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"Chord" by Conrad Shawcross and the Kingsway Tram Tunnel
I got to do something unique a recently on Friday October 23rd; I went to see an exhibition of modern at by Conrad Shawcross in an unused tram tunnel in central London; I went with a friend Emily who is an artist and quite familiar with the of works Conrad Shawcross. The tram tunnel was part of London's only tram line that was in use from 1906 to 1952. I have walked past this tunnel entrance in the past and was kind of curious what it was - now I know.
This tunnel has been used for movie sets. In some of the photos, you can see the London underground symbol that would have been put up there for a movie shoot.
We were told not to touch the walls of the tunnel as there was a good fifties years of grime on them. Otherwise, the tunnels were remarkably tidy. The location has been used for storage.
The art piece we saw is called "Chord"; it was is marvellous contraption that is making rope. We were not permitted to take photos of it but you can see a photo of the rope making machine here:
We were only allowed half an hour in the space as people were only let in groups of 20 at a time and the tickets are booked over the internet (it was free to get tickets). It would have been good to be able to spend an hour or two down there with some tea in thermos and just contemplate Chord as it went about making rope. It was an excellent installation to see; it touched on many things: the underground part of a city one normally does not get to see; the manufacture and creation of fantastic machines; a history lesson; observing an action with a temporal quality and art.
Time to think
After a really busy and productive summer, my working life is slowing done for the moment. I have time to think and pick up the pieces on various things.
I have been thinking about Japan for many reasons recently. I have on and off been working on a writing project with my friend in Osaka Shu Nakajima. I need to bring some of the material up to date and publish it. I may post the first piece here in this blog. Here is a photo to tease you with what we have been talking about.
I am also doing some more editing on the short film I made back in May (has it been that long already?). I need to shoot a few new scenes. One scene in particular is not working the way I would like; it is unintentionally funny. I also have been in my mind's eye thinking about animating tea cups. Hmm, I do like it. I need to find images of tea cups and tea leaves. Hmm. there may be some 3D modelling involved as well.
I have am also slowly updating my portfolio. My resume as a text based document does not truly realise what I have been doing all these years. The portfolio has images which are important considering how much of my work is visual.
Pretty.
And lastly, a plug for my friend's in Argentina. Check out this simply sublime music:
http://www.myspace.com/superforros
http://soundcloud.com/animales-superforros
It has been a long summer
It has been a long summer. I have been working almost non-stop; seven days a week at times. Finally, a result - an iPhone project that I worked on has gone live.
Drinking Tea - short film
I have done it; I have made a short film; it is the first one in a concept that I plan to develop. My friend Marco is graciously hosting the download. The file is 50 megabytes in size.
I would really like to know people think. Send me an email.
Manjit
April 2009
So much for a re-design to the web-site. I have been busy (he says).
I have making iPhone software and working on various things.
It was a rather sunny day yesterday and I went for a good long walk around the canal network in Limehouse with some friends. The walk was organised by Gordon Joly.
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2142520/
Amongst other things, my short film project hit a few breaks in the road and got stalled. It is back on course now. I have revised the idea for the shoot and I will be doing a treatment and making some new storyboards.
Ok, more to post soon.
Manjit
Hmm
Hmm, I have not been working on the web-site like I intended of late. I do have a bad cold which has really come at an inconvenient time (when is being ill ever convenient).
I have been keeping moderately busy with learning to how make iPhone software. All going well, some applications could be on the iPhone app store in the New Year.I am working freelance again and rather busy getting some projects happening. I have been discussing various projects by phone, email and in person. I hope to get some definite idea sooner than later which projects are actually going to be "real".
I have also been working on a short film idea. It is going to be quite a low budget/ no budget short to begin with. Ideally, some acquaintances will do the acting. It is quite enjoyable to apply myself to this and has been a long time coming. But I need to have the money side of things bringing money in first.
It is a balancing act making a living and pursuing creative goals.
Culture
Last week on Dec. 15th, I went to see a demonstration of Japanese Wood block printing at the British Museum.
Using traditional techniques, a print of the "Great Wave" by Hokusai was made. It was quite something to see the process of print making in action. The original image came about in the early 1800's and a print would have cost the equivalent of a few bowls of noodles. Now, such a print costs bout 13,000 yen which is about £100.00. I would like to get a print eventually.
I was intrigued by the process; Hokusai made the original illustration on which the print was made from. The original illustration would no longer exist as it was used to make the designs for the print. I think there was about 5 layers in the final print. Over the period of about an hour the craftsman made 5 prints during the demonstration.
It is one of my favourite images. The stylised look of the wave is quite strong. Water is an interesting subject to draw with a pen. Real waves don't look like this but this depiction shows force and motion. Would you agree?
http://www.adachi-hanga.com/
I must mention that the "Great Wave" is actually part of a larger series called "Thirty six views of Mount Fuji". The series was so successful that an additional 10 images were added.
More information at the British Musuem
Web-site changes are a coming
I am going to be re-designing my web-site over the next few weeks.
It has been ages since I have done any posting and I still have some writing to do.
Also, if you are using RSS to get to the blog - this location may be moved so come back sometime in December.
Meanwhile, I was recently in Barcelona to see a friend. It was a short trip but a good one.
Having some cocktails in the Gimlet bar in the Born district in Barcelona.
Tapas
Recently in London
I am really quite tired at the moment. Work has been good but relentless of late; I was up against a crunch period to get some demo-ware done for a trade show. I did my best. The last night and working weekends really takes it out of you. I have not felt so exhausted in a long time.
Now, I am taking some time off to relax but I am not being idle. I have some visuals to put together for the guys at Urban Visuals. And I have just started doing some volunteering at Shunt. What is Shunt you may be asking? Shunt it a theatre troupe that operates a lounge/performance space under London Bridge Train station. It is simply an awesome place; I had sort of a role in a performance piece called "The Peoples Republic of Shunt"; it was inspired by the film "The Lives of Others". People who come on these nights may get detained interrogated and invited to do secret agent training. My role is a tank mechanic but last night, I was more doing recruitment for secret service. I also got to spend time in the VIP Red Room with Commandant Eleanor. She did say I have to toughen up on letting people have access to the Red Room it is very exclusive.
