Samantha Zerpa and Jason Vera y Aragón dancing Sevillanas. January 28, 2007 12:32am

It's 10:43am on Wednesday as I type these words. Last night I had the pleasure of playing alongside percussionist Gonzalo Grau at Las Tapas as I accompanied dancers Edwin Aparicio and Anna Menendez. It had been a while since Edwin last performed here, but it was a very pleasant surprise for me to have him back.

Working with these three awesome artists was the good part about last night. The not-so-good part was that I got there late, literally ten minutes past when the show was supposed to start, so in the interest of saving time I plugged my microphone directly into my monitor. I figured I saved about five minutes by not plugging in my mixer and reverb box. Needless to say, in this mad mad rush to get things started, I wasn't as focused as I wanted to be for these high-calibre flamenco performers.

But the show has to go on. And while I experienced a few momentary musical lapses in my distracted state of mind, I have to thank Gonzalo for his fabulous cajón accompaniment for keeping me on the beat. Hehe. There were moments when I was so mesmerized by the range of different sounds and funky rhythmic variations he came up with that I found myself paying more attention to him than the dancers. Without a doubt, Gonzalo brought the musicality of last night's show to a whole other level!

Anywayz, I'm finally getting around to blogging about last Saturday night's Sala Rociera which took place in my house, the Pink Flamenco. Before arriving at the party, I was hanging out at Tapeo after our last set for the evening, and my friend Chris jokingly asked me, "Hey Miguelito, you do realize there's a party going on at your house?"

I guess it seemed ironic to Chris that the party host seemed a little too relaxed to be chilling out elsewhere while the party already in full-swing taking place miles and miles away. I wouldn't call myself the host though. The truth is that I'm just one member of the Sala Rociera committee and my job is primarily to make sure the venue, in this case my house, is available and ready. Plus I provide the sound system for the Ipod and for the live music and I get the word out through my website and mailing list. Fellow committee members Aleksey Kulikov (filling-in at the last minute for Edwin Aparicio), Jen, Jason Vera y Aragón, Soheila and a few others were already there from the beginning of the party taking care of all the little but important details to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves. That's the beauty of a committee: as long as everyone does their part, we can all relax knowing the other parts are well taken care of.

Here are a few pics just to give you an idea of how the party went...

Samantha Zerpa. January 28, 2007 12:33am

The first few hours, the guests enjoy dancing to Sevillanas and rumba tunes from Jason's Ipod playing through my house sound system, which is tiny but is very very loud (it includes a powerful subwoofer for that extra deep bass sound). So when I walk in straight from my gig lugging my hundred pounds of equipment, I spend the first half an hour or so saying hello to old and new friends, get a drink, catch my breath and acclimate myself to the party mood before even thinking about setting up my gig sound system for the live music segment of the evening.

Natalie and Isabelita dancing Sevillanas accompanied by guitarist Torcuato Zamora and percussionist Jason Vera y Aragón. January 28, 2007 12:39am

Ultimately, it's the people that make the party, but the ambience of the Pink Flamenco does help it along with the colored lights, burning candles, eclectic decor, the well-used paint-chipping-off dance floor. It's a pretty relaxed atmosphere that encourages otherwise very shy people to let go a little and dance some Sevillanas and rumba. Even I danced a Sevillanas or two and you never see me dance!

So sometime around 12:30am I got the microphones setup and Torcuato got the live music segment started with some Sevillanas. As you might expect, there's something extra special about live vocals that gets everyone up to dance! But this time around instead of taking pics of the whole room, I tended to focus on dance couples so you can better see the expressions of enjoyment on their faces.

Isabelita and Natalie. January 28, 2007 12:40am

After getting ourselves Sevillana-ed out, we usually segue to the flamenco dances like alegrías, bulerías and tangos...

Aleksey Kulikov and students of Natalia Monteleón. January 28, 2007 12:44am

Adriana. January 28, 2007 12:45am

Torcuato Zamora. January 28, 2007 12:49am

Sarah McKenney dancing alegrías with palmas by Juan Delgado and Aleksey Kulikov with Miguelito on guitar. January 28, 2007 1:17am (photo by Soheila)

While I'm always very happy to see Natalia Monteleón's students (thank you Natalia!) it would be cool to see more representation from other dance schools. One of the goals of the Sala Rociera is to give students an opportunity to try out dances they're working on with live and recorded music in a friendly supportive environment with their peers. While the music is provided by the local professional performers, student guitarists, percussionists and singers as well as other pros who happen to be in town are welcome to come and sit-in and join the party.

A rare sight: Richard Marlow and Miguelito playing guitar together. That's singer Carlton Ashton on the right. January 28, 2007 (photo by Soheila)

Richard and I, being busy performers, are usually playing at different venues almost every night so it's very rare that you'll find us playing in the same place. My thanks to Soheila for capturing this moment.

Samantha, Isabel Otero and Isabelita. January 28, 2007 1:56am

Even singer José Oretea dropped by after finishing up his gig at Las Tapas. As usual, the party momentum got kicked up a notch when he started singing...

Richard Marlow and José Oretea performing tangos. January 28, 2007 2:42am

Normally, the party would carry over well past 3:00am. I think one time it went on until 5:30am! But I needed my rest to get ready for my flamenco gig on Sunday. The hardcore flamencos that remained at this late hour (or early hour by flamenco standards) slowly left as we said our goodbyes. The very charming Juan Delgado gladly gave rides to quite a few people (thanks Juan!) and for all I know continued the party elsewhere. Hehe.

Party's over. Time to go to bed! January 28, 2007 3:13am

Still waiting for confirmation on this, but for now pencil in Saturday February 24, 2007 for the next Sala Rociera party. Read Carol Basilio's account of the Sala Rociera:: Fiesta Flamenca.

Anywayz, it's almost noon now and I promised myself I'd be out the door by that time to enjoy my day and night off. Although there is a strong possibility I may stop by the flamenco show at Cubano's tonight to say hello to Torcuato and Mariya. See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

VCU flamenco concert flyer with photo by Niko Alexandrou. January 28, 2007 2:23pm

It's almost 2:00pm on Monday as I type these words. Got a lot of catching up to do on my blog, but I think I'll take the Tarantino approach and go back in reverse chronological order starting with yesterday's flamenco performance at Virginia Commonwealth University.

I'm an experienced performer so I can usually pull myself together and put on a good show no matter what, but I was especially impressed with myself this time considering I only had four hours of sleep:

On Saturday night the Sala Rociera flamenco party went on, as expected, until sometime after 3:00am. Tons of fun of course, but it was important that I got at least of few hours of quality sleep. Of course, I ended up going to bed around 4:00am. My alarm clock went off at 8:30am, but couldn't get myself out of bed right then so I pressed snooze a few times and finally got up at 9:00am, did a few personal errands and tidied up the studio (there was an Argentine tango dance class scheduled here at 2:00pm!). And then at 11:30am, I met up with dancer Ginette Perea to drive down to Virginia Commonwealth University (in Richmond), a two-hour trip, in time for a sound-check and run-through of the concert program.

