Quote of the Day

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.
- Elbert Hubbard

Blogging

So ... this blog business is kind of fun-ish ... it's kind of a nice way to keep in touch with people. I've been thinking about whether I would use it in the future outside of the context of a travel blog.

And I think I will. I don't know what in particular that I will find worth talking about in the future ... but I'm sure there's actually a lot to talk and/or rant about. Both Erica and I are definitely scheming things for the spring and summer. We'll see. And I'd rather write some stuff here than on stupid MySpace.

So there we are, dear reader. Thanks for keeping in touch. If you want to check in here from time to time to get any updates, please do. But as always, no guarantees of anything other than closeups of sandwiches and uninteresting ranting.

Holy Cultureshock, Batman

Back in Bend. Travel is wild. One minute you're in South America looking at an entirely different sky full of stars and then you're in an aluminum tube ... shot into the sky and landing thousands of miles away in snowy Oregon. It's a trip.

Getting off the plane in Dallas was a bit of a shocker. Americans are generally pretty beefy and pretty ugly people, holy shit. :) I mean, myself no different, but wow. Especially Dallas, omigod. And they dress like shit.

But ... they're also pretty damn nice sometimes. It's wierd.

It was amazing to get off the plane in Portland ... I really felt home, then. And it was a great feeling. I was ear to ear all the way through the airport. Patty grabbed us and took us out to lunch, and holy shit people move fast here. We ate at Pok Pok ... a very busy very popular Thai joint on Division and the whole experience totally made my head spin ... the service was SO FAST it was kinda stressing me out. I've slowed down a lot, I guess.

A much needed shower later, Tim and Cam picked us up for a nice drive back to Bend (thanks!!) ... and walking into my house was pretty joyous for me. Nicole was home and she had a fire blazing and tunes rolling and god DAMN it was good.

Ever since, I've been holing up at home and acclimating and LOVING sleeping in my own bed, holy shit. God it's good to be home. I haven't been able to face the outside world, really, but it's gooooood to be home. I need to get my mindstate back up to speed ... working on that ASAP. :)

.

The Home Stretch

Bueno ... it's 20 February and we've been on the road now for three and a half months and despite the amazing times we've had (including the most awesomest Valentine's Day ever!), I'm more than ready to come home. I miss home and I miss my loved ones and I've learned a lot ... including how much I really appreciate where I live ... and I kinda can't wait to get on that plane!

First of all ... this endless summer idea ... I thought that I would be super stoked to cheat the winter and instead soak in the summer sun by switching hemispheres like a smart guy ... and while it has been pretty luxurious in ways to skip the crushing winter up north ... it's also a bit wierd to just have this many months of summer piled on top. I'm actually kind of tired of it. There is such a thing as too much summer. Who knew? Right now I just want to curl up and hibernate in the cold. It's wierd ... but I think that perhaps the cycles are a natural thing that maybe we shouldn't try to cheat. What is summer without winter? It's been interesting to mix it up and it's pretty great to realize that no matter where you are ... you are just a plane flight away from something totally different/opposite ... but I don't need this much summer all at once. I don't know, it's wierd and hard to describe.

Second ... travel is emotionally exhausting. Your senses are constantly at work and new experiences are always piling in and challenges push you emotionally and there gets to be a point, at least for me, where it gets a bit tiring and you just want to retreat and process it all and enjoy the lovely feeling of being home where you can really chill. Argentina is one of the most beautiful and lovely countries in the world, and the people are super nice and there's little real challenge in our daily life here, but even lovely enjoyable experiences engage your emotions and there gets to be a point where you're just feeling like you've been under a sort of emotional waterfall for a bit too long. I don't know how else to describe it. It's kind of like being exposed out in the wind ... at first it's all good, but eventually it starts to grate on you and you just want to be out of the wind! I don't know. At least it's that way for me. I don't understand some of these people that are backpacking around for years at a time ... but perhaps that's because I have so much invested in where I live and I'm surrounded by so much joy where I live that it's hard to be away from it.

Third ... despite the lovely people here and the fairly regular positive experiences ... I still very much feel like a foreigner in a very foreign land and that's a wierd and sometimes difficult feeling to deal with for months on end. I mean ... there's times when it doesn't matter at all ... when you're reading your book at your favorite cafe ... or soaking in the sun at your favorite lake ... it's not like the foreign-ness necessarily bothers you ... but there's a deep feeling somewhere inside that's making me want to go home.

