Puerto Madero - My Trip to Buenos Aires

Night View

Puerto Madero was revigorated in 1989 when the govern decided to remodel it. Along with Recoleta it is one of the richest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. I would suggest a late afternoon visit to it as the view and restaurants are great. You could take a walk and than eat something nice checking out the view and people passing by.

Puente de la Mujeres by the Spanish architecture Santiago Calatrava

who was inspired by tango dancers

Puerto Madero does not have much to do, but it has much to enjoy!

Here is a list of things you can do:

1. There are two floating museums: Corveta Uruguay and Fragata Sarmiento;

Fragata Sarmiento

2. Museum Fortabat, in front of Dick 4, is a modern building that holds Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat´s art collection. The collection has Argentine artists such as: Prilidiano Pueyrredon, Fernando Fader, Batlle Planas, Xul Xolar, Emilio Perorutti and Antonio Berni;

3. Ecologic Reserve Costanera Sur is the biggest green area of the city where 200 different espicies live. There are great walk and bike tours. The site is porlareserva.org.ar.

I would strongly recomend a bike tour called La Bicicleta Naranja, which is a GREAT option for a different and healthy site-seeing. You can rent a bike and ride it through BsAs´ green areas (which are a lot, try Recoleta) or plan a bike tour. La Bicicleta Naranja has four different types of tours: north, south, aristocratic and lakes & green areas.

Ecologic Reserve

La Bicicleta Naranja tour group

4. Monument Juan M Fangio. There you go, it is below!

No need for WOWs. Next topic, please.

5. Faena Hotel + Universe is a charmful hotel in Puerto Madero and the most expensive hotel in the entire BsAs. It is really (but really) expensive. Its daily rates start at $500. If you dont have the money to stay there, you MUST enjoy its facilities. You dont need to be rich to seize the best ;)

Faena counts with a Library Lounge with live music (currently DJ Ale Lacroix) and all kinds of books to read. Also, there is a show house El Cabaret with Tango Shows, the special handpicked store La Boutique, two restaurants and one bistro, the PoolBar, for example. Visit the PoolBar at night, you ahve no idea how incredible is the lightning in the pool. It seems like a mirror.

The hotel was totally decorated by Philippe Starck, the creme-de-la-creme guy who is making tons of money. Check out the pictures:

 EL MERCADO - Faena´s Restaurant

                

Library Lounge

Pool Lounge

El Bistro

yes, unicorns! yeah, 12 of those!

Check out some examples of the Menu. It seems delicious!

The bad thing is that they come in French (pettit) portions!

Where to eat?

Tourists are always told to eat at Siga la Vaca, but I did not think it was that incredible. I dont undestand the fascination Argentines have with the Vaca (cow) word in restaurant names.

I would suggest the ones below:

El Mercado - Faena's restaurant

Carletto - italian food

Chila - this is a fresh NEW restaurant. Its cousine is comanded by Soledad Nardelli from Arts Culinaires - Lyon.

Cabana de las Lilas - Argentine barbecue. This is the one that everyone talks about. It is expensive, but really good.

Gourmet Porteno - It has an international menu and offers the traditional Argentine parrilla.

I Fresh Market - Inspired in NY delicatessen

Red Resto - French Cousine inside the Hotel Madero

Spell Cafe - Informal cafe

Here is a list of ALL restaurants in Puerto Madero! So, you can choose!

And here is a good piece of information: let´s understand the Argentine cow!

The famous meat are: bife de chorrizo (argentine cut beef) , bife angosto (porterhouse or strip steak), solomillo (lion, the fleshy and boneless part of the spine) and tapa de cuadril (rump cut).

         

Let me know if you need this image in larger version. I can e-mail ya!

Night Life?

There are three good things to do:

Asia de Cuba - nice restaurant that at 1am, just like a late Cinderella, transforms itself in a great night club. It is U$13 to enter including a drink. The bar just accepts cash!!!

Casino Puerto Madero - casinos are not allowed in the cities, but not in the sea. So, there you go! The casino has 100 game tables, 650 niquel machines, restaurants and bars. It is free to enter, but it costs to play (U$10 higher). You should dress in esporte fino, which means a "fine" daily wear, no flip flops or sandals, no t-shirts showing your arm pits...things like that.

Deep Blue Fun & Bars - an entertainment house with good food.

Material Girl: Lola Leon - by Fashion Columnist Dani Lanna

Do you recall when Madonna first came on the scene in her lace tutu and fingerless gloves and cross earrings? Of course you do! Right after that every girl reproduced the material girl style and, even if you were not there for the 80’s decade, the portrait of the 80's pop icon's style became famous all over the world and through the decades that is impossible not to know Madonna and get impressed with her unique style and energy.

