La Nuit Blanche

Freeze frames 00:27 – 00:28.

I saw a man do this several times at a milonga a couple of nights ago. It guess it is potentially a cool embellishment, a tip of the hat to the great King of Pop, a sort of wiggling leg lift that could be cute during a tanda of slow milongas, if executed well.

But it was not executed well. At all. Actually, it was a harrowing experience for me as a spectator, especially when he almost flipped my table over backwards with his foot as I was watching him knee his poor partner in the hip.

Ouch!!

Is it just me, or do leaders love to do classic Michael Jackson moves as embellishments? So far, I’ve seen the Moonwalk, the Kungfu Leg-Lift, and the Wiggling Knee. The first two, I have seen embellished by famous dancers, and they were done adorably. That last one, however, was a first, and it wasn’t done well at all.

I sincerely hope that the Pelvic Thrust with Glittery Hand Over Crotch does not manifest itelf around the milongas. Or the Thriller Dance.

Please, my dear tangueros! I love MJ as much as any other crazy fan, but I would rather not see some of his moves combined with tango!

My zip code has hit 94 degrees Fahrenheit this afternoon. Combined with the heat rising up from the gooey, melting asphalt, I bet it’s more like 101 degrees. My sandals are sinking into the tarmac, and the doorknobs of the stores and galleries burn like hot cinders when I touch them.

If I were drunk, or younger, I would join the screaming children joyfully playing on the street by the stoops outside my window, huge sprays of rainbows unlocked and sprouting out from the water hydrants, a heaven of fresh coolness licking my warm sun-kissed skin like a crystal shower of delicious cold…

Grâce à my Lover, something delicious has come to my attention. Make sure you visit the website — the “Icons” section provides a delightfully funny introduction to a few of the most important cultural assets of Argentina.

Sadly, the tango didn’t make it to the list… O_o

For those of you in New York, try to make it to the opening!

idarg: Identidad Argentina | Argentinian Identity

June 12–August 15, 2008 | Opening night June 11, 6-8 pm.
AIGA National Design Center | 164 fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

Desde el tango hasta el Che Guevara y desde el obelisco hasta la empanada, la identidad argentina es un concepto complejo y en constante evolución, en cuyo interior se expresa, con más o menos fuerza, un variopinto conjunto de íconos provenientes de la historia, el arte, la geografía, la naturaleza, la cocina y la tradición.

Somos comunicadores de un tiempo sin certezas en el cual la identidad tiende a desmaterializarse. Nuestro anhelo es ser comunicadores de una identidad nacional a la que aspiramos haber transformado en un universo abstracto de belleza y síntesis, que mejore la percepción de nuestra historia y nuestro imaginario en la generación de nuestros hoy pequeños hijos.

From tango to Che Guevara, and from the gaucho to Evita, Argentine identity is a constantly evolving, complex concept. By developing an iconography that rebrands and represents the country’s historical events, art, geography, cuisine and traditions, Buenos Aires designers Hernán Berdichevsky and Gustavo Stecher of imagenHB have created a new symbolism for Argentina, presented in this exhibition and also explored in a line of clothing called Nobrand.

As the designers state: “We are communicators in uncertain times, when identity tends to get lost. Our goal is to communicate a national identity using an abstract vocabulary of beauty and synthesis that conveys a perception of Argentina’s history as well as its present.”

Visit http://www.idarg.com/ for more information about this work.

The exhibition will be on display at the AIGA National Design Center, in the mezzanine.
164 Fifth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd Streets) in New York City.
For more information, call 212 807 1990/ 718 576 1925.

Artist: Edmund Dulac, “The Bright Liquid”, from “The Little Mermaid”

Ok, I have some advice to ask my bloguera sisters.

I have been dancing tango for a little over a year. Over the course of thirteen months, my feet have transformed from being soft, pink, pearly, silky, shiny doves, to being scaly, webbed fish fins. Fried on the saucepan, dowsed in corn oil.

Toe nails are cracked with jagged edges. Sans nailpolish, a couple of them are banged black, from leaders sometimes stepping on them, or kicking into them. I have calluses on the tips and edges of all my toes, underneath my big toes near the joints that connect them to my feet, on the balls of my feet, on the outside edge of my heels, and on my ankles (from shoe straps). I have scratch marks and punctured wounds on the top of my feet, from stilettos belonging both to me and other women.

They are ugly. And the calluses hurt when I step onto them.

Ladies, what can I do? Besides having to wear closed-toe heels (which I hate), or wearing socks with my Comme Il Fauts (which is just ridiculous), is there anything I can do to my feet to make them whole again? Has anyone ever used those tools that slice off calluses? (I am scared of those). Any salt baths you can recommend? Any brand of shoe cushions that have proved effective? Any mysterious art of the foot manicure you’d be willing to share?

Help…