Milonga in Traverse City

Carmen:

Today we woke up in the rain. We hung out until we could make a fire and then made breakfast. Homemade tortillas on the fire and curried pinto beans. After that we drove to a picnic shelter to practice for the gig at Gallerie Medici, a beautiful art gallery and tango studio owned by painter and tango dancer Cindy Carlton.

It was great to have lots of friends and family from out of town for the gig that night and Avik from Ann Arbor joined us on bandoneon! As a quintet it was lout and biting. Check us out below!

Tango, Wine, and Music

Carmen:
Friday the 13th! Second day of the band retreat. Today we woke up to a sunny day, ate oatmeal and drank perfectly brewed loose leaf oolong made by Andy. We spent the good part of the morning playing: a new version of Felicia, Nueve de julio, Francia, Silueta portena, Andy's arrangement of Buenos Aires Hora Cero, and Oblivion, all pieces for our Mackinac Island Concert the following Sunday.

We went to Larry Mawby's for a sparkling wine tasting and ate a delicious goat cheese, avocado, arugula, tomato, red onion sandwich on the way. We ended up getting a flight at Mawby's with the best three of his sparklers: Cremant, Talismon, and Blanc de blanc.

After that we went to John and Jo Crampton's, friends of ours who own Willow Vineyards in Sutton's Bay. We ended up giving an impromptu concert in the tasting room for John and Jo and all the visitors that day. Everyone thought it was a real treat and we got some really good practice for our upcoming concert.

After we left Willow, we ate doughnut peaches that I had left sitting on the dash. There were hot from the sun. They tasted like warm peach pie! Then, we drove the back roads to get to Sleeping Bear Dunes and took a secret entrance to get up to the good views. As usual it was a strenuous hike up and a quick run down. We stopped for coffee in Glen Arbor and then listened to some awesome music in the car on the way back to camp. I was the DJ-- Assad Brothers with Najda Solerno-Sonnenberg, Dave Douglas, Andrew York, Radiohead, Stefon Harris, and Mike Stern.

A kitchen sink pasta dinner--tomato, shiitake, rainbow chard, arugula, onion, garlic sauce over rigatoni.

Beginning of the Retreat

Carmen:


Today our Tango Folias band drove up to Traverse City for a 5 day band retreat. Dean, Debbie, me, and Andy packed more stuff that we did for a month long tango tour. We drove the short two hours to Interlochen State Park, our home for the next few days, and then went to the Traverse City Co-op to buy some serious goods for our camp meals. On the way home we stopped by Left Foot Charley's, a new winery in the Traverse area that is housed in a building on the old State Asylum! A lot of the old buildings are still there, white and abandoned. Kind of a spooky place for a tasting. Good thing the wine was so good!

When we got back to our campsite (#332, a very lucky number for tango musicians) it was about to rain. We quickly gathered our instruments and slid them into the tent along with ourselves. Within a few seconds it was absolutely pouring rain. We each found a sleeping bag to prop ourselves up on and then we practiced: Derecho viejo, Felicia, La cumparsita, Nueve de julio, Silueta portena, Desde el alma, Francia, Corazon de oro, and Oblivion. All from memory! Or course since we could barely even sit with our instruments, let alone find room for the music.

About halfway through Nueve de julio Debbie and I looked at each other at the same time and burst out laughing. A simultaneous recognition of how ridiculous the scene was. Debbie was all crunched up on her rolled up sleeping bag, he head titled almost 45 degrees so that when she moved her bow it wouldn't poke through the top of the tent. Accordingly her glasses where edging closer and closer to the end of her nose. I on the other hand played piccolo because my flute wouldn't fit in the space. Kind of a funny scene playing, especially the Piazzolla tunes on piccolo with thunder crashing down every minute.

Luckily it stopped raining and we were able to get out and make a delicious dinner:

Coconut Milk Stir Fry with Vegetables and Golden Tofu











16 oz locally made tofu (from Traverse Co-op), drained and cubed
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and diced
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp crushed coriander
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1 package thick rice noodles

1. saute the cubes of tofu in olive oil, lightly salt to taste
2. Saute spices, garlic and ginger 30 seconds over high heat
3. Add pepper, stir fry 1 minute
4. Add coconut milk and heat
5. Meanwhile pour boiling water over rice noodles and let stand for 5 minutes
6. Before coconut milk mixture heats add rice noodles, then serve

The Folies - U.S Tango Tour Awards

We've had an amazing journey and we thought it would be fun to recount some of the most memorable with our "Folies" Awards. Roll out the red carpet...



