[Tango-L] Response to everything (Part II)

[TangoDC.com]

(cont. from Part I)

The other website is entirely devoted to tango, and is at 
http://tangoDC.com. There you may find my translation of "El ciruja," 
which I originally *incorrectly* titled "The surgeon." My friend Viviana 
Levinson, who also has a website (http://vivianatango.com), corrected me 
publicly, and at length, the night I recited the lyric, and the 
following morning I added a note to that effect. I haven't had time yet 
to change it, because I translate a new lyric every week, in addition to 
freelancing, dancing, working for a living, translating better 
literature than tango lyrics (gasp!-- another critical judgment), and 
teaching several different things privately. Why he quotes my own note 
against me is anyone's guess. (Also: others have made the same mistake. 
Want proof? Try Google. Last time I checked, I was the only one who's 
posted anything close to a correction notice.)

The note about my crossing quips with an Argentine concerns an episode 
in which she tried to correct my English. (My thanks to Sergio for 
leaving that last essential detail out.) I had translated the word 
"compadrito" with the word "badass," after trying out several 
alternatives, conferring with an Argentine bartender (one of my usual 
references for lunfardo terms, etc.), and witnessing a pantomime 
definition of the word, which was rather amusing. Is that enough 
research for me? No, but it's enough for now.

SIDE NOTE
If anyone can suggest a good, scholarly edition of tango lyrics, 
containing at least 500 (if not more), please let me know about it. I've 
just received the first 6 volumes of Jose Gobello's edition, and despite 
its many attractive visuals, it's rather disappointing for its lack of 
critical apparatus (e.g., variant lines, tables of contents, birth-years 
of contemporary artists). I'm sure something better must be out there; I 
just don't know what it is.

As for my teaching qualifications: Nowhere on my websites, or anywhere 
else, will you find the word "professor" applied to myself. (I am 
largely a self-educated man, with a diploma from a humanities college 
that is known for its autodidactic paradigm. It has a website too: 
http://slc.edu. I believe it was Time's "College of the Year" in 2000, 
in case anyone doubts that such a place exists as I describe it.) Nor 
will you find anything on my sites but honest promotional materials, 
mixed in with humor, art, and discourse about art. (You Will find a lot 
of dead links, because I've been too damn busy to finish coding the 
pages.) On the contrary, I teach because I get *invited* to teach, and 
get sick of saying no. Same with performing, whether it be on the 
dancefloor or over the microphone. If you believe that counts as 
"self-appointed," then you let me know and I'll send you a link to an 
online dictionary myself. (As for the microphone, I do have three solid 
years of experience hosting poetry readings, several narrating credits 
for stage performance, and somewhere between 15 and 20 hours, edited, of 
voiceover recording. I just got a new cardioid microphone too, but don't 
have a preamp... If anyone can suggest a cheap model, for nothing 
fancier than a home studio, I'd be in their debt.)

As for my translations: they're entirely open to critique, and I would 
appreciate any feedback offered, whether appreciative or venomous. My 
website has what amounts to first (revised) drafts, and I haven't yet 
had a chance to revise anything. But if you're going to accuse me of 
paraphrase rather than literal word-for-word rendition, please note that 
I'm not of that latter camp.

As for my remark that dancers in different barrios were "at each other's 
throats" over who's got the "real" tango style-- my apologies for 
deploying a cliche when I should have been more creative. But the point 
I made (i.e., that BA has a multiplicity of styles) stands, and has now 
been nicely expanded upon by Sergio. How gang wars in either New York or 
LA got dragged into this is anyone's guess. How anyone ever got the 
impression that there is One Real Tango in Argentina, or anywhere else 
on this grain of sand we call a planet, is also anyone's guess. I thank 
Sergio for the detail that people once threw tomatoes at milongas.

As for Sergio's accusation that I am a genius with multiple 
personalities, I deny it from top to bottom. I also can't imagine a more 
dreadful sparring partner for our dear Sergio, who descended to ad 
hominem tactics himself, only to find hard evidence that I don't take 
myself very seriously.

Since I _am_ taking everyone's bait, however-- on to Lucia's recent 
comment about being bored by failed novelists. I can't speak for anyone 
else writing long posts with substance here, but for my part: (a) I've 
never even tried writing a novel, since I'm predominantly a poet, 
editor, and critic; and (b) I'm rather too young to have failed at 
anything, except perhaps concision.

As for my apology for lowering the level of posting here, after I'd been 
charged with doing so-- I was kidding, people. K i d d i n g. (NOTE: 
That type of punctuation was originally George Bernard Shaw's idea. I 
stole it directly from him, lest anyone accuse me of stealing it from 
somewhere else.)

As for everyone else who has written to me privately or spoken to me in 
person, and has expressed approval of, or excitement about, what I'm 
trying to accomplish here-- you have my thanks and my promise that I'll 
try to keep things interesting. I'll do my best to keep up the private 
correspondence too, as promptly as time permits. In the meantime, keep 
reading what you have time to read, and don't be afraid to stand up to 
bullies.

Lastly, my apologies to the Earth for calling it a grain of sand. It was 
entirely uncalled for. I'm only pointing it out here to save everyone a 
furtherance of this thread regarding my bad manners and everyone else's 
immaculate ones.

In the name of pedantry,

Jake Spatz
Washington, DC

And while I'm at it...

"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling."
-- Oscar Wilde