Smoke and Mirrors

The breeze comes in crispy most days here now in the city of good airs. The sun is a joy and the wind is welcome, especially so this past month when rolling clouds of smoke covered the entire city in a fog and a stink.

The smell woke me up in the middle of the night as it seeped in through the French doors of the balcony off our bedroom. It wouldn't leave and got into every crevice of the apartment and of my nose.

Since it was man made, and affected an entire city to the benefit of just two landowners looking for extra grazing room for their cattle, I had a hard time containing my frustration at a government and a people that seem to passively accept the blatant abuse of the many for the benefit of the few. At least in the US it's slightly less obvious that we're being tooled. Here, two individuals started a fire an hour outside of the city that blazed out of control and disrupted 20 million respiration systems for five days. And people didn't like it but they seemed to take it all in stride. Much like the rampant inflation that blazes on, unthwarted.

On a happier bent, since I wrote you last I visited New York City, played with Redheadphone, and saw some of my favorite people. Maxi played two live shows since I've been back and played one televised show with his band El Tucu y los Paroquianos. He wore over-sized, ladies' vintage sunglasses and kind of resembled my mom, Harlene, while he pogo-ed around on the electric guitar. The show was like a dope gong show episode in Spanish with a mascot in full furry monster suit and horns and a trannie guest commentator.

Max produces a morning show on public TV and they put his band on to promote a big live show played the following day. Seems like the rules here are different than in Hollywood, where I grew up. So I may soon be posting a clip of me playing on Argentine TV with Kasha meowing back up.

I've been going out again finally. I had to, for work, this month, when I got to write a nightlife section for Time Out Buenos Aires and for two English Language media outposts here - one magazine and the site What's Up Buenos Aires, home of Zizek Records that's making waves stateside with cumbia-hop. So I was forced to go out and get involved late night, thank goodness.

I feel much better when I've been running around with a martini glass in hand (or smuggled to go in my purse) until the wee hours. You'd think I'd have grown out of it but even if I don't drink much I can't seem to shake the urge to vampire and see what people are up when they get down. Thankfully, many of the nightspots aren't that original, so one trip does the job. But a couple weekly parties have me hooked so I sneak out of bed at 1am, meet up with a 22 year old girlfriend or two, and explore a bit before getting back under the covers in time to see Max off to work at 7am. It's been like that the past two weeks but now I'm done with the assignments and hopefully I'll be focusing on this next record Max and I are looking to do. Except for Thursdays, the Thursday night party is too good. At least every other week, then.

Len-dog and Harlene are arriving soon and we're heading out to pick them up at the airport. They'll be here almost three weeks and we might make it to Brazil for a few days. They're meeting Max for the first time shortly, which should be interesting.

I'm not worried at all about them liking him, obviously, I'm concerned for his sanity and for the massive unrest that usually occurs in my daily life when those Hymans tag team me with drama. Max has been warned and I have no excuse but to try to keep it together and put some limits on Len-dog's hyperactivity and Harlene's spontaneous, unwelcome, public performances and then we should be at a decent level of bananas, rather than on overdrive.

The hardest thing won't be my nice, funny, neurotic parents, it'll be the fun-house mirror family tends to hold up for you, you know? We bought this beautiful antique mirror and we'll put it up this weekend, which seems fitting. Harlene and Leonard are staying in this amazing apartment down the street. I'll get some photos of them tango-ing, eating steak at a kosher parilla, and diving into the Argentine landscape. Kasha will be happy to get their added attention - unless Len-dog steps on her like he usually tries to.

We had a birthday party for Max and forgot to celebrate our one year of being together. We'll handle that once the dust has settled after these people visit. We can celebrate our survival as a couple then, if all goes according to plan. Dude is an avid Woody Allen fan but he hasn't lived one of his movies, yet. He'll have that pleasure starting tonight I guess.