Cecilia and I had a late night out Saturday visiting with friends. When we came back to the apartment at 3am, the door to the apartment was pushed open. (The entrance to the apartment is from the top floor terrace of the building). We stood there for a minute, looking around, trying to determine what to do. Concerned about the possibility of encountering someone hiding on the inside, I didn’t feel good about walking into the apartment. I decided that we should go down to the street to see if we could find a policeman.

There is usually a policeman standing on the corner of our block, but tonight there wasn’t. We waited around to see if a police car would cruise by but no such luck. We remembered that there was a police station about four blocks away on Garay, so we walked there. When we told the police the situation with the apartment, they were very quick to respond.

Five police officers jumped into two cars and drove us to the apartment. It’s the first time that I had been in the back of one of those tiny police cars that they use here in Buenos Aires but, I have to say, those little cars move pretty fast.

We got to the building. One policeman stayed on the street and the other four went into the building. Cecilia and I followed them up the steps, no elevator here. At the top landing we noticed that the police had their pistols drawn. We stayed back while three of the policemen went inside the apartment; the other cop stayed out on the terrace in front of us by the door.

They searched the place and found no bad guys. We went inside and checked for the valuables and everything was where we left it, so we evidently didn’t experience a break-in afterall. Even though the door wasn’t closed, it was locked so we’re not sure how it came open. Maybe it was just the wind, but it remains a mystery.

I must say that I am impressed with the response of the Buenos Aires police. I didn’t expect that they would send out so many officers but they were concerned and professional. When it turned out to be nothing, they were courteous and didn’t seem at all bothered that we had asked them to come up to the apartment. It’s nice to have a positive experience with the police.

A while back I had I heard a rumor that Cosmos, the independent cinema on Av Corrientes, was about to close. Pasa en Buenos Aires, an interesting, new blog run by the city, provides the details about the eventual closing of Cosmos. (Note: the photo of the cine in that post isn’t Cosmos, which in reality is a rather funky, but endearing, place).

Basically, the original owner of Cosmos – Isaac Vainikoff – died a couple of years ago and the place is now owned by his two sons. According to the city’s blog, the sons haven’t had an easy decision about selling but economic issues, and problems with distributors and the tenants on the ground floor have prompted the sons to sell at a price of US $2.8 million, which includes not only the theater but also 16 apartments and 3 stores. (Honestly, while it’s sad to see an independent cinema go, it’s hard to walk away from that kind of money).

I’ve not been to Cosmos too often this year. The last time was to see “The Story of the Weeping Camel”, which was shown in the small viewing room that only has 35 seats; the main room is larger. Ceci tells me that the small room used to be much nicer with a sofa and comfortable chairs, more like being in someone’s living room. I don’t know when they changed the small room to the current format.

Friday’s Clarín ran an article on Thomas Pynchon as preparation for Pynchon’s new book coming out this December. The Clarín article continues to perpetuate the myth of Pynchon, which certainly makes for a good article. Pynchon is definitely shy about having his photograph taken.

A quick search of the Internet indicates that he appears to be leading a comfortable life on the upper west side of New York City with his wife and son. There’s a rather infamous, blurry photo of him walking his son to school. I suspect that with the release of his new book, the availability of camera phones, flickr, and photos going around all over the Internet that Pynchon will soon have a much more difficult time staying hidden from the public eye. Perhaps we may be seeing the end of mysterious Mr. Pynchon if he dares to venture out of his apartment.

The Clarín article mentioned several of Pynchon’s books and that made me think that his writings likely appeal to a lot of Argentine readers, who are familiar with bizarre tales. So, I checked a couple of leading bookstores. Tematika.com is the online database of both El Ateneo and Yenyy bookstores. No Pynchon listed. (I love the El Ateneo bookstore on Santa Fé but the quality of their literature selection often isn’t that good).

Over at Libreria Hernandez, which always seems to have the best selection of English language literature translated into Spanish. Pynchon’s books are listed as translated into Spanish but only Vineland seems to be available. A couple of titles are listed as “consultar” and others are listed as not available.

For those of you interested in Pynchon’s upcoming novel, Against the Day, which Amazon still has listed as “Untitled Thomas Pynchon” there is a blurb written by Pynchon himself available on the Amazon site:

Spanning the period between the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.

With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.

The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.

As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it’s their lives that pursue them.

Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they’re doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.

Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck.

–Thomas Pynchon

The book is 992 pages, yikes! An interesting story about that blurb written by Pynchon. It appeared on Amazon then was pulled by Amazon over doubts by its authenticity. Afterall, Pynchon is supposed to be publicity shy. Then the publisher confirmed that the blurb was indeed by the author, so Amazon put it back online.

I wonder which will be more interesting, Pynchon’s new book or all the chatter on the Internet about Pynchon’s new book. With the number of New Yorkers moving to Buenos Aires, I’m going to be keeping a lookout for Pynchon in Palermo….hey, he used to live in Mexico City, so why not?