Love stories

Love has so many stories, just tell of one that you know,
the one about me - all you need to do is "wait a turn!",
then tell all that is: "Transparent"; with all that you could see.

In the field of dreams, don't ask or admit you know me!

-tell me you never have,
"without you I might be the loneliest" - but tell me you never have,
tell me that my eyes were needing you,
tell me that you are my desire,
tell me that the air is cold - but tell me breathing that air is all we need.

who dared say or wished it "You now need to walk this alone!"?

I can not tell you why or how there is no longer a verb of "love",
"when did it die?"
I still sing its songs - love songs.
- how would I know "what became of love?"

It is in people's sad eyes that I read;
- They keep telling me: " 'Love' has passed away!"
- The exact time and the cause of death?
- The cause: I do not know; the time: maybe it was late in the evening - yesterday .

Today, Don't tell me not to sing love songs; not any more!
I wish it were sunny; or that we could talk "some love",
- Sit down!
- Be happy!
- Life is short,
- 'Love' might be dead - but let's pretend;

let's imagine: it being sunny; and that the river is calm;
let's pretend that the boat is sailing;
let us sing: "there is still some love waiting to be found!"

Again, in the night - when there is no lover's tears touching any lover's heart;
I can sing another song:
- " I would kiss those tears if only I could convert"
- " If I could become an honest one - a believer!"

I wish I could feel fear - at least resent all that was said;
but it is "now" - too late ;

"Isn't it easier if we could all just pretend?!"
... that is what my lover would say.

MilongaCat
The only cat who loves you back!

Tales or Tailes!

There was a war on and there was food rationing. There was not much to eat and many existed on a meagre supply of whatever happened to be sold under rationing systems in the shops in Britain. The government encouraged everyone to grow vegetables and to farm any animals if they could, to supplement whatever there was to feed themselves.

In the suburbs the soldiers on guarding duty were told to keep their eyes open and to protect people from anyone who might be poaching and stealing since this happened specially during the curfew hours.

At their guarding post on a small country lane a soldier interviewed the Priest that night like almost every other night.

The Priest gave a different reason on any such nights whenever he wanted to be excused for breaking the curfew and for venturing out, to visit the village below. At the bottom of the hills sat a small village where this country lane led to it. From the guarding post the soldiers could observe any coming and goings. However a little further down and all below the hills there was not much anyone could see other than the night shadows.

The Priest always talked of the elderly, the needy, the lonely and the frightened, the orphans and many more. He needed to pass the guards and break the curfew because he had to; this he always told the soldiers. His cause he made sure was heard and understood to be one that was selfless, noble and essential.

That night, the soldier who had met this Priest many times before, had stopped the Priest on his way back from the village. This soldier told the Priest that from that night on he will not be allowed through, and that the curfew restrictions will apply to him too. He made it clear that he will not be permitted to break the curfew at any nights, not any more. Hearing this, the Priest got very upset and started arguing his reasons. At the end, while being very angry, and unable to get the soldier to agree with him, the Priest became abusive and rude and insisting that “I am not telling you tails other than the actual truth when I tell you that they need me there!”

The soldier looked at him hard and long and finally said “What should I believe to be your truth? Is it the tale that you tell me whenever you pass through on your way to the village below or the telling tail of the stolen chickens sticking out from under your sleeves when you come back from your nightly visits?!”

That may have been then, but “the telling tales” and “the telling tails” is a dilemma that we still have with us till today.

Should we believe his tale if someone tells us of his fighting to secure Mr Obama’s victory or base our opinions on other telling tails of his angry words when he fights against the Afro-Argentine issues as well as the Negristas arguments of the history of Blacks and how they have been denied this in Argentina?!

MilongaCat
The only cat who loves you back!

From my planet Earth to your Planet Tango

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." was famously said by Albert Einstein.

For the majority who love tango but choose not to live on on a different planet we find ourselves bound to respect the historical facts and referenced realities of the events on our planet Earth for what they are. There are undeniable facts about Tango Music, Photo Archives, Recorded songs and melodies, and all that have survived to date, and these are being further researched and added to at all times. It is not just one source that speaks the truth but there is always only one Truth.

