Inzucare Orchestra

1. Whale watching in Patagonia
They say you never forget the first time you see a whale and I cannot disagree. As a southern right surfaced on the rosy dawn horizon in May, my spectacles fell off and in fact I saw nothing of these 17-metre-long cetaceans. A boat trip from Puerto Pirámides in Chubut province rectified this and to be within spitting distance of several pods at the start of the whale-watching season was breathtaking.

2. Radiohead live
The British rock band caused a huge stir when tickets for their March gig went on sale. Thom Yorke’s band were long-awaited in BA and they did not disappoint one millimetre. His heart-wrenching vocals were beyond perfection, and tracks came from most of their seven albums, including In Rainbows (2008). Icing on the cake was Creep, one the band says they no longer play live — so powerful and fulfilling it satisfied the most die-hard fan.

3. McFly interview
Good sports of the year go to McFly. In an interview with the British pop heartthrobs, they handled a taxing Argentina quiz perfectly, even if they barely knew any of the answers. Despite their youth (between 21 and 23), they are old hands at the pop game and their Trastienda gig was beyond perfect. Knocking out all the hits, the night was enhanced by easy access to the bar for the three over 18s in the crowd (me and two mates).

4. Inzucare Orchestra (photo)
With a penchant for the unusual, I finally tracked the 10-piece swing band down at the Avellaneda Jazz Festival. Nothing like men in suits expertly wielding brass instruments and bongos to put a glossy shine on an average evening, plus more people should check out Teatro Roma for a return to the olden days of glamour.

5. Oasis didn’t live forever
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. You could cut the tension with a knife between the Gallagher brothers on stage at River Plate stadium in May.The lacklustre 75-minute set showed a complete disregard for their fans plus singer Liam kept vanishing. So dry, it’s a wonder how they ever came up with the band name. Disappointed and letdown, there’s no maybe about buying inevitable reunion tickets: I definitely won’t be.

Mary Jo Diehl in action

Although most style-concious countries have their own version of Next Top Model and the designer-and-model TV show Project Runway is in its sixth season, fashion has been taken to a brand new level — giving talented fledgling designers and artists an opportunity to shine — with their creations coming together in front of an audience in a mere five minutes.

Brainchild of wife-and-husband team Mary Jo Diehl and Roman Milisic from design studio House of Diehl, Style Wars brings fashion, music, art and design all together, live, in one city for one night.

Originating in New York City, the battle between eight designers who create haute couture from second-hand clothes and recycled material in under five minutes has wound its way to London, Johannesburg and Hong Kong and touches down in BA for its runway debut this evening.

In an exclusive interview with the Herald, Croatia-born Roman says: “Style Wars started with a few people in their bedrooms, but it grew really fast from 40 people to 3,000 within six months. So we decided to take it to five continents, but only do one show in each — the smallest of world tours.”

Buenos Aires is the South American city of choice, as the design duo were put in touch with Argentine DJ Ale Lacroix and his business partner Julia Gersberg from Zuma Production Boutique via a mutual French friend who works with House of Diehl. Former MTV VJ Ale, who hosts the design-off tonight, says: “It was love at first sight. We fell for Style Wars six months ago and we wanted to make it happen. And now it’s happening today!”

Explaining the concept further, Brooklyn-born Mary Jo says: “It’s about what’s out there right now. It can be politics or product, you can be part of the solution or part of the problem. We came to this idea solving problems and creating opportunities for designers and audiences so they can connect. There are so many cool and creative people that it doesn’t matter whether you’re from Brooklyn or Buenos Aires — great talent deserves a great opportunity and that’s what Style Wars is about.”

With the current economic environment, it’s a complex time for any business start-up, least of all in fashion, yet Style Wars ticks the box of getting fresh talent recognised. “So what if you’re not Galliano?” says Mary Jo. “But if you have that genius, shouldn’t you get that spotlighted? That’s why we did this, to create opportunities.”

The design-off, a knock-out competition between the selected eight, also ticks the environmental box. “We’ve been working with recycled clothes and green products before, so that makes Style Wars accessible to everybody. We were a bit jaded with the New York scene and wanted to create a super-cool, fun experience for an audience too,”she adds.

The eight — Titi de Incendisenios, Tranqui Yanqui, Hernan Jackie Ludueña, Soledad Limido, Nicole Segal, Magali Fischtein, Poeta Team – Street Artist and Kinda killer & Wuacha — were among hundreds who applied to House of Diehl and were selected two days ago.

Roman admits he never leaves home without a pair of scissors, so let’s hope the new designers on the block take advice from the king of cuts when it’s crunch time tonight.