Best Alternative Music: Boulder, CO (thanks Tara and Nick!)

Best Downtown Milonga: St. Paul, MN (thanks Andrea, Elias, Janeen, Florencia, and Bob!)

Best Food and Coffee: Ciao Bella, San Diego, CA (thanks Daniel and Linda!)

Best Milonga View: China Harbor in Seattle, WA (thanks Arturo!)

Biggest Dance: (100+) Tuesday night at The Turnverein, Denver, CO (thanks Ellen, Patricia, and Tango Colorado!)

Biggest Lesson: (48) Wednesday night in Salt Lake City, UT (thanks Barbara!)

Hilarious Host Award: Jenny Debouzek, Albuquerque, NM (thanks for making us laugh so hard!)

Hipp(ie)est Tango: The Tango Center in Eugene, OR (thanks Greg and Liz!)

Inspiration Award: Madison, WI (thanks Jeff, Eilleen, Steve, and Krista!)

Jammiest Tango Jam: Peter's Pub, Pittsburgh, PA (thanks Trini and Sean and all the amazing musicians!)

Maiden Voyage: Above Slims in Northside of Cincinnati, OH (thanks Virginia!)

Most Fun in the Sun: San Diego, CA (thanks Linda, Teresa, Daniel, and Linda!)

Most Unique Tango Venue: Alegria, North Ridgeville, OH (thanks Timmy and Joanne!)

Rock Star Production and Design: Boise, ID (thanks Beth-Animal and Sarah!)

Supreme Social Dancing: Tango Berretin in Portland, OR (thanks Megan, Alex, Joe, Jenna, and Amie!)

"Sweetest" Milonga Venue: Emack and Bolios (famous ice cream shop), Columbus, OH (thank you CATS!)

Wildest Conversation: El Pulpo (ask us about Pulpo's rehashing of Troilo's run-in with the cops)

Thanks again to everyone who made our tour possible!

It was a huge success. We are counting our blessings:
1. No car trouble and no accidents (1 parking ticket though :)
2. Good weather throughout, no rain outs for camping
3. 100% success rate for performances, and good turn outs all around
4. No sicknesses or injuries
5. Nothing got stolen
6. No major equipment problems
7. NO BAND DRAMA!
8. No major delays
9. We came home with money!!

Lessons learned

Andy:
1. Do not drink two glasses of wine right before bed when the drive you have the next day is longer than you have to sleep
2. Use equipment that you know how to use
3. Plug the DJ laptop into house sound equipment (so that the other equipment can be picked up before 1:00am!)
4. Take a day off
5. Mahler rocks
6. Do more jams next time
7. Edit guitar parts with fingerings before the tour
8. Skip the opportunity to eat greasy Mexican food at 1:00am
9. Next time, bring an extension cord

Carmen:
1. Pack light
2. Learn to wash clothes in other people's bath tubs
3. You can't control the waves but you can learn to surf
4. Following in tango is an elusive art
5. Practice music before recreational activities or it won't happen
6. Eat well (don't forget lots of dried cherries)
7. A written agreement is very helpful
8. Every place is more or less struggling with the same problems
9. Don't leave my stuff in people's showers
10. Its only about the people
11. Putting this tour together was like having a baby, it was easy to conceive, but it took 9 months to put together
12. Camping is the way to go
13. McDonalds, I'm NOT lovin' it
14. Everything is better with olive oil

Avik:
1. Practice every performance day even if it is only for 5 minutes
2. Tell friends I know in different cities about the tour beforehand
3. Next time spend more time in each place
4. Better to digest thy belly than thy "filet of fish" (McDonalds)
5. The great outdoors are indeed great
6. Tango people are extremely generous
7. People are more similar than they are different. Especially when they share a passion for tango.

