My trip to: Buenos Aires

                   

                  

I have just travelled to Buenos Aires (Argentina) a little while ago and I decided to write the best tour guide with artful tips about this amazing city. If you want to visit Buenos Aires or know a little bit more about it, please, join me in these special posts.

I will devide the suggestions in the argentinian neighborhoods such as: La Boca, Palermo, Puerto Madero, Recoleta, Centro and San Telmo, as well as in topics such as galleries, museums, grafitti artists, fun and funny things about Argentina, for example.

BUENOS AIRES BASICS

Climate: The average annual temperature is 18 Celsius and the most pleasant seasons are spring and fall. The coldest month is July with temperatures between 0 and 8 Celsius. The summer is very humid. In the winter, arround Sao Joao Batista Holiday (06-24), there is the veranito San Juan in which the temperature hits high levels for a week. Seven days of summer (24 Celsius) in the middle of the winter and then the temperature drops really low.

Security: Watch out for your purse, wallet, watch and camera. Do not hang your purse on restaurant chairs or leave it opened. Always keep an allert eye on your goodies, principally in crowded street such as Calle Florida. When visiting La Boca, don´t walk away from the tourist area and go during the day light. If you have any problem, contact the Tourist Assistence at 0800-9993828, 9am-8pm). Buenos Aires has a Tourist Delegacy (comisaria del turista) in Avenida Corrientes 436, telephone 0800-9995000, opened 24hs. Also, in case of emergency, you can count with the police (101) or the ambulance (107).

Another good allert is not to give high notes (50 or 100 pesos) to taxi drivers, for example. There are more fake notes than you imagine. Always check its veracity.

Money: Argentina´s currency is pesos. In 2010, the equivalence is 1 dollar = 3,85 pessos and 1 real = 2,20 pesos. Do not exchange your money in the airport, the best options are money exchange offices or banks. The Banco de la Nacion usually has the best taxes and Calle Florida has lots of options. In case you loose your credit or debit card, call in Buenos Aires to Mastercard (4340-7000), Visa (4379-3333) and American Express (0810-5558000).

Cheap tip: Some stores have the Global Refund (globalrefund.com, 5238-1970). They are identified with a tax refund sticker in the store. You should always look for it, request to fill up the form in the store and keep the receipts and tax refund forms organized and separated to present in the Aduana booth in the airport in your way back.

Transportation: Taxis (yellow and black) are the best way of transportation as they are really cheap and safer. Prefer the registered ones. They have the signed marked in the pictures. The original price is US$1,20 and US$0,12 for each 200 meters. If you call a cab, the minimum price is $12 pesos. The subway (subte) is the fastest way arround the city. The price is US$0,30, Monday to Saturday (5am to 10:30pm) and Sunday (8am to 10pm).

My sister told me that I was crazy doing this special post series in the middle of the World Cup. It is known that Brazilians (Pelé) and Argentinians (Maradona) HATE each other tremendously what concerns soccer, but I believe we would have a love story if it was not for the soccer. So,...

It starts today the special post series entitled My trip to: Buenos Aires. I hope you enjoy!

Joe Penna - the Brazilian Mystery Guitar Man

Joe Penna is a Brazilian guitar player, animator and film-maker who became rencetly very famous as the MysteryGuitarMan. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. As of February 2010, he is the most subscribed Brazilian user of all time on YouTube, with over 348,417 subscriptions and 20,689,604 upload views. His videos have been viewed over 19 million times.

Penna attended the University of Massachusetts until 2007, majoring in medicine. While in medical school, Penna devoted his free time to producing online videos. He then quit medical school and turned to cinematography, working on music videos and commercials in and around Boston.

When his cinematography opportunities began to dry up as a result of the late-2000s recession, Penna began producing YouTube videos full-time.

Best Buy announced Penna as the $15,000 winner of their Tech-U-Out Video Challenge. He was also a finalist in Oreo's Moments video competition. Recently, Ford selected Penna as a Fiesta Agent for the 2011 Ford Fiesta Movement.

Here are some of his movies. Enjoy!

World Cup´s Vuvuzelas

Ballon Video called Pop

"I need my glasses" video

It should be really hard to do this stop motion videos!
Santa paciencia!

Joe, applause to you my man!

