It's 10:39pm on Wednesday. Had the night off from performing and could've gone out. A friend invited me to go to Citron and I was so tempted but I know I would've ended up spending more money than I should have right now considering that I'm saving up for a couple of trips this summer.

Besides, I'm almost finished with Sarah Bird's The Flamenco Academy on, let me check...page 373 out of 381 and with 8 pages to go, the climax is still building!

So I promised myself I'd crank out a quick blog entry and as a reward I'd allow myself to read the remaining pages.

Anyway, I love the author's poetic descriptions of the interaction between guitarist and dancer--anyone who reads passages like these will never want to use a recording ever again. Here's a good one from page 267 about the guitarist character Tomás Montenegro's accompaniment of a dancer:

"Tomás stared straight into my eyes. He studied every curl of each finger I fanned upward, read what I wrote in those twining arabesques and translated them into languages I understood, though I'd never heard them before...Each note Tomás played was only for this second, an instant that was gone as soon as he'd thought of it."

I know what you're thinking...that it sounds like a romance novel. Perhaps it is but I'm totally eating it up. :-) Oh well. It still brought a smile to to my face as I read all five pages vividly describing a dancer and a guitarist's passionate performance of a seguiriyas.

Why did I smile? The author understands the importance of interaction in flamenco--something you can never duplicate when dancing with a recording. If you've been reading my articles and blogs over the years, you know very well what a big deal I make about the importance of live music in flamenco.

I promised myself this would be a quick blog, so let me move on to the aforementioned little gifts.

First off, we have a lapel pin that some friends brought back for me from their recent trip to Spain where they attended the Feria in Sevilla. And appropriately enough, they gave it to me on the day of the DC Feria de Sevilla. Nice!

As you know, I was bit annoyed that my Monday at Citron was cancelled for Memorial Day. I got over that, but I've been hurting a little for money this week, but the flamenco gods are thinking of me...

I got a nice little check from some obscure IT company called Google. Heard of it? :-) Thanks to the ever increasing popularity of my website, the little advertising deal I have going with them is paying off! The more my visitors visit my website and click-through on the Google banner ads the more money I get. So thank you to my loyal readers for this little gift which partially makes up for my lost income this week.

Another couple of friends brought me something from Bali. A t-shirt with a tasteful guitar design embroidered on the front. I've been getting a lot of guitar-related gifts lately which I've mentioned in my blog over the past year. Yeah, I know a t-shirt is not exactly something that represents the culture, but I just love the fact that while my friends were enjoying themselves they took a moment to think of me. That's a gift in itself. Thank you!

Next up we have a studio-quality print by my friend Niko Alexandrou--which I received via Fedex today. It features an inspiring action shot of dancer Ginette Perea with yours truly on guitar and Mariya providing palmas at Tapeo. (In a previous blog entry I published his photos from a recent exhibtion in Boston.) Anyway, Niko's been kind enough to donate his professional quality services to the DC flamenco community and various other flamenco communities all around the USA over the years. He truly enjoys what he does and he makes us artists look good! The least I could do is give him credit which I'm very happy to do. Thank you Niko!

This last little gift needs no explanation. Very simply, it made my day.

Posted by Miguelito at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the second batch of pics from Ginette's first trip to Spain last August 2005. Enjoy!

Ginette and Lisa with Juan de Juan and the guitarist and singer for the workshop. August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Juan de Juan plays guitars too! August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Ginette with her fellow students from Estonia--really good dancers! August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Fountain in downtown Jerez. August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Gotta shop at Zara. August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Just finished shopping at Mango. August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Rocio processions statue. August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Rocio procession statue again, but from the other side. August 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

OK, I still got a few more pics from Ginette's trip to publish, but I'll take a break and get ready for my gig tonight at Las Tapas. Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pic of stage...mood getting ready...I can feel the flamenco mood build up by hearing the flamencas' footwork exercises as they prepare their costumes and make up. August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

These pics were taken last year when Ginette Perea went to Spain for the first time.

I know I'm on a photo publishing frenzy here. Enjoy it while it lasts! ;-) This is the first batch of pics. I'll have the second batch ready later today.

They start off the show with bulerías to get the crowd going...very intensive facial features! August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Cantaor Pedro finishing off the bulerías. August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Gypsy flamenco dancers enjoying their sevillanas. August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Dancing sevillanas. Oh wait, I recognize that girl in the white dress! She was in Juan de Juan's workshop--very young but the first one to get all the steps down within a matter of minutes!  August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Dancing soleá por bulerías...very powerful intense look. I love it! August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

The female singer. She had a great voice. I loved hearing her sing! August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

I think she was the best dancing onstage. She had the whole package!! August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Quick pic of all of us by a kind stranger. The food was good. I had fried shark meat. The table was kinda small though. From the left: Manuel, Anna, Lisa and Ginette. August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Gypsies were kind enough to take a quick pic with me and Lisa. August 15, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ginette Perea)

Posted by Miguelito at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Several months ago, my photographer friend, Niko Alexandrou, had a collection of his flamenco photos on exhibition in the Boston Public Library. For the exhibition he could only display 10 of his best. Before that step, he narrowed it down to 25 out of thousands. With the photographer's permission, I present to you for the first time those 25 in this mini-exhibition here at DC Flamenco. This is the second batch. Enjoy!

Sara Jerez, Anna Menendez, Natalia Monteleón and Edwin Aparicio.

Arte Flamenco dancers performing a farruca.

Natalia Monteleón

Dana Shoenberg, Karina Araujo and Cori Bernal

Sara Jerez

Natalia Monteleón

Marta Chico Martín and Jason Vera y Aragón

Natalia Monteleón, Karina Araujo, Sara Jerez and Anna Menendez.

I hope you enjoyed these as much I did. Here's part one. Thanks again to Niko for permission to publish these photos on DC Flamenco. If you wish to purchase studio-quality prints of these images, send an email to Niko Alexandrou.

Posted by Miguelito at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kathy at a bull ring in Sevilla. May 2006 (photo courtesy of Katherine Vargas)

I amazed at how I'm able to keep up with the many people I meet at my gigs.

