Zoom Street Magazine - March 2009

Some of my Cartoneros fotos from Buenos Aires we're published this month in Zoom Street Magazine out of San Diego. Thanks Jim McMenamin for the opportunity

Fernet What?

OK - that's great that SF thinks its the Fernet capitol, which its not - Buenos Aires is the Fernet Capitol, and probably some places I've never been to in Italy - but the green shit or menta, espanol for MENTHOL (mint)?! THAT is SF's best kept secret?! Let's keep it that way... sheesh.

And thanks Pablo Rivas for bringing back the old taste on your recent SF visit. For those of you who have never truly experienced the true BA Fernet experience, it's always to be mixed with Coca Cola - precisely 45-40% Fernet and the rest is Coke, and then lots of ice (and always well carbonated Coke, never from a tap gun or any other flat or watered down source) to give it that nice foamy brown head. In some strange ways it's almost like a root beer float.

Futbol Revolucion

San Juan y Defensa - San Telmo

Owner of DesNivel Parilla in the Snow

First Snow in Buenos Aires in 89 Years

Random Fotos...

The Benj

“He’s a Caniche, they’re very smart dogs,” says my neighbor Nat before fleeing from her two and a half year old fluffy buddy Benji for a big month-long thirtieth birthday retreat back to her motherland of London, England. A week into Benj’s rehab, after getting him onto Cesar Milan’s program – exercise, discipline and then affection, always in that order - I discover that ‘Caniche’ is really just Poodle in Spanish.

So here I am, walking this little self-minded poodle, enlisting my entire war chest of dog whispering skills, training and practices. Even as I type, every hint of sound out in our courtyard triggers a nasty low-level growl and then several staccato ear-piercing barks. NO! But his apparent deafness is diminishing and peace is quickly restored, on to better days ahead.

He’s almost house trained, walks well alongside me on the lead and is beginning to ‘hear me’ in the plaza or park when he’s not busy smelling every leaf, tree, park bench, trash can and each and every patch of grass in between. He’s even learning to play poker.

Speaking of poker, there is a rumor that Steven Seagal will grace the South American Explorers Club, BA chapter, this Wednesday night for their weekly Texas Hold ‘Em game… might have to make this one, Ninja-like.

Buenos Aires Auto Show - HOT!

When did chicks are cars NOT go together? But here, even the uniforms scream FASHION!

Los Cartoneros y Modelos

These photos are part of an on-going series about Cartoneros - the men, woman and children who religiously hit the streets of Buenos Aires to sort, collect recycle and then sell anything they find of value in our trash. It lies somewhere between fashion and documentary - street theatre - addressing the contrast of their lives against ours, a mixing of elements and emotions and themes, like scenes from movies that don't exist, commenting on the absurdity of life as we know it at times.

Untitled - Ziggy Stardust Inspired

Model - Arnaud Saloman

Thanks to many people who helped me with this project thus far in its various stages of ideas, especially friends who posed as 'models'. Special thanks to Tommy Abad for his patience and guidence with the lighting. Mostly, thanks to the friendly and wildly curious cartoneros who welcomed us wholeheartedly and enjoyed working on the project, calling it 'art'. This project is dedicated to them.

These photos are currently on display in San Telmo, Buenos Aires at Cafe Pride - corner of Pasaje Guiffre @ Balcarce (on the corner from my crib) for the next two months.

Untitled - Alejandra y Los Cartoneros

Modelo - Alejandra Dominguez

Tangueros en La Boca

Cristian sent me an SMS text last week asking me if I would attend a tango performace tonight that was very important to him - at La Ideal - one of the oldest and most classic milongas or tango halls in all of Buenos Aires. I took my second terrifying tango lesson there. That's another story. Sure, I dig tango. I'll go.

I met Cristian and Jessica pictured here, through Samantha, the tanguera that I fell madly in and out of love with when I first arrived. Doesn't even matter if she's gonna be there. I'll bring a wingman, Brian, my new friend, also a film maker. I don't even have any pesos, waiting for some checks to come in. Sure I'll go.

These are pictures (uncorrected) that we shot together about a month ago while on assignment for Rough Guide travel books. I am catching up on the Digital Work Flow to begin another job for them that will run through September. Then I want to drive around the world... maybe with a dog named Cheeto, probably not Cheeto.

Telefonica - Gallegos Hijos de Putas!

You think Sprint, MCI or AT&T are bad, try working with the local telco in Buenos Aires - Telefonica - a Spanish company reveling in the tradition of the conquistadors, raping and pillaging the poor people of Latin America 600 years later.

