tiuwiti's blog: "History of Nirvana Rock-Cafe"

Nirvana Underground. Located inside the newly rented house. The bar was located as I said downstairs and the V.I.P. upstairs. The original bar of Nirvana Rock-Café which had been sitting in the outside for almost six months didn’t fit in the livingroom of the house, so a part of it was cut to make it fit. It came back to life in Nirvana Underground, hosting many parties. The computer monitor, keyboard and mouse was placed on top of it for the first time, since that in Nirvana Rock-Café it had been below the bar. This change brought about more people browsing through the mp3 collection and requesting songs. For those who had not been customers of the previous two Nirvanas, it seemed odd to walk into a house and as one entered finding a “bar” instead of a livingroom. Since Nirvana Underground was not centered as a business, nothing was sold in it. The bar became the centerpiece of entertainment luring all kinds of people looking for a nice place to listen to music, drink, smoke, meet friends and even watch the soccer games Guatemala was playing in its struggle to get to the world cup. Friends and friends of friends showed up with bottles of rum, scotch, vodka, tequila, liters of beer , and as mixers there was coca cola double liters for Cuba-Libres, orange juice for Vodka and rum screwdrivers, v8 tomato juice for bloody marys and michelada beer, lime, black pepper, salt, Tabasco sauce and many other ingredients for cocktails. Groups of friends showed up and shared their drinks with everyone and almost everyone pitched in to buy even more to keep the parties going. The fridge in the kitchen stored the ice and everyone helped themselves with ice, glasses and even plates for munchies. Famous drinks were Tequila Sunrise and Bloody Mary. Commonplace drinks were beer or Cuba libre. Chess was sometimes played at the bar, as well as “lie dice” (“Dudo” in Spanish.) When there were soccer games, a flat screen t.v. was hooked up and placed on top of a tower of empty cases of beer to give it some hight and people even reserved their stools at the bar in advance to get a better view of the games. When a soccer match was won by Guatemala, the crowd went in euphoria, fire crackers were set off and music cranked up; The garage doors were left wide-open and the whole block could sense the party going on at Tops’ house “Nirvana Underground”. A soccer game entangled preparations beforehand in which cases of beer were bought, sings and flags were hung and even the balcony upstairs got crowded of people. Just as Nirvana Rock-Café, many more songs and videos were added to the mp3 collection. New musical additions included music which was not precisely the Rock, Classic Rock, Punk, Guatemalan or Spanish rock, Heavy Metal, Trash and Grunge which the previous Nirvanas had played. The new genres included: Joaquin Sabina, Manu Chao, Trance, Rave, Psycho, Salsa, Rancheras (on occasions), Trova, Fusion, acid jazz, and the beginning of Trip Hop (for the V.I.P.) being Massive Attack, Bjork, Portishead, Cibo Matto among the new sounds which Nirvana Underground brought. The main impression in the neighborhood was that the house was a party house where people gathered to drink and party. Parties which lasted till daybreak were common, some lasted three days non-stop, but usually parties began at 6:00 in the afternoon and began to die out at around 11:00 on weekdays and 2:00 a.m. on weekends.

ganja

I worked as a teacher every morning, at 1:00 I got home from work and as I arrived home there were already many friends waiting for me to arrive, to turn on the music, to lite the candles and to open THE VIP. Parties were everyday, every night for those who attended they were some of the best times in their lives. ps. more pics will be posted in the future. under the blog History of Nirvana Rock-Cafe

great things were written there. around the room a painting of Lake Atitlan's, San Pedro La Laguna was handpainted. incense burned, candles lit and a much more hippie atmosphere developed. The computer was downstairs at the bar and the V.I.P. had surround speakers upstairs. The doors, Zeppelin, Massive Attack, Tool, Joaquin Sabina, Erick clapton's Cocaine, Hendrix and 250,000 other mp3 songs played for the bar downstairs and the V.i.P. UPSTAIRS! Check out the re-eyes. LOL

The house which was meant to be a house became an underground place to go. a large mp3 collection was at all times available at the downstairs bar. Parties were wild sometimes, especially on holidays or especial occassions. April was the start with Tops' birthday party and more like these followed. Chino's party (the guy who donated the paint to paint the 99.99 store) came next; Since he had his own guest list, new people showed up. The funny thing about this particular party was the fact that the birthday boy didn't show up until almost the end of the party, leaving most of his crowd unattended. The reason for this no show was because his girlfriend had been jealous and had not allowed him to go. There was so much beer and rum that there were many carried out of the house. (PIC playing chess at the bar, candles on the stairway in the background) Since some people were not as close friends a place within the house was needed to get together for more private gatherings, so the darl room with a bathroom upstairs became a V.I.P. and candles were always lit both on the bar and on each other step of the stairway going to the second floor.

