Buenos Aires 2

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  Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Hola mi amigas y amigos
This entry will be mainly about tango as this city is infested with it and most of my late nights have been associated with it.
Before I start on that just a couple of little diversions. I was hoping to do a short Spanish language course here, as although I understand quite a bit of Spanish, as it is a cousin to Italian. It is hard for me to speak fluently as sometimes the grammar is different to Italian, and although my vocabulary isn't too bad for the amount of time I've been here, I don't know most of the tenses. I have created this pidgin Italianish language, that with appropriate hand and body gesticulations and facial expressions seems to get me by pretty well. While ocassionally browsing my dictionary I have come across a couple of little gems:
esposo/esposa = husband/wife; esposas = handcuffs (Spanish is very direct, isn't it)
constipado = cold (pretty logical really, your nose does get constipated with a cold)
Spanish also has a lot of imperatives - no meandering around with words (would you mind awfully if .....), just 'I want', and if you do something incorrectly, eg in a tango class, you are told immediately 'that's wrong, do it like this', so it's no place for shrinking violets, of which most of you know I sometimes am (pardon the tortured grammar)

01 Girl with the blue panties

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So (entonces), as you know I arrived in BA at 4.30am one Sunday, went to the San Telmo market and walked miles around the city trying to get my bearings, so of course, what do you do when you're lacking sleep, and are tired and footsore, of course you go to a milonga (tango social dance), which usually don't start until at least 11pm.
So I found one about 1.5kms from my hostel, walked there and had my first tango experience in BA (interesting trying to get dolled up to go to tango when you're in a dorm with 8 beds, and your fellow hostellers are dressed usually in travel-worn t-shirts, shorts, ripped jeans, thongs (on the feet as well as the hips), the guys are unshaven with wild hair (the girls too sometimes), backpacks and duffle bags everywhere - and in comes this clean-shaven guy, with combed hair, dressed elegantly, and even wearing socks and leather shoes, which he gets out of a nice suitcase - they must think I'm an aristocrat who has fallen on hard times and has to live cheaply but is pathetically trying to keep up appearances).
ANyhow, sorry to keep digressing but that's how my mind works - the milonga was at the Torquato Tasso Cultural Centre (he was a 16th century Italian poet), and it was absolutely chockers (for non-Australian speakers that means very full), and I hadn't booked a table, but eventually I managed to ensconce myself on a table with a couple of nice young people, and although a bit nervous and watching the scene for a while, I eventually asked the girl at the table for a dance, and once the ice was broken, I had a nice night

02 Tango blur on black background

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For those of you who don't dance tango, a bit of of explanation - unlike Australia where mainly you dance with friends or people who you know and you wander over to ask them, in BA you are seated at tables around the dance floor and you ask a woman to dance by looking at her and trying to catch her eye, then by means of the appropriate facial expression (raised eyebrows, smile, nod of the head towards dance floor, etc), invite her to dance (it's called the cabeceo). If she doesn't want to dance with you she will just look away and ignore you, but if your invitation is accepted she will smile and move towards the dance floor. Also, when women are sitting with men you have to ascertain whether they are willing to dance with some man other than their partner or friend, so you have to watch for a while to see what the situation is. Given that the milongas are usually very crowded and it's hard to know where someone you want to dance with is seated, and that you only get an opportunity to invite between tandas (block of 3-4 songs, with a small musical interlude), and they may reject you, it's quite stressful when you're new to all this, and it's a wonder you get any dances at all.
The next night a person who I had met by email while starting my search for an apartment invited me to Club Gricel, which is a lovely venue, and fairly traditional, and another night I went to Lo de Celia, which was extremely traditional and I think I was the only non-Argentinian there

03 Coming and going

. I rocked up there (for non-Australians this means I arrived) and they asked me if I was a caballero solo (I love being called called a caballero or signor), then placed me at a table in the second row, behind all the caballeros who are obviously regulars and hold court there. All the ladies were arranged at tables across the other side so it would be easy to cabeceo. I ordered a glass of wine and a bottle of water and tried to look nonchalant and holding court too :) and settled in to watch how things were done. The gentlemen in the front row were mainly in their 60s & 70s whereas we young whippersnippers (how do I explain that one to non-Australians?) in the 2nd row were in our 40s & 50s.
Anyhow after about an hour, feeling pleasantly relaxed after a couple of glasses of wine I decided to risk embarrasment and humiliation and make a complete goog (idiot) of myself and asked a lady to dance, she accepted and away we went. There was a slight amount of confusion after the first dance as we tried to talk, as she took me for an Argentinian and had trouble understanding my Italianish small talk, but once I had explained I was from Australia, but had been born in Italy, etc she made allowances and we got on fine. Another word of explanation:
Dance music is played in groups of usually 4 songs. At the end of each song you make small talk for a while (often for almost the first third of the song), as this is the opportunity to get to know the other person, catch up on news, etc, as you don't talk while dancing