To avoid a lengthy and angry diatribe, here's the details en breve. We're fortunate here in the third world to have decent broadband internet. Fibertel and Multicanal are the two top providers in BA, but unfortunately here on my street in San Telmo under the ancient cobblestones, there is no fiber optics, only traditional telco lines and Telefonica is the only carrier available. When I first moved in I had to wait a mere six weeks before I could even order broadband (ADSL, 512K at best) because the Telefonica employees were on strike, don't even remember why, probably some kind of wage dispute.

After returning from California a month ago, I learned that my internet had gone down and thus began the nightmare. Daily calls to Telefonica for tech support all ended the same - "OK, please hold the line, don't hang up and we'll be with you shortly..." sometimes holding up to 30 minutes per call and then 'beep, beep, beep, beep,' that dreaded disconnect busy signal. Some days I would call up to 10-15 times a day and the result was always the same, many times getting the busy signal right up front. Twice I did get through and filed a report - my service is not working, ok... we're working on it - and still nothing ever happened and I could never get through again to follow up on my service report.

Begrudingly, I decided a trip to Telefonica's HQ in Microcentro was in order. After waiting in a short line I was directed to a longer line and told, "wait in this line and then use telephone number 8 to report your complaint." No. I'm here to speak with customer service, not to call them on the phone... I can wait on hold at home. After a bit of complaining, the woman behind the desk pulled me out of line and told me that she would make the call for me. After another 20 minutes on hold, she said something to the woman on the other line and passed me the phone and told me to have a good day. I explained my case again, that I wanted to discontinue their terrible service and get my three months of payments for no service refunded. Unbelievably, she asked me to hold the line and then after another twenty minutes on hold, the line went dead. Unbelievable!

I asked after the woman who had made the call for me and was told she had gone to lunch but would be back in an hour. I was forced back into line and had to wait to use telephone number 8 - dialing the same toll free number that I had been dialing from home over the past month. The man next to me slammed down his phone and started yelling, chanting and clapping his hands in the middle of the office, trying to incite a protest right then and there. I had read in the paper about a similar indident the week before at the local power company - Edesur. Apparently a man had a similar bill dispute and got so incensed that he shot and killed to employees in the office.

Finally, another woman came on the line, took down the same information I'd already given three times now and asked me to come back in ten days for my refund, agreeing to shut off my non-working broadband. Unfortunately, they shut off my phone service too, all but crippling my outside communications. The wife of the man who was chanting came up to me hurridly after I had hung up my phone and told me, "Telefonica son hijos de putas Gallegos, no son Argentions, eh?" - 'Telefonica are Spanish son's of bitches, not Argentines', just to make sure I knew the difference.

- Thanks to the Universidad del Cine or FUC next door, I've got a semi-stable wireless connection coming thr0ugh the heavy brick wall , keeping me barely alongside the Internet super highway, now reduced to mere dirt tracks headed nowhere throught the vast and barren cyber-desert landscape.

Paths of Glory for Bonnie and Clyde

After a visit to the Rossi Diagnostic Imaging Center to pick up my films and then a trip to the German Hospital here in BA to have them read, I arrived home and stepping into my flat, the handle on my cane snapped in half - by chance. The doc says that I waited too long to turn myself in to the proper medical authorities but with some jump-start PT, I have a good chance of staving off a knee operation towards some sort of recovery. "Let's take another look at you in two weeks, after your therapy," he said. "But you're always gonna remember which knee it is," he added.

So I invited myself over to my neighbor Nat's place to watch a couple of flicks. Limping down to the corner video shoppe, we picked up Kubrick's 'Paths of Glory' with Kirk Douglas and then another classic American film - 'Bonnie and Clyde'. On the way home and directly across the street from our beloved Patios del Sol, the Universidad de Cine students were setting up for a night time shoot. Ironically, both films we watched ended tragically with key players being set up by the law and then shot to death. "Why don't you teach film at the cinema school next door?" Nat suggested. I think my love affair with academia ended long ago.

Live Video - La Bersuit Veragarbat

My first post to YouTube is very short due to bandwidth limitations but wow - check out what the new Canon SD-1000 can do. This was a short clip from the grand finale - look at all those people, upwards of maybe 80,000!!

Bersuit Vergarabat - EN VIVO!

The biggest stadium for the biggest band in Argentina - La Bersuit Veragabat - live in River Plate stadium in front of countless thousands... AND, we went in style in the most lujo private box in the entire place - patrocinado por Coca Cola!

How 'bout a spiked foot to the face?!

Argentine soccer (Futbol in all other parts of the world) gone dumb and DUMBER!!



Sessa kicks out - strike ultima.