Interesting Facts

Total Tango stops: 15
Number of places that was a first time tango visit for all of us: 6

Biggest lesson turnout: 48, Salt Lake City, UT
Biggest dance turnout: 100+, Denver, CO

Number of people who graciously hosted us: 24
Number of musicians collaborated with: 22

Largest tango jam: Pittsburgh (8 others)

Tango stop with highest population: 1.2 million, San Diego, CO
Tango stop with lowest population: 94,000, Boulder, CO

Total miles traveled: 8.845 miles
Miles driven by Andy: 8,445 miles!
Number of states traversed: 20
Average gas cost: $0.12/mile
Longest single day of travel: 710 miles - North Ridgeville, OH to Lake Anita, IA
Average driving hours for the last week of the tour: 7 hours/day

Coldest: 30 degrees, Carson National Forest, Pecos Wilderness, NM
Hottest: ~100 degrees, Joshua Tree National Park

Highest Elevation: 9500ft, Carson National Forest, Pecos Wilderness, NM
Lowest Elevation: 0ft, San Diego, CA and Cape Lookout, OR

Furthest North: Seattle, WA
Furthest South: San Diego, CA
Furthest West: Cape Lookout, OR
Furthest East: Pittsburgh, PA

Number of camping nights: 7
Longest stay in one place: 3 days in Boise, ID
Number of non-caucasians in Boise: 1 (Avik)

Latest night: 3:45am in Pittsburgh with El Pulpo
Earliest morning: Seattle, 7:30am

Number of different places we stayed in 30 days: 20
Number of hotel stays: 0

Number of snakes observed: 2 (one in captivity)

Number of times we ate fast food: 6 (too many)
Number of times we ate fast food in the Midwest: 4 (3 in Ohio)

Number of times we did laundry: 8

Most expensive food: 1 tiny white truffle at $250/lb

Believe it or not, the following amounts are for all 3 of us combined...
Average amount spent on food: $42/day (watch out Rachael Ray)
Average amount spent on gas: $40/day
Average amount spent on lodging: $5/day (thanks to our gracious hosts)
Average amount spent on wine: $7/day
Average total expenses: $94/day

Food leftover: grapefruit, jar of peanut butter, bag of dried cherries, a bag of dried morels

And...
We started on June 1 with a full moon and ended on June 30 with a blue moon--the auspicious second full moon of the month.

Last Three Memorable Meals

Carmen:
After we left Seattle we had a killer six days to complete our tour. We drove from Seattle to just south of Bozeman (680miles), then the next day from Bozeman to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (444 miles) and then from St. Paul to Madison to Cincinnati (Over the week an average of 7 hours a day of driving time, mostly by Andy).

At one point Avik said that now you know what it must be like to have cabin fever, he then grabbed his computer to find a video he downloaded that is a spoof on "The Shining".

In the end it was the food that made our time bearable and broke up the monotony.

Here are the last three homemade meals we had together on the road: (Thanks to the PCC Natural Food Market in Seattle for supplying us with four days of groceries.)

Montana Car Lunch:
Cucumber Salad with Blue Cheese Tomato Sandwiches



four cucumbers
dill
olive oil
balsalmic vinegar

ciabatta

blue cheese
four roma tomatoes

Dice cucumbers, toss with 1/4 chopped dill, 2 tsps olive oil and a teaspoon of balsalmic vinegar. I kept the dill in a glass filled with water over night. The cool temperatures up in the Montana mountains kept it nice and perky.

Slice bread lengthwise and layers hunks of blue cheese and slices of tomatoes. A nice light lunch in the hot Montana sun.

Montana Campsite Dinner:
Thai Rice Noodles with Curry Coconut Milk and Golden Tofu



Thai rice noodles, enough for 3 people, soaked in hot water for five minutes then rinsed with cold water
1 can unsweetened coconut milk

3 green onions, chopped
1 inch ginger slice, diced
1 eggplant, sliced
1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms
3 jalapenos

1 tsp turmeric
1tsp cumin
1tsp corriander, ground
1 tsp, mustard seeds
3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 lb tofu, cubed and fried in olive oil

Fry tofu first and then remove to a plate.

Fry the dried spices and hot peppers in olive oil. Add vegetables and mushrooms. Cook for 10 minutes. Add water if the veggies start to stick. Add coconut milk and turmeric then the soy sauce. Bring the stew up to a boil then remove from the heat. Season with salt as needed. Add tofu on the top and eat.


