🎹 The Tapa Weekend: April 21
Piano days, book nights and cringe-inducing political ads.
By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | April 21, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #4
🎉 Welcome to a new issue of The Tapa: Weekend Edition! An English-language newsletter about what to do this weekend in Spain (plus memes because why the hell not).
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🌸 5 Things to Do in Spain This Weekend
It looks like spring has finally sprung! And while we’re still going through that “Should I bring my sweater just in case?” period, there’s no denying that the warm, sunny days are here to make us feel all fuzzy inside. When the tourists start wearing the tank tops around Malasaña even though it’s only 15ºC, that’s when you know the cold days are officially leaving us. They are our very own Punxsutawney Phil, only slightly more inebriated.
Here are some options for the weekend. You’re welcome.
1. Piano City Madrid 2023
Exciting news for music lovers who are tired of the four-four kick drum rhythm that is the reggaeton beat! The second edition of Piano City Madrid is here and we couldn’t be more delighted. Featuring over 50 pianos strategically located around town, this city-wide event offers free live concerts for anyone into EDM, jazz, classical or house music. The pianos are mostly located around central Madrid (Cuesta de Moyano, Condeduque Cultural Center, etc) and there is a total of 55 concerts scheduled. Since it’s likely that lots of people will be interested in attending (it’s free, remember?), we recommend you head over to the Piano City Madrid website, download the program, pick a concert and get your tickets now. PS: The big finale will take place on Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Ateneo de Madrid, with a live show featuring award-winning Spanish pianist Rosa Torres-Pardo.
Piano City Madrid. Multiple locations. April 21-22-23. Free.
2. La Noche de los Libros
Books. The ancient enemies of Kindles and social media. Sure, books are super passé because no one reads anymore. But at least here in Madrid, for a single night each year, we pay homage to the long lost art of reading stuff.
For one night only (tonight), La Noche de los Libros celebrates literature all around Madrid, with over 130 libraries, 100 book stores and cultural centers organizing free activities that include debates, conferences, round tables and literary/musical workshops. Many of them involve listening live to literary geniuses such as Rosa Montero, Emmanuel Carrère or Elia Barceló. You can download a PDF with the whole program here in an inconvenient horizontal format. Check it all out, it’s worth it. Because as Cervantes said in his classic epic novel Don Quixote (a book you probably never read but looks good on your shelf): “There is no book so bad...that it does not have something good in it.”
La Noche de los Libros. April 21. Multiple locations. Free.
3. Fúria: An Artistic Depiction of Life in Rio’s Favelas
Brazilian choreographer Lia Rodrigues has created a piece of contemporary dance that symbolically recreates what it’s like to live in the Rio de Janeiro’s Maré, Brazil's largest agglomeration of favelas with an estimated population of 140,000. Along with students of her Maré dance school (half of them living in the favelas themselves), Rodrigues has created a series of choreographies that represent “the beauty, the survival and emergency” that comes with living in one of the Rio’s most complex and dangerous areas. The show includes references to power dynamics, oppressed communities and carnival. Warning: the play features full frontal nudity so it may not be for everyone.
Lia Rodrigues’ Furia. Centro Cultural Condeduque. Calle del Conde Duque 11, Madrid. April 22, 8 p.m. April 23, 7 p.m. €22.
4. Ruta de la Tapa in Ciudad Lineal ‘23
We know that anything beyond the M-30 highway is outside of your comfort zone but maybe it’s time to try something new. And what better motivation than yet another ruta de la tapa, where you can get great tapas and drinks for a ridiculously low price? Starting this weekend with the Ventas and Pueblo Nuevo areas, in the Madrid neighborhood of Ciudad Lineal, 27 restaurants and bars will offer a deal that will keep you salivating: a tapa and a drink (a caña, a glass of wine or soda) for €3,50. You can download the program on PDF format here. It includes all of the participating venues, their addresses, opening hours and even a nice little map for those of you who see anything beyond the Plaza de Toros and think, “Here be dragons”.
Ruta de la Tapa de Ciudad Lineal, Ciudad Lineal, Madrid. Multiple Locations. Free. (Well, actually €3,50 but you know what we mean).
5. Get Folksy with Ziggy Alberts
Australian folk singer-songwriter Ziggy Alberts arrives in Madrid this weekend for one night of feel-good melodies as part of hist European REWIND tour. His surfing vibes-infused music sounds like the soundtrack to a chill Saturday morning, with deeply personal lyrics to boot. Alberts is promoting his fifth and latest album, Dancing in the Dark (see video above). So if you’re looking to spend a chill Saturday evening with friends or your significant other, don’t miss this one. Even if you’re a first time listener, you’ll be leaving the venue humming his music and feeling content.
Ziggy Alberts, REWIND Tour. Sala Paqui. Calle de Barceló, 11. Madrid. April 21, 9 p.m. Tickets from €24,50.
👨🏻💻 Headlines of the week
These are some of the most ridiculous or viral stories in Spain this week that didn’t make our Thursday edition but we felt deserved a (dis)honorable mention today.
💀 Someone probably lost their job over this PP ad
We’re little over a month away from the municipal and regional elections and political parties are already out there doing anything they can to get attention from voters.
And while we’re used to seeing some pretty bad ads during election season, the center-right PP captured everyone’s attention (in the wrong way) a few days ago after releasing a new ad that includes the 178 candidates that are running in the community of Madrid (including President of the Madrid region Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida).
Enjoy.
OK. There’s a lot to unpack here. And before you ask, no. It has not been edited for comedic effect.
First, snapping your fingers has not been cool since the 1966 series finale of The Addams Family (and no, Thanos doesn’t count). Also, if you’re going to ask candidates to snap their fingers for the camera, at least make sure you add a snapping sound in post-production, for Christ’s sake.
Then there’s the awkward clapping, the cringe-inducing voices singing “ganas”, the out-of-sync editing and the zooming camera angles. And in the middle of all of this, there’s Díaz Ayuso, who looks like she suspects this ad wasn’t the best idea.
Please let it end.
👩🍳 How (not) to cook Spanish food, Episode 47,563
The sins committed against Spanish cuisine and the violent reactions from Spaniards to them is a longstanding staple that existed long before Jamie Oliver’s addition of chorizo to paella united all of España in anger. And so, in honor of Friend-of-Tapa Simon Hunter’s April Fool’s day joke tortilla (we’ll allow you to delve into the Twitter wormhole of shock at his added ingredients here), we present you with How Not to Cook Cocido Madrileño (yes, we get that there’s a little irony in this one, too).
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We’ll be back next week with more.