When we went to Buenos Aires in February this year, our plane had a problem on takeoff. A rather loud "bump" was heard around the mid-section of the plane.
The pilot assured everyone that they were "looking into the matter" with the control tower and that "all their systems appeared normal".
Then, about half an hour to forty-five minutes after takeoff, there was a little bit of bad news (yes, just a teensy bit - because Air Canada doesn't want their passengers to be in any way alarmed). Namely, that -
The control tower has reviewed the footage of our take-off, which revealed sparks coming out of the plane's engine. We are turning back to the airport now to have things checked out.
It got mighty quiet in the cabin. Perhaps some people were praying, or wishing they had written their will, or wondering who they wanted to call in their last moments.
The parents of a young female former colleague of mine had a very clever way of dealing with potential disasters like this. Whenever the family traveled, they never traveled together - Mom will take one flight; Dad, another - and the sisters would also travel separately. On different days. On different airlines. That way, the probability of the whole family being killed all at once would be pretty damn near close to nil. Someone should benefit from all that life insurance - and god forbid if it was not the closest next-of-kin!
However, such ingenious strategems fall strictly in the realm of "Prudence", and not "Tango". "Tango" would be more like Man Yung's attitude during the flight back to the airport. He held my hand, looked into my eyes meanfully, and said:
"It doesn't matter what happens. I'm not afraid of anything because we're together."*
The flight returned back to Pearson Airport safe and sound - although the landing was rather rough and people were applauding the fact that we landed in one piece.**
* For the record, I wasn't afraid either. I was too busy thinking about the number of pairs of Comme Il Fauts I was going to buy on this trip. And also whether I was going to be able to connect to the internet using the hotel's WiFi with my new Acer Aspire One netbook. But shhhhhh! Don't tell Man Yung!
** And Air Canada compensated us with one night's hotel (actually, more like four hours) and a coupon for $75.00 off our next flight. We were off on another flight the following morning - but we missed a whole day of our trip because of the delay.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Two "new" tango places in Toronto
We've had some pretty glorious sunshine over the past week here in Toronto - although the temperatures are still bizarre, ranging from a frosty 6 degrees centigrade on Monday to balmy almost 30 degrees today. In any case, it's time to emerge from hibernation, and try out some tango places we haven't gone to yet in Toronto!
Last Sunday we checked out the Milonga San Telmo at Elizabeth Sadowska's new studio at Dundas Street West and Runnymede (3352 Dundas Street West). We often went to Elizabeth's Sunday milonga back when it was at her old studio at Dundas Street West and Keele (a few blocks to the east of her new location), but this was the first time we've gone to her new studio since she moved a few months ago.
Her new location is lovely. Lots of parking - and a beautifully renovated space with lots of light for her new studio. The studio floor is silky smooth hardwood and wonderful to dance on - one of the best dance floors in Toronto. You can't get tired dancing on floor like this.
We also enjoyed Elizabeth's music very much - honestly speaking, we think that Elizabeth's regular DJs (herself and DJ Vlad) have much better music than her recent guest DJ's ! But that's just our opinion.
Elizabeth is also the organizer of the annual Toronto Tango Festival, coming soon on June 11, 2009. If you want more details (and to see photos of her new studio) here's the website: http://www.rhythmandmotion.ca/
On Wednesday night, we checked out a new milonga held by John and Pam Needham, in Toronto's west end - WE Tango. It's held at the Swansea Town Hall located at 95 Lavinia Avenue in the former village of Swansea, not too far from High Park, and the remarkable thing about the location is that the area does really have a quaint English village feel:
We got a great parking spot right in front on the street - a residential street with houses that don't look like they have been pre-fabricated for mass suburban consumption. It's an area with personality - a big change to what we are used to in the suburbs of North Toronto.
Even though the milonga only runs from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., it's a nice place to tango on a quiet Wednesday night. John and Pam are friendly and gracious hosts, and there was a good crowd going on with still plenty of space to dance. We had a very enjoyable evening.
