Cumple de Christian

Finding a Home...

Going, going, back, back to Buenos Aires....

Hip-Hop on the Rise: Cuidad Emergente

We in here! Taggers left their mark on all of the Festival Signs

While just two years ago, it seemed that most Porteños only recognized the word hip-hop as a weird new style on the show So You Think You Can Dance, lately the culture is gaining some visibility on the mainstream stage.

June 2-6 more than 130 thousand people attended the third annual La Festival Cuidad Emergente in Buenos Aires! This government funded festival an outlet for emerging yet often neglected alternative youth cultures. True it's name, "The Festival of the Emerging City" lends a legitimating stage to up and coming musicians, dancers, artists, and fashion designers who capture urban youth movements and sensibilities. The past 2 years were dominated by indie rock bands and electronica djs, but in 2010 a new flavor is moving in on the spotlight.

Hip-hop definitely had the crowd saying "haay!" or at the very least "hmmm" every day of the festival. Each of the elements of hip-hop were well-represented with showcases of two different live hip-hop bands, four groups of bboys, numerous turntabilist, and an entire 30 foot wall of the Recoleta Cultural Center transformed by a team of graffiti artists. The young hip-hop heads came in crews often rocking their hoodies and addidas snap-ups as silent unifiers. Meanwhile, large crowds of families, often without prior exposure to hip-hop, would stop dead in their tracks, mouth agape to capture the phenomenon.

The Graff crew posing in front of their work

The festival goers were witnessing one of the first times that Buenos Aires hip-hop culture had peeked its head up above the waves of the underground. Due to a dominating culture of rock, cumbia, and electronica, Buenos Aires is not yet an epicenter of hip-hop like it's neighboring capital cities. Montevideo is much more accepting of any music that comes from the "Afro" tradition, and Santiago undoubtedly has one of the biggest hip-hop scenes in America Latina. These norms look to be changing in Buenos Aires as local hip-hop artists continue to unify more comfortable local sounds with the new and the disparate. The fan base is growing as young music aficionados cross the borders from popular genres such as reggaeton, electronica, and cumbia villera, into the land of hip-hop

The most popular hip-hop performers in Buenos Aires (and much of Latin America) have found impressive ways to localize the globally imported concept that is hip-hop culture, by transforming it with local flavors, and reclaiming it as their own. Groups such as Columbia's Bomba Estereo pay homage to their local music traditions by rhyming over psychedelic cumbia samples, and spitting out clave rhythms with ease. Uruguay's Contra de Las Cuerdas have been successful rapping over their own local popular forms of music like Tango and Candombe, (the traditional Afro-Argentine/Uruguayan form of drum and dance).

The band of five, Marcelo (mc), Cesar Gamboa "Sapo" (Dj) Gerardo (teclados, acordeon etc) Eduardo (bajo,guitarras) and Ferna (Percusiones) played on June 4th to a crowd of around 300 people. Their hardcore fans sung along with the words, often rich with political rhetoric, while the rest of the crowd was hooked in by the group's diverse grooves. Some moved their hips with the latin groove of their Candombe tambores, others bobbed their heads to their melodious rock guitar riffs, while others still swayed nostalgically to the dramatic tango accordion. What's not to like?

As the keyboardist grabbed an accordion, and the mc grabbed a guitar, I understood why they had been jamming all around Latin America together for the last eight years. Each of the members of Contra Las Cuerdas is a true musician who plays to constantly stretch musical boundaries. Uninterested in attempting to conform along boundaries of genre or image, Contra Las Cuerdas basist Eduardo describes their form of hip-hop as their " way to be honest, a way to not go around copying what's already out."

Perhaps just as important as their musicianship was their consciousness of the importance and possibilities of hip-hop culture as it grows in Latin America and in the rest of the world.

"We know that there were hundreds of people in the audience who had never seen us before. And by the end, you could see, they were dancing. Hip-hop isn't just a music, it's a language. It's a language that gives every pueblo in the world an opportunity to speak. It's truly an intersections of urban productions. I grew up with my dad listening to tango, but for someone else it might have been Brazilian music, or a murga. We come from various intersections and with hip-hop we all come together." continued Eduardo

Andrea Senera, the curadora del Festival de Danza Contemporánea corroborates this sentiment as she talked about the dance portion of the festival named "danza callajera" or street dances. This year featured three purely bboy crews and four more dance troupes who incorporated hip-hop in their dance routines. "La idea es mezclar lenguajes," she said in reference to her desire to display both dancers who had been "formally" trained in dance schools with those who have been trained on the street and "viven su arte".

