Three terms it took me in metalwork, pulverising a chunk of tin to turn it into a wobbly candle holder that even my Mum wouldn’t show off. So my admiration for La Orotava sculptor Julio Nieto is immense, I am totally in awe of his Piel De Metal (Skin Of Metal) exhibition in Santa Cruz. If turning heads is the aim of street art, then the seven pieces in Calle Valentin Sanz, are certainly proving a big success, locals and tourists alike were stopping, smiling, posing for photos and generally interrupting their daily bustle.
It took Julio seven years, crafting one piece a year, to complete the collection, not that it consumed all of his time, the talented artist has plenty of other works on the go and also makes distinctive and expressive metal furniture. I caught Julio checking up on La Llamada (The Calling) and he explained his creative process. “I like to bring out the resonance of the metal” he says pointing to the intricate straining sinews and muscles in the shining body that dwarfs us. Leaning in further he picks out more key points “I use industrial metal and solder the pieces together” the small connecting points work well adding to the boldness of the work.
Not all the pieces rely on sharpness and precision, Viajero (The Traveller) has a darker textured quality with a globe of the world for an eye. Marea looks at first glance like the fisher woman statues that pay homage around Tenerife, but closer inspection reveals that this lady is made up of fish, right up to her hair and stingray shaped basket on her head.
I was a bit peeved that the early sun had retreated behind clouds for a while but Julio was keen to point out that these are sculptures for all seasons. “They take on different qualities in differing light, the sun adds a new glint and at night the street lamps refract off in a myriad of ways.”
A cat stretches proudly looking down on Plaza del Principe, its title Y Alicia? refers to Lewis Carroll and his Wonderland. If puss has just jumped out of a children’s book, further along a wild flailing human figure leaps out of the world of legends. Icaro Salvado shows Icarus with his feather and candle wax wings in tatters after flying too close to the heat of the sun. If some of the imagery is lost on the passers by, they all seem to appreciate the style and adventure of the works, just a few weeks after a wild Carnaval it takes a lot to wow the people of Santa Cruz but Julio Nieto’s metal creations have rattled more than a few cages.
FACT FILE
Piel de Metal is on permanent display until 18 March, just up from Plaza de España, take a right turn off Calle Castillo.
Imagine Easter without eggs, Christmas without turkey and bank holidays without transport strikes, it’s just not right. Arona council has done worse than that, this years Los Cristianos Carnaval will be without a sardine funeral. The council have shot themselves in the fin by refusing permission for the traditional riotous end of Carnaval, due, they say, to the financial crisis.
Vecinos de los Cristianos, the neighbourhood association are furious. Tourism times are hard and the mock funeral parade to the beach, complete with cross dressing wailing widows, comedy clergymen and the huge papier mache sardine, is one of the biggest crowd pullers of the year.
The bad news almost went unnoticed, the official Carnaval programme and posters only hit the streets a few days ago and bear the dates 5 March to 14 March. Many publicity outlets assumed that Monday 15 March had just been missed off, after all the funeral follows the Sunday Coso parade like night follows day and always has done.
The sardine funeral is often referred to as a burial but ends with the sardine being cremated on the beach amid a cascade of fireworks. The whole thing started as a rebellious two fingers to the Catholic church following Lent. During the Lent period meat eating was always banned by the church, but they turned a blind eye to their wealthy friends and benefactors indulgencies, leaving the poor people to forage for sardines.
In the back waters of Los Cristianos feverish plans are being made. I have an inside source, for the purposes of secrecy and outrageous mystique lets call him John West, he insists that a rebel sardine will appear on Monday night. That might cause quite a stink, police co-operation would normally be needed to close roads and clear parked cars on the route from the cultural centre to the beach. All this is against a backdrop of proposed industrial action by the Arona Policia Local, which has twice been headed off at the last minute in recent weeks.
