A brief introduction to Argentine Tango
to make poems like this one accessible to more than just my tango friends
1. In Argentine tango, you don't learn steps. You learn a universal system of communication that two people can use to create a fully improvised dance tailored to any music that is playing.
2. This means you can dance with people you met for the first time – to music you've never heard before.
3. A "milonga" is a dancing event where people dance tango (in Argentina, it's also a venue where such events are regularly held). To confuse the hell out of everybody, the same name is also used for a jolly genre of music with a faster beat, which is also played in milongas – along with valses, to add some variation for the tango dancers.
4. People usually dance to tango music recorded somewhere between 1930-1970 (a smaller number of songs recorded by contemporary bands may also be used). That's a lot of very different musical styles, tempos, and moods.
5. To make it easier to adjust to your partner and the music, at a milonga, songs are arranged into "tandas" – each tanda is made up of 3-4 songs by the same orchestra from the same era. A tanda is usually 12-15 minutes long.
6. People dance the whole tanda with the same partner. When it's over, a "cortina" is played for 30-60 seconds. During the cortina, couples leave the dance floor and find new partners. Depending on the DJ's preferences, this can be any music – from jazz to pop to death metal – what's important is that it should not be confused with tango.
7. Milongas usually last between 3-5 hours. If you dance 15 tandas, you'll likely be quite tired.
8. If you were thinking of learning to dance something – learn Argentine tango and get a second life for free.
to make poems like this one accessible to more than just my tango friends
1. In Argentine tango, you don't learn steps. You learn a universal system of communication that two people can use to create a fully improvised dance tailored to any music that is playing.
2. This means you can dance with people you met for the first time – to music you've never heard before.
3. A "milonga" is a dancing event where people dance tango (in Argentina, it's also a venue where such events are regularly held). To confuse the hell out of everybody, the same name is also used for a jolly genre of music with a faster beat, which is also played in milongas – along with valses, to add some variation for the tango dancers.
4. People usually dance to tango music recorded somewhere between 1930-1970 (a smaller number of songs recorded by contemporary bands may also be used). That's a lot of very different musical styles, tempos, and moods.
5. To make it easier to adjust to your partner and the music, at a milonga, songs are arranged into "tandas" – each tanda is made up of 3-4 songs by the same orchestra from the same era. A tanda is usually 12-15 minutes long.
6. People dance the whole tanda with the same partner. When it's over, a "cortina" is played for 30-60 seconds. During the cortina, couples leave the dance floor and find new partners. Depending on the DJ's preferences, this can be any music – from jazz to pop to death metal – what's important is that it should not be confused with tango.
7. Milongas usually last between 3-5 hours. If you dance 15 tandas, you'll likely be quite tired.
8. If you were thinking of learning to dance something – learn Argentine tango and get a second life for free.
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Mike Ravdonikas: Poems
Saturday night, post-milonga /
My shower just got warmer,
So I know you've finished yours.
We started dancing
Fifteen years ago;
For ten of those
We have been sharing
Breakfasts, beds and stories –
Yet it is the tango
That connects us best:
You'll know your…
My shower just got warmer,
So I know you've finished yours.
We started dancing
Fifteen years ago;
For ten of those
We have been sharing
Breakfasts, beds and stories –
Yet it is the tango
That connects us best:
You'll know your…
🔥12❤4
Spirit of Dubai /
An unwilling, slow
Camel of sand,
Buried deep underground,
Flat and featureless,
Fluffy like baby fur,
Cold as the night,
Dry – of such powerful
Dryness no sprinkler
Can ever defeat,
Dry like the powdered bones
Of old people
In a bag on the belt
Of a mountain climber –
Take one pinch,
And your fingers are gone,
Desiccated forever.
One day he will stand up,
And shake us all off
And move further inland,
Step after giant step,
Entombing these shallow
Parks, trees and flowers –
And all of the lipsticks
And cigarette lighters
Of concrete and glass
That we build on his skin –
In a sand pit,
To be munched shut
By water, wave after wave,
From the sea we came out of
So long, long ago –
But shouldn't have bothered
(as far as he is concerned).
30.01/22
@verse
An unwilling, slow
Camel of sand,
Buried deep underground,
Flat and featureless,
Fluffy like baby fur,
Cold as the night,
Dry – of such powerful
Dryness no sprinkler
Can ever defeat,
Dry like the powdered bones
Of old people
In a bag on the belt
Of a mountain climber –
Take one pinch,
And your fingers are gone,
Desiccated forever.
One day he will stand up,
And shake us all off
And move further inland,
Step after giant step,
Entombing these shallow
Parks, trees and flowers –
And all of the lipsticks
And cigarette lighters
Of concrete and glass
That we build on his skin –
In a sand pit,
To be munched shut
By water, wave after wave,
From the sea we came out of
So long, long ago –
But shouldn't have bothered
(as far as he is concerned).
30.01/22
@verse
❤12🔥4👍2
Cities of Dreams /
I like driving through places
I think of as Cities of Dreams.
