Sunday, December 12, 2010

day one in buenos aires

Or rather, this is technically day two.
The one thing of note worth mentioning was last night, my friend Stephanie and I went to Bamba del Tiempo, a massive drum circle that started at midnight and ends whenever whenever, usually when the sun starts to rise. Tiempo takes place in a massive warehouse with a huge courtyard surrounded by a metal fence. Drummers in blue start off in the courtyard and slowly make their way into the warehouse. It sounds like a drumline, essentially, like a high school band, performing during a Mardi Gras parade, I kept waiting for shouts and call and response, but it wasn't that type of drumline. They snake their way inside, drumming continues, there's a pause, more drummers come out.
I stayed out as late as I could, but the travel for me and Stephanie took it's toll. Stephanie has been in South America for four months now and took a 20 hour bus to meet me in Buenos Aires, so siestas and at least 10 hours of sleep were necessary for both of us to recover.

Today we headed out to San Telmo for an outdoor market. I was on a very, very specific quest for a vintage chemise, which I found. I took photos of the market. It looked as though it could almost rain but it didn't.





The beautiful thing about Buenos Aires is that it is simultaneously dirty and well preserved at the same time. Old, old buildings with intricate crown moulding and stone work are covered in graffiti. There is graffiti everywhere. One one hand, I love the idea that the modernity and spontaneity of graffiti is making it's mark on the city, however, it's also so depressing to think that these buildings are getting marred and partially destroyed in the process, one the other hand, without sounding too philosophical, things change, things fall apart, things evolve- this is how the city is evolving and it's visually evolving with citizens of Buenos Aires participating in the visual evolution of the city.
Hmm..could I use that word any more?
Probs, yes.
I do like seeing all of the graffiti on the buildings, in fact I'm super super into it, and I really really love graffiti, but given how old everything looks, I just hear my mom's voice popping up in my head going "if this happened in new orleans blah blah so bad blah blah what would people think? property taxes" ect- which is valid. However, somewhat stuffy. Graffiti happens, often times it's necessary.
Some graffiti

andddd, a kind of not very well made triptych that none the less has lots of graffiti in it

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This post reminded me when I was living in Buenos Aires! I stayed in the San Telmo neighborhood, a really authentic part of the city where I enjoyed a variety of activities, from walks through the streets, the Sunday fair to disco nights and pubs. La Boca was always an incredible part that I was to visit once a week, those colorful streets made me felt new. During my time in the city, I also had the opportunity to book trough http://bsas4u.com/ a Tango Show in Esq Homero Manzi, and I enjoyed a really unique night. I believe that that’s such and authentic activity that is so hard to find in other place of the world.