Last Sunday we checked out the Milonga San Telmo at Elizabeth Sadowska's new studio at Dundas Street West and Runnymede (3352 Dundas Street West). We often went to Elizabeth's Sunday milonga back when it was at her old studio at Dundas Street West and Keele (a few blocks to the east of her new location), but this was the first time we've gone to her new studio since she moved a few months ago.
Her new location is lovely. Lots of parking - and a beautifully renovated space with lots of light for her new studio. The studio floor is silky smooth hardwood and wonderful to dance on - one of the best dance floors in Toronto. You can't get tired dancing on floor like this.
We also enjoyed Elizabeth's music very much - honestly speaking, we think that Elizabeth's regular DJs (herself and DJ Vlad) have much better music than her recent guest DJ's ! But that's just our opinion.
Elizabeth is also the organizer of the annual Toronto Tango Festival, coming soon on June 11, 2009. If you want more details (and to see photos of her new studio) here's the website: http://www.rhythmandmotion.ca/
On Wednesday night, we checked out a new milonga held by John and Pam Needham, in Toronto's west end - WE Tango. It's held at the Swansea Town Hall located at 95 Lavinia Avenue in the former village of Swansea, not too far from High Park, and the remarkable thing about the location is that the area does really have a quaint English village feel:
We got a great parking spot right in front on the street - a residential street with houses that don't look like they have been pre-fabricated for mass suburban consumption. It's an area with personality - a big change to what we are used to in the suburbs of North Toronto.
Even though the milonga only runs from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., it's a nice place to tango on a quiet Wednesday night. John and Pam are friendly and gracious hosts, and there was a good crowd going on with still plenty of space to dance. We had a very enjoyable evening.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Angel Vargas - A Pan y Agua
Oh, that incredible voice! That delivery that breathes and speaks of the streets of Buenos Aires! We can't get enough of Angel Vargas - preferably singing with the orchestra of Angel D'Agostino, but we'll take later Vargas with his own orchestra just as well. We already have most of the commercially available Vargas tracks - but we'll hunt down CDs that may have just one or two tracks with Vargas that we don't already have. We can't get enough of the singing of Angel Vargas.
That's why we were so excited when we found this vintage clip on Youtube of Angel Vargas singing "A Pan y Agua":
I know it is odd that they've filmed a whole bunch of people standing and watching Angel Vargas perform and then inserted cut scenes halfway through of people dancing tango at a milonga (so, were they dancing, or watching the show, or doing one, and then immediately switching to the other in perfect synchrony?). A little weird, but still, an interesting slice of "tango life" in the 40's or whenever this clip was filmed.
But guess what? Not a single couple dancing show tango, nuevo tango, or even those so-called "Milonguero", "Villa Urquiza" or "Tango Salon" styles commonly promoted in "El Mundo de Tango" today. Frankly, all these commercial and mass-produced "styles" are getting kind of old, we need a new flavour to keep the big tango economic engine running. Maybe if we study the video hard and long enough, we can distill the essence of this tango, bottle it and sell it to the masses. Just think about it: "People actually dancing tango to enjoy themselves, and not to make a spectacle of themselves or to recruit new devotees" - the newest trend!
That's why we were so excited when we found this vintage clip on Youtube of Angel Vargas singing "A Pan y Agua":
I know it is odd that they've filmed a whole bunch of people standing and watching Angel Vargas perform and then inserted cut scenes halfway through of people dancing tango at a milonga (so, were they dancing, or watching the show, or doing one, and then immediately switching to the other in perfect synchrony?). A little weird, but still, an interesting slice of "tango life" in the 40's or whenever this clip was filmed.
But guess what? Not a single couple dancing show tango, nuevo tango, or even those so-called "Milonguero", "Villa Urquiza" or "Tango Salon" styles commonly promoted in "El Mundo de Tango" today. Frankly, all these commercial and mass-produced "styles" are getting kind of old, we need a new flavour to keep the big tango economic engine running. Maybe if we study the video hard and long enough, we can distill the essence of this tango, bottle it and sell it to the masses. Just think about it: "People actually dancing tango to enjoy themselves, and not to make a spectacle of themselves or to recruit new devotees" - the newest trend!
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