¡Tenga Cuidado, Los Madrileños! Venimos...

Over the past few years, Catherine and I have been talking about the idea of spending some time abroad. We still love New York, but we have several friends who've begun performing in Europe and they're very enthusiastic about the response to their work there. A lot of them have been working in Germany because Berlin is still in an economic transitional period, apparently, so apartments and potential gallery/performance spaces are relatively inexpensive. Because we'd both already studied a little Spanish a little in high school/college, Catherine and I decided that would give us a head start in teaching these old dogs a new language. So we've been taking classes in Cooper Union's continuing ed program off and on for the past 3 years (we're off now because our schedule is just to busy this spring). 

Recently, Catherine found some dirt cheap tickets on continental.com to Madrid. We've been trying to arrange a trip to Spain for a couple of years now, but have kept needing to postpone it for a variety of reasons. Now we're finally going this Thursday. It's a whirlwind visit—we arrive Friday morning and return Monday morning—but we're going to cram as much into our three days as we possibly can. I'm taking the computer and will be providing you with reports and photos while we're there.

Because we're both theater/performing artists, we're particularly interested in any alternative/experimental performance groups or venues that we can visit over the weekend. I'm researching groups online, of course, but a personal recommendation is always preferable to a stab in the dark. So if anyone has friends or friends of friends in Madrid in the performance world—we're interested in dance and music, as well theater—e-mail me the info. Because our Spanish is still pretty weak, we're especially interested in English-language performance, but we're not opposed to seeing something in Spanish. And, of course, we hope we'll be able to meet the artists and start a dialogue for possible collaborations down the road.

(Title translation: Look Out, Madrileños! We're coming...)