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Miguelito's Photo Diary and BlogJanuary 14, 2006 - January 26, 2006 About the author/photographer: My name is Michael Perez, but everyone calls me Miguelito. I'm a full-time flamenco guitarist based in Washington DC, USA. This is a self-published account of my day-to-day life. It's meant to be educational and inspirational for my readers and therapeutic for myself--a way of reflecting on each day and recounting the good and not-so-good parts and how I can learn from them and grow. Happy reading!
Thursday with Miguelito January 26, 2006 It's 5:53pm on Thursday as I type these words. Just stopped by home to pick up my guitar and sound system and head towards Andalucía for my usual Thursday night gig. I have a few minutes so I thought I'd upload this pic. 
Brain food: glucose, caffeine and good reads. January 26, 2006 3:33pm I spent the afternoon learning about Zen and writing and refreshing my art history knowledge. It's at Fronteras University, hehe. Of course as I started reading, I get a bunch of calls so I had to put my phone on silent mode. Then I missed an important call cuz I didn't feel the vibration. Ugh! Even though it's so cold out, I'm still going to go out after my gig--been going straight home too much the past week. I'll just stop by the Pink Flamenco, drop off my music gear and head towards DC. Ciao for now. It's 11:11pm on Thursday as I type these words. Got home a short while ago. At the Andalucía this evening, business wasn't bad but the crowd was kind of unresponsive. I almost felt like I didn't exist when there was absolutely no applause after each of my guitar solos. Nothing personal. If this was a concert hall, yeah it'd be different, but this is a restaurant! I'd be lying if I didn't at least say I was a little disappointed. 
Anti-depressant: alcohol and comfort food. January 26, 2006 9:15pm As I was enjoying my free dinner (pasta and a glass of red wine) afterwards, one of the customers walked up to my table and gave me a generous tip and complimented me on my music. That was thoughtful! Boosted my spirits a bit. On my way to the metro, I got a call for a Friday early morning rehearsal, yay! Better judgment tells me to stay in tonight and get a good night's rest. The way I see it is that I'll get to practice with one of my favorite dancers tomorrow (Friday) instead of going out as originally planned. Fair tradeoff. :-) Anywayz, I'm about to sign off and go to bed, but I just want to show off a decent pic of this souvenir guitar. 
January 26, 2006 11:43pm Someday I'd like to travel through Latin America Motorcycle-Diaries-style and Macchu Picchu is definitely on my hit list. In the meantime, I'll learn about the culture through my Peruvian friends and the little gifts like this beautiful guitar my friend Carla Pacheo brought me all the way from Lima. Thank you Carla! OK, it's 11:45pm, time for bed. Good night! Wednesday with Miguelito January 25, 2006 It's 11:28am on Thursday as I type these words. Got up like an hour ago when I heard my housemates talking in the kitchen. (One of them came to my show last night at Cafe Bonaparte, yay!) Life is good here in the Pink Flamenco House. I live with artistically-minded people: Russ does his painting and Ivana does her art curator stuff (whatever that entails). We respect each other's personal space and lifestyle and we're all quiet (when we want to be) and clean (without being neat freaks). One of my friends joked that we should be on one of those reality shows, but I don't think so. The show would be soooo boring cuz there's no drama here--at least not between us housemates. Just for fun, imagine you're a Hollywood producer doing a reality show here and come up with a description of the perfect "housemate from Hell" that would boost our TV ratings. :-) Yesterday (Wednesday) was another bookstore day. I went to the Barnes and Noble in Clarendon and hung out for a few hours in the writing section and skimmed a few titles about "finding your writer's voice." The gist seemed to be "trust yourself." I mean, yes, there are grammar rules, stylistic conventions and trends but ultimately (assuming you've got the writing fundamentals down cold) you have to give yourself permission to be a writer and simply express yourself. OK, here I go again translating one artistic form to another: you could take the above advice and apply it to flamenco guitar playing or flamenco dancing. But before I do, I should emphasize that this advice assumes that you have mastered the fundamentals of flamenco (and if you have to ask what those are, then you're not ready). At some point in your growth as a flamenco performer you're going to want differentiate yourself not for the sake of being different but to express your individuality. If it so happens that what you do artistically is the same as everyone else, that's irrelevant. You should still be able to have that personal satisfaction of saying to yourself, "This artistic idea was inside of me and now I have shared it with the outside world." I don't want to get too involved in this discussion, but you get the idea. It's something to think about on this cold and windy day. OK...Stop whatever you're doing and brew yourself a cup of tea or coffee. Take a break. I'll be here when you're done.... I was in need of some nutrition so I headed to Whole Foods across the street for a 16-ounce Orange Dream Machine with immunity boost, yum! While in line, I ran into an entertainment executive friend and got the usual spiel about all the money-making opportunities I'm passing up, namely, recording a CD. He was telling me all about this $50,000 Mac package he was getting for his video/music production suite which got us to talking about technology and entertainment. He suggested broadcasting one of my flamenco shows live on the Internet, using his services of course. :-) Just sort-of nodded my