buenos aires en diciembre

flashback to december, again. i wish there was some kind of sound effect i could add to accompany this. we haven't posted many photos from our daily life in buenos aires yet, mostly because i wanted to do this epic organization and captioning effort that would have melted your faces and blown your minds. realizing that this will prevent us from ever posting more photos, here are some snaps from back in december.

it's funny how when away from home, each month (or sometimes even week) feels like a completely different epoch. as if darwinian-galapagos evolution would take place in between and a new set of beasties would be with us on our trip. in december, we lived in palermo soho. which is a convenient analogy, actually. it feels a lot like nyc's soho, full of boutiques and restaurants and many humans speaking english. there were great things about living there in terms of access to bars and dining, but it was suboptimal in terms of true immersion in an ex-US city. so in january we moved to a different part of the barrio (palermo is big), on the border btw palermo viejo and recoleta. we like our new neighborhood better because it feels more residential, less riddled with ex-pats. and we're closer to the trains and to better helado. but i digress.

in december, we went to spanish school 20 hours a week. it was called I.B.L. we don't recommend it. we chose it thinking we were signing up for a small school justin had gone to several years ago called I.L.E.E. but IBL ate ILEE in some sort of corporate take over and there was no sign of his alma mater. i say corporate because it felt like they were pretty focused on taking your cash-- the classes were overcrowded with people at disparate levels. it was fun meeting people from all over the world (a typical class might have australians, brits, germans, dutch, kuwaitis, brazilians, etc.), but of course none of these people spoke spanish so during breaks etc. we always defaulted to english. bah. (although many of the fun people we met through school are in these photos-- they are the december finches). entonces, in january we switched to private tutors where the learning is more targeted to your individual strengths/weaknesses and every word you speak is in spanish. plus it gave us more time to write/play poker/live etc.

december was also different from january in that the city was hot as heck, humid, and packed with people. there were events almost every night. we went to a jazz festival, inside and outdoor concerts, a futbol game, etc etc and one of the cooler city events i have seen-- noche de las librerias, or the night of the bookstores. they block off a main drag (corrientes) to pedestrian traffic and have live music while people wander about looking at and buying books. this is one of my favorite stretches in buenos aires, as it is crowded with bookstores (my favorite thing on earth outside of "parks and recreation") and theaters. on this night, the bookstores have big sales and stay open until 2 am. it was mad cool. the busyness of december is partially why this blog was not born until january.

in december we were still finding our feet. i learned not to have my gadgets out and not to text while walking and other idiot-american activities (my blackberry was stolen while i was using the GPS, ugh). we did a lot of fun tourist-y sight seeing, like going to the big san telmo fair. we went to a lot of dinners. it felt sort of like a vacation with intensive school, whereas january has felt more like we just live here like humans. it took me awhile to start jogging with my ipod and that sort of thing. and we cook a lot more now, etc.

one thing that has been consistent is my obsession with the ice cream. it is called helado (secondary to the italian influences) and it is creamier, denser, tastier, and superior to american ice cream in every way. i will devote a separate post to my helado explorations, flavors, and establishments as this has been the main focal point of my culinary experience. (lostie will have to blog on the meat, because i just eat this grilled cheese thing called provoleta at the parrillas.) helado allows for the combination of the classic argentine confection dulce de leche (like caramel, but much much better) and ice cream which has revolutionized my existence. i am going to go eat some now even though i haven't had lunch yet. damn you, helado. damn you!

loerkus reviews "somewhere" (aka "rincon del corazon")

*some minor spoiler alerts-- not a suspense film but if you want to see it maybe wait to read this*

you will have noted from previous posts that the quality of north american cinema that we are exporting to south america is the true bottom of the barrel. my present day favoritism of television over movies generally is due to the fact that i find the quality of movies overall to be less than it was 10 years ago and television overall to be higher (thank you to buffy and the x-files!). there is a lot of incredible acting and storytelling on television now. but i digress.