There are those who can argue much better than I could on how Candombe of the Blacks (Slaves) and other influences did help in evolution of the Tango music and dance.

I would however like to arrive at the questions of LEGEND & MYTHS of the Planet Tango from a much simpler and most basic that all of us may follow.

The UNESCO facts (to date) and its research into Slavery show that at the beginning of the 1820's the black slaves of Latin America including Argentina were greater than 30% of the total population in most areas.

However by the year 1920 those Black populations of "slaves" off-springs who managed to survive in Argentina was brought to near extinction from 1 in 3 of the total population to just 1 to 1.5% of the population.

These are sad but undeniable facts. A very foolish suggestion is made here that The Yellow Fever, Wars and Inter Racial marriages alone caused this extinction.

These beg the following questions:
Was yellow fever a RACIAL DISEASE? Did it only kill the slaves -blacks - as to wipe out a third of that country's population? Was the fever's fatality due to the colour skin? of course NOT, this is Absurd to even suggest it!

Question of Wars? Were the Whites using any MAGIC protection and hence they became invisible to the enemies? OR Were the blacks mortal and could be killed in wars but the WHITES were IMMORTAL and could survive? This is another Absurd suggestion when blaming the near extinction on question of wars that killed all the black population but the White survived!

According to the strange archives of that Planet, (i.e. Tango Planet), those who were trading the BIG BUSINESS of Slavery for more wealth and comfort, they kept and traded these slaves in farms and mines, worked them to death BUT these Slave traders/owners suddenly all became "HUMANISTS" between 1820 to 1856 and decided to marry them instead!

The suggestion of INTER RACIAL MARRIAGES from when Slavery was "Declared Illegal" therefore made many 100,000's of slaves part of the "WHITE" Argentine population in one or two generations is absurd. To think that INTER-RACIAL marriage program was common in order to make sure that all the FREED slaves children inherit only the racial colour "WHITE" is incredibly naive and impossible to believe for any
school child who knows the very least about genetics!!!

The absurdity of such suggestions by the Planet Tango are astounding and when you look at the its twisted self-serving (non existent) logic, it then is a question: Why is it even suggested in the first place?

History can not be sanitised just because we do not like the past in a Tango or any other Forum.

For those living on the "The Planet Tango" I must reiterate that this is not a "NEGRISTAS" political issue - as you had suggested it to me in your communication. I have raised these due to simple politics of our Humanity. We are at the end of the year 2008 and not the 1908! The Negristas politics may be one that you are still fighting against but for myself it is our integrity and humanity that is the question.

It is good for all of us to want to be Politically Correct and to also be vociferous in doing so specially in the face of those who want to instil stupidity in us and to progress it to their infinite.

MilongaCat
The only cat who loves you back!

The Song of the Reed

(From Rumi's Mathnawi Poems, Book I,
Translation by: Sir William Jones)

Hear, how yon reed in sadly pleasing tales

Departed bliss and present woe bewails!

'With me, from native banks untimely torn,

Love-warbling youths and soft-ey'd virgins mourn.

O! Let the heart, by fatal absence rent,

Feel what I sing, and bleed when I lament:

Who roams in exile from his parent bow'r,

Pants to return, and chides each ling'ring hour.

My notes, in circles of the grave and gay,

Have, hail'd the rising, cheer'd the closing day:

Each in my fond affections claim'd a part,

But none discern'd the secret of my heart.

What though my strains and sorrows flow combin'd!

Yet ears are slow, and carnal eyes are blind.

Free through each mortal form the spirits roll,

But sight avails not. Can we see the soul?

Such notes breath'd gently from yon vocal frame:

Breath'd said I? no; 'twas all enliv'ning flame.

'Tis love, that fills the reed with warmth divine;

'Tis love, that sparkles in the racy wine.