Where hundreds
Of little white windows
Light up after 7PM
And the people
Who feed us
And clothe us
And (still) make us
Put on our masks
Park their little Nissans after work,
And walk down to the minimart,
Some holding hands with a wife,
Some supporting a kid
On their shoulders –
They walk
Past the open Toyota trucks
Where, lying stretched
In the trunks,
Men in kurtas
Browse phones,
Call their homes –
Or just stare into alien skies
As the evening draws on
And their future
Gets closer.
@verse
I like driving through places
I think of as Cities of Dreams.
Where hundreds
Of little white windows
Light up after 7PM
And the people
Who feed us
And clothe us
And (still) make us
Put on our masks
Park their little Nissans after work,
And walk down to the minimart,
Some holding hands with a wife,
Some supporting a kid
On their shoulders –
They walk
Past the open Toyota trucks
Where, lying stretched
In the trunks,
Men in kurtas
Browse phones,
Call their homes –
Or just stare into alien skies
As the evening draws on
And their future
Gets closer.
@verse
❤18🔥4🤔4
Climate Change /
They should have taken
Better care of branding –
I'm thinking this on board
Of a November Airbus,
Taking me back
To warm Dubai
From Europe's faded green,
A semi-yearly dose
Of much more realistic
"Climate Change".
They did a good job
Getting rid of "Global Warming"
(Who wouldn't like a bit of extra warmth
In our cold lives, except the people
Stuck around the Gulf in August and July)
But "Climate Change"?
Why not the "Carbon Plague"?
Or "Climageddon",
Or "The Melting Doom",
You have to leave
some room for panic
In your naming –
If anything at all
's to be achieved.
@verse
15.11/21
They should have taken
Better care of branding –
I'm thinking this on board
Of a November Airbus,
Taking me back
To warm Dubai
From Europe's faded green,
A semi-yearly dose
Of much more realistic
"Climate Change".
They did a good job
Getting rid of "Global Warming"
(Who wouldn't like a bit of extra warmth
In our cold lives, except the people
Stuck around the Gulf in August and July)
But "Climate Change"?
Why not the "Carbon Plague"?
Or "Climageddon",
Or "The Melting Doom",
You have to leave
some room for panic
In your naming –
If anything at all
's to be achieved.
@verse
15.11/21
Fig bonsai (an obituary) /
We came back
A few days too late
And our fig tree
Has dried.
Damn.
I’m not sure
It will bear us
Dried figs…
@verse
We came back
A few days too late
And our fig tree
Has dried.
Damn.
I’m not sure
It will bear us
Dried figs…
@verse
I made a habit of publishing small collections of poems on my birthdays, but this year's harvest is both diverse and plentiful – and we're well past July 23. While I'm figuring out which of the 60 or so scraps of verse should stay and which will go, here are a few ghosts of Christmas past from the 2021-2022 season.
(P.S. For no apparent reason, I spent most of the past year thinking I'm 37 already – so this second year of 37 will be a strange one to live in. Deja vu.)
See @verse
https://telegra.ph/Five-Cities-07-31
(P.S. For no apparent reason, I spent most of the past year thinking I'm 37 already – so this second year of 37 will be a strange one to live in. Deja vu.)
See @verse
https://telegra.ph/Five-Cities-07-31
Telegraph
Four Cities
I spent the past fifteen years looking for stability – and ended up finding it in a castle built on sand, of all places. Yet, given the state the world is in today, I can no longer afford the luxury of pretending to be homeless.
Spirit of Napoli /
A seagull, hard at work,
Picking apart the rotten
Carcass of a pigeon.
Do as the Romans
When in Rome –
But when in Naples,
Don’t look down.
Or up – the buildings
Of this town’s majestic past
Just make things worse
By burying the “could have been”
In “has been”.
The first graffito
(Of twelve thousand)
That I saw, arriving here by train
Read: “DEATH
TO CAMORRA”. Five days in
I can’t agree more,
Maybe even go beyond
The humble statement:
It is not the mafia alone –
The city as a whole
Seems to be asking
For another blast
From its two-headed
Mountain (in the eyes
Of a trespasser, like myself)
But people fill its streets.
They shoot about
On scooters, like so many
Plastic herrings,
Scurrying around
The sharks of its Fiats.
They sit at open tables
Of cafes on permagarbage
sidewalks, kiss on benches
Next to barricades of trash.
They walk around in miniskirts
And shorts,
Displaying godly tans –
Or beastly paunches.
(And, I suppose, by night
They tag the shutters
Of these stores.) And hark:
They SING when begging
For a coin.
And they look happy.
And they make me think
Of all that I have lost
Over the years of living
In those other cities –
Where the past is a prelude
(And not an admonition).
Where you wouldn’t think
Of washing shoes
Together with your hands,
Returning home,
Where poems don’t start
With carcasses of pigeons,
Where the dark side
Tries to hide
And where the underworld
Has less successful branding…
Standing in these streets,
I see humanity’s revolting ways
And its redeeming joys
Of feeling happy and alive
Despite whatever garbage
Gods allot you.
