The World by Us

We’ve been working/holidaying in beautiful Buenos Aires (hence our absence over the last few weeks) and we’ve fallen in love. A love we very much expected to fall into. With the people, the language, the wine, the dancing, the colours….and especially the tiny little sweetened croissants they serve for breakfast – Seriously. We can’t get enough.

We’ve got a few things on our mind to share with you this week. But first, a little look at what the Porteños have on offer, and our recommendations for a brilliant week in BA.

Rent an apartment! Use Airbnb for a true local experience – We found a gorgeous little apartment with loads of character (and an outdoor spa bath!). Our Airbnb host was lovely and even invited us along to her tango class the night we arrived.

Visit Teatro Colón for an evening of Ballet/Opera

Indulge in las medialunas (little croissants) and other delicious pastries.

Learn to tango – Somber, seductive and quintessentially Argentinian, this dance is all about synchronising movements and connecting with your partner so bring along your lover (or find one on the night). We prefer the energy and attitude of the salsa, but when in Rome!

Take in the city’s beautiful architecture.

Pick up a bottle of Malbec and a few empanadas for a picnic in one of the city’s beautiful parks.

Despite being largely pescatarian, we couldn’t pass up a try of Argentina’s famous steak.

Drop by San Telmo’s antique markets on a Sunday.

Have a cocktail at French designer and architect Phillipe Starck’s impressive Faena Hotel.

Visit La Boca – Buenos Aires’ most colourful barrio.

Head to Palermo – BA’s trendiest suburb – for a limonada at the quaint ‘Oui Oui’.

If this guy and his impressive dance moves don’t put a smile on your face, we don’t know what will.

And finally – don’t miss the weekly party – La Bomba del Tiempo, an impressive 17-piece improvisational drum group drawing on Argentinian, Central American and African rhythms.

Ah New York…

Brilliant food, world class theatre, and the exciting possibility of being saved by oncoming traffic from Ryan Gosling. The city has so much to offer…Today, we take you on a photographic tour of the birth place of the hipster: Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Williamsburg bridge

Diner

Diner specials, written on the table for us to contemplate (we went with the Bar fish and it was delightful)

A fine afternoon beverage: Brooklyn Lager

In case of fire…

Signs of spring!

Perhaps one of our favourite finds: Maison Premiere. Absinthe cocktails, oysters galore, and just look at the place:

It is Thursday evening. 7:30pm. We  arrive at the McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, New York for British theatre company Punchdrunk‘s interpretation of Macbeth. It appears to be a converted warehouse and reminiscent of the elaborate haunted houses of my childhood. The ambience is similarly eerie. Upon entering, we discover the hotel’s curious ‘history.’ Completed in 1939 and set to be New York’s most luxurious hotel, six weeks before opening, just after the outbreak of WWII, the hotel was locked up and abandoned.

We’re advised to check our bags & coats. ‘It’s warm inside’ they assure us. “And you’ll want to be free to run around…”

Bags & coats checked, we’re given white masks (which we’re instructed not to remove), and escorted through big red curtains to the bar, complete with 1930′s jazz band, songstress and decor. We grab a drink, only to be told we’re heading off, bottom’s up, and we’re following our guide to the lifts. Lift doors open one floor up, our guide invites us forward, allows one person to walk ahead, stopping the rest of us as the lift doors promptly close…leaving one lone soul on floor 3. Here we go.

Surprisingly, the rest of us are allowed off together a few floors up. We are told we cannot talk at any time, but can return to the bar on the 2nd floor at any time we like. Then we are left to roam almost 100 rooms across 5 floors for the next 3 hours…in silence.

The further we explore, the deeper we dig, the more we surrender to curiosity, the fuller the experience: The discovery of the candy shop (and a fellow masked participant happily munching on sweets as if he owned the place) – a delightful room we return to often for a quick sugar fix. The decision to follow a frantic actress down two flights of stairs to the ballroom, rummaging through drawers, reading letters left behind, trying to piece together the story. Lingering to discover what happened when the psychiatric nurse leads a fellow audience member into a small hospital room, shuts the door behind the two of them…and screams.

This is what we came to New York for. Something we couldn’t find anywhere else (save maybe London, where we were once invited to a club in an abandoned underground railway station and were only allowed in if we donned vintage dressing gowns and animal masks.)

