Alex.Tango.Fuego: 2015

Monday, November 30, 2015

The War Against Indiscipline / Nigeria / 1983

NPR story...

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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Gonna manifest myself some new reality

File under 4 am epiphanies...ever have something you know to be true? Nagging at you for years...too many years...behind the veil...but there, telling you, asking you notice. Shouting at you to notice. Well, for me, it rang like a big-ass bell really loudly just a bit ago. I'm doing the wrong thing. I've been doing the wrong thing for 37 years. Yes, I love it. Yes, I'm very good at it. But I've felt in a corner of my soul that it's not what I was meant to do, not what I want to do - "Do", or "DO" in this life. I've been getting the signal(s) over the years, and have largely ignored them. I hear, and notice, and ponder, and roll it around in my hands and look closely at it - very aware and lucid and alert. But I still ignore those signs where the rubber meets the road. I "knew" what I wanted to do, and what I didn't want to do, in this life - way back when I was 16 or 17. At the ripe age of 18, I got sidetracked. I have a history of taking paths I don't really want to take. Not want I truly madly deeply full of love and bliss "want" to do. I travel down those paths for far too long. Water under the bridge. Lost opportunities for some fucking richness in this life. No regrets, though, right?. There is still plenty of time. Time to change. Time to manifest some new reality.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Gender Studies in Milongas of Buenos Aires by Adriana Pegorer

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Our Last Tango :: A Film by German Kral

Our Last Tango
Un Tango Mas (original title)

A film by German Kral

"Our Last Tango“ is above all a love story. A story of love between the two most famous dancers in tango’s history. And the story of their tremendous love of tango.

María Nieves Rego (80) and Juan Carlos Copes (83) met when they were 14 and 17, and they danced together for nearly fifty years. In all those years they loved and hated each other and went through several painful separations but always got back together. No other man danced like Juan and no other woman danced like María!

Eventually, he left her for good for a woman 20 years younger with whom he fathered two children.

Now, at the end of their lives, Juan and María are willing to open up about their love, their hatred, and their passion.

In "Our Last Tango“ Juan and María tell their story to a group of young tango dancers and choreographers from Buenos Aires, who transform the most beautiful, moving and dramatic moments of Juan and Maria’s lives into incredible tango-choreographies. These beautifully-shot choreographies compliment the soul-searching interviews and documentary moments of the film to make this an unforgettable journey into the heart of the tango.

As of June 2015, Wide House Films is looking for a distributor in the U.S.

- See more at: http://widehouse.org/film/our-last-tango/#sthash.GACwigUD.dpuf

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Oldie but Goodie Tango Film

Anyone know any of the details behind this video, uh film clip, rather? Besides the fact that it stars Tobey McGuire's grandfather (right in the beginning)?

Een kijkje in het verleden. De Tango van toen!
Posted by Centaur Cheiron Salon on Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Monday, June 1, 2015

UNFCCC negotiation session - Bonn | The Road Through Paris

http://www.theroadthroughparis.org/events-to-watch/unfccc-negotiation-session-bonn

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AlexTangoFuego

Sunday, May 24, 2015

The Recipients :: Saving a Legacy

Saturday, May 16, 2015

On the subject of partner rotation in classes...

On the subject of PARTNER ROTATION IN CLASSES...a woman recently invited me to take a class with her for an upcoming workshop, because she said, the last workshop she took there was a reluctance (refusal?) amongst attendees to rotate, and the teacher didn't impress upon them the benefits nor actually insist on rotation.

It's really a disservice to both leader and follower not to insist on partner rotation (in a fun, non-off-putting way). In my experience, there are nuances in both roles that manifest with different partners that are critical to learning proper vocabulary and "grammar".

Not to mention the psychological and social aspects - ice breaking, meeting new people, community building, getting people out of their comfort zone, and last but not least, letting those new to tango know that tango is a social dance, to be danced with multiple partners, not just their spouse or significant other or practice partner or preferred partner.

If leaders can't effectively lead whatever is being taught with every follower in the room, then they aren't really leading it, and worse, they haven't learned the lead as truly/madly/deeply as they could have.

