View from the rear window as we passed the Lincoln Memorial before crossing the Potomac. September 2, 2006 6:28pm

Anywayz, our loyal fan provided the materials, tools and labor. I just bought him a couple of beers and an hour or so later, he completed the cross-bracing underneath making the stage significantly more sturdy. Before the improvement, the floor was very bouncy--each time the dancers stomped, the floor would bounce back excessively making it difficult to execute fast footwork. He also provided us with some wedges to "even out" the stage on the uneven concrete surface--outdoor wooden stages inevitably warp to some degree.

As we crossed Memorial Bridge towards Virginia, you can make out the Rosslyn skyline. September 2, 2006 6:29pm

Just before he left, he pulled out a mish-mash variety of nail polish bottles. "Hey man, you gotta let me do this," he said as he liberally splattered a rainbow of colors Jackson Pollock style on a corner of the stage. You'll see it the next time you come to see our show at Tapeo.

Julia Cristina, Miguelito and Ginette Perea. September 2, 2006 8:28pm (photo by Mindy)

This evening I had the pleasure of performing with Ginette Perea and Julia Cristina. If you recall from Monday's blog, I ran into Julia at Cafe Citron and decided on the spur-of-the-moment to invite her to dance this weekend and she said yes! She took flamenco classes in Jerez for a few weeks last Spring and learned about 85% of a soleá choreography which she and I worked on this past Friday and Saturday. It wasn't technically perfect as we had to fill-in the gaps the best we could in the limited time we had I'll admit. But when showtime came around, the energy and go-with-the-flow Jerez attitude were there. And Julia connected with the audience which responded as I expected: enthusiastically.

Likewise for Ginette--as you know, she already has tons of experience performing--we've been doing tablao shows together almost continuously since February 2004! Anyway, I could sense that these two lovely young ladies had a good chemistry onstage. Unfortunately for us, Julia goes back to Stanford in a week. Hopefully I can convince her to perform again before she leaves. We'll see.

We had a number of aficionados in the audience: basically a large contingent of Julia's family which included her uncle Charlie Moeser who came all the way from Richmond and also happens to be a guitarist who teaches flamenco at Virginia Commonwealth University! Her aunt Ruth also studied flamenco dance a while back.

You know how it is: when you know there are knowledgable people in the audience who can appreciate the subtle details of your artistry, you feel more inspired to give more of yourself. Yeah, yeah, I know that ideally we artists should always give one hundred percent. I personally strive for that, but in the real world we all have our days when the inspiration isn't there as much as we'd like it to be.

Tapeo façade as seen from my table. September 2, 2006 10:26pm

It's 3:00am now and it's one of those nights when I'm feeling inspired so I'm up. Shoulda known...I had a good omen this morning while on the metro. I was wearing my black t-shirt with the words Got duende? printed in bold red letters. An old lady asked me to open my jacket more so she could read it. "What is duende?"

My stop was coming up in like 30 seconds, so I gave her the easy answer to that question, "It's the spirit of flamenco," and I smiled perfunctorily, got up and walked toward the door as the train pulled into my station.

She tugged at my sleeve to get my attention as the doors opened, "Well, you look like you have the flamenco spirit in you."

"Thanks!