due to this vortex of celluloid pain (including movies with titles so interchangeable i actually don't know which if any of offerings such as "unstoppable" vs. "unthinkable" etc etc are good), we decided on "somewhere" as the best choice as we had both enjoyed "lost in translation" a good deal (and in fact are experiencing our own version of same at the present moment).  sofia coppola's new film is quite similar to "lost in translation," focusing on a movie star who is adrift in a sea of his own ultimate meaninglessness despite having many sought after perks of life (e.g., financial solvency, scruffy beauty, fame, easy access to massage therapy).  this movie star (called johnny marco and played by stephen dorff) is lolling about in the chateau marmont rather than a hotel in tokyo, so his fame seems more relevant than that of bill murray's washed up character in "lost." however, if the point that once one is famous, one's own identiy/personality/soul is washed away and the assumptions/commodifications of the global populace are projected onto the tabula rasa thus revealed is to be believed, than the characters really are close cousins, if not brothers.  the dorff version even takes a trip to italy where the ludicrous components of italian pop culture are pumped for our amusement, much as the quirks of japanese media were in "lost."

this is all to say that "somewhere" is not a particularly original or distinct offering from coppola, who treads familiar ground (down to the soundtrack of an au courant french band, as she did in "virgin suicides").  taken as a whole i found the film lacking across a couple levels:

1) character development and relationships are wan.  the ostensible driving action of the story is that Marco's 11-year-old daughter comes to live with him for a few weeks in the chateau. certain glaring aspects of his listless existence are therefore thrown into bas-relief, but rather than truly exploring this delicate interaction, we are shown many scenes of elle fanning cooking pasta and making elaborate breakfast foods that i at age 34 am still not capable of executing to illustrate her preternatural maturity (the result of having self-oriented parentals and of course only thinly obscuring her elfin fragility). coppola relies on silent moments with emotive music playing to convey the feelings of the characters, and she is not quite at the level of scorsese or cameron crowe. it feels flat rather than buoyant.

2) she takes too long to convey the absurd. in an effort to portray the existential ennui of the character, she includes a plethora of dreamlike, anesthetized sequences designed to capture the soul crushing vacuousness of los angeles and the film industry when taken to its full levels of disillusionment.  e.g.: marco has twin pole dancers who come to his room while he watches them looking bored and depressed. and it is effectively absurdist-- the dancers are über-blond, tan, young, and seem absolutely guileless rather than sexually calculated; they are physically beautiful, but their dancing is awkward and painful. painful to the extreme-- the overriding sound you hear during this sequence is the harsh squeaking of their skin rubbing on the poles. ouch.  this would be a brilliant sequence-- except! coppola literally takes up 5 minutes of screen time on these dancers. squeak. squeak. squeak. the point is to convey the existential ennui of the character, not to induce existential ennui in the audience. and then-- unbelievably-- she brings these squeakers back! for another 5 minutes! i started banging my head against the theater wall to make sure my nerve endings were still working. there are a couple different examples of this.

all this being said, there are a few moments of true brilliance in the film. a scene where marco goes to an f/x shop to be fitted for a mask of his head is stunning. the extra moments she spends on his head, floating disembodied and cut off from any sensorial input, are more emotionally devastating than the first 30 minutes of the film combined. we also loved a shot where he is taking publicity photos and the camera pulls back to show he's standing on a box to accentuate his height. the little pin to the balloon here was terrific.

and stephen dorff is really good. he commits in the big breakdown scene and my favorite subtle moment from him was when he brings back the pole girls and is really trying to look enthusiastic. it was exciting to see him back on screen in something at least directionally artistic. we both liked him, and j and i often have different takes on performances. j liked fanning-- i thought she fit the floaty mood of the film well, but outside of one scene at the end where she feels like a person, i thought she was treated too much like a pretty doll. i *would* however like to own many of the stripey cotton sundresses she sports in the film.

coppola does, also, beautifully capture the dreamlike qualities of LA-- alone in his spaceship, marco drives and drives and drives. and the chateau marmont pool is the clearest, brightest, azul-est jewel glittering in that glittery city. 

overall review is 2 alfajores. but i still might buy the soundtrack. and move to LA.

ma! i don't think they heard you in URU-guay!

 flashback: el 21 diciembre 2010.  my friend amanda and i took the ferry over from bsas to colonia del sacramento in uruguay. tiny little waterfront town with lovely historic buildings. it is also historic because spain and portugal fought over it for a long-ass time. now it is a popular day trip. the world, how it turns! we rented bikes and rode around the town and down to the beaches.  food is pricey and not at all delicious, but the view is swinging. my new mission is to open a restaurant with waterfront dining where the food does not suck.  the trip to colonia, however, was fantastic. it made us want to spend more time in uruguay!

