The Gypsy Times

Wiki! Leaks!

2010-12-07T23:16:00.000-03:00

DB+BE=wonder!

2008-09-04T11:53:00.001-03:00

I finally figured out how to reset my password...

2008-05-28T17:20:00.001-03:00

... so maybe I'll do more blogging from now on. Yuppee!

For now, check out the new Sigur Ros video. Simply unabashedly amazing!

Litlle gypsy girl

2007-11-12T05:27:00.000-03:00

Daca pleci... (If you leave... take me with you)

2007-11-12T05:20:00.000-03:00

Si unde dragoste nu e...

2007-11-12T05:15:00.000-03:00

Miruna

2007-11-12T05:12:00.001-03:00

2007-10-24T02:29:00.000-03:00

Education on sale! Get it while you can!
37% discount on university tuition fees.

Who said the University is not a corporation?

The Lacan Hour (part one)

2007-07-16T01:42:00.001-03:00

dork and proud!

Midnight Oil - Beds are Burning

2007-07-16T01:20:00.001-03:00

2007-06-12T13:21:00.001-03:00

2007-05-10T11:23:00.001-03:00

Romania: really bad news!

2007-04-20T08:52:00.000-03:00

The parliament has suspended the country's democratically elected president with no real basis. This is a dark day for democracy: this is virtually a coup d''etat.

LOVITURA DE STAT!
GOLPE DE ESTADO!
COUP D'ETAT!

Oh Europe, how I entered you!

2007-01-04T00:46:00.000-03:00

Well, you guys we did it! Romania has "entered Europe"! Hooray to second-class citizenship!

I am still alive!

2006-06-10T06:19:00.000-03:00

... and catching the World Cup fever! Who would have thought?

This will freak the %$## out of you, guys!

2006-05-14T04:04:00.000-03:00

or maybe not... let me know. Must play Baroque music in the background, preferably Bach.

" A kind request by Joel-Peter Witkin:

The aware know that my work is based on the need to create images of love and redemption. Most of my works are made by the collaboration with people ( the source) who know of truly unique individuals who are willing to be photographed. I give the source of the resulting photograph a gift print. The model can either be paid or receive a gift print.

I am looking for a reasonably attractive blind woman 20 to 40 years old who I can photograph nude. Both her eyes must look totally dysfunctional.

I am also looking for an attractive woman, 20 to 40 years without arms.

Will travel anywhere in the world, if need be.

Joel-Peter Witkin."

Love and Redemption (book cover)

"Shoe Fucker and Woman Who Believes She's Becoming a Camera" (1998)

"Las Meninas" (1996)

Temptations...

2006-05-14T02:25:00.000-03:00

This one, by French Baroque artist Jacques Callot, is St. Anthony's. Mine is the Web and many of its applications.
Among other delights in my life these days, the last albums of Belle&Sebastian and The Flaming Lips. Golden!!

2006-05-05T00:06:00.000-03:00

I moved...... for the fourth time in five months. I like to think that this is some sort of spiritual experience in not getting attached to a place... but then again, I miss Ann Arbor so much that in the end it's pure nuissance. In any case, here I am in one of the more upscale negibourhoods of Santiago, called Vitacura. For those of you not familiar, Santiago is the most spatially segregated city I know. In the center (where I used to live) it was sort of a mix, but let's say on the more lower class side, where you could get a decent lunch for about five bucks. Well now, in Vitacura, on the northern side of town (think of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl") I don't even dare go into a restaurant for fear I will get out of there one month short on my allowance. And it's also poorly connected in terms of public transportation (since everyone has a car!! damn it!!) The usual scenario on my street is to see sixty-some ladies with lots of experience in cosmetic surgery (trust me, LOTS!) walking their minuscule purebreed dogs. Yuck! Also, domestic employees in neat domestic uniforms walking the rich babies in strollers on their way to the supermarket. What I feel in those moments I try to understand as a masochistic desire for experience. In any case, to counteract the daily injections of cuico-ness (cuico is translated freely as upscale, but with a strong derogatory tinge to it) I decided to opt for the visual abject. The musical group (if you can even call it that), which will serve as abject catarsis in this case is called "Los picantes" with the hit single "Falso Amor". Non-Spanish speakers, get yourself a translator, it's really worth it (even though there is a lot of--low class, I would not have it any other way--chilean slang). Another warning, this is not delicate entertainment, so not for the faint-hearted. Enjoy!