I caught The Fuera de Limite Crew and was definitely impressed by their acrobatic skills, old school poppin, and one of the dopest b-girls that I've seen in a long time. The patio was filled to the brim with teenagers, yes, but also families, little young ones all privy to the visual development of this form of expression.

B-girl GET IT!

Fuera de Limite Crew gettin it in.

Even the fashion design portion was called the Fashion show "Dancehall Dmode" and was emceed by a local rapper Ms. Boliva.

And here emerges the next generation of hip-hoppers: B-babies watching the show

Though many of the hip-hop events didn't attract as many people as the headlining rock bands, the crowds were still robust and energetic. There is not much mainstream attention for hip-hop in Buenos Aires, yet the many youth that participate sure as hell aren't sitting around waiting to make the news. They've continued to live the culture of hip-hop despite it's current lack of lucrative outlets, lack of available spaces, and disinterest from the mainstream. Behind these peripheral cultures, you'll often find the marginalized youth that also live in the peripheries of society. Those who don't have a voice on a formal stage, those who don't have the opportunity to take dance lessons at a "formal" institution, and those who aren't handed these alternative spaces of expression--they have to work to build their own. Hip-hop culture has captured the hearts of many of these youth, and for this reason it was truly the cornerstone of this years Festival Cuidad Emergente.

Director of the festival Viviana Carter spoke a bit about these marginalized cultures in particular,

"This Festival is a space for us to begin to create. Many from this generation had to learn how to take care of themselves and they are just looking for spaces to express themselves." As more of these legitimate spaces and opportunities are presented for these youth to take on their own identities, the more they will feel justified in spending their time in energy in dance and hip-hop. "I think it's healthy that they are putting this much intense energy into dance and constructive things instead of stealing, robbing, and taking paco, [a very popular street drug similar to crack,]" says Silvina Szperling, another dance curator for the festival.

One thing is for sure, the hip-hop community may be just emerging but is poised for an explosion. As Andrea Servera, the festivals curator of dance confirms, "levantás un adoquín y sale un bboy. Eso es algo que no pasa con otras danzas." (You turn over a rock, and out comes a bboy. This is something that isn't happening with other forms of dance).

And judging by the incredible amounts of taggers who left their mark on just about every Cuidad Emergente sign in the festival, the heads are letting people know that, "We're in here, you'll notice us, and we're not goin anywhere."

Going Green: The Copa Canabica

Brasil...

MARISA MONTE

BRAZILIAN REGGAE

Negro Tango: Exposing the black roots of the white facade

Every guide book that you pick up on Buenos Aires will undoubtedly show you a few things.

1.) A tango picture.

You’ll always see the pale faced, dark haired couple dancing gracefully across the cover of most books on Argentina. Tango is the undoubted symbolic gesture that Buenos Aires gladly accepts to top the front of it’s national mythology.

yup. just go ahead and google Buenos Aires Tango. It all looks like this...

2.) The second thing that they’ll always tell you is that all of the black people are dead and gone. Of course, the language is more flowerly, but there will be a basic explanation that, dammit, this ain’t Brazil, if you were lookin for brown or black, you’ll have to go back to Africa.

Although there is some truth to both of these images, and statements, they are both indicative of the national mythology of Argentine whiteness that is exported in mass proportion.

As I wrote in my thesis:

"The reality is that tango started as a slave dance. It was danced in brothels, in the depths and dark crevices of the society that the Europhile elite of Buenos Aires didn’t want to accept. The dance had a wily percolacion upward through Cuba, and even ended up on tour in France, and other parts of Europe. It was only this contact with European hands that the dirty dance of slaves, and the lower class Italians who cohabitated with them, became the image of Argentine tango that we now see. This tango that glistens among chandeliers and fancy tacones that do flippant twists over waxed parquet--this tango is a complicit conversation between the throngs of tangoing tourists, and the few Portenos that actually DO the tango."

There were two events this month that focused on the African roots of Tango as musicologist Nestor Ordigo released his book about just this topic. The first took place at the annual Feria de Libros…which is toted to be one of the most important gatherings of literature, authors, academics, blabbity blabbity blah…

Maybe I’m missed all of the rich cultural exchange but I just saw it as an excuse to charge people entrance to pay exorbitant prices for books they can find more easily on mercardolibre (Argentine ebay).

Or perhaps it was just my general discomfort and discontentment with the presentation that I went to about Afro-Argentines.

