Piazzolla

Top ten best nights of my life this weekend--our luck lasted all night long!

So the Tango Festival is in Buenos Aires right now. Prime time to be in BA and see the best tango performances and music the world has to offer. We decided to randomly see one show at 8pm Saturday at El Teatro 25 de Mayo. Tickets were free so when we got there and it was sold out, i wasn't really surprised. We stuck around, however, hoping they might have mercy on us if there was room after the show started. The manager came up to us to see what we had been doing hanging by the door for 30 minutes, and then told us to hop in line. They were letting waves of people in little by little, and we happened to be some of the last to get in. A dramatic tango lament accompanied us up the stairs as we entered the auditorium to see THE BEST live performance i've ever been to in my life. The band was a guitar, a piano, a contra bass, a violin, and a sick accordion--five guys with crazy hair and suits with black V-necks underneath. They played Piazzolla-inspired music (really exciting jazzed-up classical tango. If you haven't checked his stuff out pleeeease do.) Accordion solos and piano solos and rhythmic chats on the side of the guitar were flying all over the place. The music was so complex but SO clear, it was like a perfect painting. Or a really really well organized, gorgeous building that kept you guessing but made you feel like you were part of the making. I was SO HAPPY to be there in that tiny beautiful theater in Buenos Aires with some new friends on a lucky night.

We hadn't noticed we were starving, so the Subte ride to San Telmo seemed eeeterrrnal. "Connecting" subs seems easy but actually just makes you walk the blocks and blocks underground. We wandered for a while under a vague destination, i stepped in one of the bajillion piles of dog crap lining the sidewalks, got really angry for a few minutes, then found a perfectly chill dinner place in the side of a wall. Complete with live music that, again, was sensational. We sat right next to the dish-washers and the waitress had to slip by me every single time she wanted to get to the other half of the restaurant. Ha, the priorities were right: sucky seating, terrible bathrooms, notoriously lackadaisical service, great food, stellar cheap wine, dulce de leche ice cream, and rocking live music. We had a three hour dinner that lasted til 1:00am. I didn't even notice nor care about the time i was so content. Hope you had as great a time on your birthday as i did, Katy!

Was that the end of the night? I can never remember which days are which, they all bleed into each other when the normal going-home time = 6:00am. Or 7. Or 8. Hahaha. I mean we must have gone dancing afterward if it was The Lucky Night.