Camille Cusumano

I’m telling you – ya just can’t get away from the paparazzi even here in the wet heat of New Orleans. I was having dinner with friends at Mosca’s an offbeat Italian restaurant known to locals. A couple of tables over there was Sly Stallone. I would not have recognized him. But my friend, jazz musician/teacher Marc Dobriner, did. I thought Marc was joking. But Sly kept looking at us. I felt uncomfortable staring back long enough to study the long ruddy face. It took our other three friends to convince me it was none other than the Italian Stallion. I couldn’t help but feel in his gaze a plea for us to bother him, ask for an autograph, or say something that proved we knew who he was.  But none of us could honestly say anything positive about his films—outside of “Rocky,” which we all loved all those years ago. Oh, and Jeanne Cimino, gallerist at Heriard Cimino gallery, said she knows of a really good film Sly was in that you probably never heard of, “Cop Land,” which we’ll watch tonight on Netflix. But indeed, the star is still on the trail of blood and violence: He is here in the Big Easy to shoot “Bullet to the Head” — based on a graphic novel by the same name and formerly known as “Headshot.”

I’d rather tell you about Mosca’s menu, known to New Yorkers and locals who love the history—and obviously to Hollywood moguls (Sly was at a table with about five of them). If you get to Nola go there. Around 1944, Italian immigrants started the place—in a plain white wrapper of a house just outside the city. You cross the mighty Mississippi to get there—take Hwy 90. The food is rich and heavy, not trendy or delicate. It’s fresh and delicious, occasionally retro – as in the “Italian Salad,” which is that old classic made with iceberg lettuce, red wine vinegar, and olive oil.  The Oysters Mosca is a mardi gras (emphasis on the gras) of plump oysters in a bath of  butter, olive oil, fresh garlic, seasoned bread crumbs, topped with bacon or prosciutto (we tried twisting the waitress’s arm but don’t believe she gave us the right ingredients so we are extrapolating). The Chicken La Grande was moist roasted with good Italian oregano. Shrimp Mosca was so good we ate the shells and all. New Orleansians tell me the shrimp heads have the most flavor. Oh, I am still full this morning. Walked around beautiful Audubon Park and saw egrets and I think a night heron.

Oh, oh, oh, yes, tango is on my agenda for Friday at former San Franciscans’ Missy McCrosky and Mr. Kim’s place: Embrace Tango at the Tango Ensueño. It is on Felicity at Tchoupitoulas near Religious and Nuns streets. “Sound like pilgrimage?” asks Missy. You bet and I can’t wait. Stay tuned for details.

Answers:

First one is a short story, May Day (1920) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Second passage is from Phineas Finn (1867) by Anthony Trollope.

The passages from each are here.

Can you guess the authors of these two passages and the works in which they appear? Try to resist the urge to google, which will give your answers lickety split. These were written about 53 years apart. Have fun!

What color is this prose?

“Her bare arms and shoulders were powdered to a creamy white. She knew they looked very soft and would gleam like milk against the black backs that were to silhouette them tonight. The hairdressing had been a success; her reddish mass of hair was piled and crushed and creased to an arrogant marvel of mobile curves. Her lips were finely made of deep carmine; the irises of her eyes were delicate, breakable blue, like china eyes. She was a complete, infinitely delicate, quite perfect thing of beauty, flowing in an even line from a complex coiffure to two small slim feet.”

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar . . . that can’t be lit

“She was one of those girls, so common in Ireland, whom men, with tastes that way given, feel inclined to take up and devour on the spur of the moment; and when she liked her lion, she had a look about her which seemed to ask to be devoured. There are girls so cold-looking, — pretty girls, too, ladylike, discreet, and armed with all accomplishments, — whom to attack seems to require the same sort of courage, and the same sort of preparation, as a journey in quest of the north-west passage. One thinks of a pedestal near the Athenaeum as the most appropriate and most honourable reward of such courage. But, again, there are other girls to abstain from attacking who[m] is, to a man of any warmth of temperament, quite impossible. They are like water when one is athirst, like plovers’ eggs in March, like cigars when one is out in the autumn. No one ever dreams of denying himself when such temptation comes in the way. It often happens, however, that in spite of appearances, the water will not come from the well, nor the egg from its shell, nor will the cigar allow itself to be lit.”

