Weekend so far. December 3, 2006
Friends at Cabanas. December 1, 2006 10:20pm
It's 11:58am on Sunday as I type these words (I went to bed at 4:00am!). Got up about an hour ago and decided to do a quick blog to sum up my weekend so far to make up for slacking the past few days. Thing is that I only have a few pics documenting the past few days, but at least I got some good ones of people that came out to our shows and hung out with us afterwards.
Pictured above are Ginette Perea, Emily, Kike, Miguelito (me), Steve Svoboda and Pam de Ocampo in the dining room at Cabanas on Friday. It was yet another good night for me. We had old and new friends in the audience. The weather was unseasonably warm (and you know how I love warm weather) and we even had the patio doors open behind the stage so we could feel the gentle Potomac breeze as we did our show. Plus my playing was really on and as always, it was just pure joy performing with the beautiful Ginette and Pam.
It's funny though how it was the second time in recent memory that someone I asked to take pictures for me during the show, somehow forgot. But I'll take it as a great compliment that in both cases, my friends both explained to me that they were so taken in by our performance that they forgot to take pictures.
Anywayz, there was also a large group of about 20 or so college students seated next to the stage and as I passed by their tables as I was about to begin the show, one of the dudes pointed at me and exclaimed, "It's Estéban!"
Ugh. He was referring to a guitarist whose trademark stage attire is all-black including dark sunglasses and a black Córdobes hat. OK Estéban does look good though and he's a very smart commercially successful musician who's living his dream of expressing himself through music and doing wonders to introduce the pleasure of the guitar to millions of people. But, I'm sorry, he doesn't play flamenco that well so having someone jokingly refer to me as Estéban is not exactly a compliment.
But I was in an especially good mood and I wasn't about to let that get to me just before starting the show, so I used a little reverse psychology and I shot back, "Yeah, that's me. I am Estéban."
OK, not exactly the wittiest comeback but it achieved the desired effect. The dude obviously wasn't expecting that, paused a moment, a bit stunned, and all he could say was something like, "Um, you are?" Hehe. I quietly chuckled to myself and moved on and started the show.
Ginette with Monica and the Torres family at Tapeo. December 2, 2006 8:12pm
Saturday night, I performed as usual at Tapeo in Pentagon City. The dancers were Ginette Perea and Pam de Ocampo again, yay! Although this time it was really cold outside, so we couldn't have the patio doors open like last night at Cabanas. It's OK. We had the warm company of friends in the audience.
Do you remember Monica Torres? She first appeared in my blog back in April. Anywayz, she's a dancer originally from Tampa who used to perform at the Colombia Restaurant with my friend Sandra Serrano who's related to the DC guitarist Jesús Serrano. So Monica drove all the way up from Stafford, Virginia and brought along her whole family this time. Normally she wouldn't hesitate to get up when I invited her to dance some Sevillanas during our show, but as you can see, she's a few months pregnant already so she decided to politely decline. It was great to see you Monica!
Ginette, Pam and I lingered at the bar awhile after the show. Ginette and I sampled the appetizer-size chorizo topped Tapeo pizza but I was still hungry for more so I got my usual pan of paella. Occasionally we looked outside at all the people on the ice skating rink. Looks like fun. And I think that you generate enough body heat from skating to balance out the bitingly cold air. Anywayz, I keep on saying that I'll go do that next week, but something always seems to come up. This time, I got an invite to a small party at Serenity's swanky apartment somewhere in Crystal City.
Serentiy reading my blog. December 3, 2006 12:10am
Of course, I was having such a good time enjoying wine and conversation with all her cool friends that I forgot to take pics, although I did get one of Serenity checking out my blog on her laptop. She wanted to see the pics that she took at Tapeo last week. And there they were complete with credits to the photographer. Thanks Serenity!
It's 1:00pm-ish, time to get some breakfast! Chow for now! ;-)
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Comments
The photos taken by Serenity are well composed (color, motion, shape) all just excellent. Hope she will contribute many more.
Posted by: donna daniel | December 4, 2006 11:53 AM