Of course, despite our well-laid plans, we all arrived a bit later than expected, so our sound-check and run-through time was cut short. But then again, I frequently perform with singer Gerard Moreno and dancers Ginette Perea, Mariya and Shahram Tehranian all the time. So we only had to refresh our minds with a few tricky spots between the music and choreography, acclimate ourselves to the performance space and calibrate the sound...

View from my chair as dancer Ginette Perea tests the floor. January 28, 2007 2:28pm

We were graciously welcomed in the theatre lobby by my longtime flamenco guitarist friend Charlie Moeser and John Patykula, assistant department chair of the School of Music at Virginia Commonwealth University. Turns out I referred John to other DC area flamenco artists over the years, thanks to my website.

The Singleton Center for the Performing Arts is a wonderful place to perform. They have the highest quality equipment from the Mackie SRM450's for the stage wing monitor speakers to the Neumann KM184 condensor microphone for my guitar to the Shure Beta 58 microphone for the vocals. Top-notch stuff! Plus we had a very professional technician/engineer at our service, Curt Blankenship, who also did double-duty by operating the lights. Not that we had any complicated lighting cues, but he did a couple of artistically-executed fades throughout the show.

View of the stage from the first row as singer Gerard Moreno and dancer Shahram Tehranian arrive. January 28, 2007 2:29pm

It was already around 2:30pm when the entire cast had arrived. We still had do a sound check and a quick run-through before the house opened up at 3:30pm, not to mention chilling out for a bit to recover from the two-hour trip from DC. Thank God we stopped at a 7-11 on the drive down to Richmond. We got a few delicious snacks, bottles of water etc--you never know where you'll be able to find food on a university campus on a Sunday afternoon. TIP: always take along some snacks before you drive down to another city for a performance. Putting on a concert is stressful enough that you don't need the extra pressure of trying to find a place to get a bite to eat half an hour before the show!

Here's a pic of the floor microphone used in the show. We had three of them evenly spaced at the edge of the stage. Usually I see the Crown PCC160's used in most flamenco shows in large theatres. Not that it's necessarily the best, but at least I know what to expect when PCC160's are used. Didn't have time to really check the floor mikes as much as I wanted. But judging by Curt's choice for the vocal and guitar microphones, I knew he'd get a good sound for the floor mikes.

Floor microphone: Crown PCC170SW/SPP. January 28, 2007 2:40pm

We got through the soundcheck and run-through with some time to spare. I still needed to prepare myself for the guitar solos in the opening half--this was a guitar-centric audience so I know they were going to be listening with a very critical ear. Not that it made me nervous--actually I very happy to have guitarists in the audience because I knew they'd appreciate my playing even more. I just wanted to give them the best performance I could. Given the fact that I didn't get that much sleep and had just arrived at the theatre after a two-hour drive, I wasn't in the ideal physical and mental state I'd want to be in right before an important performance. But hey, this is real life and things don't always go as planned. I did my best and squeezed in some quiet time backstage before going on...

View from the stage wing, minutes before I walked onstage to to play my opening guitar solo. January 28, 2007 3:52pm

My strategy: since I did all the practicing I could do to prepare myself physically beforehand, all I could do at this point is relax and allow myself to drift off into my own musical world. Of course, it helped that the lighting that I requested helped set the mood.

TIP: given the special requirements of flamenco performances it's an excellent idea ot have a well-thought out technical rider. Just for fun, take a look at Paco de Lucía's.

According to John, we had an audience of about 300 (which is about triple the typical number of people attending other concerts in the guitar series here at VCU). Of course, I do have a reputation thanks to my website, but I have to give credit to my photographer friend Niko Alexandrou whose fabulous photo was used in the publicity campaign and no doubt convinced a lot of people to come to the concert. Thank you Niko! Thanks also to Tiffanie Chan, director of marketing for the VCU Music Department for getting the word out.

The program. January 28, 2007

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics during the show. But here's the program...

Soleá (guitar solo)
Miguelito
Soleá is the Andalusian pronunciation of the Spanish word soledad meaning loneliness or solitude. Often referred to as the “mother” of flamenco, the rhythmic structure of the serious form known as soleá can be found in other flamenco forms such as alegrías, soleá por bulerías and bulerías which you will hear later in today’s program. In the old days, the soleá was performed from start to finish at the same slow tempo, while modern interpretations tend to speed it up towards to the end at the rapid tempo of a bulerías.

Solo de cante TBA
Gerard Moreno

INTERMISSION

Alegrías (dance solo)
Ginette Perea
Literally, alegrías means happiness. While flamenco is known for being very improvisatory, the alegrías is one of the forms that is highly-structured in its sequence of different sections from the opening verses (or letras) to the silencio (slow minor key section) to the escobilla (footwork section) to the finale at a faster tempo: bulerías de Cádiz. The rhythmic phrase is like the soleá in 12 beats with accents typically on 3, 6, 8, 10 and 12. Played in E major.

Tientos/Tangos (dance solo)
Mariya
Played in A phrygian, the rhythmic phrase of this flamenco from is in 8 beats. It begins at a slow tempo with the characteristic double-dotted “swing” of the tientos and later speeds up to a more lively tangos—no relation with the Argentine tango.

Soleá por bulerías (dance solo)
Shahram Tehranian
Basically a speeded-up soleá, this flamenco form is slow enough to allow the dancer to interpret complex rhythmic patterns, but fast enough to keep it lively.

Fin de Fiesta Bulerías
Considered to be the most difficult flamenco form, it can be one of the most light-hearted. Bulerías come from the variation on the Spanish word burlar which means to make fun of or tease. In this case, the dancer and singer make fun of the rhythm of bulerías often trying to “trick” their fellow performers with counter-rhythms and unusual accents. This is the flamenco form that you will see and hear the most at a typical flamenco party.

Michael “Miguelito” Pérez originally studied classical guitar at California State University, Fullerton but stumbled upon flamenco at a party in his senior year. Upon graduation, he was offered a job accompanying flamenco classes at the George Washington University. Being that flamenco dance accompanists are very rare, he eventually found himself playing for every flamenco dance company in the Washington DC area. Currently Miguelito performs five nights a week in various venues in the metropolitan area. He is also well known for his website DCFlamenco.com that keeps the DC area up-to-date on the local flamenco scene.

Gerard Moreno spent years in the hotbed of flamenco in New Mexico and studied flamenco guitar with Jos&:acute; Fajardo “Chuscales” and later with Carlos Lomas. His first flamenco singing teacher was Bernardo de Jerez but Jesús Montoya taught him just about every thing he knows. Currently completing his PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Shahram Tehranian goes back to Spain frequently often studying with maestro Domingo Ortega and other teachers at the famous Amor de Díos dance studio in Madrid. He performs occasionally in Washington DC area tablaos and is well known for his strong footwork and engaging stage presence.

