My Heartbreak Tango

My prize is ready, and you can listen to it here. The spoken intro is an edited and condensed version of my text, The Key.

Background reading on Maria Finn's contest along with my original story is on a previous post here.

Sallycat's idea was to celebrate by Ruben and I dancing to it at Los Consagrados, and I had thought even of making a video. But, alas, it turns out to be tango nuevo, so we won't be dancing to it. It's a gorgeous song, though, and I certainly will listen to it on my iPod.





But the truth is, I am disappointed. I had hoped that my words would become a song lyric in the classic tango manner. Ruben reminded me that how could I expect otherwise when the song is from the States? Not too many traditional-styled tangos are being written up there.

My Life is a Tango!

Is it a good thing or a bad thing to win a Heartbreak Competition? But of course it's not whose heartbreak was the biggest, but who wrote about it in a tango way. Traditional tangos are full of sad stories of broken hearts.

Life is full of heartbreak and ache of one kind or another and writing about it can be cathartic. I'm thrilled that something I wrote was selected by a panel of judges to be the "best." The heartache is still there, but winning anything makes you feel better.

My life with so much drama and loss and tragedy always was a "tango," and now here's the proof. My little autobiographical vignette, The Key, from my unpublished memoir, The Tango Dancer, won first prize in the competition and will be turned into a tango song with words and music by Marian Barry.

The contest was to promote Maria Finn's new book, Hold Me Close and Tango Me Home.

Here's my winning entry:

THE KEY

My old house sits under the full moon of Hollywood as I drive past where I lived so long ago. As always, the street’s ancient cedar trees perfume the air, and in the black night, the glimmering Observatory hovers above like a friendly space ship.

The courtyard gates are locked, but the closed windows shine from within and call to my heart. The drawn draperies glow like a candle in the window lit for me, calling me home.

It looks just the same as when I lived there so content with my husband, my children, my beautiful life—all gone now.

Perhaps inside the wrought-iron gates and behind the cozy golden windows is my old lost life. Maybe if I stare long and hard enough, I can catch a shadow of a vanished time, the comings and goings of a happy family. If only I had the key, maybe I could go in and find it all again.

What if I found the key and opened the door into another dimension, and came home?




Painting by Michael Austin

Your Life As a Tango?

Most of us do have lives that would make great tangos! You know, themes of lost love, youth, our mothers, etc.

To this end, there is a contest at Heartbreak Tango for Valentine's Day:

Maria Finn has written a book, Hold me Tight and Tango Me Home (which she promises to send me for review), but meanwhile she has a contest which may be entered by essay (100-200 wds) or by a short video. About--without giving any names--a heartbreak in your life.

Well ok, we all have had them, but the winner will have a tango written and recorded, about his/her own personal heartbreak, by Marlan Barry. And then we can dance to our "own tango."

You can be sure I will be entering with a "tango" story of my own. Deadline is February 28, 2010.