Now, admittedly I walked in a bit late, but I was advised that I hadn’t missed anything. I grabbed a seat next to a few recognizable faces in the community. When I arrived, Pablo Cirio, a well known Afro-Argentine musicologist here was in a slide show that appeared to be describing each setting, and story of each black face.

“Que me falto…de que esta hablando?”

“Negros”

he whispered to me simply.

“Mostrando fotos de gente negra?”

“Si,”

And there it was, Afro-Argentine academia often decomposes into the primary process of just explaining to others that black people EXIST. Here is one, here is another, I’m friends with this one, oh and that one too.

The perfect way to end a presentation about the Afro-Argentine roots of tango that had nothing to do with the Afro-Argentine roots of tango with a tango done by an afro-BRASILIERA, and afro-URUGUAYO. Maybe it makes sense in some post-modern way somewhere?

To be a bit less critical, the European mythology of Argentine is a pretty brick wall to try to navigate. It shows a lot about the current pervasive ideology of invisibilization that exists in Buenos Aires, especially. Though in America we don’t see very many American Indians, and our national history is just a euphemized story of their massacre, you will hear very few people deny that there was ever a population of Indians. Most people won’t tell you that they just don’t exist anymore. That we just “don’t really have that problem”...

Perhaps a slide-show of black faces is the first political step that the Afro community has to make…but I’m inclined to say….so what??

Anyways, the second event I was initially very excited about:

In a tango museum, a small charla about the Afro roots in tango, then Rosa Montero, a middle-class black Portena was going to sing some of the “negro tangos”.

The museum was very interesting, especially in it’s inclusion of afro-argentine history, but the event left a bit to be desired. First of all, I had dragged along a friend and my roommate Emilse ( a tango lover) with the promise of an Afro-Argentine tango. We arrived to a small and packed room with two speakers set up and a pasty faced red head reeking of adolescent rebellion at the helm of the laptop.

Next, who grabbed the mic but our silly musicology professor with the black-faced-slide-show.

His introductions showed that he could switch around the words negro-and tango quite apty.

“So llegamos a este evento para hablar sobre los tangos negros. Si estamos aca para todo que ver con los negros en tango. Si, los Afro-tangeros if you will”

I must admit I was a bit volanda at the time, but I was confused when an older white gentlemen with an admitted “cara de orto”. Who is this apartato??

As it seems, he must have some type of pact with the academics who planned the event, or a pact with the devil to be able to keep a straight face through the largest JOKE of a song that I’ve ever heard.

With his ill timed, flat, silly-faced, no feelinged, stiff arm (I can go on and on) delivery, I literally had to put my camera on my lap so as not to waste my arm strength. May I say it again,Who is this tool??

At one point, about half way through the eternity of this horrid spectacle, mid-breath, before this chavon was about to let out another limp and languid sound

**FELICITACIONES!!! VOS PODÉS GANAR UN IPOD TOUCH**

The man angrily and bitterly looked at the adolescent who was surfing the web to pass the time (oh I wish I had a web to surf too…) and they decided that they would move onto the next song as that one had “a glitch”. In my trying my very hardest to suppress laughter…I noticed my roommate out wandering the hallways of the museum. I couldn’t blame her.

After a few more songs, and a pitifully staged shout for an encore (why is that TWO people clapped and shouted for the SAME song) I smell a set up here, and I was ready to protest….

Rosa Montenero…this middle classed Afro-Argentine who in all of her 70 something years was fabbed out in a very middle classy way. No cleavage, but happy patterns. Jewelry glittery enough without being hookerish? I dunno.

She explained that as all singers were, that pronounce and pronounce that they are singer and despues cuando nos toque ya estamos resfriadas…

She was sick, and losing her voice, but she would make the concert happen.

After four songs, she called in quits in her tango esque style

“No puedo mas” she whispered, gently cradling her throat….

I asked my roommate, the tango lovah for her recap of the event. I asked her to tell me in English so that we could talk about the event freely. (If the poor chavon happened to understand English, well, perhaps it was only right that he was brought down by a yanqui imperialist)

“That…” Emi started empathetically (and remember you have to picture all of this happening in her accent from a very specific part of Liverpool) “was the most terrible….awful…”

she started fishing for adjectives so I started to turn it into an English synonym lesson

“piss poor…embarrassing…pice of crap...ugly...undesirable...offensive” I offered

“excuse for a tango that I have ever seen. I had to leave to stop myself from laughing at this man”

For some laughs….check out some outtakes from the show. Well, actually, they are really just clips from the event, but they should be outtakes because of my shaky cam, and his shaky voice.