The most powerful moments of our adventure were a stunning slow-motion, bloody, and erotic banquet scene, and what was described by another audience member on our way out as ‘the foetus rave’ – a mind-blowing, strobe-laden, nudity-filled birth/beheading scene.

The beauty of interactive theatre is the way it challenges us to move beyond being passive recipients of entertainment and invites us to actively engage with it. We’re left to put the pieces together as we go. The intention was not for us to see and understand the full story of Macbeth. Instead, it offered us a break from the predictable and coherent, the opportunity to return to child-like exploration and adventure, part dream, part nightmare, letting our imagination determine the meaning behind the various scenes we experience. Each of us participating in the creation of art, rather than simply observing it.

If you happen to be in New York, Sleep no More is still running. Catch it while you can!

Champions of micro-finance like the Grameen Bank and KIVA have successfully excited the world (though not without criticism) about the potential of micro-credit and small business to lift the poor out of poverty. Though, Chid Liberty – founder of Liberty & Justice,  the first fair trade garment factory in Liberia – is giving women a new lease on life with a return to a more traditional form of employment.

Prior to their involvement with Liberty & Justice, some of the factory’s employees were running businesses of their own. The problem is that while small business does a wonderful job of empowering women – providing their own source of income and the freedom to work on their own terms (often with little ones strapped to their backs) - business isn’t always good. Particularly if a flood wipes out your crop or your village is caught in a civil war, leaving you without an income for months.

At Liberty & Justice, women are paid $100 a month (an above-average wage in Liberia), receive health benefits, and a bag of rice each month to feed their families. The factory also provides:

• Advanced apparel production training
• A bank account, money management training, and the opportunity to have their  savings matched in the first year
• Management & leadership training
• Strategy & entrepreneurship training for those interested in pursuing small business after their time with the factory.

With such a strong focus on building capacity, autonomy, and dignity in their employees, it’s no wonder that in the first 6 months of the Factory’s operations, 6 of the 25 female workers filed for divorce from their husbands – freeing themselves from abusive relationships or marriages which they were sold into at a young age. 

This is the kind of thing that puts a massive smile on our faces! Women with incredible strength and courage who have often been through unimaginable hardship, given the chance to take control and build a better life for themselves and their children.

What also makes us smile is that we can help them do this. Liberty & Justice sells garments to fabulous fair trade labels like PrAna and FEED Project.  So go on, treat yourself to some new yoga gear or a sweet new bag and know that your hard earned dollars are improving the lives of hard-working women across the globe.

 Images via Positive Impact Magazine

We thoroughly enjoy perusing Pictory’s monthly photo diaries so we were thrilled to come across the latest.  For us, Something to Write Home About awoke memories of the exciting freedom & discovery of travel and the pure joy of falling head over heels in love with a place….maybe even deeply enough to make it ‘home’.

“Gorgeous views collected from exotic corners of the earth are a bonus, but this theme is about something much more basic. Delight. It can happen anywhere under circumstances much more mundane than flying a helicopter without doors, watching a glacier float by, or dancing with fireworks. The trick is to notice it’s there. And better yet, make it real by sharing it.”

You should certainly check out the full showcase HERE, (as well as the many wonderful themes from previous months) but until then, we’ve compiled for you a little taste…

Damascus, Syria

Dear family,

I have discovered how to love a city. In Damascus, I have found a gentle and bright people. I have found warm kitchens and welcoming tea shops. I have found colorful art and comforting music. I have found a complicated history and an even more complicated future. I would do anything to return. (By the way, I told you I was traveling alone, but I was with Ross. I discovered him here, too.)

Lake Titicaca

Dear Professor Arbulu,

I have discovered the true meaning of the Chinese proverb “learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.” This schoolhouse in the middle of Lake Titicaca is a reminder that education is about enchantment, understanding, and can happen anywhere. Thank you for teaching me to dare to wander, to never stop learning, and to live my best possible life.

Colorado

Dear Home,

I think I found a new one. It’s more beautiful and inspiring then I could have even imagined. Everyday you can see the awe in our eyes, waking up knowing the mountains are to our west, and the incredible city to our east. When I say ‘our’ I mean us, meaning I found a group that I can call Us. Just a bunch of misfits that have fallen in love with the same place. Home, I hope this doesn’t make you sad, or angry, or think that I’ve moved on and I’m never coming back. I’m not saying that you’re not Home to me anymore, it’s just that, now I have two.