GIVE UP? CLICK HERE FOR THE ANSWERS

Tango Addicts are known to hide shoes in the freezer

JUNE 19, 2011, SAN FRANCISCO

The first ever TangoChat was a great success—just like the dance, full of improvisations and surprises. On Sunday, June 19, at 4 p.m. fifteen of us showed up at Caffe Trieste for this inaugural event. Like other 12 step meetings, we introduced ourselves with first names only: Sasha, Camille, Christa, Federico, Bruce, Sandy, Sonja, Bob, Carolyn, Jody, Michele, Helen, Greg, Lewis, Linyee.

“I believe in tang-god,” said Federico when we were all assembled and called to order.

“Second the motion,” I said.

We went around the table introducing ourselves, making comments here and there:

• My name is Camille, I’m a tango addict. I quit my day job six years ago to devote my life to it.”

• Welcome, Camille!

• I’m not really an addict; I’ve danced ballroom for 20 years.

• Well, maybe we can work on enabling you.

• Tango is my mission [in life].

• I’m married to a tango addict.

• I got addicted in Santa Fe—I became obsessed with tango’s many nuances, facets, flavors, its multi-level subtleties.

• I’m not really a tango addict.

• We’ll work on you, too, enabling you.

• I have totally blacked out during a tanda (a leader saying this); I couldn’t remember a thing about it later. I wouldn’t give it up for the world.

• I tango five nights a week. I train when not dancing—soccer, running.

• Hi, my name is Bruce, I’m a late-onset addict. My wife is not as hooked as I am. I had to learn how to do it for a trip to Paris.

• Welcome, Bruce, keep coming back, you’ll love it.

• (From a leader): I’m thinking of putting up orange cones at some of the milongas [where the floorcraft is anarchic].

We went on to discuss things important to us. For example, one leader asked could there be a non-violent means of communication between him and the follower where she could gently signal him if something is off for her, like a squeeze of the hand say if he is holding her too tight. Sonja nodded and agreed, yes. The follower can move her back a friendly way to signal the leader, “too tight” or “too high, too low.”

You’ve heard of the 8-step basic, here are the Twelve Steps: I am familiar with Al-Anon, having once been a regular attendee, so I took it upon myself to playfully transpose the Al-Anon 12 Steps to Tango Addicts Anonymous 12 Steps. I tried to adhere to the original wording and asked the TangoChat participants to comment, edit, alter, or not. To my pleasant surprise, everyone took the steps very seriously and had many good changes. I didn’t capture them all. But here are the steps as I transposed them with some of the suggestions for word change in [brackets]. Enjoy and share your own:

1. We admitted we felt more powerful [engaged, present, vibrant, joyful, alive] with tango—other dances had become uninteresting [less interesting].

2. Came to believe that a power greater than the sum of tango’s parts led us to the dance.

3. Made a decision to show up at milongas, surrender [or yield to the night, the music], and dance tango as we understood it.

4. Made a fearless and searching inventory of the steps we knew and those in need of improvement.

5. Admitted to the gods, ourselves, and that one other human being of the moment, the exact nature of our tango style.

6. Were entirely astonished how dancing tango removed [softened] all our defects of character.

7. Humbly asked our teachers to help us with our shortcomings.

8. Made a mental list of those we hoped to tango with and became willing to meet them on the dance floor for an entire tanda.

9. Made a show of [Let emerge] our favorite adornments except when to do so would injure our partner or surrounding dancers.

10. Continued to take classes and improve our inventory of figures and when we stepped wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through this dance and its contemplative aspect to improve our contact with higher consciousness and the gods [goddesses] of tango, praying only to [stay connected] be able to carry out the next step without anticipating.

12. Having had an awakening as a result of tango, vowed to carry this message to others, enable tango addicts everywhere, and practice these principles in all our affairs [or give a good ride?].

Sonja, who also teaches Transformation Tango on Saturdays at La Pista, had to prepare the caffe for her class and milonga. So we adjourned a little before 6pm and ten of us moved to my little studio in the Marina to eat, drink, and chat some more. We had crowd-pleasing pasta (lemon-pepper ribbons with mushroom sauce and rigatoni with sausage and tomato sauce), wine, bread, cheese, salad.

At 9pm, we all headed to Studio Gracia and followed our passion.

If you couldn’t make this one, watch for the next one – in late August or September. We’ll post at tangomango.org.