Nirvana Underground picture of Moi and Tops at the first V.I.P. parties (upstairs) History: (an underground re-opening.) The bar closed to the public in october 2004; The actual bar furniture was moved to a small house in sector 4. the bar remained in the outside next to the house since it didn't even fit inside the house. The months of november and december 2004 were kind of quiet at times. Nirvana's regular customers showed up at the house since there was no more bar to go to. in december 2004 some parties were held at the house especially for christmas and new year. January and february were times of casual parties and some sentiment of nostalgia which made us re-activate the freezers from the bar which were kept in the small kitchen of the house. these freezers were sometimes filled with beer and cases of beer were bought directly from the truck to hold parties. some other parties had rum or scotch whisky. In april a big house was spotted on the block where the small house was, this was sector 4 and some customers and friends lived on that block so the two story house was rented. The new location had a garage for 2 cars a living room a visitor's bathroom, a kitchen and two rooms in the first floor. The second floor had a room with a balcony which was well lit and a middle room with a bathroom which seemed dark because it had no windows. this room also had a bathroom. As we moved into the new location the livinroom seemed like a perfect place for that bar which had been sitting in the outside for 6 months already. (the bar had been built by rock fans for the first concerts at Nirvana Rock.Cafe). So the livingroom which was the first room to enter as you pass the garage became a bar. its stools and computer with mp3s were quickly put there and the bar became operational. Since it was a quiet neigborhood it was never intended to be a business as the previous Nirvana Rock-Cafe was. The bar was there to receive all those visitors to our house who were our friends and who missed Nirvana Rock-Cafe since there was nowhere to go in the area anymore except again the errie looking cantinas. Our friends and friends of our friends showed up in larger numbers and more frequent visits, usually dragged in by the constant parties held there. The first party was Tops' birthday party april 13th, which dragged a lot of people in, who brought everything needed such as beer, rum, whisky, tequila, ice, appetizers, cds of music, friends and fun not to mentioned many drunk ones at the end. Nex history blog.......The V.I.P. the bar in the livingroom (downstairs)

History August september and october 2003 Nirvana Rock-Cafe had a series of concerts which were very successful. Those who could not afford to go in enjoyed the concert sitting on the sidewalk outside. There wer groups smoking joints, others just got themselves bottles of liquor, mostly rum, and shared with their friends. That early Nirvana had many "visits" from the police trying to find an excuse to close it. One particular day some kids were not id properly and when the police showed up, threaten not only to close it but also cuffed one of the owners who was later released as a warning sign. The repressive police also did take some kids to the station whom they found marijuana on them. They were also released later on a small fine and a large bribe. Nirvana Rock-Cafe (2) closed its doors oficially at the end of october 2003

The bar was finally built and people began to feel it was HOME since they had pitched in to make it happen with anything they could contribute with. The place was painted black on tyhe outside and the nirvana sign was neatly painted on the wall. the place was an instant sucess. We started collecting our own signatures from all customers who visited us, to counter act the signatures collected by the born-again "christian findamentalists" Police showed up again and we had all the permits, as a matter of fact we had more permits than any other businesses in the area. They questioned us: Why do you have candles? Why do your customers wear black clothes? Why is the place painted black? we gave smart answers to all of the above and they left but we all knew where it was all coming from. Intolerance and lies spread by "Christian Fundamentalists" who cannot stand to have anyone different from them. the battle began.

Everybody showed up on monday afternoon and began to make a bar for the place. some sowed up with saws to make the bar with the wood donated. there was no carpenter around so everyone improvised. the bar was rough and we painted it black since it was the only paint we had. We loved it. The bar was just being assembled and most woodboard had not been nailed yet, when an police truck arrived with at least 25 policemen and police women. they stormed in, since the door was open and asked us to see our licences and permits. we laughed since the place had not oficially opened and we were still building. they said they had gotten calls that satanic kids were in the place and looked for drugs which they didn't find. one policeman began to check under the bar with a flashlight and we warned him that the bar was not stable and that it would fall on his head if moved since it hadn't been nailed in yet. pic of part of the bar. we all laughed and they just threaten us that if they didn't see the permit they would close the place down. WE laughed again and said "Can't you see we are not even open yet? we are building! we don't need a permit for this. Once we innagurate you'll see all permits on the wall. They finally left but not without threats and pushing people around showing their guns and handcuffs. this was Our first of many threats from policemen called by th liars from the fundamentalist churches which were in permanent session. close up pic of the 9.99 store (second nirvana)