Plus, there's just lots of things you aren't doing when you're on the road. I miss cooking. I miss DJing. I miss my obnoxious cat. I miss BASS. I miss working towards things other than my tan and my Spanish.

It's been a long trip, the longest I've personally ever done. What have I learned? What inspiration have I gained? A few things in no particular order.

1. In addition to the joys of seeing new terrain and new ways of being, traveling away from where you live teaches you about the things you love and miss about your home, and you will return with new appreciation for them. Never leaving your home is bad. I've said this before.

2. Human civilizations around the world are wildly diverse, but at the same time, there's tons of commonality. For everything that's different here, there's many things that are the same and people are people most everywhere.

3. There's lots of ways to do things in the world ... and seeing how other cultures do things is really interesting and educational. They do things in ways here that are so refreshing and great and in my mind are improvements on how we do things. They also do things poorly in certain areas. I'm certain that there is no perfect civilization ... but we can improve by educating ourselves on how it's done around the world. I'm trying to keep a mental list of things that I'll bring back with me from South America. Things like air kissing and swanky style and eating real food (slowly) and politeness and a general sense of personal responsibilty and strong family ties and humility and living within your means and having tons of fun in a super stylish way.

There's also things that I'll miss ... that I won't necessarily be able to bring back with me ... but will fondly remember. Like ... tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. Bus systems that provide efficient and cost effective (and dignified) transportation options to all stratas of society. Fiery political involvement (people here are way more tuned in to politics than we are). Personal responsibility for safety and security and your health and well being. And bidets. It's easy to feel suave when you're nice and fresh. And ... *sigh* there's no bringing back these people. They're amazing. Definitely easy on the eyes and often nice as well!

One aspect in general that I will miss a lot ... is that this culture is vastly less paranoid about safety than we are. That translates to a lot of things. Examples ... you can drink when you're 18 here, yet ... there's fewer problems with alcohol. You can do all sorts of things that you could never do in the US ... like burn real candles in your restaurant. Lots of things that are deemed "unsafe" in the US but nobody has much of a problem with here. Lots of things ... like ... you can rent a scooter for a day and have fun. Ain't no such thing in liability and safety scared America. Bars and clubs can stay open all night here. People just seem less ... anal. No two ways about it.

4. Style style style. From the people to the design (industrial or graphical) to the architecture, this place is stylish as hell and so damn cool, and on a considerably smaller budget than we have. And the people seem to be having a ton of fun ... again ... on a smaller budget. Goes to show that quality of life doesn't equate with money.

5. Food. Obviously I came down here with a keen eye towards learning some gastronomy ... and like most other lessons ... what I learned wasn't what I thought I would but it was all welcome.

As many have heard, Argentinian beef is world class. There's mega hectares of prime grassland here that just grows naturally and they use it to the fullest and produce some awesome beef without as many chemicals and badness and most importantly they feed the cows grass. Natural living grass like they're supposed to eat in nature, not crappy chemical corn mush in a Superfund feedlot in Iowa. And as such, they are happy cows that live outside and get to be cows. And the stuff tastes awesome, is plentiful and cheap, and they know how to cook it and serve it ... and that is to say, over and open wood fire and seasoned with only salt. Yes. This is sublime carne, without a doubt.

I was somewhat underwhelmed by the rest of the culinary tradition here, kind of initially. Not a whole lot of diversity in Argentinian cuisine offerings ... lots of basics with deep roots in Spanish and Italian traditions. Pizza, pasta, picada. But the more I ate the more I realized a couple of things. First ... the ingredients don't need much because they actually taste good, unlike our factory farmed shelf-life enhanced crap you buy at the supermarkets in the US, and second, the lack of processing and complicated bullshit meant really fresh simple food that strangely never makes you feel bad or heavy. You can totally MACK a plate and a half of the stuff here and walk away feeling great. Very different from what I'm used to in the US. So ... the genius of the culinary tradition here was unexpected and totally didn't come from the standpoint of innovative creative cooking ... though there IS some of that as well, but in the wisdom of traditional foods and quality ingredients and meals eaten and enjoyed slowly with family and friends at a table, not in the car by yourself.