At least the museum had an impressive display of Afro-Argentine representation in thier story of the tango:

Argentina: Land of the Vanishing Blacks. An article written by Ebony in the 70's.

Various books on display on the Afro roots of the tango.

Hip-hop Competencia

After funk night at Makena, one of the girls that I met gave me a call to let me know that there would be an underground hip-hop comepenticia then fiesta going on that evening at around 10.

Unfortunately, (and Fortunately of course) that evening, I was singing with a friends group called Mukele (check them out!) A very instrumental world-beat funk band, all of the vocals were hooks and improvisation.

PICTURES

It was a fun and intimate show, without rehearsal. Their primary female vocalist, Gaby, has an incredible ability to harmonize and improvise! Although I enjoy singing a lot as a thing in the shower, it really made me want to work on learning some of the basics of voice!

My roommates of course were in the audience, but my two friends from Dock Sud showed up suspiciously, and ridiculously late. J

My roommate Emilse and I are constantly joking about our differences in style. I like my men “morocho, o con color”, BROWN skinneded and super ethnically ambiguous, speaking to me in Spanish or Portuguese.

Her boyfriend is a pale-faced Englishman with blue eyes, whose accent has marked her even when she sings 60’s soul songs with me.

I research hip-hop, I like to sing R&B, soul, funk. She likes indie rock, and whiney Argentine boy rock. Ok, I’m not giving her much credit, but you get the point.

Luckily when I got out of the concert, and had my fill of free drinks from the bar, the hip-hop competencia had barely started. In the back of a bar, that looked like a warehouse we all entered with curiousity. What was Buenos Aires offering?

All of us more than a little bit curious about the hip-hop scene, we entered and were immediately inundated with the energy of the scene. Well, it was either the energy of the underground crowd—or it was smell of aerosols burning our brain cells. On either side of the wide club there were scaffoldings full of taggers posted like construction workers, painting, spraying, designing, and admiring. Flor, my friend pulled me to the middle of the club where the dance battles were happening. All of us just went into swivel mode, trying to take in the colors of the atmosphere, the youth formed into crowds getting amped up to dance, and trying not to huff too much paint.

Then, I was sucked into every photographer’s nightmare—ok let’s say amateur photographer, because real photographers I’m sure don’t get into this type of trouble.

All of this art, energy, excitement and hip-hop…and my roommate hadn’t charged my battery, and hadn’t erased photos from the memory card.

I looked around for fellow videographers and photographers frantically. It seemed there weren’t too many people interested in taking the pictures. The first kid I met was strapped with a D60.

I gave him props for his camera choice, then promptly went back to my mission of searching for a videographer.

And then I saw him, under the scaffolding. What was that that glistened in the dark light? It was the black shell of a Panasonic Lumix DMC….the EXACT same camera that I own!!!!

For real though, out of two cameras in an entire building, the exact same semi-professional semi-point and shoot camera that I own?

After doing a bit of a thank you dance to the universe, I explained to him my situation. He promptly handed me his full battery, and his empty memory card and I went to work.

As the grafitti artists put their finishing touches on their pieces, the dance battles started. A table of three judges (veterans in the hip-hop community) sat at the foot of the dance floor ready do give their expert opinion

All those who weren’t hanging in the stands of the scaffolding formed a circle around the dancers, and each would come break into the center for a rapid-fire one minute solo battle.When the beat switched the next dancer jumped in for their kinetic rebuttal. The judges had a quick second to deliberate then they would shout an “un, dos, tres” and each would point in the direction of their favorite. The winning dancer would move onto battle the winner of the following series.

They had competitions in freestyle, dancehall, breaking, pop-locking, and krumping. In the fast paced competition, the technical highlights were definitely in the bboys. Although the photographer warned me that there was another Porteno cat who could out break all of these kids, there was definitely some real talent. Super-de-duper head spins, flips, a lot of acrobatic movement. What was missing though it seemed was the differenciating style. Most b-boys were lacking in their top-lock, in their transition, and in the attitude that made me crush on so many of my friends older brothers growing up—the shamelessly smooth style.

But what the scene lacked in originality they definitely supplanted with energy. My two friends stood on the sidelines mouths wide, heads bobbing back and forth, chiming in with the crowd with their own ‘ooooooohs”.

