71  Is Buenos Aires worth the trip?

Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 16:48:32 -0700
From: epitome3 <epitome3@EXCITE.COM>
Subject: Is Buenos Aires worth the trip?

Please forgive my latenes in contributing to this discussion, but I was
visiting relatives in June. Is Bs. As. worth the trip? Well, it certainly
was for me during my two trips (April 2000 and February 2001). What did I
get out of it? I would answer alegria (joy), enough to make up by far for
the various inconveniences and problems caused by traveling to Bs. As. The
fact that I have been studying Spanish for five years helped. 1) I visited
the museum in the original home of Jorge Luis Borges, a lover of the tango
and a writer who should have been awarded the Nobel Prize. 2) I visited the
Cafe Tortoni. 3) I had the opportunity to buy books (mostly in Spanish but
some in English) and records relating to the tango. 4) I listened to the FM
station that broadcasts only tango (originally Radio Municipal but now Radio
Dos Por Cuatro; the first tango that I heard there on my last trip was
"Pensalo Bien"). Since I have to listen to tango at least one hour a day,
this station is a boon. Would that I could receive it on the Internet at
home! 5) I visited the tombs of the inmortales and regret not buying flowers
for them. At the "Subte" station nearest to the Chacarita Cemetery, "Quejas
de Bandoneon" was playing on the station's sound system. 6) I saw Juan
Carlos Copes and his troupe at the historic Teatro Avenida (I found out
about the show on the Tango List). As you can gather, I am not a tango
dancer. I began with a study of classical music and an admiration of Verdi,
and I have come to love the music, words and history of the tango.
My best wishes to the members of the Tango List.
George Michael Woloch
epitome3@excite.com

Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 07:07:06 -0300
From: Fabian Martin <fmartin@DD.COM.AR>
Subject: Re: Is Buenos Aires worth the trip?

>
> Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 16:48:32 -0700
> From: epitome3 <epitome3@EXCITE.COM>
> Subject: Is Buenos Aires worth the trip?
>
> 1) I visited
> the museum in the original home of Jorge Luis Borges, a lover of the tango
> and a writer who should have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Hi George and everyone,

Actually, Borges didn't like tango, he liked milonga. And he stated so in
several occasions, and he even blamed Gardel for, well, taking tango to its
most femenine side (perhaps some other spanish speaking memeber can help me
with this idea, Borges said that Gardel "amariconó el tango").
Borges also wrote a few lyrics in "Para las seis cuerdas", a series of
milonga lyrics, one of them being quite well known, "Milonga para Jacinto
Chiclana". He had this fascination for the whole "guapo" thing, the duels,
their honor codes, their knife-play, etcetera, wich is to be found all along
his work.
I just got a copy of "Labyrinths", a collection of Borges writings (good
selection, btw) edited by Penguin (ISBN 0-14-018029-X), translated to
English, wich I intended to send to some norwegian friend of mine, and the
translation is just terrible. If you see it, don't buy it. There must be
something better out there.

Fabian Martin
<fmartin@dd.com.ar>
<fabianmartin@mac.com>

Eduardo Acevedo 343, 6to "A"
Buenos Aires, C1405BVC
ARGENTINA
Tel. (54-11) 4982-4339
Tel./ Fax (54-11) 4983-9185
Cel. (15) 5630-0646

Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 20:45:29 -0700
From: Deborah Holm <deborah.holm@PRODIGY.NET>
Subject: Is Buenos Aires worth the trip?

As George Michael Woloch explains, he had a
very good trip to Buenos Aires.
He mentioned going to Cafe Tortoni. I remember
walking into Cafe Tortoni and seeing people in
the tango community in San Francisco sitting there.
But, why doesn't anybody talk about the food?
OK, I may work in a very professional office
in San Francisco, and be the perfect model of
the epitome of lean, perfect, California. (Meaning
GAP and Banana Republic for casual dress in
a corporate setting.)
But I thought I was in Brigadoon when I went to
Buenos Aires. While I don't do any of the
following, I want to:
Wear mink, eat read meat, drink red wine,
smoke cigarettes, put on lots of cosmetics and
perfume, etc., etc., etc. (Remind anybody of Paris?)
And, didn't somebody else mention sex and alcohol
was the only reason to be alive?
PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE FOOD! In Buenos
Aires, you can do the equivalent of a pub crawl but
I would call it an "empanada crawl" because you can
actually have orgasmic ecstasy on the food alone.
Deborah
Being "cool" here in San Francisco, California, USA