Of course there's been some definite highlights ... Patagonian cuisine has been a joy ... lots of grilled meats and game mixed with fruit sauces and chutneys. Lots of simple Italian food. Chimichurri. Cheese on the BBQ. Dulce de leche caramel. Great gelato. Empanadas. Oh and can't forget miga tea sandwiches. Great coffee, and MATE! For sure there's been some good times and some really drop dead stylish spots as well. Many notes were taken, but some of the highlights in terms of lessons come back to some simple things like the concept that the ingredients matter. Simplicity and tradition matters.

So here we are ... sitting at our favorite bar/WI-FI spot, Bar Seis ... about to go to a last jazz show and get dinner, and tomrrow we shove off for the great white north. I'm immensely thankful for the opportunity to have done this and I'm thankful to the people that made it all possible (Barisone, Nicole, all the Grove crew, Gail, Sean, Cover, etc.) and I just can't freaking WAIT to get on that plane and see all your faces again! Hasta luego to the South American summer and all our new friends here and time to go home! Signing off from Buenos Aires, suckas.

Hostels Rule

You know ... there's just something really great about a good hostel. We're staying in a super great one here in Villa La Angostura in the Lake District of northern Patagonia. Me and Erica
and Jacob and Philippa. It's a huge funky house with like 8 bedrooms ... (each holding a number of beds/bunks and it's own bathroom) ... and a big common area with a TV and pool table, and a big dining room with an industrial kitchen we can use, and a huge deck with a big BBQ and wood fired oven and fire pit. The lobby crew is slinging beers and cranking tunes and there's flags and memorabilia pasted all over the walls and it's chock full of cool backpacker types from all over the world and a bunk bed in a shared room is like US$12 per day. You meet all your bunkmates and hang out, you talk w/ people all night long in the dining room or the deck ... you BBQ or cook together ... there's info on all sorts of local spots and activities ... you can rent bikes or book trips and the staff'll help out whenever you need it. It's basically the headiest way to travel and you can find hostels all over the world.

www.hihostels.com/

Basically you can travel for like $5-15 or so dollars a day wherever ... and it's so damn fun. I love a good hostel!

Musica Argentina

Music music music! I definitely came down here looking to do some digging and investigating into the music scene here (inspired in part by a certain favorite Argentine DJ, El Papa Chango) and a few people have asked what I've come up with.

And I'm sorry to say that the short answer is ... not really much. Or rather, not like I had hoped.

OK, first of all ... the El Papa Chango thing ... dude is known for super ill latin hip hop and reggaeton type beats and I had thought/assumed that a lot of it would be Argentinian hip hop or the like. And ... far as I've seen in my very limited digging ... I kinda doubt a lot of the stuff he plays is Argentinian. There doesn't seem to be much of a hip hop scene here ... it's pretty minimal ... and the stuff they play in the clubs here (according to Esteban) is generally standard mainstream American hip hop. I didn't find much in terms of Argentinian hip hop.

Esteban changed his location on his MySpace to Buenos Aires and he was immediately the #10 independent hip hop artist in Argentina (based on page views and song plays). Not that he doesn't deserve to be top 10 ... but it kinda is evidence of a lack of a lot of hip hop stuff here.

I went to the club that Diplo plays at when he's here ... ZIZEK at the Niceto Club ... and went to their cumbia/hop/breakbeat kinda night, and peeped the DJs that play there. Villa Diamonte ... Daleduro ... etc. They mix homemade midtempo breakbeats with latin cumbia folk music (of Colombian origin). I found it to be ... kinda ... whatever. Cheap, poorly executed and fad-ish. I think the Nortec Collective in Tijuana do a much more interesting and polished job with mixing street folk music with really slammin' techno. The Niceto guys are definitely doing something, but it wasn't that interesting to me and kinda tended to lack a certain something (bass) that I've been kinda spoiled on. And it just plods, to put it bluntly. And as far as foaming at the mouth latin club music ... the Caribbean and Brazil are just way hotter and turning out way hotter music. When Diplo did a first podcast from Buenos Aires he focused on immigrant Dominicans and Cubans and what they listened to. His recent visit (and podcast) detailed the cumbia electronica movement ... (for more info: http://whatsupbuenosaires.com/WHATSUP_FINAL/press_xlr8r.html) ... (you can find Diplo's podcast linked on the Zizek site: (http://www.whatsupbuenosaires.com/zizek/) if you want to check the sound ... but ... yeah. Daleduro admits in the XLR8R interview that cumbia-tronica is more of a response to what he calls the "MIA Phenomenon" ... of turning to rebel music from the 3rd world for inspiration. Well ... here that means trying to make something out of cumbia ... and ... yeah. Yer not missing much. I think mixing tango with electronica would be a much better idea. And they do that, but I haven't taken the time to listen to that yet.

