre we see a red backdrop, a small patch of screen to the right of the stage on which we see live feed of performer and audience throughout the night. A small table, a chair, and a few large black box-like objects complete the scene. These boxes are covered with Mr. Pardo’s logo for this particular show: a brain with a large question mark with a comic -type explosion coming out of it. (Holy mind games, Batman!) The stage is small and the setting intimate: one can easily see the other members of the audience and Mr. Pardo himself. The camera serves as a cinematic close-up of sorts, allowing us to examine each prop and determine that no; it does not appear to be a fake.

The show itself plays out like standard magician’s entertainment with a dramatic arc from smaller surprises to increasingly astonishing tricks, all of which involves manipulating members of the audience, inanimate objects, and his own body using only his mind. If you’re expecting innovative dramaturgy, this isn’t it. There are, however, a number of events that take place that make this show interesting to witness. I’ve seen a video of Balinese dancers in trance poke giant sticks through their cheeks and removing them without a trace on the skin, and knew a man from Mali whose father could walk from Providence, RI, to Boston, MA, faster than the time it took to take a train. This is just to inform the reader that I am not necessarily skeptical about the human mind and its possibilities.

So you should take that with a grain of salt when I say that what impressed me about Kasual_mente was Mr. Pardo’s ability to work that hard. The whole show was in many ways a simple repetition of the same idea: anyone can do this; everyone has mental capabilities that they don’t bother to use. But we of the western civilization persuasion don’t usually do much more with our minds than perhaps getting into medical school to impress mom and dad or cranking out that novel. I’m not saying that we are not a civilization of noble pursuits (not that the notion of “western civilization” as a cohesive unit exists anyway), but rather that we are trained to think on the straight and narrow, so to speak. We more often accept our limitations than test them, so I do find it interesting to witness people who attempt to step beyond that boundary. This show is not particularly impressive in any way except the abilities of its performer, and it knows that. The sound quality was poor, the light design unimaginative, the film footage grainy, and the spoken dialogue portions often repetitive and trite. But the point is somehow I managed to stay engaged and entranced the whole time anyway.

By Khilen Mehta

Although Kylie Minogue is a likeable personality, she has never been to everyone’s taste. Her career has often seemed a series of attempts to expand on this basic likeability. But in her two decade career, the tiny Aussie wonder has dominated the charts by providing non-stop fun in her performances.

Throughout her battle with breast cancer, everyone’s favourite pop princess was constantly thanking her followers for their loving support, and judging by the success of her most recent comeback performances, her fans couldn´t be more pleased in seeing her back on the stage. Her huge grin, her flamboyant costumes and the over-excited crowd are everything that makes a Kylie gig so memorable.

Throughout her career, Kylie has won countless awards, and had plenty of top tensingles. In the 2008 Brit Awards, she won Best International Female Artist and she also received the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2008, which is France’s highest cultural honour. With a tally of over thirty top ten singles, Kylie is the second most succesful woman in British chart history after Madonna. Kylie’s biggest single was “Can’t get you out of my head”, which reached number one in over twenty countries and sold more than four million copies worldwide.

It was reported that every ticket scheduled for her UK tour was snapped up in an unbelievable thirty minutes after going on sale. Tickets are likely to go fast for her performance in Madrid as well, so make sure you snap yours up nice and early!

Here is an example of what you could be missing out on…

Long live the Pop Princess!

By Khilen Mehta

The 67th edition of the Madrid international book fair will be inaugurated on the 30th May by King Juan Carlos in Retiro Park. The festival allows bookshops, publishers and distributors the chance to display their books to the public. Most of the books will be written in Spanish but Retiro will prove a spectacular setting for those interested to peruse over 350 stalls.

Distinguised authors such as Jorge Semprún and Martin Amis will be giving talks and describing what inspires their stories, and there will also be a special childrens section. If you do head over there, you are recommended to try a Horchata in one of the cafes in the park, a refreshing drink made from rice and almonds. Sumptious on a beautiful summers day!

This year’s edition of the Madrid Book Fair will focus on promoting the careers of young Latin American authors trying to emerge from under the shadow cast by the giants of the 20th century boom. Fair director Teodoro Sacristan said he was excited that the 67th edition of the event has made Latin America its focal point as he believes there are Latin American writers, such as Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose works remain in demand more than 40 years after the Latin American boom of the 1960s and 1970s began and it is time for a new generation to emerge.

So get yourself down to Retiro. Enjoy the park, and take a stroll through the stalls. The festival runs until June 15th, and the best bit, IT´S FREE!!

By Will Cade

On the bus ride out to the Ciudad de Rock, the other journalists and I were shown a video with a virtual tour of what the festival site for Rock in Rio Madrid should look like. As I saw an animated crowd rocking out in front of digital architecture, I thought I was watching a trailer for a new video game - some type of mix between The Sims and Guitar Hero. When we arrived and I saw the unfinished construction and patches of Spanish desert, I doubted this digital vision could be made into real life. But when the organizers began explaining what Rock in Rio will offer and how it will function, I began to change my mind.