I have an idea for an illegal outdoor milonga-meeting. The bunker tunnel on Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands is a sacred place now that World War II is behind us. If you have not heard the Tibetan bowl player chant there, you must. There is a flute player, too, from Hawaii. And I think it would be a good place to christen with Tango for Peace. The floor is concrete so it would be a token milonga – not lasting long, just enough to infuse the stone, woods, the ocean views, the bridge, and all you can see from there with tango, the dance of peaceful revolutions.

I’d like to share a little about Sonja Riket, skilled tango teacher, who will be attending the TangoChat on June 19. She is the host of the neighborly “Tango Revolution” every Sunday at Caffee Trieste (follows our chat). She describes TR as “a fertile ground for learning about Argentine Tango, a dance and music of immigrants, which continues to cross the boundaries of race, culture, language and social status.” She brings an enlightened perspective to the table. Her relaxed milonga invites beginning and accomplished dancers and musicians to “share the floor without obvious hierarchy” and she says, “all gender pairings are encouraged and anyone may ask anyone to dance.” Sonja, a dancer of many years and a Feldenkrais therapist is sensitive to the dance in a special way: “We offer the beautiful connection between human beings in the Tango Embrace as a common ground and antidote against the isolation, separation and fearful existence we are led to believe is necessary.  What better way to come home to ourselves and connect with each other across our differences than the non-verbal power of a musical and dance embrace, listening and moving together as one?” Come meet Sonja Riket on June 19 at Trieste. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109235172499009

How Hooked Are You?

Yellow alert: You keep a pair of dance shoes in your car.
Orange alert: You have to work hard to maintain non-tango friendships.
Red alert: You have no non-tango friends and plan to quit your day job so
you can practice tango more often.

Come! Get help and encouragement for your addiction at the first in a series of TangoChats hosted by writers Camille Cusumano and Sasha Cagen to create tango community and explore the deeper resonances of tango in our lives, art, relationships,and personal growth. FIRST UP: tango addiction. Let’s explore what draws us to tango. Do we need a 12-step program or is it the non-tango dancers who need it? Come prepared to talk about your tango addiction. Come one, call all to contribute to the dialogue. What are the signs of tango addiction? Why is tango uniquely addictive? Can there ever be too much tango in your life?
All interested are invited to attend – we’ll meet at Caffe Trieste on Market
Street (the meeting is free, and you can buy coffee and food on your own. Note, there is a Tango Menu available that includes empanadas and salad. Caffe Trieste has a nice wine selection.)

Sunday, Jun. 19
4:00 – 6:00 pre – milonga chat

FREE (If you want to stay on for Sonja’s Riket’s milonga/lesson, see her listing)

Caffe Trieste Downtown
1667 Market Street
@ Gough St.
San Francisco, CA
Map

Future TangoChat topics– to explore:

Do we tango dancers need to hitch our wagons to the bigger picture community? Say to environmentalists (Tango is clean, green, and never mean); to Spirituality (Tango is about kindness to self and others); to Sexuality (it is sexual, safe and socially acceptably so); Healthy (it’s low-impact exercise, calorie burner, a form of partners yoga, good for body and soul).  It’s democratic (anyone is free to choose to be the leader or follower).
We like to keep Tango a-political, not endorsing any partisan politics. It is BIGGER than that.
We are cognizant that Tango can bring to surface pleasant as well as uncomfortable feelings, emotions. Something to discuss.
Tango is empowering if you realize its potential as a microcosm of life. All that occurs in Tango partnership is exactly what occurs elsewhere in life. Only, it’s speeded up.

Please share any topics you would like to see covered in future TangoChats.

Besos y Abrazos

More great Senior Tango in Emeryville. See other videos here.

FREE TANGO CLASS AND PRACTICA

This may be the best tango deal in town. Maestro Ivan Shvarts trained in Buenos Aires with several excellent tango teachers. I am assisting him and we’re having a ball. Although his class is promoted as tango for seniors, the classes have great talent in ages ranging from 30s to early 90s. You will never guess who’s over 80. Ivan brings in fantastic talent almost every week. Occasionally, we have a beautiful Argentine singer Roberto Traina, 80, sing original tangos to us each week after class. Kate Bernier accompanies him on piano.

WATCH A CLASS HERE!

AND HERE – TOM & CAMILLE!

Come join us – drop in – no need to have danced before. We’ll have you up and moving in one class.

