November 9, 1:04 AM
Buenos Aires
Yesterday Yid Vicious performed at the KlezFiesta Opening Gala Concert at the Auditoreo de Belgrano, along with A Mejaie, Mames Babegenush (the band Bo plays in), Lenka Lichtenberg and Christian Dawid. We were all very excited about this event and resolved to “bring our ‘A’ game”. Toward this end, we organized a rehearsal. As it turns out, only about a third of the band knew about the rehearsal and anyway the van was scheduled to pick us up around the time we would have been theoretically assembling. Undaunted, we resolved to “roll with the punches” and “hurry our asses into the van” in order to make it to the event.
Along with the van and its driver, we were greeted on the curb by our friend Maru and her husband Nick (we think). Their goodwill and calm reassurance helped convince all of us that not only would KlezFiesta turn out to be an actual event, but that we, Yid Vicious, would be participants and would ACTUALLY MAKE IT TO THE EVENT. When you’re in a new hemisphere and don’t know quite what to believe, this sort of thing means a lot. Once in the van, we met Alejandro, the leader and driving force behind KlezFiesta. Alejandro is a meticulously groomed, soft-spoken and witty man who, like Maru, immediately gained our trust. However this whole crazy adventure played out, we knew the van ride would be worth it.
The van ride got off to a slow start due to a phalanx of emergency vehicles addressing a fire in the subway (!), but we eventually got going, gradually flowing through the baffling morass that is Buenos Aires traffic . Along the way, Alejandro pointed out the Buenos Aires sights, such as the big park in the ritzy area that looks like New York’s Central Park and the very very short traffic tunnel that took twenty-five years to build. We were taken with the vibrancy and architectural beauty of the city. Looking out the van windows at the insane traffic, the people, the strange balance of the elegant and the ramshackle that defines all great cities, but more so this one for some reason, many of us at The Vicious Traveler felt overwhelmed at being in the middle of something so vast and unpredictable, and also so alive. It was a van ride we wouldn’t soon forget.
Eventually the van stopped at the curb on a quiet side street where about fifteen people were standing around on the sidewalk with a bunch of stuff. These were the other performers, their various hangers-on, and their stuff. We exchanged pleasant greetings and then for a couple minutes nobody really knew what was supposed to happen and things were beginning to take an awkward turn but just in time Alejandro directed us into the venue. It didn’t look like a theater from the outside, but it was definitely a theater, and a pretty big one. Estimates placed its capacity in the nine-hundred to a thousand range. The stage was gigantic. You could have three Mahler symphonies going on simultaneously on this stage. What were we going to DO with such a big stage? Fill it up with KLEZMER, THAT’S what!
So, while we were waiting for that to happen, we met the rest of the organizers. We finally met Pedro! And also Federico, who was our other contact during the organizing stages of the trip. We all got along famously. In fact, all the organizers of KlezFiesta have been more kind, accommodating and fun to be around than we ever would have expected. The Vicious Traveler experienced a surge of optimism in appraising the couple of weeks ahead.
We spent a while in the basement of the theater assembling instruments, chatting, killing time, wondering what would lie ahead. Eventually we rehearsed Ali Breder with Esteban the cantor and the folks from A Mejaie. It soon became evident that major klezmer ass was going to be kicked all over that huge stage. And what could possibly stop it? A subway fire? Please. No, Yid Vicious was in the house, delivering the air-mail klezmer goods from the SIX-OH-EIGHT, YO. Strong sets by Mames Babegenush and Lennka Lichtenberg/Christian Dawid preceded the Yid Vicious set.
And the Yid Vicious set preceded the evening’s REAL main event.
OKAY. Not a lot of people know about this, but here’s how it is: IN ARGENTINA, THEY KNOW HOW TO MAKE FOOD.
QUESTION #1: Do you know how good food can be?
QUESTION #2: Have you been to Argentina?
If question # 2 is answered “no”, then the default answer for #1 would also be “no”.
We at The Vicious Traveler recently dined at La Estancia in Buenos Aires. The food and the people making and serving the food were amazing. It turns out that these Argentinians have a flair for the preparation of meat. Who knew? We ate about twenty kinds of meat that night, became drunk on the meat, wanted to marry the meat. It was one of the great meals of all time. But here's all you really need to know about La Estancia and dining in Buenos Aires: When various members of Yid Vicious were walking out of the restaurant to smoke their cigarets, the Grillmaster General of La Estancia beckoned them near and insisted that they light their cigarets with the EMBERS FROM THE BIG GRILL THAT HAD MADE THE FIRE THAT HAD MADE THE AMAZING MEAT THAT YID VICIOUS HAD CONSUMED. The smokers of those cigarets were honored and humbled, and the memory of that genius grillsman will live forever in our hearts.