First and foremost, it’s a music festival. The diverse line-up balances popular music with world famous DJs, upcoming talent, and veterans from the Woodstock era, even if it lacks proper rock groups. At 7:30 every night, the biggest names will start to play on the World Stage - a 100 m long and 28 m tall monument to modernist architecture. The artists will have 2,100 m2 at their disposal, and the audience will have 200 photovoltaic panels spread throughout the 2,500 m2 façade, creating a light extravaganza and intensifying the live performances during the last weekend in June and first in July.

June 27^th

The first night on the World Stage will be a relaxed but fulfilling start to the festival. With Neil Young headlining, you can expect to see lighters in the air and hear smooth, classic rock favorites like “Heart of Gold,” “Southern Man” and “Keep on Rocking in the Free World.” He may be more from our parents generation, but don’t forget that Pearl Jam and Nirvana labeled him as the godfather of grunge. Jack Johnson will also play beforehand, filling the air with head-nodding beach music just outside of landlocked Madrid.

June 28^th

The Madrid based El Canto del Loco will headline the second night. The group won best Spanish Artist in the 2005 MTV European Music Awards and will give a night of Spanish guitar infused alternative music. Tokio Hotel, the German youth sensation, will play beforehand. Their teenage appeal may have been their first claim to fame, but their melodic rock style is catchy, even if you don’t want to admit it in public.

July 4^th

Shakira will headline the third, dance-filled night. This will be the Queen of Latin Pop’s second time shaking across a Rock in Rio stage and her only concert in Spain during the summer. “Underneath Your Clothes,” will surely echo out into the crowd, with even guys shamefully getting into it. Jamiroquai will play beforehand, gracing our presence with his quirky hats and eclectic dance music. Before the dancing begins, Amy Winehouse will get us in the mood with her jazzy, soul-filled voice.

July 5^th

The fourth night will be perfect for eclectic music lovers. The Police will headline with their satisfying mix of punk and reggae, for sure blessing us with a rendition of “Every Breath you Take.” Alejandro Sanz will play beforehand and show us why his romantic voice woven between Cuban beats, hip-hop, and flamenco won him a Grammy for Best Latin Album in 1991. And for you die-hard flamencophiles, a once in a lifetime collaboration of the biggest names in flamenco called Flamenco All-Stars will hit the stage to start things off.

July 6^th

The fifth and final night will bring the perfect close to the World Stage. Bob Dylan will set the scene with his quintessential music festival aura, before Franz Ferdinand comes on and lets us jump around. Lenny Kravitz will then headline, with his smooth guitar riffs and melodic voice, but the true closer is DJ Tiesto, coming on at 2:00 a.m. The highlight of his career is when he mixed the opening ceremonies for the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece, so it is only fitting that he will begin the end of the World Stage.

If your tastes aren’t geared towards more established groups, the Hot Stage will give you a dose of experimental and upcoming artists. Starting every afternoon at 5:30 and playing until 7:50, groups from Spain and abroad will mount the 22m long and 14 m tall cubic stage. Three groups will play every night, with bands like Zucchero, Draco, The Right Ons, Mando Diao and Standard balancing out the festival with blues, latin rock, funk-soul rock, indie rock and electro rock, respectively.

If the other stages don’t do much for you, the Electronic area will get your heart pounding, even without the use of chemicals. The architecture alone could make it the 8^th Wonder of the Modern World. Based on Stonehenge, the design takes six massive gramophone speakers with projection screens and laser lights and arches them back in on the 900 m2 circular dance floor. The party starts every night at 3:00 a.m. and goes until sunrise, with world famous DJs like Carl Cox, Satoshi Tomiie, DJ Vibe and Cristian Varela brining us the best dance music from England, Japan, Portugal, and Spain, respectively. The line-up doesn’t actually have a set time for the DJs playing each night, so expect everyone to be mixing until the sun comes.

After staying the whole night, you will probably start to wonder how you’re going to get home. Alsa has arranged for a fleet of 340 buses to take ticket holders to and from the festival sight. The buses will depart every 15 minutes outside of the metro station Santiago Bernabeau, beginning at 3:30 p.m. and running until midnight. Buses returning from the festival will start at 7:00 p.m. and run every 15 minutes until 7:00 a.m.

