Well, you’re in luck - now is as good a time as ever to start…

Buenos Aires Creativity Lab

Maya from the Sexy Spanish Club in Buenos Aires, who I have yet to meet, though her husband Tom (whose company makes a pretty cool type of clasp-less Magnetic Bracelet) is a new friend of mine, alerted me to a free ‘creativity lab’ she is putting on in conjunction with creativity coach Malaya Llewellyn.

According to Maya’s last blog post, this free meeting will be…

“the first of many free gatherings to share lively conversation about creativity and connection! Whether you’re playing with paint, flour, film, cloth, words, programs, or products, you’re invited to join expats and Argentines alike to explore ideas and get inspired”.

Sounds interesting, and even if you are a bit of a cynic (like I am on occasion), I am sure it will be a great place to meet bloggers such as Maya, expats and locals here in Buenos Aires, all while trying out a new experience. Here’s the meeting details for those interested:

Lab - Playing In Flow
An evening of lighthearted collaboration with Malaya Llewellyn
7:30 pm, Tuesday, April 24th In Palermo on Beruti, near the Botanical Garden
[For details, email mvq@inteleto.com or call 4831-1664]

Not your kind of thing? Then maybe try this for size…

Free beer in Buenos Aires?

Mr Yanqui Mike, a 100% certified Buenos Aires blogging celebrity, is celebrating a year of blogging, and what’s more, a whopping great 10,000 visits during that time.

Being a gentleman and a scholar, Mike has promised readers an ice cold beer if they drop by Big Mamma’s Bar (Juramento 2156) in Belgrano this Saturday, April 21st, 5pm - 7pm, to celebrate his blogging milestone.

Love him or loathe him, there is free beer on offer, and you can’t argue with an offer like that
For exact details including a map link, and a chance to RSVP is you so wish, check out his latest blog post.

And in case you needed any further encouragement to attend either of these free meetings in Buenos Aires - there is also the chance that you will run into yours truly at one or both of them. Or did I mean discouragement? I always get those two words mixed up…

Armenia 1447 (between Gorriti and Jose A. Cabrera), Palermo Viejo

Following on from my recent review of the Buller Brewing Company bar in Recoleta, here comes the hotly awaited (by me!) second post in my Great Buenos Aires Beer Hunt series: my visit to the fairly new Antares Cerveza Pub in Palermo Viejo.

As you can see from the (possibly sight damaging) photo to the right, I also happened to go along to Antares on St Patrick’s Day, always an excellent excuse for beer drinking. A little bit more about such Irish shenanigans will follow the main event, as ever, the beer… (didn’t you know that beer is the new wine?)

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[5th - 11th March 2007]

For your information, I’m writing this week’s Buenos Aires blog roundup slowly in between itching the many mosquito bites that have ravaged my poor body. Unfortunately we have a bit of a mosquito invasion here in the city of Buenos Aires at the moment, although at least it looks (correct me if I’m wrong) like there is no risk of Dengue here in the city (unlike in parts of Buenos Aires province, and further north in Misiones). Still, the bites don’t half itch a lot, so apologies if my itching-triggered lack of concentration causes any errors in this roundup…

Buenos Aires Blog Posts of the Week

• This week’s top posts are about three new things that I’m pretty certain I will love. First up, Robert points out that a cafe has just opened up on the ground floor of the Palacio Barolo, a building that fascinates pretty much everyone, including Robert and I. It looks beautiful in Robert’s pictures, and despite the hefty, touristy prices (9 pesos for a cafe con leche with 3 medialunas!!!), I will definitely be checking it out in the near future
• Secondly, Dan from Saltshaker has been privy to a sneak preview of the food at an authentic Indian restaurant that will apparently be opening in Barrio Norte (Laprida and Charcas) later this month. It will be called Tandoor, and hopefully will provide the quality Indian food many of us expats have been missing since arriving in Buenos Aires
• Thirdly, Disco Shawn (still my vote for top blogger pseudonym of the year), introduces us to the Chilean indie musician Javiera Mena, who will be playing in Buenos Aires this Friday, March 16th at Club Niceto in Palermo Hollywood, during their indie music night Compass. From the tracks linked to in that blog post, her stuff sounds pretty good (I like my “cute, keyboard-driven pop goodness”, as Shawn describes it), so I will probably try to make my way to Compass this Friday

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[12th - 18th February 2007]

This roundup post is late, as usual, so no messing around this week folks… let’s just get straight into the Buenos Aires, Argentina linky goodness from last week…

Buenos Aires Argentina Blog Posts of the Week

• Matt Bites, who appears to be thoroughly enjoying a holiday in Buenos Aires and the general Rio de la Plata area, penned a mouthwatering review of the La Cabrera parrilla in Palermo Viejo, one of the best places to eat meat in BA. Although… drinking Torrontes instead of Malbec wine as an accompaniment to steak… don’t they kill for such crimes against Argentine sensibilities round these parts?
• Matt Chesterton, editor of the Time Out guides to Buenos Aires, has been writing a fantastic series about hotels in Buenos Aires… my runaway favorite has to be his post on classic hotels in BA, mainly for his wedding night anecdote from the Hotel Castelar.. seriously, a must read!
• I couldn’t find a third Matthew to make this a ‘Mattrick’ of top blog posts (were there any other Matts writing about BA this week?)… so we’ll have to make do with the closest I could find…a Marc. He recently announced on Asado Argentina that he has launched a new photo blog of southern Argentina. OK, so it’s not Buenos Aires… but from time to time we city dwellers need to be reminded that real life does exist outside of the metropolis, and his first few pictures provide some beautiful examples of that fact

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Presidente Roberto M. Ortiz 1827 (between Guido and Quintana), Recoleta

[Also has a downtown pub location at Paraguay 428]

The Buller brewpub in Recoleta is one of the few places in Buenos Aires where you can get a proper pint of beer. By ‘proper’, I mean two things. Firstly, served in a traditional pint glass. That is key. Beer just tastes better that way. But secondly, and far more importantly, the BEER MUST TASTE GOOD, and not like the mass-produced cats piss that is served in the majority of bars across the world, and is especially prevalent in Argentina, where Quilmes, high on preservatives and additives but low on any kind of taste whatsoever, prevails.

In fact, at first look it seems so difficult to get decent beer at a reasonable price in Buenos Aires, that you might just give up. I know I did… I tried for a while, then decided I would just have to forget about this great drink that is so close to my heart for the duration of my stay in Argentina. But then I took a trip home to the UK at Christmas, including a pilgrimage to the Fuller’s brewery (makers of the finest beer on the face of the planet), and reignited my passion for the real drink of the gods. And so, once back in Buenos Aires, I decided to start a series of posts that will go under the grandiose name of…

The Great Buenos Aires Beer Hunt

I mean, what would life be like without good beer? It just doesn’t bear thinking about…

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