Having opted to stay in NY and commute every day to Red Bank, I chose to make the most of my stay in the city. Tango was, of course, no small factor in the decision making process. In NY I got to dance with some of my best friends who live there and experience a little more of the NY tango scene. Unfortunately, apart from seeing and dancing with my friends, the scene did very little for me, a testimony, I'm sure, to how strong a scene is alive and well in BsAs. I tried very hard to see it from some objective place. And, by no means, do I think I know all about the NY tango scene. But, it just seemed so very far from what had become my reality and I became even more acutely aware of how unsatisfied I will be living anywhere else in the world, with regards to Tango. I am convinced, now more than ever it does not get any better than it does in BsAs.
On july 11th I set off for Sitges, Spain which is a Tango mecca for any serious Tanguero(a) with the means to get there. A beautiful spot, just off the coast of Spain and a 30 minute train ride from Barcelona. Unfortunately my arrival in that fair city was far from ideal as I had run into friends from Europe, whom I'd met in BsAs ,on the train and in a painful moment of distraction, my purse was stolen away by rogue thieves going about their daily business of marring the lives of unsuspecting tourists bent on enjoying a brief moment in an exotic locale. I should know better. It is not the first time, though perhaps the absolute most damaging. They must have high-5'd each other all the way to the pub as my purse contained so many goodies, it would take weeks to fully even remember what was inside: Among their highlights, my digital camera, my IPOD, and all of my costume jewelry. Whether they cared about my passport is hard to say. But I spent the next day at the American Embassy getting a new one. Christ!
Fortunately for me, I had at least 2 good friends in Sitges who acted as my flotation device (Thank you Jorge, Anso and Mariana) in the mean time. As a result I was able to" keep on Tangoin' on "and temporarily banish my worrisome thoughts to my subconscious mind where they lurked nonetheless, and not without reason. The weather was absolutely lovely and the view from my window almost flawless. This was, however, almost not the case, as the guys at the counter were reluctant to let me check in without..my passport....Hmm...I am not generally a person who takes pleasure in making a huge scene, though I am not above it when warranted. This was one of those moments. I was hot, sweaty, jetlagged, underslept, had just carried a duffle weighing 15 kilos over my shoulder for 6 blocks in 95 degree heat and just had EVERYTHING stolen on the train! I was already ready to kick, scream and weep relentlessly, (though preferably in private, on my own bed after a cold shower) You've GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!! NO I DON'T HAVE MY FUCKING PASSPORT AND ARE YOU REALLY TELLING ME YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LET ME CHECK IN??? To say I was livid was an understatement. The only time I've been more angry was when I went to file a police report in Paris for a stolen backpack (don't say it) and they acted as though I was the thief. This time I didn't even try to speak Spanish, they KNEW what I was saying in very plain LOUD English. "okayokayokayokayokayokay!" That night I spent the evening in a double where the AC was not working. The next day I was moved to a lovely single with a view of the ocean. And to their credit, the same guys that almost reduced me to emotional drivel, went above and beyond the call of duty for the entire rest of my stay. Sometimes, rules are meant to be broken. I agreed to take the heat if the police came calling.
The "official" festival itself left a little to be desired though it was lovely dancing outside, the space itself was beautiful and the floor was not too overly crowded. The biggest complaint from me and the others around me was that the music was terribly uninspiring. Lawerence Welk goes Tango. But, I expect the older crowd, was into it. The main attraction was the late night milonga on the boardwalk in front of my hotel which started at 3AM and went until 8 or 9 in the morning. This is the unofficial part of the festival but without question the coolest. As usual the men outnumbered the women and in my opinion had overly delusional ideas about their own Tango skills. I believe this comes from always having the upper hand with sheer regards to numbers. Still, overall, the level of the dancers, both men and women was high by, I think, anybody's standards. The longer you hung out, the more attrition there was and the chances of dancing with somebody you really wanted to dance with got somewhat higher with every sultry hour. It was hot and only got hotter as the breeze died and the sun started to rise. By 9AM we were all toast and providing a curious facet to the early morning jogger's routine. People dancing Tango by the seaside at 4 AM may be an intersting site to behold to those ambling towards home after a night at the clubs, but the same site while the street cleaners are busy at work and people are out giving their dogs a walk and getting in their early morning exercise probably just drives home the idea that we're bloody crazy!
