The Old Post Office

Oh the fun I've had here in Viejo Correo in Parque Centenario over the many years of dancing in Buenos Aires! I used to go every Tuesday night when Yvonne y Eduardo organized a milonga, and also on Friday afternoons I was usually there, along with many milongueros, porteños, and tourists like I was then.

But things changed, as they always do, and the old tango club fell out of favor a bit and the trend went elsewhere. I think the change began when most tango venues were closed for several months after the Cro Magnon tragedy and during the Year That Tango Died. Many salons couldn't recover from the closures when dancers had to find other places to go.

Viejo Correo continued as usual after remodeling and reopening, but more as a club de barrio. And then a few months ago, Tuesday nights became home to the Practica X nuevo crowd, causing a very nice installation of new colored lights to make the ambiance more "cool."

Ruben y Carlos, posting a letter

With our old buddy Alberto

So love the black and white floor!

When Alfredo y Graciela asked us to perform at their special event, Encuentro Milonguero at Viejo Correo last Sunday afternoon, we were glad to revisit my old haunting ground. We knew almost everyone there and dancing on that familiar black and white floor brought back lots of wonderful memories.

Organizers Alfredo y Graciela

Twenty-four Long and Exciting Hours

A couple of weeks ago we left the Milonga de los Consagrados to go out to a club in Banfield to perform a vals, tango, and milonga at a private fiesta. Ruben was wearing his beige suit for the occasion. Then we drove back in the opposite direction to milonga Los Bohemios in La Boca where Ruben was to act as a judge in a tango contest.

The tango club has indoor parking because La Boca is not the best place to be late at night wandering the streets. However when we left at 4:00 a.m., we had a flat tire. Ruben wanted to change it at a service station where there was more light and security, so we drove on the rim to one a few blocks away. He changed it, not doing the beige suit any good, and we made it home, just a couple of hours before we were to take a tourist group to the Feria de Mataderos, where we all had a great day. And we got back in time to teach a class at 8:00 p.m.

Whew.

P.S. Last week Ruben's car was stolen at twelve noon while we were at the supermarket buying fixins for Thanksgiving. I hope the thief got a flat; Ruben thinks he probably ran out of gas!

A Harvest Festival Remembered

Just like Art Buchwald used to do with his Thanksgiving column explaining the custom to the French, here is a republishing of my annual Thanksgiving post. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, even if this coming Thursday isn't your traditional day. We all have much to be grateful for.


Each autumn when the harvest is brought in, the people of the world throw a party. Here in Argentina the grape harvest is celebrated in March in Mendoza. But at any time during the year, somewhere in the world people are giving thanks for their blessings.

The biggest holiday in the U.S. is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, and is also a harvest festival. Bigger than Christmas or the 4th of July, it is Thanksgiving Day. No matter the culture, race, or religion, on this day the salad bowl of American people are united by one tradition: a family feast of traditional foods (with ethnic specialities often added), and then football on TV.



Did you know that eight nations of the world have official Thanksgiving Days? -- Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Korea, Liberia, Switzerland and the United States. (But try as I might, I could find no information on Thanksgiving in Argentina.)

The ancient tradition of declaring a special day or period for giving thanks goes back to the time when our ancestors hoped that an ostentatious display of gratitude would placate their capricious gods - thus ensuring continued bounty. But these days of thanksgiving were also occasions for celebrating the year's plenty with feasts and joyful gatherings.

Proclaiming days of Thanksgiving for various reasons - success in war, a bounteous harvest, the recovery of a king from illness - was part of European tradition for centuries.

Modern North American Thanksgiving lore is associated with the Pilgrims. In 1621, a year after arriving in the new world on the Mayflower, and following a severe winter in which many of their numbers had succumbed to disease, the colonists celebrated their first successful harvest by organizing a thanksgiving feast to which they invited the neighboring Native Indians. On the menu for that first American Thanksgiving were almost certainly some foods that are staples of the holiday today - turkey and pumpkin - along with other wild fowl, venison, oysters, clams, fish, corn cakes, and wild fruit and nuts.

But enough about history! What's for dinner?


On most North American tables, a turkey still holds pride of place for the annual Thanksgiving feast. In the US alone, over 40 million turkeys are consumed on this holiday weekend each year!

In November 1997 the United Nations General Assembly unanimously declared the year 2000 as the official International Year of Thanksgiving.






That same year, an English writer and director, Gurinder Chadha, came out with the quintessential American Thanksgiving movie, called, WHAT’S COOKIN? In it, four families in Los Angeles, my hometown, celebrate Thanksgiving Day. The families are Mexican, Vietnamese, Jewish, and black, and show the dysfunctions and problems that all families have in common. On Thanksgiving Day, their commonality is also thankfulness.








