July 20, 2010:  Today I met the bane of my existence.  Casí Angeles.  Well, I didn’t meet them exactly but I had the distinct displeasure of being blockaded by their crazed teeny-bopper fans.  Who is Casí Angeles (Almost Angels) you are wondering?  I was wondering the same thing…

It was a normal Tuesday afternoon.  I was walking back from one of the language schools I have become affiliated with.  I was about to take the same route back to my apartment as I had taken to get to the school when I decided to go a different way so as to see more of the city.  This was my fateful decision.  All went well until one 12 yr. old walked by in a daze clutching a signed photograph.  OMG, is Justin Bieber in town???  Another girl whirled by squealing with delight over a t-shirt and signed poster.  The Bieber?!  Two more girls walked by in an empassioned debate over who was the cuter of two boys in the pictures they were holding.  Okay, not Justin Bieber-unless he has a split personality.  The Jonas Brothers?  Didn’t they break up already?  The further I walked the more and more pre-teen and barely teen girls sped by rambling something about “¡Ay qué lindo!” and “¡Me encanta!” (and even, in English, "I loff heem!!!") with more and more merchandise in-hand.  I had all I could do not to get knocked into the gutter as they pushed their way by me, three-by-three-by four, with freshly autographed full-sized posters unraveled and proudly on display to the world!  But who were these people on the poster?  I had never seen them before.  It wasn’t the cast of glee.  It wasn’t Menudo (not that I know what Menudo currently looks like but given that there were also girls in the picture I figured it was safe to say that it wasn’t the Latino boy band).  Who was it?  There was some sort of logo but I couldn’t make sense of it.  “CAS IV ANGELES”???  The “IV” in a circle.  What the hell is that?!

I safe guarded my purse (in case any of these young ladies wanted to swipe it to buy more CAS IV ANGELES swag) and forged onward and could soon see on the horizon swarms of people.  Oh wow, I had no idea 3:30pm was rush hour around here.  I quickly noticed though that these were not hoards of business people rushing to or from any office.  They were throngs of teenage girls in the throes of idol worship with their worn and tortured looking parents doling out cash for goods that would soon be out-grown and forgotten.  That’s when I noticed the street vendors.  They were the perpetrators of swag.  They were selling not from neat booths or even fabric draped card tables, no, they were selling straight off a tarp placed directly on the ground.  Each side of the sidewalk, as far as I could see, was lined with queen-sized tarps and the tarps were abundantly littered with posters, pins, buttons, photographs, books, magazines, key chains-you name it, it was there and it all bore the strange cult logo:  CAS IV ANGELES.  They’re heeeere….!

I tried to gather more info about these teenage demigods and goddesses on the posters but I could see nothing more than the cryptic graffiti style logo.  The further I walked, the thicker the masses grew and the more swag there was to be had.  It was like being swallowed by a sea of pubescent idolators and their harried guardians.  I could not make sense of it.  At that moment I looked past the vendors flicking CAS IV ANGELES trading cards in my face (Vegas style) and saw that I was now in front of one of the live theaters.  I saw the marquee flashing:  Casí Angeles IV and then it finally sort of made sense (man, whoever designed that logo should be fired!)  It was a live show featuring Casí Angeles and this apparently was their fourth live tour.  So, near as I can gather, Casí Angeles is Argentina’s answer to Saved by the Bell/The Mickey Mouse Club/High School Musical.  God bless those parents…