Tigre, Shopping and Boca Jrs!

So… I went to Tigre on Saturday with V, at first hesitantly and then with full force vigor – time to get out of my pad, out of the neighborhood, out of the city. The touristy boat ride through the Paraná Delta canals was actually pretty cool and I ended up shooting like 500 images, the first time I've had my camera out in what now seems like moths. Sunday was set aside for a last-ditch effort to get some damn furniture for my empty crib. Bus to subway and then a ten block walk to the Mercado de Pulgas in Palermo. I have this major aversion to buying things, its part of my standard anti-consumerism stand, but I needed a fucking DESK to be able to sit (oh, and a proper chair) and work, instead of trying to lay on my lone couch and fall asleep in the moist tropical afternoon air.

The first thing we see is – a desk - $330AR ($110USD). It’s starting to already add up in my head. “You are soo cheap!” says V. No, just frugal. I want used furniture that is NOT antique, basic, wood and, yeah basic. Nothing fancy, nothing to covet. Then it starts, the dizzying walk up and down the aisles – so many items from so many people’s pasts. Finally V tells me "you’re going to buy that table." But what about my CHAIR? I still need a chair!! One last manic, almost panicked roundabout and I just couldn’t make up my mind. None of the chairs felt comfortable enough for my big precious hairy ass. Let’s go to the ATM and mull on all this.

And then there was this other ‘Country Furniture’ store just down the road, all by its lonesome. The huge red antique wagon wheel out front sold me – where getting stuff here! “You really did grow up on a farm,” V comments. Another hour goes by and I’ve completely exhausted all combinations of chairs, tables and bookshelves. What I really want, now in full retail consumer therapy mode, is that antique POKER TABLE! But its pretty old, a bit wobbly and like $500AR – and it’s not a desk. I pull the trigger and have bought my stuff.

Now I have to hire an old fat guy with a van to cart all my meaningless but necessary possessions and V and I back to San Telmo, where we have to double park because its feria day and truck all the stuff up to my flat, take a quick shower and then Luis shows up with his son Martín. Then his other son Pablo shows up with his buddy from Brazil and then eNano strolls in with his new military summer buzz cut and we’re off to the Cancha del La Boca – La Bombanera to see Boca Jrs. play against Quilmes – my second trip to a futbol match here in Argentina. This time, we’ve got killer seats in the privileged sector, not like LAST TIME!

Boca is up 1-0 and there’s a penalty in front of the goal in favor of Boca – free shot on goal which is perfect and now its 2-0. We’re screaming and yelling and jumping up and down. Suddenly Luis gets a phone call – "BOLUDO, put on your best smile because you’re on live TV right now!” We all look at the camera, jumping, screaming and yelling. Boca beats Quilmes and we finally get herded out of the stadium like cattle en route to slaughter. Back on the dark streets of La Boca, Luis gets a text from his woman, “We saw you all on TV and when the broadcast ended, they closed the show out with a tight shot of Grek’s face!”

The last time I saw myself on TV was actually just a few months ago, back in San Francisco at MT’s house. We were watching late night cable and Iron Eagle (1)was playing - a small Hollywood cameo from my youth. MT couldn’t believe it – “that really IS you!” The time before that I think we were shooting an infomercial for prostrate cancer and they needed extra members in the audience. I took off my studio headset and filled in as a concerned male. That was in the 90’s.

1 - Plot Summary for
Iron Eagle (1986) - IMDB

When Doug's father, an Air Force Pilot, is shot down by MiGs belonging to a radical Middle Eastern state, no one seems able to get him out. Doug finds Chappy, an Air Force Colonel who is intrigued by the idea of sending in two fighters piloted by himself and Doug to rescue Doug's father after bombing the MiG base. Their only problems: Borrowing two fighters, getting them from California to the Mediteranean without anyone noticing, and Doug's inability to hit anything unless he has music playing. Then come the minor problems of the state's air defenses.