As well, I find myself wondering where am I going next - shall I stay in London for a while yet or is approaching time to return to Vancouver?
I am still working on the travelogue from my trip to South America! I will finish it this year.
In the fall, I plan to go Barcelona to meet up with friends and my friend from Osaka Shuichi will be in BCN in November filming a documentary with NHK. I have not seen Shu in years - it will be good to meet up in the flesh.
Lastly, last Sunday I went to see the Thames Festival parade.
Looking back - trip to Mendoza in November 2007
Back in late November 2007, I went to Mendoza with Gina. Gina is fellow traveller that I met while in Argentina.
I have been wanting for some time to go to Mendoza to see the bodegas (vin-yards) and also get closer to the Andes. This was going to be a bit of a special trip to go around and spend a few days with the main intention eating good food and especially drinking wine. Some years ago, I went to the Torres Bodega just outside Barcelona. It was a very enjoyable and memorable day trip and going to Mendoza was a chance to do the same thing but on a bigger scale.
The city of Mendoza is about 1000 kilometres from Buenos Aires; it is located in the province of the same name. You could either fly or take the bus. It is quite a long bus journey about 14 some hours. That is an awfully long time to be sitting on a bus. But in Argentina, you can take buses overnight which have special seats that flatten out like beds; they are called "camas" in Spanish. It is the same idea of flying first class but much cheaper. There is an attendant on the bus who serves food and drink to the passengers just like on airplane. The journey from Buenos Aires to Mendoza was Ok; in fact we did not book the correct seats and got what was a semi-cama; seats that partially recline; we did ask the agent at the booking counter that it was full cama; strike that one up to limited Spanish.
We caught the bus on Sunday night from the omnibus terminal in Retiro on the 25th around 6PM. The place is absolutely massive. Many people travel by bus in Argentina as it more economical than flying. Travelling by rail is not much of an option in Argentina. While we waiting for the bus departure, we stopped at cafeteria in the terminal. I ordered a beer the only choice was Quilmes. Quilmes is not that great a beer; sometimes it can be ok to drink but not today - it tasted kind of soapy. The journey overnight was ok; we could rest but not really sleep on the bus.
Omnibus Terminal in Retiro, Buenos Aires
We arrived in Mendoza in the morning and then proceeded to change our return journey to get a seats that were the full cama. We were going use Andesmar for the journey back. Andesmar comes highly rated in the guidebooks. But the computer system was down at the bus terminal so we went to the hotel. And from the hotel, we tried to book the tickets online; This turned into one long kafuffle. The web-site is in English but when you book the tickets it switches to Spanish which was not terrible but made things more complicated. Basically, the web-site kept reporting stupid error messages and it appeared that the transaction did not go through. So we then went to local Andesmar office near the hotel and tried to book the tickets there. We did that and we get back to the hotel and find out that the online booking did do go through. So now we had 2 sets of tickets each. We then tried to get one set of tickets cancelled and get a refund. This again was not easy. One of the people at Andesmar did get on the phone to his colleagues and sorted it out. This guy looked like he lost the will to live even before we arrived and were speaking to him in nothing but English with our booking problems. Understandably Argentina is a Spanish speaking country and one cannot always expect to do things in English. But Andesmar is a big operation and they gets many tourists & travellers using there buses who speak English. They need to sort their web-site out.
Anyway, back to the journey. We were staying in Hotel Argentino which is in the centre of town by the main square. The staff there were friendly and extremely helpful. We were able to depend on them to make many inquires for us and make bookings for excursions & restaurants. There was one funny thing in the lobby of the hotel. They had a sign telling the guests that they were being recorded on CCTV for security purposes. But instead of saying "Guest you are being recorded" it said something like "Passengers you are being recorded".
On our first day in Mendoza we went to the Bodega Famalia Zaccardi. Most of the bodegas are a good distance out of the city. You would need to hire a car or go on a tour to get to them. I heard that you can rent bicycles and do it that way but it can be a daunting riding on the roads with all the big trucks. So had booked ourselves in for a tour and lunch and had a private hire car take us there. It was 90 pesos a person to have lunch there. Which was less than £15 pounds with the exchange rate.
Beef!
And it was going to be a typical asado (BBQ) done on a parllila (grill). And we would get to try many of the different wines from the bodega with our meal. There was so much food that by a certain point we could not eat anymore meat. The meal was something like this:
bread served with various types of olive oil made at the bodega, they just don't make wine
various types of empanadas (meat filled pastries)
chorizo and morcilla cocida (blood sausage)
beef
roasted vegetables on the side
more beef
pork
chicken
and finally Crème Brûlée with vanilla helado for desert
We tried various wines like malbec & tempranillo with the meal. I bought a bottle to bring back to the UK but because of security restrictions I had to leave in Brazil; I wanted to bring on in my carry on luggage. I did not want to pack a bottle of wine in my suitcase; I did that once before with some ginger wine and it broke and got all over my clothes. An Italian acquaintance once remarked why not transfer the wine from a glass bottle into a plastic one. Not a bad idea perhaps something to consider in the future. Or if I know I am travelling with wine have a crate or designated suitcase for the wine with lots of padding inside. Of course, I could have bought some wine in the duty free but I was not flying straight back from Argentina to the UK.
It was quite the meat feast. It was good to see that a table of Argentines across from us could also had to "bail out" of the eating at some point. They say Argentines eat a lot of meat but even this meal would put anyone to a test of meat consumption.
We then went for a tour of the bodega. The area is actually desert and all vin-yards use irrigation with water brought down from the mountains. The operation we saw was very high tech with stainless steel vats full of grape juice being made into wine. It was quite a hot day in Mendoza as well; it was very bright sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky. We going in out of buildings in from nice cooled rooms out into the blazing sun. I had to keep put my sunglasses on and off to adjust to the change in light.
