The hidden wonders of Buenos Aires

have lived in Palermo, BA for four months now but it continues to surprise me every time I head out of my apartment and wander the streets for a few hours. I enjoy wandering the streets, it is the best way to discover things, armed with my camera, the city is my oyster stuffed full of little gems, amusing concoctions and photo opportunities such as these two tree related incidents:

A tree inside a paint shop...

The chaos caused by a fallen tree on Guruchaga, Argentines love to stand and stare.

Or this Holy ceramic tile shop and this fine "vinatge" car:

Over the past two years I have grown an interest for capturing street art from across the world. After two trips to Spain and Portugal, I cam back with a pictural collection of some really cool pieces of art that were found down darkened alleys, high up on busy shopping streets, hidden away by your feet, bright colourful, unavoidable monsters or whole houses decorated in a very unique style.

After wandering around Buenos Aires I discovered there is some excellent street art to be found here too just on the street and I am not talking "te amo Juan" but art en la calle. I was thinking it would really interesting to for someone to integrate GPS with digital cameras, streamlining the Flickr techno revoltion of photography with place. For examples it would be ace to digitally map the locations of pieces of street art and create almost virtual tours where the city is a gallery and the streets its walls. However, this would take away the joy of just stumbling across street art, I love walking down a street and spotting on a corner a mural, or a stencil, something different which has effort but no artist, no preconcpetions just an image on a street corner. Who knows, I beleive Flickr has an application to map your photos manually so I think I am going to do this for what I have so far of BA so if anyone is living in BA and reading this, or indeed, if anyone is interested in street art, check out my Flick folder: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lowflyingowl/sets/72157605918614351/

Super Furry Animal

Also check out Kuildoosh (in my links section) a fine worldy site for all things street art.

The Country and The City

November is a lovely month in Buenos Aires, full of sunshine, blue skies, green leaves and agreeable temperatures. On Wednesday I went to watch Scotland vs Argentina in a wee bar, only a friendly game but it was Maradonna's first game in charge and football is practically religious here! (see church of Maradonna.) Couldn't decide who to support, I am English, Argentina's natural enemy, Scotland's perhaps more natural enemy, but I lived in Glasgow for two years and now I am living in Buenos Aires! Por Favor! I went for bonnie Scotland (the underdog factor threw it - turns out it was a deserved title), they lost 1-0 and the match was dull made moreso by the porrón de Quilmes and the sunshine. The most exciting moment was a heated argument between two Argentines and a door, of which the argentine came off worse (punching a door!?)


I will remember November for A Tale of Two Cities or The Country and the City, (literary blogging.) Escaped to a little town south of the city called Tandil, tranquility, hills, lakes, dusty streets and buses with change! Oh and a very odd obsession with excercise, joggers everywhere, even the local parks were replaced by workout stations, bizarre but quite nice to sit and stuff your face with comida rica while someone stumbles past covered in sweat and panting. Yum? It was relieving to escape the rumblin' tumblin' city life but also a good contrast to return and dive into Creamfields, there aint no Creamfields in Tandil. 10 hours of music, splendiferous DJs, crowds of enthusiastic (mostly over-enthusiastic....) party goers and a very fragile Sunday spent in bed. Well worth it sooo a little review?

VS

Bajofondo Tango Club - Electronic Tango live beats, bandoleon, double bass and passionate singing oh and an appearance by the singer from Soda Stereo (que sé yo?!) they went wild...

Hernan Cattaneo (un pocito) - BA's biggest techno export, now living in Europe, sounded good but we were a little preoccupied...

Apparat - Excellente, probably my highlight, lots of interesting beats, not down the line techno, of course all technologicalied up, apple, controllers, vj, etc. Played out Way Out, an absolute tuune! Me at the front, alone for the most, dancing myself into a whirlwind, m m ch m m ch m m ch. Also ended with Let Your Love Go and morphed into some big ole fashioned bass and 140bpm style dubstep which seemed to push the soundsystem to it's limits and the BA crowd to its dancing limits. "Como bailamos?!" Heavy :)

Simian Mobile Disco - Main stage, the two UK electro geeks brough their whole station of twiddles, wires and lights to the stage, running around tweaking, nodding and lauching sounds. Crowd not really deep into it but I thought they were spot on. Hustler and It's The Beat were big but best moment was I Believe...that is a TUNE and check the remix by Joker. Yum?

Booka Shade - German veterans were not as expected. I had heard In White Rooms courtesy of Ellen Alien on her The Other Side of Berlin album (recommended!) and Charlotte remixed by Dubfire which is pure fire but their live show was amusing. yer man on the left had an electric drum kit and mic and was seemingly there to get the crowd going. "You all know this one!" "Buenos Aiiiiiiiiires lets goooooooooooo!" T'other standind in a boxed in electronic hub with buttons, mac n so on. Very strange but the crowd was got going and let go, dancing away. In White Rooms was spectacular! Managed to find Chris, a Venezuelan guy I had met in Portugal through CouchSurfing but was living in Montevideo, Uruguay and visiting BA for Creamfields, no small feat in a crowd of 100,000 people! Ended up as me, Pamela and Chris for the rest even though we had arrived as like 15 people...

Modeselektor - Only one half of the Berlin bass monsters. Saw them in Glasgow which was mental show, the two of them, bass, champagne and all those phat tunes. Phat is a very appropraite word for Modeslektor but at Creamfields there was a pretty small, quite reserved crowd and only one half, seemingly pissed, standing on the table spilling champagne and ocasionally pressing some buttons. Still, destroyed it somewhat and did a funny cameo of their new Bjork vs Anthony (Johnsons fame) tune. Got a bit much though at like 3am, 7 hours after arriving...so we left before the end for refreshments.