It would be shocking if this slice of history was sunk without a trace, Tenerife Magazine will be throwing fishnets over the Los Cristianos area on Monday night, ready for a big fish or a tin of tuna. One thing is for sure, this year fins ain’t what they used to be.
Title: Barricada – Concert Location: Parque Maritimo, Santa Cruz Description: My head banging friends assure me that these Spanish rockers compare favourably with AC/DC. The Parque car park near the Auditorium should be rocking well. Show starts at 10pm, tickets 20 euros from www.generaltickets.com/cajacanarias Date: 2010-04-24
A swagger of Rolls Royces, a clutch of Kawasakis, and a fanfare of Fords, Jeremy Clarkson would be drooling all over the Recinto Ferial in Santa Cruz if he could see the motors on show at Autoepoca. With the Spanish RAC celebrating it’s hundredth birthday, classic and antique collectors’ clubs have loaned their pride and joy to this four day event in the heart of the Tenerife capital.
Blimey, someone’s been busy with the polish, that was my first thought as I entered the motor pool clutching my newly acquired three euro ticket. Spread out before me was a dazzling array of 200 cars and 50 motorbikes each with a story to tell of a bygone age of happy motoring. Not being an expert by any means, and with few of the exhibits identified by name or history, feel free to check the accuracy of my research as I introduce you to a few famous names.
Let’s start with something smooth and stylish, the Packard Eight 443 Sedan ((top pic), made in America in 1928, I felt guilty for just breathing by it. The eight cylinders purr under that creamy veneer, a real style icon but one of the most expensive of it’s day at 4,250 dollars. I promised you bikes, and what a cool sturdy number the Ducati 200 Elite (just above) is. Built in 1962, the 204 cc steel framed steed is surprisingly unthirsty at 70 miles to the gallon.
The motors on display also give an insight into their heydays. Take the Willys Overland Whippet Six (yes I know it sounds like a soul group). It was built in Toledo, Ohio in 1927 and its low price made it popular with students, hence the often used name, Collegiate Roadster (top pic above) . The car soon found keen owners abroad, this Model 93 A was originally owned by Fyffe’s LTD, the family that introduced bananas to the Canary Islands. Some cars were just beyond me, this burgundy beauty is a Brevette (just above), I may have failed to unlock its history but I was still very taken by its sheer neatness of design.
Time to wave the flag for old blighty, the 1928 Willys Overland Manchester (just below) came from the same U.S kennel as the Whippet but was shipped in kit form to Heaton Chapel, where it was assembled and took the local city name. Or how about the great Austin Healey 3000 Mark 3 (bottom below) a real bit of British team work. The 1963 bodywork was made by Jenson Motors in West Bromwich and later assembled at BMC in Abingdon, better known as the home of the MG.
That just gives you a taste of the treats on offer at Autoepoca, hurry though, you only have a few days. The show continues to Sunday 7 March, from 11am to 9pm daily, and all for a measly three euros entry. There’s plenty of parking, it’s easy to find on the coast road (Avenida de la Constitucion) into Santa Cruz, and they even have a café and bar.
When the happy hours are not enough to dispel the misery of living, and the drug induced highs are eclipsed by incredible lows, the party has to stop. For many young people chasing a better life in Tenerife, the dream turns into a frightening reality. That’s when The Living Room in the nightlife heartland of Playa de Las Americas can offer a safety net.
Perched on top of a fast food joint and a pole dancing bar, The Living Room has been a beacon of hope for seven years. Aimed at the 18 to 30 crowd, it stretches out a hand to those that have succumbed to the excesses of drink and drugs. Toni came from a rough area in Birmingham, having dabbled in the rave scene and its related drugs. “I came to Tenerife for a holiday and found bar work, I hadn’t really drunk much before but I was soon binge drinking. Most mornings I didn’t know how I had got home, it was cheap nights out as most bars knew me and I got offered free shots and drinks.”
