Category: Little Epiphanies
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Something Precious to Behold
Audio sample: Audio members, listen to the full piece here: 1. The car coasted down the center of Avenida de Mayo at a stately parade-like crawl. People in flip-flops and shorts and light dresses strolled. Insects hummed in the trees and vied with the air conditioning units for the right to be the soundtrack of…
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The Party’s on the Street
Audio members, listen here: February is my favorite month, bar none. The holidays and their urgencies have passed. Many people have left the city on vacation and those who have returned still exude that holiday vibe together with new tans. Clothing is scant; the MVO (Minimum Viable Outfit) is the sweet spot. Nights are sweaty…
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The World at the End of the Line
Audio members, listen here: On a whim, I took the subway to the very last station. Heading for the outskirts of the city is like rumbling across the troubled expanse of 20th Century Argentina. You descend through preening stations of ornate tile proud to be gateways to the first underground system in South America but…
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Virgin of the High Waters
Audio members, listen here: When the river started to rise, they busied themselves getting everything as high up as they could. They threw ropes over the rafters and hoisted furniture into the air. A dining room table and its chairs became an elaborate swaying chandelier. They drove the livestock to the highest part of this…
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A Freer Way to Tango
Audio members, listen here: From the introduction to my new book “TQBA: Tango Queer Buenos Aires”: Think of these photos as part of a dance. Where you see two people, count three. Taking photographs, I was not an outsider looking in but rather an insider looking at oneself in a mirror. The joy and ecstasy…
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Such Splendid Creatures
Audio members, listen here: Thank you for your letter. I am well. It has been a trying time. But now the storm has passed and the detritus left in its wake is treasure. I reap the richness now. Scattered seeds are punching up through the hard soil. Their birth was troubled — but isn’t it…
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Write Thank-you Notes
Audio Members, listen here: Today is my mom’s birthday. If she were alive today, she would be 95. She lived a long, rich life even if most of the last decade was bittersweet due to mental deterioration. However, she never lost her laugh and her good cheer. Even when she didn’t remember who I was,…
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Hot Tango
Audio Members, listen here: At 13:53hs the first tender flame appeared. The tell-tale fizzling sound that had been overlooked repeatedly by repair crews sent into the below-sidewalk chamber to make other, more-urgent repairs at last ignited the paper wrappings of someone’s forgotten lunch left in flagrant disregard of company regulations and burst into flame. Within…
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Plastic Wrapped
Let me read it to you! Premium members have access to the audio version. Not a member yet? Become a member here > They wrapped me in cellophane and set me in the middle of the plaza where I waited while the sun and rain eroded me and pigeons defecated on my head. People asked…