two shanky weeper

distressingly, i learned this weekend that the actual derogatory/deprecating/loving name for estadounidenses in argentina is not, in fact, gringo.  it is yankee. which we are all familiar with. the twist here is that the "y" sound is pronounced with an "sh," rendering the pronounciation of this word as "shankee." e.g., "oh shit, a big bunch of shankees just walked in" or "why do the shankees not release any decent movies in buenos aires, forcing us to watch 'el turista' and 'pequenos fockers' ad nauseum?" etc etc.

this is distressing for two reasons. 1) the word just phonetically symbolizes something unholy and wretched. 2) its obviates the name of our blog! should we change the name to something involving yankee? blargh! two shanky weeper?

suggestions welcomed. for now, the two gringo circus soldiers on.

loerkus reviews the long-awaited return of "parks and rec"

i was trying to make a separate page so i could put reviews of pop culture away from the traveling stuff. won't let me! i might just put it in a whole new blog. blargh! anyway: coming soon, my thoughts on "lights out" first 4 eps and latest "the good wife." also, we saw "somewhere" the other day. once i come out of the existential ennui which has pinned me to our couch since watching the film, i will post that too.

after a fervent, feverish 28-episodes-in-3-days experience this fall, i was in full ron swanson withdrawal while awaiting the 20th enero return of my new favorite comedy show.  the only thing keeping me going was the knowledge that at least NBC had the wherewithal not to replace this genius piece of political-cultural satire (cleverly hidden behind amy poehler's daffy pratfalls and guileless big-eyed goodwill) with "outsourced." i am also a huge tina fey fan, and this is the perfect companion piece to "30 rock." i also think both tina and amy are lady comedy badasses. it also now has some of the writing-producing talent that used to drive "the office." ergo, "the office" now sucks it, hard, and "parks and rec" inexplicably features the docu-style interviews that semi-made sense on the BBC progenitor but make zero sense here. nonetheless, the characters are so darn delightful that you want to spend more time with them. so bring on the interviews!

the season 3 kick-off gets 3.5 out of 5 alfajores from loerke. it would be more, but i must leave room for the new cast (now featuring rob lowe and adam scott) to gel. there was a little awkwardness when the full group was together (which i blame on the overly coiffed LA'd-out noggins of the new cast members, which detracts-- as does rashida jones, but i'll take it-- from the otherwise vague cinema verite of the show. no one in indiana has that hair!). i also missed april, who doesn't show up until show's end. that said, i think chris traeger is the best character rob lowe has been anywhere near since sam seaborne.

other than those tiny quibbles, the ep was hilario-- all the characters were great as usual. i know i'm obsessed, but i did think ron's coaching strategy of his community basketball team was standout. it featured the ron swanson pyramid of greatness, which includes such classic elementary education fundamentals as "crying:  acceptable at funerals and the grand canyon" and "property rights." please use the little magnifying glass zoom function to enjoy the marvel that is the pyramid of greatness:

Pyramid of Greatness graphic

Link from the New York Times; graphic property of NBC, not created by me, etc. etc.

trabajamos con voluntario

as yorio mentioned, we have begun volunteering via L.I.F.E. in some of the villas in BsAs.  basically, it's an after-school program (though it being summer, there is no school at present) where ex-pats go and play games, color, hold the jump rope, make balloon animals etc. etc. the kids were very enthusiastic, esp. about caballitos, which meant piggy back ride.  justin was the most popular caballito, which translates literally as "little horse." he ran about 10 miles over the course of the afternoon. the event on 12th jan was a birthday celebration for all the january birthdays of the kids in laferrere, outside of the city.  we had a great time, practiced our spanish ("chicas! una a la vez!"), and everybody ate cake.

our friend loree lipstein took these sweet photos, she has a great eye:
Loree's laferrere photos

thank you Loree for letting us share these.

