I hate hippies. Sorry, i’m going to be specific. I specifically hate Spanish left wing hippies. I specifically hate them for a very specific reason – they make terrible art.
There’s this great loophole in Spanish law which allows you to set up a live music venue, and serve beer as late as you want to, without a license, as long as you register it as a social center. Woo! But apart from the obvious, i actually think these spaces are good for cities: Good music , art, and culture, tends to come from autonomous spaces. Theres something about the comunity effort required in maintaining a space free of branding and whatnot, that makes people DO stuff. Look at LA’s The Smell if you want an example that’s not from the 60′s.
But in my experience, the specific Spanish hippies that always tend to open these spaces, specifically fuck them up with their ‘political art’, and belief that ‘everything’s valid’.
Motel opened about a month ago. I went to a happening there a couple of weeks ago and i loved it. Both of the bands playing were pretty interesting. The art work on the walls was a notch above the usual shit you’d find in a trendy bar (where no-one pays attention to it anyway). The people were friendly (especially by catalan hipster standards), and they were giving out free popcorn. And not a dog on a rope, or Monodread in sight. More please!
