Buenos Aires

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Movie: The Shape of Water

Last night was movie night again with Venetia and Raul. This has been a Wednesday night thing for them for a long time, and I’m happy they’ve now included me. I’m not a lifelong movie lover, and when I do go it’s usually because a friend has invited me — thanks to you too, Grace!

The Shape of Water won four Oscars, including Best Picture.

It’s a fantasy about a marine creature that is brought to a top-secret government laboratory in 1962. It is befriended by a lonely young woman, who eventually teams up with a few friends to save it from a nasty fate. Along the way, there is lots of emotional exploration, and a quiet humour that I enjoyed.

The firm is beautifully staged, evoking the times through noire sets, nasty villains and sharp social commentary. The underlying theme of acceptance of “other” is a lesson for today as well as the sixties.

My friends liked this movie more than I did. Despite all its great qualities, I found it dragged. I was quite bored a couple of times, and all in all I think it could have been better told in an hour. But I did love the sea creature!

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Fileteado Porteño in a Church

This morning when I went to San Telmo to pick up my Fileteado Porteño picture from Martin, he suggested I visit a church just around the corner. I had often seen this church and one of these days I will sketch the beautiful outside of it.

But Martin told me an old fileteador had created and donated a wonderful collection of fileteado and donated it to the church, so I did pop in and have a look. It was amazing. Not only are there paintings around the entire church, but some of the church furniture, such as the altar and the door, also had fileteado motifs.

Here are just a few photos I took inside.

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New Tango Shoes — and a Foot Massage!

After a couple of false starts, I finally found my way to a little area downtown that has a cluster of shops selling tango gear, both shoes and clothes. I went for a skirt, and got two great ones — with fishtails! Great for swishing around doing pivots!

I wasn’t going to buy shoes, but when I saw the prices I changed my mind. For the shoes and both skirts, I paid quite a bit less than half of what I paid in Toronto for just shoes. Happy girl. Can’t wait to wear the shoes to the milonga tomorrow!

And because I told the guy a lot of the shoes were too high for my feet, he gave me a lovely foot massage and said, “What’s wrong with  your feet? You have perfect feet!?” Got to love these Argentine men!

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Bar Notable “La Poesia”

More research last night for the new book! Silvia, Venetia, Viviana and Joanna joined me at La Poesia, a lovely old bar in San Telmo that was created long ago as a kind of hangout for writers and poets and other literary folks.

I was sitting near the side door, and suddenly a woman walked in and started singing! She was good — no microphone, no accompanists, just a good set of pipes. She was good.

Then soon after she left, a man pulled a chair over from a table, sat down and started playing bandoneon, that soulful instrument that gives tango music is distinctive sound. He was good too!

Nobody pays these people. They just go around the various bars and cafes, do their thing and rely on tips — kind of modern day troubadors! Anyway, here are the two videos Venetia shot (thanks Venetia!)  of the performances and a bit of the surroundings to give you a feel for La Poesia.


 

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More Research — 2 Cafes in One Afternoon!

Yesterday, Raul, Venetia, Gillian and I arranged to visit and review Los Galgos, one of the Cafes Notables of Buenos Aires. Interesting name: los galgos means the greyhounds. I thought it might have had a more interesting history, but according to the waitress, who did seem quite knowledgeable, it was simply that the original owner loved going to the racetrack to watch the greyhound races.

Originally opened in 1930, Los Galgos was by all accounts a vibrant part of an area that never slept, until it closed after several decades. I can’t seem to find exactly when it closed, but in 2015 it reopened under new management. They worked hard to renovate the cafe using many of the original materials and keeping to the spirit of the original.

We had coffee, which wasn’t as great as we had expected but not bad. We also shared some fantastic tarta de ricotta, a very generous slice of moist sponge cake with a filling kind of similar to German style cheesecake. Delicious!

When we left, Raul mentioned another Cafe Notable nearby called Celta, and we decided to take that one in while we were in the area. Being merienda time, we opted for wine instead of coffee.

Great old place with hams and salamis and cheeses hanging from the ceiling. But my favourite thing was the big old fashioned cash register hand decorated with Fileteado Porteño!

Everyone is entering into the spirit of my research with gusto, and Venetia, who is a professional photographer, is taking lots of shots so I’ll have a good selection for the book.

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Fileteado Porteño Picture Done!

Finally, I finished my first fileteado painting! It’s an incredibly difficult form and I’m proud I was able to turn out something decent. As you’ll see from the little video I made at Martin’s studio on Sunday night, I am going to go back for another series of classes in April before I go back to Canada, because I want to learn how to do the fileteado lettering, which is an integral part of the images.

If you are ever in Buenos Aires and interested in learning this, you can find the studio of the Asociacion de Fileteadores at Balcarce 1053 in San Telmo. Martin is one of a number of teachers there, and I can wholeheartedly recommend him, not only for his own talent but for his teaching skill, patience and sense of fun. Gracias, Martin!

Here’s the video, which I hope you enjoy.

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Afternoon Milonga

I’ve never done this before, but today I went to an afternoon milonga — and I really enjoyed it. The place is called El Beso, and it had been recommended to me by a couple of people, so today I decided to give it a try. It started at 1.30 pm and went on until 8 pm, although I actually left around 5 pm.

The first man I danced with was French Canadian, and the second was Scottish! But both danced tango well, so that was OK. Actually, the Scottish man was on vacation here with his wife, and I spent a nice time with them explaining some things about the Buenos Aires milonga scene they didn’t know. It was fun.

I have to say that coming out of the milonga into the light of day was a bit strange — kind of like going to a matinee at the movies, I guess. But most of the people there were of my vintage, and I rather enjoyed that. I’m going to go back next Saturday and hopefully my friend Lola will come too.

Tango on!

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El Gato Negro

Today I had lunch with Venetia at El Gato Negro, another of the cafes notables I am researching for my book, with the help of some cafe loving friends!

This is a lovely old place, with traditional flooring, lots of wood panelling, waiters with red vests — and a wonderful smell composed of coffee and the many spices they use in cooking and also sell. Venetia had cafe con leche flavoured with cardamom!

We had tacos for lunch, but they were like no tacos I’ve ever had. Quite small and not folded over. The mixture was piled on top of them, and consisted of chicken pieces in a curry flavoured yogurt sauce. Yummy!

Here’s my quick sketch of the wall behind the counter, with the signature black cat overlooking all the bottles and jars and cans of spices, coffees and teas.

When we left and were walking along Corrientes, we passed this great little sweet shop and I couldn’t resist the white and bitter chocolate flakes! Good thing I walk so much, or this research would be making me fat!

 

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New Authorly Experience

Last night I had a new experience, as I was the guest author at the InterNations book group here in Buenos Aires. My friend Lola is the “consul” for this group and she set it up. As I’ve never done an author reading before, I was a little nervous, but it was a friendly group and all turned out well.

Lola hosted the group in her lovely home in Palermo, and the malbec was flowing freely — this might have contributed to the interesting discussions sparked by the extracts I chose from the book!

Later today Venetia and I are doing some “research” at another cafe notable. Stay tuned.