It took the death of a friend to shock her into seeking help. “A friend of mine was barred from the bar I worked in and a few hours later he overdosed on drugs and died. I was in a mess and started praying in desperation, and then I was put in touch with Lee who runs The Living Room. He helped with funeral arrangements and through him and the Breakfree Ministries I found God and feel happy with myself at last. I have been clean for over two years and I’m training to help other addicts.”
Lee Mountford helped to set up The Living Room; from an idea in 2000, through desperate fund raising and hard work, to converting the former bar and grill into the drop-in centre it is now. The sign above the building clearly identifies it as a Christian centre but Lee stresses that although they live by Christian values, it’s not a message that is rammed home by the seven full and part time staff. “We try to offer respect, love, help and not judge people. I came over here to work as a PR (enticing customers into bars) but lost the plot; the church saved me and now I try to do the same for others.”
The Living Room only opens from 4pm to 7pm Tuesday to Friday but they also go out into the local night time community. “Three of us volunteer to mingle with people in Veronicas, Starco and The Patch three nights a week from 11pm to 4am, we get to know people and hopefully they learn to trust us and can come to us with their problems. We can put people in touch with other helpful groups such as the Amigo de Lourdes drug rehab centre in Abades.”
Steve, a former heroin addict, is now able to draw on his horrific experiences to guide others in a new direction. “ I left Bolton and travelled a lot before settling in Tenerife. I used cheap alcohol to replace the heroin rush and after working here in timeshare, I lost my job and apartment and ended up sleeping in boarded up shops in Puerto Colon.”
Luckily for Steve, Toni came across him and got him into the Abades centre and then involved with The Living Room. “ It’s crazy; at the height of my problems I was paying money I didn’t have to try to feel as content as I am now. But I couldn’t see any hope at the time.”
The recession and crash in tourist visitors has seen an increase in homelessness but Steve can offer some temporary hope. “There is the Alberg hostel in Taco, Santa Cruz that will take people in.” Lee knows how easy it is to get to that level. “Some people come to Tenerife to escape problems they already have, and others fall for a combination of drink, drugs, sex, lack of decent food, working strange hours and no family to support them.” The Living Room doesn’t have all the answers, but their staff have experienced the problems, and can at least point people in the right direction.
Ask anyone to name three blockbuster movies filmed on Tenerife and the chances are that they’ll reel off Star Wars, Planet of the Apes and Clash of the Titans.
It’s a pretty impressive pedigree apart from one little fact…only one of them was actually filmed on Tenerife.
Who knows which creative tour guide started the story about Star Wars and Planet of the Apes? Clearly it was Tenerife’s equivalent of Slumdog Millionaire’s Jamal showing tourists around the Taj Mahal.
No doubt he, or she, also told visitors that Las Américas was named after Richard Burton and Liz Taylor and that the first astronauts to stand on the moon trained on Mount Teide – other popular Tenerife myths.
The fact that Star Wars and Planet of the Apes weren’t filmed on Tenerife might come as a bit of a surprise, but what’s a bigger shock is that no major mainstream movies have been filmed on Tenerife since Raquel Welch slipped into a goatskin bikini (a nice authentic Guanche touch) and strutted her stuff in front of some decidedly rubbery looking dinosaurs in One Million Years B.C. (maybe that should now be B.C.G.I.) back in 1967.
Since then there have been other movies filmed here that most of us of a certain age will have heard of, such as The Land That Time Forgot and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (the 1976 Doug McClure version, not the Brendan Fraser 3D version from a couple of years ago), but there’s been nothing to set the box office alight.
Parts of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy were filmed on Tenerife in 2005 at Loro Parque, but despite that film being an adaptation of the cult novel which, when I was a teen, every geek at school could quote to death, it still wasn’t in the same league as Star Wars.
