4158  milonga sin humo

Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:41:40 -0700
From: Michael Knowles <binkster@BINKSTER.NET>
Subject: milonga sin humo

I visited the _Sabor_a_Tango_ theater Saturday night (actually Sunday
early a.m.) for the _Bien_Pulenta_ milonga that is advertised as Buenos
Aires' first milonga "sin humo." Nice change of pace! My wife and I
breathed more easily in the no-smoke atmosphere; we definitely stayed
for a longer period of time and spent more money on food and drinks
because of it.

Two questions:
1) Why is there a small sign saying (in Spanish) that the venue is
subject to a no-smoking ordinance when all the other milongas I went to
in BsAs allowed smoking?
2) Which other BsAs milongas have a no-smoke policy?

Observations:
The Sabor a Tango dance/theater space is nicely restored. Smoking is
allowed in the entrance restaurant area and foyer bar. Location is Tte.
Gral. Peron 2543--not too far from Plaza Congreso. Ten pesos to get in
to Bien Pulenta. Big-hearted greeting from Miguel Romero even though we
were newcomers. Good dance floor with small age-related flaws. Good mix
of young and old dancers. Fast service; skilled kitchen staff. Strange
paintings selected for display on the wall. Shallow wrap-around balcony
with no dance patrons seated up there. Finer sound system components
than in most other tango clubs but the installation of the main speakers
should have had the top two JBLs flipped upside-down for better high
frequency coherence with the bottom two. Also, the surround sound
speakers hidden in the balcony set up a false spatial ambience that
would never have been present in the original songs. The dial on the
subwoofers seemed to be turned up to 'eleven'--not my favorite way to
listen to traditional tango classics! In short, much better sound than
in other milongas... (Jeez, someone should compare BsAs milonga sound
systems and expose all the ones with horrible-sounding, cheap and broken
speakers.)

Oh! And there was one patron at Bien Pulenta last Saturday sitting with
his friends at a corner table who lit his cigarette and calmly smoked it
all the way down without anyone stopping him. Perhaps he was related to
the mayor or something... ;)

--
Michael 'Bink' Knowles
binkster@binkster.net
www.binkster.net

Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 00:14:27 -0600
From: Ruddy Zelaya <ruddy@MILONGAS.COM>
Subject: Re: milonga sin humo

Michael Knowles writes:
Two questions:
1) Why is there a small sign saying (in Spanish) that the venue is
subject to a no-smoking ordinance when all the other milongas I went to
in BsAs allowed smoking?
2) Which other BsAs milongas have a no-smoke policy?

Michael,
an anti-smoking ordinance went into effect on March 1st for all
public government buildings (including schools and hospitals).
The law will extend to bars, restaurants and "shoppings" on October 1st.
I was listening to La 2x4 (radio) a couple of months ago when
the topic of the law and smoking (or lack of) at the milongas came up and the consensus
was that it will be hard to do but since the fines range from 500 to 2000 pesos
they'll just have to put up with it.
Bien Pulenta may just be jumping the gun a bit, and the patron may just have been
making a point :-)

So, smoke'em if you got'tem... while it lasts.
--
ruddy