Category Archives: Uncategorized

Greetings from Patagonia!

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We arrived in Bariloche today, a 20-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to the mountains that seem to be on top of the world… the southern world, that is!  Home of the majestic condor.

getting on board in Buenos Aires

We traveled for hours and hours through the Pampas…. flat, fertile, green prairies as far as the eye can see… full of farmland, cattle and horses.  No hills at all.  The last few hours we began to go slowly but steadily uphill, and it was looking kinda like California Valley, low dry hills covered with scrub and sagebrush. Finally, in the last hour, we emerged into a gorgeous scenery of lakes and rivers.

We picked up a rental car, checked into our cabin, and made a run into town for food and other essentials. Our cabin is perched on a hillside overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi, (pronounced na-well wápee) with a breathtaking view. Tomorrow we will do an easy hike and feel out the glitches in our bodies and equipment. I have a brand new, very small backpack ready to be broken in. It holds the equivalent of about a gallon of milk… my goal was to avoid having to carry anything more than a small water bottle, sandwich, camera & rain jacket. If I need more than that, I’ll only go if I can ride a horse! Here’s the view from our cabin:

Lake Nahuel Huapi

Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore!  I mean Buenos Aires! Stay tuned for more about our summer getaway!  Will they find a milonga in the midst of paradise?

Ciao from Llao Llao!

A Girl’s Guide to Tango Etiquette

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TANGUERA RULES of ETIQUETTE

popularly known as:

A Girl’s Guide to Tango Etiquette:

by that infamous Tango Tramp

Roxy Montana!

1) A man wearing a cell phone on his waist or hip pocket in a milonga is either a taxi-dancer or a taxi-driver, or both!

2) It is rude to excuse or leave a partner before the end of the tanda. Unless there are tears running down both party’s cheeks, each must endure the suffering of their choice in partnering. That’s what ya get when you accepted their offer to dance just ‘cause they were cute — and you didn’t observe their dancing before the proposal.

3) One should NEVER offer or accept dance “advice” at a milonga. It’s OK at a practica. There is a distinct difference between the two events. Don’t say “thank you,” express your feelings, or accept another dance. Just put on your best poker face and move on. A real Tanguera will just stare and throw daggers with her eyes and motionless brow.

4) BE in the HERE and NOW while dancing.  Focus on the moment, the music, the connection: the essence of Tango. Chit-chat conversations are verboten! Save it for the cortina. If easy conversation isn’t your forte, impress me with your knowledge of the orchestra, the singer, the musicality, or the era.

5) A gentleman always carries a cotton handkerchief to remove persperation on his brow — developed, of course, during his dances with moi.

6) Walking a lady back to her seat, or wherever you found her, is a courtesy, and also to remind you of where to look for her again.

7) Floorcraft is an art — it requires practicing patience and stationary movements in a tight frame, without passing the rest of the dancers on the floor. Leaders who continually bump into others are extremely rude to say the least!

8)  A “gentleman” is not born — it is the way he presents himself.

9)  Cabaceo is not just a word — it is a tradition that acknowledges a willingness to accept a certain partner or saves face for a refusal – and both responses are just between two people. A lady waits seated until the gentleman comes to her and stands directly in front of her, offering his hand. An exception is possible when the path is extremely crowded, but you do risk mistaking a cabaceo intended for another – it happens all the time!

10) There is a difference between not returning the cabaceo and avoiding it: People do not always want to dance one tanda after another — it ain’t an aerobics contest — and they might look at you but do not nod acceptance. Try later? Perhaps. Once.

11)  Sometimes, dancers have their milonga partners, waltz partners, specific orchestra partners, etc. and they are looking for that person’s cabaceo. You don’t have to take it personally! However, if they do not look at you, and they turn away from you no matter how you attempt to reposition yourself in front of them … take a hint!

12)  If a woman is sitting with a man at the same table, ALWAYS acknowledge the man first before reaching for her hand, after she’s accepted your cabaceo, regardless of whether or not they are a “couple”….  This is a respectful gesture, even if you know they dance with other people. Seriously, this is a Latino macho thing and can otherwise be the cause of grief!

13)  Americans shake hands. Argentines kiss acquaintances on one cheek, close friends and family twice. French kiss twice (northerners) or four times(southerners).  Italians and politicians are always kissing!

14)  A gentleman wears a jacket.  He may take it off for a milonga, but always has it on for a vals. If you are a chronic perspirer, for Pete’s sake, bring an extra shirt!

15)  Greeting and thanking the milonga organizer and DJ is an appreciated courtesy.

16)  If you are a gentleman and realize that two men are before the woman at the same time and she takes your hand, a courteous response to the other man is “Forgive me.”

17)  Catching the eye of a potential partner is acceptable, but exchanging words while dancing is not polite.  Focus on your partner and the dance.

18)  Tipping the lounge attendant is good luck.

19)  If you make a misstep, it is up to the leader to adjust, so just wait for a moment for them to pause and start again.

20)  No need to make excuses for yourself during the dance. Even the slightest word can be distracting; it doesn’t matter whose fault it is and your partner has already moved onto the next sequence. At the end of the dance, you can smile and say, “Perfect.”

21)  “Thank you” is curt and may imply that you do not care to dance again, especially before the tanda is over!!! Instead, “I liked that”, or “I appreciate your lead” or “You really dance well” are very nice things to say.  “Your instructor taught you well,” or “I just had the best tanda of the evening” are nice alternative responses which imply you might look their way again sometime.

22)  “Would you like to go out for coffee?” does not mean Starbucks!!! (Drink up and brush your teeth before the milonga!) Remember that dancing more than two separate tandas with the same partner is a pretty strong indication that an invitation for coffee is brewing.

23)  If you inadvertently bump another couple, it is gracious to look their way briefly if it was more than just a tap. It is also appropriate for either the leader or the follower to reach behind or around their partner to protect them if you see another couple way too close for comfort. However it should not be such a strong defense that it becomes an offense!

typical crowded floor at La Viruta

24)  It is much appreciated when partners move quickly back to their “posts” in order to cabaceo for the next tanda. It is rude to dawdle on the floor. The 30-second rule applies between songs.

25)  Respect the tradition of the cabaceo! It is an Argentine tradition and should be upheld every bit as much as the tanda. If a man blatantly asks, “wanna dance?” smile and ask them if that is their “best cabaceo?” You might add a wink if you would like to accept, as a reminder to them that you respect the cabaceo. A real Tanguera will either look right through you or give a pickle-faced frown if she does not want to dance without the cabaceo … don’t bother the queen of the floor again!!!

26)  If your leader is placing you in an uncomfortable position, the follower has the right to reposition their embrace, hand level, or point of discomfort. If a follower is feeling rushed, she can move her left hand up to create space between them, and apply pressure to slow him down.

27)  Not all dancers are created equal … some have back or shoulder issues or other limitations. Perhaps their styling is completely different than yours, or they are at a different skill level.

28)  “No cabaceo” does not mean that a person does not like you. It is also okay to socialize during the tanda, but do not limit your friend’s ability to catch a cabaceo. Tangueras will sit next to each other and have a conversation while continuing to look around the room.

29)  At a milonga, it is a party: dress your best and enjoy. Casual clothing – especially jeans for a woman: may mean that you are just there for the exercise.  [however, the editor of this blog emphatically recommends: Never tell a woman what to wear!]

how to choose?

30)  You don’t have to dance every tanda – it is not a popularity contest. Save your energy – dance to the music that moves you the most, with partners that appreciate you.

31)  A milonga is the best opportunity for men to be gentlemen and women to be gracious … even if you are not a great dancer, they will remember you as “pleasant.”