European filmmakers have long since cottoned on to the wonderful cinematic qualities of Tenerife’s epic landscape ever since the silent movie El Caíd was shot here in 1926. ‘C’ list actors such as The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’s Lee Van Cleef and Reservoir Dogs‘ sadistic Mr Blonde, Michael Madsen have starred in instantly forgettable Euro-Anglo productions shot on Tenerife. But the Hollywood big boys pretty much shunned this filmmakers’ paradise until a local boy, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (director of 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later) made a truly original movie which made them sit up and take notice of Tenerife. Intacto earned rave critical worldwide acclaim when it was released in 2003. Its tale of four people who can absorb the good luck of those around them, taking part in a life or death competition to discover who’s the luckiest of them used Tenerife’s gorgeous scenery to stunning effect. One classic scene involved blindfolded competitors running helter skelter through the pine forests. With scenes also shot at Taganana, Masca and Las Cañadas del Teide, filmmakers were exposed to a Tenerife many didn’t know existed.
And now, thanks to Intacto’s impact, we have a true Hollywood blockbuster about to launch Tenerife onto a more mainstream world stage on Friday 2nd April when Clash of the Titans in 3D is released in the UK and USA.
We don’t know yet whether the mythological tale of men clashing swords with gods and monsters will actually be any good, but with Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and rising star Sam Worthington as hero Perseus, it’s got a quality cast; the latest trailer is pretty damn exciting and last, but not least it’s got a secret weapon that most other movies don’t have…Tenerife’s unique scenery.
Get ready people, it’s almost time for the titans to clash.
Title: Autoepoca – Classic Car Fair Location: Recinto Ferial, Santa Cruz Description: Some of the best antique and classic cars drawn together under one roof. From 11am to 9pm daily, entry 3 euros. Start Date: 2010-03-04 End Date: 2010-03-07
Golf Del Sur and Buenavista golf courses are holding seven sponsored golf days specifically for lady golfers throughout the golfing season.
The second of these was held on Saturday 13th February 2010 on Golf del Sur’s emerald greens. To fit in with the madness taking place in other parts of the island at this time of year, there was a special theme for the day – carnival.
With prizes being awarded to competitors who turned up in the most eye-catching fancy dress costumes, some golfers went out of their way to win. As a result there were some fabulous costumes on show which added a lot of fun to the ladies’ golf day.
Overall, around 60 competitors enjoyed 18 holes of stableford golf with a special green fee rate for the day. The competition was followed by a delicious dinner and a prize-giving ceremony which included a sponsored raffle with some fabulous prizes which meant most competitors didn’t go home empty handed.
For anyone interested in joining in the fun, the next golf day in the series will be held on March 13th at Golf Del Sur when all lady golfers are welcome .
Contact Golf Del Sur reception on 0034 922 738170 for more details and to register.
The sign said Gents, but my eyes were confused. Half time at the Heliodoro and with CD Tenerife 1-0 up against Mallorca, the little boy’s room was full of large men dressed in a full range of dresses, uniforms and even kilts. The Carnaval game is always special, but forced into a Monday night kick off by greedy television executives, the Tenerife fans were determined to make it go with a swing.
Arriving at our usual pre-match watering hole, just down from the stadium, the Armada Sur were stocking up on the singing juice as chaps wobbled by on high heels. A group of home made dolphins basked near the road side and our own Batman and Snow White’s evil Queen mingled with some Mallorca fans. The stadium security looked bemused as we filed into the ground. How do you frisk outrageous Vikings, drag queens and fairies? Once inside I was stopped by some delightful lady cops and volunteered to help them fully with their enquiries.
CD Tenerife hadn’t won for eight games and were stuck in the La Liga relegation zone and storms had been swirling around Santa Cruz for days, hardly ideal preparation for a party but those small matters were put on hold. Kick off was greeted with a wall of sound from the 18.000 crowd, I was wedged between the ample bosoms of a swaying local lad but still managed to raise my hands to join in the songs and chants.
There is a very special bond between the fans and players of CD Tenerife, home form is key to survival, the players could sense this was a make or break game and showed little respect for Mallorca’s fourth place in the table. After 14 minutes last season’s deadly combination found their form, Alfaro laid on a perfect pass through to Nino who slipped the ball into the net from the edge of the goal area. The place erupted, I was engulfed by a selection of Braveheart warriors and buxom wenches as the Carnaval anthem Chicharrero de Corazon rang out loud and proud with lung bursting gusto.