San Francisco

Dear future daughter,

I have discovered a beautiful place where I want you to grow up. That’s why I decided to leave France. It’s a small city (compared to some others I visited), a city where I feel good, where people are friendly, where the weather is not warm and not cold. It’s a city with great parks where you can walk, climb, run, and a cosmopolitan city where people don’t judge you on your differences or appearances. Dear future daughter, I hope you will love it like I love it.

The West

Dear Mom and Dad,

You know how I always said I wanted to be a cowgirl? Well, it turns out I haven’t grown out of it quite yet. I have discovered the beauty of “the west,” and I’m quite ready to stay. We spent the other night at the rodeo, and it felt like the life I could have had, the life I still want to have, and the life I want my kids to have. Wish me luck?

Brooklyn

Dear Dad,

I’ve discovered that I feel at home here. It’s not where you want me to be. I’ll always miss you.

Where have you discovered ‘something to write home about’?

A few weeks ago, we were lusting over 1920′s Paris thanks to Woody Allen’s latest film. So we gathered a few tips to help you indulge in the era of Josephine Baker, Cole Porter, and Hemmingway. THIS week, for those of us who would settle for Paris regardless the era, we’ve compiled a short list of our favourite films that are sure to transport you to the city of love & light!

Ah, the art, the literature, the fashion, the music!

Were we able, we would most certainly follow in the footsteps of Woody Allen’s latest protagonist and transport ourselves to 1920′s Paris.

Allen’s latest film, Midnight in Paris, is a gorgeous tribute to the city of lights in the roaring twenties. At midnight each evening, while roaming the streets of Paris, Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) finds himself in the company of Ernest Hemmingway, Zelda & F.Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Dali and many more. The film is full of cultural and literary references so the more you are familiar with 1920′s art & literature and the expat scene in Paris at the time, the more you’ll enjoy the little surprises Allen throws in. Though not to worry – if you’re not so well versed you can find a handy little (spoiler-ridden) cheat sheet here.

It’s easy to be charmed by the past. To want to escape to a better, more exciting time. But as the film reminds us (in a clear ‘the grass is always greener’ moral of the story), future generations will likely look back on our lifetime and long to have been a part of it. In dreaming of another place or time, we are often taking for granted the greatness of the present.

An important little lesson indeed! Though we just can’t help being seduced by the Années Folles so we’ve gathered a few tips to get the next best thing:

• Relive the lavish parties at the West Egg with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
• Brush up on your musical history & watch this fascinating documentary on the legendary Josephine Baker.
• Live the life of an expat in Paris with Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
• Pick up a Cole Porter album.
• While we all wait for Baz Luhrmann’s rendition, watch the old Gatsby starring Robert Redford.
• Get in the mood with the appropriate tunes courtesy of 8tracks.

The Tango, a glass of malbec, the colours, the passion…and the one place we wouldn’t mind sinking our fork into a juicy steak with a simple side of handcut chips and fresh tomato. Or perhaps instead, a handful of empanadas and a crisp cold bottle of Quilmes.

Today we are dreaming of Buenos Aires…of stirring from a long slumber somewhere like this, strolling the cobblestone streets & pausing on park benches to watch the world go by.

Our inspiration? A gorgeous little homage to Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges, shot in the winter of 2010 in Buenos Aires and Capilla del Señor, Argentina.

The task of art, is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in a man’s memory. That is our duty. – Jorge Luis Borges

A little game of ‘fill in the blank’ for your Monday morning…

Remember that incredible _____ (summer/winter/autumn/spring), when you met that gorgeous ____ (guy/girl) at that ____ (cafe/bar/park/beach) in an amazing little town in _____ (Spain/France/Germany/America/Australia)?

You spent the day_____(surfing/skiing/biking/strolling) together, shared a delicious meal of ____(paella/bœuf bourguignon/bratwurst/fish & chips) and danced into the wee hours of the night, meandering home hand in hand as the sun rose over the ____(ocean/mountains/city skyline).

We sure do. And these fabulous short films directed by Gustav Johansson helped us relive those glorious few months overseas. If you had any trouble filling in the blanks, perhaps these videos will be just the inspiration you need to book that flight/start saving those dollars!