Mariya regularly performs as a soloist in the Washington, D.C. area and teaches at the D.C. Dance Collective (www.dcdancecollective.com). She attended classes at Amor de Dios in Madrid and Fazil’s in New York, and has participated in International Flamenco Festivals in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her most influential teachers include Omayra Amaya, Adela Campallo, Rafael Campallo, Pastora Galván, Carmela Greco, and Edwin Aparicio. The guitarists who contributed the most to her artistic growth are Torcuato Zamora and Miguelito Perez. In addition to Flamenco, her training included extensive ballet with regular performances at the Lviv National Opera. Mariya toured in Germany performing folk dance. She taught and choreographed folk dance in Norway and performed for the Queen. Her studies also included jazz taught by an Alvin Ailey Dance Company member.

Ginette Perea is a frequent performer in the Washington DC flamenco scene. The past two years, she has appeared as a soloist at venues such as Cabanas, Andalusia Restaurant, Casablanca, Las Tapas, La Tasca, and Jaleo. In 2003 Ms. Perea was part of the International Children's Festival at Wolftrap and the National Theater. For two consecutive years, she directed highly successful shows for the New years annual event, First Night Alexandria.

Ms Perea has been studying flamenco since 1999 in Virginia and Washington DC. She studied flamenco with various teachers including Sara Candela, Edwin Aparicio, Anna Menendez and most recently with Ulrika Frank as well as workshops with visiting artists La Tati and La Truco, and in Spain with the well-known young flamenco artist Juan de Juan. Ms. Perea has been a part of the 4-H organization in Arlington Virginia, were she taught children the art of flamenco dance for a semester. Ms Perea is a natural performer who takes the time to carefully create and learn choreographies while still leaving room for improvisation—a skill that she has honed in her tablao experience. As a teacher and a young person herself, Ginette inspires her students with her enthusiasm for passing on the wisdom of her onstage experience and the pure joy of self-expression. Ms. Perea gives her students the opportunity to feel the flamenco passion, boost their energy and enhance their soul. Olé Flamenco!

The concert announcement in Richmond's local Style Weekly with photo by Niko Alexandrou. January 28, 2007

The show went well and the audience was very appreciative. The performance was short and sweet just as John requested and we were out of the theatre after 90 minutes including intermission. Next up: the reception!

Miguelito, Ginette Perea and Mariya at the after-concert reception. January 28, 2007 6:17pm (photo by Gina)

The reception parties at Charlie and Ruth Moeser's house are legendary--although it had been ten years since I'd last been in their beautiful historic home which was built in 1903. We rewarded our famished selves by partaking of the lavish spread of delicious food and drinks provided by our gracious hosts. It seemed that more and more guests were coming in every ten minutes or so.

The Last Supper Shahram Tehranian, Ginette Perea, Gerard Moreno, Mariya and Miguelito. January 28, 2007 6:29pm

But all good things must come to an end eventually plus we had to leave since most of us had day jobs or classes the following day. And besides, I seriously needed to catch up on sleep!

On the drive home: looking over Ginette's shoulder watching a video replay of the concert. January 28, 2007 9:33pm

I usually prefer not to watch a video of a performance the same night. Something about watching a replay immediately afterwards that makes me needlessly self-critical of any mistakes regardless how small. I mean, yeah, I do strive for perfection, but I just think I'm in a better frame-of-mind to review a performance if I wait a few days before reviewing the video.

Of course, we had a two-hour drive back and we had to keep ourselves entertained, so Ginette pulled out the video camera and we watched portions of the video. And despite my misgivings about viewing a video replay, I actually enjoyed it more than I expected!

She rewound the tape to the beginning and watched the guitar solos. I was especially touched that Ginette wanted to watch this part of the video with me.

I can remember more than ten years ago, I was at an after-concert party and one of the dancers had a video of the show that night. So this dancer connected the camera to the TV in the house and pressed play. When it came to my guitar solo, she just fast-forwarded right through it to the next dance without hesitation. Noone seemed to mind and my jaw dropped. I was sitting on the couch watching the video in the company of all these beautiful ladies but at that point it didn't really matter. It was obvious to me that they didn't really care about the music. Tsk, tsk tsk.

Don't get my wrong. I know that at least in the USA, the audiences generally prefer dance over guitar. I can remember reading an interview with Paco Jarana (guitarist for Eva la Yerbabuena) where he says:

"As a guitarist you have to accept that your place is in the background, but you also have to remember that the singer or dancer cannot excel without your help."

Amen!

Anywayz, I made it home around 10:00pm and went straight to bed. In the few minutes I had before I drifted off to my much-needed sleep, I reflected on the long but enjoyable flamenco-filled weekend I had: from the rehearsals, the tablao shows to the Sala Rociera party to the concert at VCU. I was tired, but it was the good kind of tired. I felt like I accomplished something. Well OK I did make some good money from my gigs, but more importantly I accumulated quite a few good memories to look back on when I need an extra boost of inspiration.

It's like 4:00pm now (I've been working on and off on this blog all afternoon) and I should take a quick nap and get ready for my gig tonight at Cafe Citron. We might have a new dancer. See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hidden compartment in my guitar case. January 23, 2007 3:10am

Yeah, it really is 3-something in the morning on Tuesday as I type these words. While I do have some pics from last night at Citron. I thought I'd just do something different for a change thanks to a little inspiration from my friend Carol Basilio's flamenco blog. Her latest entry is titled Bag It! where she describes the contest of her dance bag.

So for the benefit of my fellow guitarists and for those non-guitarists out there who are simply just curious, here's what I have in my guitar case...

January 23, 2007 3:13am

The first thing you probably notice in the above pic is the black rectangular thing with a cable coming out of it. The tiny cylindrical object at the end of the cable is the microphone itself. It's tiny but highly sensitive. The rectangular thing is the power module which operates on a single AA battery. The signal coming from the microphone is very weak so the job of the power module is to make it stronger so that the sound system has something to work with. I don't want to get carried away with a technical discussion about audio. But you get the idea.

Next, we have the fresh set of guitar strings. Normally I change strings about once a month, but occasionally they break in the middle of a show so I gotta have the needed replacement string ready to go. Although I am pretty quick with changing a single string---haven't really timed myself but I'm guessing 2 minutes--sometimes the show has to go on without a pause so I just make the necessary musical changes to adapt to the fact that I'm missing a string. When I'm working with dancers and I have to change a string between numbers I'll just have them do a palmas demonstration or if I'm doing a solo performance, I'll talk about flamenco theory.

Continuing clockwise around the pic we come to the tuning fork. What the fork does is provide a standard tonal frequency for tuning the guitar. You can get a tuning fork for various frequencies but usually musicians get A-440. The way you use it is by holding the fork by the handle (the part with ball on the end) and strike one of the prongs against something--usually your knee will do. The prongs will begin to vibrate but you need to touch the ball end of the fork against the soundboard of the guitar. What happens is that the vibration of the fork is transmitted to the soundboard and the tone will be audible through the guitar for the standard tone of A. Then you play the equivalent note on a guitar string and adjust the tuning until it matches the tone of the fork. Then you tune the guitar based on the in-tune note and voila! The guitar is in tune to the standard tone!

