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