Around 8 or 9 AM those still left standing would perhaps take a quick dip in the ocean and/or just head over to the restaurant at the hotel for a good breakfast buffet which made for a really nice way of er..starting(?) the day. After that, we were done. 5 or 6 hours of sleep was probably the norm for this festival (not too different from most others) but there was also no other really feasible naptime either . And with the sun and the ocean in the mix, you can imagine how tiring it was. Yet somehow, we managed. (LOL) I mean, really.. this was HARD WORK! (don't laugh!) Generally speaking, everybody would start appearing on the beach sometime after 3PM. Dosing, dipping, working on a fabulous "all around" tan, if you know what I mean. (Poor guys, what they had to endure).
At 7PM everybody would start making their way toward San Sebastian beach (about a 10 min. walk along the boardwalk) to the "milonga on the beach??" and there everybody tried to dance in the sand and surf. The first day, I thought, no way, this is killing my knees, I'll never make it thru the week, but a better leader made all the difference. At 9:30 or 10:00 you raced back to shower, if you had time, and then met people for dinner. Very fun. An annual potluck dinner party thrown somewhere in the middle of the week made for a really nice affair.
I chanced to meet an Italian guy at that particular party who could be described as nothing short of a "character". Somewhat chatty, he had a large dolphin (?) helium filled balloon tied to his wrist throughout much of the festival. It seems he had gotten lost from his group at some other festival and his friends had very much feared he'd been kidnapped. Really! And they had been VERY angry with him for getting lost. This was his penance, though I think it might have been self-imposed. A very sweet, and unusual (perhaps eccentric) person. Later that night he turned rather abruptly around and finding me standing behind him whisked me onto the boardwalk without so much as a" bailamos?".., I was elated to find he was a really really fabulous and creative dancer. Really. A real pleasure. Alas, it was our only dance as he was leaving the next afternoon. La prossima!!
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On wed. of the this week I returned home to Buenos Aires after 5 weeks of trans-continental travel. My head is still spinning from such a wide range of experiences that at least more than once I asked myself during the tripf if I had bitten off just a wee bit too much for one 5 week trip. Its not that I was experiencing such diverse and extraordinary cultures,(Its not like I was in the Congo one week and Morroco the next), however, my chosen activites at each local ensured I was deeply entrenched in all of my personal and sometimes varied interests. Quite simply, I got to delve into and ALL facets of Laura Pellegrino's personality in one short trip spanning two continents.
I left Buenos Aires for New York on June 24th where I would spend 2 and 1/2 weeks finishing up my vocals for my upcoming record which is set to be done by the end of Aug. After much contemplating, I chose to stay with my cousin on the Upper West side of Manhattan, who had generously offered to share his studio apartment with me. All things considered, it was probably the best trip to NY ever for me, despite my having to shuttle to Red Bank, New Jersey (home to Springsteen ) every day to record. The hour and 15 minute trip left me some quiet moments to read, meditate, get focused, whatever. And I tried to make good use of the downtime.
