{"id":22944,"date":"2024-09-06T08:34:27","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T12:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/?p=22944"},"modified":"2024-09-06T08:22:09","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T12:22:09","slug":"desmontando-la-noche-melodrama-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/desmontando-la-noche-melodrama-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"Dismantling the Night: Melodrama Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

In November 2020 I heard of a bar in Obrapia where people were going to fight the pandemic scab. The place was talked about like a new piece of clothing. Almost on the upline, taking its cue from the extinct Capitol diamond, the night of the place was there all that time, so close to the night where I slept.<\/p>\n

I don't know why they have given it the name. I'm not interested in digging into the origin. But it has been proven: fandom can be very bombastic at the vintage peak of Melodrama.<\/p>\n

It was a friend's birthday in October 2021 when some restrictions were lifted in Cuba after the Chinese bat apocalypse. The group that survived the disease and apathy agreed to meet at 511 Orphan Street, between Bernaza and Villegas.<\/p>\n

A sunflower looks at the rest of the afternoon through the window grille. Almost attached to the back of the entrance gate, two or three armchairs with a table in the middle are in turn located under a staircase. The curtain opens from five o'clock in the afternoon until the early hours of the morning. The bar has two floors. On the first floor, a high table and two chairs next to the window, the armchairs, the bathroom, the kitchen and the bar. Upstairs, five different tables, two sofas, iron chairs and English-style upholstered chairs. By the light of a night lamp awaits the record player that no one dares to use and vinyl records leaning on a shelf. From the ceiling come light bulbs and chandeliers.<\/p>\n

On the walls, too much visual information competes with framing: A Cuban fight against demons<\/em>Bruce Lee shows his bare chest; Matilda has a gun; Omara's name is repeated four times; Yes Coca Cola; Lady Gaga's locks and burning lips. Two shifts alternate on alternate days serving the kitchen, the tables and the bar. Monica Ge Bravo, a treatise that the goddesses of aesthetics (because it is unfair to say here only beautiful woman), shares shift with a young man who in the following months changes face and name. From the bar, Jos\u00e9 Ernesto's patience and gentleness share turns with a girl I had previously seen in the work frequencies of La Casa de la Bombilla Verde.<\/p>\n

To Melodrama go red addicts, wedding survivors, hunters, lovers, snobs, derailed and pubescent. People who are everywhere and people you will never see again. Several musicians arrive to spend the money they made earlier that day at a bar closer to the creamy makeup of the Centro Historico. Others arrive to have at least one beer because they don't work with the goodness of tourist neatness. They enter or leave, with their instrument case strapped to their backs.<\/p>\n

The nights of the space work with interesting plots, but Thursdays with live music are peculiar among the late-night routes in Havana. Crowds accumulate. The playlist<\/em> of the bar has already been put on pause. At the back of the second station of the bar, where an almost orange light blurs the reddened intensity, the nine o'clock concert starts at half past ten.<\/p>\n

Roxy Moreno at the mike of my first Thursday. With her, also sound bass, piano and guitar. That night I invited a guy to try unknown drinks at the bar of Obrap\u00eda. The reggae rhythm takes over the room, repeated in the chorus of those present. Then came the boleros, improvisation and the illustrious practice of pleasing requests.<\/p>\n

All the misdeeds remain in the interior echo that does not go beyond the exit contours. The atmosphere of color is a perfect mask to disguise the alcoholic percentage. Marked his first time in a bar, I told my companion (a body of 18 years) that I wanted to be a prostitute. Even if smoking is allowed in either apartment, the sidewalk will always welcome the voices of smoke under the streetlight. We left before closing, or so he told me. I arrived dizzy at the house where he lived with the parents. And I threw up on his bed five different shots of Melodrama.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Illustration: Mayo Bous<\/p><\/div>\n

Thursday, again. Crowded on the same floor, the influx of that night was moving. A jam<\/em> of young musicians in the background. As soon as that was over I saw her slip away with the bass player: my friend left me alone in the Melodrama. There was not a soul left to congenially drink the last beer. I wandered around the armchairs, under the varnished staircase. Then I went upstairs. Upstairs, three couples were sharing the comfort of their murmurs at the giant sofa table. Epic fail<\/em>. I stumbled to the bathroom where I accidentally peed on the toilet lid.<\/p>\n

Of a Friday is the last memory I have. I went there to have a quick drink with a femme fatale<\/em> scorpio at the beginning of last November. I can't retain the total number of times I've gone nor the times that passed without returning to the reddish haze headquarters. This text was going to continue with the nostalgic-retrospective slime nuance, but Legal Mood announced its stay at the Melodrama. A return is guaranteed.<\/p>\n

June thirteenth. Thursday. Disregarded warning of showers. Bridge of 100-Parque de la Fraternidad. Streets of yellowish light in old Havana: You walk in a hurry to the cursive sign at the first curve of Obrap\u00eda. You enter. You feel the permanence of the incandescent enigma. Against the steam of the hot weather, fans spin in the direction of the tables, unlike the weather in January or December. It's still early. Remember, they never start at nine. In half an hour you drink two imported beers without looking at the cartridge paper on the menu.<\/p>\n

In the right corner, Joel del Rio is called the body with the bass, clenching a cigarette between his teeth. In the background, Carlos Martinez (the extraterrestrial chicken) blushes hugging the electric guitar. With beret and glasses, in front and to the left, Marcos Heredia in charge of the acoustic guitar. In the center, the caj\u00f3n holds the onslaught of the hands and in turn supports the weight of Isaiac Morales' vocal startle:<\/p>\n

\"It's been so long \/ since you've been gone \/ And more than one eagle has passed \/ under the blue of the sky \/ over the blue of the sea.\"<\/p>\n

Two hours go by. It is midnight. The rain throws its drumsticks against the plate of the alley. The strength of the forecast falls a little late. You ask for one more from the singing voice of the caj\u00f3n musician. The microphone is open when the twenty types of applause end.<\/p>\n

You count in order the details that you want to retain to dismantle the night. You notice the green rectangle that takes over the decoration and its yellow arabesques. Don't be fooled. You came to celebrate the visa of your friend, another danger of femme fatale<\/em> Scorpio. You brought the pen and planner for fun.<\/p>\n

As the last minutes tick by before twelve o'clock, the playlist<\/em> and lights. As a metaphorical illusion of ancient ambience, in the Melodrama they are cordially asking you to leave.<\/p>\n

Since you didn't set the prices on the menu, you pay half the bill for Transfermobile. One o'clock in the morning. It looks like a century of rain. Too late or too early to say young to the after-dinner conversation of those of us who continue. At that hour you reread with what's left of your social conscience the graffiti on the wall across the street. Ok, \"let's be realistic, let's ask for the impossible\", before leaving for the sunrise in an unforeseen height of the Cuban capital.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In November 2020 I heard of a bar in Obrapia where people were going to fight the pandemic scab. The place was talked about like a new piece of clothing. Almost on the upline, taking its cue from the extinct Capitol diamond, the night of the place was there all that time, so close to the night where I slept.
\nI don't know why they have given it the name. I'm not interested in digging into the origin. But it has been proven: fandom can be very bombastic at the vintage peak of Melodrama.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1458,"featured_media":22947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,8906],"tags":[8114,10063,11141],"coauthors":[6237],"class_list":["post-22944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-desmontando-la-noche","category-variaciones","tag-bar-melodrama","tag-desmontando-la-noche","tag-melodrama-bar"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/magazineampm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/melodramaZero.png?fit=1816%2C830&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22944"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22963,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22944\/revisions\/22963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22944"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}