head non-commitally to acknowledge the idea, "Yeah, sounds interesting." A wireless phone company recently promoted being able to watch a rock concert on the screen of a cellphone. Sounds kinda lame to me. Then again many cool ideas sound lame at first before they figure out that one thing that rockets it into super trendiness. Now we have the video Ipods. Sound and video quality is getting better. Just a matter of time before this really catches on. The key here is to never completely dismiss an idea, even if it seems lame at first. Keep an open mind cuz when a truly great idea comes along, you want to be sure to notice it walks in front of your eyes. Speaking of entertainment execs, last year I did some consulting for a semi-famous Hollywood movie director who was toying with the idea of doing a movie about foreigners doing flamenco--he found out about me through my famous website of course. I fed him a few ideas and gave him some names of people to call. All this was for free. Never heard back from him. Grrr! I was kinda hoping he'd hire me to sit on the movie set as an authenticity expert. Can you imagine me at the studio saying, "Um sorry Mr director, no, an American flamenco guitarist wouldn't do that in real life..." etc etc? I never signed a non-disclosure agreement with him, so there it is. Now it's in the open. When the movie comes out, you'll know I played a part in the initial idea stages. For all I know, he probably put the flamenco idea on the back burner to focus on the current hot dance trend: ballroom. (Did you see the trailer for Antonio Banderas' latest?) Would've been better to be paid for my consulting services...money is always good to have, but I can still relish in the satisfaction of being what Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) refers to as a connector, perhaps even a maven (look it up), that's me! Back to my wonderful Wednesday...I had a quick meeting with a restaurateur to reaffirm my interest in a job, talk business and check out the new space under construction--he found me, once again, via my famous website. There's a new Spanish restaurant opening up and he wants a show, yay! Knock on wood, I'm already gigging regularly Monday through Friday. I'm running out of days for gigs! When will I rest? :-) True but little-known fact: Miguel Marin consulted with me years ago when he was looking for a venue for DC's now famous Flamenco Festival--he found me through my website (do you detect a recurring theme in today's blog?). I referred him to the fine folks at Lisner and the rest is history. They of course give me the honor of mentioning my website in the printed program. Money is always good, but publicity like that is so invaluable! OK I'm done shamelessly promoting my accomplishments. :-) Obviously I wasn't in a picture-taking mood yesterday...and the caffeine kick this morning is making me talkative and tangential. Hope you got something out of my ramblings for today. As for tonight, I'll be at Andalucia doing guitar solos. This afternoon is still wide open. I'll definitely squeeze in some practicing but to get out of the house I'll either see a movie, go to the museum or the bookstore. Ciao for now! P.S. Tomorrow is Mozart's birthday. Happy birthday Amadeus! Here's a quote from him that could very well be applied to flamenco: "...to talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop." Las Tapas January 24, 2006 It's 7:16am on Wednesday as I type these words. I meant to go to the National Gallery yesterday, but I stopped by the Friendship Heights Borders near my house to skim a few Italian Renaissance art books and ended up reading a primer on art history for a few hours and a learned a few new things. Have you ever heard of the term museology? According to Wikipedia, museology is "is the study of how to organize and manage museums and museum collections." Big deal, I know. But it asks the interesting questions such as "What makes a particular piece of art worthy of being in a museum?" or "Does the inclusion of a particular piece of art in a museum make it more important?" or "How does the museum's presentation of a work of art affect the perception of the viewer?" Where am I going with this, you ask? As you already know, next month, Lisner Auditorium will be presenting its Flamenco Festival. Ask yourself the above questions but adapt it to the flamenco context. For example, "What makes a particular flamenco group worthy of being presented on a concert stage such as Lisner?" Do you think it is commercial appeal (to maximize ticket sales) or artistic merit (a risky attempt to break new ground on the part of the concert presenter) or a little bit of both? Another question worth asking is "How does Lisner's presentation of flamenco in a concert hall affect the average person's perception of what is flamenco?" Does this tend to make the average concertgoer regard a tablao performance as less worthy? There are no right or wrong answers, but these are questions worth pondering. As far as the art history context, it just so happens one of my housemates is an art curator. One of these days, I'll pick her brain about museology. Although she speaks English, she and I always end up conversing in Spanish. It's good for me. So I better read up on art history terms in Spanish! It's 7:48am now and the bookstore opens at 9:00am, yay! It's supposed to be very windy and cold today, so I'm looking forward to curling up with a good book or two and sipping some hot tea or coffee for a few hours. We'll see if I make it to the National Gallery or not. Anyway, last night was good at Las Tapas. The performance was fun as usual and we had a decent size audience including a few familiar faces. My dancer friend Carla Pacheco just got back from a vacation in her native Perú and brought back for me a souvenir guitar from Lima. She also took some great pics of last night's show. Thank you Carla! 