We then returned to the hotel to chill out and later went to one of most famous restaurants in Argentina "Francis Mallmann 1884"; Gina had heard about this restaurant before. The restaurant was on the grounds of an old bodega. We took a taxi there as again it was a bit out of the city of Mendoza; it was a bit surprising that we had to go through a security gate to get into the restaurant; it was like going through a check point The grounds of the restaurant were quite something. I would describe it is a hacienda style building with a courtyard in the middle. You first enter through a large wooden door into a foyer where there is a bar and then you are led into the restaurant proper.
It was a lovely night to be out but we ate so much food at lunch that we did not have much of an appetite come dinner. Here we were in a really fabulous restaurant but not feeling very hungry. I had a dish of prawns and Gina had a dish of crab legs. I had a desert of roasted fruits with helado (ice cream); I had not had a desert quite like that before; the roasting of the fruit causes them to caramelise; I think there was apples & pears in the desert and some other fruits. And again with the exchange rate, such a fine meal was not that expensive coming from the UK.
Web-site in Spanish for 1884 restaurant
A detailed article about Francis Mallmann and his journey to become a pre-eminent chef in South America.
Article about Francis Mallmann from Conde Naste magazine
Garzon Restaurant in Uruguay (another restaurant with information in English)
To be continued...
A brief trip to Brazil - part 2
Here I am in London as I type this and it is now the 2nd month in February. Time for some more words about my trip abroad which ended with a a few days in Sao Paulo.
I was in Sao Paulo for almost 5 days; I went about things fairly leisurely; I did not have any burning desire to be running around and trying to cram everything in. It would have been good to go the beach; Sao Paulo is not by the sea but it is only a few hours from the sea. And people are always talking about going to beach. Must be part of the lifestyle there.
On Sunday January 13th, I went with Rodrigo to a club that was literally just around the corner from his apartment. But before that, I was asking Rodrigo if he could recommend any good pizza places in the area. And of course, there is a really good Italian restaurant just near the apartment. Check out the photos. I ordered a pizza that was half and half; one half was a medley of vegetables like eggplant and the other half was with zucchini and a type of salty cheese; I think is it called Polenguinho. Sao Paulo, like Buenos Aires, has lots of Italian food. The name of the place is "I Vitelloni Pizzeria". The pizza I had there was hands down better than some of the pizzas that i had in Buenos Aires. I heard people in Argentina remark that the Italian food there could be better than how it is in Italy and I heard some people in Brazil remark the same thing and they were apparently quoting Italian visitors to each place. I am not so certain but I have had so so Italian food in Italy on my travels; when I was in Rome once, I just keeping picking restaurants that were just borderline ok to so so. I should have paid more attention and made use of guidebooks; they do take the mystery and randomness out of things after all.
http://www.ivetellonic.com.br
I just had a look at the web-site and they have photos online of the pizzas on offer. Some of the pizzas are quite something to look at.
Back to the music, so later that night, Rodrigo took me to his local haunts. And that night there was going to be live music. The music is called forró. The music comes from the North of Brazil and is folkloric in tradition. When we got to the club, it was quite full of people dancing. And people were dancing holding each other so it was not one of those types of music where you just dance in front of someone but you are actually dancing with them. Rodrigo was encouraging me to ask someone to dance but I was hesitant because I did not know much Portuguese and the moves for the dance. But I do really want to learn the dance they were doing. I did buy a CD of the trio was playing that night. They are called "Trio Virgulino". At some times during the night, they were joined by other musicians. The trio were playing: a large drum, an accordion and a triangle. They three members of the band would alternate with the singing of the songs. It was a fairly youngish crowd that night; most of the men were dressed in a rather urban style like they could have easily been at a rap concert; the band members looked a bit older. than the crowd - ha ha. I tried a few typical Brazilian drinks with difficult name to pronounce and of I course I forget the names right away. It was great to see all the people dancing and enjoying themselves. I understand there is a Brazlian night club in London; I wonder if they have forro nights.
http://www.triovirgulino.com.br/trio.asp
A very good night out indeed thanks to being with someone in the know. But I remember some nights were not pleasant. The mosquitoes in Sao Paulo like Buenos Aires were such pests. I would got something like 5 or 6 bites on my feet within a few minutes in the middle of the night and than I would have to suffer through the initial pain and wait for it to subside. My question is does one mosquito do all the biting? I would never heard more than one mosquito at any time. You know when you are trying to sleep and your hear a mosquito buzz you and you try to slap it; you mostly just end up slapping yourself on the head. And these mosquitoes were fairly big as well. I did eventually spot one during the day and I dispatched; it was her or me.
Then comes Monday, I wanted to get some culture in. Through Mari - Rodrigo's sister, I arranged for a tour guide. Daniel is a journalist who lives ini Sao Paulo and he is of course very knowledgeable about his city. Unfortunately, Monday is the wrong day to go to museums in Sao Paulo; we attempted to go to about 4 places and they were all closed. But we did walk around the city a bit. We walked through a part of the city which was like a "Little Italy" and Daniel would talk about the city. We were walking along and Daniel suggested we try out this restaurant. The speciality there was a dish made with beef jerky. I should mention that Daniel was accompanied by his friend Mabel from Bolivia. She was in Brazil on holiday. So the three of had lunch in a place called "Rancho Nordestino". The place looks very typical and homey with many many restaurants reviews on the wall. We had the dish and it was very tasty. I don't think I have ever had a dish that was made with beef jerky on any kind of dried meat before. The dish was made with onions and a cooked grain that added to the texture. And there was 2 types of condiments to add to the dish: melted butter sauce and chilli oil. Brazilians definitely eat more spicy food then they do in Argentina. In the few restaurants I went to, you would often see Tabasco sauce on the table if you wanted to pep up what you were eating, The cuisine is from the North of Brazil the name of the restaurants seems to support that.