@verse
A seagull, hard at work,
Picking apart the rotten
Carcass of a pigeon.
Do as the Romans
When in Rome –
But when in Naples,
Don’t look down.
Or up – the buildings
Of this town’s majestic past
Just make things worse
By burying the “could have been”
In “has been”.
The first graffito
(Of twelve thousand)
That I saw, arriving here by train
Read: “DEATH
TO CAMORRA”. Five days in
I can’t agree more,
Maybe even go beyond
The humble statement:
It is not the mafia alone –
The city as a whole
Seems to be asking
For another blast
From its two-headed
Mountain (in the eyes
Of a trespasser, like myself)
But people fill its streets.
They shoot about
On scooters, like so many
Plastic herrings,
Scurrying around
The sharks of its Fiats.
They sit at open tables
Of cafes on permagarbage
sidewalks, kiss on benches
Next to barricades of trash.
They walk around in miniskirts
And shorts,
Displaying godly tans –
Or beastly paunches.
(And, I suppose, by night
They tag the shutters
Of these stores.) And hark:
They SING when begging
For a coin.
And they look happy.
And they make me think
Of all that I have lost
Over the years of living
In those other cities –
Where the past is a prelude
(And not an admonition).
Where you wouldn’t think
Of washing shoes
Together with your hands,
Returning home,
Where poems don’t start
With carcasses of pigeons,
Where the dark side
Tries to hide
And where the underworld
Has less successful branding…
Standing in these streets,
I see humanity’s revolting ways
And its redeeming joys
Of feeling happy and alive
Despite whatever garbage
Gods allot you.
@verse
Poetic justice /
An artichoke:
The most poetic
thing that you can
choke on.
If they keep you up at night /
In cities,
every siren
means someone
got a chance
to stay
unharmed.
(P.S. In case you were wondering, nobody was choked in the making of these two completely unrelated bits of verse.)
@verse
An artichoke:
The most poetic
thing that you can
choke on.
If they keep you up at night /
In cities,
every siren
means someone
got a chance
to stay
unharmed.
(P.S. In case you were wondering, nobody was choked in the making of these two completely unrelated bits of verse.)
@verse
Voices of War /
What wicked times:
the voice of Paddington
concedes his country’s loss
of infrastructure, lives,
instead of making fun
of some imaginary robber
loose in London’s streets.
A sharp turn in the fairy tale –
and winter’s coming:
nudity, offensive language,
violence (extreme),
abuse of substances
(think: gas, oil, blood) –
it could be rated “W” for War,
but where’s the agency
to keep those aged
between a minute and a lifetime
from the screening?
@verse
What wicked times:
the voice of Paddington
concedes his country’s loss
of infrastructure, lives,
instead of making fun
of some imaginary robber
loose in London’s streets.
A sharp turn in the fairy tale –
and winter’s coming:
nudity, offensive language,
violence (extreme),
abuse of substances
(think: gas, oil, blood) –
it could be rated “W” for War,
but where’s the agency
to keep those aged
between a minute and a lifetime
from the screening?
@verse
Merry indeed /
What bliss it would have been
to know we’ve already been saved,
and all that’s left
is celebrating the occasion:
to “deck our halls with boughs”
and fill our malls
with endless variations
on the same ten songs;
to know the things that mattered
happened in the past:
the vast expanse of universe ahead –
a pool ball, rolling to a halt.
The eight is pocketed,
the shots all taken,
nothing left to call.
@verse
What bliss it would have been
to know we’ve already been saved,
and all that’s left
is celebrating the occasion:
to “deck our halls with boughs”
and fill our malls
with endless variations
on the same ten songs;
to know the things that mattered
happened in the past:
the vast expanse of universe ahead –
a pool ball, rolling to a halt.
The eight is pocketed,
the shots all taken,
nothing left to call.
@verse
Happy New Year from Kobayashi Issa. Although his new year would’ve started about a month later.
@verse
@verse
Tearing off the calendar page /
What’s a month to a year?
Less than a toe,
Less than a finger,
More than a tooth.
@verse
What’s a month to a year?
Less than a toe,
Less than a finger,
More than a tooth.
@verse
More of you /
It may be well that we don't have
a daughter – else my heart
could burst from seeing you,
condensed in a new being,
not entirely repeated –
but carried forward
with a tint of me
(some waviness of hair?
of somewhat lighter black?)
I don't think I could know
how to react without dissolving,
how to hold this in my arms
without imploding from the power
of another such existence.
MR @verse
It may be well that we don't have
a daughter – else my heart
could burst from seeing you,
condensed in a new being,
not entirely repeated –
but carried forward
with a tint of me
(some waviness of hair?
of somewhat lighter black?)
I don't think I could know
how to react without dissolving,
how to hold this in my arms
without imploding from the power
of another such existence.
MR @verse
Came up with this format for mike_ravdonikas on Instagram.
Tearing off another page /
Here’s to another month
Of languid, peaceful winter,
Only rarely windy,
Only slightly cool.
@verse
Here’s to another month
Of languid, peaceful winter,
Only rarely windy,
Only slightly cool.
@verse