If you miss all that style, I bet you will get delighted to know that Madonna is taking further steps in fashion! Together with her fourteen years old daughter, Lourdes Leon, Madonna will bring that same fashion back again this summer exclusively for Macy’s stores.

Their first junior fashion line properly named Material Girl hits Macy’s on August 3rd. The inspiration for the collection is the 80’s decade, specially Madonna and the Eighties retro style of Agyness Deyn, Lola’s fashion icon.

Lourdes Leon, also known as Lola, also debuted a blog to promote the launch of Material Girl collection.

In the blog Lourdes wrote: “I am totally obsessivo about 80’s shorts… You know the kind that makes your butt look kinda big, with a grunge-looking shirt tucked in. It’s kinda nerdy but I love it. And the 80’s are another huge obsession of mine, which is totally amazingly awesome because Material Girl…HELLO! It’s like 80’s themed, which pretty much rocks, so yeah.”

The collection is awfully cute and brings a remarkable and personalized style.

And, yes, you can enjoy the preview for you right here!

Material Girl is the new fashion line created by the original Material Girl, Madonna.

You will find the coolest items, hand selected by the Creative Director, Lola Leon.

Lola helps to design awesome tops, dresses, jeans, shoes, bags, jewelry…the list is pretty endless.

It’s whatever the Material Girl loves, that they know you will too!

* This post was written by Fashion Columnist Dani Lanna.

I present you my song - The Bossa Nova "Maria"

I write poems for a while now and I have the intention to publish a poem book with some of my drawings. I will let you know once I accomplish that dream!

So, I have a friend called Carol Naine who is a samba singer. She sings for a band called "Cama de Viga" here in Rio de Janeiro. She read some of my poems and decided she could make music out of it. The poem entitled "Maria" was the one selected for this challenge. As per Carol, it is a great challenge to transform a modern poem without any metrics into a bossa nova song.

Here is the result. This video was recorded in the Sarau Criar in which the song was firstly presented. Notice that this is an infornal version and that the piano, the base, the percussion gotit by ear at the moment. They did not know the song. Only Carol, the singer, and the guitar guy knew it. For that, I beleive it is just marvellous!

Here is the lyrics in portuguese

MARIA

(musica registrada)

Maria é linda, mas distante
Maria diz alegrias, mas destrói minhas fantasias
Ah, Maria!
sabe poemas de cor, mas não sabe quem é
Maria faz cafuné
Maria diz que é minha, mas é também de João e do Pedro Mormaço
Maria sempre come o meu último pedaço
Não sabe nem onde fica meu peito, mas entende tudo ao meu respeito
Já é mãe mesmo não sendo, me dá remédio, merenda, beijo na testa

mas já diz dos meus amigos o que não presta
Maria faz melodias, mas não tem nenhuma harmonia
Ah, Maria!
Compõe trovas em dó, mas não usa nada em ré
Maria faz o que quer
Maria é linda, mas distante demais
Amo Maria, mas queria Maria sem mas

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I know that by translating the lyrics into a totally different idiom and trying to explain its meaning,
I ran the risk of killing it to the audience. But I will try this time as this blog is now in 28 different countries and have huge number of viewers that do not speak Portuguese, but English.


MARIA
(registered song)

Maria é linda, mas distante
Maria is pretty, but distant
Maria diz alegrias, mas destrói minhas fantasias
Maria says happiness (joyful things), but destroys my fantasies
Ah, Maria!
Oh, Maria!
sabe poemas de cor, mas não sabe quem é
She knows poems by heart, but doesn’t know who she is….
Maria faz cafuné
Maria caresses me
(cafuné is a tender caress on the scruff)
Maria diz que é minha, mas é também de João e do Pedro Mormaço
Maria says that she’s mine, but is also João’s and Pedro Mormaço’s
(mormaço here means a guy that is always tan)
maria sempre come o meu último pedaço
but Maria always eats my last bite
Não sabe nem onde fica meu peito, mas entende tudo ao meu respeito
She doesn’t know where my chest is, but understands all my feelings
Já é mãe mesmo não sendo, me dá remédio, merenda, beijo na testa
She’s already a mom without being, she gives me medicine, lunch, kiss on the forehead
mas já diz dos meus amigos o que não presta
but she points out which of my friends are not worthy
Maria faz melodias, mas não tem nenhuma harmonia
Maria makes melodies, but has no harmony
Ah, Maria!
Oh, Maria!
Compõe trovas em dó, mas não usa nada em ré
She composes ballads in C (dó), but doesn’t use any in D (ré)
(dó also means pity and ré also means backwards)
Maria faz o que quer
Maria does what she wants
Maria é linda, mas distante demais
Maria is pretty, but too distant
Amo Maria, mas queria Maria sem mas
I love Maria, but I wanted Maria without "buts"


I am so excited about it. I really hope you like it!
Please, pass along this link to yur friends and post it in Facebook.
I would also love to receive review and critics, feel free.

