Somewhere around 1999, after we co-wrote the book “Japan Edge”, Carl Horn and I were summoned to talk about anime at a film festival way down in sunny Buenos Aires. They put us up in a brand new Holiday Inn where it seemed like nothing worked except the elevator and the TV. The night we arrived, Robotech en Español was on the air, hosted by a woman in a sparkly halter top that filled viewers in on what happened to Rick and Minmay in the previous episode. Then it was jetlag and music videos until dawn with the inexplicable-yet-totally-appropriate nasty pounding funk of “Latin Geisha” by Ilya Kuryaki & the Valderramas in heavy rotation. The video was a parade of girls (none of them actually geisha and never the same one twice) each acting “sexy” for the camera in a photographer’s studio, with the two guys in the band – dressed like pimps – popping up every now to lip synch and to show their approval. I bought their CD "Leche" - easy to find on account of That Cover !!! - the next day. From then on, Carl and I stargazed, ate a lot of steak, and watched a lot of movies in BA as the magnificent ching-chong opening of Latin Geisha provided a musical accompaniment to our attempts at entertaining the locals with talk of Japanese cartoons. Sometimes I wonder why they never asked us back!
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