MIKE's Little Gem from the NY Times- December 18

Montaigne wrote about whatever crossed his mind: animals, sex, magic, diplomacy, violence, hermaphroditism, self-doubt. “Essayer” means “to try” in French, or as Ms. Bakewell adds, “to test, or to taste it, or give it a whirl.”


“He has this way of adding things as they occur to him, even adding things into the middle of an essay,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Clapham, in south London.

Others have noted this affinity. Montaigne is “the quintessential blogger,” declared Andrew Sullivan, who writes for The Atlantic, someone who dared “to show how a writer evolves, changes his mind, learns new things, shifts perspectives, grows older.”



The 20 attempts at an answer to “How to Live” that Ms. Bakewell describes in her book include: “Be born,” “Do a good job, but not too good a job,” and “Question everything.” But the one that resonates most strongly with her is “Read a lot, forget most of what you read and be slow-witted.”

Montaigne always complained of his “monstrously deficient” memory, so he didn’t bother accumulating facts, Ms. Bakewell explained. Much more important was the exposure to someone else’s experience and perspective. Reading and forgetting “let him follow his own thoughts wherever they led,” she writes, “which was all he really wanted to do

MY TANGO TODAY

The embrace.
The music in my bones.
The floor.
THEN go with my body and soul.

KATIA "Y-E-E-E-E-S"

Katia, my first voice coach/teacher, speaks little English, but this matters not because I'm singing tango songs in the original language, I learn form listening to her voice.
Hers is a clear one, like a bell hitting the right note every time. When she says the word "yes"- telling me I'm on key and doing the exercises correctly- I stop my note and listen. Her word "YES" is  also a kind of music. The "YES" extends over more than one syllable and intones differently on each one. On top of that she uses a different caring emotion on each syllable. The I-Touch has a little microphone and I record her playing and singing, "Malena". This hauting tango I imitate and practice every day until the next Saturday comes around. This day I jump on the bus to cross the widest Avenue in the world, exercise my neck, sing  scales, breathe, breathe, breathe and wait to hear the musical "YES".

The GUIA of GUIAS "T" BUS ROUTES

You buy it for 6 pesos.
You get a few, or more than a few maps of Buenos Aires- these are FREE.
Then the work begins.
You sharpen your 2.5  pencil for the tedious work.
     Find your starting street in the front.
     Locate the grid where you will start
     Find your destination street in the front
     Locate the grid where you will arrive
Now the fun begins
(Since there are 749 bus routes and an estimated 16,000 buses running every day, all you have to do is find and trace the street names to and from??????)
     An example might be the #132 bus which runs right up Avenida Cordoba and west. The stop is 1/2 block from our door. When we walked out tonight and crossed Cordoba there were 7, yes 7, # 132's in a row. We could see     all coming up Cordoba past the shopping mall.
     Anyway, after you're sure of the route you get on the bus- HANG ON- drop in the coins and your off to? The reason for the ? is that the first 3 trips we made on the bus this November didn't follow the routes in the guide. Close, but not exactly where we thought.
     Finally comes the dreaded stop. The driver never checks to see that you are completely and safely on the ground as he guns it up the road dodging traffic where you often see 4 or 5 vehicles and motorcyles in 3 lanes- that is if you are lucky enough to be standing when you make that last step down. 
The only bonus of the bus ride is the time it gives me to practice my balance- it's no wonder the portenos can dance the tango.
Just another day of surprises in Buenos Aires.


  

QUESTION for ALBERTO

What if you get stuck with us for weeks in February. What if you have to teach us while you are sitting down or resting? You were my inspiration for a stainless and huge paella pan that cost more than we've spent in our first 2 weeks in BA - minus the tango shoes.
Love,
Karen and MIke

MOLINETES and PEANUT BUTTER

The 2 things on my mind early this morning.
Molinetes- After 1 1/2 hours yesterday, Cecilia working with my right shoulder I GET IT! If you can picture a cruzada and a molinete clockwise- for the woman: front, side, back, side and on and on. Yesterday I was able to correct a 5 year bad habit. The right shoulder opens to the BACK in forward and side step. The left shoulder opens to the back in the next 2 steps.
Why am I writing this when it won't make any sense to anyone? It's changed my dancing and I've unlearned another bad habit.

