#Argentine Culture

But among so many lessons, with so many teachers, I find contradictions and clichés. My feet are shovels; my feet are paintbrushes. My feet must caress the floor, intensely; my feet are too firm against the floorboards. My embrace must be close, like the embrace of a lover; my embrace must leave space for the tension between us. I am a cat, I am a lion, I am a horse-rider. Carina tells me I need to work on my ochos. [Read More]

According to Realidad Bonaerense, there is a new documentary about Carlos di Sarli coming out, directed by Alberto Freinquel. No information about dvd or download edition, but there will be several public viewings in Buenos Aires and in Bahía Blanca, I think. The article mentions several dramatized sequences, which makes me a bit sceptical, but I guess you have to do something if there is little historical material available. [Read More]

Going to Argentina for the tango, you end up falling in love with other things Argentine as well. One of these things is the Zamba, not to be confused with its Brazilian homonym homophone. Imagine the surprised look on Simba’s face listening to a radio show reviewing some new ‘classical’ releases. Suddenly they play an Argentine Zamba, or at least something very similar. The cd in question was the new release from the Clematis Ensemble with music by composer Mateo Romero. [Read More]

[](http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/12/hey-oscar-wilde/9/)[](http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/12/hey-oscar-wilde/9/) Jorge Luis Borges is mainly the man to blame for perpetuating the myth that tango was born in the brothels. Which is amazing, since he was not much if anything of a tanguero. He was Argentine, though, and easily the best known Argentine author. In fact, my first encounter with Argentine culture was when I read an anthology of his short stories in high school. They were quite interesting, often playing mind games, exploring absurtities like a library of all combinations of letters, which would imply that it contain all texts already written, as well as those still unimagined. [Read More]

by Simba tango A box of goodies was waiting for me when I got back from work this afternoon: Cruz de Malta, Rosamonte mate…. and Salamandra Dulce de Leche.. I ended up buying from mate-tee.de, it just took a few days, and the price all included was somewhere around 1o-12 dollars a kg. Which is a lot more reasonable than going on buying the world’s most expensive yerba. [Read More]

by Benjamin Pender We always bringyerba mate back from Buenos Aires. It has become another habit as a biproduct of the passion for tango. Everywhere you will see porteños with their little thermoses and the cup with a metal straw, the bombilla, sipping away. In the queue, in the park, on the bus, in tango classes etc etc. Anyway — we ran out of the stuff after a couple of months after our return, and went to the specialist tea and coffee store in town. [Read More]

by Simba tango If you don’t know the language of tango, you’ll miss out on a lot, and for once, I don’t mean in a metaphorical sense. One anecdote I remember from my early days of tango was being told of a workshop that started with the following announcement: ”This is an advanced class, hence it will be taught in Spanish…” I’m not sure who it supposedly was that said it, but I have a similar experience with Gustavo Naveira teaching in Buenos Aires with lots of foreigners present: –Is there anyone here that speaks absolutely no Spanish? [Read More]

by Simba tango The Argentines have this thing about champagne. Not usually the real thing, but their own version. Which is actually quite good, and of course much cheaper. Going shopping in our closest super market makes this very clear, they have coolers, a fridge with pre cooled ‘champan’ (as they like to call it), rows and rows of different brands and special promotions: Buy this and that and get half a bottle for free! [Read More]

Did you ever get the alfajores of Havanna in Buenos Aires recommended? And they did not live up to your expectations? Well, maybe I can tell you why. First, an alfajor is a sort of biscuit or cookie, normally two layers with dulce de leche in between. They exist in different varieties, the main ones are the ones covered with chocolate, and the ones of maizena (of which I prefer the latter). [Read More]

[caption id=“” align=“alignnone” width=“460” caption=““Castillo” singing at club “Luna de Avellaneda”“][/caption] Speaking of tango films, there are several films where tango is not a main theme, but with some interesting tango scenes. The film Luna de Avellaneda is quite nice, and stands out in that respect. For tango lovers, the opening scene is not to be missed, as it reconstructs the grand party of a community milonga in the golden age of tango. [Read More]