Driving there yourself will be tricky, being that the festival site itself only has 6,000 parking spaces, which have to be purchased beforehand. Free parking is available near the Hospital del Sureste in the closest town of Arganda del Rey, but even then you would have to take a quick bus to the festival site. Especially if you’re up all night partying, your best bet will be to take the bus.

http://www.rockinriomadrid.terra.es

by Helen Macrae

Greetings penny-pinchers! Here are this week’s tips to keep you in the black…

Hunt down the wealthy

Perhaps for masochists only. When you’re broker than broke, what could be more fun than mingling with the rich and famous to remind yourself of all the money you don’t have and things you’ll never be able to afford. Take a stroll round the affluent barrios of Salamanca, Retiro and Opera and you can almost smell the money wafting off the residents. Get followed round the designer boutiques by suspicious shop assistants, laugh at all the pijos with their Lacoste shirts and slicked-back hair, and try not to trip over any small yappy rat-dogs kitted out in diamante-encrusted collars and fluffy coats.

Become a kept man/woman

Everyone knows that there’s nothing more fun than enjoying yourself when someone else is paying. Use your time in Salamanca productively by staking out the pijo hotspots and practising your Spanish chat-up lines and, sooner or later, a wealthy boy/girlfriend will be yours! Once you’ve bagged yourself a filthy rich other half then your work is done, so just sit back, relax and proceed to rinse them for every penny they’ve got. Happy hunting!

by Helen Macrae

As city, Madrid has got it all. With theatres and tapas, bars and bullfighting, shopping and sunshine, it’s cosmopolitan, frenetic, bold, brash and…smelly.

When I first touched down in Spain I was overwhelmed by the host of aromas to hit my nose (starting with that all-too familiar smell of smoke mere seconds after I had walked into arrivals), but after a while I became accustomed to it all as I busied myself with daily life, trotting around the city teaching executives useful words like chav, monkfish and Tesco clubcard. It took a visit from my parents and their non-initiated noses to remind me that Madrid has an amazing array of aromas, some of them nice and some of them nasty, but all combining to create that unique “Esencia de Madrid”.

My sensory journey begins each morning at Metro Sol, when I change from Line 3 to Line 1 and my nostrils are hit with the delicious smell of freshly-baked waffles coming from the cafe in the station. Luckily I’m always in too much of a rush to stop and buy any, otherwise I’d currently be the size of a small country. Unfortunately though, even this divine smell is sometimes not enough to mask the stink of drains which seems to permanently hang in the air round Sol. Other unpleasant odours I experience on the Metro to work are B.O., bad breath and, my personal favourite, the smell of someone sweating out alcohol they drank the night before. Yuk.

More agreeable aromas you might encounter as you journey round Madrid include cut grass when the gardeners have been out in force in one of the city’s numerous parks, along with the delightful scent of flowers as you walk by the Botanical Gardens next to the Retiro. The smell of cigarette smoke is pretty much unavoidable anywhere you go, as is that of frying food, both of which may or may not to be your taste. As you wander round Lavapies you’re hit with the pungent smell of curry, laced with a whiff of hash and perhaps a dash of urine. Walk round the more well-heeled barrios of the city such as Salamanca, Retiro and Opera, and you can smell money.

But my favourite smell in Madrid is one that it’s difficult to put my finger on, and which at times can be quite elusive. As my mate H puts it, it’s that smell you sometimes catch a waft of on a summer’s evening, just as dusk is drawing in, a smell full of promise and anticipation of the night’s adventures. The smell of fun!

Madrid Metro - Smells delightful?

By Will Cade

The start of Madrid’s Rock in Rio music festival is still over a month away, but I’m more excited about how it’s going to end. The festivities during the last weekend in June and first in July have an amazing line-up, with such big name artists as Franz Ferdinand, Tokio Hotel, and Bob Dylan, but the closing act can still top them all - and it’s only one man with two turntables.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to DJ Tiesto, the Dutch phenom voted best DJ on the planet. The number of people in the 200,000 cubic meter festival site just outside Madrid should be astronomical, but this won’t be the first time Tiesto has played for a grand audience. He mixed the Parade of Athletes at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens (the first ever DJ to do so) not to mention he was the first solo DJ to ever sell out a stadium of over 25,000.

In the electronic music world, Tiesto has remixed the rules. He started mixing in Holland during the mid-nineties, working his way up from club to club and harnessing his skills. When his popularity sky-rocked, he traveled the world over one party at a time and molded his music into a mix of trance, house, and techno. He even pulled off mixing classical in his “Adaggio for Strings,” one of his most famous tracks. This eclectic style has allowed him to move beyond the club and rave scene to compete with major acts on the big stage, a feat previously unheard of in the business.

Even with his irrefutable success, Tiesto is still staying true to what brought him here - a love for making music. Bathed in laser-lights, Tiesto takes his music to a new level during live performances, even mixing for up to 9 hours straight. He has spent the last few months mixing the night away in Thailand and working on his long anticipated live album, “In Search of Sunrise 7.”

