Winter in Buenos Aires

Elevator music in the Buenos Aires supermarket and I remind myself there's more to South America than the one-block radius where I spend most of my time. "And I keep wonderin' who's holding Donna now" fills the produce aisles and the aisles of wine priced at $3. I wonder which cut of steak, out of the 50 plus offered, would be make the best companion for a "guiso de lentegas," Argentina's winter lentil stew.

It's cold every day - early 40's mostly but the difference is no holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, nope. South America celebrates the holidays at the beach in the middle of their summer and that means nothing to break up the cold and gray. Except a visit to California.


Max and I will be in LA for my cousin's wedding. It's his first trip to the US outside of NYC. It's my escape from the cold - which I didn't mind in New York City. But that was NYC.


In Buenos Aires there is inflation and protests, cold, and soccer finals. This past month I wrote a feature article on digital cumbia for Urb Magazine and went to a very musical BBQ. Everybody here seems to be able to sing, play the guitar, rep decent on the drums. Really big on sing-a-longs - men showing off their vocal ability and guitar chops for other men, I mean straight men. It's not the dancing-est culture, but they're not quiet folks. People here give me a run for my yapping.


Super highlight was a visit from my parents. They're official Buenos Aires fans now. They went big - tango, steak, gauchos, tourist traps, boho circus, getting down with the locals, I wore them out before they did me.


After riding around with the king of Gangster Cumbia, I was reborn as a cumbia villera fan (Argentine urban music, the local version of hip hop) and got to immortalize the genre in English in the current issue of Urb magazine. First feature, printed joint! I also contributed articles to Time Out Buenos Aires. Since everything else I do is digital, it'll be nice to flip pages and cut out paper for the scrap book, right?

My day job is getting more interesting as adult social networks take hold. And a friend in London and I decided to try our hands at a themed blog.


If you're in LA, I'm excited to see you next week. NYC is looking like September, much as I should hold on to my pesos, I can't help it. I'm an NYC addict in need. Only thing that'll keep me from it is Colombia. Colombia or NYC? There's a lot of Colombia in Queens.