North Dakota Car Lunch:

Mixed Salad Beans Topped with Guacamole and
Herbed Couscous



Herbed couscous mix ( I think we had casbah brand)

1 can organic salad bean mix (kidneys, garbanzos, and great northerns)

fresh basil, chopped
fresh dill, chopped
3 roma tomatoes, chopped

2 avocados
1 tsp salt

juice from 3/4 of a lemon (save the other 1/4 for the guacamole)

1/8 cup olive oil

Combine olive oil and and 3/4 cup lemon juice with herbs, beans, and tomatoes. Add salt to taste.

Mash very ripe avocados in a bowl. Season with lemon and salt.

At a gas station, fill a thermos with hot water from the tap on the coffee machine.

Pour about 1 1/2 cups water on over the couscous.

Before eating, spoon guacamole over the bean salad.

Fifteenth Tango Stop - Cincinnati, OH

Carmen:



We had a primo space last night for our last performance of the tour. It was a loft space above a Northside, Cincinnati restaurant and we were the first to use the space. How wonderful it is to dance on a brand new floor and be the first ones to use a sound system for the first time.

We also had a primo place to stay. Virginia Malton, our host, had us stay in her downtown Cincinnati condo that overlooked the river onto Newport, KY. She graciously gave us the whole place to stay!

It was a great way to end our tour. After a grueling 10 days, (averaging 7 hours a day of driving the last week alone) it was a relief to have an another enjoyable evening of dancing and a well received live music performance.

Notes From the Driver

Andy:


Driving across the country so far I start to think of roads and cities in a different way. The cities are kind of like a giant heart. It sucks us in and we unload the tango circus, teach, play and dance tango. Then by the next morning it spits us out (with little sleep) and we enter the vein (highway). The heart pushes us along our way through the veins as we are sucked to the next city.

So then, what are we? Our red Buick is a blood cell fueled by really old fossils, pumped out of this heart with admittance from a credit car with a giant yellow M. When we are seated in our blood cell car we, the musicians and dancers, are not really moving inside the car. We are blogging on this computer for you.

Fourteenth Tango Stop - Madison, WI

Carmen:




We got the idea for our tour last Fall 2006 when we traveled to Madison and Chicago for two weekend performances. Avik, Andrew and I had such a good time playing together at those two places, especially Madison, a place we have performed 8 times now, that we decided that we should plan a longer trip for the this summer. Avik brought the idea up, half jokingly. I ran with it. Nine months later our tour was finally set and ready to give birth to itself. (Hey, kind of like having a baby).

Last night we returned to Madison again, this time at a new downtown venue called The Brink Lounge, an upscale restaurant and bar that is connected to a complex of other restaurants and bars. The dance floor was cozy, actually it was smaller than the stage! (Don't worry we didn't let it go to our heads :)

Thanks Madison tango people for inspiring almost a year ago for our tour!!

It is now the beginning of the end. One performance in Cincinnati to go!

Thirteenth Tango Stop - St. Paul, MN

Carmen:




The milonga was at a downtown St. Paul restaurant called Matty B's, a steakhouse with a nice bar, and an "L" shaped dance floor. It was a very social evening. A lot of the folks that came hung out, chatted, ate dinner, had their drinks and then danced a few tandas. It reminded me a lot of playing in our hometown Grand Rapids gigs at the Mezze Cafe, where we have our regular milongas.

It was great to meet up with members of Mandragora, Minnesota's premier tango orchestra. Bob Barnes, the accordionist and Scott Davies, the guitarist filled us in on the dynamics of their group, their new internet CD release that is coming out, and what arrangements they have been wor
king on. We shared common sentiments/challenges about playing in a tango band: managing band personalities, monitoring (paying for!) the alcohol consumption at restaurant gigs, holding back the tendency to turn everything into an up tempo Firpo style arrangement (aka. keeping the band from rushing!), finding the time to produce good arrangements.

Thanks to Andrea Ducane who made our performance possible. It was great to meet all of the Minnesota tango folks.

Twelfth Tango Stop - Seattle, WA

Carmen:




What a gorgeous setting, a restaurant ballroom on the harbor with a view of the city. "It actually gets more beautiful as the sun goes down because the city lights illuminate through the windows," a couple told me as I was trying to get a photo at the start of the milonga.

