adios maestro

Por donde empezar a elogiarte? Pluma guerrera, feminista y anticlerical, fogoso defensor de Roberto Saviano y de Baltazar Garzón, blogger apasionado, gran luz y guía en este mundo de tinieblas y lo que más me conmovió:

autoexiliado en Lanzarote, los perros callejeros te elegían cual dueño uniendose a tu familia; y a veces, como tanto se desesperaban cuando salías sin ellos, para no angustiarlos, diplomaticamente, te fugabas por la ventana.

josé saramago 16 de noviembe 1922 – 18 de junio 2010

the way they were

My sister on the left plus her pals, circa 1983. Bizarrely I have zero recall of that charming gamine haircut. All I can say is... I WISH I'D TAKEN THIS PICTURE! And, as our dear friend Kim commented: "The 80's rule. Would that we had known that at the time..."

girl loves rock star

recién el ser adorable inmortalado en la foto al lado: estrella... talentoso pintor... querido amigo... nos mandó un auténtico pedazo de la historia del under porteño:

se trata del disco de la tribu de los cristianos, cuyo track antipapa -temazo entre temazos, todos por barnes + peyon- es una adaptación de la carta al papa de antonin artaud.

voz y guitarra cristian barnes
bajo cristian peyon
producción charly garcia

a bajar mi amor!

girl, circa 1982

having just landed in the boston area from another galaxy far far away, sweet sixteen-year-old girlontape was dazed, confused & rather alienated:

unjustly trapped in a leafy well-to-do suburb by her well-meaning parents, she loathed the cheery overweight natives, all of whom seemed to be wearing those awful cheery sweaters with little reindeers... little hearts... little xmas trees... and whose favorite greeting was: oh my god!! you're so skinny!!

as a result of which teen girlontape soon developed body-image problems like the rest of 'em. what else? oh yeah.

that year she spent a lot of time in her room having epic self-induced orgasms & longing to do it with a man not a boy & preferably david bowie, smoking cigarettes, writing a lot of angst-ridden crap & listening to her favorite tune,

then got rid of her cherry with a boy not a man, learned to smoke pot like an american, fell in love with muscle cars & got raving drunk on scotch whisky at her first rock 'n roll concert.

ps. photo of girlontape by a friend of my parents' who took us out on his boat... can't remember his name but they were a very nice family... of course i didn't appreciate them at the time nor did i ever thank him for this amazing portrait, the only one i have of myself at that age.

pps. according to the family historian aka my sister... turns out these friends were Argentines of Italian descent. of course!

the sisterhood of the bitch part 9

amsterdam, circa 1963: girlontape y su turboPerra de rosario la rompen en su viaje iniciático.

merci dampira darling por recordarme como eramos, somos y siempre seremos: balas no perdidas sino rebeldes, perras sin ley ni dueño, de pelo apasionado y tacos poderosos.

***

amsterdam, sometime in the 60s: girlontape & her bitch sister from rosario get groovy long before groovy becomes a household word.

thank you dampira dearest for this visual reminder of the way we were, are & always will be.

i'm a believer

Hace poco girlontape conoció a un joven escritor de multiples virtudes, entre ellas su parecido halucinante al espectacular johnny lee miller. Lo que dios te quita por un lado....

Not long ago girlontape had the pleasure of meeting a young writer among whose multiple virtues is his unbelievable resemblance to the glorious boytoy to end all boytoys, aka johnny lee miller. There is a god after all.

girlFamily

"Te presento a nuestra tía abuela Fanny...solterona" aclara mi primo Giancarlo al mandarme esta foto y añade: "Fue una bella mujer para su época...elegante, fina, íper culta...re hinchabolas."

Después me cuenta mi padre que nuestra prócer solía frecuentar la crème romana. QUÉ CRÈME le pregunto yo. "Y...la tía Fanny y todos sus príncipes" contesta él riendose "leyendo y bailando." Cómo no me llegaron tus ojos claros tía...suerte que tu espíritu sí.

***

Meet my Great-Aunt Fanny, an old maid as my cousin Giancarlo pointed out upon sending me her portrait, adding: "She was a beautiful woman in her time...elegant, refined...a total ballbuster."

My dad describes her as an intellectual fashion queen, dallying in Roman high society. WHAT HIGH SOCIETY I want to know. "Oh...Aunt Fanny and all her princes," he replies laughing "always reading and dancing." Why did your blue eyes not reach me Aunt F...thankfully your spirit did.

***

Questa è la mia prozia Fanny, napoletana e zitella secondo mio cugino Giancarlo che tanto gentilmente mi ha mandato il suo ritratto. "Era una bella donna per la sua epoca...coltissima, elegante, una rompicoglioni," chiarisce poi.

Aggiunge mio padre che la nostra antenata frequentava l'alta società romana. "Cioè??" voglio sapere io. "Eh...la zia Fanny e tutti i suoi principi," mi risponde ridendo. "Sempre a leggere e a ballare." Com'è che non mi sono arrivati i tuoi occhi chiari zia? Fortuna che il tuo spirito si.