Gui Boratto - The end of the end of the night. At this stage lacking energy, despite the five super hi energy drinks (probably about the only person not using something "else" to keep going) Some strange sights at an electronic music night in BA, drug related no doubt...a thing where they all have some kind of cream and just rub it in their hands?! Ocassional touching of each others heads and backs, some kind of sensation thing. Que sé yo? So Gui...the man, a producer who I have loved since I started getting into electronic music. He was DJing with a Mac, abelton I presume? All very smooth but seemed very long and at times a little too cut up. Pity he was on last, would have appreciated it more in a fitter state but still his own tunes when dropped were wooo! To cap it off he had to play one song and he did. Beautiful Life, his anthem. Not a bad way to finish Creamfields, Beautiful Life, 6am, tent full of over-excited dancers after some 10 hours of dancing. Phew?



Uni is over, work is over. I am spending my days appreciating the city. A friend who just left told me I have to make the most of my time here and she was dam right. Viste che boludo! Trip to Tigres:



Museo Xul Solar (what a man!), San Telmo, Palermo...etc..etc...Off to some art galleries again soon. Made some good music progress, been producing tunes for a while here using crappy headphones and evenc rappier speakers which creak at the mere thought of SubBass. Made it a little difficult but the ideas just keep flowing and I even finished some tracks that I am, dare I say it, happy with?! Who knows...just have to master...mastering them and voila send it to the world! Here is one I call Phased and Confused (unmastered and @ 192kbps):

http://www.zshare.net/audio/51663705e582903b/

Move on

The sun has arrived in Buenos Aires! The weekend has been scorching, strange to associate hot, sunny weather with October, never mind the heat of summer with December? Christmas with blue skies and the chance of a tan? Lo que sea!

A rather strange statue of a bull but mira! blue skieees!

It has been a few weeks and indeed I am nearing the end of the semester, the end of work and the end of the house. It is the end of a mini era, part I of Buenos Aires is coming to a close. As is always the case, it has gone so quick, nearing November?! I remember the days of thinking and praying for the mystical opportunity of going to BA, "Yeh going to study in BA next year, touch wood!" Wood was touched and here I am! Currently planning, or thinking about planning, a big trip, November to March is holiday time! I will stay here in November, taking some little weekend jaunts away to various places but spending the time getting to know the city, which will be good. December off to Patagonia con los viejos and then the trip will continue solo up north to Bolivia, Peroo and Brazil, hopefully, need to start planning for seriousnessly.

I am currently considering my first escape from the city for a while, it is getting to me a little, brought up on t' country air n all that! I long for countryside and peaaaaaace! That is one thing about this city, it is a long way from escapism, not like glasgow a wee jaunt into the hills and fresh air. The buses, cars, heat and noise gets to you every now and again. Thinking la sierra de Córdoba..mountains! green! clean rivers! fresh air!



On another note, these past two weeks have seen me actually doing some uni work! Also been carrying on working like 18 hours a week so been a bit heavy. The argentine education system is a little different from what I am used to, or at least it is at USAL. Everything depends on the class and the teacher, deciding the way the course will be assessed and there are no real "official exams", as all the classes are quite small, all the exams just happen in the class hour. I had my first partial, like a mini exam, last Tuesday for History of Art. I thought it went terribly, for one, the whole class left after about half an hour, of a two hour class, and left me alone with the teacher halfway through the second question, feeling somewhat bemused and panicky. I asked the teacher and she just said, oh it is fine just continue until you are ready, we have plenty of time, so I continued, in a rushed manner, and scribbled what I knew down in no particular order. Turns out I got a 9/10?! I think she was being kind to me due to my englishness or maybe argentines are lazier than me?! Earlier in the day I found out my mark for the argentine literature course: 8/10. All good so far considering I only need a 4, not even sure if I need that, Glasgow didn't really do a job of informing me of what I had to do: bad idea!

Just getting over a small bout of what is presumed to be rubella, a poxy chicken like thing which includes a rash, temperature, aching joints and comes with a complementary cold, which is the only remaining sign, oh and the itching of non existent rash, "it's all in your head!" That may be the case but it still itches and feels satisfying to itch, I likened it to smoking before, I know it is bad but I can't help it and it feels better afterwards (itching of course...!) Managed to miss two exams, Portuguese, but hopefully can rearrange them. It also resulted in the second fund boost for the argentine private health system from the Robin Perkins illness foundation. A total of nearly $400pesos, nearly £80, pfft. bluddy german hospital.

While the world seems to fall deeper and deeper into a pit of financial uncertainty each and every day, Argentina is also feeling the heat and doesn't seem to be doing itself any favours. I have discovered that people do not like Kirchner II, she is unpopular on a lot of fronts, well, that is the impression I have so far. A quick survery: my boss thinks she is generally bad for the future of the country and the whole region, the man who cut my hair said he didn't know anyone who admitted having voted for her and people were fed up, christ, even her vice president voted against her! Not exactly a vote of confidence. Her latest move which has riled investors and economists, was the nationalisation of private pension funds, a move to free up capital for the govt. I am no economist but a "private source" (Jason) told me that private pension funds are key to keeping an economy going by attracting investment, Kristina says the govt needs the money more and the investment funds were just a money drain in light of the worldwide crisis. It is being seen as an obvious way of raising capital for the govt, which is seriously lacking, in order to help pay off some of it's quite moutnainous debts to the world. The stock prices fell by 9% in light of the move but some people seem to be saying it might be a good thing in the long run, allowing for state pension funds alongside an optional private pension fund which workers could opt in or out of, similar to what Brazil has. Brazil is numero uno in economy round these parts, a big player for the future so I hear :)


Now if economy isn't your thing, I apologise but it seems we can't avoid it these days. Watched a nice simple, quite amusing little BBC video on the whole crisis yesterday, kind of a crisis for dummies: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7688308.stm. The end of the weekend, the beginning of the weekbegninning :(

A Day in the Life

This blog post was called a day in the life but it is turning into a life in a day.

