Aerolineas Argentinas Es Una Porquería

Before climbing on my soapbox, I should apologize for the lack of posts over the past few weeks. Between moving twice in one week, hosting parental visitors and traveling to Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego, things have been a tad hectic.

Now I'm back in Buenos Aires and ready to resume my social commentary (aka endless complaining). Normally I'd stay away from topics like airlines. Who doesn't hate them? Incompetence is par for the course, right?

Well, I'm willing to make an exception in this case. Aerolineas Argentinas has taken incompetence to new levels.



In case you're not familiar, Aerolineas Argentinas is basically the national airline in Argentina. Although the federal government currently only owns 5% of the company, Aerolineas Argentinas apparently remains steadfast in its commitment to bureaucratic incompetence. For those interested, Wikipedia has a surprisingly thorough history, including details of the airline's privatization and corruption-laden buyout, followed by years of mismanagement and a near-collapse in 2001-02.

For my part, I've assembled a laundry list of problems, difficulties and negative attributes. Keep in mind that I only used Aerolineas Argentinas for one flight. I shudder to think how long this list could be if I was a more frequent traveler.

- Reservations can be made online, but purchases can not. Actually paying for tickets requires going to a local Aerolineas office or calling them up to pay by phone.

- Paying by phone does not actually complete the transaction; processing the payment takes several more days. The final confirmation finally arrives via e-mail days later.

- Aerolineas has two-tier pricing, with one set of rates for Argentinian residents and another for everyone else. People who live in Argentina but do not have a DNI do not qualify for the resident rate.

- Only a certain number of non-resident seats are available for each flight, despite the fact that non-residents pay significantly more just to get on the plane.

- Confirming your flight online on the scheduled travel day is impossible. The "flight reconfirmation" option requires submitting your information and waiting for an e-mail response. These requests are only accepted up to 24 hours before the flight. The "departures and arrivals" option only allows flight status to be checked after the scheduled departure/arrival time.

- Carry-on bags are limited to 10 kg, meaning that almost any bag needs to be checked. Not surprisingly, the enforcement of this rule appears to be totally subjective.

- Airport monitors for Aerolineas continue to say "En Hora" (On Time) for flights that are delayed, even 30-40 minutes after their scheduled arrival/departure time.

You get the idea. On the plus side, I can say that for some reason my seat had an unusually large amount of legroom. It was a nice surprise after all the hassles just to get a ticket and get on the plane.

The Evens

The Evens are playing in Buenos Aires! This Friday, March 23rd at Niceto Club.

What? Why? I have no idea.

I am an unabashed Dischord Records enthusiast. Since its inception in 1980, Dischord has been one of the defining indie labels. Starting in the world of hardcore punk, the label branched out over the years and has catalogued an entire generation of DC bands, including Minor Threat, Fugazi, Rites of Spring, Nation of Ulysses, Lungfish, Q and Not U and countless others. Dischord operates in a truly independent fashion and has never joined forces with the major labels or marketed "indie" as an aesthetic. An extensive label history can be found here on the Dischord website.

Co-owner Ian MacKaye has long been the primary face of Dischord Records, running the label, recording bands and making music of his own in groups like Minor Threat, Embrace, Fugazi and now, The Evens. Formed just before Fugazi began their "indefinite hiatus," the band has released two albums, 12 Songs (2005) and Get Evens (2006).

With just Ian MacKaye and drummer Amy Farina (ex-Warmers), The Evens do not make the same kind of punk squall its members' previous outfits were known for. Although the music is a somewhat mellow, stripped-down affair, the feel is nonetheless familiar. At times, the band sounds like an acoustic Fugazi (Acoustigazi?), especially when the lyrics tackle politics and social justice. Vocal melodies and harmonies abound, as both MacKaye and Farina sing, often simultaneously.

The Evens - Shelter Two (from 12 Songs)

The Evens - Pushed Up Against the Wall (from Get Evens)

Who knows why The Evens decided to tour South America? They haven't even toured North America that much. Regardless of their motives, I'm excited.

