La Loba, Mi Corazóne

(Blog post best enjoyed listening to this song, sitting in a cozy room, dimly lit only by lamps with sepia toned shades and preferably near a fireplace.)

On the corner of Esmerelda and Viamonte in the Retino district, is La Loba, a cafe with a cresent shaped exterior with glass walls and door cluttered with posters, which may or may not have been stuck to the doors for over a decade. As soon as you walk in the door, a wood carving of Romulus and Reamus sucking on the teat of the wolf is attached to the back wall and it beacons you to take your seat on a stool at the stainless steel counter that wraps around the entire room.



A portly man with a blue shirt and a wide smile greets you and politely inquires

"¿qué tienes mi amigo?"

"dos cafe con crema, por favor," for you and your friend.

The portly man with the wide smile, smiles at you again and this time you notice the small crevice between two of his front teeth. Then he makes his way around Romulus and Reamus and prepares one of his specialties. When he returns he sets down the most resplendent coffee drinks you've ever tasted in your life.





You look around the room and see old men sitting around sipping on cafe espresso and reading the paper. Many of them shooting the breeze with other old men sitting around sipping on cafe espresso. No one is in a hurry to do anything.

Sometimes when you finish, you order another one just because you can't bear to have the moment end.



The portly man will glance over to see if you are doing ok and if you lock eyes with him, he'll smile again and shoot a wink your way. If you're like me, you'll wink back.

When it's time to leave and get back to work you raise your hand and say

"La cuenta, por favor."

"Si, tres cinco"

You toss a couple bills and some loose change on the counter.

"Gracias mi amigo"

"Muchas gracias"

"Ciao!"

"Ciao!"



La Loba is my favorite place in Buenos Aires and I hope that one day I can go back there and have another cafe con crema from the portly man in the blue shirt.

Hasta lueago, Buenos Aires. Hasta lueago, La Loba.

Long Daze

Been a long day and didn't really get a chance to get out much because of work. But good none-the-less. Helped Blair, one of the cast, create his vlog for the Travel Channel 5Takes website and I added a link for the website on the side bar (<--- that way).

Got a special blog post in the works for tomorrow, so tonight I'm gonna try to get some much needed shut eye.

Yo La Tango

Yo La Tengo = "I have her" / an indie rock band from Hoboken, NJ
Yo La Tango = "I tango her" (which makes no sense) / A form of dance originating from lower class (IE brothels) areas in Buenos Aires.

What a difference a noun can make.

Went to a Tango in Palermo Soho tonight. Took some pictures, but I fear they are too dark so I'm going to just review them tomorrow and decide if they are worthy. Tango is pretty amazing to watch. It can be really fast or really lethargic, but always incredibly sensual and hypnotizing to watch.

I slept very poorly last night and all today's tapes are already logged, so I'm going to curl up and sleep. Possibly like a baby.

Two quick notes:

1) Cabbies are really talkative, one today laughed really hard when he asked where in New York we were from and Adam relayed "Brooklyn, su tambien, su tambien..." then looked at me and told him I was homeless in spanish. Next on my to learn list "Hi, I'm Daniel and I'm homeless."

2) I keep forgetting to mention that I have seen 3 instances of graffiti that just says "Daniel". I also never have my camera handy when I see them, but it is true...

Wicked Rest, No?

Bah, sleep is for quitters. And I'm not a quitter, so I haven't been doing much of the ol' shut-eye. The downside is exhaustion (from what I hear) has a tendency to shorten blog posts. I'm just sayin...

Yesterday I woke up and one of my ears was clogged and I couldn't really hear out of it very well. This has happened to me before (too much rock?) so I just kinda ignored it and asked around unsuccessfully for Q-Tips. This morning it was still bothering me, so after breakfast I decided to take a hot bath and soak my head to loosen up that ear gunk.