Miguelito playing a mini-guitar from Perú. January 24, 2006 7:52pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
Anna Menendez. January 24, 2006 8:10pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
January 24, 2006 8:11pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
January 24, 2006 8:11pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
Edwin Aparicio. January 24, 2006 8:20pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
January 24, 2006 8:23pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
January 24, 2006 8:26pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
January 24, 2006 8:27pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
January 24, 2006 9:00pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
January 24, 2006 9:12pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
January 24, 2006 9:18pm (photo by Carla Pacheco) 
Carla (from Perú) and Nury (from Venezuela). January 24, 2006 10:15pm Tonight I'll be performing at Cafe Bonaparte in Georgetown. See you there! Cafe Citron January 23, 2006 It's 11:12am on Tuesday as I type these words. Slept-in late again this time only until 10:00am after going to bed at around 1:00am last night. Anywayz, last night we had a LOT of people at Citron. There was definitely a positive energy in the air that inspired us performers to put even more into our show and we did! 
Gigi and Miguelito. January 23, 2006 9:51pm (photo by Idi) The dancer was Gigi. She was called in to sub at the last minute (which is pretty normal here in DC). Fortunately, the children's flamenco class that she teaches on Mondays at DC Dance Collective finishes up at 6:30pm and is only a short metro ride away. The first show here at Citron normally starts at 8:00pm.  January 23, 2006 9:55pm (photo by Idi) We had a lot of the usual group of loyal fans in the audience. Plus I had the pleasure of meeting yet another flamenco dancer (there seem to be a lot of them coming to DC recently) named Jennifer who started her studies in Albuquerque, New Mexico with María Benitez before spending a year living in Granada and some time in Madrid. I hope to be able to coax her from her day job to rehearse with her sometime and add more fresh talent to the DC tablao circuit.  January 23, 2006 9:56pm (photo by Idi) Photographer Álvaro Ortíz stopped by to give me a few copies of last Friday's Washington Hispanic which features pics from my tenth anniversary party. Thank you Álvaro for your contribution in promoting flamenco in Washington DC! I also met a sound engineer named Dennis who asked me what lots of people have been asking me lately: "Do you have a CD?" Yeah, yeah, I know people, for the longest time, really have wanted me to make a CD plus I know it's a potential major source of revenue for a full-time musician like myself. Dennis suggested doing a live audio recording of one of my shows here at Citron (with the dancer's and singer's permission of course) which sounds fun! As much as I enjoy studio recordings of flamenco, there's nothing like the energy you only find in a live show where the performers interact with the audience. Well, it's very easy for me to say that. We'll see how one of these live recordings turns out. I'll keep you posted. OK, it's 11:41am on Tuesday. Time for me to get out of the house. I'm in the mood for the National Gallery again. Here I go off on a tangent... Anyway, I imagine that like many college students, I spent my time enjoying the "college experience" and doing just enough studying for my general education classes to learn the material enough to pass and afterwards unintentionally forgetting what I learned. Oh well. Well, now's the time for me to fill-in those educational gaps. Cool thing is that I'm not under any time constraint so I can "audit" my general ed classes at my leisure. In this case, my trips to the National Gallery constitute my independent study of Art 101. (I do remember falling asleep a lot during the slide lectures in Art 101 class. C'mon, they turned out the lights and the professor wasn't exactly the most lively lecturer. I wonder if that cute blonde sitting in front of me was Gwen?) Gigi and I spent some time last night between shows at Citron talking about college and life. I think I mentioned to her that when I graduated from college I felt so relieved from the pressure of the college life, but years later I still miss the intellectual stimulation. Would you believe I took seven years to get my bachelor's degree? Laugh if you want, but part of the reason for this was because I took so many extra classes that didn't count towards my degree. For example, I took just about every undergraduate level geography class to quench my thirst for knowledge of other cultures. Then I took as many writing classes as I could stand. I've always loved writing. Someday, I imagine, I'll write a book documenting the history of flamenco in DC--in a way, I already have written an online version. Plus I spent two years studying Russian which I took very seriously. It was quite a challenge but it also opened the world a little more for me. In the university library, I was now able to at least skim through the thousands of books in Russian, not to mention being able to hang out on campus with the Russian exchange students. Before flamenco, I was looking for my niche in the classical guitar world so I thought to myself, I could become the American scholar on Russian seven-string guitar. :-) Then flamenco came into my life, and I said goodbye to Russian guitar but to this day, I can still hold a basic conversation in Russian! OK, so my college education was all over the place, but I just took whatever interested me, perhaps subconsciously preparing myself for a unique career niche that I would someday create for myself. Checkout this commencement speech