Peanut Butter- You just can't buy it here. We found a health food store- a dietetica- in Abasto and trekked there before our lesson at Carlos Copello's dance school. The jar said Peanut Butter, but Mike said we should by the Pasta de Mani, but as usual, I didn't listen. After one taste of what they call Peanut Butter we have to trek back on Thursday for the other version without the added SUGAR and hydrogenated oil.
What a pleasure to wake up with the simple minded thoughts about molinetes and peanut butter!

Almost 2 Weeks HERE?

How can the time have gotten away from us. When I think of the average vacation time for working people, maybe 2 or 3 weeks, and then back to the grind for 50 more- oh no.
Mike and I start to really unwind after 10 days and then settle into a relaxed, sort of hypnotic state. Do very little.
Today was a volcada lesson- the teacher broke it down into manageable tiny parts; when to push with the big toe, when to lift with a little forward motion. Next he added the circular motion and the sublte stepping and body rotation.
NEVER have I liked a volcada until today. Learning to keep the free leg FREE has been hard for me for years. Finally it feels detached - a pendulum? Now I am not TRYING to produce the motion.
As Hugo Daniel says, "Tango is like life. Some steps forward, some back and many to the side." My greatest wish today is that Alberto Paz will read this and smile.

PERRI, author of a must read, RIVER TANGO

Watch for this book!!! This will be published around the end of October. If you like to kayak or if you don't like to kayak......if you like the tango or if you don't like the tango, Perri has captured a dramatic river run that captures the essence of both kayak and tango and ties them together in a fictional version of his 2 loves.
Remember, it's RIVER TANGO by Perri Iezonni.

Packing

Our idea, now that we own the "santuario" in BA, was to travel with 2 backpacks- loaded with tango shoes, AND to avoid the luggage ordeal at EZE. How nice to dream of hopping off the plane and zipping through without the baggage stop. Last week I started adding a FEW things to the pile on the spare bed. A few things? This looks like a mountain: Maybe a printer? 6 jars of peanut butter, a FEW extra clothes and on and on. Mike saw it today for the first time and quickly closed, more like slammed, the door and shook his head. Well, I said, we'll sort through it all and leave most behind. The pile on the bed is bigger than the apartment and the pile on the bed is just starting to grow. It will take the 9 weeks to unpack it all.

The HEAT is ON

Sunday after Sunday the dancers arrive at our tent. Last night- 20 and by 7:30 Mike and I cranked up the gas heater by the house. A run down of the evening. Matt and Sue were the last to arrive after a party. Sue danced with Rudy and worked on her walking. Rudy? All the way from the Hudson Valley to teach a short lesson to our group and I think to dance with 2 women who never arrived. Jeri and Dick, Mike A. TANGO.
Jim and Jennifer, who travels back to her acting career in NYC today. Jennifer showed Cathie and me some pole dance moves form her classes, but no pole is coming to the tent.
Walter has the walk. Mimi and Terry moved in close embrace-Argentines? Terry wonders why I won't throw in a swing or salsa. Joe and Mary Ethel are back with the famous pie. David ate, but needs a partner. Dan- his usual solo on the floor.
Lenore and John who loved the vegan cheese though he was eating the wrong one.
Summer is coming to a close. Me? More tired this year than last. Mike ? More tired this year than last, but we keep it going for the love of the dance.

Lyrics- READ, LISTEN, WEEP

I am studying lyrics from the songs that break my heart.
This week:
Uno
If I had the heart...
The heart I gave away...
If I could, like yesterday
to love without a premonition
It's possible that your eyes
that cry out to me their love,
I'd close them with my kisses...
Without thinking that like these,
they were other wicked eyes
that ruined my existence...

Nada
Nothing, nothing is left in the house where
you were born
Only spider webs that the weeds weave
The rosebush does not exist either
and for sure it has died when you left...