Tete & Silvia

32)  Ladies – be mindful of your decorations: big bobbly beads dangling on your bosom are not inviting, and flowers in your hair might scare off those with sensitive smell or ticklish. Perfumes and colognes should be barely noticeable. Tucking a clove of garlic into your bra has been known to ward off the devil and/or vampires – jajaja, just kidding! A little black dress is always correct tango attire.

33)  If seated at a table, a fan, a glass of water, and a tin of breath-mints mark your territory as a serious Tanguera.

34)  In BsAs, if a gentleman escorts a lady outside, it is courteous to hail a cab for the lady and give the directions to the driver. The locals know the best routes to the next milonga or destination area.  No need to ask her exact address: she can give the exact number to the driver en route.

35)  If you come as a mixed group and your party is seated together, a gentleman still always acknowledges the gentleman seated close to the lady, even if they are not a “couple.”

36)  Attitude is everything!!!

THE GOLDEN RULE: If you are manifesting ANY symptoms of illness, regardless of whether or not you are contagious – STAY HOME!!! You don’t want to limit anyone’s Tango time, yours included, and you will be blamed if any partners come down with your condition!

copyright 2012 Roxy Montana

We can’t get enough of that Tango Attitude!!

Ciao from Buenos Aires!

Homesick but not Blue

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Yes, we have noticed some yearning, longing, homesick kinda feelings creeping into our psyches lately.  Like there’s some kind of homing device built into our operating systems, some kind of self-regulating timer: ET phone home?  Is it built into our molecules?  Like the way fish automatically navigate upstream?  Is there a home port encoded in some part of our brains, perhaps the primal, repitilian brain?  Well, whatever it is, we’ve been feelin’ it.  Some mornings I just want to pull on boots and jeans and saddle up for a ride.  And we sure miss our kids, grandkids, friends, and families!  Not that we’re going to go rush out and jump on a plane home…  no way!  We LOVE Buenos Aires!!  But in a few months, when our endless summer finally turns to fall, it’ll be time to head back to the states.

I really miss the Salinas River: out my back door, over the hill, down the trail thru the canyon.  A 20 minute hike and you’re in paradise!

Salinas River not far from its headwaters

Ben says he misses Yosemite in winter:

view from Glacier Point

Half Dome

 doesn’t get any prettier than this!

Yosemite valley winter morning

A couple of winters ago we stayed overnight at the Ahwahnee. Tromping around in the snow on that still cold morning was absolutely awesome.  Not to mention the delight of a cozy indoor lounge where one can kick back, read the paper and drink coffee in the midst of unforgettable scenery.  And be grateful that there’s no fast food joint in the valley… yet.  Or is there?

Yep, the guy misses Big Macs.  Not that there’s none to be had in Buenos Aires.  But I won’t go there unless I’m famished and even then only if there’s nothing else to eat for 20 miles in any direction.  So we actually haven’t tried the Big Macs here… not yet!

What else do I miss?  Well, buckle up, because my list is a lot longer than Ben’s.  Is that ’cause I’m a woman, or ’cause I’m spoiled (yes, please!) or what?  First of all I miss my two amazing kids and my family and Ben’s family and all my super wonderful friends back home.  I MISS YOU ALL!!!  Big hugs!!!

Here’s the rest of my list:

my apricot tree on the ranch

Last year’s apricots were a bumper crop!  Here’s the back of my old ranch house, facing the hills. The apricot tree is just to the right, near the barn, out of sight of the camera.

I love cactus and agaves

The organ pipe cactus flowers only once or twice a year, always in the hottest weather, and only at night.  They are amazingly beautiful:

la flor del nopal

A few summers ago we had a midsummer milonga at the ranch and the flowers bloomed that evening!  That was a magical full moon night!

Here’s the back yard in spring:

you'd be homesick too!

The firepit is on the left behind the plum tree, and the apricot tree to the right is just beginning to flower.  Those are oak trees on the hill.  In the front of the house, big shade trees surround the lawn. Look for their reflections in the windows:

We redid the front porch a few years back.  I used to take friends with kids to the river for play days.  Just the other side of the hill behind the ranch:

kids having fun at the swimming hole

pretty granite outcroppings along the Salinas river

And of course the ranch wouldn’t be a ranch if it weren’t for all the pretty horses:

Stormy kinda scruffy in her winter coat

Here she is with a friend, showing off her summer color, dulce de leche:

Stormy and Batman like visitors

We like visitors too…  when we’re not somewhere in a distant hemisphere!

Today we got up at noon, after a great evening spent dancing at La Nacional.  We went for a walk in the park.  We like the Andalusian patio near the Rosedal, a gift from the city of Sevilla to Buenos Aires:

it's summer here in the southern hemisphere!

Ben’s wondering why there’s no water in the fountain in the middle of summer.  Who’s robbin’ this train, anyhow?

He likes café dobles on ice

There’s a couple more things I miss.  Almost at the top of my list is Mission San Miguel.  Built in 1797, our local mission is an irreplaceable, beautiful and spiritual anchor for north county.  The mission is still in use as a parish church.  After being closed to the public for six years after the San Simeon quake of 2003, the church re-opened on September 29, 2009. The original murals inside the church, painted by Salinian Indians, are still intact, although extensive restoration had to be done after the quake. And the colorful history of San Miguel Mission is proof that truth is stranger than fiction! (Mark Twain)

Mission San Miguel

the courtyard

the fountain

Last but not least, check out my totally wabi-sabi pump house on the ranch:  is this a Western classic or what?  (Careful!  black widows inside)  I sure miss the sweet water it pumps up to the house.

is this not the humblest of structures?

I guess there’s just no place like home.

Next blog up:  some great live music and Tango hints and secrets.

hmmm.... where in the world are they?

Ciao from Buenos Aires!

¡Felices Fiestas!

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The famous Teatro Colón in early December: not a holiday decoration in sight!  Likewise all over town, a few Xmas decorations in shop windows, but not much…  here it is just a few days to Christmas and Santa and his merry Elves are still lying low.  Apparently Argentina hasn’t yet caught on to creating a mass marketing spectacle of their holidays. Let’s hope they keep it that way.

Teatro Colón

On my birthday Ben took me to the opera!  We saw La Viuda Alegre, a light, romantic operetta by Hungarian Franz Lehár (1870 – 1948).  A fine production, a full house…beautiful costumes, live orchestra, superb singers… thanks, baby!  I’ve always loved opera, and to see one in an exquisite, historic and richly decorated opera house… (where Maria Callas performed!) well, it just doesn’t get any better!  Considered one of the top five opera houses in the world for its phenomenal acoustics, the Teatro Colón’s latest restoration and technological modernisation began in 2006, and it reopened on May 24, 2010 — the Argentine bicentennial. However, the sidewalk facing Avenida 9 de Julio is still all dug up, looks like a lot of pipes are being replaced.  So many illustrious composers have directed the productions of their own works in the Teatro Colón:  Camille Saint-Saens, Igor Stravinsky, Manuel de Falla, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, to name just a fraction…  And the singers: Caruso, Callas, Joan Sutherland, Leontyne Price, Plácido Domingo, Renato Scotto, Beverly Sills, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, José Van Dam, Renée Fleming… the few names I’m familiar with, amongst a host of others.  Not to mention the dancers who’ve performed there, the operas and concerts…. WOW!!  I’m a lucky girl.

6 levels of balconies

the gorgeous stage

During the two intermissions we wandered about, found a little upstairs café, and enjoyed people watching.  Spying on our own kind, you know, look at what she’s wearing!  (I wore green) and peeking into the back of opera boxes.

After the opera we wandered over to Sin Rumbo and danced till 3.  We sat next to a couple we always seem to sit next to, and I hate to admit I don’t know their names, and haven’t taken their picture, but they are a couple who has been dancing tango together for 60 years (when they met and married!) and they live right around the corner!  They look so good dancing together, they move really nicely around the dance floor. True Love Tango style.  Does it qualify as an Addiction?  