Next we have the capos. You know how guitarists sometimes place their whole index finger against the fretboard to raise or lower the pitch of the strings? Well these devices called capos do the same thing. The traditional capo (or cejilla as the say in Spain) is made of wood and leather and uses a nylon string which is wound around the peg to tighten the tension of the capo. The modern capo is made of steel and has a strap made of nylon (I think) and has a plastic handle on the end used to secure the strap tightly for a snug fit. One thing you don't want is for the capo to be loose because it will result in a buzzing sound which occurs when the string is not pressed all the way down against the fretboard. As you see I have plenty of spares in my case. These things are easily lost and misplaced. I don't know how many times I've gone to flamenco parties where one of my friends will ask, "Hey MIguelito, do you have a capo I can borrow?" At the end of the night my friend will accidentally forget to take the capo off his guitar, put the guitar away in the case and leave the party. Then when I'm packing up for the night, at that moment I'll realize, "Oh shoot. That dude took my capo. Ugh!" So I got these fancy capos from Spain so that I can easily identify the ones that are mine. Then again they're so beautiful that someone might actually want to steal them anyway.

January 23, 2007 3:15am

The electronic device pictured here is a digital audio recorder. I use this thing mostly for recording footwork patterns that I need to study on my own outside of dance class. Its small size makes it very convenient for me. I can even keep it in my pocket during class, press record and the loudness of the footwork itself is strong enough that the microphone will still pick it up. Other times I use it for recording musical ideas that might come to me when I don't have time to write it down. Or maybe I might record the letra or falseta from a recording that a dancer wants me to learn. Then of course, I've been using it for recording interviews with local artists for my website. It holds up to 72 hours of audio---more than I'll ever need! If you're interested in buying one yourself, it's made by Olympus and the model number is VN3100. I bought mine at Radio Shack.

Next we have the nail glue. Usually salons will use this to attach an artificial nail. I use it by applying a layer of the glue atop my nail, and after letting it dry in a few seconds it becomes hard and makes my nail stronger for playing the guitar. Of course, the layer of hardened glue does eventually chip off but usually stays on long enough to last a show or two.

The last two items are pretty common that they don't require much explanation. Although I have to say that I use the nail clipper for emergency repairs. For example if a nail is torn and is beyond repair, I just clip it off. It's a lot quicker than trying to file it off.

Since I got my new guitar case, the compartment is very neat and clean with only the necessary items. But I'm pretty sure I'll start to accumulate some extra doodads as time goes by. I've been known to throw into the compartment everything from coins, sticks of chewing gum, scraps of paper with telephone numbers of potential clients etc. I used to keep a supply of safety pins--don't know how many times dancers have asked me for safety pins as if a guy like me would just happen to have some handy. But I like to support my dancers, so this one time I got a small bag of them and kept it in my case. Of course, the bag spilled open and one day I reached in the compartment feeling around for something and OUCH!

It's getting pretty late, even for a vampire like me. So I'm going to sign off and get some sleep now. Good night!

Posted by Miguelito at 3:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dancers Ginette Perea, Shahram Tehranian and Mariya working on a bulería choreography. January 21, 2007 3:19pm

It's 11:45am on Monday as I type these words. Yesterday, I had the dancers over at the Pink Flamenco, my house, for a few hours to rehearse in preparation for a concert on Sunday January 28, 2007 as part of Virginia Commonwealth University's guitar concert series. This has special significance for me: ten years ago I performed in this series playing alongside flamenco guitarist Paco de Málaga for the Ana Martinez flamenco dance company and now I'm doing a concert on my own, yay!

Anywayz, during our rehearsal, the snow was coming down pretty hard by DC standards---something like three inches. (I can just hear my guitarist friend Behzad, who used to live in Maine, saying, "Three inches? Pffft! That's nothing!") My dancers braved the icy roads coming up here and they had a long slow drive going back home awaiting them afterwards, but of course, as we drifted into our flamenco frame of mind, we soon forgot about all that.

Didn't have much opportunity to take more pics since I was busy playing guitar, so all I have for you are a few random candid shots...

Shahram and Ginette discussing choreographic ideas. January 21, 2007 3:08pm

Ginette and Mariya observing as Shahram demonstrates a step. January 21, 2007 3:17pm

Shahram and Mariya trying out a step while Ginette provides palmas. January 21, 2007 3:18pm

Concentration. January 21, 2007 3:19pm

Ginette trying out different ending poses for the bulería. January 21, 2007 3:25pm

January 21, 2007 3:31pm

Later that evening, Ginette and I had a private gig and had to brave the icy roads so we factored in extra time and ended up arriving there really early, got some dinner, did the show and the restaurant paid for our entire food bill, yay! My plan was to head towards home and catch a 10:00pm movie at my neighborhood theatre, but I ended up going straight home instead and jumped into bed right away.

As for tonight, I'll be doing my usual Monday night flamenco show at Cafe Citron with singer Gerard Moreno and dancer Mariya. Please come!

Posted by Miguelito at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mariya in tientos. January 15, 2007 8:13pm (photo by Keith)

It's 8:49pm on Wednesday as I type these words. Last night's show at Las Tapas was cancelled which was sort of expected on account of the three day weekend. But the flamenco gods are looking out for me cuz as luck would have it, I had a private guitar lesson scheduled that day and I made some money anyway. So between teaching a few compases of toque and having my friend treat me to some Italian at nearby Maggiano's after the lesson, it turned out to be a very satisfying afternoon.

I slept in late again today (Wednesday) to rest up, boost my immune system and avoid the bitter cold. I felt a bit of a cough coming on--of course, I've been especially careful lately but a lot of my friends seem to be sick too so I may have caught the virus unintentionally. I spent most of the afternoon working on search engine optimization stuff, published a contest promoting Lisner's Flamenco Festival (see main page), chatted online with friends and got an invite to a last-minute get-together which just got cancelled. It's OK. Just one of those nights when I'd rather stay at home anyway. I'll make up for it this weekend though.

So this past Monday the weather was unbelievably warm: in the 70's! Turnout was decent at Citron although there weren't as many of my friends in attendance as I would have expected on such a perfect evening to go out. Saw a couple of friends I hadn't seen in a while: Cynthia, Ernesto, Eric, Esin and Ayhan.

Here are a few pics...

January 15, 2007 8:13pm (photo by Keith)

January 15, 2007 8:15pm (photo by Keith)

Note the congregation of smokers just outside the club...

Mariya in alegrías. January 15, 2007 9:17pm (photo by Ayhan)

January 15, 2007 9:18pm (photo by Ayhan)

January 15, 2007 9:19pm (photo by Ayhan)

We used one stage light again and of course just like on Saturday at Tapeo, it made the show more visually dramatic. But we really need at least one more stage light to illuminate us musicians.

