Thursday, December 15, 2011

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Sensual paintings by Fabian Perez


I have just fell in love with his works.
See Fabian Perez web site and you'll find more paintings of tango dancers http://fabianperez.com/gallery16.html and much more. Simply amazing!

Monday, December 12, 2011

'Tangerine Tango' - color of the year 2012?

Pantone Color Institute has named 'Tangerine Tango', a radiant red-orange, as the top color of 2012.
I find this hue intensively red, which makes me think that it's closer to the stereotypical tango red color than to the orange one. 


As you can see, tango orange from MyPerfectColor.com is not that intense and red. Putting them one next to another, we can see how little orange there is in the new tango color. 

Thinking of orange color and tango, I quickly see the shots form Last Tango in Paris in which orange became a dominant color. It represents danger and potential violence. Moreover this one of the favorite colors of Francis Bacon, whose paintings were the inspiration for Bernardo Bertolucci and Vittorio Storaro.



Orange color is connected with sun, at the sunset. It is related to the figure of a man at the end of his life. It is a symbol of a father. 

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute says:

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it";

“Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy";

and finally "It’s building on the ideas of courage and action, that we want to move on to better things".


The coming year seems to be the paradise for orange color maniacs!

BTW The color of my blog background is not a coincidence ;)

The story of tango color begins in 1920s

A certain silk manufacturer found himself left with a large stock of satin, dyed such a garish orange-yellow that it proved unsellable. Since the fabric was now badly shop-soiled as well, it was put put on sale at a bargain price, and given the name 'Satin-Tango'. The trick worked  like magic. The stock sold out within days and people clamoured for more but the manufacturer had, to his dismay, lost the formula for that particular shade. This gave his competitiors the chance to leap into the market, and sell every variation from pale lemon to the deepest saffron as 'la véritable couleur tango'.


Quoted form Artemis Cooper, Tangomania in Europe and North America.

11th December

The National Day of Tango is celebrated in Argentina on December 11th., in homage to the birth of two representative figures of the tango Carlos Gardel, creator of the Tango canción (eng. tango song), and Julio De Carothe big orchestra conductor.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tango of pain

Masochism Tango is a brilliant and funny song with a great performance of Tom Lehrer.



Tango songs are often about difficult love that causes pain. Here, the subject is treated with a distance that makes it possible to laugh of something that in other interpretation could be a simple drama. Artist is singing about pain that his beloved causes him. He describes different tortures. Tango is a sadomasochistic game between the lovers.

For those who speak Polish, Irena Kwiatkowska performance of Tango Kat (eng. tango torturer)



The lyrics of the song seems cruel, but the singer change the song into grotesque. What was supposed to be tragic is funny. Singing woman is begging her lover to treat her badly (below my free translation):
Torture! 
Trample!
I'll forgive you that
With your hands
With your shoes
Please oppress me
And torture my body!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Official EURO 2012 ball

A new Adidas ball for EURO 2012 is called Tango 12 :)



Monica Bellucci tango

Tango women are sexy and seducing, but it happens that they have more faces, like in Intimissimi advert Heart Tango (2007) by Gabriele Muccino.


The complexity of woman's heart is suggested by different heroines played by the same actress. Monica Bellucci is playing good and bad women in this video, she is all of them and they are all in her. The tango of hearts indicates that each woman has a few hearts and that each of them has a voice. Here different faces correspond with various models of lingerie. 

Magique Tango by Inga Savitskaya

Sunday, December 4, 2011

The Gallopin' Gaucho (1928)

Mickey and Minnie danced tango in The Gallopin' Gaucho (1928) which makes me think of the famous The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) with Rudolf Valentino and Beatrice Dominguez. The picture by Rex Ingram created Rudolf Valentino as a film star and gave an impulse for the popularity of tango. This gaucho tango version hadn't much in common with tango argentino.

The Gallopin' Gaucho (1928)

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), dance scene:

Mickey and Minnie Tango Toy