Me, plaintive wand'rer from my peerless maid,

The reed has fir'd, and all my soul betray'd

He gives the bane, and he with balsam cures;

Afflicts, yet soothes; impassions, yet allures.

Delightful pangs his am'rous tales prolong;

And LAILI'S frantic lover lives in song.

Not he, who reasons best, this wisdom knows:

Ears only drink what rapt'rous tongues disclose.

Rumi

Classes, Work-Shops, Seminar!?

It is good to learn. Some of us may spend a life time trying to learn what we find interesting. Learning any subject can be either a very easy or near impossible, and it is not just about achieving tasks. Passionately loving to learn is just one part of the equation in any learning process. The rest mostly comes from a good solid and well tried and tested “Methodology” designed for learning that specific subject with the help of a medium and any media that can do that job.

In some tango “Shops” where sadly “Tom(s), Dick(s) or Jeannets(s)” have neither a clue what a “Methodology” is nor they would give a hoot about such complexities, many students are failed by their teachers’ inability to teach. Every week they are asked and shown how to Copy moves. In certain cases Greed also plays a major part when some teacher deliberately knocks out the students’ confidence in order to ensure more frequent attendances.

The adverts come thick and fast. There was a time - NOT very long ago - when we all knew what the terms Beginner, Intermediate, Improver, or advanced meant. The word “General Class“ meant something very distinguishable from a “Technique Class”. There were sophisticated things we knew of called “Courses!”.

These "courses!" were a series of General or Technique Classes. They began at some specified level, and progressed systematically and methodically over a period of time to advanced levels. They took the students to a higher well-specified level. There were no fuzzy, willy-nilly, randomly selected clap-trap terms and names describing almost anything under the blue sky or next to nothing on a dark rainy night. There was a purpose, and aims and achievable were explained and they would be different for different courses and not the same silly paragraphs for all the meetings of the year.

Finally there were “Work-Shops”. These were special and would not be stringed together just because the teacher fancied how the words “Work-Shop” sounded in relation to their own names.

Workshops were places and times in which students who had accumulated knowledge and expertise gained from one or more “Courses” gathered and were given the opportunity to concentrate on some areas of shared difficulties. Students were able to enhance their knowledge, and to complete their fluidity.

Workshops were run by the help of true expertise of a “Master”, and in the company of students whose equal level of abilities and interests offered them the opportunity to clean up and polish what was not possible to do so in a normally attended/organised course. Workshops lasted over a few hours to “master” one topic, and they were not delivered as a series of small run-of-the-mill classes of steps & sequences!

In our current Tango scene and in many “Tango-Shops”, no one seems to teach a Class any more. For example it is now common that the poor students are often invited to take “Work-Shops” only to find themselves over-charged by a factor of 2 or 3 times to repeat another “Technique Class”. They would practice for an extra half hour of what they were meant to lean in a class and pay a lot more and still not know what it is that they are lacking!!!

The insult gets fully completed when there are talks and claims of giving a “Seminar”. Do they really know what the word Seminar means at all? Have they ever been to a college or university course, never mind those!? Have they looked up the word “Seminar” in a good dictionary? Have they then thought to ask the most basic following questions:

• Is there going to be a small group of advanced students in a college or post graduate school engaged in some kind of “Original Research”?

• Is there going to be an intensive study plan to discuss students’ reports and findings under the guidance of a professor who meets regularly with them over a study term?

• Would there be a meeting for exchange of ideas in the format of a conference where equally knowledgeable researchers could discuss the merits of their own developed ideas?

Unfortunately none of the above would take place in any Tango “Seminar” organised by “Tom(s), Dick(s) or Jeannets(s)”.

So Let me just conclude that personally I would like to see more of those dedicated teachers who run proper “Tango Courses” and a lot less of those title inflated “Work-Shops”.

Maybe there will also be some hope here for disengagement of the ignorance and arrogance, and that we would not see the abuse of the word “Seminar” when a Tango Course is being advertised and sold.

MilongaCat
The only cat who loves you back!