We walked through the old centre of Sao Paulo and had a look at church there. Apparently, it is possibly the largest cathedral in South America. We did also saw some Art Deco style buildings in the area. We went by the museum of Portuguese in Sao Paolo and it located near a train station that was built by an English company.
After all the fun, looking for an museum, we then went to the Japan-town in Sao Paulo. The largest population of Japanese ancestry outside Japan is in Brazil.
http://www.discovernikkei.org/wiki/Topics
So we had a stroll about the area and stopped for a beer in a bar/cafe. We ended up chatting a bit with a fellow named Wilson from Sao Paulo. A big gregarious guy with a good command of English. He later gave me a map of Brazil as a gift. We were thinking about what to to next but then another torrential downpour started so we decided to wait awhile for the rain to subside. Yeah, I was reminded of the fact that Sao Paulo is a situated in a place that gets a good amount of rain.
The plan then was to go find some live Samba music. Daniel knew of a club in Villa Madelena. So we proceeded on our way there. On the way there, Daniel pointed out a street that is full of florists. And the shops here stay open 24 hours a day so there is no excuse about not being to buy flowers in Sao Paulo.
We get to club after a subway and taxi ride later to find out that the club does not have any power. We told to come back a bit later and hopefully by then power would be restored. So we wandered around the area a bit and saw a school-yard full of teenagers practising juggling. We stopped there to watch the kids practice their technique.
We then went back tot the club and it was still not open. Thoughts turned to having some beers and there was a restaurant just up the road. And we did get some beers and also had some really good food. The place is called "O Pico Espeto Bar" and they specialise in food all grilled on skewers. Being a Monday night, there was just to 2 young men working there. One guy doing the cooking and the other doing the serving and taking orders. And again, the place was really friendly. I was trying to communicate in what little Portuguese I knew. I remember talking with Daniel about language. He saying how Brazilians speak differently than people from Portugal. He said it was often that when speaking with someone from Portugal, he could not tell what they were saying as they don't enunciate like Brazilians do.
And the third time, we went back to the club "O do Borogodo; they were open thankfully. And it was already starting to get full; the time now was approaching midnight. We drank more beer and stayed a few hours. There was a live six piece band as expected with a female vocalist. And of course, we heard Samba music. It was the time leading up to carnival and all over the city Samba schools would be rehearsing for the Carnival in Rio. I did catch a glimpse of some Samba schools on Friday night and they were so busy; the one we attempted to go was too busy actually so we did not stay.
So on Tuesday, I went back to see some of the museums that were closed on Monday: Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP) & The Itau Cultural. I met up with Daniel again.The MASP museum was in the news recently over some paintings that were stolen and then recovered. The museum was re-opening while I was in Sao Paulo. It was quite interesting to see an exhibit of works by Tatsumi Orimoto at Masp. I had not heard of this artist before and the exhibit of his works mostly represented in photography was quite extensive. We also had a look at the permanent collection at MASP and we saw some significant pieces by Brazilian artists through the ages.. The Itau Cultural space was entirely focused on contemporary art from what I saw. And actually Itau is a major bank in Brazil and they have set up a dedicated art space. Some of the installations were quite intriguing. There was one installation which was sand sculpted to look like a landscape with various size speakers inserted into the sand emitting noise; the piece is called "Deserto" by Paulo Vivaacqua..
http://www.itaucultural.org.br/
http://masp.uol.com.br/exposicoes/2008/tatsumiorimoto/
http://www.revistalugares.org.br/lugares_xml.html
Later that night, I would catch my flight back to the UK. I did also visit a design studio called "Bijari" in the afternoon that D.C. put me in touch with. This is a subject for another post. There was probably a few others things to type about - more coming soon (I hope).
A brief visit to Brazil - part 1
I arrived on Friday January 11th; the plane left Buenos Aires about an hour late - typical.
I arrange for someone to pick me up from the airport as I heard the airport is not so close to the city and a taxi can be a bit costly. Lino met me at the airport and we drove back into the city; at first traffic was not bad; but when we got to Paulista street in the heart of Sao Paulo, it slowed down quite a bit. It looks very modern here with all the tall buildings and glass and like many big cities in the world. The bus network looks quite modern in comparison to Buenos Aires; the buses in Bs As are privately run and in and various different states of condition; you dod see some smoke belching behemoths on the road there. Driving around Sao Paulo the city looks fairly well kept; many of the buildings look they were built in the last fifty years; some favelas were pointed out to me. A few people mentioned how the river here is quite polluted and can really stink on a hot day; the government says that want to clean it up like the Thames in London was but so far has anything been done?
I took a nap as I had not really slept the night before; I got the airport at about 4:30 in the morning to catch my flight; for International flights you are asked to get the airport two and half hours before the flight is to leave.
I was staying in apartment with Rodrigo; originally, I was going to stay with his sister Mari but she already had someone staying with her. I had made contact with Mari from a posting on the "Thorn Tree" forum on the Lonely planet web-site.
Later that night I met Rodrigo and Mari's family and had Sabbath with them and there was a great amount of food. I had never been to Sabbath meal before and here I was going to one in Brazil. The fish was very good. Their father had recently returned from Israel and he was showing everyone the photos. He has a really impressive house kind of a bungalow style house and they have 3 dogs and a parrot. The parrot started talking and I was told the parrot bites; so I did not get too close to his cage; he did seem to like having some attention and reacting when people paid him attention. I did wonder about him being in a cage all the time. Birds like parrots can be very social animals and many live in flocks. We then went for a drive and were going to check out a Samba rehearsal but it was too busy to hard to find a parking spot. We then met some of Rodrigo's friends; two of his friends were moving out of the city; so it was a going away drinks. It was a group of friends who knew each other from university.
On Saturday the 12th, I met with Junia and her family: Leonel & Sofia. Junia I had met some years ago when she was living in London; so had not seen each other in what seems like 6 years or longer. Sofia is so cute at 4 years old. We went to a very good restaurant in Villa Magdalega called "Pitanga"; it was buffet style and I was really impressed with the quality and variety of dishes.