Powered by Castpost

And a bit of poetry...

2006-04-14T20:18:00.000-03:00

needless to say, inspired by the recent discussions started by Ambrosia Dave's article.

(Thomas Eakins, The Swimming Hole, 1855)

Sex contains all,
Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs, purities, delicacies, results, promulgations,
Songs, commands, health, pride, the maternal mystery, the seminal milk;
All hopes, benefactions, bestowals,
All the passions, loves, beauties, delights of the earth,
All the governments, judges, gods, follow’d persons of the earth,
These are contain’d in sex, as parts of itself, and justifications of itself.

(Walt Withman, Leaves of Grass, "A Woman Waits for Me")

[As I was trying to put together this post, looking and looking for images and quotes, the "making of" took on homoerotic undertones; I even found a discussion on trisexuality! And even though the post is somewhat modernist, I decided to leave it at that, since I got really horny in the process.]

Damn it, Dave, how can you live without sex? ;D

A bit of American Anarchism

2006-04-14T19:58:00.000-03:00

Black Eye Press, Seattle WA (Year NA)

The Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan is in full process of digitalizing its Anarchism Pamphlets. Enjoy!

Cafés con piernas

2006-03-28T20:55:00.000-03:00

So, after finding out that moteles are widely spread around the continents, and not as localized as I thought (which is not really that surprizing, considering that they seem to flourish in conservative societies), cafés con piernas might just be that specifically Chilean phenomenon...

A strip joint that serves coffee or a café that serves strip-tease dances? In any case, both are readily available in over 200 hundred establisments spread around Santiago, especially around the business district. You can identify them by the tainted windows, the neon lighting in full daylight, and the disco rhythms that can be overheard as you pass by one. Sometimes, the bouncers would hand out flyers to young high school boys or dirty old men. Damn it, they would never hand me one of those...

The café con piernas has been a Santiago trademark since the 50's, but took off as a widespread phenomenon during the Pinochet years, as they offered entertainment for men before the 11pm curfew that the military regime had imposed. I guess that it is way too good of a business not to continue well into the 21st century...

En la cama

2006-03-26T04:03:00.000-03:00

I write a very unpolished post, out of sheer impulse and desire to share with you guys my unexplainable fascination (yeah right!) with a very Chilean phenomenon: moteles. That is, rent-a-room-for-sex.

Let me try to explain: let's say you and your partner (taking the term very loose to mean anything from a one-timer, a paid entertainer, a lover, a mistress, to a full pledged spouse) wanna do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel. Reasons need not matter and they are as varied as the type of your partner. What do you do? "Your place or my place" is so overrated (and besides, most of the times, your passion must remain a secret so as not to scandalize parents, wives, fiancees etc.), so the decision then centers on whether you'd prefer a Thai-inspired VIP room with Jacuzzi at "Hotel" Valdivia or a simple run-of-the-mill room, anywhere from 3 to 12 hours. (I still can't decide if 3 hours is a generous approximation to the length of the ritual.) Rates for most places include drinks and snacks, such as the universal nachos and cheese. I need not say that this is a phenomenon that sprung out of a oh-so-conservative Catholic society, but, just like the "cafes con piernas" (more on that later), they have become part of the Chilean imaginary, with hundreds of such establishments within Santiago alone.

Gettin back to the personal (much more in tone with the topic),I would go either with the Super Vip Caracol or the Vip Palacio Hindu. Oh wait, I have no one to go with... ;D A girl can dream, can't she?

You guys should feel free to explore the tempting offers and comment on your favorite room and theme. Come on, don't be shy... ;)

P.S. "En la cama" (Matias Bize, Chile, 2005) is a great illustration of the topic, a film kinda like "Before Sunrise", but taking place entirely in a motel room.