The recording process probably went better than either Alex or I expected. Alex had hoped for us to get two songs done per day but was banking on, I believe, it being a slightly arduous process. However, he was surprised to find that my earlier takes are almost always stronger than anything I do later. (something I'm fully aware of but about which Alex remained skeptical, as it is just not the norm.) Whether its due to live playing experience, where YOU ONLY GET ONE CHANCE to get it right, or because I just get bloody board and lose the passion for what I'm singing after many takes, I don't know, but this was our reality, thankfully. We made good time and only had one day where we were probably both a little frustrated, albeit for somewhat different reasons. One of the songs on the album, I wrote mostly in Spanish and I was very uptight about the intonation among other things. It was also perhaps the most challenging song on the record for me to sing, melodically speaking. After spending the better part of one day laboring over it, neither of us felt terribly optimistic. That night Alex spent several hours editing to try to make it right, but as you can imagine , I was REALLY uncomfortable with this. We all know editing is an art in and of itself and A TON of editing goes into virtually every hit record (Bob Dylan excepted) but I, personally, was just not comfortable with this. I mean, ideally you want as true a performance as you can get BEFORE you start editing. When we came back the next day, Alex had masterfully pieced together a take, but it still felt lifeless to me. I told him I wanted to do it all over. And this may have been the only point in the whole session where we both were clearly agitated. Not wanting to fight about it I threw down the gauntlet and told him I wanted 30 minutes to get it right. ( I truly felt I could) and if I didn't get it, I didn't get it... I got it. Without question, we both knew I got it and the result was that we both walked away relieved and excited about a song that now sounded really really good! YEAAA!
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This week as I was knocking myself out at Spin class, (yes, they've got'em here) I noticed this sharp pain in my back and neck. It took me a minute to realize, it was just stress related. However, it was a real shock when I realized what it was as it has been so ABSENT since I got here. This Sat. I will be leaving the country for the first time since coming here in January.(Urugay excluded).In fact, just the IDEA of the States is enough to make my back hurt. And although I am looking forward to the trip, which will include recording in NY/NJ a tango festival on the Beaches of Sitges, Spain (right outside of Barcelona) and a stay with Martin in Mallorca, I am anxious about leaving the country. This may be the only place I've ever lived that I'm not dying to leave within 6 months of arriving, if only for a trip. The strange thing is that nothing around here really really changes. Its more like an ebb and flow of people coming and going. Very transient with all of the tourists and dancers from here doing the same as they leave for months at a time to teach or dance elsewhere. Still, I feel like I might miss something, though I couldn't say what. Maybe I'm afraid they'll think I'm just gone like all the others. Maybe I'm afraid they won't miss me at all? Maybe I'm afraid all my new-found killer dance partners will find somebody else they like dancing with better? LOL! Maybe I DO need a break, and .. a Starbucks caramel Frappucino after all.
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So a few weeks back ( or maybe only last week, I just don't remember) I wrote about a guy who I loved dancing with who after one really great day of dancing and three more of NOT dancing, told me he" wanted to wait to ask me to dance again until he had FORGOTTEN how good it was" so that he wouldn't have "expectations". He's a curious character. He likes to go several days in between dances and then tells me how great it is dancing with me. The other night I, once again, expressed disbelief and he told me he thought I was disputing his claim only to hear him say it again. I said, " NO, I'm disputing it because you go DAYS without asking me to DANCE?!" He confessed that he knows he will get to dance with me a bunch in Sitges, in a few weeks. I'm thinking, maybe....if you don't piss me off too much before we even get there. Sheesh! I wonder if I would be less cynical playing music again?? LOL!
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Tonight I told Mario, the main organizer for the milonga that I didn't plan to resume DJ'ing upon my return from my trip in August. For the last few months things have been brewing that just finally resulted in it not being any fun to do the "thang" anymore. Its amazing how one pain-in-the-ass %%^$$%^% guy can really be a bore. I have a lot or respect for Mario and Eugenia. However, one of my fellow organizers is a patronizing, womanizing ( and I never use that word) two-timing, slippery, manipulative and annoying piece of work who desperately wants my job as DJ and is willing to do almost any crummy thing to get it. Well, tonight I decided, he wins. I just don't want the headache, the harrassing phone calls, or anything else even closely related. Several people have expressed a desire for me to DJ in another location with more alternative music anyway. We'll see. It was fun for a while to be a part of that group and help organize but maybe I just wanna show up and dance! I felt better almost immediately. Lately it was feeling like a war of attrition! I guess its just not high enough on my priority list to warrant the headache. Mario made me promise to reconsider after I return and have had a break but ... I think I'm over it!
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