Lastly, kind and compassionate mutual feedback/constructive criticism - in the spirit of giving/helping/learning - between lead and follow is hugely critical. I want followers to tell me what they are getting/feeling from/with my lead, obviously only in a class/practica setting, as well as give me feedback if my left arm is too far forward/back/too high, if my right arm is too tight, if I'm not opening up and giving room in the molinete, etc and all of the multitudinous nuances of the embrace, etc. I do my best to adjust to each follower - I call it equilibration - but you never really know without feedback. The key being kind/compassionate/constructive.

And obviously this goes both ways - leader feedback to the follower(s) - I've written this from a leader's perspective.

And also, this comes from a former non-rotation/rotator who learned the error of his ways very early on.

Anyway, just thought I would put this out there...

Anyone have any examples of wording/approach/games, etc to facilitate rotation...?

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Thursday, May 14, 2015

NPR FRESH AIR

?? Stapleton...
Album/Traveler...
Country Blues Fusion

More Of You/Song
Whiskey And You/Song

Note to self

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AlexTangoFuego

Richard Rothstein Research Associate

UC Berkley NPR Fresh Air Racist Housing Policy

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AlexTangoFuego

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Naked Tango :: Feature Length Film (1990) :: Starring Vincent D'Onofrio

Hmm. I never knew about this one. From 1990, the really very early days of the spread of Argentine Tango in the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD9Zz1LpEas

And the Wiki page on the Zwi Migdal, another bit of history I didn't know about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwi_Migdal

IMDB for the film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100222/

Plot summary: Returning by ship to South America, a young girl escapes her elderly husband by swapping places with a girl committing suicide. She believes her new life will be that of an arranged marriage but finds it is in fact a trick to get her working in a brothel...

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Fermín, glorias del tango | A new film | DVD & Rental Available

A new film from Hernan Findling and Oliver Kolker...

DVD now available: http://www.funcionaykuenta.com/#!shop/c10m8

Link to Vimeo for 24 hour rental:
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/fermin

Trailer:

Interview with Oliver re: Kickstarter campaign:

Interview with Oliver, en Espanol:

www.ferminlapelicula.com

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3377374/

Fermin is set primarily in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fermin Tundera (Hector Alterio) is an 85 year-old patient at a typical "third-world" public hospital being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. It has been decades since Fermin was committed to the institution yet his condition has not improved. Ezequiel Kaufman (Gaston Pauls) is a 33 year-old psychiatrist who comes on the scene to treat the difficult patient and discovers that he is only able to communicate by using the cryptic lyrics of Tango, a peculiar characteristic indeed.

We witness a wonderful doctor / patient relationship develop as we are periodically taken back in time to Fermin's younger years as one of the most popular tango dancers in 1940s Buenos Aires. In an effort to better understand his patient, the young ambitious doctor finds himself immersed in the tango world. Not only does Ezequiel find passion in this beautiful dance but also finds love when he meets Fermin's beautiful grandaughter, Eva (Antonella Costa), herself a popular tango dancer.

Fermin's condition steadily improves as we ultimately learn the reason for his peculiar illness.

Click to enlarge photo:

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

We just have to put our souls to it(edit)

Post by Collective Evolution Lifestyle.

As Irina says, "Very motivational." I'm struck with the realization that I never knew what my dad's true dreams and motivations and ambitions were in life. He died at 54, from lung cancer, when I was 22. I never thought to ask him, sadly, not even on his death-bed.

That generation, the children of The Depression, the children of the mindset of the life-long job and stability and the white picket fence and doing what society expected of them and retirement and The Gold Watch, surely must have sacrificed many personal soul/heart dreams, but at the same time, accomplished so much.

They raised us, and were instrumental in who we are today. And who we are today are the ones charged with the course correction, the new dreamers dreaming a new, sustainable dream for humanity, of making the world a better and more moral and just place, and returning the planet to the healthy vital verdant gorgeous organism of interdependent finely tuned life giving life affirming systems that she once was. We can do it. We just have to put our souls to it.