That worked pretty well. The problem was that I made the bath SUPER hot and I mean, like hotter than a black camaro's hood on an august afternoon in Georgia (you know the camero with the bird painting? Niiiice). So I tried adding some cold water, but it was too late and I just got in.

When I got out, my skin was kinda red and I felt woozy and put on my Reconquista bathrobe and slippers and stumbled back to bed. I seriously had to rest up for like 30 minutes before I could walk.

Bottomline; baths are awesome and powerful.

Otherwise today, I hung out at the hotel, did a little work then had coffee, lunch, coffee a long walk in a new direction and more coffee. Then this evening I went the one and only vegetarian restaurant in the Palermo Hollywood barrio of Buenos Aires called "Bio" with Adam and Aidria and it was awesome. I had this crazy mushroom and rice dish, but Adam's risotto and cheese was the unanimous favorite.

We got a cab back to the hotel because the subway was closed (at like 11- we ain't in New York anymore Toto) and Adam and the cab driver kept talking and laughing in Spanish and the only work I could understand was "whisky". Apparently, he thought we were drunk. Off 2 cervas? I think not. Then I bragged about going to see the Arcade Fire at Radio City and when I was met with awe and appreciation, I knew for sure that I am in good company on this trip.

Ok, so maybe this isn't a short blog post. Maybe exhaustion just makes you over do it with parenthetical statements.

Here's some pictures (still sans photoshop, but whatever):

















I'm too tired for descriptions, so just figure it out. But don't cry for me Argentina, I'm going to bed!

The Bells

Today I made my first musical instrument purchase. After walking around aimlessly for 3 hours, I found Sarmiento Street which is apparently the music district of Buenos Aires. There were more music stores in a 5 block radius than the lower east side and 48th street combined. It was an exhilarating moment for me. Being very careful not to blow my wad, I made a small purchase of a set of 8 bells (more commonly known to non-drummers as an Xylophone). The proprietor assured me that it's a genuine Argentinian instrument, not made in China as he put it. And it's kinda beautiful actually.



So this brings my Latin American instrument arsenal up to a set of bells and a melodica (purchased before the trip for any down time on top of mountains of monuments where a tune might be appropriate). And my new goal is to buy an instrument in every country on this trip. I'm gonna make it happen. Oh yes.




Also, I have a ton of new pictures from my adventures today, but I'm photoshop-less at the moment, and these ones need a little work (too much backlight). So I'll get them when I get them.

UPDATE!!!!
Not sure if this will happen often, but I made a silly song in Garage Band last night with my new toys. Check it:

MP3 - Buenos Aires 2

El Bano, my only Spanish

Two days ago I could only remember like 2 words in Spanish (well and the phrase that Cedro at the Dove taught me which means 'nice ass' which I promise I won't use, unless it's really really really really applicable.), now I am hola-ing and gracias-ing and adios-ing all over the place. It's pretty great. Trying to actually learn something while puttering about in a foreign land.

A couple quick things:

1) I don't know if these daily updates will be daily for much longer. Once the workload picks up I will probably have less time for this. Just so you know.

2) I have a skype account now. Username = bellurypants. Get it.

3) I forgot to mention yesterday that I have seen 3 instances where there has been graffiti of the word "Daniel". Maybe I am INfamous here? ("He's not famous, he's INfamous, which means more than famous!" - special prize to the first non-Bellury who knows what that is from...)

4) Bringing only one pair of jeans was stupid.

So anyway, today was good. Got some work done and have a good feeling about how the work flow will... flow. Had some quality meals with the crew. Breakfast was awesome and complimentary. Lunch was cozy and cheap.

But then... Dinner was freaking expensive! I was supposed to go to dinner with the other assistant editor and one of the cameramen, but the three of us got roped into going to dinner with the director and owners of the production company. And while dinner was excellent, and admittedly I did have a great time, the dinner turned out to be $140 each! Now, that is pesos, so it was really only like $45 US, but still my plan was to live off only $20 bucks a day US so that I can come home rich.