Nido Gaucho
I have my little ranch on the hillock,
where the thrush sing...
Daisies,
and rose bushes
have sprout
for you...
Because one day this gaucho nest will be
yours and mine

La Morocha
" I am the Argentine brunette,
the one who does not feel regrets,
and spends life happy
with her singing
I am the gentle partner
of the noble porteno gaucho,
the one who saves her affection
for her owner."

Absorbed with MAGNANI

Magnani is an artist. He painted murals in the Mansion Dandi Royal in San Telmo and he carved entire walls in the lower studio. His imagination grabbed my heart in 2006, but we would only come home with some paintings and why did I ever think, "Mike, Let's invite him to our apartment and see if we can afford a mural. But we did and he did. 8 days of laughter, tango and watching the progress. 10 tango figures with the "prostituta" in orange looking longingly for the tango. Each face shows a diferent emotion. The day we left- May 1st, when the shutters closed the light out of our apartment- I felt like I had left my family behind. We named them as he painted. Cecilia, Silvina and on and on.
The apartment is now a home to us. All the touches and lots of light with the wonderful city views from the 10th floor make it our special "santuarium."
Magnani introduced us, without English to Podesta, Lydia Borda and his friend Ernesto who promised to dance with me in the fall.

Friendship - More complex than I Understood

Studying at the Schemel Forum at the U of Scranton this February gets mixed in with our tango.
The quote, by C.S Lewis in our ridiculously-expensive-course-book again makes me think of the dance.
Describing the difference between eros and philias:
"Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other.; ARGENTINE TANGO
Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest." AMERICAN TANGO
Now which one would you choose?

FARLEY's on Heart Day

"Tango Romantica" at Farley's with more than 36 on the floor enjoying the lesson by Donna C and Cathie J. The boleo led to the leg wrap which we had learned before, but found easier and lovelier this time. Mike looks like a sultry Gavito and the evening just felt so Argentine.
Donna C. dragged 6 friends from her ballroom class and a couple wandered in from Tampa. They found our site on the internet and called here last week to confirm the time. They love the Dandi in San Telmo where they stayed on their first trip to BA. Who wouldn't love the Dandi? I find it hard to believe a tango craze is taking hold in Scranton. Matt bought red roses for the women and Mike gave Hershey kisses in pink and red to each table. We are so in love with tango I don't know what to say. Thank you all for the support and for just showing up.

A Dancer's Ear- GAVITO- Posted by Mike Lucey

Saber escuchar la musica... The legendary dancer Carlos Gavito, recognized milonguero and Zen philosopher of the tango dance said: The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step. It is to make the impossible thing possible: to dance silence.

Carlos Gavito: The important thing is to know why we want to dance. We dance a solitude that we have inside us and cannot occupy with anything. This gap, that emptiness to which we put movement is the TANGO.

New Year- New Apartment DEEP SOUTH

Florida Street? Calle Florida? Why not the outer areas from central city our friends asked. This location is a gem for us. San Martin park is 1 block N. Our favorite dance studio is 1/2 block S in the most gorgeous shopping center in the world. Florida has a parade of 1,000,000 pedestrians every day. We can walk to the movies, the theater and 100's of restaurants and shops are around every corner.
Cool it is. The subway 2 blocks away and a taxi/bus system where there is no waiting-ever. I LOVE Buenos Aires.
About buying an apartment. This was almost impossible. The money had to be paid in cash in US dollars. Getting a bank account so I could wire in the money took many bank visits. Paper after paper and then more papers to sign-"just one more". We had wonderful people- Federico, Susana, Emiliano, Jorge V and Jorge A, Marina, Sara and her husband, Julio, Martin and Luis, Enrique helping us through the process, but not without tears of frustration. People at the police department, AFIP, immigration, HSBC and the Banco Nacion never met us with anything less than courtesy and smiles. Meeting Sara de Anchorena- the owner- was a pleasure. After 4 weeks of running around, it's ours. Tiny, beautiful and it's ours. Mike and I came home with suitcases empty and heads full of ideas for our next visit in the spring. Already packing.