Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina…
What do Walt Disney, Vladimir Putin and Sean Connery have in common?
They all stayed at the Alvear Palace Hotel when they visited Buenos Aires… as did Sofia Loren, Muhammad Ali, Arthur Miller, Fidel Castro, Orson Wells, Omar Sharif… and a who’s-who list of writers, artists, actors, politicos and household names.
As you would expect with such a cast of characters, the storied hotel is not without its share of drama and intrigue…
The Greek socialite, businesswoman and heiress to her father’s spectacular fortune, Christina Onassis, actually bought suite #334… just so she could speak on the phone during her frequent stays in the capital.
Then there’s the Uruguayan-Argentine poet and tango lyricist, Horacio Arturo Ferrer, who lived in the hotel for 38 years. His letras were immortalized by the great Astor Piazzola in the song Balada Para Un Loco (Ballad for a Crazy):
Ya se que estoy piantao, piantao, piantao…
No ves que va la luna rodando por Callao;
que un corso de astronautas y niños, con un vals,
me baila alrededor… Baila! Veni! Vola!l know I’m crazy, crazy, crazy…
don’t you see the moon rolling through Callao;
a second line of astronauts and children
waltzing around me… Dance! Come! Fly!
And in 1964, the French actress, Juliette Mayniel, tried to commit suicide in her room (#805), when she learned that her partner, the Italian actor and director, Vittorio Gassman, was philandering. A hotel employee saved her in the nick of time...
Ah, but your celebrity-averse editor didn’t come here to walk in the footsteps of the glitterati, however impressive (or not) their earthly feats. We came, as we do on a special day every year, to enjoy an AMBA 65 in the famous Lobby Bar (which you can see at the end of the clip, above).
The house “tribute cocktail,” was invented by José Raúl Echenique, bartender in residence at the Alvear during the late 1950s through ‘60s and World Bartender Champion in 1965. (Hence the ‘65 in the name. AMBA means “Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires”... where something like 14 million people live.)
The recipe, in case you wish to do some due diligence at home…
INGREDIENTS:
Ice Cubes
⅔ oz Scotch Whisky
½ oz Light Rum
⅙ oz Apricot Brandy
⅓ oz Sweet Vermouth
METHOD:
Simply fill a shaker with ice cubes. Add all the ingredients. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. And enjoy… perhaps even while you review this week’s Notes, below…
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
And here’s a bonus guest post from our friends (read: dear wifey) over at Classical Wisdom to commemorate President’s Day…
Final Notes…
A special shoutout to our dear Notes Members today; we’re ever grateful for your generous and ongoing support. As mentioned in this space previously, Notes is an entirely independent, reader-supported publication (as in, we accept no advertising and bow to no boss, bend no knee).
Rather, we’re interested in free markets, free minds and free people…and we hope you are too!
So if you’re enjoying our work, and would like to help support the project, please consider joining our small but growing community of free-thinkers, deep readers and cheerful skeptics, here…
We’re off to enjoy the afternoon in a nearby park with our amigos. Whatever you’re up to this weekend, enjoy your own journey around the sun.
And stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
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