Last blog I promised a photo of the other cátedral…. not Sin Rumbo, la Cátedral de Tango, out in Villa Urquiza, no.   I mean the OTHER Cátedral that I wrote about in my last blog; the young, eclectic, wabi-sabi hip hothouse of nuevo:

La Cátedral en el barrio de Almagro

I think a lot of you Central Coasters recognize this tanguera: our good friend Arlene from Santa Barbara!  She’s a lifelong dancer and dance teacher, and has been coming to Buenos Aires for many years.  Her daughter and family are my neighbors in Santa Margarita.

Arlene

Arlene flew in for 5 days and nights of tango!  Here we are enjoying the Japanese Gardens:

a beautiful day at el Jardín Japonés

We milonga’d with Arlene five nights in a row and then she had to fly back.  Those darn tickets you get for your miles, you can never get the flights you want!  Here she is with one of her dance partners, Adrian.

the AA Club: members only

A couple of days before Arlene arrived we took the ferry ride to Colonia. A sweet one-night getaway!  The weather was gorgeous, in the eighties, calm waters and blue skies.

A

the pool is on the lower terrace to left

You know, renew the visas again, the expat shuffle.  Our B&B, Posada San Antonio, was really nice and there’s a pool too, over by those umbrellas.  You can see the river Plate in the background.  El Río de la Plata.  Go look at a map!

Viva Uruguay!

I’m decked out in seashells to honor Neptune and his platoons of sirenitas (mermaids).

our B&B in the evening

We took the ferry ride home the next day, relaxed and feeling like kids.

Back at Niño Bien!

Speaking of kids, this cute mini belongs to a kid on our block.

You can't go wrong with basic black and white.

Yeah, I photo-shopped these pix.  The light was so bright!

love the grille

And since it’s almost Christmas, please please everybody remember your families and loved ones, appreciate them, be thankful for them. Yesterday I was reading the paper and saw these pictures, one of a 30 year old woman, an attorney, who disappeared; the other of a young man in his twenties, also disappeared.

In Argentina back in the 1970s under an oppressive military government, tens of thousands of children and young people were “disappeared.”  Most of them were murdered, some of the littlest ones were handed off to other families and they were raised without knowing about their real families.  You’ve probably heard of Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, the mothers, sisters, wives, grandmothers of the disappeared.  They have never quit protesting ever since those times, demanding the return of their loved ones, banging on their pots and pans throughout the city, demanding information, demanding justicia!  A couple of blocks from us is an old house that’s been turned into a school of the arts, and kids are out there from time to time painting the wall.  They’ve turned it into a beautiful and touching collective space for remembering their loved ones:

hijos perdidos 1- lost children collective

lost children 2

lost children 3

lost children 4

Let us not forget.

* * * * * * *

Food for thought:  is Tango the dance or the music?

Listen up, Readers!  For New Year’s I’m going to publish the Tango Addicts Anonymous Post.

I’ve received some great stories, but I NEED MORE!!!  I guess some people just can’t get anything done WITHOUT A DEADLINE! (myself included).  SO, write up your stories, make it 30 words or less if you’re a minimalist, but just GET IT DONE and SEND IT IN!  ANONYMITY GUARANTEED!  I PROMISE!

Send it to <runninghawk.willow@gmail.com>.  Thanks a bunch!  Ü

Merry Christmas from Buenos Aires!

Death by wabi-sabi?

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The first days of spring are as fickle as a woman who refuses to dance with one guy and then says “yes” to the next guy who asks.  Yesterday it was in the 70s and absolutely gorgeous, today it’s windy and chilly. But I can’t complain because we’ve seen some really great live tango orquestas in the last couple of weeks.

Orquesta Típica el Afronte

Orquesta Típica el Afronte plays regularly at one of our favorite milongas, La Maldita Milonga.  You could say they’re the house band. Located in San Telmo, on Perú 571, we call this location the “movie set milonga,” cause of its gritty, funky, wabi-sabi atmosphere.  The dance floor is really old, which means it’s not perfectly flat.  In a few places you feel like you’re dancing down a little slope and then back up again, kind of like being in a boat that dips with every swell. But the vibe is so splendid, the concentrated essence of a dance floor well danced for years and years…. you just can’t buy that and have it installed.  This is the real thing!

Orquesta Típica el Afronte

Maldita is not a really nice word, but not especially bad … “damm milonga!” would be my translation.  El Afronte translates as “confrontation.”  Their music is a blend of old and new, traditional tango with jazzy nuevo flavor, executed with skill and spirit.  Perhaps their name reflects the confrontation between classical Tango and the revolutionary new sound that Astor Piazzolla created, a new genre of Tango, born and bred in the post-WWII 20th century.

Another night we made a quick taxi trip over to the Armenian Hall in Palermo Soho.  Only about 12 blocks from our apartment.  This milonga is called La Viruta, which is a Porteño term meaning dance floor.  All you milongueros know that a particular location, a dance hall or club, may have different names on different nights.  For example, the famous milonga Niño Bien, on Humberto 1°, is called Rouge on a different night. The name of the milonga belongs, basically, to the person or persons who organize it. Just like our friend Norm Tiber organizes La Milonga Dorada in different locations in the San Luis Obispo area.  The organizers may DJ the music, or they may have an invited DJ.

Los Reyes del Tango

Los Reyes del Tango (Tango Kings)  didn’t start playing till 2:30 am.  We came in just after midnight and managed to snag one of the last tables. The densely-packed crowd of 500-600 kids (Ben’s professional estimate) danced to a Latin blend for about an hour till the tango kicked in around 1 am… (it goes to 5!  We stayed till 4.)

Los Reyes del Tango

You gotta love these guys!  I think they qualify for some kind of wabi-sabi award (are we sick of wabi-sabi yet?): an amazing juxtaposition of musicians in their sixties and seventies playing to a packed Tango club full of 20 and 30 year olds!  The wise and beautifully aged, like a good bottle of vino tinto, bubbling over with music that is ageless  —  as fresh and young as ever!

bandoneones blazing

In this foto you see two of the three bandeonistas gettin’ down! Stepping back from my enthusiasm for a moment, Los Reyes’ sound was not as light, tight and bright as ever.  I found myself wondering if these guys, when they get together to rehearse, just end up drinking and lying to each other about their glory days.  Or, even scarier thought, maybe they don’t bother to rehearse?  At any rate, they were much applauded and enjoyed.

Last night we ventured out to a brand new Palermo Soho milonga at Café Vinilo, a hip urban café, a bit too edgy to be chic.  I mean, a dead tree in the atrium hung with dry, brown leaves isn’t my idea of upbeat chic.  But, hey, there’s a 50s-era sideboard stereo with turntable, and speakers on each side built into the cabinet.  Did your folks have one like that?  Mine did. They were playing Ella Fitzgerald. Made us feel quite at home.  La Milonga del Bonzo has live music every monday, starting with a tango class at 8, milonga from 10-12, then the flavor of the week, i.e., singer, guitarist, poetry, etc. from midnight to ??  A community space for upcoming new artists. We like it!

I was reading in the September El Tanguata that a concert at the Tango World Finals, the Horacio Salgán Orchestra, (we didn’t go)  was an extraordinary, historic event because two pianists, Andrés Linetzky and Nicolás Guerschberg, working from original 78 rpm recordings of Sebastián Piana, Eduardo Rovira, Francisco Canaro, Astor Piazzolla and Aníbal Troilo, recovered and transcribed, at times measure by measure, the original partituras of some early treasures from those orchestras’ repertoires.  Their concert was an invitation to close your eyes and be transported into another era.