I am in the middle of a thunderstorm. Rain, humidity, thunder and lightening. Music from penguins or proud robots or something is spluttering out of the old samsung "beatbox," it really is like an old school, hike it onto your shoulder and parade around the streets piece of kit, blasting out some public enemy. just had a strange encounter with a dutch girl in the corridor. Friend of roy, new flatmate, roy isn't here, she is going to wander around for half an hour and come back...ok..its raining.


Well, this will be a collection of memories from the past few weeks in BA, I do not remember the time or the inspiration or indeed the place. though it may be mentioned. They catalogue, kind of like a broken up diary, some moments in the past month or so. It is October. Time fliess.

Part I: Spring and Snow
It is snowing, it is spring. Though autumn may be arriving in the northern hemisphere it is attempting to make an appearance here, the leaves are scattering from the trees and falling like snow onto the street. It is pretty and inspired a song.

As a certain family member mentioned to me yesterday this blog seems to mention food quite a lot. It seems to be that I am either eating or thinking about eating or remembering something I ate while I am writing. So today's food is Italian; I ate a pizza and dank a coffee. Am sat in the pizza place with Pamela and we are being very anti-social, abusing the free internet (three hours and counting!) It has been a while since the last "real" update so here I will try again. ) Time is passing like clouds on a very windy day(!), if I am not careful I will miss my birthday. (chanson)

Part II - Maté

"I am in neeof a maté, it's 8pm on a wednesday night. My head is filled with figures, GDPs, UNHWIs, AuM, FDI, IFC...."

That was how it was on the day it was, when I do not recall but obviously the maté didn't work, or the writing of those acronyms sent me to sleep. I think it was a particularly eyelid drooping night after a particularly figure filled day.

Global business is not my forte.

Part II - The Office

I am writing this from the office with another cup of tea, a plate with the crumbs remaining from the first cheese toasty of the day, it is raining outside and the garden looks particularly splendid, even the soaked stone figure, which I personally think is grotesque (I never liked those "classical" naked people made of stone, especially in your garden..purrlease!) While making the latest brew I got thinking that the brews here are just terrible. bad water, bad teabags, bad milk; bad. Yet, force of habit means I just keep on putting on that kettle and supping tea. I also got thinking...(edit: don't know what happened to the "thinking" part)

"How are you finding the Latin American high net worth market this year?"

"Hoy es no te has olvidando de algo?"

Insert picture of "delicious" gnocchi. An advert I glanced at for today: apparently it is gnocchi day. Don't know why, but a good reason to eat gnocchi, which I probably wont do, not having any gnocchi.

Part III - The End of the Day

It is the end of the day, I am sat on a speaker in the kitchen, outside it is dark and rainy inside all I can hear is clicks and Pamela laughing/expletives/singing, and a little French being spoken. This is life after work.


Part IV - The beginning of the weekend

So this is now, whever now is for you or for me but it is some kind of now, I guess it was all now. This blog is turning into some kind of free-jazz, all out Borges, free word association game. Soon I will just choose words from my day and arrange them in a random order to give you a general view, a sentiment, a sense of MY space and time.

Meanwhile in the real world it is October which means Novmeber is next which means this month is going to be a little manic. Lots of essays in Spanish, lots of "classes" and alongside work, my failed/dogged journalism attempts and my desire to write lots of music (i.e. spend hours staring at ableton and arranging sound waves,) it is going to be a busy few weeks. As with storms and their quiet aftermath I think November is going to be comparatively tranquilo. No more classes and a month without having to get up early (depending on whether I continue to work). Sigh of relief please. On that note; work.

I have now been working nearly a month, it has been really interesting, certainly learnt a lot about a lot and it has given me a new perspective on the world. I have experienced the accents accross South America from Bloivia to Colombia to Argentina....."

Now, for real: October 11

There ends the freeflow bloging. Here begins my today. I got paid last week and so today decided to splash out and take a wander into the heart of Palermo. An unwise idea for a recently paid young student willing to indulge and weak when tempted with pretty things. Luckily I didn't have to go far. I stumbled into an ace shop called rethink. Lots of really original and excellent clothing design, inspired by music and more. I bought two t-shirts and a jumper. All cool-as.

It is October and I am 22 on Tuesday. Billy Bragg

Mucho Mas Que Medialunas

There is a little café on Calle Thames, right around the corner from my flat, I can't remeber the name but it is very firendly spot: simple, old fashioned and brown. It does however sell rather excellent brownies and they even once sold me some pitta bread though they don't even sell pitta breads! On it's sign outside it has a slogan which reads "Mucho mas que medialunas" literally translated as "Much more than half-moons!" Medialunas being croissants (they are shaped like half moons.)

It made me smile to myself one morning on my way to work and continues to do so each and every day. I decided it should be enshrined in music. I have thrown some tracks together (I say thrown but I mean strenuously constructed!) in some sort of topographical musical fashion. It is a short-ish mix of new music, old music and reinterpreted music collected from around the globe (I counted 11 countries, inlcuding the 'featured' ones.) Alongside croissants I was also inspired by Zizek's urban soundz. Thanks Zizek.