Closeup of Gerard Moreno. January 15, 2007 9:20pm (photo by Esin)

Miguelito and Gerard Moreno playing a rumba. January 15, 2007 9:23pm (photo by Ayhan)

Closeup of Miguelito. January 15, 2007 9:28pm (photo by Esin)

Although her dad has been here for flamenco night a few times, it was Esin's first time to come to Citron to see my show. Thanks to the holdiay weekend they were able to come, but it'll be awhile before we see them here again. Ayhan plays flamenco guitar. His wife Bedriye studies flamenco dance and Esin their daughter majored in film in college. Very cool: an artistically-inclined family!

Esin and Ayhan Ozdag. January 15, 2007 9:45pm

Of course, as a non-smoker myself, I'm happy that smoking is banned in most of the places I perform now (my gigs in Virginia are the only execptions) but call me strange: as unhealthy as cigarette smoke is, it did add to the ambience to the club. It just seemed a bit odd to be able to see clearly across the room for a change...

Smoke free bar! January 15, 2007 9:52pm

Well now I can go home at the end of the night and not have my clothes (and guitar) stinking of cigarette smoke not that I really complained much before. Guess I just got used to it. Didn't realize how bad the stench was until one late night I had to crash at a friend's place, and two seconds after entering the apartment she started spraying Febreze on my clothes without asking which took me a bit by surprise. But I thought to myself, "Oh yeah. It's the smoke." Then just when I thought she was done, she sprayed my hair! I had to shrug it off and chuckle to myself realizing that I'm so used to being around smoke that I didn't really know how bad it was.

Keith, Cynthia, Ernesto and Mariya. January 15, 2007 9:54pm

January 15, 2007 10:30pm

Nothing deep or insightful in today's blog. But it doesn't have to be like that every time. This is my day-to-day account of real life--there are ups and downs. It's kind of like surfing (and I yeah I did surf a little as a teenager growing up in Southern California), when the wave (of creativity) hits, you ride it while it lasts. In the meantime you keep on paddling so you'll be ready to catch the next one. Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Taking the Yamaha flamenco guitar for a test run. January 14, 2007 3:45pm

It's 7:44am on Monday as I type these words. Yeah believe it or not, I'm actually up at this hour. I'm also chatting online with one of my dancer friends who's at her office job on what is a holiday for most people being Martin Luther King Jr Day. In a way, I'm at work too although my "office" is just a few feet from my bed. :-) I'm still only in a half-awake dreamy state, listening to some soothing but hypnotic trance electronica with the only light in my room coming from the glow of my computer monitor. I'm going to get dressed in a few minutes and order some coffee at the deli across the street and come back a bit more alert and ready to write about my day Sunday.

I'm back. Got myself a Western omelette in addition to my coffee. Mmmm! So yesterday (Sunday) I met up with a friend around 2:00pm. She was waiting for me at a park near the metro. Our plan was to go to the music store right away, but it was such a beautiful day (thanks to global warming, I'm sure) that we ended up sitting in the park for awhile playing guitar and catching up. 45 minutes or so later, we finally got in the car and headed towards Guitar Center.

My friend is learning to play flamenco guitar but didn't have an instrument of her own. My intention was to give her some expert guidance in selecting a guitar suitable for her budget, personal taste and aspirations. I had already had my own idea of what I think she should get: the Yamaha CG171SF. In fact, I'm thinking of getting one of these for myself as a backup guitar. The sticker price at my local Guitar Center is only US$349, easily within my reach on my full-time musician income. But choosing a guitar, like choosing a friend (or do we really choose our friends?) is a very personal decision based on many factors...

The wall of guitars in the exclusive lounge where they keep the more expensive models. January 14, 2007 3:46pm

So while I wanted my friend to choose the Yamaha, my intention was to select a wide sample of other brands and models to give her a taste of what's out there. We arrived at the Guitar Center, walked in the door and I checked in my instrument with the front desk dude (I always carry it in to music stores for a reason. Keep reading to find out why.) and we headed towards the acoustic guitar department. As we sauntered past the attractive displays of the newest instruments and accessories, I could almost hear them crying out, "Buy me! Buy me!" Hehe. Dangerous place to be for me to be for those times when my wallet's full of cash.

Upon entering the guitar lounge--with its warm wood paneling, strategically-positioned accent lighting enticing those who walk-in to want to reach out and touch the merchandise--I quickly scanned the the wall of guitars for some suitable test subjects. First of all, I knew off the bat, that my friend wasn't going to buy a guitar that day. I wanted to give her a quick education in a couple of things to keep in mind when shopping for a guitar:

1. Looks aren't everything
2. Expensive doesn't always mean better and cheap doesn't always mean bad
3. Trust your instincts

Sounds like advice for dating, although at the moment, I don't know of a poetic way of translating point number two to appropriately apply to people.

I didn't see the Yamaha model I had in mind, so while we waited for a salesperson to wander in, I had my friend try out a couple of guitars. As I handed her each test subject I played the same short musical passage for her to hear what the guitar sounds like from the audience point of view. Then I quickly grabbed another test subject while the sound was still fresh in her mind and played the musical passage again (which included a variety of textures from arpeggios, scales rasgueados and harmonics) so she could compare the sound between the two.

Then I had her play the guitar herself while I explained that the sound of the guitar from the player's position can be very different. This is something to consider if you're going to use a guitar in performances. A guitar that sounds good to you as you play it will sound different from the audience's position. So should have someone play the prospective guitar for you so you can get an idea what it sounds like from the "other side."

Another tip to remember when trying out guitars is to remove your jacket first, especially if it has buttons or a zipper. These things have a tendency to scratch the back of the guitar as you hold it against your body--not a good thing. And always check if there is a golpeador. Even if there is one, you should go easy on the golpes on the guitar anyway. It's not very nice to put dents and scratches on an instrument that you don't end up buying. I made a show of handling the guitars very carefully to gain the confidence of the salesperson so he would leave us alone--didn't want him hovering us constantly. And it worked!

It wasn't exactly a level playing field between the different makes and models. Some of the instruments had old dull strings which didn't work to their favor. It's OK. She was just learning to hear the subtle differences between the different guitars. I had to keep reminding myself that we weren't there to choose something to buy on the spot. That's another key point to remember: if you can help it, never allow yourself to be rushed into a buying decision. Typical common sense, I know, but just a reminder.

January 14, 2007 4:02pm

Finally, a salesperson showed up and I asked him if they had the CG171SF in stock. Sure enough they did and he went to the smaller lounge where they keep the more expensive guitars, carefully removed it from the wall and handed it to me. It looked good--then again I was biased since I was already in love with this model. Hehe. Although this isn't an expensive guitar, considering the value for the money of course, it is one of the more desirable ones available and deserves to be in the smaller lounge where it is less likely to be mishandled by the casual buyer.

