Street art by Blu in Villa Urquiza

Mural painted by street artist BLU in Villa Urquiza on the corner of Holberg and Rivera. Blu is the author of the stop motion video MUTO, a YouTube sensation with almost 7 million views. Only in Buenos Aires, where people rarely bother to cover over graffiti or street art could you execute a stop motion graffiti animation.

Also check out my post Donado & Holmberg from March 2009

Sunset over Belgrano Skyline

The last ray of sun strikes a wisp of a cloud that would soon become a massive and spectacular thunderstorm. This is from a friend's 10th floor balcony near Solar de Abadia looking north west to the tall buildings of Belgrano.


Here's another view from the same balcony about 30 minutes earlier. Obvious where you point your camera makes a difference.

Chalet in Olaguer

Uff! After that last post, I think I need to post a chalet. It's been awhile. This one's on calle Olaguer in Colegiales.

Buenos Aires is Not Paris

I've always thought the comparison of Buenos Aires to Paris to be a little off the mark. From certain corners in Recoleta, one can certainly see how the comparisons are made, yet doing so leaves out most of the city. Buenos Aires is Buenos Aires.

Biblioteca Nacional at Dawn

After Torre Dorrego, the Bilbioteca Nacional come number 2 on my list of ugliest buildings in Buenos Aires. I say this despite having a certain cariño for brutalist architecture. Designed by Clorindo Testa, the building was started in the 1970s but not finished until 1992, which I guess means you can add it to the list of things Menem lo Hizo.

Sunday Singles

The plaza in front of the Biblioteca Nacional, about 20 minutes after sunrise.


A nice corner in colegiales


A medianera also in Colegiales


Another medianera, this one on Calle San Luis in Almagro/Abasto

Las Cañitas at Dawn

Libertador at dawn, near Lisandro de la Torre train station.


Maure & Soldado de Independencia, near the Coto. This Ford Falcon is always parked there.


Very nice retro design on the poster. It compliments well with the blood red of the wall.

Avenida Corrientes No Logo

Recently Buenos Aires passed a law, modeled after one in Sao Paulo, restricting signage in public space. Compliance is haphazard and leads some some bizarre empty signage like these photos below on Avenida Corrientes:


Also check out photographs by Norberto Salerno. I think #11 in the series is the same building, so probably a lot of these vacant signs pre-date the law.

Recoleta Sunset, 15th Floor

The view at sunset from a friend's apartment on the 15th floor in Recoleta.

Avenida Corrientes, late afternoon

At this time of year the late afternoon soon rakes down the avenues horizontally.




Damn that's a huge dust-ball on the upper-right there! I need to get a better point & shoot. Also, I forgot to write down which theatre this is. If you recognize it, please feel free to leave a comment.

Leandro Alem & Peron, Lavalle

Leandro Alem & Peron in the area of downtown known as La City [after London's financial district].




Leandro Alem & Lavalle, a few blocks to the north

Correction:The post originally identified Leandro Alem as Paseo Colon which is what Leandro Alem turns into once it crosses south of Rivadavia. I'm always getting that one mixed up.

Banco de la Nacion

The nation's central bank, basking in some fantastic morning light. See my post from Sept. 2008 for some interior shots.

Sunday Singles

OK, so I'm gonna start a new feature; Sunday Singles--individual photos that don't merit a post by themselves but which I'd like to see on this blog anyway.


Vacant locutorio on Avenida Pueyrredon and Viamonte. Once ubiquitous, I've been noticing that locutorios have been gradually becoming more scarce.


Laptops are called "Notebooks" in Argentina owing, I suppose, to IBM's early dominance in the market.


Bus stop on Charcas & Scalabrini Ortiz [or Canning, if you will]


Old-style house with cheesy fake-stone siding somewhere in caballito. The word for the siding in Spanish is "lajas". I looked up the translation and got back "spall" which my American ears had never heard before [it means flakes of stone, or something like that].

Galeria del Optica

Before the arrival of shopping malls, the big thing for shopping in Buenos Aires were these long, narrow galerias. They're mostly still here, clustered on avenues Corrientes & Santa Fe. They often have high vacancy rates and tend to survive by extreme specialization, like this one, Galeria del Optica, on Avenida Corrientes. Retro indeed.

Coto in Abasto at Sunrise

The mega Coto in Abasto at sunrise. It's no surprise that there are a lot more posts tagged with "sunset" than with "sunrise" [this is the first]. One of my goals this year is to remedy that.

Sunset in Palermo - Pulmon de Manzana

Another great sunset view, this time from a friend's balcony on the 8th floor, contrafrente, somewhere in Palermo.


I love the haphazardness of contrafrente views.

Sunset in Villa Crespo II

From the 4th floor of an apartment on Calle Darwin.

Nobody doesn't love a sunset!

Villa Crespo Sunset

A typical apartment high rise seen at sunset. The color of the awnings is called verde inglens [English green] and you see it all over the city, especially painted on doorways and used in awnings.

Diagonal Norte

Diagonal Norte [officially Avenida Roque Saenz Peña] is, architecturally, really lovely. Here's a fun homemade, Google Street View-inspired YouTube video of some guy driving the length of Diagonal Norte, set to a tango, naturally.

Obelisco

It occurrs to me that I haven't, until now, published a photo of the emblematic Obelisk on 9 de Julio and Ave. Corrientes. Well, there!

btw, here's a much better photo by franco-brazilian photographer Pierre Verger

Casa de la Cultura

Housed in the opulent building formerly belonging to the newspaper La Prensa, Buenos Aires' Casa de Cultura often hosts exibits as well as giving out tickets and information to various city-sponsored cultural events.

Ochava Shadow Crazy Monkey

Ochava shadow on the corner of Charcas and Julian Alvarez in Palermo. Great name of the kiosk too, Mono Loco [Crazy Monkey].

San Lorenzo Puto

So this one's just brilliant. Someone comes along with a can of blue paint and writes the name of their team, San Lorenzo. Along comes someone else with a can of black paint, presumably a fan of Huracan, their rival. Do they cross it out? No! Instead a question mark is added. The answer to this rhetorical question? Fag.

Big Yellow Mudanzas Truck

Parked on calle Humboldt in Villa Crespo.