Posted in honour of the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution which is currently being celebrated, most noticeably in Managua where free buses have been laid on for the thousands enjoying the party.
While the current Sandinista government may split locals and expats alike it's worth remembering that the revolution was, at the time, almost universally backed.
Whether you blame what went wrong on Daniel Ortega or Ronald Reagan is down to you.
By participating you will be assisting EI with accomplishing it's mission of
breaking the cycle of poverty before it is transferred to yet another
generation, by building more educated and productive communities
When: Saturday July 21st
Time: 6:30 PM
Where:Eurocafe
Cost: C$200
For the uninitiated that's Eurocafe, next to Hotel Colonial, in the Central Park area of Granada.
There's also Strummer's appearance in the Alex Cox film Walker filmed right here in beautiful Granada, Nicaragua.
Oh and his soundtrack to the very same film included tunes entitled Ometepe and Nica Libre.
I also found out this little snippet about his time living here:
"Strummer lived in Nicaragua for six
months while we shot and edited
'Walker'. He was the guy who
named his album "Sandinista", and
he was a happy man composing
music there.
"Richard Beggs recalled how, as he
mixed his effects and dialogue with
Joe's music, Strummer took up
residence in a cupboard in the
corridor outside the mixing room. It
was something to keep the vacuum
cleaner in, but Strummer made it his
office, inhabited it, and kept his
rolling papers, lighter, notebook,
guitar, and other essentials there.
It was the same in Nicaragua. No
matter where we were, or what
the difficulties, Strummer would
always establish a little niche
somewhere, in which to plot, and
smoke, and dream."
The same place also has the following line which tickle me mainly because it mentions both my home and my current home.
"Joe was prepared to fight for workers rights from Nicaragua to
Newcastle. It's a fitting tribute to him that one of his last UK shows
was a firefighters benefit that he financed out of his own pocket."
The absolute best part of travelling is having the time of your life in what might otherwise be described as hellish situations.
As an example, take a bus, fill it to overflowing with people, crank the music up so loud it's deafening, add in absolutely sweltering heat and what do you get?
For some reason, just sometimes, you get a mood of pure joy. I call it the "if they could see me now" moment.
Suddenly I want everyone, who has ever met me, to be able to see me in these bizarre circumstances. I want them to shake their heads and chuckle along with me.
I feel so out of place it's hilarious and I wonder just how did that bloke who wore a suit for his entire twenties get here? All those colleagues, mostly still in suits, if only they could see me now.
For the record I love Nica buses. Most of all I like their somewhat foreign urgency - they always seem to be pulling out of the bus station as I jump on with seconds to spare. The conductor, all the time, advertising his bus's destination with an urgent "GranadaGranadaGRANADA!" cry.
While it's fair to say that, less than an hour after the film was taken, I was bored, sweaty and my head was throbbing, in that particular moment I was very very happy.
For three years now I have been living in countries where I have access to a great deal of illegally copied, very cheap and up-to-date DVDs. Other forms of entertainment are limited.