The Oscars

2006-03-10T01:37:00.000-03:00

1.

2. "Crash" confused and depressed me, while I kept thinking to myself how unfeasible those situations seemed and how unstable the characters were. The death of the subject and the birth of depression in its purest form [in cinema]. Oh, America, how I miss thee!

3. Jean Claude was my hero when I was 12. I think I still have a poster of him hidden somewhere in the mountains. [Mi secreto en la montaña]. If this doesn't make any sense to you, check out a brilliant piece of journalism right here.

Obsessions come as group experiences...

2006-02-23T02:02:00.000-03:00

Right after I posted the video of lovely Luli doing her aerobics work-out, I did my usual "let's see what everybody else has been blogging". And, of course, Mike's audioblog was a pleasant surprise twofold. First, of course, hearing his lovely voice ... Second, I thought, that we, our group (which of course is a very loose term but includes all of those whose paths intersect in a personal way on the net) become obsessed with similar things independently of one another. For example, the high-tech video/audio/etc. drive, and also the the mannequin obsession (fever, as Laura called it) in the photographs we take (especially Laura and Patxi). It's like we are developing a group unconscious of our own that loosely guides our interests and tastes. Of course, a very easy way to counter my argument is that we ARE influenced by each other. That is obvious, but I would emphasize the fact that some of these things happen independently of others(I had been meaning to put up that silly video for some time now...) which makes me think that there is more to this than just pure peer influence.

2006-02-23T01:49:00.000-03:00

For lovely JDS who, I am positive, has already seen this...

The world's most expensive photograph

2006-02-18T02:57:00.000-03:00

The Pond Moonlight (1904)
Edward Steichen

2.9 million USD

They call him The Global Horserider...

2006-02-14T15:37:00.000-03:00

So, this dude leaves in 2001 from Buenos Aires with his three horses, planning to go around the world on horseback. And he is in Belgium right now, after having galloped on Fifth Ave., and after having a brief encounter with the narcos in Colombia. He even has an online journal. And you can email him at 3 (three) different addresses. Clarin, the Argentine daily newspaper, has an article on him. Non-spanish speakng audience, sorry for the trouble of having to beg for translation. I guarantee it's worth it! If you get all excited, you can even help out this global gaucho with a small donation.

SUMO es buenisimo!!

2006-02-13T17:20:00.000-03:00

Although the band Sumo [and I don't mean this] only lasted for 5 years from 1982 to 1987, when main man Luca Prodan died, they came up with some pretty awesome/great/heavy/amazing/impressive music! Even though Luca did not speak a word of Spanish when he got to Argentina, they managed to become one the most influential rock bands around. Man, are they good!

And this one goes out to Sharonita...

2006-02-09T15:42:00.000-03:00

... who will visit me on February 23rd, along with her infamous hat. We'll travel to the Iguazu Falls, Patagonia, and finally Santiago de Chile. Miss you, baby...

Postcard for Dave Take 2

2006-02-09T14:59:00.001-03:00

Okey, so Sharon called me out on the poor quality of that previous posts' picture. This one I took myself last Sunday during the feria, where people sell antiques, fresh squeeezed orange juice, while others do this stone-mime/acting thing for a peso.

And... Che vive! or, more accurately a very hybridized version of him: Che wearing a Maradona tattoo, a sailor jersey, while the star on his hat is actually a marijuana leaf, telling us to use a condom for love. Awww... syncretism? patriotism? You be the judge.

This one goes out to Ambrosia Dave

2006-02-09T02:44:00.000-03:00

Tango Sunday in Plaza Dorrengo, San Telmo.

2006-02-05T01:55:00.000-03:00

blogger down. Why? I thought it was because of all the explicit content, but it was a generalized problem. Don't they know we depend on this??

De espaldas

2006-02-04T17:45:00.001-03:00

This one is meant to accompany Mike's recent post, but invert it in two ways. As you can observe, the young lady is showing us her back, but most importantly she is plagued by syphilis. Specialists know how to notice the three phases of degeneration, observing her derriere and her limbs. Although romantic diseases are somehow charming in their transgression of bourgeois values, please keep it safe when you encounter that fine booty .