Arturo Newman, the milonga host and our contact person for the gig told me he likes China Harbor (a Chinese restaurant in downtown Seattle) for his milonga because it is a lot like a Buenos Aires venue, a bit dingy and a funky sound system. However, he dresses it up with table cloths and candle light so that as the evening unfolds the atmosphere is just right for social dancing.

In the end it is the people that make the event. We had a really nice time; good dancing, good energy, it made our work easy!

Eleventh Tango Stop - Eugene, OR

Carmen:




The Tango Center in Eugene Oregon is one of the few places in the country to have their own building devoted entirely to tango. The building is located right downtown and according to Greg Bryant, the caretaker and founder of the Tango Center, it is rare for tango to be seen so often in one place by the general public. Most places to tango around the country are found through knowing someone with inside information or from accessing a website or a paper that gives information about a space that is being rented for a tango event. It is no surprise that Greg can make it work, Eugene holds the largest cooperative festival in the country and has been addressing progressive social services such as offering community health insurance since the mid-60s. Eugene also has a thriving market and street vendor scene. It reminds me Madison, WI, in some ways (a town close to home) although in Eugene it is legal for women to be topless in public, and outside of Eugene there is a festival out in the mountains that involves a naked tango dance! (I am not sure if I want to go there....and I guess it is too damn cold in Wisconsin for such happenings).

According to Greg, there have been some recent struggles in downtown Eugene involving developers who want to tear down parts of downtown Eugene to rebuild a bigger and better town! Hmmmm, destroy people's homes and places of work to build new stuff. Sounds like the developers really have the well being of Eugene residents in their best interests. Urban development (or "sprawl" according to some) is not as clear cut as it may seem (no pun intended).

The good thing is that the Tango Center is still around, and even better is that since we were there the last time there are new dancers and more musicians including two tango bands :)

The Mahler Cycle

Avik:




As we drove from Seattle to Bozeman, we heard the last notes from Mahler's Ninth and final completed Symphony (he started a tenth but died before finishing it). This marked the end of our cross-country Mahler cycle.

Consider for a moment that Mahler completed his First Symphony in 1886 and his Ninth in 1911. Imagine what the world must have been like without blogs, email, automobiles, and airplanes. Nature probably played a larger role in everyone's lives. It has been documented that nature, in particular the forests and mountains outside Vienna, played a great role in inspiring Mahler's music. In fact, many of the works were written in the composer's cabin in the Alps. Mahler references nature a great deal in his music, from birdcalls in his first symphony to the dying hearbeats in his last.

In high school and college, I listened to a lot of Mahler but rarely in settings outdoors. To hear all of Mahler's works while seeing some of the landscapes that might have inspired him was a unique and enlightening experience. Here is a sample of some of the landscapes which served as our Mahler backdrop:



Mahler 1: North Ridgeville, OH to Lake Anita State Park, IA



Mahler 2: Lake Anita State Park, IA to Denver, CO



Mahler 3: Denver, CO to Taos, NM



Mahler 4: Taos, NM to Albuquerque, NM



Mahler 5: Albuquerque, NM to Joshua Tree National Park, CA



Mahler 6: San Diego, CA to Zion National Park, UT




Mahler 7: Zion National Park to Salt Lake City, UT



Mahler 8: Boise, ID to Portland, OR



Mahler 9: Seattle, WA to Bozeman, MT




Of course, Mahler is not alone in taking inspiration from nature. Many modern day composers, such as Messian, take to the woods to write their works (as do authors, academics, and others). Later this summer, Carmen and Andrew will be spending two weeks as artists in resident on secluded Isle Royale thinking about, writing, and performing music.

Food, Wine, and Waves in the Northwest

Carmen:



We had an excellent day of rest in between Eugene and Seattle. We spent the day tasting wine, shopping for food, and playing around on the Oregon coast. Before we left Eugene we went to a wonderful natural grocery store called Sundance Natural Foods. Amazing produce and even more amazing bulk section. I could probably get away with no packaging waste if I bought all of my food and toiletries from this store.

