5713  The Teacup Tango

Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 02:02:14 -0700
From: David Hill <davidhill.biz@gmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] The Teacup Tango
To: tango-l@mit.edu
<d7999bcb0908080202w2a9daf52r57f731445e9f5d8@mail.gmail.com>

Hi, fellow Tango-L members,

My wife and I wrote and produced this tango song and video about how much we
love tea (and tango music). I am playing my Weltmeister Meteor accordion and
the rest of the sounds come from a Yamaha keyboard.

We'd love to know what you think about the result! It certainly was fun to
make it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOmoshHoQU0

Date: Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:32:41 +0900
From: Astrid <astrid@ruby.plala.or.jp>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] The Teacup Tango
To: David Hill <davidhill.biz@gmail.com>
Cc: tango-l@mit.edu

Nice, that was fun to watch. My favourite part was of course the tango
dancing tea pots but that part was so short! Could you add more of that
to the video?

David Hill wrote:

> Hi, fellow Tango-L members,
>
> My wife and I wrote and produced this tango song and video about how much we
> love tea (and tango music). I am playing my Weltmeister Meteor accordion and
> the rest of the sounds come from a Yamaha keyboard.
>
> We'd love to know what you think about the result! It certainly was fun to
> make it.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOmoshHoQU0
>

Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2009 02:36:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jack Dylan <jackdylan007@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] The Teacup Tango
To: tango-l@mit.edu


----- Original Message ----

> From: David Hill <davidhill.biz@gmail.com>
>
> We'd love to know what you think about the result! It certainly was fun to
> make it.
>

Thanks, that was certainly fun to watch?after all the serious stuff we
usually get on Tango-L. I also love tea and tango, but not teabags :-)

Jack

Date: Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:13:20 +0000
From: c.roques@mchsi.com
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Teacup tango
To: TANGO-L@mit.edu
<080920091713.5769.4A7F03B0000492A600001689223245003003010CD2079C080C03BF9C0A9A9E019DD20C@mchsi.com>


Since the response to the video seemed sparse but positive, perhaps the sparsity implied that people did not like it. So instead of being silent, I will offer a negative response for balance. Not to be mean-spirited or nasty, but constructive. No, I didn't like it, and of course I realize that it was meant to be light-hearted and even tongue-in-cheek. I am also a tea lover and like very much Okakura's classic "The Book of Tea." It was cute but it doesn't really sound like tango at all. The song was just more or less "Hernando's Hideaway" with different words. It sounded like a Broadway musical version of one. Music like this just propagates the confusion among non-tango dancers about what the music really sounds like and the cultural roots of tango (not that any non-tango people actually follow this list.)

But the real reason I am offering this is that it seems hypocritical for people to decry the confusion of people who don't know the difference between Ballroom tango and Argentine tango on the dance floor, but will excuse something like this. Unless of course the video makers are Ballroom tango dancers, then it makes sense that they would choose to write music like this, but this is an Argentine Tango list, right? Why not try to write one that follows tango musical norms, like leaving out the drum machine, for one (we have enough of them already at nuevo-tango festivals.) Classic tango orchestras don't have drums, and never did, with a few rare exceptions. The line between Ballroom tango and nuevo tango is getting thinner and thinner every day and so is the music. It would be nice to see someone try to work within the tango tradition, even with humor, instead of working within another tradition but just putting a tango spin on it. Maybe you should just post it on a Bal!
lroom list.

Curmudgeonly yours,
Charles

Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:49:34 +0900
From: Astrid <astrid@ruby.plala.or.jp>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Teacup tango
To: c.roques@mchsi.com
Cc: tango-l@mit.edu

Charles, how do you know these two are tango dancers at all? They stated
their love of drinking tea, not of dancing Argentine tango, and the
video is an entry to a video contest advertising the fun of drinking
tea, apparently, judging from the other videos, and they were just
asking for feedback for that..
I think, watching two dancing tea pots to ballroom or whatever tango
music out of the can is not likely to confuse people about how to dance
tango.
On the other hand, I would at least imagine that even if they are not
tango dancers, at least a woman, with her mimics, gestures and
expressiveness would have the stuff to be a great tanguera, and lucky
the man to have such a hell of a flirtatious wife. ; )
It does not hurt to have a little sense of humour, Charles. I am not
planning to dance to the music in this video but I can still enjoy it
for a laugh.

Astrid

c.roques@mchsi.com wrote:

> Since the response to the video seemed sparse but positive, perhaps the sparsity implied that people did not like it. So instead of being silent, I will offer a negative response for balance.
> (...)
> But the real reason I am offering this is that it seems hypocritical for people to decry the confusion of people who don't know the difference between Ballroom tango and Argentine tango on the dance floor, but will excuse something like this.