For example, I met this one colombiana named Kathy at Cafe Citron in January 2004 (here's the pic--blue top.) and a month or so later I had an extra free ticket to a flamenco concert based on a play by Federico García Lorca and so I was thinking about who amongst my friends would want to go and immediately Kathy came to mind despite having met and chatted with her briefly only once or twice. On the night I first met her, I remembered her telling me how much she loves poetry especially by Lorca. Bear in mind that I meet a LOT of people at my gigs especially at Cafe Citron. Of course it helps my memory if you're pretty. hehe

But there's no gimmick here. I do have a genuine interest in most of the people I meet. My secret to remembering all of the many names and faces is that as soon as I get home, I edit the photos (which helps to jog my visual memory and in the process remember the faces), then I upload the pics to my blog and add commentary making sure to identify all the people (helps to reinforce in my mind all the names) and if possible mentioning something special about them that I personally found interesting. That's all there is and it works!

I ran into Kathy at Lisner Auditorium last February just before the Gala de Andalucía concert after not seeing her for more than a year. We caught up with each other briefly and said goodbye before going into the theater cuz I assumed I wouldn't run into her later. She was going back to Florida in a few days.

Anyway, this evening (Monday) she sent me a random selection of cool pics from her recent trip to Spain. Thanks Kathy!

Flamenco show in Sevilla. May 2006 (photo courtesy of Katherine Vargas)

This is a pretty cool action shot, below. I don't know of any flamenco dances that are typically danced with a cape so I'm guessing that this was performed with classical music or perhaps pasodoble.

Dance with bullfighter capes. May 2006 (photo courtesy of Katherine Vargas)

What I love about Spain, and many European cities for that matter, is the preservation of the Old World. I'm sure these views of Granada haven't changed much over the past few centuries. Very cool!

Kathy and friend in Granada. May 2006 (photo courtesy of Katherine Vargas)

This is probably the same Granada that inspired composer Isaac Albéniz to compose his famous Suite Iberia, originally written for piano but transcribed for and made even more famous in performances on the classical guitar. You may recognize one of his more famous pieces, Asturias (or Leyenda), which believe it or not was originally composed for the piano!

Granada. May 2006 (photo courtesy of Katherine Vargas)

Montserrat. May 2006 (photo courtesy of Katherine Vargas)

This last one has some signficance for me cuz it happens to be the place where a very famous classical guitar composer named Fernando Sor (1778-1839) lived in a monastery. When I was majoring in classical guitar performance at California State University, Fullerton, I performed Sor's Variations on a Theme of Mozart in my junior recital. My guitar professor at the time, David Grimes, encouraged me to learn as much as I could about the composers and time period of the pieces I was learning. Of course, back then I knew Sor's biographical details by heart. Most of that has been forgotten, 'cept I have a good visual memory. When I saw Kathy's last pic, I immediately recognized it as Montserrat.

I hope these pics sent in by Kathy and other DC flamencos inspire you to plan a trip to Spain soon. I know I will!

Posted by Miguelito at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a quick entry on this laid-back holiday...

I love my Monday nights at Citron--the highlight of my flamenco-filled week. So when the show gets cancelled like it was for today (for Memorial Day), the result is a void in ma soul that I gots ta fill. Ugh. Thank God it turned out I had a rehearsal scheduled late this morning (Monday) which I almost missed cuz I overslept, but fortunately it was at DC Dance Collective which is practically down the street from my house.

Rehearsal with Furia Flamenca at DC Dance Collective. May 29, 2006 12:05pm

Guitarist Behzad Habibzai and I rehearsed with Furia Flamenca in preparation for this weekend's concert Fuerza y Pasión. Very productive session. We only had to work on one number and since I had performed with Furia about a month ago it all came back to me pretty quickly. Behzad and I work well together musically and personality-wise not to mention the fact that he also plays cajón.

Later, I got some lunch and spent some time outdoors working on my tan and read a few more chapters in Sarah Bird's The Flamenco Academy which I'm enjoying thoroughly cuz I can relate to some of the experiences of the characters as they interact with members of the fictional version of the Albuquerque flamenco community along with the typical attitude, cliques and rivalry. :-)

I love it when the guitarist character Tomás Montenegro says:
"This place is so flamenco...I love that whoever created all this knows that they're never going to get rich or famous. They're not going to get anything. They're doing it because they have to..."

As a self-appointed authenticity consultant, I'll say the author got that line right!

Not going to spoil the story. Anywayz, signing off. Ginette knew about my need for a flamenco fix today so she was kind enough to invite me to play for her children's dance class at DC Dance Collective, yay! Ciao for now.

Posted by Miguelito at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mariya, Miguelito and Ginette Perea. May 3, 2006 (photo courtesy of Alena)

I just met Alena at last night's gig in Pentagon City. She's a loyal reader of my blog and a now a personal friend who just sent me these pics taken by her sister-in-law at our debut here, a few weeks ago, at Tapeo. Thanks Alena!

May 3, 2006 (photo courtesy of Alena)

May 3, 2006 (photo courtesy of Alena)

May 3, 2006 (photo courtesy of Alena)

May 3, 2006 (photo courtesy of Alena)

May 3, 2006 (photo courtesy of Alena)

Posted by Miguelito at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sara Candela, Edwin Aparicio, Miguelito and Gerard Moreno at Cafe Citron

Several months ago, my photographer friend, Niko Alexandrou, had a collection of his flamenco photos on exhibition in the Boston Public Library. For the exhibition he could only display 10 of his best. Before that step, he narrowed it down to 25 out of thousands. With the photographer's permission, I present to you for the first time those 25 in this mini-exhibition here at DC Flamenco. Enjoy!

Cori Bernal at Cafe Citron.

Cori, again.

Micaela Moreno, Marta Chico Martín and Miguelito at Las Tapas.

Micaela at Las Tapas.

Sara Jerez, Anna Menendez and Natalia Monteleón.

Marta Chico Martín, ? and Anna Menendez.

Anna Menendez with Aleksey Kulikov, Jesus Montoya, Richard Marlow and ?.

Ginette Perea and Miguelito at the Andalucía Restaurant.

Behzad Habibzai and Anna Menendez.

Marta Chico Martín and Anna Menendez.

Anna Menendez and Behzad Habibzai.

Edwin Aparicio and friends.

This is just the first part. Here's part two. If you wish to purchase studio-quality prints of these images, send an email to Niko Alexandrou.