Back to the El Papa Chango sound ... (drumroll) ... bottom line is that I think basically he's playing general latin hip hop from sources all over the latin diaspora, possibly mixed with more acid basscrunk type stuff from the usual suspects in the West Coast bass scene ... and possibly some stuff from Argentina that only he knows about ... but I found a couple of his signature tracks in my digging and they weren't Argentinian. They were Spanish or Puerto Rican or whatever.

The thing you gotta understand is that ... latin hip hop doesn't get published or pushed or played on the radio or generally distributed in the United States cuz the lyrics are in Spanish (and their websites and MySpace's and promotional materials as well). And there's a lot of amazing latin hip hop and reggaeton (reggae/dancehall in Spanish) ... out there from all over the world (and that's not even counting the TON of stuff from Brazil). I think we just generally miss it. So ... there's your call to action. There's some anthems, you just gotta find them.

As far as the general club scene in Buenos Aires ... there's a couple of clubs that play hip hop, but it's radio/mainstream stuff. The other clubs ... from what I've heard it's mostly 80s and pop and 80s-ish house and disco/euro house and Euro techno. The European influence is strong here. And the Guns and Roses influence is entirely too strong here as well.

And then there's the issues of cigarette smoke, treble, strobe lights and ... shall we say ... a very half hearted approach to dancing among the locals. Cue the bored supermodels. Suffice to say that I gave up on the club scene pretty quickly, I'm sorry to report. We saw some cool places ... but ... yeah. I came to the clubbing capital of Latin America and it mainly reinforced how good we have it where we live. Seriously. I saw nothing here that compares with some of the stuff we do and that we enjoy around the West Coast. Yes there's big expensive clubs here but the level of consciousness ... production and innovation ... seemed kind of lacking. Then you add the mafia ownership aspects and ... yeah. Whatever. I'm not really interested in the same old program. Basically the only things that I can say I liked about the scene here was that (a) the places stay open all night (and into the morning) and (b) lots of people go out a lot. And there was some good techno, though only 2 places we went had subwoofers worth a shit.

I need to confess that my dig quickly became entirely half hearted and not comprehensive at all ... so I don't consider myself an expert ... so ... insert caveat here. I gave up pretty quickly. But I did do a fair bit of reading and hit some of the supposedly hippest spots.

But it's not all bad news. First ... I finished a new mix CD that I had started just before I left. And I have another two in the hopper ... one minimal and progressive techno dilly ... and ... um ... well, I don't know how to say this without embarassing myself but I'm working on a jazz and soul mix inspired by and for the new wave of new mommies in our community. Sunday Morning with Baby or some shit. This I can't explain, but it's gonna be beautiful and will hopefully harness the power of music to put smiles on some babies. This is not, however, a concession of any kind on my part, but I will say ... nice work! to all the new parents out there. Big up!



And speaking of jazz ... in the absence of any good clubbing, we turned our attention to some quality jazz clubs here and heard some really nice music. There's also a couple of really great jazz record stores here (and CDs cost only US$8-10) so I've been grabbing up some really nice folkish jazz and especially Brazillian jazz that I've been just totally loving. And of course I've been collecting other stuff as well via the interweb, as always.

So yeah ... overall it's been a bit of a hit-miss kind of trip, and I didn't get as much work done as I would have wanted to but I did get some stuff done and I have a pile of new stuff that I totally love and I have a new mix coming out for the drool set so it's all good.

I can't wait to get back. Y'all that can gotta come to the party on 2/29 and hear some bass. All your favorites are playin' and this Vibesquad cat is wicked as well.

Another Random Foto

Random Foto Del Dia

Coming Home Party!

Oh yes ... one ... week ... left ... until we're HOME! Tim and Cambria are gonna retrieve us from the aeropuerto and shuttle us to BND and we're SO STOKED to be home!

In celebration, and in conjunction with a special day out of time ... 2/29! ... we're planning a little get together and bringing in a very special musical guest, Aaron from the band Zilla, in his solo incarnation as "Vibesquad". Aaron's from Boulder and he also plays with Ooah and Jamie Janover as Sporque. So this is Glitch Mob style live PA live electronic whompness. www.vibesquad.com for more info and sounds.

