Wheelz Studio and Dreamonoid’s HiFi hosted Guadalupe Pop Shop to celebrate the opening of Wheelz Studio, a barber shop located in co-owner of Dreamonoid’s Christian Rios’ 1711 Guadalupe building in San Antonio, TX.
Background
Over the last year at Dreamonoid’s HiFi, I (joey) have transitioned to running a Dreamonoid’s in Bryan, TX and Christian Rios has been running the shop in San Antonio. After a couple months, Christian found his groove of how he wanted the space in Dreamonoid’s SA to function and reached out to his barber Wheelz, who is a long time friend of his and offered him half the space to setup his own studio. The results have been amazing.
Wheelz, aka Andrew Gonzales, has been a barber for decades and is a polymath who is also interested in audio, photography, video and much more. The barber shop reflects this with an amazing aesthetic offering a cozy feel with a lounge area and video game consoles. With four chairs and multiple barbers ready to give cuts, their clientele has been growing smoothly.
Guadalupe Pop Shop
Wheelz and Christian did a great shop curating the event adding string lights outside, having a good mix of venders, offering drinks (provided by Wheelz Studio) and live music. Here is a highlight of just a few of the many awesome venders (go to the gallery at the end of the article to see all the venders).
Emmanuel Valtierra had his art on display and it was amazing to see all the decks he has been creating along with his prints. He also spoke about his latest venture of working with DC comics on visuals for an upcoming movie.
La Calavera Garbancera restaurant located next to Dreamonoid’s was one of the food venders and provided patrons with some good eats and when they didn’t have it right there, they would direct them to the restaurant. Performer Zayno Rayne was one of those patrons who went over to the resturant and got some Barria tacos and loved them so much, he told us he went back there the next day for lunch before heading back to College Station, TX.
Danielsan & Zayno Rayne
Danielsan & Zayno and company delivered a great show. Dizzy an audio engineer based out of College Station set them up. They opened with DJ MOTTA who played a two hour set and then Zayno opened and Danielsan headlined. The performed Duo’s at the end. Rooted out of the Bryan, College Station, TX area, it was great having them perform at the Guadalupe Pop Shop event, the crowd and the venders were all vibing and they definitely provided some great energy.
Summary
Overall it was just crazy for me, joey, to experience the Guadalupe Pop Shop as it was a mix of so many different generations of students I have taught and am teaching, friends, family, hifi customers and community members. It was a trip to get to show Zayno and the performers the space (see video below) as I have always talked about it, but it’s another thing for them to get to see and experience it.
While I finished the event exhausted, with a subwoofer blown, PA cords doused in drinks, I finished the weekend cleaning it all up and reflecting on the unique temporary autonomous zone (TAZ) created by this event where cultures collided in a harmonious way.
Photo Gallery