by Steve Jobs titled You've got to find what you love. Very inspiring stuff! I'll shut up now and get myself to the National Gallery. See you at Las Tapas tonight. Ciao for now! Sunday with Miguelito January 22, 2006 It's 11:29am on Monday as I type these words. I promised I'd catch up on this blog by noon so I'm almost there! After Saturday's late night party, I decided to sleep in late--didn't get up until after noon on Sunday! But it was fine cuz I didn't have any scheduled plans until the evening. I was in one of those moods to visit the National Gallery of Art again. Went to the West building as usual and hung out in my favorite galleries. I used to get lost in this building but I'm starting to know my way around--and the National Gallery of Art is a huge labyrinth! While I was checking out the French impressionists I heard some orchestral music at full volume. I know they give concerts here at the Gallery but I've never actually been so I walked down the hall to check it out... 
January 22, 2006 4:35pm Turned out just to be an open rehearsal. I like the setting here, perhaps it's a little too relaxing that I might fall asleep at a concert. :-) (I have performed at the National Gallery of Art but in the big theatre with the Spanish Dance Society and this was way back in March 1992 when they had the exhibition of John Singer Sargent's painting Jaleo, yes the Jaleo!) Around this time last year, I went up to New York with my friend Jenifer and I remember passing by the Rockefeller Center where they have an ice rink. This pic which was taken in the sculpture garden next to the National Gallery reminds me of that day. 
That's the National Archives building in the background. January 22, 2006 5:05pm On the way to the metro, I stopped by Barnes and Noble near metro center and browsed awhile. I was in the business section (my new hangout at bookstores) and came across Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut 
January 22, 2006 6:10pm It's an easy read and perfect for those that want to reminisce about the dot-com era of the mid 90's, incidentally, when I started my website. It made me smile when the author described the Amazon website when it first started in 1996. While it has changed over the years it still remains the same in many ways--kinda like my website. I even have a version of my website which mimics the tabs on the Amazon website. Obviously I can relate to the story in a geeky sort of way. I don't care. Like it or not, there is a computer nerd side of me too. :-P Later I met up with a friend and went to see a movie that just came our Friday called The New World. At times it's a very dreamy interpretation of the Pocahontas story that'll put you in a conservationist frame-of-mind--imagine lots of drawn-out wilderness shots with uplifting snippets of Mozart's music (I'm listening to classical music right now and Mozart's birthday is this Friday). Looking back over the weekend, I realize it was mostly a get-away-from-flamenco kind of theme. I needed that! But regardless, I definitely have to squeeze in flamenco time with Marsha whenever possible--she's quite busy at Alliance Dance Institute. In time, I hope to put my skills and resources to use and help the flamenco and Spanish dance program there get off the ground. It's 5:38pm on Monday as I type these words. Didn't realize how sleep-deprived I was until I lay down for what I thought would be a few minutes but turned into like a few hours! Anyway, thank God I woke up with just enough time to jump in the shower and get dressed in time for my gig tonight at Cafe Citron. Just checked my voicemail and found out that tonight Gigi is the dancer, yay! Hope to see you there. Pink Flamenco House Party January 21, 2006 I started off Saturday with my usual dance classes with Anna Menendez at American Dance Institute (not to be confused with Alliance Dance Institute). I work at both of these places and staff refers to themselves as ADI which confuses me a little cuz I know two ways of expanding that acronym. Anna's class was good. I had a decent night's rest and was feelin' especially inspired. I've been on this roll of inspiration all week. We worked on fandangos de Huelva for the beginner class and for the advanced beginners, we worked on martinete and seguiriyas. After class I grabbed a quick bite and rushed home to setup the sound system for tonight's acoustic rock party (yes, I said acoustic rock!) before heading off to Alexandria to rehearse with Marsha Bonet aka Rosa la Huracana. Combined with a good night's rest and tanking up on caffeine all day long, I was full of energy and ready to work! Between rehearsing and training in ballroom, Marsha also teaches flamenco, Spanish dance, castanets, international body movment not to mention handling administrative stuff at Alliance Dance Institute, so understandably, she seemed a bit tired. But once I pulled out the guitar and started our freeform warmup (where she does stretches as I improvise a toque libre), little by little the flamenco side of Marsha that I know and love came out. We worked on technique in the back studio before going out to the stage in the front studio to work on choreography--that was a smart move cuz we attracted the attention of customers passing by who stopped to ask about classes. We were having so much fun, we lost track of the time and the few hours that we were able to squeeze in passed by rather quickly. Oh well, there weren't any more classes scheduled at Alliance for the evening and I could sense that the other teachers were patiently waiting for us to finish rehearsing so they could close up the studio. So I called it a night, said goodbye to Marsha and headed back to the Pink Flamenco where my roommates and I had a house party already in progress! It was acoustic rock night... 