Back in Buenos Aires

2006-02-03T22:16:00.000-03:00

Luckily, I haven't been abducted by aliens and I got a great workout climbing the Uritorco peak (3 hours, 7km to the top, 1000m altitude). More about that later. First, I just want to share with you an image of my new shower curtain:

My landlady said, after seeing me, speechless and giggling: "I thought they were cute, aren't they so cute?" WTF??

Los Intoxicados

2006-02-02T19:24:00.000-03:00

The Intoxicated Ones:

one of the most famous Argentinian groups these days. I saw them at the Cosquín Festival last week. I think I like them. And I got all excited when I saw the leader of the band, Pity Alvarez, famed as ¨the last living Argentinian rocker¨ right next to me at the Córdoba bus station, accompanied of course, by a bootylicious young lady.

I think he´s pretty cool and, for some mysterious reason, attractive. I´d be his groupie anytime. ;)

Carlos Alonso, or ¨this is what happens to you when you go hell¨

2006-02-02T19:11:00.000-03:00

Inspired by Dante´s Divine Comedy. I am in still in Córdoba and really not appreciating the colonial buildings of the city. Bad, bad Andreea. Instead, the art museum is much more interesting (see above).

I am in a cybercafe because it´s too hot outside...

2006-01-30T14:12:00.000-03:00

... so, my blog postings are entirely conditioned by the weather. It´s 2pm and no live soul dares to brave the 40C (100F) outside, rather they all take to a 3-hour siesta. Well, the kids playing videogames fanatically around me are an exception. Gorillaz `Kids with Guns` is playing in the background. How fitting. And I can´t open my e-mail. So, some news on the last days of my mochilera adventures. The general area is called Valle Punillo in the sierras of the Cordoba province. I travelled for five days with a friend I met in Buenos Aires, Luis. We camped, grilled, and went to a rock concert in Cosquín. Crazy Crazy! Then, I went on my own to La Cumbre, a small, quiet and charming little town, where Argentine writer Mujica Laínez spent the his last years. It is called, fittingly, The Paradise. Will put up photos soon... [The music in this cyber-cafe is really good!! The white stripes right now] I decided I really like the idea of a house-museum because the house loses that lived-in feeling, but there remain those small ghost-gestures that the visitor can imagine have happened here. Museums, art-museums, are impersonal, and sometimes I like it that way, but there is a certain sense of objective coldness that sometimes scares me. House-museums have that feeling of the private that makes you feel like you are an intruder, albeit a welcomed one. The welcomed intruder--what better feeling? [Gorillaz again, I´m in heaven!]
Now I am in the land of UFO´s, Capilla del Monte, a small, partly-hippie town, with a Buddhist temple and gorgeous natural landscapes. TBC... (I wonder what Nicholas makes out of this one...;) My first guess would be TuBerCulosis...)

After a long absence, reporting sunny skies!

2006-01-23T13:49:00.000-03:00

Well, I haven't been writing this past week because I was outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather. I have walked and walked, BA is a haven for such endeavour... Impressions, again, in a chaotic order:

--Japanese Garden is an oasis of peace in an otherwise tumultuos city. There is a Japanese restaurant inside where I plan to take Sharonita when she comes here in February.
--I am buying way too many books... I keep telling myself that one can never have too many, right?
--I have finally figured out the rhythm of the city, but it's funny because, if you think about it, as Mike had remarked, people in Buenos Aires never sleep! Let's see. Lunch is at 12-3, then siesta or work or walking around. 5-10 or so linger in a cafe with a cup or coffee, a chopp (pint) of beer (Quilmes or Imperial), reading the newspaper, conversing with friends. During this time, as the trash is brought out on the street, a sad and very common sight is the people rummaging through it in the hopes to find something to salvage. Ever since the economic disaster of 2001, many have been put in this situation in order to survive. It's not just bums, the number of people in this situation is frightening. Around 10:10pm one starts thinking about dinner. Many eat out, beginning 11pm (which is really early actually) until 3am or so. Well, if you can squeeze in a movie or a play, that's even better. 3 am, nightlife starts (take that, you puritan Michigan laws!) until around 6am, when you come out of a dark bar and it's sunny outside and people are heading to work. (What a great feeling!!) Now, tell me--when do people get to sleep?
--the photo above is from a theater-dance group called El Descueve--gotta see it! It's fabulously sensual and playful. It all ended in a lettuce fight... Go figure!