The best find were the fresh Oregon white truffles! Oregon is known around the country for its fabulous mushrooms anyway. in addition to one very small white truffle (about the size of my thumb nail, only $3.50) we bought the most beautiful blue tinged oyster mushrooms, and a half a dozen white trumpet mushrooms. We ended up making truffled mashed Yukons for dinner (mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!! Anyone who know me, knows that I am the queen of yummy noises:)

After shopping, we stopped at two different vineyards outside of Salem, Bethel Heights and Stangeland, two places that specialize in Pinot Noir, which is of course what we ended up buying. The most interesting thing about Bethel Heights is that they have different blocks of their vineyards that are sectioned off individually so that different bottlings can be made. So, the block of Pinot Noir that is up on the hill ends of tasting completely different from the block that is down next to the road. We ended up buying "Southeast Block" which is was the vineyard with the lowest elevation. We thought it was the spiciest tasting, probably because it gets the most sun.



Stangeland (NOT STRANGEland) was completely different than Bethel Heights. Their Pinots were crazy and wild!

The Enlightened Northwest

Avik:

Of all the places we've visited, I like the Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana) the best. The landscape is lush with greenery, mountains, valleys, lakes, and rivers. The climate is mild year-round though it probably rains a bit more than I would like. By comparison, the Southwest (New Mexico, Nevada, Utah) has the beautiful terrain but lacks the greenery (at least in areas that aren't human irrigated). The Midwest (Michigan, Ohio, Iowa) has water and greens but lacks the interesting terrain. Plus it gets really friggin' cold in the winter!

Another great thing about the Northwest is the kind of people it attracts. At least when viewed from afar, people somehow seem enlightened. On our way from Eugene to Cape Lookout (Oregon), we stopped at a rest area to eat lunch. Halfway through, we saw a bicyclist with about 75 pounds of gear strapped to the front and back wheels of his bike. He came over to us and said that he had not talked to anyone in a couple days and asked if he could share our picnic table to eat lunch. We offered him some of our tuna and wine and he did the same with his food. His name was H.W. (yes, initials only) and he was biking from Seattle to Portland to meet up with his friends to go on a sustainability tour of the northwest where they would learn about sustainable food and housing development practices. It was really inspiring to meet a young college aged guy like this who was doing his small part to make the world a better place.

Another interesting person we met was Sarah, a teacher in the Boise tango scene. Over pizzas and wine, she was telling us about how she studied dance at the University of Oregon in Eugene and then ended up falling in love with mountain climbing. Her mountain climbing experience led her to become a frontline forest fire fighter, a job which required her to stay in the forest for an extended amount of time and make sure that any fires are contained. Mountain climbing also led her on a trip to Mendoza, Argentina where she was first introduced to Argentine Tango and the rest of the story you can all fill in. So now she lives in Boise making a living as a Yoga teacher (did i mention that?) and teaching Tango as well.

Sarah, I think, epitomizes the Bohemian spirit that I admire in my tango friends. She works at her crafts with intensity, whether it be mountain climbing, yoga, tango, or other dances. Though she realizes that she is taking the road less traveled (and probably the road less financially stable), she continues down it since her passion for her endeavours trumps the comforts of a more conventional lifestyle.

Tenth Tango Stop - Portland, OR and Building the Tango Forest Quiz

Carmen:

Portland is one the places notorious in United States for tango dancing ("the creme-de-la-creme of tango dancing"). It was no surprise that our experience there was really great in terms of dancing, the crowds reception to our music, and to the social interactions we had with people at the milonga.



Megan Pingree, our host and contact for Portland, is one of the two people left who was part of the first Argentine tango classes in Portland started by Clay Nelson way back in 1993. We ended up chatting with her after an already late night (and soon to be very early morning) at her home after the milonga.



Megan talked about the way tango dancers in Portland work together, and how even some of the more difficult conflicts within the community have been repaired. It got me thinking about all of the stories we have heard on the trip from the organizers we have stayed with. For each place we have visited, we usually got the low down on all of the major conflicts within the first 15 minutes of sitting down to talk with the organizers, as if they needed to release the pressure that had built within their community. "ITS JUST A DANCE!!" one organizer commented in mid-stride of her story.

On the deepest level, tango community conflicts are almost all about struggles for power, popularity, or just plain monetary needs. However, on the surface I saw the conflicts manifested through some issues specific to tango: alternative music versus traditional music, open embrace versus close embrace, social dance style versus performance dance style, and interestingly for us, live music versus recorded music.

