The anarchist festival. The CeNTenario put on by the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (C.N.T.), a still very active anarchist syndicate in Spain, was surprisingly well-organized. The beers were 9 euro which is una plena violación even in Europe. The upside was that I quickly learned the Spanish word for flask--petaca. The most powerful music was the cante jondo/flamenco singer José Domínguez Muñoz, also known as el cabrero because when he is not selling out shows in Tokyo, etc. he is tending to his goats. He played for this show apparently because he belongs to the anarchist organization. The next band I did not care for. The following group, Canteca de Macao, mixes ska, reggae and rumba rhythms with a kind of international gutter punk style (here termed perroflauta--check out the Frikipedia definition for more info on what that means). The final band was Siniestro Total which is an important band from the Movida Madrileña days. They played some anthemic songs that everyone sang along to. I felt like I was watching the Spanish version of R.E.M. Underground music that everyone knows the words to but even the jocks get embarrassed when one of their frat bros plays it at a party. But then again this was an anarchist festival.
As has been the custom at every outing so far, we all put in money towards what is called a "bote" which is used to purchase the drinks for the rest of the night. It basically seems to be a socialist social mechanism along the lines of from him who earns the most to him that drinks the most. I like this system.
I went to the festival with Edu, Molly, and Edu´s friends and Edu´s friends´ friends. The two I remember best were Benito and Angel. Benito actively participates in CNT activities to undermine corporate authority by, for instance, dumping manure in the middle of a supermarket, clogging department store pipes by pouring cement in the toilets and urinals, etc. He also likes to pull out his penis in public, or so I´m told. I guess I missed him doing it on the metro. The other guy was Benito´s friend Angel who, oddly enough, is a cop. Anyway, since the beer was astronomically priced we used the bote to split several rounds of Katxis which are massive beers.
When the show ended Benito and Angel got into a scuffle in front of a Burger King over whether or not we should all eat there. We did. Apparently authority and democracy still rules in Spain. I got a cheesy whopper, which is seriously the best invention in BK´s history--a whopper with a hockey puck-size of fried goat cheese on top of the meat.
So I guess between a burger monarchy and complete anarchy, I would choose the former, mainly because I find a cheesy whopper, fries, and a beer far more preferable to supermarket cow-shit and subway cocks.