The Dancehall session was equipt with an androgynous gent with all the attitude in his hips, gyrating his booty so fast that it made me dizzy (again, could’ve been the paint fumes). A girl who I think learned krumping from watching a few episodes of Community (SEE VIDEO) but from my point of view, it was an exciting starting point for two reasons.

1.) The hip-hop community of Buenos Aires is definitely in it’s infancia, it’s not like many Latin American communities who aggressively latched on to hip-hop like Chile, or Columbia. Buenos Aires, the larger part of the marginalized population is more comfortable with cumbia villiera—a form of similar based music that has many of the characteristics of a reggaeton. But, the two have a very, very, close relation, and I imagine more and more the two moving together and getting closer and closer to marriage. BUT, the community is very, young, excited youth, looking for their form of expression.

2.) There is definitely a lot of Afro presence within the hip-hop community. The African immigrants always posted up in Lost are part of the scene, but it also really excites me that Afro-Argentines, and a lot of the mutted and mixed kids of Buenos Aires have latched on to this type of dance and expression.

We all cut out of the joint around 4am. As I passed the photographer mis datos, I noticed his hijo de puta girl/friend rushing me, and encouraging me not to give him my information. In her rush to get him out of my sight, I left without getting his information.

And sadly, I have yet to hear from him…I can only imagine how the girlfriend disposed of my information. So Venezuelano, if you’re out there….give me my pictures & footage back!!!

pascuas...

ONECHOT & REKE

Show de Fidel

**Note, you'll have to excuse the poor film and audio quality on these videos. I was running late and so was only armed with my pocket pal of a camera. Shaky cam @ its best, eh?**

Luckily, yesterday I ran into Fidel Nadal, and a few of his friends at the biggest hip-hop club in Buenos Aires. They let me know that they would be playing at an awesome venue the following day. I bought a ticket without thinking, then later in the day realized I could probably tag along with the rest of the family.

Por suerte, his cousins Fede y Nico, and their parents would all be going to the show and I could tag along. I was even more excited, because seeing the behind the scenes of a famous character is always much more interesting and disarming at the side of those who know the person best. Those who nurtured them, those who supported them, those who know all of the embarassing secrets. De hecho, when I first met Fidel, I had NO idea that he was famous. I actually made him help me clean up all of the mess that I had made in packing all of my bags to go back home.

Fede and I hiked backstage for a bit, where artists were preparing with a bit of bud and brew. Being behind the curtains with Fede was comforting because I was taken care of like family without any of the groupie expectations. I briefely met the other performers, Onechot and Reke, who had accompanied Fidel to LOST, and then went back to the balcony to hang with the fam.

A Buenos Aires rapper Marciano, and friend of Fede's opened up the show. Marciano is a prolific rapper in the local hip-hop scene because of his impressive word play. He has collaborated extensively in the hip-hop community of the Coño Sur, rapping with the boys of Tiro de Gracia from Chile, Contra Las Cuerdas of Uruguay, and of course, Fidel Nadal of Argentina. He's one of the few artists who has circulated a proper mixtape, and is always experimenting with beats and production.

Marciano opening up for Fidel Nadal at Niceto Club in Buenos Aires

Onechot and Rekeson are two of the biggest and most talented artists coming out of the Venezuelan hip-hop scene. Onechot, is actually both a rastafari and reggae scholar, but his musical style runs the gamut. His heart and passion comes out forcefully in his many reggae and dancehall productions, but his throaty ragga sounds softens up comfortably when the production calls for something a bit more suave. Onechot's, (what he calls the Jamaican version of his name Juancho) most promising appeal is in his consciousness--both musical and political. The diversity in his music makes it apparent that he looks to be a global force. His lyrics and style speak to the the entire Afro-diaspora, sometimes calling on Rastafaris in the Caribbean, Africans throughout Latino America, or convoking images of common experience with lyrics like

"Plantation Mentality, bring me back my loyalties

Dem can have our property, African Legacies

I & I refuse the supremacy theory (BIS)"

Rekeson and Onechot, who collaborate often, found an energetic groove, already comfortable supporting one another stylistically, without robbing the other of the spotlight.

Though I was definitely feeling the hip-hop, reggae groove, I must admit that my favorite moment of their show was all about Reke. Me mató! At the end of his set, he got the crowd quiet to talk about his life and where he was from in Venezuela. During his “around my way” talk, he dropped knowledge about all of the problems in his community stemming from usage of “La Piedra” or crack. To this problem, he responded by writing his own heart wrenching version of “Gangstas paradise”, both rapping and singing the hooks. ( I found out later, that he actually started out as a singer.)