The healthiest communities can negotiate all of the these things, accommodating to many teachers, and opening up the possibilities for working together through many different approaches.

People can get really wrapped up into tango and with its conflicts. I think it is safe to say that the state of the friendships made through tango can dramatically affect the well being of a person and the feelings they have about a place. How many people have I heard ask when they are considering moving to a new town, "but do they have tango?" or as one dancer in Seattle asked me, "yeah, I am moving to Boise next month, what is the tango scene like?" ( I have also talked to many people who have flown all the way across the country to seek our a dance with a particular person that the only relationship they had to was from dancing tango. That is another story altogether. There are a lot of crazy tango dancers out there. Not me of course :)

Back to the community idea and conflict resolution....

Lets say that a tango community is like a forest (an appropriate image for the northwest!). The reality is that each tree (person/tango dancer) is struggling for light and nutrients so that they can grow taller, in dancer terms struggling to get better at dancing as well as for gaining acceptance within the social network of a tango community. Power struggles don't have to be violent, they are a fact of life. Very few people dance tango without some kind of struggle for knowledge, power, acceptance or inner peace, otherwise why would they do it?

Within the struggle for life a physical forest is made beautiful mostly through time: sunlight, water, growth and decay which over time makes for ecological diversity. Can't we all just get along?

I decided to make a little quiz for all of us tango fanatics and organizers out there to test how well we are contributing to our town's tango forest.

BUILDING THE TANGO FOREST QUIZ ( Inspired by Tango in Portland)

Do you cross promote events for the other tango teachers in your town?

1 pt distribute flyers promotion
1 pts email promotion
1 pts website promotion
2 pts regularly announcing someone else's event verbally at your own event

Have you ever personally invited someone to dance at your events that you know has bad talked you?

1 pt

Have you ever made your space available to other tango teachers at a substantially reduced rate?

1 pt

Have you ever encouraged a guest artist to perform with one of the local teachers?

1 pt

Have you ever set up a meeting or been a part of a meeting between all the teachers in one town to layout tango events so that they don't conflict with each other?

1 pt

Have you ever coordinated with the other tango teachers in your town to make sure there in about a 3 week gap in between guest artist visits or festivals?

1 pt

In the last 6 months have you refrained from participating in negative tango gossip or encouraged a group of people who were bad mouthing someone else to stop?

1 pt for each time

Have you ever invited another teacher to come to your class and sit in for free to just help out in the class?

1 pt

Have you ever (had the guts!) to speak to someone face to face (email doesn't count) in a diplomatic and respectful way about something you thought he or she was doing that was inappropriate at your event?

2 pts


SOME OF THE TANGO CLEAR CUTTING PRACTICES:

Have you ever closed your practica to everyone except those that were your students?

-2 pts

Have you ever intentionally scheduled an event that coincided with someone you didn't like or didn't agree with?

-2 pts

Have you ever unintentionally scheduled an event that coincided with another tango event in your town?

-1 pt

Have you ever intimidated or verbally confronted someone in an aggressive way because you don't agree with or don't like them with the hopes of them not returning to your events?

-1 pt

Have you ever grouped together with people to try an deny someone from attending your tango event?

-1 pt

Have you ever physically assaulted someone (I have heard about this!!!) at a tango dance over a petty conflict?

-5

TANGO FOREST RATINGS

14 to 10 You are on your way to growing an old growth forest (Lots of vegetation, tall trees, beautiful views)

9 to 5 The forest is growing, watch your logging practices (Soil and vegetation healthy but be open to better ways to manage the health of your inhabitants)

4 to 0 Forest in danger, your might be clear cutting or need to plant more seeds (Patches of the forest gone from poor long term planning)

-1 to -5 Clear cut, only a few trees hold it together (Tango community blinders on)

-5 to -12 Total erosion, there used to be (or could be) a tango forest here :( (Unbridled egotism, self-centeredness, greed)

Total:


How are your tango forest growing skills? Just something to think about.

My score for the community that Andrew and I started in Grand Rapids, MI two years ago: 4

(whew! I have got some growing to do)

Ninth Tango Stop - Boise, ID

Carmen:

Tango started in Boise (my hometown) about one year ago with thanks to Beth-Anne Osborn who single handedly wielded that tango community together from what she calls tango "poaching" (a term definitely appropriate in Idaho) that refers to going to other dance events, especially ballroom events and unabashedly convincing dancers to try Argentine tango classes.