After lunch we went to a kind if flea market where you can buy art, curios and vintage items in at Praça Benedito Calixto in Pinheiros. I saw some really clever artwork that was based on the Brazilian flag; I would have bought one but they would have been to big to add my luggage. Before leaving, Argentina I was quite ruthless and getting rid of things that I no longer needed.
When we went into the covered section of the market, they happened to be playing some music by one of my favourite bands "Mau Mau" from Italy. I was quite chuffed to be hearing the song "Venus Nabalera".
We then went back to their apartment in Morimbo and chatted. The apartment complex is 30 years old and when it was first built; it was the only thing on the hill side. It is an excellent example of urban planning.
They have a swimming pool, tennis court, gym and restaurant and even a waterfall on site.
It makes it very easy for families as there are all kinds of classes available on the premises; Sofia is taking ballet lessons here. And some of the forest was preserved so the area is surrounded by green. There are many other high rises but none them are situated so well like this place. They have an apartment on the 22nd floor in one of the apartments. We were talking about music and using You Tube watched a few videos. We talked about the famous Argentina rock artist Charlie Garcia; Charlie has apparently lost it a bit; we watch a video clip of him jumping out a hotel window into a swimming pool. Leone also found some videos by "Sumo" & "Bersuit". I introduced them to the recent music of "The Shins" and "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah" and the the internet connection died before I could show them the music of "The Dears" one of my favourite bands of recent times. I rate this for being a good band from Canada; they are from Montreal.
I later met Ben W. I know Ben's brother Mark and this the first time we met. We went out for Sushi near where he lives in heart of the town there is a street of restaurants; It was called Daisho and when we left there was a torrential downpour; I guess I should not be surprised as this here I was in a semitropical region. We got a taxi and i had the address of the apartment but the driver did not know the street; it is a side street after all; I had to call Mari long distance using my UK phone; it took a little while to get there and the driver was very friendly and was speaking Portuguese with me; I understood some of what he was saying. At the end he was saying something like "pi canya" when we were just near the apartment.
I tried Cashew juice for the first time while here and it was quite good; why don't we have it in the UK? Maybe the juice does not travel well?
It is now Sunday January 13th. In the morning, I heard some squawking and looked outside across the street there was a green parrot sitting in the top of a tree; I called to it and it seemed to notice me; I was telling the bird to "come closer" and shortly after he flew off and it turns out there was another parrot who I did not see in the tree until they both flew away. I later told Rodrigo and showed him the photo; he was surprised he had not seen any parrots before in the area.
I have been listening to Portuguese and I am definitely understanding some words here & there. It is, of course, similar to Spanish and I find myself remembering the few Portuguese words I 'knew' from being in Portugal with a friend in 2006.
Beginnings and Endings in Argentina
When I when I arrived in Argentina and left Argentina two curious & humorous things happened.
When I landed in Argentina about 3 months ago in early October; I was picked up by a taxi; it was arranged by the people I was renting the apartment from. It was fairly smooth journey from the airport to the Barrio Cabalito. Just by the apartment building, one of the first things I see is a really fat & tall police office bent over the a car with the hood up. This guy had a really large girth around his waste. I don't think I have even seen such a large police officer anywhere. It looks a car has been abandoned at a T intersection; it was quite a old looking beater. Whoever was driving the car appears to have disappeared. You do some see some real clunkers in Argentina.
And then when I was leaving now in January, my friend Juan called a "remise" (private car) to go to the airport. Juan lived on the way so we were going to drop him off first. It was a Thursday night and there seems to be quite a few road-checks in the area and sure enough we get asked to stop. A police office was speaking with the driver and checking his ID. Then the officers says "Chicas" and makes a 'big kissing' sound and a woman appears with a breathalyser. Of course the driver was clean and we proceeded on our way after his breath was 'checked'. We were all quite amused by the way the officer called the technician over. This was about 3:30 in the morning now. I got to the airport sometime after 4 and checked in. And then my plane which was to scheduled to leave around 7 AM left about an hour late.
Earlier that night on January 10th, Juan and I went to Korean restaurant called "Bi Won"; it was quite a coincidence that Juan suggested we go there; I have been wanting to try Korean food with Argentine beef since I had been here and my last night in the country that is what we had. And this was one of the restaurants that I knew about. The food was very good and it was served with many vegetable side dishes. We were quite stuffed by the end of the meal. A guidebook did say the portions are quite generous and it is definitely true. The restaurant was located more towards the downtown area in Congreso I believe. The waiter Domingo was one of cheeriest the waiters I had encountered in the country; we chatted with him a bit or I should I say I listened as Juan & Domingo were communicating in Spanish.
We then went back to Palermo and went to a bar called "Mundo Bizzaro" and again this another one of the places I wanted to check out; a few weeks ago I was going to go the bar after reading about in a guidebook about Buenos Aires; I went to where the bar should have been and I could not find it there; I was hungry so I had some dinner at a restaurant near where the bar should have been and then later asked the waitress if she knew where "Mundo Bizzaro" was; it turns out the bar had moved to another location in the barrio - well at least it was not closed. My Buenos Aires Guidebook was a few years old and had the old address for the bar. So I did not make it to the bar the time. We had some vermouth there; a very adult drink as it is bitter; I think the names of the liquors were Pinreal and Cymar. And a few beers and some mineral water later we went back to the apartment in Palermo and listened to some "Lemon Jelly" and "Isobell Campbell and Mark Lanegan" and then it was time to call a taxi and for me to go to the airport.
And this how my stay in Argentina ended.
Bariloche - Sunday January 6th
Well, here we are in "Bariloche" in the Northern region of Argentina called "Patagonia". We arrived last night; I came to Bariloche with a friend Lucy who I met in a Spanish class in Buenos Aires. Lucy plans to stay on for a few weeks here - what a great plan. It is quite blissful here and very tranquil.
Here is the view from the cabin - not bad. The mountains in the distance are actually in Chile.
