Monthly Archives: July 2006

OK, time to surface from a week of meetings like a hippopotamus rising from the mud.

Put Spanish and Italian culture into a blender and you get the Tango, great food, and Buenos Aires. The city itself reminded me of Rome in architecture and climate. But in lifestyle it seemed more New York than Mediterranean. A 24 hour city with an overcaffeinated buzz.

And yep, best damn steaks I ever had in my life. (Ah, except maybe for a particularly luscious Fiorentina I had in some impossibly beautiful restaurant overlooking Florence which Domitilla Senni recommended. That was one of the more memorable food experiences of a lifetime.)

Each morning, we awoke to what John Frizell and I called “The Cow Alarm” — the mooing of show-cattle being brushed down (I kid you not) in the alley outside an exhibition hall adjoining the hotel. The Cow Alarm would probably be better termed “Alarmed Cows”, as in “HOLY COW, I’M IN THE STEAK CAPITAL OF THE WORLD AND THAT GUY IS IN AN APRON…”

We were on the edge of Palermo Viejo, a neighborhood Borges hung out in and wrote about and which looked worth a visit as I drove by on my way to the meeting, palms and nose pressed against the window like a little kid desperate to escape.

Because the truth is, other than the one damn day I booked for jetlag recovery, couple hours of sightseeing, and a quick appointment with a would-be pickpocket, I didn’t get to see much of Buenos Aires. What I saw was fab, but it was a tiny sliver of what I’d even hoped to see in my short time there.

Thank goodness I travel with well-travelled people, or I’d have been cheated of a fine glimpse of cultural history. Remi is a veteran of Greenpeace Diplomatic missions to the city, and after our hosts at Greenpeace Argentina through us a fun post-meeting pub meal which broke up around midnight, he commandeered the taxi Steve Shallhorn and I were in to the Bar Sur, a Tango mecca in San Telmo, where we caught some faded glory — young dancers, aged singers, an electric piano alongside an ivory-encrusted constantina and a battered flamenco guitar, all set in what had clearly once been an any day watering hole, but thick with a patina of a hundred years of boho simpatico. They charged 150 pesos for the little cakes that appeared with our drinks, but if that’s the cost of the formaldehyde that preserves landmarks like Bar Sur, so be it. Faded and fragile and dusty, it’s a museum to old passions, old glory, and a romanticism that looks more and more otherworldly.

Of the meeting, I cannot disclose the top secret whale strategy stuff — Japanese Spies could be reading this blog as we speak — so suffice it to say what a weird pleasure it is to hang out with people who have been on the frontline of this battle for two decades now, and who can cite Strange Whale Facts and toss out wisdom nuggets —er—- til the cows come home. Highlights:

Not losing is an important prerequisite to winning. –John Frizell

A few Whales are occasionally born with legs rather than flippers, just as the occasional human is born with a tail: throwbacks in the genetic code.

Whales are K-strategy procreators, which means they bear one calf which requires intense care (as opposed to fish, with use the R-strategy of millions of offspring, zero care). Whales will occasionally bear twins, but both calves invariably die.

Before you criticize anyone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when they react, you´ll be a mile away, and you´ll have their shoes.

As to what’s coming down the pike, our cunning plan is hidden in this video, cut together in half an hour at 2am with a muchas cervezas buzz on to demonstrate what VidKids with a cheap digicam, editing software, and access to Greenpeace footage can slap together and have on the web faster than the 128th notes in “Chunga’s Revenge.” (Nick of time there. How could I write a post mentioning Tango without referencing Frank Zappa’s inimitable contribution to the form?)

I’ve been reading about light bulbs. 90% of the energy that goes to a lightbulb gets lost in heat. According to Amory Lovins, the average US home runs 30 lightbulbs five hours a day, and if all American homes replaced just 3 of these bulbs with long-lasting bulbs, Americans could save electricity equivalent to the output of 11 fossil-fuel-fired power plants. In turn they would eliminate about 23 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year — and save about $1,800,000,000.

I’ve been playing with a graphic concept to try and make the link between a simple act like changing your light bulb and the impacts of climate change. This rough doesn’t quite achieve what I’m looking for, but the idea is to extend the joke across a range of impacts.

Ban the Bulb!