Tonight I am heading to Cordoba for a week or so... Good night and good luck!

Rain and thunder as impetus for blog postings...

2006-01-15T15:56:00.000-03:00

So... being that I am confined to the dry space of my room and that Patxi really really wants me to, I will start posting news bits from life in the Paris of South America. Initial impressions are really just a long list of unconnected, random ideas. It will take me more time to process them into full-sentence format, so bear with me. Here it goes, and not to be too pedantic, it does make me think of Borges' Chinese Encyclopedia famoulsy cited by Foucault in The Order of Things. [I hope that at least Mike appreciates this reference. :D ]:

-coffee, excellent as expected
-food: meat, meat, red meat, and oh, did I mention MEAT?
-wine: yummm and SO cheap
-some metrocars have cushions... styling it up in the subte
-parks as dwelling spaces for cats... the Botanical Garden is literally CATLAND

-noiselevel: elevated--so many cars and buses, my gosh...
-no tango interaction as of yet; will try harder, I promise.
-i might have just found my mom away from home: Beatriz, the very nice and helpful lady who arranged for my housing. Her mom is Romanian, and I have taken upon myself to convince her to visit the Dacian plains.
-this one is incredibly inappropriate, but it must be included--I have discovered the (hygienic, of course) uses and benefits of the bidet.
-puerto madero, the newest residential area of the city, is comprised of warehouses transformed into stylish lofts and expensive-yet-they-say-delicious restaurants, is also the quietest area in town, birds chirping and all that good stuff.

Check out flickr.com/photos/amateur_uploader for more pics.

Maybe I will run and get that cup of coffee after all, addiction is stronger than inconvenience...

Ladies and gentlemen, the weather forecast for Buenos Aires, Argentina: it's raining cats and dogs!

2006-01-15T15:38:00.000-03:00

So, it's a summer afternoon in the Southern Cone. Would one expect rain and thunder? I think not... however, the truth of the matter is that I am stuck in my room, contemplating whether it's worth running to the corner cafe and read there (which would involve me getting soaking wet) or stay here and try to will the rain to stop by looking intensely out the window.
Needless to say, the long awaited Sunday flea market in Plaza Dorrengo is compromised...

Oh that flag!

2005-12-20T05:58:00.000-03:00

Brings me way back to the times when I , as a young soim (a hawk, as a matter of fact) in kindergarden, used to pledge alegiance to the tricolor! Blue for the (Black) sea, yellow for the golden wheat (mmmm... nutritious) and red for Blood, the blood of our fallen soldiers (who by the way, supposedly died for the same flag). Oh, those were the days...

Gypsy Life: It's Not Easy Being Romanian

2005-12-19T21:56:00.000-03:00

Romania came back into style after Nadia Comaneci rocked the Olympics in 1976.

We all became dreamers after Nadia.

Ok, so for all who have no idea where Romania is, the map below can give you some sort of idea...well, kind of. Hot Spot: Black Sea.

And, of course we have some hard-core gypsy shin-digs!! (This cd is not recommended for minors.)

And, unfortunately we have the crazy caravaning gypsy problem. Ah, Romania. I miss you!

P.S. Rumanita, yes, this mock blog entry is in fact evidence of my extreme boredom. My parents are insane. Completely and utterly insane. -Patty

Those Assholes Spilled Their Drink On Me!

2005-12-17T04:35:00.000-03:00

Hello Everyone,
This is just a test post to see if The Gypsy Times is working alright.

Meow...