While this may be too much information for the armchair reader, I think you Tango dancers know what I’m talking about.  It seems particularly noteworthy in light of all the different genres of tango that are out there these days.  Buenos Aires breathes deeply the essence of the classics but also drinks assiduously from new sounds being brewed as we speak.  Some of the newer stuff, like electronic tango,  is despised by many, but the portrayal of urban dissonance like traffic noises, sirens, etc. is an element that Piazzolla incorporated into his music in a way that worked, and was groundbreaking in his time.  (Leonard Bernstein also comes to mind.)  Some of the new tango orchestras are in the midst of similar transformations, bringing new sounds into the light, and it’s absolutely marvelous to be able to observe, from the fringes, the contemporary music scene in Buenos Aires.

Pablo Agri Cuarteto

Violinist Pablo Agri brings a beautiful harmonic balance to his blend of the old with the new.  The classical training, the technical superiority of every member of his quartet, is obvious, but there’s also a relaxed lightness, an unpretentiousness in their sound.

Pablo Agri, violín

el contrabajista

The bandoneonista looked to be the youngest recruit of the quartet. Maybe a younger brother?

el bandoneonista

Emiliano Grecco, piano player, is only 21 and has already made a name for himself in the underground music scene.  Not only is he an amazing pianist, he is also a composer.  The quartet played a couple of his compositions and I can tell you they were extraordinary.  Next time we see him play, I will corner him and find out more about him… all I really know for sure is that he is the spitting image of my son Ode!  Am I right?

el pianista Emiliano Grecco

After the show it was only midnight so we went dancing.  Talk about culture shock!  We stepped into another world when we walked into the milonga Viejo Correo.

Viejo Correo: the old Post Office milonga

I felt like I’d been transported back to the 50s in a steel-mill town, somewhere out in the middle of nowheresville.  The clothing was 70s-ish but definitely not Summer of Love.  I saw more guys wearing fake rugs than in a Vegas casino.  Trailer Trash meets Juan Travolta.  And the gals….  well, beehives are still in vogue somewhere in the world, you knew that, right?  I would only wish that place on someone who really yearned for a Route 66 experience.  Even the waitresses were archetypal.   And here’s the cool blue ride to take the waitress out in:

Ford Falcon funkalicious!

Can you see how confusing and wabi-sabi this Buenos Aires reality can be? I mean, I walk past the Acropolis every time I go to the subway stop!

which of the buildings in this photo will be around 100 years from now?

I want to end this post with a REQUEST.

CALLING ALL TANGO ADDICTS!!

TANGO ADDICTS ANONYMOUS!

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

Please, listen up.  I want everyone who HAS BEEN, is NOW, or PLANS TO BE  Addicted to Tango to send me an email detailing:

WHEN, WHERE, and HOW did you realize that you were HOPELESSLY ADDICTED TO TANGO?

(For my spanish-speaking readers:  ¿Cúando y cómo sabías que le había caído preso al tango?  O sea, ¿que llegaste a ser adicto sin esperanza?)

My plan is to collect all your comments (feel free to send photos too!) and insights into the depths of your pathos & etc.  I will post it all on the blog (so long as it’s not obscene) and then… we’ll see what happens from there!

Let me know if I can include your name or if you wish to remain anonymous. Through our collective reflection we can shed some light on the how and the why tango can become an obsession.   If we don’t manage to penetrate the depths of our collective psychosis, we can at least have some fun sharing our common dilemma.  I am already sketching out a Tango Addiction Flow Chart, and perhaps a Telltale Signs Deep Water Chart.

Death by wabi-sabi?

Drag those hidden desires and obsessions out of the murky depths and into the twilight of your favorite milonga!  One of our favorites is Boedo Tango, a very classy place.

guy on the left appears to be deep in prayer before stepping out onto the dance floor...

Now, don’t forget to respond, and soon! (runninghawk.willow@gmail.com)

Ciao from Buenos Aires!

I’ve Developed A Dangerous New Habit

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No, I haven’t taken up cart-driving.  (Although that could be fun!)  Nor have I started up my own recycling delivery service:

I’ve made the chic, eco-friendly, planet-friendly, sustainable choice  …riding a bici in Buenos Aires!

The streets are crowded with people and traffic,  aplastada like an empanada is my subway haiku, taxis cost money (but not that much), buses are fun if you like to window shop while standing, so why not ride a bike?  Cause it’s suicidal, that’s why!  But what about the beautiful parks?  They can’t be all that dangerous….. right?  It’s just getting to them that can be tricky.  Fortunately,  you don’t need your own bike, there’s a citywide Sustainable Mobility Plan.   So one pretty day we set out to ride bikes, but the closest Bici Station, at the Plaza Italia, was closed.  A week passed before we went back, only to be informed that we needed to sign up first.  Sure, let’s sign up!  Easy, right?  ha-ha!  First we need your ID, your passport,  a document from the local police certifying your residence, and your firstborn child’s bank account access code (sorry, Ode!).

a stack of bicis

We went to the closest comisario de policia , across from the Plaza Italia, but were told we had to go to our neighorhood comisario which is a few blocks in the other direction.  That was a tough blow to our bike ride plan, so we went for a nice walk around part of the park instead (the Palermo bosque is the size of Golden Gate Park) but the wind kicked up and pretty soon we had to break for pizza and coffee.  A few days later we went for a walk and, thanks to a friendly sidewalk flower-seller, found our local comisario.  They have a casual waiting room with blue plastic seating and a flat-screen tv to keep visitors occupied (like turning on the tv to keep the kids quiet).  We handed over our pasaportes to the pretty cop with hair down to her waist and a big semi-auto on her hip.  She logged in all our info and told us to come back the next day to pick up our certificates (cost: 10 pesos each).  The next day we went back and a big male knuckle-dragger informed us that our certificates would be delivered the following monday morning.  Monday afternoon we went back to the comisario to let them know that our certificados de domicilio had not, in fact, been delivered.  We were told that, yes, the logbook showed that the certificates had been delivered, probably to the doorman of our building.  It was suggested we speak with our doorman.  We asked Santiago, our friendly doorman, about it and he said he had not received anything for us.  Ben ranted and raved about South American bureaucracy for a while, I finally quieted him down with a glass of wine and some bread and cheese.  (However he did like the first officer and gave her a commemorative SLO County Sheriff’s Star.)  Lo and Behold, the very next morning the buzzer rang, it was a police officer letting me know he was sliding our documents under the front door of our building.

adorable police vehicle

A few days later Ben, on one of his Search & Rescue missions, found an open BikeShare stand in Las Heras Park, so we went over there armed with documents in order.  The nice young kids had their laptop up and running and they had us signed up in a jiffy… almost!

bici-chico

bici-chica scrutinizing willow's documents

Ben getting his Bike Share account

But, alas!  they didn’t have a functioning printer so we couldn’t get a couple of bikes just yet.  We decided to hoof it over to the Plaza Italia bici station, their printer was supposed to be working.   About 10 minutes later we made it over there, their printer was working but they were out of paper.  I suggested they used look in the trash to find a usable piece of paper with a blank side as yet unprinted, meanwhile Ben was ready to buy some paper, but it was suggested we try the next bici station, only about 10 minutes farther on.  Meanwhile the sunshine tangoed with the clouds and wind, and I was glad I had worn my tennies, leather jacket and cap.


At the third bici station, we were finally able to get our documents printed and signed.  We received the short version training on checking out a bike and a helmet if you want one (in the contract it says you have to wear one but in reality if you want to crack your coco that’s your choice).  So we went for a ride!  Yahoo!  We blasted up Libertador past the Facultad de Derecho, and turned up Scalabrini Ortíz.  Ben led me through some really scary intersections, but we finally made it back to the Las Heras bici station, dropped off the bikes, and walked over to a nearby café to warm up with coffee and a snack.