Sandra, Russ and Craig jamming at the Pink Flamenco. January 21, 2006 11:28pm I setup my sound system and stage lights and transformed our studio into an intimate club for the night. 
Eric aka Russ. January 21, 2006 11:55pm 
Craig Enger. January 22, 2006 12:28am My longtime friend Sandra Bishop happens to also be my landlord. She and I used to do lots of shows and parties (and appeared in a few independent films) when I first met her in 1991--I think she just graduated from high school back then. :-) It was her vision to create a residence and center for arts-related activities so the Pink Flamenco house was born back in 2003. Gigi and I were the first ones to use the studio space for a rehearsal back then. 
Sandra Bishop. January 22, 2006 1:00am Then Sandra focused on acting and film-making and the flamenco part of her life was put on the back burner. But we still did occasional shows. Here are some pics from almost three years ago. We have a wall of photos documenting the many people who have passed through here. I posted last Friday's Washington Hispanic where pics from our last party appeared. 
January 22, 2006 1:03am Anyway, back to the party. We had a number of other guest musicians come up and play including yours truly doing few numbers with Sandra--she did an alegrías and a few rumbas (she's a talented singer too). I won over a few new fans in our audience who promised to come to my upcoming shows. 
January 22, 2006 1:11am Pic of the last guests to leave: Dan, Julia, Eric with my housemate Ivana. 
January 22, 2006 3:08am View from my room of aftermath of the party before I went to bed.  January 22, 2006 3:39am Cabanas January 20, 2006 It's 10:05am on Monday as I type these words and I'm just gettin' around to actually writing about Friday. What can I say? I've either been getting up super early or going to bed really late. Anywayz...Friday at Cabanas was a good night cuz we had lots of friends (old and new) in the audience. The dancers were Gigi and Mariya. Met an entertainment lawyer, Steve, who was brimming with fresh ideas about improving business. The owner of Cabanas was there and Steve and him totally hit it off discussing business ideas including a few to better promote the flamenco show here at Cabanas. The first show was decent but the second was much better, plus we had more people the audience including a couple that walked in when they noticed the first show through the french windows as they passed by. That's always a good thing for marketing--making the show visible to passersby. We'll see if we can get a flamenco pic for the Cabanas signs around the waterfront. Based on the response of the audience, we know that we put on a good show. Still, in the winter months when business slows down everywhere, it's a matter of getting the word out and enticing a critical mass of customers to come out. From there, it's just a matter of word of mouth. Little by little, we have to win the people over and turn them into our "evangelists." The one couple that came in on impulse was totally bowled over by the show. This guy was celebrating his significant other's birthday and they were so impressed, they walked up to us after the show and paid compliment after compliment. Cool. Another evangelist recruited! :-) I met another couple at the bar who also weren't expecting a show this evening. They too were impressed and their feedback meant a lot more to me cuz the girl is a performer herself (belly dancer) and a visual artist. They had ideas about improving business, so I also referred them to, Nick, the owner of Cabanas. Poor Nick. I feel like inundated him with overzealous members of my fan club. :-) Don't get me wrong. The folks at Cabanas are doing a fine job. Nick owns several highly successful restaurants including Nick's Riverside Grill next door. I was impressed that he took the time to listen to my friends' ideas. I went straight home after Cabanas. Wanted to rest up for Saturday night's party at my house. Andalucia January 19, 2006 It's 10:18am on Friday as I type these words. A few minutes ago, I just met a potential new housemate, a girl from Colombia, who stopped by to checkout the house. Yay! Another person to practice Spanish with. Everyone who lives here at the Pink Flamenco is involved professionally in the arts, but I never got around to asking her what she does. Not to worry, there's time. Anywayz, last night I did my usual gig at Andalucia in Rockville. I had the pleasure once again of working with an up-and-coming student dancer named Isabel Otero. But I call her Isabelita cuz her mom's name is also Isabel who also dances. Business has been uneven at all the places I play (Citron, Las Tapas, Bonaparte, and Cabanas) and Andalucia was no exception. Fortunately, last night the restaurant was packed. This is what I was hoping for to ensure that Isabel had a good performing experience with a decent size crowd. But I can remember on Tuesday at Las Tapas, there was almost nobody out there, but we're professional entertainers so we're still expected to give it our all (or at least make it look like we are). 
