And…some Bajofondo.  Looks to be a fun and lively group!  Thanks for that, Susanna and good to see you here again!

Irena
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuLZHLh0H98

I saw the same clip about the Finns and their love of the tango. Can’t remember who coined these words when the tango shows were touring the country, but it fits.  “A tango is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire”.
AK, I loved your story about the elderly couple, alone, dancing the tango in a Buenos Aires bar.  So romantic. Such a scene could play in a movie but you saw it for yourself.  I can visualize just such a scene from what you described.
Irena, I have to see The Scent of a Woman again. I remember the scene you described.  There is also a different kind of tango scene between two women in “Frida”.  Something about that music that brings out strange passions.

The tango scene from “Scent of a Woman”.  The steamy one from “Frida” is right there on the same page.  I even came across a tango done by Gidon Kremer.  The fever seems to spread, albeit, not so much to the generation coming after baby boomers—less thereafter.  But, they just don’t get it, so I tell myself…

Irena

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBHhSVJ_S6A

Speaking of movies. For those of you who haven’t seen it, don’t mind quirky art films and love the tango I highly recommend Assassination Tango. Robert Duvall is a big Tango fan and this was a labor of love.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_Tango

The trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztzHqBTaPgw

And a little taste from the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OPZWLx2fiw&feature=related

Fair warning. The film is not for everyone. It can be slow moving at times and quirky. Full of nuance and arty flourishes. Come to think of it, a little like the tango itself.

Andrejs

Paldies, Andrej!  Will keep that in mind, as long as it’s not like “The Last Tango in Paris” with Marlon Brando.  That was such a long time ago, but I still remember my mother telling me how absolutely shocked she and her Latvian friends were, embarrassed, coming out of that movie theater.  No sakuma, bija tik loti sajusminati par “tango”, “Marlon Brando”...not knowing, expecting what they were in for!  I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see their faces, expressions—makes me crack up everytime I think about it!

Irena

Heh… me too.
Reminds me of the time a group of us went to see Caligula in college expecting something Spartacus like. Surprise. Still remember a friend of mine covering her 15 year old cousin’s eyes every few minutes or so. :)

That little teaser clip was so beautiful but from the title of the movie I can picture it as a big shoot-em-up.  Lately my lady friends and I have concentrated more on seeing chick-flicks, like Julie & Julia or Coco before Chanel. 
Irena your recollection of Last Tango was right on the mark. Like your mom, I,too, was shocked at all that casual sex but chucked it off to the French. Little did I know how quickly things were changing right here in the USA.  I did not see Caligula but until I read your post, Andrej, I also thought it was of the Spartacus type.  Glad I missed it.

Don’t let the title fool you. It fooled a few and the film never did find a real audience. The action folks were expecting a shoot ‘em up and found none. And the arts crowd, due to the title, never went to see it. Its not quite a chick flick, but far far from an action film. Picture it as being something between Z (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065234/) and The Tango Lesson (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120275/) with a dash of Sexy Beast (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203119/).

Andrejs

Irena, you can be very disappointing… And not by what you just had wrongly professed via “you don’t worship me enough”, nor not even by the newer, distracting (—-and quite absurd) sidebar of: “quality being far more important than quantity”.) Hmmm, does this mean that PC, the one perhaps once esteemed even by yourself, is now merely a pluralistic tweed?—-Hey, is it not really more by your “self” taught, general disinterest in reading than from any awareness?

Mikus E.

P.S. Sure, I know and have danced tangos myself; but can we now get back to cooking!
(—-Andrejs just must love you for being sooo distracting!)

Irena distracting? Noooo. You on the other hand. Wish I understood half of what you write.

Andrejs, love

P.S.

Lovie must go.

Another of my New Year’s resolutions is to stay clear of LOL confrontations which for me is VERY difficult to do and requires lots of self-control. With that said, I am not going to confront Mikus but I would like to add my two cents on Irena’s behalf.
The lady has so many interesting observations and for me, reading her comments is anything but distracting.

Thanks Andrej, Arija!  I don’t want to get into a confrontation either, “lai paliek”!  Besides, I bet Mikus can do a preeetty mean tango—

“Tonight we dance
I leave my life in your hands.
We take the floor
Nothing is forbidden anymore…Bailamos…”

Love, Irena

Gilbert Arenas is to guns as Andrejs‘ is to “love“?
(...And wouldn’t most then score very high on their SAT tests?)

But Irena has indeed recently learned some different “dance steps”.—-And it did not result from any reluctance towards past confrontations. (Personally, just who really still does look for confrontation these days?—-bullies, mind terrorists?)

And so sadly exampled through her new, different steps; hasn’t Irena simply “learned” to miss-step here? (As for Andrejs…, well he often recites—- feeling that what had “worked” for him before should always work for him always. ...A stubbornness not based upon reason, but upon intentions.)

Irena though “butters“?... “Besides, I bet Mikus can do a preeetty mean tango—”

Come on, tangos have nothing to do with “meanness”! (Okay, so “bad” is to be now “good”!—-Then, am I now to feel very “modern“?!)

Surely you, Irena, will agree that even in the introductory steps of the tango, certain emotions are felt! (And just what is wrong with that?)—-And this is what I will always choose to remember of tangos.
But isn’t this very much different from viewed Latvian folk dances? ...For aren’t their “feelings” on a different emotional plane?

Mikus E.

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out!
A door slammed. The maid screamed.
Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon!
While millions of people were starving, the king lived
in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was
growing up.

A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the
tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.
At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was
making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in
Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly.
Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas
who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the
daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?

The intern frowned.
“Stampede!” the foreman shouted, and forty thousand head
of cattle thundered down on the tiny camp. The two men
rolled on the ground grappling beneath the murderous hooves.
A left and a right. A left. Another left and right. An
uppercut to the jaw. The fight was over. And so the ranch
was saved.
The young intern sat by himself in one corner of the
coffee shop. He had learned about medicine, but more
importantly, he had learned something about life.

You are a hoot, Anita.  Your post reminds me of a very interesting book we just read in our book club “Double Bind”. The more I read into the story, the more the author drew me into the schizoid mind of the main charachter until I was beginning to doubt myself. 
Were the charachters in a major novel real and somehow connected and related to the charachter I am reading about now? 
Good story for fans of “The Great Gatsby”.
Aria