It is in RAR stylee, with a tracklist and a nice picture :) If you cannot open RAR you need to get with the times and pay a visit here:

WinRar

So here it is: 11 countires in 45 minutes, 15 tracks, 61MB, today, joy of internet, you, me, listen, enjoy.

Thanks

Mucho Mas Que Medialunas

FILE NAME: Mucho Mas Que Medialunas.rar

FILE SIZE: ~61.32 megabytes

P.S> I am writing a blog post, like a real blog post, without croissants or hip-hop (almost...) It will arrive soon. Watch that space, or this one or space in general it might appear there.

God and Hot-Dogs

On my many journeys on the buses of Buenos Aires (think I have settled on my favourite: 37, it is green, quick and there are lots of them so it is never really busy!) I have had my finest blog inspirations; musings that belong somewhere, here?

Two things that have brought to my attention by these unsuspecting Porteños are religion and Super Panchos. Super Panchos are basically hot-dogs which are sold in most little kioskos alongside cigarettes and chewing gum and religion is one of those funny little human inventions to make our dreary lives a little more exciting. Quite a juxtaposition Super Panchos and God, I will adress the question of their religious status later but for now I move on to the man himself, or rather his houses.

I only noticed this week just how common it is to see people crossing themselves in the street as they pass by a church. They also do it on the buses and many of the buses themselves have crosses or pictures of saints emblazoned on the doors. I have seen children, men in suits, ageing but refitted fashionistas, beggars all crossing themselves at every church, everyone is at it. This may not strike some people as odd but for me it stood out. It is something I had not experienced before, perhaps it is a common. It is a reminder that the modern, plastic, fashion obsessed, partying Argentina also has time for God.

Another God who apparently guides the way. Jah!

Now then, moving swiftly on, and segueying rather nicely from god to hot-dogs (God=dog backwards - chance?) Super Panchos. Super Panchos are just great! They cost $2.50(pesos), about 50p, they are quick, come with little crispy potato bits, sauces and are perfect for a quick lunch on the run between lectures or work (as I seem to be doing quite a lot at the moment.) There is of course the small risk of food poisoning but it is best to consider this as an exciting risk which makes them only more enticing! I have started to judge Super Panchos depending on pancho quality, quality of bread, crips, amount of sauce etc. Eating one may well be a little far from a religious experience but I remain hopeful that there exists the perfect Super Pancho, God only knows?(!)

Now that really is a super pancho, all the way from Boulder, California!

It just occured to me that there is another thing which has been getting my goat this past week (didn't know I had a goat until this went and took it away from me. I miss the goat I never had!) God dam monedas! Small change! Every day I desperately hunt out small change, eyeing up supermarkets, prices of fruit, chewing gum, everything just to make up the magical 90 centavos for the bus journey. It is almost forbidden to ask for change for notes in shops, a definite faux pas, so you have to be smarter. It is a battle between consumer and shop owner, each knowing the canny tricks and each trying to outsmart the oposition. Water priced at $2, sneakily hiking the price of a sandwhich up 20c so as to be able to give a note in change, pretending you don't have that 10 cents stuffed in your other pocket, "ai perdon no tengo nada". What I don't understand is why? Why don't the buses have a smart little card system, a monthly, yearly thing? Why doesn't the government create more coins (plastic ones would suffice! Though I fear I may have just demonstrated my ignorance in regards to world finance, its ok, not like I work in "the sector" or anything...) At times this country is ridiculous! Es una boludesa!

$1.50, that's one and a half bus journeys! Only 30c to go...

Anyhow, a few bits of news from this side of the ocean, or from the other side (depends which ocean and where you are???) I have a job, as a financial journalist's assistant (he also writes pieces on news etc in Argentina/LatAm) and before you jump to the conclusion that I am a money hungry, capitalist bastard, it is all quite interesting! Lots of new words (english and spanish!) and lots of phone conversations, oh and I will earn a bit of money which is nice. It does, however, mean I am working 18 hours a week and that I have to work from 9am Mon Tue and Thurs. Good experience though! The other bit of news is I am hopefully arranging something journalistically/musically related here...All a bit up in the air, have to wait and see.

Saw this sign and it made me laugh: like the brand name for a whisky from Skye.

Unza Unza Time!

It is 6:35 (PM!) and I have just eaten a bowl of porridge, as my breakfast, it was the only food I had that didn't involve me leaving the house. Sundays in Buenos Aires are tranquilo, when you get to actually see them...they are also quite tranquilo spent asleep or in comparison to Saturday nights spent at a fiesta balcánica.