You may not be able to pick up a copy of “In Search of Sunrise 7″ just yet, but you can see him live July 6^th right here in Madrid. Judging by his track record, you might even watch him finally find what he has been searching for, as the sun rises up over the crowd and signals the perfect end to both the festival and the night.

by Martin Brown

Tim Booth appeared on stage on crutches for this show. There was a muffled explanation in Spanish from one of his bandmates, but I didn’t catch it. So he sat for most of the show. This must have been very, very difficult for one normally so active! Known for his spasmodic whirling and spinning, he cut a different figure here. He has also shaved his head since I last saw him play.

I really like James, so this is not really a very objective review. I had not seen them play live for more than 10 years. Of course, they were inactive during most of that time, with all kinds of reported bust ups. Let’s just all be grateful that the issues have now been resolved. With a new album out last month, and based on the fanatical crowd at this show, the future looks good again!

I could feel Booth’s pain as he sang Born of Frustration, he wanted to be on his feet, not in a chair! The voice is the same, pure, unique sound as ever and the band seemed very happy to be there. Andy Diagram, resplendent in a spotted dress, blew his trumpet and compensated for Booth’s immobility by running all over the place throughout the show. There is not just one front man in this band, that’s for sure. Maybe that was the problem before?

Running through material from their 20+ year career, each song was greeted with screams for the 1500 or so people in attendance. It’s always amazing to me that, whilst most Spanish people seem reluctant to learn English, they are happy, and very able to sing the words to every song of their favorite performers!

Towards the end of the almost two hour set, Booth said, “We said we were not going to play this song for a year, but we are going to sing it for you tonight, because I am sitting down!” The crowd went nuts and sang along with the band.

The band looked genuinely surprised by the length and passion of the responses to the songs, especially after Sometimes, when the crowd continued, a capella, long after the band had stopped playing.
This was a lot of fun, for the crowd and the band, the perfect scenario for any concert.

By Will Cade

I never know if I should give money to panhandlers or not. Reading their signs about having children and no job, I do feel for these people, but I never know if my money is going towards a hot meal for the family or a fresh bottle for mom or dad.

Street performers, however, fit into a different category. They’re providing me with entertainment, which, if I like, I’ll gladly pay for. What they do with the money is their own business: they worked for it.

My favorite street performers in Madrid have to be in the Metro, because they give me a much needed break from a busy day running around the city. We have some talented metro musicians here - and some not so talented - but there’s nothing like hearing African bongo drums or an acoustic version of Ave Maria echoing through the underground.

Even with these daily pick me ups in Madrid, I have to be the most impressed with the metro performers in Berlin, although at first I didn’t realize they were performing. Out of the blue, a homeless or otherwise scrappy looking individual would step onto the metro. But before asking anyone for money, this person would proudly lift a newspaper - one specifically written for the homeless to sell - and commence to give a speech.

Now, I don’t know a lick of German (aside from a few curse words) but still these speeches were magnificent. Sometimes they sounded like the diatribe of a madman, but they were given with enough vigor to inspire me to do whatever it was I couldn’t understand them saying. And other times they were given with such a smooth delivery that I felt like I was sitting in the Globe Theatre listening to Shakespeare, or, in this case, Goethe.

Not until these performances were finished would anyone even start to rummage through their pockets, and sometimes not until after the applause erupted into the metro with more intensity than the speech just given. It’s times like this when I’m not only happy to emtpy out my pockets, but I would gladly sit with these people over a coffee and listen to their stories - even if I don’t understand German.

by Will Cade

One of the most difficult things about learning another language has to be knowing what to say in passing. I can sit with a Spaniard over a cup of coffee and make my way through a conversation no problem. But if I run into a Spaniard in the street and try to talk, it’s like I’m an 8 year old getting up in front of the class to give a speech. I’ll stumble over my words and maybe even stumble into traffic.

Knowing what to say and when to say it are equally important. When I first moved into my apartment in Murcia, I wanted to be as friendly a neighbor as Mr. Rodgers, so I made a point to say hello to the other residents. This would usually happen on the elevator, yet whenever I said “hola,” the Spaniards looked at me like I was crazy. Naturally, I stopped saying hello, expecting to ride the elevator in silence. The Spaniards would then get on, ride up in a comfortable looking silence, and say “hasta luego” before walking out. Hold on, saying hello to a stranger is despicable, but saying goodbye is expected? Finicky, just plain finicky.

When I moved into my apartment in Madrid, I expected more of the same. Once again, I would pass people in the elevator, yet, to my surprise and eventual amazement, they would tell me “buenos dias.” And when they even said “hasta luego” afterwards, I almost did a backflip. Finally, Spain felt like my home in Tennessee, where you have to avoid large crowds if you don’t want to say hello to strangers in the street for hours at a time. But this habit of mine might cause me some problems here in Madrid. Do I say “hola” or “buenos dias?” Oh my, what if I say both?