Spring will be here in just 2 days and I am looking forward to warmer weather, bike rides, runs in the park, and outdoor milongas.  I’m looking forward to walking around town in sandals and a tank top, and having gelato at a streetside café at midnight on my way to a milonga!   I have another post with photos of live tango orquestas coming out very shortly, so stay tuned!  Ciao from Buenos Aires!

Salon Tango Finals

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Welcome to the New Normal. Are you wondering what I’m talking about?  Well, maybe I’m wondering what I’m going to say next.  You see, I grew up in the sixties, when normal was usually negotiable, and frequently difficult to define.  One of my favorite country western singers said, “Some people have friends in high places.  I have high friends in places!” If you know who I’m quoting, you win!  The winner gets…. something really special … TBA in a moment TBA.  Like maybe a free tango lesson?  A Buenos Aires city tour?  Va bene?

So, we were having dinner the other night in a really nice little bistro, a seafood place about 3 blocks from our apartment, the food was really good, it was about 10 pm and really crowded and noisy.  Suddenly I had a Realization.  I didn’t mind the crowd or the noise.  In fact, I really liked it.  That’s such a sea-change for me, lover-girl of horses and wide open spaces.  But the point here being that I had stepped through a portal into another reality!  I had been assimilated into the city!  After all the daily subway and bus rides at rush hour (which is perpetual unless you’re up and about in the morning which I’m not; public transport evaporates after about 10:30 pm, except for taxis which purr around the city in the middle of the night when you’ve just emerged from a milonga and your feet are killing you and it’s cold out and you might have to walk a few blocks to a busier street and wait 5 or 10 minutes for one to show up, finally…), I’ve adapted.  (You know, like in that Star Trek episode when Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his gang are fighting off a Borg invasion, and our fearless heroes keep recalibrating their weapons but Data, the android, keeps announcing “they’ve adapted.”)  All this to say I’m finally getting used to all the crowding and being squished, aplastada like an empanada, hordes of busy people in motion everywhere.  I will probably never get used to walking on the extremely crowded pedestrian-only streets downtown, like Suipacha, Florída, Lavalle, also known as pickpocket central.  But I have adjusted my system prefs to accommodate all the people and the constant noise levels of Buenos Aires.  I am in the New Normal.

Buenos Aires is so different from other cities.  In some ways it feels like New York, with all the tall buildings and traffic and noise, but it’s so much friendlier, so much more hip, the beautiful buildings, parks, cafés.  More like Paris, they say, but I’ve never been to Paris.  Not yet.  The people here are really good-looking, and seem more educated and cultured than anywhere I’ve ever been.  They are also kind and considerate.  Men open doors for women, people smile and make eye contact.  None of this walking around, head down, don’t speak to anyone.  Even the cops are friendly.  Buenos Aires is truly a liveable city.  Like, where else would you see the tiniest vintage microcar pull up to a light?

1953 BMW Isetta

Luckily for all of us, Ben had the presence of mind to get his camera out before the light turned.  Is this not the most adorable Barbie car ever?  It’s only got one cylinder, and the front of the car opens up to let you get in!  How cute it that?  There were two little girls in the front seat next to the driver, they appeared to be just as excited to be riding in it as we were to catch a glimpse!

And now to the Finals of the World Cup of Tango!  El Mundial!

we had a great view

Here we are at the Tango Salón finals.  As I explained in my last blog, Tango Salón is close embrace dancing.  It’s the only way to dance tango on a crowded dance floor.  Tango Escenario, or stage tango, is the other style which is beautiful and very dramatic.  The finals were held in a sports stadium called Luna Park, in La Boca.  It’s a very nice venue, and was packed to the rim for both nights of the Finals.  The fabulous Mario Orlando DJ’d the entire event, except for the live music provided by Rubén Rada and the Orquesta Río de la Plata:

Mario played tangos by the orchestras of DiSarli, Pugliese, D’Arrienzo, Troilo, Tanturi, Biagi, Lucio Demare, Enrique Rodríguez, Fresedo.  All much-loved tunes that you tangueros are familiar with.  There were four final rounds, with 10 couples in each round.  They were all very good dancers!  And they came from the four corners of the whole world.

The judges were a grouping of the legendary:  Maria Nieves, Eduardo Arquimbau, Carlos Borges, Guillermina Quiroga, Julio Dupláa, Jorge Torres, Miguel Angel Zotto, Cachi & Juan Manuel Fernández, and Aguila Crespo.  My apologies in advance for any spelling errors!

The first prize given out went to a couple from Japan, for Most Elegant Couple.  Fifth prize went to another Japanese couple, from Tokyo; Fourth to a very chic Italian couple; Third to a pair from San Francisco (Go Team!) Brian Nguyen & Yuliana Basmajyan.   (All entrants had to pre-qualify by winning the competitions in their home country.  In California, it was our friends and longtime tango teachers Gato and Andrea who were in charge of the US Finals which took place last spring in SF.)

After those presentations were made, complete with flowers and boxes of tango clothes and shoes and trophy bowls for the lucky winning dancers, the announcer let the crowd know that the judges were unable to decide between 1st and 2nd place.  So the stage was cleared once again to make room for the dance-off between the top two couples. Here’s a photo:

They were phenomenal!  I personally was voting for the Venezuelans: a tall elegant guy in a white suit, and his gorgeous partner.  But they were all so perfect, how could anyone choose?  The judges’ point system came out in favor of the Colombians.  It was a happy, ecstatic moment, as you can see:

Diego Benavídez Hernández and Natasha Agudelo Arboleda, from Bogotá, Colombia!  Besides all the flowers, engraved glass bowls, tango clothes and shoes, the winning couple received 30,000 Pesos (about $8,000) a trip to Paris (this weekend!) from Air France, including a mandatory performance (are we jealous yet?) dancing at the Eiffel Tower!

2nd Place winners John Erban & Clarissa Sánchez

Topping off the evening was a tango by Juan Carlos Copes and his daughter, Joana Copes, with the full orchestra.  They were fantastic!  I feel most privileged to have seen the living legend in person!  He also dances an awesome milonga in Carlos Saura’s movie Tango, from a few years back.  (Please note, all of these performances are on uTube, check it out!  Use these search terms:  Mundial de Tango Salon Buenos Aires 2011)

Juan Carlos Copes y Joana Copes

All in all, the Mundial was attended by 400,000 people during its two weeks of concerts, shows, films, workshops, dance classes, milongas & etc.  It was a fabulous success, and the talk about town is that once again tango has gone back to its roots, i.e., we are in the midst of a renaissance at the local level: emerging new tango clubs, young new composers, musicians, orquestras, dancers from a host of barrios (as portrayed in my post on the Tango Zone!).  This is truly an exciting time to be here.  Our favorite dance teachers, and doubtless all the best maestros of Buenos Aires, have been working with the dancers, helping them  polish their technique and choreography.  No matter where the couples were from, I think I can say absolutely that this was not their first trip to Buenos Aires.  A pilgrimage to the Mecca of Tango is a journey that all serious dancers must take at some point.  (Hello!  this means YOU)  The downside talk is that porteños are a bit embarrassed that there were no winners from Buenos Aires this year, and people asking why.  How can it be possible that foreigners are taking the gold?  A very interesting question and topic for discussion.

The next big competition is the CITA (Congreso Internacional de Tango Argentino), in March.  We were here during the CITA a few years ago, the milongas were so packed you could not even find a place to drop your jacket & purse unless you made a reservation AND showed up before 11 or so.   The CITA offers classes, workshops, the whole nine yards.   It also means that the price of privates (dance classes) will double, and hotel rooms and late night taxis will be harder to find.

gelato at Persicco

Hope you enjoyed the post!  Here I am rematando (finishing off) the evening with a dulce de leche granizado.  The best!  Ciao from Buenos Aires!