I really shouldn't complain. The dinner was great and probably would have cost at least $100 in New York. And I know it's ok to splurge now and then, I just am beating myself up about it so I won't get in the habit of it.

The owners of the company were really cool people and had lots of funny stories (they are an engaged or married couple), and they even got into a food fight was was ridiculous and awesome. I was definitely glad to get to know who I'm working for.

Ok, here are some pictures.


View from my hotel room


The Times Square of Buenos Aires


A flag.


The McDonalds corner. Apparently there are three at that intersection.


A pretty sign.


This big thing that tells me I'm close to my hotel. Kinda like a compass.


A funny sign that I don't understand.

Oh I forgot my 5th note and Kristian will be happy about this, I'm totally hooked on the show 'Heros'. I downloaded the first 3 episodes on iTunes and it rules. It's actually time for me to watch an episode and fall asleep.

Goodnight.

Hola Buenos Aires

After a long disorienting flight, I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The day started off slow with a lot of meeting the crew for the show and moving as a unit, which always seems to take a long time. Not a bad thing, as it gave me a chance to get to know the people I'm going to be working with for the next two months.

Once we arrived at our hotel and finally got situated, two of the producers and myself, went out to soak up some culture and more importantly get some real food. I grabbed a map and acquainted myself with the area and led the way to a street ominously titled "Florida Street".

Sure enough, it was a huge open mall with street performers, caricature artists- the works. Only the architecture was much more appealing than that of the Florida I know. We found a restaurant brightly lit with fluorescents and vaguely reminiscent of a diner you'd find on 34th street, except of course I couldn't understand the menu. I deciphered a sandwich and for some reason it came with shredded carrots and slices of hard-boiled egg. Tasted good regardless.

Since I forgot to take my camera out with me on my excursion, I decided to take pictures of my sweet hotel room. First off we have a wide view.


Next here's my little work area where I'll be slaving away to the Final Cut Pro gods for the next week.


Here's what looks to be two toilets. Now any world traveler might immediately recognize what is going on here, but let's open them up and see what's inside...


Yes, as you can see below, the first "toilet" is actually a bidet. For the uninformed a bidet is a post-toilet toilet that shoots water up your butt to clean it out after a number two. You can also just use it if you're bored and wonder what it feels like to have water shoot up your butt. I recommend toilet paper instead.


Ah, here is a non-descript knob that I puzzled over until when I answered my door and realized there was music coming from the ceiling.


Yeah, apparently you can adjust the level of latin lounge music that comes out of the hallway from beside your bed? Doesn't make much sense to me either, but what do I know about fancy hotels...


Ok, so that's all I have for today. Got to fall asleep now, so that I can wake up bright and early and see what this whole Argentina country is all about.

Welcome to my blog

First and foremost, please excuse the appearance as I hastily slapped this thing together from a template. Second, I'd like to thank everyone for stopping in. This blog has been in the back of my mind for a while and now with this excursion looming over me like a hawk coming in on a field mouse, I figured it's time to spread my wings and write.

Friday, I'm heading to Latin America. I'm working on a TV show for the Travel Channel called 5 Takes. We're going all over the place, starting in Argentina and then ending in Mexico. I'm feeling a little nervous, just because there's a lot to do and not a lot of time left to do it. On that tip, this won't be my longest post, because I just realized I need to fold clothes soon.

Never the less, the blog is something that I've wanted to tackle on my own terms for a long time. Having been a slide-lines blogger for a while now, I feel like I'm graduating to the big boys with a blog of my own. I mean, my little brother blogs more than I do (and his blog is much much cooler than mine)- why am I not the top dog in the "blogosphere"? I mean, I know stuff and have been a fan of the interwebs for many many moons.

I digress. The blog is here to facilitate my thoughts and experiences through the course of the next two months while on my journey. Where the blog will be after that, I do not know.

But let's take it one step at a time.

Next transmission coming from Buenos Aires!