[Tango-L] Día nacional del Tango today in Argentina

[Shahrukh Merchant]

Today is the "National Tango Day" in Argentina (date chosen for Carlos 
Gardel's birthday, though Julio de Caro seems to be getting some press 
lately as it turns out to be his birthday too ...).

If you are not in Buenos Aires, you can visit google.com.ar and see 
Google Argentina's homepage image modified in honour of Tango.

If you happen to be in Buenos Aires you can have a slightly more 
profound experience. :-) Here are some of the options.

5 pm. If you want to get an early start, in Puerto Madero (Azucena 
Villaflor & Avenida de los Italianos) you can hear Quinteto Real with 
Horacio Salgan (90-something years old), Adriana Varela, Orquesta Típica 
of Federico Leopoldo (80-something) performing on an outdoor stage.

7 pm. The main event organized by the city of Buenos Aires is at the 
obelisco at 7 pm. La Orquesta de Tango de Buenos Aires will be playing, 
followed by Mariano Mores & his sexteto, and ending with singer Susana 
Rinaldi. There will supposedly be 8000 outdoor seats set up and 3 large 
screens projecting the show as well.

6.30 pm-early a.m. A few blocks away, a 4-5-block stretch of Avenida de 
Mayo between Peru and 9 de Julio will be closed to traffic and there 
will be a "Gran Milonga Nacional" on the streets till early morning 
Sunday, with orchestras, singers and dancers on various stages, and of 
course, the public dancing on the streets.

If you want to avoid the outdoor crowds (probably replaced by indoor 
crowds, but on second thoughts I'm thinking this is probably outdoors 
too), go to Museo Casa Carlos Gardel (Jean Jaures 735) where various 
Tango singers will be performing starting 6:30 pm.

(Above events are all free.)

And no doubt some of the milongas will have a token acknowledgement to 
the special day as well. If the outdoor milonga doesn't do it for you 
(or ends too early, or is rained out ...), monthly milonga La Kermesse 
(never been there so it's not a personal recommendation) features two 
orchestras tonight (TubaTango and the popular Sexteto Milonguero) and is 
likely to be crowded (Club Villa Malcom, Cordoba 5064, 11 pm onwards).

There is a forecast of some rain in the evenings which may put a damper 
on things ... in which case buy a bottle of Malbec, order some take-out 
food, and watch the proceedings on TV (Channel 7 probably, which maps to 
15 on Cablevision) with your favourite tanguero/a.

Shahrukh