Tango Buenos Aires Festival 2011

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One might wonder how a coherent blog can be written at 4 in the morning after 3 hours of tango class in the afternoon and then dancing from 11 to 3 am.   Well, it wasn’t.  I’m still working on it, just past midnight now, about 20 hours and another tango class later.  We were at La Milonga del Morán, in the Villa Urquiza barrio.  How can a dirty, grungy basketball gym be transformed into a sublime Tango experience?  The lighting was what you’d expect in an auto repair shop, same goes for the sound system.  Sawhorses with recycled formica countertops for tables are, well, reminiscent of 4th of July picnics and Rizzotti’s, a beer garden on Alpine Road in Portola Valley.  (We used to ride our horses over there on Saturdays, tie them to the hitch racks under the eucalyptus trees by the creek.)  No one was wearing a suit and tie except Ben, who ditched the tie as soon as we sat down (and still the sharpest-looking guy there!).  Everybody seemed to know each other.  All ages were present, lots of  young people.  The dance floor was packed, meaning it took about four songs  (10 minutes or so)  to make a complete circuit around.  The phenomenal sound of Sexteto Milonguero, followed by a Tango performance by Gabriel Missé and Analía Centurion, added to the amazing wabi-sabi atmosphere.  I mean, how can you not have a great time, despite the dismal decayed environment, while watching two of the most highly acclaimed tango dancers in the world?

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese word that describes an experience of beauty that is imperfect, transient, and incomplete.  Wabi-sabi  is all about authenticity.  “Wabi… (according to Wikipedia) “may be interpreted as the imperfect quality of any object, due to inevitable limitations in design and construction and/or manufacture, especially with respect to unpredictable or changing usage conditions.   Wabi-sabi acknowledges three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”  Yikes, it’s starting to sound like my evolving tango experience!  Or is it a definition of my existence?

I think I like wabi-sabi.  (I like wasabi too, just like I love sushi.)  I think what made the difference, the other night, was the PEOPLE.  The milonga was filled with friendly, happy, enthusiastic, dancing people.  Negative environment meets positive people: the yin/yang of it all, the good vibes.  A fantastic wabi-sabi experience!  This delightful concept also applies to the highs and lows, the polish and the grunge,  the glitz and glam of the World Tango Festival!

The Buenos Aires Tango Festival and World Cup runs from August 16 – 30.  Billboards and ads on TV are all over town and down in the subte too.

Here’s how it looked the first time we went over to the Expo Center for a free concert:

UNESCO has declared Tango to be part of the world’s Cultural Heritage.  Every year, porteños have the opportunity to remember, reimagine, and recreate the traditions of Tango which came out of a mixing of raíces, culturas y identidades (roots, cultures, identities).  Every day for 14 days there are dance classes, dance performances, concerts, jam sessions, milongas, exhibits, documentary films, workshops and conferences, not to mention the rounds of competitions down to the semi-finals and finals in two categories:  Tango Salón (the social dancing of ordinary people at milongas, very useful for dancing in small spaces) and Tango Escenario (stage tango, also known as show tango or Hollywood tango, wonderful for dancing in big open spaces).   All of the events at the Mundial are free,  and it’s not over yet…. tonight  (monday) is the Salon Tango Finals, and we HAVE TICKETS!!  (Note: Just cause it’s free doesn’t mean you don’t have to stand in line for  hours to get your ration of 2 tickets to high-ranking events.)

Orquesta Típica la Andariega

The first Expo event we attended was an awesome orchestra at the Horacio Ferrer theatre,  Orquesta Típica la Andariega.  They were fabulous!  Three girl bandoneon players, a pianist – orchestra leader (Pauline Nogues), a female violinist, two male violinists, a male bass fiddle, and a female singer.  I feel really sexist just mentioning their respective genders.  Should I call them girls?  chicks?  chicas?  femmes?  donne?  How could I describe this group differently?  If I don’t mention their genders at all, then my readers don’t realize how unusual it is to see women musicians in Tango orchestras.  Even the singers are almost always men.  Well, please send me your comments on this dilemma, and I will move on.  Their music was definitely fabulous and in the tango nuevo category… definitely tango, but kind of jazzy.   Here’s a photo with their singer Andrea Peñaloza:

That same evening we watched several rounds of eliminations for the Salon Tango competition.  Six or seven couples at a time were announced and danced three tangos on the main stage.  The panel of judges (el jurado) you can see off to the left, and behind the dancers, a huge live screen view of the dancing.  I liked the couple in the middle of this one:

Here is another shot during the same round.  This is definitely not Dancing With the Stars.  This is the real McCoy.  Which dancers do you like best?

We didn’t get to watch the Stage Tango finals.   I wanted to, of course, but we can’t do it all!  And they were only handing out tickets to one or the other show, so whichever ones you got, you got.  But it didn’t matter, because quite a few of the performers turned up at the tango school last week, crashing Raúl Bravos’s tango classes to get last minute tune-ups and new moves from the maestro who’s taught just about everybody who teaches dance in Buenos Aires.  And he’s still got it!

At the Expo Center they have an entire room dedicated to the worship of Carlos Gardel.  It is pretty amazing.  Gardel was born in France, and came with his mother to Buenos Aires when he was three years old, around the turn of the last century.  He died in a plane crash near Bogotá, Colombia in 1935 or thereabouts, pobrecito.  Gardel had a beautiful voice, a great stage and screen presence, and was a self-admitted womanizer.  So many beautiful women, so little time!

Carlos Gardel, the Elvis of Tango

I enjoyed looking at the archival photos and documents of Gardel’s childhood and early years:

In front of the main stage is a seating area for several hundred people, and behind that is a big dance floor.  We milonga’d for a little while but the intensely bright event lighting was making me see fireballs even with my eyes closed.  You can see the big screen on the stage behind the motley crew of dancers enjoying the free music and dancing in a big warm space on a cold evening in Buenos Aires.

milongueando en el Mundial

free dancing at the world cup of tango

Before I go on to the other concert we attended, I know my readers wouldn’t want to miss seeing some of the fabulous stuff for sale at the Expo Center, like….. tango shoes?

So many shoes, so little time!  No, I’m not getting a kickback for the free PR.  I wish!!  And for the guys, great tango shoes and electronic entertainment while you try them on:

Some of the men’s tango shoes are being made now with pop-out, interchangeable soles.    The part that pops out is the ball-of-foot area.  Each pair comes with 3 pairs of soles, with different finishes so you can mix-and-match to the floor conditions.   Not even Ken & Barbie could have dreamed up this type of accessorizing!  (well their brain capacity was under the legal limit.)

You guys better look sharp!

And if you need some new duds for that special milonga, (no guys, not for you!  we’re back to the girls) you’re sure to find something in one of the Expo shops: Ooh la la!

Darcos

And there’s other cool stuff there,  books on Tango and little bandoneon photo and CD holders.  Yes, they are so cute, I had to get one.

bandoneonitos

tango trinkets

handpainted signs Buenos Aires style

A few days ago we went to the historic Teatro 25 de Mayo to see  Quinteto Nestor Marconi.  Here is a photo of the historic hall:

Teatro 25 de Mayo

Nestor Marconi is a world famous bandoneon player, one of the few surviving musicians of the generation of 20th century Tango.  Marconi played in the orchestras of José Basso and Enrique Mario Francini — Armando Pontier.  He was bandoneon soloist with the philarmonics of Oslo, Montreal and Toulouse, partnered with Roberto Goyeneche in the film Sur, and performed with the renowned pianist Martha Argerich, amongst many other notables.  Marconi is truly a living legend of Tango.

Quinteto Nestor Marconi

From left to right, pianist Leonardo Marconi, son of Nestor (he is really amazing!);  Esteban Falabella, guitar;  Juan Pablo Navarro, contrabajo;  Nestor Marconi, bandoneon;  Pablo Agri, violin.