04 Silhouettes

. Because so many foreigners come to BA to dance it is often entertaining at a milonga to try and guess where they're from and know which language to start with.
One Australian girl I met here wrote a nice little entry in her blog about her nervousness being at her first milonga in BA and wondering whether anyone would ask her to dance (it's just as difficult for women as men when you're new to BA), but how eventually this elegantly dressed, suave, dark, handsome, sexy, intelligent looking man (ok I added that bit) asked her, and how she was nervous at the end of the first dance as she knew he would talk to her and breathe some little piropo (compliment) into her ear, and she wouldn't have a clue what he was talking about but had prepared her opening line (el piso es liso - very poetic sounding but I think it just means the floor is smooth, an immortal opening line don't you think?), but what actually happened is that he said: where are you from (in English), and she said Wollongong (note for non-Australians, yes that is the real name of a small city in Australia - we also have place names like Woolloomooloo, Nar Nar Goon, Nuriootpa, and Lurg - try and say the first two after a few drinks!), and he was from Melbourne, and how disappointed she was that she lost her tango virginity in BA to a bloody Australian :). I digress again, and I can't remember the point ...
Anyhow, from the 11-18th March Cosmotango was on, a week long affair with 3-4 classes a day, a couple of tango shows and a milonga every night. The tango shows were great and each couple went to great lengths with their costumes, choreography, theme, music, etc - there was gothic comedy, bad-boy bikie/rocker/moll, prostitute/lover, funky young things, elegant silver-haired couples, etc. I was only 2 seats from the front and particularly enjoyed the lingerie show - most of the women wore dresses with high slits on the side, and in one or two cases virtually see-through dresses, and I can say without any doubt that they frequent only the best lingerie boutiques and have very good taste (sorry, girls, wasn't quite close enough to read the brand names, in case you wanted to know)

05 Dancers on a blue floor

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Late on the opening night I saw an attractive woman sitting alone and thinking to do a good deed :) I asked her to dance (using the cabeceo). The dance floor was like a sardine can but we managed to have 3 dances and she danced beautifully, and when I sat down one of the Australian tango teachers was very impressed with my chutzpah, because she was one of the leading dance teachers, who normally wouldn´t dance with a complete unknown like me, and with hindsight I did all the stupid things like ask her where she was from (not Wollongong), her name, etc, when most of the people who were there knew who she was, so I felt a bit embarassed and foolish, and grateful that she had deigned to dance with a foreign pleb like me. Anyhow, the real point of the story is that when you're dancing you can't tell what your partner is wearing, as you are very close, the lights are low, you're in a crowd, etc. It's only later, when she did a performance that I saw what she was actually wearing - slim blue panties, overlaid with a dress made from see-through gauzy material (which reminds me that Shirley Bassey, the black singer, was once described as wearing a gownless evening strap - unfortunately I can't think of a witty phrase for this woman's outfit). No wonder the Australian dance teacher was impressed! Sorry to go on about it but you'll see the blue panties (don't think it's the same pair) in one of the photos.
Other than that have been going to milongas most nights - the venues range from elegant salons like Confiteria Ideal and Gricel, to basement hall in the Armenian Club (La Viruta), and even a basketball/sports hall like Club Sunderland, way out in the sticks (far from the city).
I have particularly enjoyed the music - everywhere you go you hear tango and other music, but the best is hearing live orchestras and small ensembles of musicians

06 The unbearable lightness of being

. We heard a group the other night that are relatively new (Fervor de Buenos Aires), but they played fantastically well as an ensemble - 3 bandoneons, 5 violins, double bass, piano, and singer - very tight integration and great dynamics. What is wonderful here is that often you go to a cafe or bar and late at night people will start playing music and singing. Most of the young people, as elsewhere, are into rock, hip-hop, metal, etc but they also retain their roots in musical forms such as tango, and folkloric music/dances like the chacarera.
As an example the night we saw Fervor we were on our way to a milonga after, but saw an interesting looking arty/alternative cafe so dropped in for a drink, then when that closed at 3am we foolishly asked if there was anywhere else open, and we were taken to another bar about 5 blocks away - this had a front room, plus 2 other sparsely furnished rooms where a group of people would start playing music and singing, and when one group finished another would take its turn. I went to the front bar and everybody had gathered in a circle around a bandoneonist, 2 guitarists, and an old gentleman, who sang with great fervour (just wanted to use that word again, it's so descriptive and sounds good too). The great thing is that young men would sometimes give him a break and sing old tango songs, and nearly everyone else in the front bar sang along with them, and knew the words to these songs from the 1920's & 30's. I feel very confident that these songs are not in any danger of dying out, from what I saw. For non-Australian blog readers, probably more than 90% of Australians don't even know more than the first verse (or is it the first 2 lines) of our national anthem - not that that's a bad thing, as the words and music are pretty banal/daggy - before any rabid jingoists (oops I mean patriots) amongst my readers report me to John Howard (our esteemed boy scout leader, aka as Prime Minister) for being un-Australian (and possible sedition) I hasten to add that it's my personal opinion only (what was wrong with God Save the Queen?)