Here we go: World Cup 2010 by Fashion Columnist Daniela Lanna

During June, most of the world’s eyes will be on soccer and Brazilian’s eyes will be colored green and yellow!

Here is a fashionable make up tip to get in Brazilian soccer spirit!!!

One month of sweat, tears and joy. In Brazil, the soccer country, the latest hit is green and yellow!!!

My Odosketch

This is a really interesting and easy site. You log in, draw and the site records the drawing and saves it.

Check out my art! Click on it.

                                              

 To draw please visit Odosketch! The drawing below is called What spring looks like by MIZ. Its unbelievable how she (or he) can draw using a mouse.

                      
                   

                   
                    Check MIZ´s sketch Cat cat cat and the girl
 
                                    Have fun, draw yours!

Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros - by Guest Columnist Lacey McDaniel

If you like whimsical, upbeat music then I have a band for you. Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros is a comprised of ten members out of Los Angeles, California with a truly authentic sound of folk, country, and alternative rock mixed with trumpets, accordions, and tambourines. Live, their lead singer Alex Ebert promenades around the stage shaking his tambourine and slips off his shirt to reveal a skinny white chest beneath with a red scarf tied in a circle around his neck. The concert is high energy and interactive. During the last song of the night at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City, MO, Alex went out into the middle of adoring fans and requested that everyone sit down. To avail, everyone managed to sit, everyone on top of everyone, as it was packed, and he proceeded to serenade the crowd. The group is fun, talented, and eclectic. If they are ever in your area, please take the time to see them. You won’t be disappointed.

Access the official website here!

                                      

* This post was written by Guest Columnist Lacey McDaniel.

Jean Shin

The South-Korea artist, Jean Shin, uses daily-basis objects to construct her contemporary art sculptures and instalations. She is really creative and innovational. Her porfolio is very interesting. Shin´s pieces have been featured in Moma, New York, and she had texts published in The New York Times.

Check out some of her pieces!

                                                 Sound Wave, 2007

TEXTile, 2006

Hide, 2004

Glass Block (Tacoma), 2006

Hair Wall, 2002

Carte Blanche Constructions, 2001

Umbrellas Stripped Bare, 2001

Fringe, 2000

Seams Series

Lost and Found (Single Socks), 2000

Altered Trophies 1-9

                                        (Everyday Monuments), 2009

The New York Times Review

Chemical Balance, 2005-09

Sigur Ros

                       
                                        sigur rós win at mojo awards (2010)

Sigur Ros is an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical, and minimalist elements. The band was formed in 1994 and, recently, in Janurary 2010, the band announced they will persue their solo careers. Sigur Rós consists of jón þor (jónsi) birgisson (vocals, guitars), kjartan (kjarri) sveinsson (keyboards), orri páll dýrason (drums) and georg (goggi) holm (bass).

Sigur Ros first became noticable with their 1999 album Ágætis byrj, which had three songs Ágætis byrjun', "Svefn-g-englar", and a live take of the then-unreleased "Njósnavélin" (later 'un-named' "Untitled #4") in the Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky.

Curiosity: the band created unintelligible lyrics with a non-literal language called Vonlenska, which is also commonly known by the English translation as Hopelandic. Jón Þór Birgisson master the emotive non-lexical vocables and phonemes using Vonlenska a melodic and rhythmic element of singing without the conceptual content of the usual languages. The band’s website describes it as “a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music".

The videos are also really good with conceptual images and intrinsec messages.

                           
                            Song: Svefn-g-englar

Check the band´s website here!

Crasz Bunkwaa´s gift

A while ago, I wrote a post about Crasz Bunkwaa, an Australian artist.

Bunkwaa was really kind and nice to send to me some of his work. I loved it!

Here is a picture of it.

Crasz, thank you very much! It was so sweet!

We are waiting for your Guest Columnist post! ;)

World Cup - Fifa Fan Fest

The World Cup started and I am all dressed up for it! I spent last Saturday on the beach watching the soccer games at Fifa Fan Fest. The event is staged in six-non-South Africa cities: Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Sydney, Paris, Rome and Berlin.

Here are some pictures:

Brazil played against North Korea (Score: 2X1). There was too much expectation and, although, we won, the Brazilian Team played terribly. Aff!