I had never realised before I went couchsurfing in Portugal that Balkan music is a worldwide "alternative" phenomenon and that it is mainly due to a certain Emir Kusturica and the scores from his films, arranged by Goran Bregović. I was aware of the name but am still yet to watch any of his films, guess I found another route into Balkan music....Yet, here, as in Portugal when I went to see the Boban Marković Orchestra or when I spent time on Joanna's floor in Braga, when discussing Balkan music, Kusturica just can't keep himself quiet! (I used to imagine it would be spelt Costa Rica and still would quite like it to be but alas...) Last night was testament to the mans influence on Balkan music around the world. We are 7255.70 Miles from Sarajevo (http://www.mapcrow.info/) but every month a group of enthusiasts throw a wild party, here in Buenos Aires, to celebrate the equally wild music from the Balkans. It goes a little something like this: un-za, un-za, un-za, un-za, yabilldabillydobblydab. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpO93jR4kL4

We experienced our first Fiesta Bubamara last night. Though it included an unprecedented trip to the city of La Plata (capital of provincial Buenos Aires and 40 minutes in combi), leaving at 11pm and not returning till 9am, valío la pena! (well worth it!) Thus today has been a write off. It was fantastic and I had a ball! The atmosphere was incredible, for nigh on 6 hours the crowd raced, bumped, crashed, spilt and pogoed to equally racey, bumpy, crashing music from Kusturica, Boban Marcovic, Balkan Beat Box and co. Have to admit I feel a little bruised and battered after getting rather involved in the swirling mess of people. Lots of big circles and swinging legs, smiling faces and just a healthy atmousphere to lose yourself in! I have no photos and if I did I think they would mainly involve shapes and colours. Instead here is a photo of a cool machine which drags rubbish out of lakes. Enjoy.

Machine dragging rubbish from the lake in the Bosque de Palermo.

Away from the Buenos Aires branch of the Serbian cultural appreciation group, they tell me Spring is around the corner. About five people this past week informed me that there is some kind of weather phenomenon that comes from the north before the 30th of August, bringing a few days of humidity and rain signaling the end of winter. I can deal with that. So September has crept up, the month I would normally associate with the beginning of the end of summer and with going back to school/college/uni. Instead it signals brighter times ahead! Opposite to those poor Northern Hemispherians (sorry :( )
To celebrate this newly arrived Spring I have spent a few days in the Bosques de Palermo (a big, French inspired, complex of parks, lakes and pathways) They are rammed on the weekends with people on various wheel supported devices and with groups of Maté sipping young-uns, families, couples and the occasional collection of multi-national inter-cambiones such as ourselves. (for example, last night we had representatives from the UK, France, Finland, Poland, Mexico and Columbia.) You cannot go to the park without maté, I have a maté and am a converted matéista. but more on that later.Unfortunately I foolishly smashed my thermo and need to buy another. :( I just got back from watching The Royal Tenenbaums directed by Wes Anderson, really excellent, funny and very odd (in a really delightful way), I enjoyed it a lot.Oh and I just read about Kusturica's latest film, it is about Maradona, an Argentine national hero!

Maté, Thermo and Yerba!

Mestizo

Here is a link to a little techno-ish (avoiding the buzz word: minimal...) mix I recently completed. I call it mestizo! Disfruta!

http://www.zshare.net/audio/17426113d31549ec/


Tracklisting

1) Matias Aguayo/Digital Border - Minimal/Grey Rose
2) Christian Szer - Radio Glitch
3) Kaliber/Simon Baker - 19 b1/U
4) Chaim - Wednesday June
5) Pig and Dan - Moths
6) Stephan Bodzin - Bremen
7) The Field - The Little Heart Beats so Fast
8) Minilogue - Carnival
9) Ricardo Villalobos - Ichso
10) Agnes/Autechre - Hi Murda/Eggshell
11) Heartthrob/Gui Boratto - Signs/Gate 7
12) 2562 - Techno Dread
13) Zombi - Eski Flu
14) Martin Buttrich/M.I.A. - Hunted/Far Far
15) Daft Punk - Technologic
16) Booka Shade - Charlotte (Dubfire Remix)
17) Radiohead - Weird Fish/Arpeggi

Buses, Beauty, Brazil and Bandoleons!

I have returned from a weekend away in the tropics, a four day excursion to Iguazu Falls, a huge complex of waterways ending in an amphitheatre of waterfalls, cascades and wonder! As you may have realised, the Argentina/Brazil border is not exactly "just outside" BA, in fact it is around a 20 hour bus journey so for a weekend trip it was a little epic, a mini adventure.

Ruinas de San Ignacio

We were, a principio, four; me, Laura, Fanny and Pamela from our flat and we met Wioleta and her two French flat mates up north. Seven in total. On this mini adventure the first important esson we learnt was that Argentinian buses are the bees knees. There is a huge variety of companies, lines, hours, and types. We opted for "cama" with Via Bariloche, a reputable company with shiny green logos. It was amazing, a huge comfy seat at the front of a double decker bus with views, blankets, pillows, dinner (well...plane like food...but with wine!) breakfast, ridiculous American action films/ridiculous American romance/feelgood films and a healthy slice of late night cumbia and Luis Miguel. The journey was a like a dream, I slept a lot.

Iguazu from Argentina

We arrived into the town of Posadas in the afternoon of Friday, much later than expected, a bridge had collapsed somewhere and we had to go an alternative route and an hour later, after a small bus related argument, we arrived at the Jesuit ruins (on a different bus). They reminded me of the Mayan ruins in Mexico but more...jesuity I guess. Lots of grass and temperaturas comparable with a British summer. Ridiculous. After a few more bus related issues and some time at the side of a large road in the pitch dark, we arrived late evening to Puerto Iguaza, the small, dusty town on the Argentinian side of the Rio Iguazu and slept until morn.

Argentinian side otra vez

Saturday we saw the Argentinian side and Sunday from Brazil, the river marks the border so both compete for their slice of the immense tourist pie. Despite the well marked out trails, the queues for your spot on the railings overlooking another view and the rather theme park like set up, you cannot fail to be impressed by the sheer power of the place. As a spectacle it is incredible, it puts mankind in its place. Nature rules. Amazing to imagine the very first humans to set eyes on it, indigenous no doubt (the name comes from the Gurani for Big and Water..simple but quite true), but easier to imagine the first Spaniards/Portuguese explorers/conquistadores/invaders stumbling accross this place. Here is a place for which the word awesome should be reserved, not as a throw away word for anything remotely cool or useful. (see Eddie Izzard :) ) We saw a durante of Toucan's (well...2) , a wake/venue/committee of vultures, a rainbow of butterflies, a clew of worms, a crocodile (only one :( but we did see it twice so perhaps it counts as a float of crocodiles) and a gaggle of tourists! (collective nouns!!)