So we proceeded in the same fashion doing one-to-one comparisons between various makes and models trying out everything from a low US$200 to as high as US$2600. There wasn't much of a selection of flamenco guitars, not that I should completely rule out classical guitars for the beginning flamenco student on a limited budget. But I took this opportunity to educate my friend in the different levels of action. When I refer to action, I mean the amount of vertical space between the strings and the fretboard. The higher the action, the harder you have to press down on the strings to properly finger a note on the guitar. Flamenco guitars generally have lower action than classical guitars. I chose some extreme examples to illustrate this difference to my friend. But more importantly I had her try out guitars with vastly different levels of action and asked if she could feel and hear the difference. She couldn't really hear a difference---then again there are so many different factors at work here that I didn't want to get into without adding further to the confusion.

Just for fun, I had her try out one of the models with a built-in microphone. Some guitars are made especially to be amplified and don't necessarily sound good purely acoustically. There are exceptions of course. But this is something to keep in mind when shopping for an instrument: whether you will use it primarily acoustically or plugged-in.

A good-looking guitar isn't necessarily a good-sounding guitar. In all fairness, this one sounds better plugged-in. January 14, 2007 4:30pm

As a final point of reference, I wanted my friend to trust her instincts. After all, she was the one that was going to be playing the guitar, not me. Ideally it should be something that feels comfortable to play and has that intangible quality that just feels right. And perhaps to a certain extent she should consider for a moment the cosmetics of the instrument itself. I don't want to pigeon-hole my friend as a hobbyist or a budding professional just yet. But it's important that she gets a guitar that entices her to want to reach out and play it. We all have those days when we'll want to put off on practicing. When I used to have guitar students, I would always tell them that I'd rather have them practicing a little bit (even if it's only 5 minutes of quality time) everyday than to cram the day before their lesson. I say this not to be a disciplinarian but rather to make playing the guitar feel natural. If you make playing the guitar a part of your everyday routine, it's a lot easier to pick up where you left off the day before than to let a few days go by and try to relearn what you have forgotten.

Oops. Just caught myself going off on a tangent. But you get the idea. As expected my friend didn't end up buying a guitar just yet. We made a final stop at the exit and picked up my checked-in guitar. The front desk dude, curious about my guitar case asked me if it was a cello due to it's peculiar shape. I said "No, it's a guitar." Then he asked me the question I was waiting for, "Really? What kind of guitar?" And so I opened the case, pulled out my instrument and played a few compases of bulerías. Turns out the dude was from Argentina and was accustomed to playing Argentine tango but always wanted to learn flamenco. So I was able to promote by website and hopefully gained a new flamenco convert. We'll see.

Anywayz, we left the store having accomplished what we set out to do. But we had a little time left over before we had to go our separate ways and ended up getting some drinks at Misha's Coffeehouse in Old Town Alexandria. One of my favorite places for a caffeine fix. We found ourselves a table and as if by fate, the background music changed from traditional jazz to Paco de Lucía's tango, "Solo Quiero Caminar." This was a good time to give my friend one of the flyers for the upcoming Flamenco Festival at Lisner, which Paco is performing on the opening night!

January 14, 2007 5:20pm

Afterwards, I headed over to DC Dance Collective to drop off a stack of Flamenco Festival flyers and said hello to Genevieve and her students during the 6:30pm class. They worked on a taranto, and while I was at first casually just watching for a few minutes, I found myself sitting there for the whole class. It's really a pleasure to watch Genevieve. Besides being a very charismatic expressive performer she's also a very demanding, articulate and very energetic teacher. Bottom line: you will have fun in her class, you will learn something but you'll be exhausted! I did take some pics of course, but nothing worth publishing for now. For more info visit Genevieve's blog.

As for tonight (Monday), I'll be performing at Cafe Citron. I know a lot of you have to work tomorrow, but come out at least for the 8:00pm show. Who knows my dancer might even invite you dance some Sevillanas during the show. Gotta go now. Ciao!

P.S. I would love to hear some additional tips for selecting and shopping for guitars.

Posted by Miguelito at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pam de Ocampo in alegrías. January 13, 2007 9:20pm (photo by Chris)

It's 11:43pm on Sunday as I type these words. Yesterday (Saturday) I had my usual schedule starting with playing for Anna Menendez's dance classes from 12:30pm to 3:00pm at the American Dance Institute. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to grab some lunch--I couldn't even make a quick stop at Starbucks for a quick jolt of my usual doppio espresso. But I made it through thanks to Anna: she was especially energetic and it kind of rubbed off on me too. Although by the end of the first class at 1:30pm I seriously needed some caffeine. The fresh air outside (not to mention the pleasant, albeit unseasonably warm weather) perked me up a bit as I walked briskly across the street for my caffeine fix. There was a bit of a line at Starbucks and the barista somehow forgot my order during the rush, ugh. It's a good thing that an espresso shot is the simplest drink to make. So she squeezed my order back in, I got my fix and got back to the studio just in time.

Anna gives me creative license when it comes to the warm-up. She just tells me to play whatever I feel like playing so I improvise something libre and I try to musically transport the class to Andalucía. I don't claim to actually accomplish this, but if nothing else I improvise something inspiring to set the mood.

As the warm-up becomes more rhythmic I try to play the musical accents to coincide with Anna's, decide which palo seems most suitable and make the appropriate changes in the music. Lately, however, Anna's been requesting some taranto. I like taranto anyway, although in a performance, the absence of a singer makes it difficult to determine the length of the phrases. So for the warm-up I try to keep the musical phrases consistent although I've noticed myself extending the phrases in a moment of inspiration. Does it confuse the dance students? Perhaps a little, but it's still good training for them anyway. When they work with a singer eventually, they'll have to get used to going with the flow, adapting as necessary at a moment's notice.

By 3:00pm I was famished. Needed some food since I skipped breakfast (bad, bad, bad!). And I was in the mood for some Argentinean cuisine again. Called up Jason but he didn't pick up. So I ended up going to El Patio like last week and ordered the same thing: carne salteada. It was good and it gave me the energy to squeeze in a few errands along the way to my gig that night at Tapeo where I performed with dancers Ginette Perea and Pam de Ocampo. Here are the pics...

January 13, 2007 9:20pm (photo by Chris)

It was a good night at Tapeo. We had a decent size crowd (a little smaller than usual probably due to the three day weekend). And I don't know what the exact temperature was, but it was warm enough that I didn't need a jacket at all! We could've had the show outside--that's how warm it was. Plus we had a couple of our regular fans in the audience along with a few new faces including this one cute little girl who was so inspired and enamored with my dancers she couldn't resist going onstage between our shows. I even got up onstage with her to show her how to stamp her feet, but she just looked up at me and smiled. Oh well. I know we helped create a new flamenco convert for when she grows up. :-) Later, when Ginette was practicing her footwork by the bar, I noticed the little girl was outside the restaurant with her hands and face pressed against the window watching us. I turned to look at her and smile and she smiled back, giggled then quickly ran off to join her parents. Cutest thing!