I think it might it worked. 80 people showed up for the event! and the energy was great!!

Andy:
Dance on Broadway in Boise
or
Spoon Rhythm

There we were to tango
Posters with fishnet stockings, candle-sticks, Eminem, a queen size bed, microphones hidden inside black rimmed glasses, and an enthusiastic crowd of pink and green colored wrist band dancers.
Green was for the new-bees, pink was for the enlightened.
Beer, wine, and vodka was served, but no empanada was to be found :(
It was our first time playing together in a week but after a few songs our synchronicity was back.
Marcattos and syncopas right in time
as if two friends were sitting together on a picnic table in Joshua Tree eating a curry stew and as they each finished they set their spoons down at the same time.

So, if you want your music to be tight first try and finish your meals at exactly the same time without plan.

Later on, the bed was moved to center stage and the champagne was un-corked.
Ganchos and boleos flew, some timely, some not.
All as our lady reappeared transformed into a real rock star before we said farewell and good night.

Reunited

Avik:
After our gig in Salt Lake City, Debbie and I both returned to Michigan--Debbie (sadly) for the rest of the tour, and I for a weekend academic conference in Ann Arbor. The conference, which focused on a model of human behavior and motivations known as the Reasonable Person Model, was both educational and inspiring. The weekend in general was restful, but I must say that I was looking forward to getting on the plane to Boise to reunite with Carmen and Andrew. Which I finally did on Tuesday afternoon. Of course, I was envious when I heard they had been up to...

Carmen:
We spent the weekend with Mom and Dad Maret hiking, camping, and "shrooming" in the Sawtooth Mountains in central Idaho. We hiked and camped around Red Fish Lake, a body of water surrounded by steep snow covered granite mountains that spike up and out of a meadowed landscape. Red Fish Lake got its name from the thousands of sockeye salmon that used to travel to the ocean and back to spawn via the Salmon, Snake, and Columbia rivers. When sockeye spawn their backs turn bright red. According to my water biologist father, only five sockeye returned to Red Fish Lake last year, mostly due to the 14 dams that young fish must travel through on their way to the ocean and back.



On Sunday we went morel mushroom hunting in the burn areas north of Stanley, Idaho. We ended up picking about 15 lbs. of morels!! We have cooked everything from morel omlets, to fire roasted morels on the camp fire to morel pizza, and topped it off with a lasagne for Avik on his arrival back in Boise.



We are on our way tomorrow to Portland via the Columbia Gorge.

Eighth Tango Stop - Salt Lake City, UT

Carmen:
It was dry, sunny, and hot when we arrive at Barbara Zakarian's house, a fellow tango dancer who lives a few blocks from the Mormon Temple in downtown Salt Lake city. She had a wonderful house for dancing and rehearsing, and we were treated to a delicious home cooked meal made by Barbara before we drove out to the milonga which was in a south suburb of Salt Lake City called Murray. Luckily for us, Barbara's son was going on a "vegan for a week" diet, so she treated us to a chick pea vegetable curry stew with couscous.



The milonga was at the Murray Dance Studio a two-sided dance center that we ended up sharing with a group of ballet dancers. (It was fun to see the chemistry when ballet dancers interact with tango dancers.) Salt Lake City was our first city on the tour where none of us had been before, so it was great to see so many people show up for the lesson, about 30 people, and for the milonga, about 50 people. Although tango has been going in Salt Lake about 10 years, there were many people new to tango, and it was great that we could be a part of so many people's first time dancing.



Barbara Zakarian's Saffron Curried Chick Pea Stew with Veggies

Julienne the following:
2 sweet potatoes
2 turnips
4 carrots
2 zucchini

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
Saffron threads
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder
1 lemon halved and then quartered

1 can tomato juice
2 cans of chick peas

Saute turmeric and cumin seeds in olive oil, add onions, saute for 3 minutes, then add vegetables and saute for 5 minutes more. Add tomato sauce and cook for 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft but not mushy. Add chick peas and saffron threads. Season with salt to taste and serve with lemon wedges.

Serve over couscous.