Crocodile watching tourists or tourists watching crocodile?

Photos do not really do it justice, but I took plenty, despite foolishly not charging my camera, lots of speed snapping. On Sunday we took the opportunity to cross into Brazil, first time but hopefully not the last! It was different, the falls had fewer walkways and were further away but a rather excellent perspective and the photo opps were rife, as were the worms by the path...
The town/city Foz de Iguazu was like a ghost town, everything closed for Sunday, it did not appear too impressive as a first impression of Brazil BUT we found a little bar and had coco de leite, a coconut milkshake, delicious. The language was hard to understand, lots of accidental graciasss instead of obrigados but amazing to hear it spoken, for real, in Brazil! Exciting times. Hostel was ok, like a hostel I guess, not much to tell.

Iguazu from Brazil

Monday we realised we had little left to do and that Puerto Iguazu is a town built on the falls (not
literally but how much more exciting the place would be if it was!) We did however visit the point where the three countries, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. The two rivers join (Parana and Iguazu) and the three countries are separated along this natural border, there are three obelisks, each painted with the flat of the respective country. That is about it. For me, it was exciting to feel and think that I am actually standing looking at these countries I have seen on maps for so long, Paraguay! Brazil! Argentina! I keep forgetting where I am (once again not literally, like on a small, day-to-day scale but on a rather bigger scale, e.g. Latin America!) For me it is a dream come true and I intend to make the most of it!

The sun sets on our trip...well I took this on the first day but whatever, the sun did set on our last day, I can guarantee you that!

We returned Monday eve/Tuesday morn, mas rapido and with the same sleep filled, violent/wine drenched (stupid films!) luxury of the Argentinian buses and came to the conclusion that for a weekend break, Iguazu aint bad. Suerte! Back to classes and BA life again, though I missed a class today and I keep getting all mixed up with times and dates, sure it will work itself out, just need a little more motivation to get up early and do..stuff! In other news, we just got back from a free electronic-tango concert, electronic being the guitar/bass and occasional laptop fiddlings. It was OK, lovely to see/hear the Bandoleon/Piano action live but the band (Narcotango) were a little proggy and they had a VERY cheesy lead guitarist, think lots of picking and needless excess, however, it was intersting stuff. It was part of the Tango Festival which is on here until the 24th, there is always stuff on! Hopefully check something else out. Tomorrow I have to go to migration and plead my case to be allowed to remain for the year, bluddy hope so the amount of paper and stupid bureaucracy I have had to go through! Watch this space!

Narcotango performing live, en vivo!

Meat and Minimal

Monday morning after the Sunday evening in Buenos Aires. It is humid and cloudy and our cleaner just told me it is bound to rain with the humidity. She just finished tidying what can only be described as a quilombo (a real mess). This quilombo was a result of my first asado (argentine BBQ). It began around 5 or 6pm with the preparation and the purchasing of all the meat/salad/bread etc. While all this was happening we strolled off into Palermo for some browsing of the biig weekly street market they have around Plaza Serano. Hoping that upon our return there would be a plentiful harvest of food to be served up, almost like a hotel! We ended up in an Irish pub and I sampled my first Otro Mundo beer (apparantly the best beer in BA) It was faar superior to Quilmes (Tennents equivalent) and we even got to sample the local Guac.

Apologies to vegetarians around the world.

Returned home to find the fire well under way and this delightful pile of cow in the kitchen. We have our very own asado (like a big stone oven on the terrace) and we also had our very own asado chef for the occasion, a friend of Francis' who was some mafia-esq meat king ( el jefe as they would say here). He arranged everything and cooked everything and was very proud. Asado's are clearly a very masculine sport, man with fire cook fresh killed meat (more or less...). Fine by me as a hungry guest. There was a mountain of meat, a cauldron of salad, crates of beer, wine, bread, sauces and a quarry of hungry guests. There was my first asado, tasty, tasty beef and after the third round people began to tire and slump in their chairs. What would Morrisey say? (WWMS) Ice cream delivered to the door, (for free after waiting around 1 n half hours!) and then to bed feeling something like a meat filled balloon.

El Jefe con su carne

On to the second section of this post: MNML. Had my first taste of the Minimal/Techno scene in BA and it left me slightly with mixed feelings. To begin with I got to meet up with a girl of Couch Surfing who writes about electronic music. Went to her flat and met lots of her argentinian friends who spoke like lightening (beer+spanish=lack of understanding) Can't concentrate at all when they speak fast and I have drunk a little. Anyhoo, around 1am we left for the boliche, it was called Crobar (international I am told) The good point, it was free! Sam had entradas para todos :) Bad point, it was swish as hell, sickly slick, like those super clubs you read about but don't believe exist, filled with equally slick, siwsh, sickly clientes. Beautiful and clean. Plastic People. We got to the door and they say ID, we show it, "sorry, he cannot come in, needs to be over 24" We were like, what?! It took some arguing, persuading, Sam knowing someone inside the club (urrr PR people...they exist all over the world!) and the fact that on the tickets it said 18+. 18+3=21, before we were allowed in. Once inside, it was all shiny, lights, bars, beautiful people and technomusic. We forgot about the surroundings and got about dancing/waiting for Swayzak (they are British! I never knew!) They came on and tbh, it was a little disappointing, sure thing they dropped some rather excellent tunes (one with vocals that I need to find!) but I do believe they were a little worse for wear and some of the mixes were definately questionable! I drank 1 drink, it cost $35 pesos (like £6: vodka and red bull). Now, that is expensive in the UK. Oh my. In the end however, it was fun, lots of fun and hopefully next time will be better :) Sam tells me Pacha (the best club in BA) is far better than here and there is also Cocoliche and a host more! Suerte!