**Also shared with the permission of L.I.F.E.  Thank you for letting us participate.**

carrera de caballos y el dia nacional del tango

saturday 9th december we pilgrimaged to san isidro to see la carrera de caballos. it was packed with humans, all of whom were betting intently. we bet on three races and lost them all. we were unfazed, as we both come from strong genetic lineages of horse race aficionados (cf lolo and papa generally; the paper bag and the pendulum). there was a brief and furious downpour that resulted in the sought after "double rainbow," but the masses of people were equally unfazed. the races continued. later in the day we rushed back for the national tango day celebration, which was surprisingly shut down due to inclement weather. inclement weather being temperature below 85 degrees and the memory of raindrops. we hit the narcotango concert instead (similar sounding to the gotan project, but much less homogenous sounding from song to song.) you can hear samples on their website, here:

Narcotango

bicicleta de viaje a tigre

Continuing to post photos from december-- a group of us took a marvelous bike trip up to Tigre, 17 km or so north of BsAs. Tigre has a lovely riverbank to bike along, which we did at sunset.  We trained to a midpoint, then biked up, then trained back.  Our tour guides, Maria y Julian, are highly recommended by me.  Bikes, helmets, water, and a mid-trip maté were included. As was about 5 hours of biking around beauty.  They just started their own company, definitely check it out if you visit here:

http://www.bikeit.com.ar/

boca juniors futbol fotos

On 13th December, we attended the final Boca Juniors futbol match.  Even though the rankings were already determined, the fans were still highly enthusiastic ("we are Boca Juniors, we have to win").  During certain songs, the entire stadium would vibrate with energy.  Interestingly, no alcohol is served in the stadium. Shocking!

L.I.F.E. as we now know it.

i have been remiss with the posting. i haven't posted on permanent beta (though i will soon), and this is my first post here. hello everyone.

cat and i signed up today to volunteer with an organization called L.I.F.E. (which stands for "luchemos para una infancia feliz y con esperanza," or "we strive for a childhood with happiness and hope.") our orientation guide talked protocol and showed us videos, much like dr. pierre chang from LOST, except that his name was ola and he was from tallinn, estonia. cat and i told him we'd been to estonia last summer; he wasn't as excited as we'd have liked him to be, not even when we told him we'd been to the estonian islands saaremaa and hiiumaa, though i thought i saw a faint upturn of his lips when we told him we liked tallinn better than riga.

the orientation lasted over an hour. the topline: sign up, show up, and wear the "L.I.F.E." t-shirt. we will be going into the villas, or slums, of buenos aires, where, according to ola, they smoke a lot of paco (don't do drugs, kids). ola also lit upon something incredibly sobering: the children there, he told us, go to school not because they want to be ballerinas or astronauts, but because school is the one place they can reliably eat one good meal a day. more to come on this front. we're looking forward to working with the kids. our first day in the field with the dharma initiative is wednesday.

in other news, i might see if i can do 10-15 hours of one-on-one tutoring every week, in lieu of spanish classes (cat has already decided to get private lessons). the classes at the schools have a decent structure, and the teachers have been more good than bad, but i'm not getting nearly enough practice speaking, and the two schools i've attended to date seem far more concerned with receiving payments than with making sure the students are learning. we'll see. i might try one more school before i officially jump ship.

also, i've yet to check out the casino at puerto madero, which i'm told has poker, but it is next on my list of things to do. i'm very excited about the potential to play live a few days a week.

el primero clase de tango

We went to our first tango class last night where we learned the basic step and I attempted to master el ocho. We were immediately informed that the man must lead, the woman must always wait to be shown what to do by the man. Justin was entirely pleased with this information.  Learning tango will be an exercise in surrender for me.  I always want to lead!  (There are emerging tango schools which abandon the heteronormative traditional roles, esp. given strong gay community here in BsAs, but we are just going with it for now).  The space we went was called La Catedral and was a big lofty warehouse with the dancing in the middle.  It was on the casual side and I felt comfortable in my sneakers, though proper shoes clearly will be necessary. The teachers were very patient with us given it was our first class.  We learned about the abrazo, or the embrace, which is the frame created by the dancers' bodies.  This prompted multiple "spaghetti arms" quotes throughout the evening.  Definitely check out this place, they have multiple classes (20 pesos each for 90 min) and milongas nightly. 

http://www.lacatedralclub.com/

inaugural post

It has just taken us approx. 14 hours to set up this blog. This does not bode well for frequency of future posts. Expect next post to coincide with wedding of Middleton and Prince of Wales. I plan to wear a special hat for the occasion.  Since we are dreadfully delayed in setting this up, there will be flashback posts to December.  Flashbacks and dream sequences.

photo teaser

we are going to get photos organized, so in the meantime here we are at a boca juniors game