The party was in overdrive and the stadium was rocking, even our normally shaky defence was standing firm as half time approached. At the whistle we spilled up onto the communal area behind the seating for group hugging and a chance for stockings and underwear to be adjusted. Down below in Santa Cruz the music was wafting over from the street parties, a big gulp of air and optimism and we were back on the terracing in full voice.
Mallorca had their moments, Sergio Aragonoses was immense as ever in the home goal and Omar and Nino went close to increasing the lead. As the clock ticked down there were anxious moments, Popeye prayed, superheroes willed the team on and make up ran with emotion. Somehow the referee found five minutes of injury time to prolong our suffering, finally the whistle went and the fat ladies and other assorted characters were free to sing. Once more Chicharrero was belted out as the players returned the crowds applause. Streaming down to the bar Carmen Mirandas wedged their phones between their fruit to spread the good news and Santa Cruz braced itself for a wave of party animals to dance the night away.
“One Santa Cruz, there’s only one Santa Cruz…” Well Hispanic countries have quite a lot of them, but I was unaware there was one in California, and even more surprised to find that the Tenerife capital has been twinned with it since 1974. Shelby Graham (left), Director and Curator of the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, University of California, is doing her best to strengthen those Atlantic links. Our coffee cups collided on my way to the Cielo/Sky Part Two exhibition at the Parque Garcia Sanabria.
As luck would have it, Shelby was joined by Miriam Durango (right), Curator of Circulo Bellas Artes in Calle Castillo, who helped set up part one of the exhibition in California last November. She proved to be an instrumental contact for Shelby: “I used the internet to research art and digital media in Tenerife and found Miriam. That led to 13 Canarian artists displaying their work with us, and now we are here with the work of 12 Californian artists, which runs until 11 March”.
So why is sky the theme? “It’s the whole vast concept and looking at it from different perspectives” explained Shelby. “Andrea Borsuk sees it from a feminist view, women bearing the weight of the sky; Jim Denevan makes giant patterns on sand by using a truck and they have to be viewed from high above”.
Entering the exhibition hall inside the park, the first work to strike me was Victoria May’s suspended local volcanic rocks. Shelby was quick to point out that they are of course only on loan. In the background a wall of small digital photos from Isabelle Jenniches had another link to Tenerife. “ These are of Japanese volcanoes and taken from internet webcams to give a compound view from high altitude”.
Some of the art is very cutting edge, I met Jennifer Parker and Barney Haynes and Barney explained their Sonic Sense project. “We are exploring solar winds and showing them in visual graphs on screen and using open source software to produce sound variations from gentle breezes”. Two large strips of suspended foil added a visual centre point for the exhibit. “When we saw this large glass sided room with the trees and plants outside we thought the Mylar, a foil developed for the space programme, would produce the ripples and distortions of star and sun tones”. I walked the channel between the foil and the collision and refraction of light was particularly eerie.
Back in the park Shelby told me a little more about the twinning link. “Santa Cruz California (above) is a university city close to San Francisco. We have great beaches and it’s popular with tourists and surfers, so you can see the similarities. I went to the opening parade of the Carnaval here last night, that was amazing and reminded me of a cross between our Halloween and Gay Pride celebrations. I think the twinning got overlooked for many years but hopefully this art project will lead to more exchanges between our cities”.
Cielo/Sky Part Two is on at Parque Garcia Sanabria until 14 March, 11am to 1pm and 6pm to 9pm Monday to Saturday, 10am to 3pm Sunday, entry FREE.
Starring : Anthony Hopkins, Benicio del Toro, Hugo Weaving
Lawrence Talbot returns to his family estate following the death of his brother to find that things are about to get a bit hairy, especially around the time of the full moon.
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