I am working on a MNML mix, as I always seem to be(!) but this one is casi finished. Watch this space por favor. The words have come to a halt for now, though I have a tooonnee more.

From Cumbia to Carets

I have been here two weeks now which has flown by, as time always does! I started my uni courses this week (or rather attempted to...) trying out a few classes and orientating myself. The flat is still very cool, had some fun nights out with the francesas Laura and Fanny and Pamela de Mexicoo. Another new flatmate just arrived, Sofia from Germany, making it 7 in the flat + Francis' girlfriend and then another french girl who I am yet to meet. Loco but good, everyone speaks Spanish and are all de muy buena onda (though don't really speak to/see Amanda, the American girl, much)

Our terrace in the flat.

Last night was the first BA hotspot tick, NiceTo Club, as in Calle Niceto Vega, not like Nice to Meet you club...Anyhoo, it has a reputation for putting on exciting music from live acts, from Battles to Bill Callahan and club nights, such as last night. It is about a 5 min taxi ride away. Thursday night is an institution at Niceto. It is split into 2 rooms, one called Zizek, a mezcla of urban soundz and the other half is called Club 69, a huuge electro-techno extravaganza with a stage, dancers, lights, muuucha gente and so on..They couldn't be more different. Zizek was cooler, Club 69 was intense, I dont think I have ever been to a club night like it...

Zizek also introduced me to what is "hip" in Buenos Aires: Cumbia. It is from the streets of Columbia but seems to have spread all over Latin America. A very strange thing indeed, it is treated as hip-hop, undrground and from the streets. I recall Mr Optimo telling me about a friend who went to BA and discovered all the young kids were going to little undergournd clubs and listening to this lurching, slow, sleazy Cumbia music which was the new hip-hop. What distinguishes it is the unmistakeable Cumbia rhythm, it is a slow kind of shuffling latino hip hop. The cumbia that is cool here is from the poorer areas, similar to the UK grime scene or US hip-hop I guess. I am only on the tip of the iceberg at the moment and don't know anything but what I heard and was told. Check out the previews here of some stuff: http://zzkrecords.com/album/ZZK_Sound_Vol._1_-_Cumbia_Digital

We stuck to Zizek, had a shuffle for a few hours and left around 3/4 at which time there was still a biig cue to get in and the place was packed. All this for $7 pesos entrance (about £1). Not bad. Tonight is another kettle of fish! Krobar for Swayzak!! $50 pesos! But..if he were in the Sub Club in Glasgow....the same methinks. Vamos a ver! Seems BA is incredibly happenin and I need to pace myself!

In other news...seems fame can't help but follow me around :p After my brief spell as a Cosmopolitan contributer, my stint on Radio 1 and a few chance meetings with some famous musicians I have once again stumbled into something. Went to Bomba del Tiempo on my first day in the new house and met a chap in the street called Adrian. Aaanyhoo, to cut a long story short, he found out I was English, and this could talk like an englishman...and asked me if I wanted to do some "voiceovers" for some sort of show with people wearing maskes? At this point I was adapting to the language and he speaks like a true Argentinian, at times impossible, I was confused. I just said sure, here is my email add and thought nothing of it, might be fun?

So, few days later I get a message, hey we are meeting up to discuss the voiceovers, this time, this place, be cool if you came along. It was about a 5 min walk from the house so I went along, with Pamela for some support, and arrived at this house, looked just like a house. We enter and all becomes clear. It is the office for a group of young argentinians who work on various products, their main one being a comedy magazine called Revista Nah! (http://www.revistanah.com.ar/) An underground satirical magazine with silly things such as "Cow falls in love with mechanical bull!" and "Russian man arrested with 150 Mamushkas, 300 Mamushkas, 600 Mamushkas, 1200 Mamushkas". Silly but veery funny (if you can get past all the Argentinian slang!) They have produced a pilot in Spanish for a comedy series calld The Carets and wanted to make the same, except in English. It is a sketch show based on famous characters, kinda like Dead Ringers but not really...All the characters are real people but with masks of famous people and voiceovers afterwards.


So I did some voices for them, recorded them on Wednesday night in a very swish recording studio, vamos a ver! Afterwards the guys were like, "look man we really appreciate you doing this for us, if you ever need anything in Palermo just let us know, we have like a good community vibe going on and we all kinda help each other out" Ok cool, so now I am "in"? Sounds good, perhaps I will look them up later. They were all really sound and really enthusiastic and hopefully the pilot will go well, they are looking to send it out to the US and the UK, i.e. Channel 4 or BBC3, now that would be cool. Anyhow, check it out here: http://www.thecarets.com/

Ya esta.

Che Boludo!