Posted by Miguelito at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bull on da bar at Tapeo. May 27, 2006 6:59pm

It's 8:55am on Sunday as I type these words (actually I started this at 2:00am last night but fell asleep, oh well). I was just checking out the stats for my website, which I haven't checked in a long time. And what I discovered was very pleasing to me, as a webmaster:

In June last year, the average daily unique visits (for you techies: unique means visits from an IP address within a 30-minute period) was 610 per day. For the month of May so far, we're already up to 1565 per day--a 256% increase!

I know these numbers sound very tame to my fellow webmasters out there, but just bear in mind, that DC Flamenco is a very focused website. Let's assume my typical visitor is a fanatic and will visit my site three times a day (once when they first arrive at work, again on their lunch break and finally one more time before they leave work for the day). For the month of May that would mean 520 people are visiting my site each day! I can't pin down the geographic origin of the visits exactly but I'm guessing that half, 260, are visiting from the DC metropolitan area alone. If the DC Flamenco website was a house, I'd have 260 people knocking on my door several times a day to ask me, "Hey Miguelito, what's up?" :-)

Now, if I can get just 10% of those 260 DC folks to show up at all my gigs on a regular basis, business would be really really good. Incidentally, on some of the better nights at Citron, I've been able to count 20 people who came specifically for the show--most of them are regulars (coming every week), semi-regulars (once or twice a month) along with a few newbies who came because they heard about the show on my website. Did I mention that this is on Monday nights? The hardest night of the week to get people to go out. Pretty impressive, no?

Moving on...the total number of visits for June last year was 18,238, for May this year it's 40,712.

By far, the most visited section of the website (as I predicted) is the Photo Diary followed by the calendar of events and teacher directory. The top referrers are Google followed by Yahoo! and, interestingly, myspace. The cumulative visits for the past year so far is 361,360!

Anyway, if I lost you in this ocean of statistics, don't worry. The point here is that the number of people visiting my website is growing exponentially. As a result more people are better informed about what's going on in the DC flamenco scene. That's a good thing!

Let's talk about last night at Tapeo, shall we?

I love it here at Tapeo. The owners are very laid back and treat us very nicely. I mean, yeah, they care about the bottom line as they should, but they do put in the time overseeing the daily operation even going as far as helping out with the mundane tasks when the staff is overwhelmed.

The Tapeo staff is like a United Nations-variety with people hailing from Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Croatia and oh yeah, even Spain too. :-) Turns out one of the servers, Juan is actually from Jerez!

Juan and Ginette Perea. May 27, 2006 7:01pm

I asked him to pose with Ginette for a pic doing palmas. Not sure if he was holding back on his flamenco skills (so he wouldn't show us up) or if he really didn't know his bulerías palmas as well as every culturally responsible Jerezano should rightfully know. :-)

Interestingly, the interior dining room was nearly empty the whole evening, but fortunately the outdoor patio was packed--a good thing since that's where the stage is located. It's been only our fourth week here and we already have some regulars, yay! In particular, my former landlord Steve who always grabs the corner table outside and invites a group of his friends. He's always paying compliments and this evening he said to me, "I could listen to you play guitar for hours!"

The outdoor dining area at Tapeo. May 27, 2006 6:51pm

Of course I was happy to see all the tables (outside) filled-up. But believe it or not, we get more people who stand in front, behind and to the side of the stage watching the show for free! Lately, I've noticed a lot of young children getting into the show as they sit down in front completely enraptured by the foot stomping, the beautiful dresses, my pretty dancers and my guitar playing. Ginette usually hangs her castanets on the railing behind the stage after she finishes Sevillanas. I had to keep an eye on them during the show to make sure some innocent little child didn't grab them and walk away.

Hmmm....just got a marketing idea. Gotta find a place that sells cheap toy castanets. It's something I can give away to kids who come to our show. Then I can have some labels made with the DC Flamenco logo on it and stick them on the castanets. It's something memorable that they can walk away with. I know what I'll do: next time I go to Spain, I'll find a souvenir shop and buy a whole box of 'em.

Later, there was this one lady who came up to me and asked, "So when are you going on?"

"Sometime between 7 and 7:30pm."

"Thank you. We just saw you and your dancers last night at Cabanas."

That was nice. First of all, I'm glad that this lady remembered me. Thing is, I'm used to people noticing the dancers and not me. It's not that I'm being pessimistic. People sometimes really don't notice me. For example, I've had people come up to me at Las Tapas on a Tuesday telling me they come on Thursdays all the time and they love my playing so much they had to come back on a Tuesday thinking it's the same guy playing both nights. The guitarist that plays on Thursday is a guy named Richard Marlow, not me. Yeah, we're both very good at playing guitar, but our styles are very different, first of all and secondly there's no way people could visually mistake me for Richard. Hello? I'm tall, Asian, long black hair in a ponytail. Richard, a handsome guy, but is not tall, is Caucasian with brown hair not in a ponytail. Ugh.

On the other hand, I could take it as a compliment that they don't notice me. Why do I say that now? Well, look at it this way: flamenco guitar accompaniment is like a movie soundtrack. If the music perfectly complements the scene in a movie you don't notice it--you just take it all in as a complete experience. If the music doesn't go well with the scene it stands out more. Same for flamenco: if it's done right, you don't notice the guitar playing specifically. The dancing, singing (when we're lucky to have cante) and guitar accompaniment ideally merge as one.

Oh, at one point in the evening, I met one of my loyal blog readers, a young lady, incidentally a fellow filipino, named Elaine who came from New Jersey to see the show. Not just to see me. She was visiting her DC friends and brought them here to Tapeo. She said, "I've been reading your blog everyday for about six months now. Your blog is amazing!"

Amazing, she says. Hmmmm...I don't think I write anything profound or particularly interesting to warrant the word amazing. But obviously there are some people who actually read my blog everyday and I know this cuz people tell me. And the blog is the most popular page on my website according to my statistics. Plus, I'm confident in myself to know I'm a decent writer (TRIVIA: for two years I went to a British high school overseas and consistently got better marks--grades in American English--than my British peers. Ha!) but da main thing is that I keep it real (at times even mundane) and just write practically every day--it's good therapy for someone like me who's immersed in the crazy, sometimes frustrating world of the arts.

My blog's like the print version of a reality TV show--'cept I leave out the soap opera details, thank God. I would get into so much trouble if I published all that, however it would make for great entertainment for the masses! :-) No I'm not being insensitive. I'm allowed to joke about it, cuz I am in the middle of this real-life soap opera!