We all have something to be grateful for, especially we expats, even though it's hard to be far from home and family on this most American of holidays.


I am very thankful that this is my #644 post on tangocherie. Time does fly!
Springtime in Buenos Aires is not turkey time, and we're going to have a delicious Argentine barbecue, but still, on Thanksgiving Day and every day, I am thankful for you, dear readers!

Call Me Crazy; Age Appropriate Dancing

Last night on Dancing With the Stars two pairs of children danced a jive in appropriate costumes, the little girls not tarted up in high heels or sexy outfits. They were great and no doubt will be professional ballroom dancers very soon. But I've seen other child ballroom couples performing and dressing as little adults while dancing in high-stakes, high pressure competitions. And it always makes me uncomfortable.

Does anyone else have a problem with children pretending to be adults? Kids dancing adult moves in skimpy outfits, and little tykes competing in beauty contests? Adults think miniature versions of themselves are cute, and they are, but I feel sorry that often these kids are on the growing up fast-track. (The recent controversy about "skinny" jeans for toddlers had more to do with price and designer labels than passing for 18!)


When I was a child taking dancing lessons, my teacher did not allow any girl under 18 to wear fishnet stockings or slit skirts in the recitals. I thought it was silly at the time, and probably seems ridiculous in this day and age, but now I understand.

Ok, I'm conservative, but neither do I think tango is a dance for children. The tango is sensual with the implied motive of "conquering" the partner with the dance. Why should a child dance it, especially with an adult partner?

And there's more, dear reader, sorry. I also am very uncomfortable watching a father dance a steamy tango with his daughter (Los Copes), a mother with her son (Los Pugliese), or a brother and sister (Ayelen y Federico). I know Fred Astaire danced professionally with his sister Adele, but there was never anything sensuous about their dancing.

Fred & Adele Astaire

Maybe in Argentina anything goes when it comes to steamy dancing.

I was very surprised when I first arrived in Argentina to see how popular belly dancing, or Odalisca, is--but mostly with little girls. In the Middle East it is a dance for mature women, and star performers can be up into their '70s. Call me a prude, but I would never let my young daughter put on a seductive revealing outfit and shake her hips at men. I've seen ten year olds acting as sexy as some of the starlets on Bailando Pour un Sueño. And then people are shocked at teen pregnancy, sexual promiscuity, and early marriage.

Let's let children be kids. Teach them folk dance, contemporary, acrobatics, gymnastics, tap, or, after eight years of age, classical ballet. Social ballroom classes, such as Junior Cotillion, give confidence and teach etiquette to preteens. Learning to dance is healthy and an investment in future happiness. Let's just save the sensuous adult stuff for later, along with dance competitions and contests. Childhood is short enough.

Bueno, entonces...

I've heard of  Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish I and II video Argentine Spanish learning program for years. I've heard that it's easy and fun and the best way out there to specifically learn Castellano, the Spanish of Argentina.

So when General Linguistics offered me a review copy, I grabbed it so I could finally see for myself.

And it is delightful! It is conversational and full of words that people actually use on the street--including some naughty ones you wouldn't learn in high school. There is a soap-opera story of a nerdy British guy hitting on his hottie Argentine teacher that even keeps you interested in the next lesson.

I don't have any personal electronics, but you can even put it on your iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, or Android to carry it around with you. You do need iTunes which is readily available for free downloading. Perhaps that would be the best way to use the program.

You can click on the link below (or the icon on the top right) and buy Bueno entonces... and download it immediately for $147 USD. Or for $199 USD you can buy it on 6 DVDs. The 18 hours of AV instruction comes with PDF extras like a workbook and a slang dictionary. Plus the publishers keep you up to date with new material on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and their own blog.

Because Argentine Spanish is so difficult to come by in learning materials, let alone actual live classes with Argentine teachers in other countries, if you plan on coming to Argentina, I recommend this program.

To be fair, there are a few little things I wish were different:  it's definitely aimed at young people, there is too much English for my taste, and I grow tried of the cartoon illustrations. How great it would be to have it live action. But still, for the price ($147 USD), the quality, and the technical online support, it's a great value and a must-have for all anglo-phones intent on visiting Argentina. Heck, I've lived here 7 years, and still I learned plenty from Bueno, entonces...! (which means, Well, then...)

If you want to learn Argentine Spanish, this is the way to go. And if you click on the link here on my blog to purchase, tangocherie gets a little commission, which would be nice. But I wouldn't recommend it--or anything to you--if I didn't like it. You know how frank and critical I am when necessary.

Years ago I became addicted to the 52 episode French learning series on TV, French In Action. It also had young people acting out a year-long story, lots of conversation, and real-life situations (but no dirty words!!) If Bueno entonces is half as good (I haven't watched the full 18 hours yet), it is very good indeed.





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