Argentina
October 15, 2008
- Horacio Ferrer and Astor Piazzolla were close friends and had a remarkable creative collaboration for many years. Horacio: Okay. Shall we talk about Astor Piazzolla?Terry: Yes. When he was a young man, he was in the United States, in New York.Horacio: Yes, he was there a long, long time. We went to New York.Terry: Do you know that in English he had a Lower East Side accent? I heard him speaking ...
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October 14, 2008
- Horacio Ferrer is to contemporary tango what Ira Gershwin is to Tin Pan Alley - and maybe more.He is a recognized poet, a tango lyricist of formidable talent, and a noted historian — of promethean output — of Argentine tango music and dance. His best-known lyrics are those for "Chiquilín de Bachín," which was composed by Astor Piazzolla. It is an instantly recognizable tango ...
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October 10, 2008
- Over the dinner table, my guest made an astute observation about the McCain/Palin combination. Strains of "Don't Cry for me. Argentina" echo in her head every time she watches the two of them together on television. You know, the military man and the actress: Juan Peron and Evita? He dictated while she charmed the people? Remember that? Let's hope the refrain won't turn into ...
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May 27, 2008
- TangoCalifia™ presents ¡Milonga en el museo!, an evening of Argentine tango music and dance at the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, on Friday evening, June 27 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.In a re-creation of the great Argentine tango dance halls that exist to this day in Buenos Aires, a few hundred couples will dance in this “milonga”, bringing the passion, intensity and ...
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April 26, 2008
- You walk down a sidewalk in Buenos Aires at your peril. Potholes, immense cracks in the cement, deteriorating curbs, and sudden whole absences of pavement can plague every footstep. This is worsened by the fact that sidewalks in this city are often very narrow as well. You must walk with your head down, watching, which is perhaps why so many Buenos Aires citizens appear lost in thought, a bit ...
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April 15, 2008
- Tango is back, the kids are dancing it in Buenos Aires and world-wide, and this is a good thing. It was relegated for many years –- especially in Argentina, where it was born -- to the status of an old dance done by old people in a rickety sort of way. There were several reasons for this. Rock and roll came to Argentina in the nineteen-sixties with the same force with which it went ...
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February 26, 2008
- Eva Perón poured out her personal feelings through a combination of her remarkable image -- fueled by photography, fashion and make-up -- and forceful public policy. She was as controversial as she was in part because there was so little nuance in what she wanted to be or what she wished to do. By most accounts, Evita was during her life the most powerful woman in the world. So it is a shock ...
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February 14, 2008
- Astor Piazzolla's music is nothing if not controversial. Among the Argentines themselves, there seems to be two opinions. One was voiced to me some years ago by an Argentine tanguera whose artistic views I always listen to, when she said that "Tango is tango, and Piazzolla is not!" The other is stated just as militantly in favor of Piazzolla's efforts. Wildly so. Piazzolla died in ...
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January 29, 2008
- On that day in 1994 I didn't know how to walk. "What do you mean?" I asked Nora. She stepped toward one of the chairs at the edge of the practice room, before the large mirror. Traffic noise from Geary Street poured in the open windows. She sat down and crossed her legs. I felt vulnerable before her, a laughable figure wet with sweat. I could not see how I would ever achieve ...
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January 9, 2008
- There is a tango entitled "Tengo Miedo", written in 1929. Tu cariño me enloquece.Tu pasión me da la vida.Sinembargo tengo miedo,tengo miedo de quererte.(Your affection drives me crazy.Your passion gives me life.But just the same I'm afraid, I'm afraid to love you.)In New York some years ago, I danced occasionally with Julietta, a woman who had had three husbands, two of whom she had ...
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