January 19, 2006 7:33pm (photo by Marcela Otero) All the girls in the Otero family have studied flamenco. I used to do shows with the mother, Isabel, years ago. She studied with Ana Martinez. Isabelita currently studies with Ana. The youngest sister Marcela also has studied flamenco dance. And Gabriela studied flamenco guitar. I have a pic from last February when they all showed up at El Ranchero in Arlington. 
January 19, 2006 8:00pm (photo by Marcela Otero) Isabelita was off from school for most of January but is going back this weekend. So chances are she won't be available to dance here until the semester is over. 
January 19, 2006 8:23pm (photo by Marcela Otero) 
January 19, 2006 8:24pm (photo by Marcela Otero) 
January 19, 2006 8:24pm (photo by Marcela Otero) 
January 19, 2006 8:26pm (photo by Marcela Otero) 
January 19, 2006 8:27pm (photo by Marcela Otero) 
January 19, 2006 8:36pm (photo by Marcela Otero) Tonight I'm performing at Cabanas in Georgetown with Gigi and Mariya. See you there! Looking back January 18, 2006 It's 4:53am on Thursday as I type these words. Can't explain, but I'm fully awake right now, and in a reminiscing contemplative kind of mood, so I write... When I first launched this website in 1996, I never thought much of it. It was just a simple personal homepage on AOL that announced my own shows. Around that time, I even remember a colleague laughing at me as he said, "You created webpage for flamenco in DC? What flamenco in DC?" (Note: there was flamenco in DC long before I arrived, but before DCflamenco.com was launched, it was nearly impossible to know everything that was going on unless you were "in the know.") Just now, I skimmed through my guestbook which goes back all the way to 1997! People were raving about my website even back then. But there were some that were also ranting about it. Here's an entry from 1998 from someone calling themselves Sara, Samantha and James who didn't have the guts to publish their email address. To this day, no one has come forward to take credit for these words.
The fact that Sara, Samantha and James took the time to write this guestbook entry is actually a compliment. Why? It means that someone really does care about what I have to say! Obviously, I can't please everyone. I don't even try to do that. But based on the overwhelming positive feedback over the past ten years, I know I'm doing an excellent job promoting flamenco in DC and bringing the flamenco community closer together. Moral of the story: stand-up for what you believe in and don't let anyone discourage you. If you're doing something worthwhile that will make a significant impact on a community, it's inevitable: you will piss-off some people along the way. I was just in the right time and place when I came up with the idea of a flamenco website for DC before anyone else did--the World Wide Web (for non-military), as it was called back then, was just taking off. I wasn't trying to be the first, it just happened that way. But I'll take the credit for making this website one of the best of its kind. It's hard work--that's for sure! But I happen to love what I do, so it's actually fun...most of the time. When it's not so fun, to get myself going, I just think about the way all this publicity, excitement and inspiration I incite will pay itself back to the DC flamenco community. It's 11:35am on Thursday as I type these words. Got up a short while ago and read Aru's blog--she's a friend and fellow amateur writer. Turns out she was up at 4:00am like me. It's funny cuz I was thinking to myself at that hour "Somebody, any one of my friends please be up. I feel like talking." When I chatted online with Aru a few minutes ago, I half-jokingly told her that we're psychically connected. :-) This is what she wrote (republished here with her permission): This is the comment I wrote in her blog "i love to write (for myself and for my blog) but i'm not going to attempt to be poetic here. all i have to say is that i'm keeping a copy of aru's 4am thoughts in my palm pilot to inspire me when i'm at a loss for words. never underestimate the power of spontaneity. you can't fake it. and when you spontaneously create something as beautiful as what aru wrote, you can't beat it. don't even try. just enjoy it." Tuesday with Miguelito January 17, 2006 It's 9:37am on Wednesday as I type these words. My 9:00am rehearsal got moved to 2:00pm so now I have time to blog, yay! Aren't you glad I'm here to entertain you while you wile away on this rainy Wednesday morning? :-) Last night, I did my usual