Where & When: Crobar, Av. Infanta Isabel & Av. Marcelino Freyre. From midnight. For tickets, email tickets@zumaboutique.com

Practise your Spanish or English at one of the daily Spanglish meetings; a free beer included

Eighteen-year-old Jim is in Argentina for a few weeks with his older sister Carla. Staying in Belgrano for a few weeks before he starts university in the US, the siblings really want to practise their Spanish – which they both learned in high school – but they don’t know how to go about meeting native speakers in such a short time frame.

This is where Spanglish comes in. The language exchange conversation group attracts up to 50 English and Spanish native speakers in an evening, giving those keen to practise their language skills the opportunity to meet people in a safe and organised environment.

Spanglish’s founder Maya May moved to Argentina four years ago from the US, and knows how hard it can be make new friends. She wanted to expand her own circle and began holding a weekly conversation group from her San Telmo home in January. Six months later, Spanglish now takes place four times a week and is as popular with foreigners waltzing into town for a few days as it is with those living here on a more permanent basis.

What makes Spanglish stand out from other conversation groups is that you talk for five minutes in each language and then meet a different person, which adds a speed dating angle to it.

“It can be lonely in a big city like Buenos Aires so it’s all about making friends and practising your language skills. Members will often go out for dinner once the meeting ends, which is brilliant,” says Maya. “The idea is about inclusion, so although it may seem like a way for people to hook up, that really isn’t what I’m aiming for.”

Armed with perfect English and good Spanish, I floated among the twos and threes at one of last week’s Palermo meetings. It was relaxed, everyone wanted to chat and if conversation does get a little sticky, handouts are available on each table with ideas to pick up the thread again. A beer is included in the price to help relax those mouth muscles and take an edge off any nerves, but most people seemed to do just fine without depending on alcohol.

It was a genuine mixed bag of characters: I met a German sent by his firm to work here, an Argentine studying for a degree in hospitality and an Indian in town for a few days. With the rise and rise of internet-based friends’ sites such as Facebook and MySpace, it was a welcome return to the world of meeting living, breathing people, face to face, while brushing up on your Spanglish skills.

Photo by Meredith Keffer

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Left, Larratt-Smith and Sokolowski discuss Warhol at the Malba.

Curated by the Canadian Philip Larratt-Smith, Thursday’s pre-launch offered up a dialogue between Larratt-Smith and Tom Sokolowski, director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Larratt-Smith chose the title Andy Warhol, Mr. America for various reasons, including, he said, “to show how Warhol is looking at (North) America from the inside, and here in Argentina you are looking at it from the outside.”

In their discussion about the gay painter who avidly followed the “American Dream” but was a marginal figure due to his Slovakian roots, social class and physical appearance, Sokolowski added in the talk: “Warhol had so many strikes against him that he had to go all the way and be a success. He was committed to self-transformation, and what is more (North) American than self-reinvention?”

Talking to the Herald, Sokolowski said all the works, which have shown in Bogotá and will tour San Pablo, have come from the Pittsburgh museum, and it took three years to arrange this exhibition with the Malba. Those classic images of the multitude of Marilyn Monroes and the Campbell’s soup cans are included, and the latter, said Sokolowski, deals with the reality of what normal working-class people are proud of and eat — images of the dark side of the US — as well as some Polaroid snapshots.

Sokolowski, who first met Warhol in 1971 as a student, said of the painter’s use of photography: “He liked the earliest Polaroid camera because it was aimed at dumb people, because it was just ‘point and shoot’. As he said, ‘I’m not a photographer’ and he wasn’t interested in the more sophisticated cameras. He took people to trains stations to those photo booth machines but he never intended to show all these like this, as they were used as sources for his portraits.”

The museum director knew Warhol for around 20 years although, he added, not as a friend. “We met when I went to study in New York, and we’d chat and gossip for 10 minutes — he loved to gossip — but then he’d be away, because we think he had Asperger syndrome. It means being brilliantly focused on one thing, which was his art, but if someone asked a simple question such as ‘what do you think of your mother?’, he just couldn’t deal with it. He wouldn’t look you in the eye when you talked to him, but he was a very interesting character.”

The art exhibition is taking up two floors while the Malba is also hosting a cinema cycle dedicated to Warhol’s films including Lonesome Cowboys, Outer and Inner Space and Blow Job. No need to rush down though: Andy Warhol, Mr. America is on until February 2010.

Where & when: Andy Warhol, Mr America is on until February 22, 2010 at the Malba, Figueroa Alcorta 3415. Open Thursdays to Mondays from midday to 9pm. Open Wednesdays until 9pm. Shut Tuesdays. Guest curator: Philip Larratt-Smith. Admission $15, Wednesdays $5.

Photo by Mariano Fuchila.

Maya and Withers at the Anuva wine tasting in Las Cañitas

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