Have a good Sunday!

Today´s walk by the beach!

This is an inspirational video.

Leandro Erlich - My trip to Buenos Aires

Argentine Contemporary Artists
Artist #1

As you know, I am preparing a great series of special posts from my trip to Buenos Aires. It is intended to be an artful guide of this marvellous city. To access all posts related to Buenos Aires, click here!

I wanted to show a little about the contemporary argentine artists and I decided to start off with Leandro Erlich, one of the most internationally proeminent artists from Argentina.

Leandro has own lots of prizes and present a busy agenda filled with exhibitions at prestigious art centers around the world.

Leandro studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredon.
He has already participated in Biennal Whitney (New York); Biennal de Venecia; Biennal de la Havana; Biennal de Sao Paulo (Brazil); Museo del Barrio (New York); Centre d´Art Santa Monica (Barcelona). Currently, he lives and works in Buenos Aires.

"Think BIG, Think smal-scale" - The Movie - by Guest Columnist Francisco Almeida

Hey all from The Art Reference,

First of all I'd like to thanks Marcela Lanna for sharing this important board to spread my message.

My post will unveil a short documentary I`ve edited along with Life as Cinema Crew. Have you guys heard about Doc Challenge? It's a international competition where all the worldwide teams have the same challenge: one theme and one deadline - 5 days. Meaning: a lots of work.

The result is the short documentary called “Think BIG, Think small-scale”, a film about Sergio Cezar’s art and its power of transformation. Sergio is also known as “Cardboard Architect”. He uses micro-trash to recreate facades, slums and whole cities. His work is an invitation for recycling the way we look at things.

More information can be found on the blog of the film here!

Please follow and share it with your friends. Feel free to contact us if you would like to schedule screenings, workshops, Q&A or buy the DVD.

Below check it out a little teaser of the documentary released on May 26th at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Cheers,

Frandu Almeida

Teaser "O Gigante do Papelão" - Tampa from Barbara Tavares on Vimeo.


* This post was written by the Guest Columnist Frandu Almeida.

On the Lookout - By Guest Columnist Bernardo Souto

George R. R. Martin is one of those rare best-selling authors that no one has heard about. Ok, “no one” might be a slight exaggeration; after all, he has already sold close to 10 million books around the world over his sparse literary career.

If you have not read his books, you will be inclined to do so....and fairly soon. HBO recently greenlit the production of his A Song of Ice and Fire saga into a full blown TV Series. It should premiere within the first quarter of 2011 if production does not derail from schedule.

Paltry sneak-peak:

Why should I watch the show, one may ask? Well, if you are into the Fantasy genre, similar to Lord of the Rings, you are set. It has dragons! If you are into political intrigue and a fair dose of backstabbing, you are set. It has Kings! If you are into visceral grizzly depictions of the hardship of daily life –akin to Rome, The Sopranos, The Wire –, you are...well...set. Add to that a pinch of incest, wanton violence, moral dilemmas, power hungry despots and now you have the big picture. Oh, and it has midgets!!! One, to be more precise; and he is very often the main character.

HBO is putting together a world-renowned team behind the project, which should be called A Game of Thrones, named after the first book in the series. So far they have got award-winning director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) looking after the first episode. Part of the huge cast will include Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, Troy), Peter Dinklage (In Bruges, Narnia) and Lena Headey (300, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles).

Each book in the series spans around 1000 pages. So far we have four of them, with three more to come. That makes for a lot of content for the small screen. Let’s hope for another quality show from that prestigious network. Winter is coming.

 
 

 * This post was written by Guest Columnist
    Bernardo Souto

Shoe Fluer - by Guest Columnist Dani Lanna

Mixing art and fashion, photographer Michel Tcherevkoff debuted his virtual collection of fantasy shoes made from fresh plants and flowers.

The original idea came from a photograph of a leaf he once took and by putting it upside down he got inspired to twist, bend and cut plants to turn it into creative shoe and handbags.

 

With frequent visits to New York’s flower market he collected the freshest blooms used to create his provocative accessories.

His intention: please artist’s eye and fashionista’s soul …

… get pleased!

* This post was written by Fashion Columnist Dani Lanna

San Telmo - Part 3 - My Trip to Buens Aires

Check out Guillermo at San Telmo Fair entretaining the visitors in the street.

I recorded this interesting tango show. Guillermo has been doing this show for the longest time. He is a garanteed street show at San Telmo Feria.

San Telmo - My Trip to Buenos Aires

Check out this guitar presentation in San Telmo streets.

Poem

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Painter´s Timeline

Here you can find a really good timeline which includes the major painters working in Europe from c. 1200 to c. 1850 along with a brief outline of the artist movements: Gothic Art, Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism and Impressionism.