1649  Notes from Buenos Aires 19

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Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2003 12:15:17 -0500
From: Rick McGarrey <RICKMCG@FLASH.NET>
Subject: Notes from Buenos Aires 19

Ya' load sixteen tons and whatta' ya' get?
Another day older and deeper in debt!

Our cigarette smoke avoidance program involves a
strategy of going very early to the milongas, and then
leaving about half way through, when the air starts to
get thick. It works well, and it gives us a different
perspective on the whole scene, like going early to
watch the circus set up. None of this 'arrive
fashionably late and kiss your way around the room'
stuff for us. We are out there dancing while the
janitor is still sweeping the floors and putting
toilet paper in the bathrooms. We get to spend some
quality time with the DJs and the organizers as well,
because they are around and not very busy. We keep
seeing Orlando everywhere. He must be the busiest DJ
in town because we see him at Nino Bien and Sunderland
at night, and also at El Arranque, and Diego's milonga
in La Ideal in the afternoons. And he may be at
others. He's a good guy, and we've spent time talking
to him this year before people arrive. He has a new
clean look, with no goatee or pony tail, and he's lost
weight. No more Star Trek geek- he looks good. The
other day he got out and danced with us with a young
lady friend of his before the show got going. His
taste in music is not exactly like mine, but he does a
good job. I noticed he uses 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon' for
his cortina at Sunderland, and he's using Tennessee
Ernie Ford's 'Sixteen Tons' at La Ideal. It's been
about 25 years since I heard that one: 'When ya' see
me comin' better step aside! A lotta' men didn't and
a lotta' men died!'. It borders on the surrealistic
watching dignified portenos in coats and ties bopping
their way back to the tables to this music in La
Ideal. 'Desde el Alma' followed immediately
by 'Sixteen Tons'.

Orlando is very popular because he plays what people
like, and that's his job. Musical taste is very
personal, and while Alejandra loves Daniel at
Celia's, my favorite is Natucci at El Beso.
His 'Monton de Tango' is very popular with all the
heavy hitter milongueros, but in the past people have
sometimes had trouble understanding his music. He may
be an example of being too smart to be a DJ. He knows
too much, and besides, he is loco. He told me he has
identified over 700 danceable tangos, and his project
is to find, classify, and play even more of them for
the public. I say they aren't danceable, but he says
they are, and to prove it he sometimes sticks them on
at El Beso to see what will happen. He has an ear and
a way with cadences that really does allow him to
dance to them. I have filmed him doing it, and I have
learned more about cadence from him than anyone else
in the world. Here's what he does: He stands
perfectly still on the floor, and waits. He says it's
like waiting for a streetcar. Then, when he picks up
his rhythm, he grabs on and goes for a ride. Then, he
hops off and waits again. I have filmed him doing it,
and once you understand it, it is fascinating and
beautiful... but a lot of people think it's strange.
Of course Natu couldn't care less what anyone thinks,
and he hangs out with some very high level guys like
Tete and Gerard, who understand and respect him.
These guys often dance in series of 7, 9, 11, 13, and
even more, quicks. This means hitting beats and half
beats in a series. I had trouble understanding it for
a long time, because it is usually buried within
things that are linked together in complicated ways.
But after Natu demonstrated it, and I filmed it, it
began to make sense. Now I do it also, but I don't
pretend to be in their league. I love to dance this
way though, with long quick runs- when the music calls
for it. It's this kind of dancing that caused my big
crash at Sunderland (coming up). It opens up new
worlds, and it will definitely get you noticed. The
old dancers often ask about it, and even Michael
Walker likes it and has asked a lot about it. It's
very different from his style, but he has asked us
several times to come and show it in his classes.

The Saturday night milonga at Sunderland is supposed
to start at 10pm, but we arrived so early last night
that the big basketball gymnasium was empty and cold.
No one was there, although there was some music on the
sound system. It was so early and weird that without
thinking I asked a waiter if we could get out and
dance. Here's exactly what he said: 'Of course you
can! This is your house. When you are here you do
what ever you want to do, dance, eat, drink,
anything. This is your home.' I loved Sunderland
from the moment I walked in three years ago. I had
wanted to go ever since I saw it in the old
movie 'Tango, Nuestro Baile'. Maybe I'm just
comfortable around sports, but the old court and
sports club in front are my kind of place.

We haven't had any big collisions while dancing on
this trip- until last night. You won't believe this
one. Alejandra and I were the only ones on the floor,
and there were maybe 5 people in the whole place. We
were flying around pretty reckless, and we smashed
right into Orlando who was walking across the floor.
Neither of us saw the other, or slowed down at all,
and we hit more or less head on, with our extended
arms smashing right into his chest. I have no idea
how that could have happened, like two cars driving
across the Bonneville salt flats, finding each other,
and colliding in the middle of nowhere. No one was
hurt, but we were so shocked that the three of us just
stood there and laughed.

I did a bit of filming, but I find I'm doing less. It
seems like I have almost everything I want at this
point. By the way, it should go without saying that
you can't just walk into a place and start filming.
You need to okay it with the organizers, and you need
to be very discreet. A few weeks ago at Sunderland
there was a professional crew with several cameras,
and a couple of times when they went right up to the
edge of the floor and began filming everyone's feet I
didn't like it very much. Sunderland is the best
place to film, though, because it is wide open, and it
has basketball stands against the walls. You can get
up on them and focus in on whatever you want.
In 'Nuestro Baile' there is film of an old couple
performing to 'Quejas de Bandoneon' that is the best
performance ever to that music. (For me 'Quejas' is
very difficult. Although I love to listen to it, I
leave the floor when they play it.) When I first saw
the movie I wondered about the strange dark place
where that performance took place. It looked like it
was outside somewhere. Now, years later, I have
filmed people from that exact same spot.

I try to be objective with the camera, not judging
anything, just looking for anything interesting. I
was filming away last night when a couple of strange
creatures came into my view finder. I stopped
filming, and climbed down to point them out to
Alejandra. It turned out they were the couple who
were going to perform that evening (we left before the
show). Don't get me started on tango performers.
Well, okay, maybe for just a minute, before I hit the
tango-L server's 200 line limit. Here goes. A short
rant. They were dressed all in black, and moving with
the catlike grace that is drilled into all of them,
but... I have never seen such ominous joyless looking
expressions in my life. They looked like they were in
pain, or maybe going out to make a hit on somebody.
And they were so blocked that they could barely move
to the music, creeping eerily along, hitting about
every third beat. I know tango is serious- but not
that serious. They looked like those waltz or foxtrot
people who compete on TV, except those people have a
smile plastered on their faces, with the veins popping
out of their foreheads. And, they are all trying to
dance EXACTLY the same as each other. Don't get me
wrong. Tango performers can be beautiful to watch
(Michael Walker for example, who's a pro, and very
passionate in the music), but it seems to me that most
of them try to dance exactly the same as all the
others. And I have to say, once most of them get away
from choreography, their feel for and understanding of
the music is not as good as mine is... and I'm a
Norteamericano. After almost two months of a steady
diet of down and dirty grooving in the clubs, a fully
trained stage dancer looks like a pretty strange
creature.

That's it. You can probably tell, I know absolutely
nothing about show tango, and a lot less about
ballroom competitions, but I thought I'd stick that on
anyway, just to see if anyone's still reading these
things.

End.


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