Tuesday gig at Las Tapas with DC's best flamenco dancers (of the younger generation): Edwin Aparicio and Anna Menendez. Good performance but attendance was pretty weak with only 3 or 4 tables. I did my usual strategy of going to individual tables and chatting up the audience between sets. You know: greeting them, introducing myself, educating about flamenco, thanking them for coming etc so they feel guilty about not sticking around for the second show. Man, am I bad or what? :-) Hey it's just business and I'm also doing my duty of introducing some culture into their lives. It's also a way for me to promote myself and my website and work on overcoming my shyness--one of my New Year's resolutions. I talked at length with this one couple who went on and on about how we Americans in general (and I'm one of them) seem to lack a clear cultural identity so we need to go back and learn about our heritage (if you trace back far enough, we're all from somewhere else). Their three-year-old daughter has already been introduced to Irish dancing (her father is of Irish descent) but they're going to bring her to Las Tapas next time and who knows maybe she'll fall in love with flamenco...we'll see.  Expensive strip mall near my neighborhood. January 17, 2006 11:44pm It's funny how a relatively poor full-time musician like me lives just a few blocks from some of the most expensive retail stores in DC. Actually I live on some very expensive real estate--eventually when they tear my house down (if it doesn't fall apart on its own) they'll build a multi-million dollar high-rise in its place! Anyway, one time I was passing by Saks on the way home and noticed a sign that said "holiday sale...50% off." I got excited cuz they've got some really cool stuff by Dolce & Gabanna, John Varvatos, Hugo Boss etc. (No I'm not a fashionista but I do notice clothing ads in men's magazines.) I checked the price tags and the normal prices for the shirts I liked ranged from $172 to $300 and up! Ugh! Even with the generous markdown they were still kind of pricey for my clothing budget.  January 17, 2006 11:45pm Anywayz, if you visit my photo diary often enough, you already know my preferred style of clothing. So now you know where to shop for my birthday...just kidding! :-) Yesterday, I got this cool shirt for $14.99 at Ross's Dress for Less across from Las Tapas. Looks good under stage lights and, after all, looking good is part of our job as performers--presentation is just as important as the performance itself! You can buy good quality fashionable threads for a reasonable price if you know where to look--just save the coolest clothes for moi! :-) 
January 18, 2006 9:59am My birthday's not until July 28th and hopefully by then I'll be vacationing somewhere hot by the beach thousands of miles from here. Yeah, I wanna go to Spain again...hopefully in June again when it's hot but not too hot. If not Spain, hopefully I will go to someplace like Cancun. If you got time to kill, take a virtual vacation by reading up these blogs of college students on their semester in Spain: Lisa's adventures in Sevilla, Spain Fall 2005, and Free to be. OK, it's 10:03am on Wednesday. I think I'll go practice guitar for a little bit and go to Borders later and browse the travel section before heading off to rehearsal in Virginia. Ciao for now! Monday with Miguelito January 16, 2006 Getting back to flamenco blogging... 
January 16, 2006 10:18am I arrived just a few minutes before 11:00am when I was supposed to meet Marsha Bonet aka Rosa la Huracana. I noticed a flyer in the window at the studio advertising her classes. 
January 16, 2006 10:57am I digitally recorded part of our rehearsal. Here are a couple of frames from the video file...  January 16, 2006 1:08pm Time to go. For once, I got a good night's rest (close to 7 hours) and it helped! Good rehearsal. Thanks Marsha! 
Marsha. January 16, 2006 2:11pm It's 5:29pm on Monday as I type these words. Time for me to go to Cafe Citron and setup my equipment. I'm almost tempted to stop by DC Dance Collective and see how Gigi's children's flamenco class is going. Never mind. I'll just ask Gigi when I see her later...she's dancing at Citron tonight. Oh yeah, my friend Madiha is celebrating her birthday there too, so it should be a lot of fun. See you there! Afterwards, I'm heading over to My Bakery Cafe in Georgetown to support the rumba group Duende Camaron. Show from 9pm to midnight. It's 1:09am on Tuesday. Got home a short while ago and just uploaded these pics from Cafe Citron and My Bakery Cafe... 