I did not realise up until now the scale of this city. Measuring population is always a tricky excercise, city population, metropolitan population, where does it end, where does it begin? As Mr Wikipedia informs us: "The question of which are the world's largest cities is a complex one, to which there is no single correct answer, simply because there are many different ways of defining a "city"


Momentarily, however, I am not interested in the concept of a "city" but hard figures and league tables. On a metropolitan basis, Buenos Aires is 17th in the world, London lying in 18th and Beijing in 19th. As a nice little comparison, Hope does not have a figure on Wikipedia (though Castleton was 750 in 2000) Glossop was listed as 32,000 in 2001, Glasgow: 2.1 million, Manchester: 4.2 million and finally Buenos Aires weighs in with a cruiserweight 13.2 million. The whole of Scotland is around 5 million.


I am now living in a flat somwhere in that sprawl. To be more exact, the Barrio is called Palermo Viejo, not to be confused with Palermo Soho, Hollywood, Alto, Chico or just Palermo. It is located in the north-west of the city.

This is the trendy, cutting edge, independent fashion district. Filled with plazas, bars, book shops, street art and trendy shops, which, seem to work on the principal that the fewer clothes or goods there are in the shop, the more expensive and desireable they are. Despite the rising inflation and the poverty of the city, Palermo seems to exist in a little bubble of comercial bliss. Though I have not yet really expereinced it, there are clearly some people in BA who make a lot of money.


I like it in Palermo. Despite the trendy, somewhat pretentious air that surrounds it, here is also where the bohemian types thrive, lots of little cafés, restraunts, boliches (clubs), bars, record stores, design practices, art gallerys etc. It is the place where things happen. The equivalent to Brooklyn, NY or Rue St Laurent etc, Montreal, Barri Gotic/Raval in Barcelona, Barrio Alto in Lisbon and so on. There is one in every city and it is usually the most interesting (for me anyhoo) area.


Unfortunately for me, Palermo is a long way from the USAL buildings, centred around Calle Callao y Cordoba, Tribunales/Recoleta area. It is about 45 minute walk from here. Luckily for me though, I am around 2 minutes from the transport hub of Palermo, Plaza Italia, a big sprawl of a roundabout bordered by green space and the huge exhibition hall. Nearly all bus lines heading in this direction trudge through the traffic at Plaza Italia, not to mention the subway line, which links me with the uni in one quick journey down linea D. Public transport here is good, easy to use and cheap. Especially the buses, carefully discovered through the invaluable Guia T, a guide to all bus routes in the whole city, using a big grid system to match up your departure and destination points. Journeys on both subway and bus are around 90cen or $1 (pes), cheap. I think I may even have conquered my fear of buses.


Tomorrow uni starts, we are given two weeks to choose what courses we want to take, attend classes, test the water before deciding upon 5 courses to register with. I get the feeling it is quite a different academic experience here, or so the international staff were desperate to press home. There is a lot of responsability on the individual students and there is a seemingly endless list of things we need to remember/do, places we need to be, paper we need to sort through. So far I am considering classes in Argentinian History, Literature, Portuguese, possible journalism, maybe art history and maybe politics. We will see after these two weeks. Also we are planning our first adventure outside of the city: Salta! Oh and last night was a good test of my spanish, a game of extreme pictionary (mimes, songs, drawing, plasticine) all in Argentinian. Many, many new words...some of which cannot be repeated on this page(!) I wonder if my list of new words sums up what I have been doing between posts? Psychoanalyse me.

New words:

• che boludo* ~ idiot (can be used friendly or nay..)
• boliche* ~ club
• blandito ~ soft
• desafinado ~ out of tune
• un mango* ~ 1 peso
• mariquitas* ~ ladybird
• me arde ~ it stings me (I cut my thumb..)
• pendejo* ~ kid
• pucho* ~ cigarette
• quilombo* ~ mess

*=Lunfardo

Portenito

I am not really sure what the point of a blog is but I have decided that I will attempt one, with perhaps at times randonly arranged nuggets of informations, snippets of thoughts, whippets of pictures and clips from my year as an honourary Porteño (one who lives by the port, that's me.)
For today I offer this introduction to life in the big city. Buenos Aires is at times a gurgling, splurting, traffic congested, grey clouded monster of a city. The cars and collectivos churn out huge clouds of smog and the city is shrouded. However, there is definately something else in the air (or water..some element) which makes it unique.


From the Argentinians I have met they are clearly proud of their uniqueness. They all tell me "we are unique, not like everyone else", unlike the rest of Latin America, even in Argentina it is unique, almost a country within a country. Buenos Aires is a city of immigrantes, everyone's grandparents or great grandparents flocked here from every corner of the globe, a southern equivalent to New York. An example: I met a Portena who had Portuguese, Northern Argentinian, Buenos Aires and Japanese roots.

Bueno, esta...That is a little thought bubble for today. On another note, it seems inflation is rising like mad. Last year you could buy a decent meal for about $5 pesos and now it is about $20. Prices are not too dissimilar to the UK, a cafecito is $7. Seems it is getting more expensive every day. I am no economist and don't really understand this but for the Argentinians it is real bad. Today, while in the locatorio (internet/phone/paper place) I got talking to an old couple who told "un dicho" or a saying in Argentina. Wages take the stairs, inflation takes the lift.


Another side note is the protesting nature of Argentinians. They love to protest about everything. At the moment their is a bus strike, no buses from 10pm to 5am in protest against the lack of security for drivers, ( a driver was stabbed by a drunk in a far barrio of BA). It is a Latin American thing my Peruvian housemate told me. Our advisors at USAL (the uni I am at) told us there are protests very often and qutie often they are violent and we should be wary. At least they are active!


I am learning lunfado, morfar=comer, copado=guay, mina=chica, laborar=trabajar, sueldo=wage, y está.