January 13, 2007 9:22pm (photo by Chris)

I was a little tired from insufficient sleep the night before so it took me some time to loosen up. The first show went well, but I know it would've been better if I was more relaxed. It's OK. That's the challenge of performing. If you do it almost everyday like I do, you come to expect it. On some days, the inspiration or energy (spiritual or physical) isn't always there and somehow you gotta make up for it and put on a good show for your audience no matter what. Of course it helps that I have dancers that I enjoy working with: Ginette and Pam. And I don't know if they picked up my lack of energy in the first set, but eventually their energy rubbed off on me and I was feeling better and better as the show progressed.

January 13, 2007 9:23pm (photo by Chris)

I ordered a mojito, one of my favorite drinks there, to help me loosen up a bit more. And by the second set I was in a really good mood. Although the audience wasn't as responsive as they were during the first set. But I didn't let that sap away my positive energy. I just focused back on the music and the beautiful dancing and for 20 minutes or so during our show, Ginette, Pam and I transported ourselves inspirationally to Spain.

Miguelito playing intro to soleá por bulerías. January 13, 2007 9:24pm (photo by Chris)

Speaking of adapting to the moment, we were having some technical difficulties with our lights. Actually, I should say the singular form: light. These fragile but very important pieces of stage equipment do wear out. Ocassionally the dancers kick them, the audience sometimes trips on them when they walk on the stage (ugh!) and they do shake around a bit as I they travel on my luggage cart going from gig to gig.

Ginette Perea in soleá por bulerías. January 13, 2007 9:26pm (photo by Chris)

So we only had one light but it actually worked very nicely. Normally I'd use two lights with one on each side to illuminate the dancers such that the audience can better appreciate their movements and facial expression--not to mention being able to see yours truly. But with the light coming only from one side it made the show a bit more visually dramatic. The shadows were more pronounced since one light wasn't cancelling out the shadows of the other. Hmmm...the idea of using only one light appeals to me anyway---anything to reduce the amount of equipment I carry no matter how small sounds good to me. Hehe.

January 13, 2007 9:28pm (photo by Chris)

January 13, 2007 9:28pm (photo by Chris)

January 13, 2007 9:29pm (photo by Chris)

January 13, 2007 9:31pm (photo by Chris)

Miguelito playing at the bar after the show. January 13, 2007 9:43pm (photo by Ginette Perea)

January 13, 2007 10:16pm

I'm going to sign off for now. I have a few pics from my relaxing but very enjoyable Sunday but I'm going to get a good night's sleep and write some more when I wake up. But if you're not ready for bed yet, and want to read more flamenco blogs, checkout my colleague Carol Basilio's latest entry titled Old School Flamenco. Good night!

Posted by Miguelito at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

View from my comfy chair at Barnes and Noble. January 10, 2007 4:50pm

It's 9:00am on Saturday as I type these words. Man...it's early for me to be up. But I'm awake now so I might as well write a quick blog before heading out to dance class. If I can get out of the house by 10:30am I can get an early Argentine lunch at El Patio, yum!

So this past Wednesday, officially my website's 11th birthday, there was no big party like I had last year. I did receive a few congrats via phone calls, text messages, myspace comments and emails (thank you everyone!).

Instead of partying, I went into geek-mode I spent the the day in the library, um, I mean Barnes and Noble learning about the technical side of improving DCFlamenco.com, my birthday gift to you (and me!). So I curled myself up in a comfy chair and read (mostly skimmed) through three books:

which attempts to explain the myriad of beautiful information-rich charts and graphs that I use to analyze the traffic coming to DCFlamenco.com. Pretty cool stuff cuz I can learn about which pages on my site are the most popular, how long my readers stay on a page, how many times they return to my site over time, the most popular keywords that my readers use to find DCFlamenco.com etc. Plus I can learn which pages are the least popular, which odd keywords if any that people use to find my site in search engines, not to mention screen resolutions, operation systems, whether they use broadband or dialup, which country they surf from. For my fellow webmasters this kind of info is ordinary stuff. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much info that I need a book like this to guide me through it all and help me interpret it so I can use the data to help me improve my website.

Since this site has been around for 11 years now, it has resided on quite a few different web hosting services, so many in fact that the format of the page and the file directory structures are so varied that it's confusing even for me. I've worked hard to clean things up over the years, but with a website like DCFlamenco.com that numbers in the hundreds of pages there's still some work to be done. As a result, my readers ocassionally will try to access a specific page but frustratingly instead get error messages such as "Page not found." Anyway, the book pictured here explains ways to create helpful error pages that can help my readers and even help me by such things as automated email notifications when error pages are generated.

This is one book that I've poring over the past few weeks--I even blogged briefly about it in December. Yeah, it's true, I use Barnes and Noble like a library--reading books from cover to cover over time without actually buying the book itself. I hope to redeem myself here by promoting the book here and hope that some of my readers will buy the book.

What is search engine optimization? First of all, search engines like Google for example, have these computer programs called robots or spiders that "crawl" my site and index all the text from my webpages and use it to build a database from which people can find relevant info on Google. Just about every word you see on this page will soon be indexed by Google (which crawls my site about once a week). Anywayz, these robots and spiders work a certain way to filter out all the unecessary info like computer code that's only useful to computers and tries to outsmart deviant webmasters who try to fill-up their website with popular keywords with the hope to boost their ranking on the search engines: the ultimate goal is to get on the first page for a popular search term. For example, DCFlamenco.com shows up on page two of a search for the term "flamenco" on the Google search engine.

These robots and spiders are very sophisticated programs and I just want to make sure that they find all the relevant info on my website so that you my current readers and my future readers will easily find my site and the information you need. Search engine optimization is basically how to make sure my website is easily "readable" by these robots and spiders.

Whew! I know this was probably more technical stuff than you would want to read about on a blog that's supposed to be about flamenco. But I just wanted to give you a feel for what it takes to create and maintain a popular website. And it's really not geeky at all when you compare it to flamenco. C'mon. I know you dancers out there are spending time in the studio working for hours on a step and trying to make sure it fits into the compás. On a mechanical level, it's physics and mathematics. It's something you gotta get out of the way so you can focus on the artistic side and express yourself. Same thing with this website.

As usual, just when I generate the steam to really write, I run out of time, so here are a couple of pics I took yesterday. And I'll just leave some brief commentary...

January 12, 2007 2:57pm

One of the perks of being a flamenco promoter is getting free tickets to flamenco performances. But although these tickets are given to me as a gesture of thanks and apprecation for all that I do, I still do a lot of work that you could consider as payment for the tickets themselves.

Take for example this box of flyers promoting Lisner's upcoming Flamenco Festival. It doesn't look like much, but trust me, it's heavy. My original plan yesterday (Friday) was to stop by Lisner, pick up perhaps a bag or light box of flyers and carry it around with me the rest of the day and bring home after my gig. But no, it was a heavy box and I had to go back home and drop the heavy box and grab a nice size stack to distribute at a few key locations in DC that night.

Of course, since I was at Lisner I couldn't resist stopping by Juan Valdez and fueling up on calories I would eventually burn for walking. Got my usual macchiato arequipe, yum!