07 Curtain call

. I forgot to mention that I left this bar at 7am, which so far is my record - tried to find it again today, but everything looks different in the light of day (enough with the philosophising Everard!).
I'm beginning to feel like I'm rambling now so I better finish. The weather here is really hot and humid and after a couple of dance classes and a practica in a hot, non-ventilated room and me dripping with sweat, I'm prone to stopping off at a cerveceria (bar that specialises in beer) on the way home (early night tonight, only midnight), and having a chopp of cerveza negra (jug of stout, with some smoked meat), and obviously it's affecting my judgement and making me a bit emotional.
Hasta luego y buon suerte (see you later and good luck to you all)
Everardo
ps: please keep the comments coming on the blog (mischievous or otherwise) and/or emails to me (tambien) - it's great hearing from you (and to those of you who are shy little possums let me know you're alive and well and any notable happenings in your life or other news), and hopefully we get to know each other better, and will solve the problems of the world, and build a bigger and better future, and ... etc (bloody hell, what was in that stout - I'll have to keep it down to three jugs).

08 Confiteria Ideal

pps: It's next day and after a good sleep I go out again to take a canyengue class. Life here is full of funny little moments - after the class I wander the streets for a while (need to fill in 3 hours until milonga traspie class with El Flaco Dany (old gentleman in his 70s with incredibly lined face and incredibly fast feet). I'm feeling a bit peckish (hungry)and my eye is drawn to apple strudel in the window of a 'Bier Haus', so pop in for a light lunch of pumpkin pie (tarta de calabaza), with layers of pumpkin, cheese and spinach, and a glass of oxidised white wine (what did I expect in a Bier Haus?), and APPLE STRUDEL WITH CREAM - sometimes you see something and just have to have it. My waiter is a Sicilian from Catania (at the foot of Mt Etna, 50kms from where I was born) who came to BA when he was 8 years old and has been here 58 years. The meal is perfect (oxidised wine and all) - I sit near the open front door and a cool breeze wafts pass and dries my sweat (from the dancing class and the humidity), and my body is loose and relaxed (and my tummy is happy) as I lope around trying to find somewhere to eat tonight as I have invited some Aussie mates (Chinese girl from Wollongong, classical/ jazz flautist, and pregnant Uruguayan - no, I'm not making this up), to dine with an Argentinian friend (whose grandfather was also from Catania - synchronocity again), who I met in Linda Pampa, near Bariloche only about 4 weeks ago, but seems like ages ago.
Sorry again about the long and rambling posts but travelling seems to put the loquacious genes in me into overdrive (or is it just a side effect of the oxidised white wine?).

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

09 Club Sunderland	10 Fervor de Buones Aires	11 Fervour of playing bandoneon 1	12 Fervour of playing bandoneon 2
13 Club Gricel	14 When the music's over - La Viruta	15 Orquesta Tipica Gente de Tango rehearsing	16 Front bar at about 6am
17 Bandoneon, 2 guitars and singer 6am	18 Me and impromptu tango partner 6am	19 Bandoneon player at San Telmo market	20 Two charlies
21 Wine bar on Suipacha	22 One legged woman dancing at Canning	23 Ghosts dancing	24 Beautiful house and footpath
25 Heel repair shop	26 El boliche de Roberto	27 Abasto shopping centre	28 Interior of Abasto
29 Tango with cat	30 Crack in the glass with red car	31 Carlos Gardel and horse, Av Anchorena	32 Shrine to Carlos Gardel
33 Tango dresses	34 Neighbourhood restaurant Anchorena	35 Clever advertising	36 Billiard hall with rubbish bin
37 Corrientes at midnight	38 Pianist with wine and cheese	39 Ham ham ham ham (apologies to Monty Python)	40 Apple strudel and happy Germans
41 Beer wines and swigs	42 Champagne makes me cuddly	43 How is he going to get out?

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