The Fabulous World of Music

since being back this summer, a third flowering of new music has happened in my life.

the first came my junior year of high school with the advent of cable internet and file sharing. through user of peer to peer programs like napster and (the best sharing application of all time ever) audio galaxy, i started to lay the foundations for my future music collection. during this time i sought to deepen my catalogue of groups i knew i liked (beastie boys, beck, weezer) and try out new music i had heard glimpses of when in other circles i would not have normally (daft punk, yesterday's new quintet, television). in several cases, this actually led me to purchase hard copies of the music i had already obtained.

the second boom came my senior year of college. i had left peer to peer sharing behind and graduated to rTunes, allowing me to acquire music from other people's iTunes on my college's network. i again used this to expand into some new areas i had only heard were good (godspeed you black emperor, iron & wine) and some i knew to be good but hadn't ever pulled the trigger on in store (sigur ros, jackson 5).

while the third boom hasn't necessarily been due to any technological advancement (apart from music rescue, maybe), it hasn't been any less prolific. with the help of Andrew, Lisa, and the amazon.com mp3 store, new music has been in abundance this summer. also, frequent trips to best buy and half-price books. albums purchased this summer have included

"the definitive collection" by stevie wonder
"the white stripes" by the white stripes
"elephant" by the white stripes
"mothership connection" by parliament
"weezer" (the red album) by weezer
"modern guilt" by beck
"odelay" (10th anniversary double cd edition) by beck
"rabbit fur coat" by jenny lewis with the watson twins
"chronicle, Volume 1" by creedence clearwater revival
"rock and roll part three" by ozma
"the essential earth, wind and fire" by earth, wind and fire
"seeing sounds" by n*e*r*d
"reflection eternal" by talib kweli
"return to the 36th chambers" by o.d.b.
"paper trail" by t.i.
"t.i. vs. t.i.p." by t.i.
"tha carter 3" by lil wayne
"enlarged to show detail" by 311
"flight of the conchords" by flight of the conchords
"rodrigo y gabriela" by rodrigo y gabriela
"feed the animals" by girl talk
"night ripper" by girl talk
"free at last" by freeway
"hvarf - heim" by sigur ros
"med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust" by sigur ros

chances are i may have missed one or two, so if you have intimate knowledge of the music situation, please add missed purchases in the comments.

another large part of the music addition this summer has been through the singular kindness of Tyler Christensen and his big box of rap cds. while i won't list as exhaustively the new arrivals, rest secure that i now have such seminal albums as "straight out of compton," "fear of a black planet," and "stakes is high."

the last piece of the puzzle for new music summer has been free online mixtapes. highlights include "man in the mirror mixtape" by rhymefest, "dilla-gence" by busta rhymes, the entire "we got it 4 cheap" series by clipse, and "totally flossed out EP" by the cool kids.

i'm going to work on putting together a best of new summer music playlist for a future post. should be pretty exciting.

Bad U.S. Movies on Argentine Cable #4

although i have finished with my posts regarding argentina, i have decided to send one more love letter (a pink one of course) to bad u.s. movies on argentine cable. i still recall many worthy candidates that have been untouched and uncovered but feel most strongly about giving this certain film its due.

the year was 1999. teen-aimed mismatch romantic comedies were all the rage after the success of "she's all that." britney spears was dominating the radio waves and i was changing the channel to listen to something, anything else. melissa joan-hart was popular among tweens after knowing it all and turning into a teen-aged witch. adrien grenier was....ummm.....nobody really cared about him until he was in entourage. this was five years before that so it just means we know his schedule was open. what happens when all these disparate elements are in place? "drive me crazy" happens.

with the directorial talents of the man who previously helmed "the making of 'jurassic park'" and would go on to lead "like mike," "drive me crazy" starts with a pedigree of mediocrity. however, the talent behind the camera isn't all bad. rob thomas, who would later write acclaimed teen-aged private eye show "veronica mars," co-wrote here. perhaps that is why this movie had a single moment of being not entirely horrible from start to finish.

don't be mistaken though. this movie is otherwise entirely horrible from start to finish. melissa joan-hart portrays a popular suzie spirit at her high school, involved with all sorts of activities and clubs while hanging out with the cool, attractive set (in spite of neither being cool nor attractive herself). drama ensues when her boyfriend dumps her months before the big dance and she is left scrambling to find a replacement hunk to make him jealous, ultimately hoping he'll apologize so they can go together. but who could that replacement be?

