Saturday, December 6, 2008

Feel the Ritmo

Cities have rhythms. I have lived in cities for a large chuck of my life and after a time, you begin to understand how they move, what makes them wiggle and jiggle.

It’s a whole different experience when you are living in a foreign city. There are noises that are new, there are things that will make you stare. This gives you a different rhythm. Even the language has a different tune and you speaking with people or listening to people talking is part of what creates the groove.

Sound is the background for rhythm, but there’s also mood that fills in corners of a vibe. Here one of the factors is time. It is 10:30am and the sun is out, but it has the feeling of the middle of the night. The streets are empty. The noisy cars that normally zoom by my window are intermittent. The noisiest city in the world is quiet. Buenos Aires is truly a nocturnal city, more alive at midnight than at noon.

All of this is a far cry from DC, where I have friends who go to the gym at 4 am. Here that’s about the time when the disco is really fun.

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