Fausta's Blog

I’m not alone on this,
Get a Life? No Thanks. Just Pass the Remote. (h/t D.)

ALL I want to do is watch “Breaking Bad.”

For weeks I’ve been clicking on Netflix and waiting for a new episode to show up on my flat screen, sitting alone on the couch in a darkened room night after night. I confine myself to a single episode at a time; it’s too draining to watch more. Too much adrenaline, too much bloodshed, too much heartbreak, too much darkness. But I can’t wait to see it either. Ten minutes before the end of an episode I’m already feeling let down: soon, too soon, it will be over, and I’ll have to do something else with my life.

And now the moment I’ve long feared has arrived: I’ve just finished the last episode, No. 13, of Season 4. (The numbers seem biblical: 13.4.) I missed the first half of Season 5, and the second half — another eight episodes — won’t be shown until August.

Go ahead, you know you want to!

You can watch it right now.

to celebrate Mother’s Day, Emory Tango Ensemble and Tango Orchestra Club Atlanta, directed by Kristin Wendland (March 30, 2012, Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts), performing Desde el alma, a vals with the theme of a mother’s love,

The story of Desde el alma,

by Alberto Paz
Rosita Melo was born in Uruguay in 1897 but she lived in Argentina since age 2. She wrote the music for Desde El Alma, a Boston-style vals, at age 14 in 1911. In 1922 she married poet Victor Piuma Velez who wrote the first set of lyrics for Desde El Alma. It was a theme dedicated to the love of a mother. In 1948, Homero Manzi called to tell them that he was interested in including the song in his movie Pobre mi madre querida [My Poor Beloved Mother], but with different lyrics as demanded by the movie script. This would not affect the copyright ownership of the song. Piuma Velez and Rosita Melo opposed the idea, and requested that if Manzi wrote new lyrics, Piuma Velez’s name should be included as co-author. Manzi agreed, the lyrics became famous and the vals, already a classic became universally famous.

The Boston-vals is a style originated in the city of that name in the United States. It is associated with the piano and its characteristic is that the player does not mark the rhythm with the left hand as it is customary with that instrument. The rhythm is marked witht he right hand along with the melody. The left hand only marks the first note of the beat, the bass.

A reader emailed asking how come I’m not doing weekly posts on Mad Men as I did during the prior seasons.

The answer is simple: I’m just not interested in the characters anymore.

• Don’s back to his drinking and womanizing,
• Roger’s rambling (long gone are the days when he had the best lines) and oddness is bringing him close to the doddering fool edge,
• Betty’s just another fat bored housewife waiting for Oprah to start broadcasting about weight loss, having lost all her elegance along with her natural blonde haircolor,
• Peggy’s living with Frank Zappa’s little brother,
• and, aside from a weirdo that turned up for a few moments, the agency doesn’t have any interesting clients.

At least Pete Campbell has his moments. Here’s an interview with Vince kartheiser.

The women’s clothes have gone, as they did then, from Dior-inspired to Mod, but not that well. For instance, adding upholstery beads and red sleeves to Megan’s gown made it ugly, not “of the upmost high style couture.”

Pairing it with your grandma’s 1950s mink stole doesn’t go with Megan’s character. Bill Blass and a mink jacket would have been a better choice. Better yet,
Megan’s coloring and build would look best in clothes inspired by Anouk Aimée (seen in 1965 in this photo, or in 1963), but then we’re talking real couture.

Let’s hope Megan finds Halston before the next formal event.

Back to the Mad Men, I’ve gone from underwhelmed to bored, and now have the show on if I remember, mostly while doing other things (such as making to-do lists). The WSJ still has their Speakeasy, and even their panelists are not posting right away.

Maybe if they brought back Sal and Conrad Hilton…

UPDATE:
Linked by Dustbury. Thank you!

Monica Paz interviews the fabulous milonguero Flaco Dany. For English captions, click on “CC”

The 20-lb. swag bag

The celebrities: Psy and Barbra Streisand are the latest additions to the list of stars attending D.C.’s “nerd prom” as guests of the media.

The triumph of fluff over substance.

Up to now, performers had the Oscars, the Grammys, the Tonys.

The White House Correspondents now have theirs: The Swaggies: all the swag & swagger they can fit under one roof in one night.

But! But!
Leave The White House Whorespondents’ Dinner And Integrity Yard Sale Alone!

Overlooked in this week’s news, Colombian Fonseca played live at Times Square, with flash mob dancing last Thursday, April 18,

Fonseca and the dancers are celebrating the positive changes in Colombia, according to a press release from the Comité Colombiano.

Fonseca’s currently on a tour of of 16 cities in the USA. The tour dates are listed at Fonseca.net and you can follow him on Twitter @Fonseca

Jaime Bayly interviewed the Grammy winner recently (in Spanish),

As the regime brings on more repression, Drudge juxtaposes:

My friend Ximena’s Interview with Gustavo Santaolalla of Bajofondo

And their video, below the fold since it’s not quite suitable for work,
(more…)

First the blogging,

What Can Argentine Tango Teach You About Brilliant Blogging?

And baby’s first tango (via Silvio), Georgina, Oscar & Nicolas Mandagaran dancing to Poema