Culture Beyond Drinking, or, the Art of Gambling

music¡99% of us is failure - matthew good, fake empire - the national
paint¡alfredo volpi, felipe luis noé
photo¡heaven to hell - david lachapelle

Hello all! Been a bit of time since my last blog, a lot to tell, but once again I will trytrytry to restrict myself lengthwise.

Well, after becoming conoisseurs of the Argentine nightlife Adrian and I moved onto more cultural things this week (while still, of course, maintaining the most ridiculous sleeping hours known to man... before 3am here is nothing short of a miracle on a quiet night). First, we made our way to two galleries this week, El Museo De Bellas Artes as well as the MALBA. We also had a brilliant day betting on the horse races at the Hippodromo in Palermo, and then the next day found ourselves on a walking tour of La Boca and Palermo with a newfound local friend.

Our day at the tracks was absolutely lovely, sun shining brightly, some great swiss and english ladies by our side, as we bet on horses with majestic names such as Mr. Horse and El Prostituto (the proud son of Fat Farm). The Hippodromo was actually really cool, old majestic architecture that felt right out of the movies. Ironically, we weren´t allowed to take any photos (really for no good reason, which makes me think that they had certain clientelle who had no desire to have their photo taken) but luckily I got a video of one of the races (does anyone know if I can post video on blogger?). The excitement with each race was sweeping and you can hear the Argentines screaming and going absolutely nutty for their horses in the background as they got to the finish line (¡VALE!). As for winnings... well first I bet based on how cool I thought the horses name was. And I lost. Then I bet on how cool their parents names were. Lost again. Then I even considered previous results. And kept losing. Finally I decided that all my instincts in horseracing were wrong so I took my criteria and reversed it, therefore betting on the horse who had the crappiest name. AND I lost. Then Adrian won 50 pesos and I was bitter. Haha. All told I only lost 25 pesos (about 10 bucks) but it was a great day all the same.

The other big adventure came from a night where we had been out for Tango lessons with a few girls from the hostel down the way, but arrived halfway downtown only to discover that they had been cancelled. So we wandered about to find a restaurant and ponder what to do with the evening. As is constant in Buenos Aires we were being handed constant fliers for various places as we walked down the street and at one corner a guy tried to give us the fliers and we gave the automatic, handsupnofoulnogracias to him. However, we stopped on the corner and started talking and next thing we knew he was chatting with us, trying to guess where we were from. Turns out the guy has quite a knack, cause he nailed the Brits and the Dutch guy we were with. However, he thought Adrian and I were German, we laughed and corrected him (I think we were just happy not to be mistaken for Americans for once) and we got to talking. Anyways, he was super friendly so we exchanged numbers and said we´d hang out sometime. In the end, Julio (the guy) and his wife wound up taking us around La Boca and the markets in San Telmo and it was fantastic! Our own personal tour guide who´d worked in La Boca and knew literally everyone working the street (the Tango performers, the guys handing out fliers, the gift shop owners, and they were all ecstatic to see him!) and a whole bunch of staircases that to funny gift shops but had windows with great views of the entire area. He really only spoke Spanish, so it was great practice for me though unfortunate for Adrian who was tuned out most of the time unless he realized that Julio and I were making fun of him in Spanish... lol. Ended the day with a local restaurant where he knew the owners and had a nice meal, really great people (he´s even going to hook us up with tickets to the huge Boca-River football game next weekend). It was funny, Adrian and I half spent the day waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to ask for something, but really he and his wife were just great people, pure and simple. And to think it all started with us refusing a flier...

In case you´re curious what La Boca is, it´s actually a cool little neighborhood that had a huge flood of immigrants around the early and mid 20th Century and saw a flourish of Tango culture, which has now become incredibly touristicy during the day and a hotspot for the Buenos Aires mafia at night, who mostly hang out in the barrio across the river. The bright colors that the houses were all painted based on the boat on which you arrived in Buenos Aires, giving an indication of both your nationality and departure. There´re also many crazy statues made of all sorts of famous Argentine figures that´re littering the streets (for example you may recognize football star and local god Maradona). Really a cool little spot for a sunday afternoon jaunt.

I may have to hold off on my little discussion of the arts this entry, since I´m low on time at the internet café and all (collective sight of relief...), but I´ll just say that the paint and photo were all from those galleries and really stunning, especially the chance I got to get to know more artists from this region. This guy Noe was particularly striking, everytime I saw a work that really struck me I´d go forward only to find it was him once again. As for the tracks, here in Buenos Aires I find myself completely removed from new music except at the internet café where I can stream tunes while doing things like writing a blog. Some links to check out if you wanna hear the tracks or learn more about the art: volpi lachapelle noé the national matthew good (for good you have to sign up to the site community).

Anyways, all the best to everyone and please write me! I´d love to know what´s going on at home (like the leafs missing the playoffs! haha not that calgary made it in in any spectacular fashion...) I leave you with a little photo of the Argentine military taking down the flag at the giant Obelisk downtown. Adrian and I assume it must´ve been laundry day. Ciao!