4353  Response to everything (Part II)

Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 13:15:26 -0400
From: "TangoDC.com" <spatz@tangoDC.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Response to everything (Part II)
To: tango-L@mit.edu

(cont. from Part I)

The other website is entirely devoted to tango, and is at
https://tangoDC.com. There you may find my translation of "El ciruja,"
which I originally *incorrectly* titled "The surgeon." My friend Viviana
Levinson, who also has a website (https://vivianatango.com), corrected me
publicly, and at length, the night I recited the lyric, and the
following morning I added a note to that effect. I haven't had time yet
to change it, because I translate a new lyric every week, in addition to
freelancing, dancing, working for a living, translating better
literature than tango lyrics (gasp!-- another critical judgment), and
teaching several different things privately. Why he quotes my own note
against me is anyone's guess. (Also: others have made the same mistake.
Want proof? Try Google. Last time I checked, I was the only one who's
posted anything close to a correction notice.)

The note about my crossing quips with an Argentine concerns an episode
in which she tried to correct my English. (My thanks to Sergio for
leaving that last essential detail out.) I had translated the word
"compadrito" with the word "badass," after trying out several
alternatives, conferring with an Argentine bartender (one of my usual
references for lunfardo terms, etc.), and witnessing a pantomime
definition of the word, which was rather amusing. Is that enough
research for me? No, but it's enough for now.

SIDE NOTE
If anyone can suggest a good, scholarly edition of tango lyrics,
containing at least 500 (if not more), please let me know about it. I've
just received the first 6 volumes of Jose Gobello's edition, and despite
its many attractive visuals, it's rather disappointing for its lack of
critical apparatus (e.g., variant lines, tables of contents, birth-years
of contemporary artists). I'm sure something better must be out there; I
just don't know what it is.

As for my teaching qualifications: Nowhere on my websites, or anywhere
else, will you find the word "professor" applied to myself. (I am
largely a self-educated man, with a diploma from a humanities college
that is known for its autodidactic paradigm. It has a website too:
https://slc.edu. I believe it was Time's "College of the Year" in 2000,
in case anyone doubts that such a place exists as I describe it.) Nor
will you find anything on my sites but honest promotional materials,
mixed in with humor, art, and discourse about art. (You Will find a lot
of dead links, because I've been too damn busy to finish coding the
pages.) On the contrary, I teach because I get *invited* to teach, and
get sick of saying no. Same with performing, whether it be on the
dancefloor or over the microphone. If you believe that counts as
"self-appointed," then you let me know and I'll send you a link to an
online dictionary myself. (As for the microphone, I do have three solid
years of experience hosting poetry readings, several narrating credits
for stage performance, and somewhere between 15 and 20 hours, edited, of
voiceover recording. I just got a new cardioid microphone too, but don't
have a preamp... If anyone can suggest a cheap model, for nothing
fancier than a home studio, I'd be in their debt.)

As for my translations: they're entirely open to critique, and I would
appreciate any feedback offered, whether appreciative or venomous. My
website has what amounts to first (revised) drafts, and I haven't yet
had a chance to revise anything. But if you're going to accuse me of
paraphrase rather than literal word-for-word rendition, please note that
I'm not of that latter camp.

As for my remark that dancers in different barrios were "at each other's
throats" over who's got the "real" tango style-- my apologies for
deploying a cliche when I should have been more creative. But the point
I made (i.e., that BA has a multiplicity of styles) stands, and has now
been nicely expanded upon by Sergio. How gang wars in either New York or
LA got dragged into this is anyone's guess. How anyone ever got the
impression that there is One Real Tango in Argentina, or anywhere else
on this grain of sand we call a planet, is also anyone's guess. I thank
Sergio for the detail that people once threw tomatoes at milongas.

As for Sergio's accusation that I am a genius with multiple
personalities, I deny it from top to bottom. I also can't imagine a more
dreadful sparring partner for our dear Sergio, who descended to ad
hominem tactics himself, only to find hard evidence that I don't take
myself very seriously.

Since I _am_ taking everyone's bait, however-- on to Lucia's recent
comment about being bored by failed novelists. I can't speak for anyone
else writing long posts with substance here, but for my part: (a) I've
never even tried writing a novel, since I'm predominantly a poet,
editor, and critic; and (b) I'm rather too young to have failed at
anything, except perhaps concision.

As for my apology for lowering the level of posting here, after I'd been
charged with doing so-- I was kidding, people. K i d d i n g. (NOTE:
That type of punctuation was originally George Bernard Shaw's idea. I
stole it directly from him, lest anyone accuse me of stealing it from
somewhere else.)

As for everyone else who has written to me privately or spoken to me in
person, and has expressed approval of, or excitement about, what I'm
trying to accomplish here-- you have my thanks and my promise that I'll
try to keep things interesting. I'll do my best to keep up the private
correspondence too, as promptly as time permits. In the meantime, keep
reading what you have time to read, and don't be afraid to stand up to
bullies.

Lastly, my apologies to the Earth for calling it a grain of sand. It was
entirely uncalled for. I'm only pointing it out here to save everyone a
furtherance of this thread regarding my bad manners and everyone else's
immaculate ones.

In the name of pedantry,

Jake Spatz
Washington, DC

And while I'm at it...

"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling."
-- Oscar Wilde

Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 19:50:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Jones <rwjones52@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Response to everything (Part II)
To: tango-L@mit.edu


"TangoDC.com" <spatz@tangoDC.com> wrote: (cont. from Part I)


Lastly....

Whew! But why stop now? LOL!