Gigi and Miguelito. January 16, 2006 9:49pm (photo by Jason) 
Miguelito and Gerard Moreno. January 16, 2006 9:56pm (photo by Jason) 
January 16, 2006 10:06pm (photo by Jason) 
January 16, 2006 10:07pm (photo by Jason) 
January 16, 2006 10:08pm (photo by Jason) 
January 16, 2006 10:11pm (photo by Jason) It was also my friend Madiha's birthday. She had a large group of friends in the back, but I stopped her for a moment to pose for a pic. Happy birthday, Madiha! 
Miguelito and Madiha. January 16, 2006 10:23pm (photo by Jason) 
Lola, Miguelito and Madiha Tariq. January 16, 2006 10:23pm (photo by Jason) As soon as we finished our show, I packed up my sound equipment and we headed to Georgetown to catch Duende Camaron's show at My Bakery Cafe. 
Ramin Rad, Jose and Cesar Oretea. January 16, 2006 11:15pm 
Palmeros James, Gigi, Indira and Roxana. January 16, 2006 11:44pm 
Jose with My Bakery owners Elizabeth Gutierrez and David Escobar. January 17, 2006 12:14am 
Miguelito, Jason, Jose, Cesar and Ramin. January 17, 2006 12:22am Time for bed. I have rehearsal with a dancer friend in Virginia at 11:00am Tuesday. Good night! Random pics January 15, 2006 Got up early this morning so I could catch the train at 10:00am to meet a dancer friend in Virginia. Wasn't necessary but still very thoughtful...she made me a simple breakfast before we started rehearsal. Nice. A light snack beforehand puts me in a good mood. 
January 15, 2006 11:56am We made a major breakthrough in progress today: she's starting to appreciate the liberating feeling of dancing with live accompaniment, yay! No, this is not her. This is a flamenco doll on the piano in the studio. :-) 
January 15, 2006 1:32pm Afterwards, I headed to Cabanas in Georgetown to pick up my sound system. To get there I took the scenic route along the C & O Canal. If you squint your eyes enough, you can blur out the obvious signs of modern technology and pretend you're walking through 19th century Washington DC. 
C & O Canal. January 15, 2006 3:02pm 
Georgetown Harbour on the way to Cabanas. January 15, 2006 3:08pm Last week I bought this book: Coaching the Artist Within The advice is applicable to any endeavor artistic or not, but what makes this book cool are the anecdotes illustrating the advice. I especially liked chapter 10, Planning and Doing (page 159), cuz it inspired me to get off my butt and committ myself to making concrete daily plans to support my long-term artistic goals. I know...it's just plain common sense, but we all need that burst of inspiration from time to time. 
January 15, 2006 4:49pm When I went to Spain last June, I was hoping to buy some cool shirts to wear for my shows, but didn't find anything--I still bought a lot of clothes but mostly had a great time though. Little did I know that in September I'd move next to a shopping district in Chevy Chase where I'd find lots of clothing like this shirt which I found at Filene's Basement for cheap! 
January 15, 2006 5:44pm It's 8:13pm on Sunday as I type these words. I didn't go out at all this weekend--just chilled out at home for a change. My friend Juliana burned a bunch of mix CD's for me with some really cool music. I swear, she must've put some subliminal messages in the music telling me "Stay home and read, stay home and read" cuz that's what I've been doing all weekend! :-) I'm still in vacation mode and will get back to my famous flamenco blogging shortly. Gotta get a good night's sleep tonight so I can be awake for an 11:00am rehearsal on Monday. Ciao for now. Random pics January 14, 2006 Haven't been inspired to blog much this week. Indulge me. For ten years, I've been relentlessly promoting flamenco and working my butt off to bring the flamenco community closer together. I've earned a little vacation time, don't you think? In the meantime, thank God I've got other interests such as playing with Photoshop... 
Diffuse glow filter and horizontal flip. January 11, 2006 5:14pm 
Color balance, polygonal lasso with brightness and contrast. Cafe. January 11, 2006 7:44am 
Film grain filter. Shirt available from Cafepress. January 12, 2006 12:30am 
Ocean ripple and rotate. January 14, 2006 4:29pm
Photos taken with the Olympus Stylus 300 Digital Camera
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by James Marcus.
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by Eric Maisel which I just happened to leave in my stage lights bag. So as I transported my sound equipment home, I had something inspiring to read.