THE CHORUS of La Piedra, Rekeson's take on Gangsta Paradise encouraging those in his community to give up the crack:

Quita la piedra que tu camino esta tropezando y alejate de este infierno que te esta quemado date una oportunidad y sal de esa oscuridad recupera la luz que la droga te esta APAGANDO. Get rid of "the rock" that's tripping up your path and get away from this hell that is burning you up. Give yourself a chance, and get out of the dark, get back the light that the drug is putting out.

Reke has a melodiousness and swift ability to shift cadence, which in my opinion escapes many of the most famous latin America rappers. Instead of constantly bulldozing full speed ahead with rapidfire Spanish, Reke knows how to pull back on the tempo, skipping words over a rhythm like rocks over water. And let me tell you that the smooth sing-song quality of the Venezulan accent does not hurt his appeal one bit!

I got to chat with him after his performance and he was a surprisingly introverted and wandering speaker. He didn't say much unless prompted, but his body was marked loudly, including a Tupac-remeniscent tattoo of “REBELDE” across his stomach.

"You want to hear real rap?" One of the reggae artists offered, “Reke is from the ghetto, the real hood” they said. He nodded distantly and said that the place he came from wasn’t very easy.

“People don’t understand what it’s like. People get mad at me for talking about what I see, so they tell me I’m too gangsta, they tell me I only do gangsta rap. Now, people back home wanna hate.” He stated in our spanglish communication. As he has said earlier in his career. "Algunas personas creen que yo le canto al hampa y no es asi. Para hacer una canción conciente no tienes que decirle a la gente que haga esto o aquello. Tampoco soy papá ni responsable de los actos de nadie. Lo que trato con mis letras es relatar mi vivencia tal como es para que la gente tome una decisión acerca de su conducta, basada en una visión real de la vida,"

"Some people think that I'm only rapping to the gang/underworld and it's not like that. To make a conscious song, you don't have to tell people to do one thing or another. I'm not their father nor am I responsible for anybody elses actions. What my lyrics are about is relating my experience exactly as it was for the people to make a decision about their own conduct, based in a realistic vision of life."

He told me that he had moved out of his old neighborhood, but that he still goes back.

I asked him about their next show, which would be the following Sunday and he shrugged with a smile and motioned for me to ask Onechot. "I'm like that. I never know where I'm going, when, how I'll be getting there, but put me on a stage and I'll do my thing."

“Siempre estoy volando,” he told me, making his hand an airplane. As I moved on with interviews he stayed pretty quiet and to himself, sitting on a table with the dressing room unless provoked to do otherwise. He truly was "El Astronauta" as he is also known as, The Astronaut.

Fidel’s show was on point as well—super energetic, with the full band. And the crowd was loving it! In my opinion, Fidel has gained so much support in Argentina, Latin America, and globally, because he has definitely added a local and very Argentine flavor to his melodies, and lyrics. His tendency to purposely sing his vowels a bit flat and open are common in a lot of Argentine and Mexican rock artists and he constnatly shots out to Buenos Aires not only by name but by using local language and cultural imagery.

Fidel, with a silly freestyle about Lola.

After the show, the band, exhausted, hung around to shoot the shit, drinking beers and put a few in the air. Talking with the Pita/Nadal family, I turned around to see another black girl, about my height, with dreds down to her butt, knee high boots, a red plaid miniskirt, and flowers clipped to her hair.

We looked at each other a bit quizzically. “Hola?” I said,

Hola!” She sang back to me, “De donde sos?”

“Pittsburgh”

“San Francisco!”

“Word, we’d make a good team”

She told me her name was Dragon Fly De La Luz, everyone in Latin America called her Sativa.

“Sativa?” I questioned as she wrote out her e-mail for me.

Gangaprincess…

“Now hold up! I learned in highschool not to have e-mail addresses like sexyBGirl23, do you give this to your employers?” I joked.

"Of course," she giggled “My employers are weed magazines!”

And there was the beginning of our friendship. As we were talking we noticed another brown skinned brother behind us who catiously butted in with more English.

"Where are you guys from?"

When I answered Pittsburgh he immediately asked me about The Shadow Lounge! As a jazz trumpeter he used to gig at the small club all of the time. And so we made a squad that night of brown sugar, threatening to take over Buenos Aires, threatening to make bands, making plans to have a bunch of brown babies to help out the population a bit.

Good music, good contacts, good bands….

And so the life keeps bringing more and more!!

Don't Force it!