adrien grenier is her former childhood friend and neighbor who has since taken to being rebellious at school by pulling pranks and making out with his skanky girlfriend in janitor closets. when things turn sour with the skanky chick, he agrees to be a part of the plot to turn him into a dreamboat. basically that means wearing sweaters and turtlenecks instead of t-shirts. and talking about sports with other popular guys.

instead of giving away everything else, i will let the trailer do that. how fitting: a poor quality trailer for a poor quality movie. also, note the crappy britney spears song that changed the title of the film when the producers got the rights to it.

high point: the one aforementioned reason why this was not absolutely horrible. there was a subplot about one of the nerdy computer guys getting a date for the dance through the internet. turns out it is the sweet popular pretty girl who used to be fat. they end up having a pleasant time and that was that.

low point: melissa joan-hart's lazy eye. Monica brought this to Elizabeth's and my attention early in the film. neither of us realized it before, neither of us could ignore it after. goodness! it was like watching an iguana look at two different places at the same time.

"yeah, right" moment: the random subplot that only becomes apparent at the end of the film that the single mom of adrien grenier and the single father of melissa joan-hart have secretly been hooking it up. on prom night, both sets of couples are ok with the other heading in opposite, private directions together.

The End of a Trip

coming back for a week and change after my trip with st. luke's felt pretty anti-climactic, but right in a sense as well. like the denouement that ties up the loose ends and adds a bit of context, my last days in buenos aires were spent in visits and goodbyes, attempting to see the people i had formed relationships and to visit the places in the city that made me feel most at home.

granted, i was ready at that point to return to the states and had many blessings to anticipate. in front of me i had just under two weeks to spend with my parents before heading to baltimore for my cousin Emily's wedding and reuniting with my entire mom's side of the family. i was going to have the opportunity to share about my experience, what compelled me to go, what i saw and did, and what i gleaned from it all (which gave me more opportunities to relive, refine, and in some senses, define how i felt and remembered what transpired).

apart from a strange instance of not knowing how the date and day of the week correlated in regards to my flight, my last night in town was exactly what i wanted. popcorn, doritos and coca-cola (which became the treat of choice while backpacking for a month), movies, and time well spent with Elizabeth.

when it came time to board the taxi, it was bittersweet to say goodbye to places, experiences, and people i met while there. in some regards, i felt like from the moment i left houston for argentina in setember to the time i stepped back in houston in april, i had just opened an incredibly evocative book and my return was closing the back cover, looking up and finding myself right back in my favorite reading chair in the house. thankfully, the pictures, emails, and occasional skype conversation prove otherwise.

it was with overwhelming gratitude that i left argentina.

Azul with the St. Luke's Crew

before i left, Kristine and i were in the good habit of attending church with my grandma out in bloomington. my grandmother made sure to tell the pastors that i was heading to argentina and since st. luke's had a sister church in that country, one of the pastors made sure to take my email before leaving. consequently i was in touch with pastor mark schoenhals throughout the trip.

a few months into the trip he notified me that a group from the church was going to be visiting their sister church while i was going to be down there and invited Elizabeth and i along. we discussed and opted to go. a couple months later, he asked us if we would be willing to translate. figuring that most of the duties would fall on Elizabeth, i waited for her consent before agreeing.

this brought us to the point of our last trip. we had plans to meet up with them while they were staying at a seminary in buenos aires and then would head out with them to the city of azul which was about a four hour bus ride south of the city.

the group from st. luke's consisted of eleven people who had some time to do group bonding leading up to the trip in the form of fundraisers and some in argentina as well as they spent their first day and a half visiting the falls at iguazu. even though i had been going to the church for roughly five years (starting when i started at augsburg), i never had a lot of opportunities to interact with the congregation since i came on sunday mornings and left shortly after to spend time with grandma.

regardless, they welcomed Elizabeth and me with open arms through some informal conversations and a little bit of cards before bed.