These guys are all virtuosos.  Like, this was the best live tango music I have ever heard.  It doesn’t get any better than this!   I sneaked these photos with no flash, Ben was my accomplice (his camera).  Here are the best ones of Nestor:

Nestor Marconi

Quinteto Marconi opened with El día que me Quiera, a long version that began with the melody of the Gardel arrangement but then began to weave in strands of Piazzolla-like meanderings.  OK, I’m no music critic, so I won’t try to pretend.  Just let me say that the  quintet played a selection of classic tangos by Piazzolla, Horacio Salgán and Bardi in their fantastic nuevo style, and a selection of Marconi’s compositions.  They ended with a hauntingly beautiful version of Adios Nonino, one of my favorite songs.  The sound was fabulous, the solos were amazing, it was all perfectly perfect.

Nestor Marconi, 24 august 2011

Yesterday I had a conversation with Verónica Alegre, a tango teacher, about the many ways that tango impermeates Buenos Aires.   Tango is the breath of the city, the air that porteños breathe.  She said you can’t really know tango unless you’ve walked the streets, sat in the cafés, danced at the milongas till dawn or your feet just can’t take another step, whichever comes first.  If you can’t make it all the way here to see for yourself, I suggest listening to Piazzolla’s Hora Cero (Zero Hour, Astor Piazzolla, 1921-1992).  It’s the name of a song as well as the title of one of his CDs.  In this tune you hear the heartbeat born of the second half of the twentieth century.  His work embodies both gritty urban sounds and polished, heart-breakingly transcendent melodies.  I would describe it as a fusion of traditional tango with jazz.  You hear traffic, sirens, the subway rumbling through: it’s all part of the rhythm of the city, the rhythm of tango.  And not just the noise of the streets, but the movement of the people who inhabit this unique city.  Verónica reminded me that the way people sit in a café and chat over coffee is part of the essence of tango.  The expressions on people’s faces as they talk, as they joke; the way they walk, the way they kiss (couples here kiss wherever and whenever they feel like it; how cool is that?).   It’s all part of the seductive rhythm of the city, the nightlife, the sounds and rhythms of tango.  Piazzolla took the tango he’d grown up with in the 30s and 40s, what we think of as the Golden Age of Tango, and morphed it into a new sound.  Ben noted that Gershwin’s An American in Paris is a similar reflection on a new landscape.  Each generation always reinvents their own expressions, recreates their world view.  In Piazzolla’s music there is dissonance, but it works to create the whole.  Just like not every street in Buenos Aires is beautiful, not every tree is green, no sidewalk is without a few cracks.  A perfect reflection of an imperfect world, our beautiful problematic world, our wabi-sabi world.  Some of us want to escape to another era (have you seen Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen’s latest?  Great flick!), but at some point one realizes that it is what it is.  Piazzolla moved on from that point, and created a new era in tango.

billboard at the Expo Center

I’m going to end this post with a poster for my friend Roxy, who completed 365 days of tangoing every day; she’s now moved on to 1,000 days of…  more tango?  I think, and a month or two in Buenos Aires this fall.  ¡Felicidades, home girl!

Bravo Roxy! You completed 365 days of Tango!

My next post will be about the finals in Salón Tango, including a stunning performance by Juan Carlos Copes.  Who will be the world’s best tango dancers in 2011?

Ciao from Buenos Aires!

Canyengue, anybody?

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This weekend we took a 4 hour canyengue workshop with Marta & Manolo.  We had taken a dozen classes with them in years past, but of course we forgot most of it.  Tango teachers count on people’s almost complete lack of recall; it keeps them in business!

Marta Antón & El Gallego Manolo

Marta Antón &  El Gallego Manolo have been dancing tango all their lives.  They specialize in canyengue, a dance which preceded tango. Canyengue was danced by prostitutes and other riff-raff  like sailors and stevedores in dockside cabarets and in the arrabales (sketchy areas on the edge of town) in the early 1900s.  In the old days it was considered sinfully provocative and sensual; in other words, body contact.  The word canyengue is of African descent, with the ye pronounced porteño style; blacks in Buenos Aires pronounced it caniengue.  The term caminar canyengue (canyengue walk) comes from the way the tough guys of the era walked.  Like, the ultra cool arrogant strut.  If you got it, flaunt it!   This type of walking is also called caminar arrabalero (the arrabales, as I mentioned, being the old neighborhoods, the fringes of BsAs back in the day, like Tita Merello in the movie Arrabalera [1945]).  You have to understand that, in tango, walking is not just walking.  A good tango walk is worth its weight in gold.  Everything else is built upon the walk.  I’m talking about a grounded, fluid walk.  It shouldn’t be any different from your normal walk, so long as you’re not a penguin.

Marta & Manolo today: still lookin' good!

Marta & Manolo have their own style of teaching.  They never line you up and have you do exercises, and they hardly ever put guys on one side & girls on the other, practicing the respective footwork until it’s time to try it out together.  No, they just tell you to start dancing and they come around and help you out more or less randomly.  It’s not a teaching style that works really well for everybody, but it does provide some 1-1 teacher time, which is of course extremely useful.

We have also had the opportunity to study with Facundo Posadas whom, as you tangueros know, also dances canyengue and talks about its history.

Facundo Posadas

Facundo is about the same age as Manolo who is in his 70s and has been dancing canyengue (and tango) since he was a slick kid from the barrio (gallego means Spaniard).  If you listen to canyengue you will recognize it as older versions of tangos that you already know from the 1930s, 40s & 50s.  In Buenos Aires you can go to milongas where people dance canyengue.  MOCCA is the acronym of their community: Movimiento Cultural Canyengue Argentino, and Marta & Manolo are its founders.

Canyengue dancers Lukas & Karolina from Berlin

Marta & Manolo spent 11 years touring all over the world, from 2000 to 2011.  They lived and taught in Hanover, Germany for 4 of those years, where Marta learned to speak German.  She also speaks Italian, a little English, and even less French.  Despite being in their 70s Marta & Manolo still teach several days a week, like our friends back home, Norm & Anne Tiber. Before they taught at EAT (the Escuela Argentina de Tango) they were teaching at another dance studio (there’s lots in Buenos Aires.  More dance studios per capita than any other city in the world!  I think).  Octavio, the jefe of the tango school, was telling me the other day that he happened to walk into their class when it was just ending, in the midst of fervent applause and tears from the 25 or 30 students. “Qué pasa?” he asked.  The students explained that Marta & Manolo were dancing the way they remembered their parents and grandparents dancing,  The kids were overwhelmed with a sweet mix of appreciation, nostalgia and full hearts.

are we stylin' or what?

I had the same feeling today.  Ben and I, and another student (a Brit on her way home from the Middle East), were listening to Manolo talk about how it was in his day, growing up with tango in the 1950s.  He said they really dressed up in those days.  They wore jackets and ties; they were really dapper and fastidious.  Their toughest critics were older brothers and cousins.  When Manolo would get dressed to go to a milonga, his older brother’s friends would look him over.  “Nene,” (kid, baby) they would say, poking him in the shoulder, “you better look sharp!”  Before looking around to ask a girl to dance, he would straighten his tie, check his cuffs, trousers, hair; then he would give the cabeceo, the “dance with me?” nod to the girl.  He always kept a folded handkerchief sprinkled with cologne in his left palm, between his hand and the girl’s.  When the dance was over, he would escort her off the dance floor back to her seat.  And if he danced more than 4 or 5 dances with the same girl, the older brothers’ friends would come up to him, poke him in the shoulder: “You better watch out, nene, her cousins saw you dancing with her!”  But before he began going to milongas, his older brothers and cousins made him pass his “exams.”  They invited one of their girlfriends, a seasoned milonguera (tango dancer) over to the house.  Manolo had to dance with her.  He was terrified!  He was so frozen up he could hardly dance!  She was a good sport, though, and he finally loosened up enough to dance her adequately around the pista (dance floor).  Finally, he could tag along to the milongas, and not embarrass himself or his family.