Speaking of which, I'm reading Sarah Bird's new novel, The Flamenco Academy which is starting to sound like a soap opera already--and I like it! And if it ever becomes a movie, I half-jokingly already asked the author to consider hiring me as an on-set authenticity consultant. Gael García Bernal would play the character of Tomás Montenegro, the handsome up-and-coming flamenco guitarist who gets romantically involved with a dancer along with all the usual juicy soap operatic complications, and I'd be there to interject every now and then, "Hey Gael, dude, hold up there buddy, a real flamenco guitarist wouldn't say that. He'd really say...." hehe.

I've already done some consulting for a play and a movie-in-the-works about flamenco but I'm sort of under a non-disclosure agreement so I can't give out any more details.

Anyhoo, here are a couple a pics to show you all a bit of the more labor-intensive part of my job....breaking down of the sound system and stage lights at the end of the evening. It's a necessary evil and someone has to do it.

Miguelito breakin' it down. May 27, 2006 9:40pm (photo by Ginette)

It's not such a bad thing, but it kind of annoys me sometimes when the moment I walk away to break down the equipment is when the members of the audience decide to come up to the bar (or whereever us artists are hanging out) and schmooze and talk business.

Such grace and poise. :-) May 27, 2006 9:40pm (photo by Ginette)

It's 12:34pm already. I wasn't really writing for the whole four hours from when I started. I just took my time and lots of breaks throughout the morning.

Last night a dancer friend loaned me a DVD of Hostel (Unrated Widescreen Edition). Not exactly family entertainment but something stimulating to watch very late last night. Anyway, while I was writing this blog entry this morning I got caught up with all the behind-the-scenes featurettes. It kinda makes it hard to watch the particularly gory movie (think Quentin Tarantino) again without thinking about all the behind-the-scenes stuff. You know...like watching the actors walk around between scenes with all the bloody makeup on and crack jokes with the crew.

But this makes me think about my own experience in performing. I mean, yeah, I know about all the techniques, theories, politics, personal stuff and inside jokes we have onstage etc. It can become a mechanical superficial process. But ideally I still want to get into the spirit of flamenco each and every time. It's not always easy but it helps to reflect on what brought me here in the first place. I like to recall the feelings I first had when I first fell in love with flamenco years ago at that juerga in Buena Park, California. Anyway, that's another story. Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 1:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As much as we all know and love the DC feria, I think I've given it plenty enough exposure in my blog, so let's move on shall we? :-)

You last heard from me on Thursday when I published two blog entries so I sort of missed a day. Oh well. To clear the palate, so to speak, let's take a little detour from flamenco...

Don't have any pics from Thursday, but what was interesting was when I came home at 10:30pm (early for me). As I approached the Pink Flamenco I could barely make out through the blinds a couple dancing in the studio. Then it dawned upon me that a private Argentine tango lesson was in progress. There's a weekly class earlier in the evening but this was another tango instructor (who has worked with Shakira and Madonna!) who gives private lessons here occasionally. So instead of lugging my sound equipment through da studio and disrupting the lesson I went through the back and pulled all 100 pounds of music gear up the stairs one step at a time. Cue the sound effects: clunk, clunk, cluk, ow!, clunk. ow! :-)

I planted myself at the computer in the back and basically surfed the Net until the lesson was over. I was a little annoyed that I couldn't go to my room--actually I could have but that would've interrupted the lesson. I decided to pass the time browsing friendster and myspace for people interested in flamenco so I could add more friends to my profile. La de da de da.

Anyhoo, little by little I was seduced by the sound of tango music. It was playing on a tiny boombox with low-quality speakers that actually enhanced the tango experience. I could hear the crackle and pop that's typical of vinyl records giving the recording a nostalgic kind of feeling.

Although this was a private lesson, I was surprised to hear very little teaching going on. Must've been an advanced student cuz I imagine he had the basics down cold and was just focusing on subtle style improvements as the teacher made non-verbal corrections. No foot stomping of course, but I could hear the creak of the floor as they tango'd around the studio.

Occasionally the teacher would mutter some instruction but I didn't try to listen. It was followed immediately by some laughter. They were having a good time. Nice. I love living here. There's always something artistic going on...from my mambo dancer roommate upstairs practicing to my artist roommate working on his latest painting.

So fast forward to Friday...I decided to make some quality time for a dancer friend and get some lunch in Georgetown. We checked out this place called Bangkok Joes just around da corner from Cabanas. My friend and I are both on artist budgets, but we're not poor. This place was perfect cuz the prices were very reasonable, the service was very attentive and the ambience was chic ('cept for the un-Bangkok-like American pop for background music, ugh).

The hostess sat us in one of those two-person booths (see above pic) which were raised above the floor so that you had to place your feet on a footrest underneath the table. It was like our table was one car in a train on an amusement park ride without the seat belts. :-) So began our little culinary journey to Thailand...

My friend ordered the Thai iced tea--a perfect choice for a humid day. My instincts told me to order somethin' else just to be different but the thought of sipping something cool and refreshing with a touch of the exotic won me over to my friend's choice. Minutes later, our server brought us two glasses filled with iced tea and to my surprise a little glass of condensed milk and a sugar syrup kettle. That's classy.

It took us a little while to decide on our entrees. We were a bit distracted by the decor and couldn't help looking around and comment on the design. Our server was patient with us, though. Nice.

My choice for lunch: Drunken Chicken--stir fried sen-yai (fat noodle) with chicken, sweet basil, chili and garlic sauce. This one had three pepper icons--I like it spicy! It was served in a white porcelain bowl with a peculiar design: high on one end and low on the other as if to frame it at the perfect angle for the diner's view. Kinda made the portion look small though, but it was big on taste and those big fat noodles are very filling!

She got the Thai Chicken Salad--grilled chicken and mesclun tossed with sweet and sour vinaigrette and crunch rice sticks--and seafood lemon grass soup.

The latter an excellent choice for someone just getting over a cold--lotsa liquid to cleanse the body plus citrus and pepper for boosting the immune system. The combination of the presentation and the aroma so enticed me that I quickly flagged down our server and ordered a bowl of the same for myself!