The Evens are coming to Buenos Aires!

Meet Gerardo

In recent weeks billboards featuring this Napoleon Dynamite-esque kid have gone up all over Palermo Viejo (and probably other parts of the city). He's the star of a marketing campaign by cell phone giant Movistar. The ads basically depict Gerardo as the consummate nerd and include slogans like "Gerardo tucks his t-shirt into his pants. Gerardo needs a Movistar." They have even created a special website, "The World of Gerardo," where people can go and bask in his special brand of lameness.

I'm not sure if it is comforting or disturbing to see that mean-spirited advertising has found its way to Latin America. These tactics are certainly commonplace in the United States. Nevertheless, this Gerardo campaign does seem especially brutal. The basic message is "Gerardo is a total fucking loser - if you don't want to be like him, you'd better buy our phone." It's certainly not a message of love and tolerance.

Speaking of that, local paper La Nacion published an article this week concerning the results of a recent study conducted by the Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y el Racismo. The organization found racism to be the most common form of discrimination in Buenos Aires. The most frequent targets were foreign workers thought to be taking jobs from Argentinians, especially Bolivians, Peruvians and Paraguayans.

Coming in a close second after racism was discrimination against overweight people. This phenomenon was not surprisingly more prevalent in more fashion-conscious Capital Federal, where anyone can see that thin is definitely in.

Perhaps most interesting is that 80% of people surveyed felt there was "a lot" of discrimination. In contrast, 71.7% of people surveyed said they did not feel discriminated against. I guess all the hate is saved up for just a select few groups.

BsAs + ATMs = Lame

This can be filed under "things that annoy tourists and foreigners that native Porteños probably don't even notice."

Buenos Aires is a city where cash is always necessary, especially for foreigners. Trips to the ATM are absolutely essential. Most foreigners keep cash in accounts back home and just deal with the ridiculous withdrawal surcharges, as even Porteños advise against keeping money in local banks. (I've also heard that opening a local account is a bureaucratic nightmare.) Bank charges run about $5 per transaction (or sometimes more), so expats often take out as much cash as possible to minimize the number of trips to the bank and subsequent dings to their account balance.

Until a few weeks ago, the local ATM limit for most people was $500AR per transaction. That is not a ton of money (about $166USD), but it is certainly enough for several days of food, transportation and random purchases.

That all changed last month when local Visa/Plus officials misjudged a ruling by their head office and placed a limit of three withdrawals per day of $100AR ($32USD) each. Factoring in bank fees for each withdrawal, tourists and foreign residents had less than $100USD cash at their disposal per day. After realizing their mistake, the limit was raised to three withdrawals of $300AR per day.

Not surprisingly, this has been a non-story in the local press, save the English-language Buenos Aires Herald, who ran two separate stories along with a few angry letters about the issue. In contrast, local travel and expat bulletin boards have been abuzz with discussion about these ATM difficulties. Apparently the new limits were put in place to "protect" foreigners in case their ATM cards are stolen. In the process, life has been made significantly more difficult for tourists and especially foreign residents.

Nevertheless, not all the news is bad. Although personal accounts differ about exact details, it seems that only the Visa-affiliated Banelco network has these new limits. The Mastercard-affiliated LINK has not yet followed suit and allows withdrawals of up to $1000AR. Unfortunately, Banelco is the most common ATM network in Buenos Aires. However, given the potential savings in bank fees, making a little field trip to your nearest LINK ATM might not be such a bad idea. They even have an online ATM locator so you can avoid randomly wandering the city.

For a place that is increasingly dependent on tourism and foreign spending, it would behoove someone in the local banking establishment to make this ATM situation a little easier.

Javiera Mena

I've been dropping little tidbits about this girl for the past couple weeks so I figured that I may as well get a little more in-depth. After all, Javiera Mena is the first Latin American "indie" artist to really get me excited.

