Odd Argentine Obsessions

1. Pet Shop Boys: The British dance-music duo is remarkably popular in Buenos Aires. This comes as a surprise if analyzing the phenomenon by looking for an individual musical source, when, in the grand scheme of things, the general "muzak" in Argentina seems to be very straight-forward electronic music. The other important thing to note about their taste for Pet Shop Boys is that context is completely irrelevant. Time, location; meh, who cares? You can groove to "New York City Boy" while having new keys made at a hardware store at 8 in the evening, just as easily as finding yourself doing an early morning strut through the isles of your local supermarket to the beat of "West End Girls" . I have.

2. Ham and Cheese: They put it in/on/with everything! Bread, salad, steak, chicken, crepes, beer, fruit. I don't mind it. I love Ham and Cheese, my favorite sandwich ingredients. But damn, on everything? My problem is not with the taste or look of the meals, on the contrary, often times the Ham and Cheese complement the dish very well. It's just a little disappointing to see such a lack of variety or imagination. The quality of Argentine produce is the highest I've ever seen; there's no good reason to keep pulling the same stale culinary trick over and over again.

3. Mullets: Though curious, I don't know how this came to be. What I do know is that this horrible fad affects the majority of the male population and an unfortunately high percentage of the female population. They've made the mullet into a science. There's the Mohawk mullet, where the sides are shaven off. For the girls, there's the Joan Jett mullet; kinda square, kinda cool, kinda "yeah, I need a shower, so what?". The standard, though, is the "Camionero" or trucker. The most similar of all to the U.S. mullet, this one applies to the common folk. It's mostly worn by the youth, highschoolers and such. Often children and or grown ups who refuse to age in a dignified manner will wear it as well. Regardless of nation, mullets still seem to give off that tragic and trashy vibe we've grown to expect and raise an eyebrow at.

4. Sexy Security Guards: Only pretty boys seem to score this job. I think it would be a pretty profitable venture to start civil suits in which you claim sexual discrimination for men who don't get hired because they aren't muscly enough. Personally, I don't think it's a good policy to have attractive law enforcement because, honestly, it makes me wanna shoplift some lipstick just so I can get man handled and frisked. Who watches the Watchmen? I do!

5. Protesting: This is a country filled with people that will throw themselves to the streets at any chance they get. I gotta say, the hippy / agent of chaos in me loves that, but at the same time, the rational survivalist in me is terrified of getting caught in some kind of coup-d'etat / Detroit riots nonsense. With the politically unstable history of Argentina, it makes me quite nervous to see public demonstrations as often as I do. This week alone there was a national "get to the streets" event in which different groups demanded more security for their communities, a teachers strike in Buenos Aires, a national farmers strike against high trade tariffs and a national holiday conmemorating the fall of the military dictatorship. How did they celebrate the holiday? You guessed it, by taking it to the streets.