Seafood lemongrass soup. Mmmmm! May 26, 2006 12:40pm

My friend had the afternoon free, yay! As for myself I dropped off my sound system and guitar at Cabanas so I wouldn't have to go back home. A smart idea, cuz that freed up my schedule big time. Although it was cloudy day, it was still pleasant enough to enjoy walking around Georgetown. So we basically just wandered the streets and found ourselves walking along the C & O canal.

Stairs leading down to the canal. May 26, 2006 2:30pm

Love this place for its historic feel. Back in the 1800's this canal was used regularly by boats drawn by horses on this very trail! What's surreal is that a mere hundred yards away is M St abuzz with cars, suv's and trucks but you can't really hear them.

May 26, 2006 2:31pm

I'm always thinking of scenes I could manipulate with Photoshop--I'm such a geek in that way. Here's one that originally had me jumping on the dirt path, but thanks to my Photoshop skills I made it look like I was jumping in the canal. Pretty cool, no?

View of the canal from a footbridge. May 26, 2006 2:41pm

Crossed over to the other side and found ourselves wandering around the grounds of an architectural firm which had waterfalls galore. Kinda cool place to hangout and read a book. For me, there's something soothing about the sound of running water.

Looks like path on an amusement park water ride, no? May 26, 2006 2:44pm

Um, this is a waterfall. May 26, 2006 2:44pm

Waterfall with flash. May 26, 2006 2:45pm

No flash. May 26, 2006 2:45pm

Fast forward a few hours later...I'm at Cabanas hanging out with dancers Ginette Perea and Mariya between shows. Didn't have my usual photographer in the audience so you'll have to settle for this one pic. It's a nice one though.

Mariya and Ginette. May 26, 2006 9:49pm

My dancer friend Monica (used to dance at Columbia Restaurant in Tampa) came out all the way from Stafford with her husband Joel to celebrate his birthday and squeeze in some flamenco. Thanks guys. I used my connections to get them a table in front of da stage. hehe.

May 26, 2006 9:50pm

At da end of the night, I was walking a dancer friend through Georgetown and we passed by Hu's Shoes on M street and this window display caught my eye. Definitely flamenco-themed. Like it?

May 26, 2006 11:57pm

When I got home, I found a package waiting for me in front of my door. Turned out to be an advance copy of Sarah Bird's latest book: The Flamenco Academy, yay!

May 27, 2006 9:57am

Excerpt from the book jacket:
From the author of the widely praised "The Yokota Officers Club," a superbly alive novel about two young American women caught up in the fevered excitement of the flamenco revival sweeping the Southwest.

The place is Albuquerque. Cyndi Rae Hrcnir, called Rae, seventeen and shy, is twice spellbound, first by high school bad girl Didi ("Dirty Deeds") Steinberg, already embarked on a search for stardom, then by a devastingly handsome young flamenco guitarist, Tomás Montenegro. Soon the girls are in college, where they abandon themselves to the disciplines and demands of the university's flamenco academy and to the hypnotic storytelling of their teacher, Doña Carlota, Tomás's great aunt...Locked in a volatile triangle and driven by obsession--Didi's with stardom, Rae's with Tomás, Tomás with his mysterious heritage--these three emerge as the brightest stars on the New World flamenco scene, while secrets and desires, longings and betrayals pulse just beneath the glittering surface of their compelling performances...

It's Saturday and Anna Menendez's class at American Dance Institute was cancelled for the Memorial Day weekend. So I'm getting out of the house, finding myself a comfortable seat at the nearest Starbucks and read for a few hours.

Personally, I'd love to write a fiction book drawing upon the real-life soap opera of the DC flamenco scene, but omigod I would get in so much trouble! hehe. You'll have to settle for my tame but very very fascinating blog. :-)

Anywayz, Sarah Bird's book is scheduled for release to the general public on June 6. For those of you going to Albuquerque this would make for the perfect reading on the plane. For those of you not going, this'll be a fictional version of the Albuquerque experience. Anywayz I'll have a review as soon as I'm done. Oh yeah, the author, Sarah Bird, is doing a book tour and will be in DC on Tuesday June 20th. I'll have the details as soon as they're finalized. Ciao for now!

P.S. Just heard that for this Monday May 29th only, the Memorial Day holiday, the flamenco show at Cafe Citron is cancelled. :-\ Oh well. So what to do? Hmmm..I wuz thinking of checking out the Monday night salsa party at Clarendon Grill.

Posted by Miguelito at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Baltimore-based dancer Tamara Sol in soleá por bulerías. May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

OK it's 1:34am on Thursday and I'm still going strong. This is the last of feria pics from Ginette for now. Thank you Ginette. Enjoy!

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

For more info about Arte Flamenco, visit their website.

Posted by Miguelito at 1:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anna last week at North by Northwest performing with Elba Hevia y Vaca's group. (photo by Carol Basilio)

Carol Basilio writes:
Hi Miguelito. We were graced with the presence of Ms. Anna Menendez - twice in the course of a week. What a treat it is to see her do her thang...here are some pics. Unfortunately, the restaurant is very dark and I didn't want to take pictures with the flash, so I really didn't get many good action shots.

It was nice to see you at the Feria and as always, thanks for the extremely generous service you provide to flamencos everywhere. Ole, Miguelito!
Un abrazo,
Carol

These pics are from last night (Wednesday). Just a few hours after the performance--I give you quicker news coverage than the Washington Post! :-)

Entrance to Amada. May 24, 2006 (photo by Carol Basilio)

Joey Tayoun on cajon, Antonia Arias - cante, Tito Rubio - guitar, Anna Rubio and Anna Menendez - dancers. May 24, 2006 (photo by Carol Basilio)

Anna Rubio. May 24, 2006 (photo by Carol Basilio)

Anna Menendez. May 24, 2006 (photo by Carol Basilio)

Anna Rubio, Anna Menendez, Liliana Ruiz - dancers and me - aspiring dancer and all-around Flamencopile. May 24, 2006 (photo courtesy of Carol Basilio)

Posted by Miguelito at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amy, Bala and Morgan. May 21, 2006 (photo by Tim)

Can you believe this is my fifth photo diary entry today (Wednesday)? Yup, I'm on a roll. It's a little bit after midnight now but I'm going to keep workin' on da blog until I doze off at da keyboard. But I'm a night person which means I'll go on all night as long as I feel inspired.