Javiera Mena hails from Santiago, Chile and last year released her debut album Esquemas Juveniles on the Indice Virgen label (which is based in Buenos Aires). The 23 year-old's music recalls Stereolab's fun moments and should cuddle up nicely to anyone who loves cute, keyboard-driven pop goodness.

Her initial musical dabblings were in the realm of folk, as she recorded an acoustic album three separate times before scrapping the project and delving into the world of casio pop. It's a good thing she did, as Esquemas Juveniles has been showered with praise in local publications like Los Inrocktuptibles, La Mano, El Clarin and even Rolling Stone (which unlike its counterpart in the United States is actually somewhat credible in Argentina).

Porteños will have two chances to see Javiera Mena over the next week, as she's performing tomorrow at the South American Music Conference and next Friday, March 16th at Compass.

To find out more about Javiera Mena, her label has plenty more information here, including scans of the press features mentioned above. They've also set up an online music player with four tracks from the album. Or you can just go ahead and download my favorite song.

Javiera Mena - "Al Siguiente Nivel"

Shocker: Pop Punk Sucks in Argentina

Infierno 18 - "Lo Que Tengo"



Yikes. Of all the awful American cultural exports, I think this might be one of the worst. To be clear, pop punk pretty much blows whenever and wherever it's made. I'm certainly not upset that another country has watered down some sacred American art form. If anything, they're just polishing a giant turd.

Why are people inspired to make asinine music like this? Why are these kids from Buenos Aires dressing like bros from Southern California? Do they not realize that their band is a total ripoff of a ridiculously famous San Diego pop-punk band that also has the number 18 in their name?

American pop-punk is already a warped bastardization of the once-vibrant and long-dead (at least creatively) punk scene. What does that make pop-punk en español? A giant mierda.

The Name Game

What do I call people from Argentina? It's easy when I'm speaking Spanish - they are argentinos. Pretty simple.

However, in English things get a little tricky. Argentine seems like the obvious choice, but I'm actually partial to Argentinian. However, there is an alternate spelling - Argentinean - which is apparently more common in the United States. No "official" term exists so English speakers are left to navigate the mess and hope no one gets bent out of shape.

A similar quandary exists in Spanish when referring to people from the United States. Some South Americans resent people from the U.S. calling themselves Americans (americanos in Spanish). From their perspective, the Americas cover a lot more ground than just the United States so the gringo populace claiming the word American solely for themselves is seen as pretty arrogant.

As a result, it's much more polite to refer to people from the United States as norteamericanos. Less common, but technically more correct is the term estadounidense, which roughly translates as "of the United States" or "United Statesian." Of course, some locals forgo the formal terms and instead use "yanqui" or "gringo," neither of which is considered especially complimentary.

Who knew names could be so political?

Porteños Love Techno

Okay, it's probably obvious that electronic music is quite popular in Buenos Aires, even if you're only going by the gratuitous number of "punchi punchi" references I make.

However, prior to my arrival I had no idea that it was popular enough to warrant a multi-day conference and festival. This Friday and Saturday, March 9-10, Buenos Aires will host the 2007 South American Music Conference. The massive lineup includes international artists like Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath, James Holden, Christopher Lawrence, ATB, DJ Dan (who knew he was still around?) along with a slew of other acts, many of them local. The first day also features an entire stage of live acts, including Chilean indie darling (and one of my favorite new finds) Javiera Mena.

Modeled after the long-running Winter Music Conference in Miami, the SAMC is also an industry event with speakers, panel discussions and workshops. The whole thing is taking place at the Centro Costa Salguero. Tickets for each day of music are $70 pesos, while for $20 pesos you can check out the industry events.

Do you think glowsticks bother Richie Hawtin? I wonder, because this thing is probably going to be pretty rave-tastic. He just seems way too serious to put up with that nonsense.



On second thought, with that ridiculous hair he's been sporting for the past couple years, Mr. Hawtin has no room to get fussy.