The cabin we are staying in with Wifi internet & satellite TV - such a connected world we live in now...
Today, we walked around the area a bit and had a great lunch at a restaurant called "La Playa" and the view was directly overlooking a lake.
We were very sensible and shared a steak; it would have been to much food to eat otherwise and the steak was so good. And we it had with some roasted vegetables and accompanied it with some fine Malbec.
Tomorrow, we are going on a boat tour that goes into the a park in area. The area is full of birds and insects; I don't think I have seen so many dragonflies in such a long time. I am told that there are small armadillos that live in the area and tiny deer. Apparently, the forests here inspired scenes in Walt Disney's Bambi.
More photos online soon.
Time is almost up - back to the UK soon
My time in Buenos Aires is coming to a close; I have been making an effort to go to as many places to that were on my list. On January 3rd, I went to the zoo and I went to bookstore that used to be a theatre to start. It was so incredibly hot over the past week; summer is here and people were not kidding when they say it gets too hot here.
I really wanted to see a Capybara or Carpincho as they are called here. When I was in Argentina the first time, some years ago, I did see some Capybara tracks in Entre Rios. The Capybara is the world's largest rodent and lives in around water.
One funny thing did happen while at the zoo; many of the animals are not penned in and are free to roam around or as they just interlopers who moved in? There are muskrats all over the place; one leaned on my leg while I was trying to take it's photo. It must have been looking for food. He must have been an adult; he was about 4 times the size of the babies which are seen coming out of the pond.
I also saw a pair of really large birds; quite striking looking. There wasn't a sign saying what they were in the enclosure. They might have been more of the free roaming inhabitants.
I also saw some Llamas and Pumas there and many parrots; I was more interested in seeing animals of South America. I did see two camels having a disagreement and one was chasing the other around and they are large animals!
I then proceeded to go to the largest bookstore in South America - "Ateneo Grand Spendid" ; it used to be a movie cinema.
Lastly, I went to a Tango venue called the "La Catedral". I got there sometime after 10 PM and there was a beginners tango class in progress. I heard from some people here that this is not a very typical place for Tango and they were right. The teacher had a haircut like a mohawk. I sat down and listened to some music for a few hours. I was hoping there would be a live Tango band tonight but alas no; there was a brief set with someone singing very beautifully in Spanish and playing an acoustic guitar. I found myself getting a bit hungry around 1:30 AM and ordered a tortilla - a thick omelette with potatoes in it. I will say this most if not all the concerts I have been to have been in places that serve hot food. It was true again this night with the twist that the menu here was all vegetarian. It reminds me how I was talking about the music scene in Rome and some Italian friends said people there were more interested in looking good and eating then going to check out live music. Well here in Buenos Aires, they like to eat, look good and also listen to music at the same time. So, I had a decent time at "La Catedral" but not a great time; I was perhaps unlucky with the night I went; there are some photos of the venue here on another blog:
Blog link in Spanish with photos of "La Catedral"
It would definitely be a place to go visit again when there is something more happening.
In fact a few nights earlier I was a concert by a duet that play Tango music at a place called Notorious. The band is called "Fain Mantega". Notorious is a venue that sells music, has a restaurant and hosts concerts. It was a good performance but for I was really mentally tired that night and did not fully enjoy the show; I still wonder why I was just so out of it that night. And it was quite hot as I mentioned earlier. But when I went to leave the venue, it was absolutely pouring with torrential rain. Fortunately, I was able to flag down a taxi before getting absolutely drenched. And speaking of food again; the performance area is not too far from the kitchen so where I was sitting in the middle; it was kind of funny hearing the kitchen noise from one side and the music from the other. The kitchen was partially open and hence all the racket made there echoed around.
And tomorrow, I am off to Bariloche in Patagonia. The area is called the "Lake District". It looks absolutely stunning there; I shall of course be taking many photos.
Peruvian Food in Buenos Aires
Updated Dec 10th.
The other day I went to Xalapa, a Mexican restaurant, in Palermo Veijo and the meal I had was ok; maybe it was what I ordered; I have had some good meals here before I should say. And yesterday (Dec 4th) I was reading a blog from someone who until recently lived in Buenos Aires and he was of the opinion that Mexican food is not very good at all here in Argentina. Well, I would not say it is bad but it could possibly be better. The same blogger "Disco Shawn" went on to say the best ethnic food in Buenos Aires is Peruvian. Hmmm. And I have been really curious to try out some Peruvian food for about a month now after talking about with Cat & her husband Dan. Cat I had met on a Spanish class. She is a fellow Canadian in Argentina.
I was to meet up with Jennifer and her boyfriend Carlos. Jen I have met a few times in London; I know her through Karen from Oz. Jen is from Argentina and had been living in the UK for a few years. It was good to finally to get meet up with her and catch up and also to get to know Carlos. We had a very fine evening chatting mostly in English. I did attempt a few words here & there in Spanish.
Tonight, we went to a Peruvian restaurant in Belgrano called Primavera Trujiliani. And it was quite good; I have been curious to have Peruvian food as it can be a fusion of cooking from all over the place. In fact the main dishes that we had looked like chinese food but were not. And the service in this little neighbourhood restaurant was very amiable indeed. I was telling the waiter in broken Spanish how I liked Argentinean food but it was good to have something different. My friend then re translated for the waiter. He recriprocated by bringing me a cocktail called a Piso Sour. Very nice and refreshing I must say.
This is what we ate between the 3 of us and it came to $80 pesos with some beer:
Papas a la hunacayna, - potatoes in a cream & cheese sauce
Aticucho de pescado - fish brochettes marinated in slightly tangy sauce
Arroz chaufa - something like egg fried rice with beef and vegetables
Chicharron de Pollo - battered morsels of fried chicken
And for desert we shared two deserts one was made with passion fruit like a pudding; someone tell me why there are not more deserts made with passion fruit.