So yeah, APARTMENT PARTY! Woo! Erica and I are gonna be hosting up the bar with a few of our favorite cocktails we've been enjoying down here (and our versions of them) plus some Argentinian wine and snacks and some good music from the family and our special guest. PLEASE do stop on by and print out the invite above to be sure of no questions at the door. And please don't distribute except to good friends. Please also note that this event has a price tag attached because we gotta cover costs of booze/food as well as try to pay the rent on our party pad space so we can keep doing stuff there.

And if for some reason that doesn't work out, we'll be around town of course as well. But as a special gift at the party, I'll hopefully have my new mix CD to hand out.

Can't wait! They have no bass here ... I can't wait for some BASS!
.

Images Feb 08

Our friend Sol and Erica at dinner.

Multitudes of delivery options via moto ... from laundry to pizza to groceries ... in this case, this is a mail delivery motorcycle.

Mmmm, chimichurri

.

Random Foto del Dia

Haircut

4 months on the road and we just couldn't hold out any longer to get a haircut. Spurred by Amanda's desire to get some streaking done (and Erica's prodding), we hit the uber-hip Llongeras salon in Palermo (with branches in Spain and France and etc.) for a triple appointment.

The robes and the service was top notch, but let me just say that if you are getting your haircut by someone who doesn't speak the same language as you ... you're gonna just get what you get basically. Even my decent Spanish didn't have enough vocabulary to include words you use at a salon. What's the word for "mullet" in Spanish?

Amanda had "fun" with her color job ... Erica fared extremely well actually and I got a chop job that I'm none too fond of, honestly. The communication was difficult ... bordering on comedy. Que sera sera! Thankfully I have no photos of myself to share.

Before and after. Check the hotness!

Tennis!

First order of duty when our friends arrived was to get them out to the Davis Cup for some world class pro tennis! Yes yes, you may not know this, but Argentina has several players in the top 50 rankings worldwide and they dispatched Great Britain with ease 4-1 on their home turf in the first round of the Davis Cup (www.daviscup.com). Grudge match for sure (remember the Falklands?) ... and the Argentines were pleased to crush the Brits on their home clay court. Ever been to a pro tennis match? Us neither and let me tell you that it's a good time! We got to see Argentina's top player ... David Nalbandian, ranked #9 in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nalbandian)

Poor Jamie Baker (UK) didn't stand a chance against Nalbandian in the first round, but he rallied to upset Agustin Calleri to provide the UK's only victory. That's the spirit, son!

The Davis Cup is an elimination tournament where teams from various countries square off against each other. At the same time, the reigning champion US team housed Austria 4-1 in Vienna.

Friends!!

Only a day of sadness had passed at the leaving of our friends Todd and Pat and Mark when we were blessed with the incredible infusion of hotness in the form of our beloved Regan and Zach and Amanda and Aaron. Oh yes! Such good times when loved ones come to visit! We hung around BA for a few days checking the greatest hits and then we all boarded a 20 hour overnight bus to Bariloche in the Lake District where those guys are going rock climbing for a couple of weeks and we're coasting the last few days of our trip in the glorious mountains and hooking up with our friends Jacob + Philippa for some lakeside chilling. It was too short a visit but so great to see those guys. Hopefully the rocks are fun and we'll be holding down the tanning duty in their stead.

Osaka

For the home team's last evening in town, Fish treated us to an amazing dinner at Osaka ... a Peruvian-Japanese restaurant near our house. Total wickedness in the gastronomy department. What is better than Japanese food? Japanese-Peruvian food, is what. A branch of this popular Lima restaurant was a joy to behold in BA (for any LA heads, there's also one in LA as well). http://www.osaka.com.pe/osaka_sp.htm

Esteban found the stylish surroundings and top notch sushi appropriately "baller".

Go Big Tour!

What goes big must eventually crash on the couch. In this case, Fisher fitfully smooshes the leather sofa at our house. At one point he fell OFF the couch and just kept snoozin'. (sorry Fish!) :)

Images

For a wine wussy like myself, the Malbec rosado (rose) is the shit!

It's all about boarding planes on the tarmac.

One of the thousands of amazing houses in Buenos Aires.

Bar Seis ... our internet cafe-bar of choice in Palermo Viejo.

View from our kitchen window