Yeah I know. I keep you all distracted and unproductive at your day jobs. You can thank me later. hehe

Anyhoo, Katherine Page sent me this collection of photos featuring Furia Flamenca. She was also kind enough to identify all zee wonderful people in the pics plus the respective photographers. You make my "job" so easy: thank you Katherine!

Antonio, Daniel, Aref and Bala. May 21, 2006 (photo by Iris)

Tammy, Daniel, Heidi, Estela, Lillian, Ashley and Sylvia. May 21, 2006 (photo by Tim)

Tammy, Jennifer, Teresa and Dana. May 21, 2006 (photo by Tim)

Daniel, Teresa and Dana. May 21, 2006 (photo by Tim)

Sylvia, Ashley Morgan and Amy. May 21, 2006 (photo by Tim)

Mariana surrounded by Heidi, Teresa, Katherine, Aref, Miguelito, Torcuato and Estela. May 21, 2006 (photo by Karina's friend)

Estela and Morgan. May 21, 2006 (photo by Tim)

Lillian, Katherine, Dana, Sylvia, and Bala. May 21, 2006 (photo by Iris)

Karina and Lauren. May 21, 2006 (photo by Iris)

For more information about Furia Flamenca, visit their website.

Posted by Miguelito at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Da boyz of Furia. May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

It's 11:19pm on Wednesday. Yup I'm still at home working on feria pics. I did step out for an hour or so to visit Fronteras U (aka Borders) to read up on art history--next week, I'm supposed to give a mini-lecture on Spanish art for high school students in addition to a demonstration on flamenco. I'm focusing on Picasso's Guernica and I'm banking on the current fascination with symbolism thanks to the recent popularity of some book titled The Da Vinci Code. Heard of it? :-)

Anywayz, my friend Karina sent me a bunch of nice pics of Furia Flamenca from the feria. It took me a while to select the best ones. So here you are. Enjoy!

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Karina Valverde)

For more info about Furia Flamenca, visit their website.

Posted by Miguelito at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mariya and Jason Vera y Aragón. May 22, 2006 9:54pm (photo by Keith)

It's Wednesday already. So I'm a day late on publishing this entry about Monday night at Cafe Citron but the incoming deluge of feria pics has got me a little swamped.

Anyway, regarding Citron, it's always much more fun when my friends show up and add to the party. Having Jason join us on stage playing cajon always adds that special rhythmic drive that makes the show more fun. Thanks Jason!

María and Mariya in Sevillanas. May 22, 2006 9:55pm (photo by Keith)

You remember María from two weeks ago? She came back and didn't hesitate to get up and dance a copla of Sevillanas.

May 22, 2006 9:55pm (photo by Keith)

Mariya dancing guajiras. May 22, 2006 9:56pm (photo by Keith)

May 22, 2006 9:57pm (photo by Keith)

Mariya in tangos. May 22, 2006 10:15pm (photo by Keith)

A big thank you to all my friends who show up week after week. You know who you are. I won't mention all the names for fear of leaving someone out. Anyway, the show at Citron is going on as scheduled on the Memorial Day holiday, Monday May 29th. Please come if you can. The more the merrier!

It's about 8pm on Wednesday. I have the night off. And after spending most of the afternoon getting some fresh air and enjoying the outdoors, I decided to spend the night in and catch up on my blog. As I type these words, I'm watching a DVD of Camarón. It doesn't have English subtitles so I really have to concentrate to understand the Spanish. Oh well, the flamenco performances are pretty decent. Good night!

Posted by Miguelito at 7:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Miguelito and Lori at Paco de Málaga's caseta. May 21, 2006 (photo by Ayhan Ozdag)

Ayhan writes:

Hi Miguelito,
How are you? Feria was really great. Also I see lots of photos on your web site. But there is no picture of Miguelito dancing. Here they are. Hope you enjoy it. See you.
Ayhan

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ayhan Ozdag)

You'd think by now I'd know all four coplas of Sevillanas. Truth is, I barely known the first one so I just faked the other three since I've seen it done something like hundreds of times over the years.

Besides I couldn't say no to my friend Lori when she invited me to dance. Thanks Lori!

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ayhan Ozdag)

Posted by Miguelito at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Miguelito checkin' out da boots for sale at Torcuato's table. May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

OK, now people have sent me tons of feria photos to select from, edit and publish. Thank you all for your contributions! Anyway, I'll try to publish at least one set of photos a day until I get through them all.

Today's entry features a selection courtesy of Ginette Perea. Enjoy!

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

Posted by Miguelito at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

Sonia also sent me some pics from the Arte Flamenco student recital. I'll get those later. I hope you enjoy these. Thank you Sonia!

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

May 21, 2006 (photo courtesy of Sonia Small)

Posted by Miguelito at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That's Milagros Soler in the orange dress with white lunares. May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

This the first batch of pics that Ginette took using her camera. Enjoy!

Jason Vera y Aragon, Behzad Habibzai, Carlton Ashton and Torcuato Zamora. May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

Torcuato, Renee, Nicole, Jackie, Debra and Olivia. May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

Love the composition of this next photo. Good job Ginette!

Nicole and María. May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

Jackie, Debra, Cecilia, Renee and Nicole. May 21, 2006 (photo by Ginette Perea)

Posted by Miguelito at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sevillanas party at Paco de Málaga's caseta. May 21, 2006 1:34pm

Welcome back to the DC Feria gallery! In the previous blog entry, we were hanging out at Paco de Málaga's caseta. We're still here except now the Sevillanas party is just getting started...

Raquelita and Ginette. May 21, 2006 1:36pm

Ginette, Grisela, Raquelita and Gabriela. May 21, 2006 1:40pm

Gabriela and Grisela. May 21, 2006 1:40pm

Aleksey and Isabelita. May 21, 2006 1:48pm

Las niñas. May 21, 2006 1:55pm

Las mujeres. May 21, 2006 2:00pm

Stepping just outside of the caseta, some of the dancers prepare for their turn on the main stage.

Isabelita rehearsing tanguillos. May 21, 2006 2:00pm

May 21, 2006 2:01pm

We snuck away for a lil' bit to checkout a bit of Arte Flamenco's performance.

