Music Fridays: Lupe Fiasco - Kick Push

The Last of Good Air

Palermo, the neighborhood I stayed in was exciting, lively--it was seemingly the prime spot for nightlife. But the day in Buenos Aires belonged to La Boca (my pics here), by far my favorite neighborhood. Although touristy, La Boca has a charm that comes from more than just the colorful streets--it'll bring the gadabout right out of you. You might think its gaudy or tacky, at first, but the variegated scheme comes from the tradition of having used leftover paint from the shipyard to coat homes those that could otherwise not afford it.

The highlight of La Boca wasn't the Caminito or even stopping in at a random cafe and catching a tango show, but rather the most note-worthy book press I've yet encountered:

During the crisis Argentina’s middle class, which historically had been the largest in Latin America, collapsed. Half the population fell below the poverty line, and thousands of people walked the streets collecting scraps of cardboard and paper from the gutters and rubbish bins to sell for whatever they could get. They were, and still are, known as cartoneros – ‘cardboard people’. With most consumers finding it almost impossible to buy everyday household items, let alone luxury goods, Argentine publishing houses were struck particularly hard: imported books cost four or five times more after the great devaluation of the peso at the beginning of 2002.

Social experimentation, improvisation and cooperation occurred in neighbourhoods and cities across the country: factories started up again, run by shop-floor workers; a barter system evolved, in which millions of people participated; unemployed members of the middle classes and others began to create their own forms of self-government; street artists formed themselves into collectives. Since 2005 the country’s political institutions have been shored up, and a process of macroeconomic recovery has taken place. The period of greatest social crisis has passed, but it has left its mark; the government can no longer follow the neo-liberal approach of the 1990s. Yet while there has been a slight shift to the left, basically the system has recovered, and although there is less poverty, wealth is still mainly concentrated in the hands of the few. There is less unemployment, but people’s buying power has also decreased.

EC’s work began in this economic and political context. From the outset it bought cardboard from the cartoneros for five times the normal price. Several of Latin America’s most important writers or their literary executors waived the copyright on some of their works. The front and back cover of each of EC’s publications is produced by a group of cartoneros, cutting and painting and then attaching a little pile of photocopied text (although this is gradually being replaced by offset printing).

They kindly posed for my pictures, here.

Deadly Buenos Aires

I don't want to drag this photo thing out too much longer, so, naturally, I will. But there's no way you'll get anything out of looking at 800 pictures of my Buenos Aires trip all at once. Not to mention the fact that you'll miss all the fun stuff. Today's mass dump includes photos of the hot Buenos Aires architecture, pictures from the inside the main Cathedral, which houses the corpse of San Martin, the Libertador of South America, and shots of the Cementerio de Recoleta--a real city of the dead, where you could easily get lots in the streets.

I've also posted photos from an estancia in San Antonio de Areco, in the Province of Buenos Aires (a few hours outside the city), where we were afforded an intimate look at true gaucho culture as part of our Fulbright Conference. You'll see us horseback riding, asado feasting, and playing pool (just like an Argentinian gaucho would).

Count It

From the beasts that brought you Pluto, jeremiad-free news--Lowell found us a new planet called TrES-4. Remarks from the Republic:

"It is kind of an arduous process, in a sense, to go through discovery, confirmation and further observation," he said. "It takes a lot of collaborators, a lot of time and effort and telescopes."

Lowell's telescope that made the discovery is housed on the top of Anderson Mesa, about 15 miles southwest of Flagstaff. Scientists send the robotic telescope an e-mail every day, telling it where to look in the sky.

Lowell is world-famous for the discovery of Pluto in 1930. Other big discoveries over the years include the first detection of water in a planet outside our solar system's atmosphere and a means of determining the age of a star.

Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff, is located in the great state of Arizona. Believe it, por favor.

Aesthetic Aires

Buenos Aires is plentiful in museums, especially for the art-lover. My exegesis would be far too amateur, but I can tell, at least, that I enjoyed the art, and took as many pictures as I could covertly accomplish. But better than the art I saw in museums, was the public art. See some of it for yourself.

More Buenos Aires

Some of the other picture-worthy places I saw in Buenos Aires were the Japanese Gardens, Puerto Madero and the widest street in the world. Indeed, after seeing the Botanical Gardens, weak sauce--nothing on what we've got in Phoenix, the Japanese Gardens were quite a sight. But I think they'd have held their own weight. See for yourself.

Puerto Madero, the port neighborhood in BsAs, harbors some great views, delicious eats, and easy access to Uruguay. Harbors. Get it? Because...

Buenos Aires also has what Porteños refer to as "the widest street in the world." 9 de Julio was indeed quite difficult to cross. It took me 3 traffic lights.

Stay in the Know

I Am Become Death

A victim of the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare is seen in September 1945, at the Ujina Branch of the First Army Hospital in Hiroshima. The explosion's thermic rays burned the pattern of this woman's kimono upon her back.
Photo: Associated Press

From Wired:

Many historians believe that the real U.S. motive for dropping the bomb was to end the war quickly before the Russians could become involved, thereby denying them a postwar stake in the Pacific -- and, by practical example, to send a message to Stalin.

That we might remember, and learn.

