New York, New York

Sometimes I think I'm living with my head in the sand. How else could I have missed that Thom York, of Radiohead fame, has released a solo album called "The Eraser". I heard it in a trendy Buenos Aires restaurant tonight and it's amazing, with more of the electronic sound Kid A had. If you're a Radiohead fan go and buy this now.

Speaking of new, we found a new apartment today. It's just around the corner from where we're staying now in Recoleta and is on the 20th floor, needless to say it's quite a view. Apparently you can see the lights of Uruguay from the balcony, which ain't too shabby.

I Want My MTV... And They Want Me Too!

It’s been a while since a blog update, but things have been pretty good here in Buenos Aires. Since the last update Aura and I have gotten a pet hamster called Motas (or “Motas!” as I like to call him), I’ve started working on a new version of Elevation (in C++ using the PopCap framework and which is the subject of a future post called “I Love You, I Hate You”), I’d done a lot of thinking and talking about the opportunity I mentioned in the last post and it’s looking more interesting everyday and today Aura, Ximena and I did castings for a show on Latin MTV.

It was another episode of my misadventures with Spanish and while I knew the show was searching for Argentina’s hottest dancer it turns out that by “hot” they meant “HOT” and when I thought Isabella from MTV was saying “Remind the girls it’s just dancing, not a striptease”, she was actually saying “Remind the girls it’s a striptease.” Well, luckily we were the first people to get screened, out of 135, a process that will take six and a half weeks, so everyone was really great, friendly, patient and not bored from the whole thing. Before long I was being interviewed in front of a huge green screen in Spanish about pets, my style of dancing and my favourite country in South America, to which “Colombia” elicited gasps from everyone in the room but Aura and Ximena, who were laughing. The words, “…but I love Argentina too” seemed to fix things up but I’m thinking if I don’t make “the cut” the only possible reason it because of this. Incidentally all this occurred while wearing a silver shiny belt, a black vest, a felt hat, gaudy sunglasses and, most shockingly of all, a tucked in t-shirt. Sean Paul’s “I’m Still In Love With You – feat. Sasha” started up and before I knew it I was dancing, gyrating and losing articles of clothing at an alarming rate. I ended up shirtless, with unbuckled jeans and only resisted dropping my pants because the large “Calvin Klein” printed on them would have given me a pixilated stomach. I have to say, I found the whole experience very enjoyable and feel I now have another option if the time comes for a career change.

The show airs some time in November, so keep an eye out of MTVLatinAmerica for us!

Por Fin

I’ve been a bit lax with the blog, but I’ve been in Buenos Aires for a week now and have hard a tough time settling in, but am doing ok now. I’m staying in a great apartment in a really nice area of Buenos Aires called Recoleta, have rented a notebook computer to do so work on and even have some company. Aura and a friend of hers, Ximena, have come to Buenos Aires as well and we’re staying together which is really cool.

It’s really nice to have a place to call home, even if it is just for a month, but I’ve been having a hard time deciding what to do next. I took a LAN Chile flight from Quito to Buenos Aires, which is the same airline I used to come out here and will be taking back, and it just felt weird that I was on a plane and not going home. It’s been creeping up for a while now, but I’m completely exhausted from all the traveling… or maybe just from not being at home. I’m usually not the kind to get homesick, but I have to admit I feel bored of not being home. I’m not sure how much sense that makes, it’s not that I’m bored of being in South America in particular; I’m just bored of not being able to hangout with my friends and family.

I’ve been toying with the idea of going home at the end of the month but I’m going to see how work goes. There are a couple of things I’m playing with that are pretty exciting and a very interesting opportunity has come up that is well… very interesting.

Being tired all the time hasn’t helped with my state of mind too much either. Portenos, people that live in Buenos Aires, have a crazy life style, eating dinner at midnight and not going out until 2AM. I still haven’t figured out how the get up the next morning for work, this is a Tuesday night I’m talking about after all, but the trains and buses sure seem busy in the mornings. That said, I’m a bit of a night owl and I’m eating dinner as I write this, its 1:16AM, so I think I’m getting by ok.

Hasta proxima vez,
p.

Oh, and what’s up with all the spam comments I’ve been getting. I have to say, I just don’t get spam. I mean who actually reads or pays attention to any of that crap?