the next morning we left early for retiro station, a place Elizabeth and i felt comfortable with by this time. the small difference this time was approaching it as a group of twelve with close to twenty suitcases, mostly filled with toys and games for the daycare that st. luke's supports there. this contrasted markedly from my finely tuned sense of just traveling with Elizabeth. using my rough-hewn spanish to manage the luggage situation, everyone else made themselves comfortable on the bus. we were off shortly after.

the friends at the church welcomed the bus warmly at the station in azul. we dropped our luggage off at the hotel in town and prepared for our reception that night at the church. it was a wonderful introduction to the people that would enrich our life over the next week and introduce us to the ministry that st. luke's supported through la transfiguracion, the church in azul.

day to day we would spend time helping out at the day care. started over six years ago, la transfiguracion saw the need in their community to provide care for children aged from 45 days to 5 years. the need arose from the economic collapses that argentina had suffered in 2001, depleting the middle class and leaving the poor with the choice of feeding their kids by working and leaving them unattended, or providing care at the cost of nothing to feed them. sol y esperanza (sun and hope) opened a year later, offering care for the morning hours, providing two meals, education, and even clothes in some cases. our arrival coincided with the five year operating anniversary of the daycare, having seen growth from 25 kids in 2002 to 45 children while we were there.

additionally, Elizabeth and i (mostly Elizabeth though) translated for business meetings and brainstorming sessions, evaluating how the situation was currently running, how to improve the working relationship between the churches, and thinking forward on how best to grow.

we were also given the opportunity to mingle with the families at night, often being hosted for home cooked meals and warm (half-garbled) conversations. azul also housed a duck-pin bowling alley which we frequented one of the nights and Elizabeth and i even made it to one of the music bars/dance clubs with some of the younger folk that we met.

it's hard for me to write about this without getting into lots of specifics about the people, both from azul and st. luke's, but the depth of interaction and the amount of caring conversations make itself difficult to do without going into extreme length. again, i'll use the tired trope i've ran into the ground of showing some pictures from the experience instead:

Elizabeth and i talked a fair amount about this experience while we were there and afterward as well. we both came to the conclusion that this was our favorite thing we'd done on this trip. for me, it was the culmination of several aspects. the first, and most important piece, came with the acknowledgment that much of what i was doing in argentina to begin with was inherently selfish. I wanted to travel; I wanted to learn another language; I wanted other cultural experiences, etc. through this experience with st. luke's and azul, i had an opportunity to do something outside of myself, aiding in the mission of these two groups in a very real way. secondly, the trip gave me an opportunity to put my new spanish skills to use and validated to me that i had picked up enough of the language to be proficient. though far from accurate, i was able to mediate in conversation with no other translators present in a way that bridged understanding between the two groups and that was very satisfying. the last major reason was that this trip opened my sphere of experience in argentina once more, seeing how another part of the country lives in an up close and personal manner. the relationships with people in azul and st. luke's was just the dulce de leche on the ice cream.

i hope (and am starting to make plans) to return to azul in 2010.

The Other Visitor That Visited

in the close to nine months that i spent in argentina only two people came to visit me. the first was my sister Kristine whose exploits around buenos aires and bariloche have been covered. the second to visit was my dear friend Allison Fry.

she arrived in mid-march, perfect time to escape new york's lingering winter and capitalize on argentina's steadily departing high-heat. here is a numbered list of interesting occurrences that happened while she was in town.

1. within the first two months of living in buenos aires i had met a guy that went to junior high with Allison. although i didn't see him for the next five months, when Allison came out with us on st. patrick's day, we happened to run into him and some other friends of his that Allison knew
2. that same st. patrick's night, Elizabeth and i ran into a south african guy we had met while staying at a hostel in salta
3. i gave my blessing to the potential marriage of Allison and an argentine man by giving a high five
4. we saw a historical house preserved in a giant glass box
   
5. on the what-should've-been-a-twelve-hour bus trip to mendoza and wine country, our bus was delayed for an additional twelve because of the strikes by the meat workers holding up traffic (although at the time we had no awareness that was the cause of it)
6. while out to eat in mendoza, Allison and i saw a man give his girlfriend a pug wearing a tux in a box
7. we managed to catch high-season of the grape harvests in wine making country
8. Allison and Elizabeth were attacked by two women in glittery clothing and ridiculous hats
   

here are some pictures that corroborate some of what i mentioned above.