Buenos Aires
Yesterday Yid Vicious performed at the KlezFiesta Opening Gala Concert at the Auditoreo de Belgrano, along with A Mejaie, Mames Babegenush (the band Bo plays in), Lenka Lichtenberg and Christian Dawid. We were all very excited about this event and resolved to “bring our ‘A’ game”. Toward this end, we organized a rehearsal. As it turns out, only about a third of the band knew about the rehearsal and anyway the van was scheduled to pick us up around the time we would have been theoretically assembling. Undaunted, we resolved to “roll with the punches” and “hurry our asses into the van” in order to make it to the event.
Along with the van and its driver, we were greeted on the curb by our friend Maru and her husband Nick (we think). Their goodwill and calm reassurance helped convince all of us that not only would KlezFiesta turn out to be an actual event, but that we, Yid Vicious, would be participants and would ACTUALLY MAKE IT TO THE EVENT. When you’re in a new hemisphere and don’t know quite what to believe, this sort of thing means a lot. Once in the van, we met Alejandro, the leader and driving force behind KlezFiesta. Alejandro is a meticulously groomed, soft-spoken and witty man who, like Maru, immediately gained our trust. However this whole crazy adventure played out, we knew the van ride would be worth it.
The van ride got off to a slow start due to a phalanx of emergency vehicles addressing a fire in the subway (!), but we eventually got going, gradually flowing through the baffling morass that is Buenos Aires traffic . Along the way, Alejandro pointed out the Buenos Aires sights, such as the big park in the ritzy area that looks like New York’s Central Park and the very very short traffic tunnel that took twenty-five years to build. We were taken with the vibrancy and architectural beauty of the city. Looking out the van windows at the insane traffic, the people, the strange balance of the elegant and the ramshackle that defines all great cities, but more so this one for some reason, many of us at The Vicious Traveler felt overwhelmed at being in the middle of something so vast and unpredictable, and also so alive. It was a van ride we wouldn’t soon forget.
Eventually the van stopped at the curb on a quiet side street where about fifteen people were standing around on the sidewalk with a bunch of stuff. These were the other performers, their various hangers-on, and their stuff. We exchanged pleasant greetings and then for a couple minutes nobody really knew what was supposed to happen and things were beginning to take an awkward turn but just in time Alejandro directed us into the venue. It didn’t look like a theater from the outside, but it was definitely a theater, and a pretty big one. Estimates placed its capacity in the nine-hundred to a thousand range. The stage was gigantic. You could have three Mahler symphonies going on simultaneously on this stage. What were we going to DO with such a big stage? Fill it up with KLEZMER, THAT’S what!
So, while we were waiting for that to happen, we met the rest of the organizers. We finally met Pedro! And also Federico, who was our other contact during the organizing stages of the trip. We all got along famously. In fact, all the organizers of KlezFiesta have been more kind, accommodating and fun to be around than we ever would have expected. The Vicious Traveler experienced a surge of optimism in appraising the couple of weeks ahead.
We spent a while in the basement of the theater assembling instruments, chatting, killing time, wondering what would lie ahead. Eventually we rehearsed Ali Breder with Esteban the cantor and the folks from A Mejaie. It soon became evident that major klezmer ass was going to be kicked all over that huge stage. And what could possibly stop it? A subway fire? Please. No, Yid Vicious was in the house, delivering the air-mail klezmer goods from the SIX-OH-EIGHT, YO. Strong sets by Mames Babegenush and Lennka Lichtenberg/Christian Dawid preceded the Yid Vicious set.
And the Yid Vicious set preceded the evening’s REAL main event.
OKAY. Not a lot of people know about this, but here’s how it is: IN ARGENTINA, THEY KNOW HOW TO MAKE FOOD.
QUESTION #1: Do you know how good food can be?
QUESTION #2: Have you been to Argentina?
If question # 2 is answered “no”, then the default answer for #1 would also be “no”.
We at The Vicious Traveler recently dined at La Estancia in Buenos Aires. The food and the people making and serving the food were amazing. It turns out that these Argentinians have a flair for the preparation of meat. Who knew? We ate about twenty kinds of meat that night, became drunk on the meat, wanted to marry the meat. It was one of the great meals of all time. But here's all you really need to know about La Estancia and dining in Buenos Aires: When various members of Yid Vicious were walking out of the restaurant to smoke their cigarets, the Grillmaster General of La Estancia beckoned them near and insisted that they light their cigarets with the EMBERS FROM THE BIG GRILL THAT HAD MADE THE FIRE THAT HAD MADE THE AMAZING MEAT THAT YID VICIOUS HAD CONSUMED. The smokers of those cigarets were honored and humbled, and the memory of that genius grillsman will live forever in our hearts.
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