Unwarranted Applause

There's lots of inexplicable exaltation that happens in South America, in my opinion. I never understood why people in the U.S. would sometimes clap at the end of movies they enjoyed--the actors do not get to hear the applause, so really all you're doing is showing other people you approved of the film. And why should I care about your opinion? But here in Chile, people cheer at the end of movies they were only mildly pleased with, or sometimes not even at all. After a recent flick I asked someone, who was earlier clapping, what he thought of the movie. "It was okay. Not that good," he responded.

But it doesn't end there. At the beginning of my trip, one of the first movies I saw was Dear Wendy (trailer here), a criticism of gun violence and our cultural parlance on weapons. At points when major characters died, people clapped. Shocking! And at the end of particularly violent scenes you could hear laughing and wild applause. I simply didn't get it.

Probably the oddest clapping I hear is on flights. The largely U.S. customer base of my American Airlines flight arriving in Santiago was adulation-free. But my flight to Easter Island was rife with applause at the end of the trip. And flying to Buenos Aires a few weeks ago, it seemed like people were hesitant in their mitt pounding, until the taxi to the end of the runway ended, and people went into full ovation. For a turbulent flight, fully lacking in the expected services of flight attendants, no less.

Speaking of Buenos Aires, one of the best parts of was gastronomic--so much great ethnic food and entertaining bars to visit. A healthy plaudit for that. New rule: I'm clapping at the end of good meals. Check out some of the places I hit up.

Y vos...¿Conocés a Maradona?

Just back from my trip to Buenos Aires, I can think of few better ways to commemorate my return from one soccer-crazed land to another than to introduce (or reintroduce, as may be the case for some of you) to the Argentine soccer god, Maradona. Why is the goal so important you ask?

1) It thrusts the Porteño from soccer fame into deity--literally there is a church based on his divinity (check the link you didn't click on).

2) It was scored against the British years after being humiliated in the Falklands War at their hands.

3) It's widely considered the most famous and best goal in the history of soccer. There's even a memorial to the goal.

4) I just got back from Argentina, a place where you may not ask who Diego Maradona is lest you should want to turn a very amiable group of hosts into an anti-gringo mob--trust me, I know this one from experience.

In other news, my first batch of Buenos Aires pictures is up, here. There are hundreds more coming.

Los Viernes Son Por La Musica

I'm back. In the coming days I'll be posting about my fantastic Argentina-Uruguay trip, but first I want to thank The Killer Beaz for his efforts in multiplying DR's readership. To that end, we're birthing a new tradition: the weekly Jason S. Beazly 'Music Fridays' posts in honor of DR's first guest blogger. So to start your weekends off right, I'll be posting new music that I recommend you check out. Please believe.

Today, I want to throw it back to my first favorite Chilean band, Los Tres, with a little hit that every Chilean can sing, "Quien es La Que Viene Allí."

a bon voyage and a fond farewell my readers....

So I am reading this great book about China right now and I found a gem for you guys:

 

"Perhaps the strangest panic occurred in 1993 in Chongqing, a huge riverside metropolis in central China. A tale spread that an American-made robotic zombie had gone out of control and escaped from the United Stated to Chongqing. "The zombie specialized in eating children wearing red clothes, and it was said to have devoured several kids already," reported the Chongqing Legal News, an official newspaper. In the resulting frenzy, many children refused to go to school. Parents protected their "little emperors" by fashioning crosses out of chopsticks and putting cloves of garlic in their book bags. The result was a sudden garlic shortage in Chongqing. The mayor's office was forced to address the issue and order a new round of "ideological work on teachers and students to calm them down and make them at ease about going to school.""

 

Nicholas Kristoff, former Beijing chapter chief for the NYTimes.

 

I figured since small children (especially school aged children) are afraid of AJP as well (particularly his 360 dunk) it was only appropriate to note one more thing he has in common with large, American, robotic zombies. You know?

 

FFAA: A few of his favorite things....

ties, maroon and gold, AZ, poker, Howard Zinn, David Sedaris, elephants, properly functioning radiators, d-blacks, march madness, not-Tucson, the interwebs, xmas and thanksgivings here (particularly at 2 in the morning), TeachForAmericans, fencing, Lewis Black, Chris Rock, 5th Grade, loose calls, people who pronounce "Draught" properly, microbrew rootbeer, peanutbutter and banana, nixon's, allpeers, weezer, 50, cake, deathcab, J5, outkast, toast on 22's, postal service, shakira, sufjan stevens, arcade fire, new beligums, the brain trust, naps, home cooking, and just about anything brown.

 

Anyway, it's been great sending out mindless words into the great oblivion we know as the interwebs (at least those who are witting know it as that, right MLR? (pronouced muh-lar)). AJP will return from Buenos Aires tomorrow and you will once again bask in the greatness of the bloggin-king atop his royal throne. It's been real.

 

the beaz.

 

ps: winner fo the AJP initial contest - Amy Mcbeth with "Almost Just Peed" FTW (for the win). Congrats. You win the satisfaction of knowing that AJP will have to hear that refrain repeatedly until someone comes up with a better one. Let's just say they have their work cut out for them. You can rest easy, Amy, rest easy indeed.