There is a sizeable Peruvian community in Buenos Aires and of course they brought their cuisine with then. I am curious to try some other restaurants while here. I have heard there is a simply awesome new Peruvian restaurant called Ceviche in Palermo Hollywood and it is pricey; it would be like $ 200 pesos per person. Yup - 200! Still that is not bad for me with the exchange rate; it works out to £31 which is what you would spend on a decent meal in London.
Villa Gesell on the Atlantic coast
A couple of weeks ago now back in mid November, I went to Villa Gesell on the Atlantic coast. The idea was to have a weekend away from Buenos Aires. Things did not quite go as planned; the road signs on the highway were not very helpful. What should have been a 3 and half drive took 5 hours as we missed a turn somewhere. And then we spent another hour looking for a particular hotel in the middle of the night; it turns out the hotel was no longer a hotel. We did eventually settle on a place and for me, it was quite good; the hotel staff were very friendly and one of the staff Andrea spoke very good English; she had actually lived in London for a spell and helped as much as possible to make the most of our time in the Villa. The hotel is called Olas. And it is more of an apartment hotel. The decor was minimal and functional; one of the hotel we saw was so incredibly garish; it would have been kind of surreal to have stayed in the room we saw.
Villa Gesell is a popular destination in the summer; at the time we were there it was fairly quiet. So there was not to many people on the beach. One can imagine how in December the place will be just heaving with people.
One of the amusing things about the place, was all the dogs just roaming about the town. If I was a dog, I think Villa Gesell would be a good place to be. It is not as built up and densely packed as Buenos Aires. I am not the only one who noticed the dogs so did Rob Brucker on his blog. Funny that.
It was quite clear for most of the weekend but the weather was quite chilly at times. We did go horseback riding through the sand dunes and alongside the ocean. It was great. This was the 2nd time I had ever been on a horse; the first time was just for an hour lesson in North London some years ago. We went riding on both Saturday & Sunday. The first horse that I rode was just a bit stubborn; the second one actually did move and it was quite a sensation to be galloping on the beach. One point, there was a brief hail storm while we were riding. The people at the estancia (ranch) were ever so friendly and accomodating. Jorge, one of the people from the ranch, said that between the 2 rides, I had improved greatly. Most of the people at the ranch only spoke Spanish. So it was good chance for me to try to speak Spanish and I did ok.
Before we returned to Buenos Aires, we stopped in the next town along the beach. This place was built in a forest. A very picturesque way of planning a small town. The town is called "Mar de las Pampas".
The area between Villa Gesell & Buenos Aires is just flat flat flat. They call it the pampas. But if you stop and observe, you will hear and see very abundant bird life. We saw some Egrets along the highway.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
I am now in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I have been wanting to come back here since my first trip over 2 years ago.
This time I am staying a bit longer; it will be about two months. I have rented an apartment through a friend of a friend. I am staying in the Caballito barrio (Note: the picture above is just a random building in Buenos Aires). It is not as cool and trendy as Palermo Vieojo where I stayed last time but this time I am on a budget. Also, part of the plan was to avoid as much winter as I can. While, London is getting colder and the days are shorter the opposite is happening here in Argentina.
So far, I have meet up with some friends from before like my friend Steve and his family. And I have met some new people this time. I have met a fellow Vancouverite Holly Foster. I thank DJ Clarence from Vancouver for the introduction.
And I have stared taking guitar lessons. I need to buy a guitar quick. My teacher Cristian was showing me how to use guitar tabs and his song choice was "No Surprises" by Radiohead; I was very happy to be learning how to play a song from one of my favourite bands.
It interesting the differences between England, Canada and Argentina. In the apartment, there is a gas oven and you have to light it with a match. This morning, I managed to singe the hair on my left arm and my eyebrows while lighting the oven. Not a happy start to the day. Maybe. I am not destined to be a cook. I have never used a gas oven before; they have always been electric. Perhaps, time to go buy a microwave oven.
The other night, I met up with Holly and Beto and we went to the "Barrio Chino". It is the Chinatown area in Buenos Aires. It is quite small compared to London & Vancouver but it the place to go if you want to buy curry pastes and things like garam masala for Indian cooking.
Argentinean cooking is very influenced by Italian cooking. There are pizza restaurants everywhere. And these places also make Empanadas; Emapanads are found all over Latin America. They are savoury pastries that can be baked or fried. They can come with all kinds of ingredients be it beef, chicken or vegetables. I have been trying out some of the local take out restaurants. I was really looking forward to having some empanadas with carne picante the other day. I expected them to be spicy but I barely tasted any chilli. The cuisine here is not spicy at all.
It interesting how technology has made travelling so much easier to stay in touch with people. I have cable internet in the apartment and I have rented a mobile phone. I am every day doing Google searches and whatever to find out more about what is going on Buenos Aires. There of course quite a few active bloggers here. I have yet to find a good and up to date source of information on the contemporary art scene here in English. But I will most likely be getting some info from Flor and Silvina who I met on my last trip. They are experts on the local art scene; that is what they do.
http://www.puntos-arte.com.ar/
My Spanish is still quite diabolical; I have been listening to some BBC language CD's and carrying my Lonely planet phrase book around. I went and took some clothes the local laundry service. They said things to me and I really did not understand. They were very good sports about my lack of Spanish. Basically, I think they were asking if one of clothes articles was dry clean only which it was not.
One of the funny things last night when I went grocery shopping, the supermarket did not have any carrots. You take thing like carrots for granted as being ubiquitous. I suppose carrots are not really typical here. And the other thing, I was told that is that the prices of tomatoes here are so extraordinarily high that there is a boycott on buying them. Inflation is also quite high here at the moment. The meat section of the super market had all kinds of beef but I did not see any chicken. I wanted to possibly make a chicken curry one night; I brought a big jar of Patak's Madras curry with me from the UK; how long will it last? At the same, you shops that have rotisseries; there is one just a few blocks down the road; living by myself, I don't see me buying a whole roasted chicken anytime soon. The city is full of shops & restaurants. In London where you are never too far a from a pub; here you are never too far from a pizzeria; in fact I might go have some pizza for lunch. I have been going for walks around the neighbourhood to see what the local shops are. Buenos Aires is quite a densely packed city. There are many tall apartment buildings here. Many things can be found within walking distance here in the Caballito barrio.