The audience during Arte Flamenco's show on the main stage. May 21, 2006 2:14pm

Sarah and Emily. May 21, 2006 2:17pm

View from the top of the hill of Arte Flamenco's show. May 21, 2006 2:27pm

Actually, I was invited to play for Arte Flamenco's group, but I got a little carried away hanging out at the caseta. Oh well. They did just fine of course since they already had 3 or 4 guitarists onstage as it was. Still would've been nice if I was up there with them.

So we came back to the caseta to get a run-down on the program. I haven't played for Ana Martinez's students in a long long time. Although I could pull it off with no rehearsal it just helps for the guitarist to be there to reassure the dancers.

Los niños at Paco de Málaga's caseta. May 21, 2006 2:32pm

It's showtime!

Students of Ana Martinez. May 21, 2006 2:50pm (photo by Ginette)

Just for fun, let's play a game. What do you think these dancers are talkin' about?

Closeup of previous pic. May 21, 2006 2:50pm (photo by Ginette)

Another closeup. May 21, 2006 2:50pm (photo by Ginette)

Sevillanas. May 21, 2006 2:54pm (photo by Ginette)

I took these next three pics while I was onstage.

Sevillanas. May 21, 2006 (taken with my camera phone)

Raquelita. May 21, 2006 (taken with my camera phone)

Richard Marlow. May 21, 2006 (taken with my camera phone)

In the pic below, notice how the job of the dancers is to "frame" the guitarist. Nice. :-)

Closeup of previous pic. May 21, 2006 2:54pm

Guajiras. May 21, 2006 2:58pm (photo by Ginette)

May 21, 2006 2:58pm (photo by Ginette)

May 21, 2006 3:00pm (photo by Ginette)

OK, now let's take some time to appreciate the variety of costumes we have onstage. That's what I love about flamenco: expression of individuality is encouraged.

May 21, 2006 3:01pm (photo by Ginette)

May 21, 2006 3:01pm(photo by Ginette)

May 21, 2006 3:02pm (photo by Ginette)

That's it for the second batch. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll work on the rest when I get home tonight from Las Tapas. See you there! Oh yeah, and I still have to work on the pics from last night at Cafe Citron. So much work to do so be nice to me. :-)

Posted by Miguelito at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lovely ladies at the Castilla caseta making bocadillos con chorizo. May 21, 2006 10:55am

In case you're new to the DC flamenco community, our Feria de Sevilla here (organized by Centro Español de Washington) is the biggest event that we all look forward to year after year. It used to take place at Fort Reno Park but for the past two years has been held here on the grounds of Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland. Flamenco performances go on throughout the afternoon on the main stage. This year, the featured groups included Sol y Triana, Mirada Flamenca, Arte Flamenco, Ana Martinez & Paco de Málaga and Furia Flamenca.

Got a lot of photos to sift through and edit, so I'll keep the commentary brief.

As usual, there were kiosks selling samples of dishes from several regions of Spain. Ginette Perea and her mom Gina picked me up early so we could arrive at Strathmore in time to take pics of people setting up their tents and preparing for the Feria officially starting at noon. So we pretty much just walked around the grounds taking random pics of people hard-at-work behind-the-scenes...

Torcuato always has flamenco supplies for sale from shoes to mantones to little flamenco figurines.

Guitarist Torcuato Zamora with dancer Ginette Perea. May 21, 2006 10:57am

Ginette proudly showing off products from her native Perú. May 21, 2006 11:05am

Torcuato on jamón serrano duty. May 21, 2006 11:08am

Eventually we ended up near the main stage which is next to the entrance where most of the people come in from the parking garage. So we stood around for awhile and greeted people as they arrived--the unofficial feria welcoming committee. :-)

Ulrika Frank, Ginette and Angela. May 21, 2006 11:23am

Mirada dancers Jackie, Renee and Olivia. May 21, 2006 11:25am

Percussionist Jason Vera y Aragó and guitarist Henry Jova. May 21, 2006 11:34am

Dancers Raquelita and Ginette. May 21, 2006 11:42am

Throughout the afternoon, I went back and forth between the main stage and Paco de Málaga's caseta. Unfortunately, I missed most of Arte Flamenco's performance. Oops. But there's so much to see and do and I really wanted to just enjoy a more relaxed day, catch up with old friends and get to know some new ones.

Ginette, Raquelita and guitarist Paco de Málaga. May 21, 2006 11:52am

Recognize this dancer? May 21, 2006 11:55am

Dancer Debra Belo. May 21, 2006 12:03pm

Jason, Behzad Habibzai and Javier Bustamante accompanying the Salve Rociera sing-along. May 21, 2006 12:04pm

We found a spot on the lawn just in time for the Mirada Flamenca performance.

My new friend Raquelita. May 21, 2006 12:58pm (photo by Ginette)

Or maybe not. :-) May 21, 2006 12:58pm (photo by Ginette)

Behzad's sounding better all the time. You go Behzad!

Ulrika, Jason, Behzad and Carlton Ashton. May 21, 2006 12:59pm

Ginette and Miguelito. (photo by Raquelita) May 21, 2006 12:59pm

Debra, Nicole Totah and Olivia. May 21, 2006 1:02pm

Ulrika, Debra, Cecilia Terrasa, Olivia and Nicole. May 21, 2006 1:03pm

Maria Roncal, Renee, Debra, Olivia, Nicole and Jackie. May 21, 2006 1:04pm

Olivia, Nicole, Cecilia and Jackie. May 21, 2006 1:04pm

As we were sitting someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and there was my old friend Ken McNaughton.

Ginette, Ken McNaughton and Miguelito. May 21, 2006 1:10pm (photo by Raquelita)

Manuel Sanchez dancing with the niños. May 21, 2006 1:13pm

María Serrano and Monica from the Andalucía. May 21, 2006 1:20pm

Raquelita with una niña. May 21, 2006 1:28pm

Cecilia Walcek with video cam in hand. May 21, 2006 1:32pm

OK, this is just the first batch. I'll crank out more photos when I get home tonight from Citron. Please come if you can and let's keep the Feria party vibe going all week, OK? See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ginette Perea, Miguelito and Sarah Hart. May 20, 2006 7:48pm (photo by Steve)

It's 8:19am on Sunday. Last night (Saturday) I had the pleasure of performing with dancers Ginette Perea and Sarah Hart at Tapeo in Pentagon City. Little by little, word is getting around cuz we had an almost full dining room (a major improvement over last Saturday) plus we had the usual crowd of passersby. It was so cute when there was a neat row of four primary-school-age kids sitting on the floor in front of our stage. :-)

For the second set, Ginette and Sarah both did solea. Normally, doing the same palo twice in a row just isn't done. But my two dancers for this evening have developed their own unique style and interpretation that it didn't seem redundant.

