Camille Cusumano

No, it’s not a story about a sensual golf course . . . just a list of a few tango-related links I think are useful to any tango aficionado. There are numerous tango blogs in the ether-sphere, but I find most difficult to follow. Here are my pix:

To Tango - I can’t say enough about this site and the wealth of information it offers on tango, steps, composers, history, music, trivia, everything tango. It’s easy to navigate, too. I’m not much of a Net surfer, but I’ve spent much time at this site. Check it out, http://totango.net/ttindex.html.

August 8, 2008

Photo credit: Olivia’s husband, Andre

I am still on Kent Island, MD, missing my favorite milongas and milongueros in other great world places. It really induces some form of withdrawal to not dance tango for soooo long, longer than I care to say. So while I pine, let me also o-pine. The topic of kindness is still on my mind so it is fitting that I plug a new outdoor milonga in the San Francisco Bay Area whose organizers, Jonathan and Olivia, are in addition to being talented, notably warm and welcoming. I’ve inserted their entire invitation below and encourage anyone who can to try it out. The atmosphere is great—because there is love of dance and love of people. Watch Olivia and Jonathan dance in this YouTube video.

Chapter 22. Breathing Lessons

“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room. -Alison Wright, travel photographer/writer.”

I’m being eaten by mosquitoes on the terrace of La Pharmacie, a restaurant in a former old drugstore on Charcas. But I wouldn’t dream of wimping out and saying, “Let’s go inside.” My thick-skinned companions, photographer Alison Wright and writer Lynn Ferrin, live in San Francisco, where fog limits outdoor supping, and they want to eat al fresco. As uncomfortable as I feel, I realize I’d probably jump in the contaminated Río de la Plata if they asked me, so I sit tight.

Augusts 9, 2008

Sometimes you know a book will be great even before you open the cover, even before you hold it in your hands. I make such claims for Alison Wright’s new book, Learning to Breathe, just published by Penguin. Although Alison, a photographer and writer, is a friend and colleague, I don’t make this claim lightly. I haven’t held the book yet, but I know a lot about the hair-raising incidents that led to her writing a book, subtitled “one woman’s journey of spirit and survival.” I’m listing here for your edification all her bookstore appearances and a link to her beautiful Web site at www.alisonwright.com with some of her award-winning photography. On her way to Antarctica, Alison passed through Buenos Aires while I was still there and we got to know each other better. She’s in my upcoming book, Tango, so I’ll also post an excerpt from it, which should whet your appetite for devouring Alison’s book (and in October, mine!). Lest you doubt the power of her book, let me inform you that none other than his Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote the book’s foreword.

August 8, 2008    photography - camille cusumano

I arrived back at Mom’s on Kent Island, Maryland, yesterday, via the great, cheap DC2Ny bus (it’s got WiFi! Only $28 one way, DC to NYC), aided and abetted by the Washington Metro and my kind sister, Lisa and two nieces, Anna and Catrina.

In light of a horrific tragedy, labeled a “historic wreck,” I offer the link to a short piece I wrote on Kent Island —the oldest settlement in the state and a well-kept secret in summer especially. Had these drivers stuck in a huge traffic snarl read my article on Kent Island (above link and below), they might have suffered less.

August 5, 2008

May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!
—from the Metta Sutta

A couple of years ago at the tango club La Nacional in lower Manhattan, I met a man, whom I’ll call Kevin. I don’t recall his name for certain, but he was blond and looks like a Kevin in my memory bank. He was from Neptune, New Jersey, a shore point, and I’m a native of the state, with many kinfolk still there, so this was like instant insider info.