Tango School

According to friends, the Escuela Argentina de Tango is the place to take tango classes. So, after barely 24 hours in Buenos Aires, I went with mi amiga Susanna to attend two classes with her favorite instructor, Jorge Firpo. Mind you, this is after an early morning run, walking for a couple of hours, and a full lunch at La Posada de 1820. The "executive menu" offers a mid-day special, generally between the hours of 13h y 16h. (1:00-4:00 pm). This particular restaurant serves three courses for 34 pesos, or under $10. Soup, main dish, dessert. Mineral water or wine are extra, and nearly the same price.   laposadade1820.com.ar/

The first class on salon style tango started at 5:30pm and was 90 minutes long. The second class which started promptly at 7pm was Vals- Giros y Contragiros. A "giro" is the term used for a molinete. The classes were well attended, with a balance of men and women. (An aside- one of the guys in the class who knew Susan from last summer, began to talk to me in Spanish. When I said, "No habla espanol", he replied in English that he thought I was Argentine!) By 8:30 after both classes ended, my feet and legs were about to go on strike. There was no way that I would have energy for a milonga! Instead, we went for wine, a snack, and conversation.

On YouTube, there are many videos of Jorge Firpo. Here's one of Jorge dancing a vals at the school. I think the man standing against the mirror in the black shirt is Roberto, someone who was in my class, too!

 

Throughout my stay in BsAs, I took one or two classes on most days. Along with the classes with Jorge Firpo, I especially liked the women's technique classes with Aurora Lubiz. Being in the class of women and working together in pairs or groups to practice balance and adornments was probably more beneficial than the mixed classes. Hopefully, I can find a similar class in NJ or NY, since it's a bit far to get to BsAs every Saturday at 11:30am in order to take one of Aurora's technique classes!
tangopulse.net/interviews/aurora_lubiz.php

Comme il Fait

To find the most famous store for tango shoes in all of Buenos Aires, Comme il Faut, you must know the exact number of the street address, Arenales 1239. Along Arenales, there is no sign. The number is on the side of the building and a walkway leads to a group of fancy boutiques. CF is listed in the directory posted on the left side of the walkway. Pass three shops, walk upstairs, buzz and enter the store.

Once in the store, you will notice something unusual for a shoe store, no shoes on display. Sit down and a sales clerk will ask a few questions. What is your shoe size? What color would you like? What heel height? I asked for size 38, black or purple, medium heel. Then, she brought out boxes and boxes of shoes to try.

In less than an hour, I selected a pair: violet and bronze, medium spike heel. Muy bonita. The price was less than I paid two years ago for a pair in New York City. Each shoe was slipped into a pouch of its own. Included was another bag to carry the shoes to a milonga, so everyone would know where you bought your shoes. All placed into a black and white CF shopping bag.

Argentina!

Two weeks from today I fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina! I made the arrangements so long ago, I still have a sense of surprise that the trip is, in fact, going to happen. It's a long flight; the first leg is three hours to Houston and then 10 1/2 hours to BsAs. A friend who I will meet there is flying tonight. She says, "It's a journey."

I have three goals in Buenos Aires: tango lessons, tango clothes, tango shoes. Of course, I am also interested in sightseeing and possible excursions. Recoleta Cemetary; MALBA (art museum); Iguazu Falls; Mendoza; Montevideo, Uruguay. Speaking of Uruguay, I read that the song, "La Cumparsita", which is traditionally the last song at a milonga (tango venue), was composed by a young man in Uruguay and it was originally a carnival march. You can listen to the song through this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_cumparsita

I've rented an apartment in the neighborhood of Recoleta, which has avenues similar to Park Avenue and Madison Avenue in New York. The apartment is quite small, but clean and in a good location. I'm near the subway and bus, and just about everything else I might need! Today I began to organize which clothes to pack. It's a bit of a challenge since it's late winter/early spring there and the temperature range has been between 40 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit. With our recent triple digit weather, it's difficult to imagine feeling chilly enough to wear a sweater or jacket.

The Immortal Life...

 Due to a nasty headcold, I stayed home today and finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. 

Here are some startling numbers in the Afterword (p. 315)

"Today most Americans have their tissue on file somewhere. When you go to the doctor for a routine blood test or have a move removed, when you have an appendectomy, tonsillectomy, or any other kind of ectomy, the stuff you leave behind doesn't always get thrown out. Doctors, hospitals, and laboratories keep it. Often indefinitely. In 1999 the RAND Corporation published a report with a 'conservative estimate' that more than 307 million tissue samples from more than 178 million people were stored in the United States alone. This number, the report said, was increasing by more than 20 million samples each year. ... They sit in lab freezers, on shelves, or in industrial vats of liquid nitrogen. They're stored at military facilities, the FBI, the National Institutes of Health..."

The question remains whether the use of human cells without consent is ethical or not. That is one of the central questions asked in this book. Cancer cells were scraped from the cervix of Henrietta Lacks without her knowledge. The cells were labeled "HeLa" and her name was not attached. These cancer cells reproduced profusely, when normal cells did not. It was decades before the family knew that Henrietta's cells were in labs around the world and being used for major breakthroughs in science, such as a vaccine against polio.

The cells are still used today. In fact, a friend of mine who is a high school Biology teacher told me she has HeLa cells in her lab refrigerator at school.

Greyhounds

In the early afternoon, I took a long walk through the park near my house. My path crossed with a man who was walking two beautiful greyhounds. They were both rescue dogs, one light brown male and one light gray female, ages 6 and 4 respectively. The eyes on the dogs looked human-like. The male walked with a limp, due to an injured foot pad. The owner told me the dog already had five surgeries and one broken ankle. We got to talking about the basic inhumanity of dog racing. He commented that even though the racing itself doesn't generate much revenue, the tracks have other forms of gambling that are profitable. The dogs have short lives as race dogs, and if not adopted they are killed. Thousands die each year.

To me, the dogs look fragile with their long, spindly legs. However, they are quite strong and can live 10-13 years with reasonable care. Interestingly, while I often see people running with other breeds of dogs, I've yet to see an owner and a greyhound out for a jog together.

How many tracks exist in each state?

Alabama—3 tracks
Arkansas—1 track
Arizona—2 tracks
Rhode Island—1 track
Texas—2 tracks
Florida—13 tracks
West Virginia—2 tracks
Iowa—2 tracks
Wisconsin—1 track

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/greyhound_racing/facts/greyhound_racing_facts.html

http://www.greyhoundfriendsnj.org/info/index