My former landlord, from when I used to live across the street from here, came to support the show and was kind enough to take a picture of the three of us. Thanks Steve!

Later, my friend Lilly came by with some friends to celebrate her 26th birthday. As for Sarah, she had to leave after the show, but Ginette and I were able to stay long enough to enjoy a few tapas. I ordered the gazpacho andaluz (very spicy but I like it that way) and the sauteed scallops in saffron cream sauce (fresh and flaky, so yummy). Ginette got steamed mussels in white wine, garlic and herb broth. Lilly asked the waitress to bring the homemade cake (made by Lilly herself), put a candle on it and we sang happy birthday.

End of the evening view of the Pentagon Row courtyard with Tapeo on the right. May 20, 2006 11:04pm

The next show at Tapeo will be this Saturday May 27 (Memorial Day weekend) featuring dancers Ginette Perea and Mariya.

It's now 8:38am. I'm getting to the Feria early so I can take pics of people setting up their casetas and perhaps do some brief interviews and get some historical perspective. A dancer friend just called and offered to give me a ride and she's coming pretty soon so I better shower and get dressed. See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was unbelievably crowded last night (Friday) with a lot of customers celebrating graduation (probably from Georgetown U mostly). I was a bit concerned cuz I invited a small group of friends to celebrate Ginette's birthday and it didn't look like we were going to get a table until very late. But things worked out perfectly: the hostess arranged to have two tables pushed together to seat all of us right next to the stage in time for the second show, yay!

In addition to our friends, we had a good audience that paid attention to the show and gave us some well-deserved applause. Rhythmically we were tighter as a group--probably helped that I mic'd the stage for a change and that we had Jason Vera y Aragon joining us on cajón. Between sets, we had customers come up to us and compliment us on our performance--that was nice!

Thing about nights when the restaurant is packed and noisy is that either the audience will be so into their loud conversations and completely oblivious of the show or most of the audience will pay attention. Thank God it was the latter. This phenomenon isn't just at Cabanas. It can happen at any tablao in the DC area.

For the second set, the manager took a moment to open the patio doors. It was bit on the cool side but not cold enough to make it unpleasant for people dining inside. I was just glad that we were able to connect with the audience sitting outdoors. Plus it was nice to feel a bit of fresh air gently flowing in as we performed.

May 19, 2006 10:05pm (photo by Keith)

May 19, 2006 10:07pm (photo by Keith)

Miguelito and Ginette. May 19, 2006 10:08pm(photo by Keith)

Ginette in soleá por bulerías. May 19, 2006 10:10pm (photo by Keith)

May 19, 2006 10:12pm (photo by Keith)

May 19, 2006 10:13pm (photo by Keith)

Miguelito playing intro to Mariya's alegrías. May 19, 2006 10:15pm (photo by Keith)

Mariya in alegrías. May 19, 2006 10:18pm (photo by Keith)

May 19, 2006 10:19pm (photo by Keith)

Ginette in fin de fiesta bulerías. May 19, 2006 10:25pm (photo by Keith)

May 19, 2006 10:25pm (photo by Keith)

May 19, 2006 10:27pm (photo by Keith)

May 19, 2006 10:27pm (photo by Keith)

Acknowledging the guitarist. May 19, 2006 10:29pm (photo by Keith)

With the second set over, Ginette and Mariya changed back into street clothes and we just chilled-out and had some dinner with all our friends. The birthday girl opened up a few presents and we had the waitress bring a slice of Cabanas' legendary chocolate cake (it's really good--trust me on this) with a candle on it...

Happy 21st Ginette! May 19, 2006 11:29pm

May 19, 2006 11:30pm

Sometime after midnight, Ginette asked me to play guitar and we got a little juerga going. Steve offered to play guitar too.

Guitarist Steve Svoboda, percussionist Jason Vera y Aragon, Ginette and Cynthia in Sevillanas. May 20, 2006 12:21am

Mariya and Ginette. May 20, 2006 12:21am

As our little flamenco party continued, a group of gypsies stopped by to listen and watch. One of them said, "Play Bamboleo, " so I did, assuming they would sing. But the one guy said "I don't know the words." Um, ok.

So one of them asked me, "Do you know the Gipsy Kings?"

"Yeah, of course."

"We're part of their family," he proclaimed with pride.

He looked at me waiting for a response, probably expecting me to say something groupie-like, "Oh wow, really? That is sooo cool!" Instead, I paused and thought to myself oh great, name-droppers, ugh. I shot back, "Yeah, well all gypsies in some remote way are related to the Gipsy Kings." Big deal.

Anyway, I was starting to sense where this was headed. He asked me to play something so I improvised some bulerias and he told me, "Play something fast and the people will get up and dance." Then he pointed to Ginette and said, "She'll dance. She's a professional."

I couldn't believe that this guy who claimed to be related to the Gipsy Kings yet didn't know the words to Bamboleo was telling me who's professional. I could tell what was going on now: this was a challenge to see who's the better guitarist.

This one gypsy wanted to play. Didn't really want him to, but I didn't want to kill the party mood for the benefit of my friends so I handed him my instrument anyway. Part of me was curious to see how this challenge would progress. Turned out he played competently and could sing very well. Then he and his friends joined in and sang at the top of their lungs. All good singers.

I had to hand it to them. They were good. But they weren't here to join in the party. They just wanted to upstage us. Oh well. It happens. I was a good sport and let them continue for a short while longer, then I cut the power to the sound system, took my guitar and said thanks and goodbye.

Posted by Miguelito at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday (Thursday), it would rain then it would stop. And just when I thought it was safe to go out, I'd start to feel a few drops comin' down. Of course I was dragging along a hundred pounds of equipment and I had to decide whether to find shelter or just walk more quickly (you just can't run with all this heavy music gear).

In a worst case, the drizzle would turn into a downpour and I'd end up getting soaked for 5 minutes. Good thing I planned on dropping off my sound system super early cuz then I'd have a few hours to dry off if I got all wet.