And there is construction work everywhere. Add that to the constant dogs barking and it is quite a noisy place - it is a lively city. And also speaking about dogs; there is dog dirt everywhere. I bought a pair of Doc. Martin walking shoes for those trips out of town but I am wearing them practically everyday as a navigate the treacherous sidewalks of the city avoiding poop and all the potholes.
I also plan to make some excursions to other parts of the country after I get a bit more settled in. Even-though, I am here in Argentina, I am still doing work on a London based project and scoping out some possible new work as well. Busy, busy but in a good way.
Tonight, I am going to join Beto, Holly's partner, and we are going to drink some beers with the Buenos Aires Quaffers. And today is looking like another sunny day; I think a walk to the local park is the thing to do.
M.
Ultratango
I am so happy. Last night, I went with Gina & Julie to see a band called Ultratango; I found out about the gig from the web-site What's Up Buenos Aires. This web site has been so handy for finding out about live music in Bs. As.
Ultratango were performing in the Niceto club in Palermo, Hollywood. What Ultratango has been doing is taking music by composers like Astor Piazzolla and adding new sounds. I suppose you could call it Tango Electronica (is there such a term?). If you have heard of the Gotan Project, you know what I am talking about. Ultratango are a five member band with a drummer, violinist, a keyboard player, a bandoneón player and another keyboard player who does the 'programming'.
One of the essential instruments in the Tango is the bandoneón; the bandoneón is a squeeze box; it looks different from a typical accordion as you can see from the image. For me, the bandoneón is such a rich and emotional sounding instrument. The accordion is one of those instruments that I can find quite 'cheesy' but handled well it is can make beautiful music.
Wikipedia article on the bandoneón
And of course they have a web-site and many videos on You Tube.
They performed a few pieces like Libertango which is one of my favourite pieces of music. This music can move me so very much.
I must do my best to hear more music while here. And tonight, I am going to a Tango dance & music performance with Gina near Abasto. And I have heard from some Porteños that are some interesting Tango clubs in barrio's like Almagro which is quite close to where we are going tonight (Dec 2, 2007). Porteño is the name given to people from Buenos Aires. It means "people of the port". Young people here are embracing the music; someone said the other night, "You can go to these clubs and see people with dreadlocks doing the Tango". I think, again, music like the Tango is about emotion, living and being alive. It roots come from the slums & brothels of a different time in Buenos Aires and the music has changed and evolved somewhat and is here today; for me, Tango music says something about the fabric of life and the human condition.
Web article on the origins of Tango music.
I am told of a Tango club called "La Catedral" and hope to be going there soon with some Porteños.
Even this morning after the concert; I am hearing the melodies of Tango music in my mind. Such joy. I want to see & hear Ultratango again - I should check when they are performing next while I am in Argentina.
The Andes
This past week, I went to the province of Mendoza with Gina. We travelled there by overnight bus and visited a few bodegas and drank "mucho vino".
And we had to go up to the Andes while there. We took a tour bus that made a few stops and went as far as the border crossing with Chile & Argentina. It was so ruggedly beautiful up there. We even saw some wild horses; they would have to be quite hardy to survive in such a place; Mendoza is a desert and vegetation is mostly just scrub. All the bodegas depend on irrigation to bring the water from the Andes down to the grapes.
I have put some of the photos up on Flickr
I have more to say about Mendoza shortly (promises, promises)
Coincidences
Most people have heard that expression "things happen in threes". Something has happened to me twice recently and I was waiting for it to happen again and sure enough it did.
Over the past 2 weeks, I have been sitting at dinner and I have had the waiter or waitress accidentally knock something over and it just misses me. I don't recall where the first place was but the 2nd time was at Bar Uriarte in Palermo. I went there for some drinks with Gina and we were sitting at the bar; the bartender's name is Diego; a thoroughly likeable chap. I thought he looked a bit like a Latino John Travolta. The drink of the week was a cocktail called an "Italian Jack"; I had to try one and it was very good. It was such a nice pleasant atmosphere that we decided to have dinner there and there was no tables available so we ate at the bar. We just happened to be sitting right by where Diego makes the drinks. Dinner by the way was excellent; I had some herb stuffed chicken on a bed or barley. Shortly after dinner, Diego loses hold of something as he was making a drink and it splashes over my dinner plate and mostly misses me. I had to laugh at it all as it was narrow miss and I just got a little water on me.
Today, I was in the mood for something different from grilled meat and went to have some Mexican food in Palermo Veijo. I decided to walk from Caballito to Palermo Vieojo. There is a bus but it takes such a winding route that I though walking would be better even it is about a 50 minute walk. And today was more of the hot spring weather and there was a breeze which made it quite pleasant. So I get to restaurant and sit outside on the street to enjoy the day; I ordered a coke and I drank it so fast that I ordered another one; the waitress brings me a coke she places it on the table and as I was just about to ask her something the coke bottle falls over onto a plate of nacho chips and spill all over the table making a mess; again it mostly missed me and I just got some coca cola on my shorts. What happened the tablecloth was covering a hole in the table for the a sun umbrella; the coke bottle was placed just over the hole; it was an accident waiting to happen. I had to smile as this is the 3rd time that I have had a meal or drink almost end up in my lap. There you have it happened for the 3rd time. And this has never happened to me before like this; of course, I have had drinks knocked on to me but usually that was me or a friend accidentally bumping something not the serving staff.
And another coincidence of a sort. About a week ago, I met up with Gina in Bar 6 in Palermo Viejo and after a few minutes the film actor Willem Dafoe with an acquaintance enters the place; I thought it was quite a coincidence to see an American movie actor here in Argentina; and then today I went again to Bar 6 with Gina and Willem Dafoe also he shows up again after 5 minutes after we did. I guess he must be staying in the area.