Manolo said that the first time he ever danced with Marta, almost 40 years ago, he was really intimidated.  But when the dance was over, she looked at him and said, “Eres el mejor!”   (“You’re the best!”)  His heart melted!  But she apparently played it cool, because it took him another 16 years to win her over.  Once, after one of her tango performances, he presented her with six (6!) dozen roses. Evidently, she wasn’t too impressed with him at that moment; she tossed the roses in the trash! Years later, during an interview in Spain, the incident of the six dozen roses came up.  How did Manolo feel when she deconstructed his offering?  “La muy hija de puta!” he said.  No need to translate that, my readers know their bad words in Spanish.  The Spanish paper wrote: “when Manolo says ‘hijo de puta!’ it’s a term of endearment!”

Marta & El Gallego back in the day!

When Marta heard him telling the story today, she walked over and joined us.  Manolo was positively radiating from the telling.  His outburst of feeling was contagious, and my eyes filled with tears.  “Porque lloras?” he asked me.  (“Why are you crying?”)  Marta asked me if I was okay; they were really concerned for a few seconds. I told them it was just tears of joy feeling their happiness!  Everyone laughed and Manolo said that a person who allows themself to express their genuine feelings is very fortunate.  And now I feel like part of the family… we have laughed and cried together.

Canyengue Addicts Anonymous!

The last advice Manolo offered, (and this is not just for you guys out there, the same goes for us girls, I think…) is that a man has to marry twice.  The first time is to practice, and the second time to enjoy.  Practice being a good partner, and hopefully you’ll get it right the second time around (or the 3rd or 4th . time?).  And speaking of practice, when Ben & I get decent enough at canyengue, I’ll post a photo!  I promise!  We are also taking a really fun Chacarera and Zamba class on Thursday nights: stay tuned for more!  (note: Zamba is not Zumba!)

*Special Note to my Readers:  Thank you so much for all the emails you’ve sent me, and the beautiful comments you’ve posted!  My readers are the best!!  You can subscribe (for free!) to my blog, which means you’ll get an email notification every time I publish a new post.  Just go to the bottom of the blog and you’ll see what to do.

Over and Out from Tangolandia!  Ciao!

Barrio Norte

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Good morning from Barrio Norte.  Also known as Palermo Botánico.  The invisible line between my neighborhood and adjoining neighborhoods is open to interpretation and negotiation.  We are half a block from the Botanical Gardens:

el Botánico

Our apartment is awesome, though sadly lacking in Art.

dining area

Since I took that photo we moved the table up against the wall lengthwise to give us a small dance practice area.  The living area:

home sweet home Buenos Aires!

Our landlady says the flowering trees at the front of the building have beautiful pink blossoms all spring!  Jacarandas, I think she said.  But this week has been downright cold, dipping into the upper 40s at night.  Brrr!!!  At least we’re not in Patagonia.  This little balcony will be perfect for sipping those mango mojitos this Christmas!

our balcony

And, not last or least either, the view of the street from the balcony.  Despite being a low-key, residential street, Ugarteche can be pretty darn noisy!  If we keep the tv tuned to the soccer channel it blends with the traffic and it all evolves into a pleasant white noise (what kind of evolution am I talking about?  the backwards kind… i.e. almost everything since they invented petroleum products, gunpowder, and those darn computers).

Ugarteche in winter

Here’s where we cook.  On the left is a window & to the right a pass-through to the dining area. The cooktop is gas, and there’s a real oven.  The vent hood actually works, too, unlike the one at my ranch.  That comes in real handy when you have a guy that is such a fabulous cook…

our beautiful kitchen

Across the street is an adorable French mansion flanked by 10-story apartments:

We walk everywhere!  We don’t have a car or even bicycles. We take the subway to go downtown, and one of these days very soon we’re going to take a bus ride out to the Mataderos district where dwells the legendary tango shoe maker extraordinaire.  Although all the walking we do is great exercise (as if we don’t get enough dancing Tango!) it is not without risk.  Crosswalks are a target zone for humans.  The few bike lanes we’ve seen offer no protection whatsoever from moving vehicles.  Bicycle riders, motos, Vespas, strollers, little old ladies, no one’s safe!  When you’re behind the wheel, you have the right!  Homicidal taxi drivers are not to be trifled with, and anybody riding a bicycle must be a suicidal maniac!  However when the traffic is backed up, like during rush hour, a bicycle could be transcendent.

Rideshare stand in the Plaza Italia

Okay, let’s go straight to food.  We have a great fruit & veggie place just around the corner.

the produce man

Freshly made pasta is available in pasta shops with a variety of fillings.  We bought a pound of fresh ricotta-stuffed rigatoni the other afternoon for only $3 (special of the day).  Please note the empanadas on the upper shelf.  Empanadas are really yummy too.  Ben wants to take an empanada-making course here in Buenos Aires so that when we get back to California and he opens his café-restaurant, he can serve homemade empanadas along with fresh artisan bread and plenty of café cortados.

pasta fresca

Here’s the young ravioli-maker caught in the act at El Raviolón, on the corner of French and Sanchez de Bustamonte:

the Ravioli maker

butternut squash filling

To add to the amazing fresh food available within blocks of one’s apartment, there are also lots of delicatessans, this one is our favorite for its impeccable prosciutto imported from Italy and its faultless Serrano ham imported from Spain.

Fiambres Benavidez

Sr. Benavidez looks like he could be Santa Claus or a biker from Sturgis, but even though he’s not smiling in the photo I swear he was a second before and the second after.  He is  friendly and likes to joke with his customers.  He has a basket of fresh bread every day but Mondays (cause the panadería takes Sunday off); not just any ol’ bread, but really good artisan stone-hearth baked bread, from baguettes to pan integral (whole wheat) to ciabatta (my favorite Italian bread) and pan del campo (country style).  They cure their own ham (it hangs from the ceiling) and also have wine, cheese,  jams and condiments.  Just walk in the door, the aroma is dazzling, and if you look hungry, they give you samples to help you make up your mind.

Señor Benavidez

Like most shops, they are open in the morning, closed for lunch/siesta from 1 – 5 pm, and then open again till 9 or 10.  Restaurants don’t open till 8 for dinner, and stay open well past midnight.  You are never given the check until you ask for it… even at a streetside café.  Relax, you’re in South America!

a fish market on Ugarteche

This gorgeous chili-pepper red facade is Guido’s, a restaurant & tapas bar.  Unfortunately it wasn’t open when we walked by… way too early!

Ben at Guido's

And you can’t escape medialunas to go with your coffee.  They’re available everywhere.

all kinds of medialunas!

I know this post is way too long but there are a few more pix that are begging to be flown.  We came across this thrashed but apparently still running ’66 CHP cruiser on our scenic march to the Museo de Bellas Artes (a superb collection of art from medieval to post-modern and admission is free).  The red & blue lights are mounted on the dash.  Will the owner please contact me?

Chippie Ride and the Lawman

We also spent a few hours touring the Evita Museum.  If you haven’t heard the Evita Perón history lesson, just download the Madonna-ized version.  This historic home/orphanage is really something.  Some of her shoes are on display, definitely a chick-attraction.

Museo Evita

On one of our previous trips to Buenos Aires we had an apartment next door, and we kept telling each other we were going to check it out, but we never got around to it.  Too busy with tango classes in the afternoons and milongas till 3 or 4 am.  This time around, we’re taking it a bit more easy, and making time for some sight-seeing.