“Tango Curiosity, developed by Ivan Shvarts, is the first program of its kind specializing in tango for Bay Area Seniors. Dedicated to teaching authentic Argentine tango for all skill levels and ages, Tango Curiosity currently offers classes in San Francisco, Emeryville and Redwood City.”

4321 Salem St, Emeryville, CA 94608, – Every Friday
1:00 – 2:15   Class all Levels and ages
2:15 – 3:30   Practica, No partners needed

home made lunch $3 at 12:00 for members, membership is Free

Emeryville Senior Center
4321 Salem St.
Between San Pablo & Adeline
of 43 rd. St.
Emeryville, CA

Art deco veterans building,
original hardwood floor 3000sq.f
tangocuriosity@gmail.com
www.tangocuriosity.org

I am helping teach at Christy Cote’s tango classes every Tuesday, beginners and intermediates, followed by a practica, 9 to 11pm or so.

The floor is smooth and spacious. Drop by.

Tuesdays:

At the old Metronome on 17th St. near DeHaro

7pm to 8pm – Beginners

8pm to 9pm – Intermediate

9pm til midnight – practica (only $5 for the practica)

Visit www.christycote.com or www.tangomango.org for more prices, details

Buy signed copies of Tango, an Argentina Love Story or The Last Cannoli.

$15 per book, shipping and handling included. Please email your mailing address to me after you have paid: ocaramia@me.com. Allow seven to ten days for delivery. Special, overnight delivery is available upon request, for added cost. Email your request: ocaramia@me.com.

You may also pay by check. Mail to: Camille Cusumano, P.O. Box 475099, San Francisco, CA 94147. Be sure to include your mailing address, specify how many copies of each book, and to whom you wish the books dedicated.

number of copies

one copy $15.00 two copies $30.00 three copies $45.00 four copies $60.00

At a cocktail reception and  award ceremony with Mike Rayburn entertaining.

Wells Fargo recognized me and three other Californians for doing something different and impressive—for following our passions—after age 50.

Who says quitting your day job is not advisable? I did so in 2005 when I fell head over stiletto heels in love with tango and went to live in Buenos Aires. Now I’m being rewarded by WF with a sum of cash and a party for 100 of my friends and family.

We are called Second-Half Champions.

The event took place on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 in Walnut Creek, CA at:

Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek, CA 94596

Whether you are just getting started and want to take the plunge (into the inkwell) or need encouragement and confidence, I offer workshops to suit your and your writing group’s needs. Here is a list of several workshops I teach. Contact me for details and rates – ocaramia@earthlink.net or ocaramia@mac.com:

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY

1. A Thousand and One Words - Find your Writing Setpoint – Just as with body weight, we all have a writing setpoint—a natural length that suits our message and determines our ideal genre. 1,000 words is the mean, from which you assess your need to unpack and flesh out or shrink wrap and tighten. It is the naturally manageable increment to bite off and chew, whether you’re writing a short story/feature or a saga. We’ll meet four goals in this class: embracing your personal setpoint; understanding when to unpack or shrink; preserving the narrative arc, no matter what length; and writing with full confidence. All levels writers welcome.

2. Travel Memoir Writing - With the travel-writing market evolved beyond the go-here/see-this approach, personal experience and artful story in travel is more and more in demand. As a magazine editor, I successfully moved from the traditional how-to travel writing to publishing my personal experience travel stories in books and as essays in publications. I’ll help participants understand how they can do this, too. Even if you are still writing for the traditional travel outlets you can infuse your story with sparkle – snap, crackle, and pop. We’ll look at how you can satisfy the reader’s needs and still craft a story with your personal style.  All levels welcome.

3. Tap into your Autonomic Writing System - Much can be said about the Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind approach to unlocking the writer within. Now is the time to circle back to the discipline and the practice of craft—without killing the golden goose. This class is designed to tap into the autonomic system of writing—where words begin to flow and to arrive on schedule, like breath. All the while, we consider craft. The goal of this workshop is to have participants leave inspired, enthused, excited, perturbed, riled up, having tapped into their own autonomic writing system; and ready to face the empty white page, armed with their own art and skill. All levels.

4. Writing about & from loss - Many of my students found me through my memoir, TANGO, which is my writing about my own loss (and finds) through tango and Zen practice. I’ve worked with aspiring writers who were ready to face the blank page as a place of refuge after tremendous losses and grieving. When we sit down to write about our lives, pain, grief as well as bliss and contentment rise to the surface. Putting down the words gives a sense of meaning to life in dark times.