Going home kind of screwed up my schedule, cuz I still had to go down to Las Tapas in Alexandria to pick up my equipment and transport it to Cabanas in Georgetown. Normally I'd do this all early in the day and take the metro. But I ended up calling my dancer and had her pick me up at Las Tapas on the way since I was running late.

January 12, 2007 2:57pm

Yeah, I'm bitching a little here, but it's all good. The fact that my contact, Carl, from Lisner Auditorium gave me a huge supply of flyers shows that he knows I have a lot of places to go where I can promote the festival. Of course, I'll cover all the venues where I perform. If you know of a place where I can do some promotion, let me know and I'll be glad to stop by there and leave a stack of flyers.

January 12, 2007 2:57pm

Allright, gotta go. Dance class starts in an hour and I need to get some lunch. I'll be at Tapeo tonight with dancers Ginette Perea and Pam de Ocampo. See you there!

P.S. Happy birthday DC Flamenco!

Posted by Miguelito at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

My new guitar case. I love it! Handcrafted by HumiCase. January 8, 2007 10:53am

It's 2:36am on Wednesday as I type these words. My original plan was to publish this blog entry yesterday (Tuesday) but you know me--something came up and I had to postpone writing this until now. So pictured above is my new guitar case. Actually my guitarist friend José Oretea has the exact same model and after seeing his a few days ago, I wanted to get one myself. It's lightweight, water-resistant and is shiny and black and just simply looks cool.

It comes with built-in humidifier (one over the soundhole and the other by the tuning machines) with two bottles of activation solution (containing propylene glycol). It comes in several colors including black, white, silver, burgundy and blue. The Guitar Salon website has a pic of the burgundy model. This color is very cool, but a little too flamboyant for my personal taste.

Can you imagine yours truly walking down the street with a flashy metallic red case? Um...I don't think so! Price paid at Guitar Center including tax: US$157.50

On Monday morning I met up with Michael to see him off at the airport. It had been almost two weeks of hanging out playing guitar all afternoon oftentimes at My Bakery Cafe in Georgetown, not to mention going to nearly all of my weekly flamenco gigs and paryting late at Las Tapas several nights in a row. Just like old times. But like most of us, he had a day job beckoning him to return. It was fun while it lasted (probably the most fun I've had in a while), but it was time for Michael to go back home. Here are a few pics of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport I took on the day of his return flight...

Interior view of National Airport. Kinda looks like a cathedral with vaulted ceilings. January 8, 2007 1:36pm

View of the Airport from the metro platform. January 8, 2007 1:42pm

Being at the Airport worked out perfectly since I had to stop by Tapeo to pick up my sound system. It's right at the Pentagon City metro which is just two stops away. Then a few hours later, I was at Cafe Citron setting up the stage and preparing to start the show.

I got my friend Saadia to take pics this time. Here are some of the Pashmina shawls that she sells...

Mariya modeling a Pashmina shawl courtesy of Shalimar Designs. January 8, 2007 8:45pm

Another Pashmina shawl courtesy of Shalimar Designs. January 8, 2007 8:45pm

View of vocal microphone from Gerard's seat. January 8, 2007 9:11pm

View of my rack-mounted digital signal processors. January 8, 2007 9:13pm

Miguelito tuning-up before the show. January 8, 2007 9:16pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

Jason Vera y Aragón and Danielle dancing Sevillanas. January 8, 2007 9:22pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

Aseel and Mariya in Sevillanas. January 8, 2007 9:24pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

Miguelito and Gerard playing a rumba. January 8, 2007 9:32pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

Mariya in soleá. January 8, 2007 9:35pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

January 8, 2007 9:36pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

January 8, 2007 9:37pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

January 8, 2007 9:37pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

Mariya modeling another shawl courtesy of Shalimar Designs. January 8, 2007 9:49pm (photo by Saadia Chaudhry)

I left Citron relatively early for a change and made it home by the decent hour of midnight. Partying almost every night with Michael and friends was fun, but I seriously needed to catch up on sleep. It's 3:24am now. I better go to bed. I have the day/night off today (Wednesday) most of which I'll spend in bed. Hehe. But I'm sure I'll find something fun to do tonight. Besides I have a reason to celebrate: my wonderful website is 11 years old as of today. Congrats to me! Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 2:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Argentinean beer Quilmes at El Patio in Rockville, Maryland. January 6, 2007 3:51pm

It's 3:24pm on Tuesday--much later than I expected to be writing this blog. I did take what I thought would be a short nap but turned out to be a long one. Hehe. I need the rest to build up my immune system. With all these late nights and hanging out with people who have the flu, colds, coughs etc I need all the help I can get.

As much as I love flamenco, I can't do it 24/7 without going crazy so I gotta chill out sometimes, y'know? Of course, I could also take pictures of everything, but I was in a lazy photographic mood this past weekend. But fortunately, the few pics I took document the highlights...

My lunch: Costeleta a la parilla (T-bone steak). January 6, 2007 4:01pm

On Saturday, I played for Anna Menendez's flamenco dance class at American Dance Institute in Rockville. Beautiful pristinely clean, well-lit dance studio they got there---perhaps a little too clean for my tastes. Seems like flamenco is more suited to places that are little more "lived-in." Fazil's studio in New York City immeditately comes to my mind. Anywayz, after class I was starvin' so I called up dancer Jason Vera y Aragón since he lives nearby and asked him to join me for lunch at an Argentinean cafe called El Patio. Argentines love beef and they do make a great steak--which is what I ordered. But after seeing what Jason ordered, I decided that I would get the carne salteada next time...

Jason's lunch: Carne salteada (Cubes of steak over rice with sauteed onions drizzled with chimchurri sauce). January 6, 2007 4:01pm

View of the water treatment plant on the way to Georgetown. January 6, 2007 5:23pm

Jason offered to give me a ride into Georgetown since I had to pick up my sound system at Cabanas and bring it to Tapeo in time for my Saturday night gig. Of course, this morning, in the rush to get out of the house for dance class, I just put on the clothes I wore the night before--thank God they didn't smell like cigarettes thanks to DC's new smoking ban, yay! But I wasn't going to have my friends see me wearing the same thing they saw me wearing last night, so when I spotted the Zara store in Georgetown, I asked Jason if we could stop by.

15-20 minutes later, we both walked out of the store with some cool new designer threads by Zara.

Destination: Zara. January 6, 2007 5:36pm

I met up with Michael in Rosslyn, packed my equipment in the trunk of his rental car and we headed over to Tapeo in time for me to setup the stage for tonight's gig. The dancers were Pam de Ocampo and Ginette Perea. Despite my breaking my index fingernail, incidentally my primary strumming finger, in the second set, we enjoyed yourselves and our audience really got into our show, clapping along with my music (but they weren't that much off-rhythm to throw us off. One of the customers even left us a nice tip.

But for a change, the restaurant was seriously packed. Good for business but not so good for taking photos of the show. So all I have for you this time is this posed pic of two very beautiful flamenco dancers. This was taken in the hallway next to the kitchen...

Dancers Pam de Ocampo and Ginette Perea "backstage" at Tapeo. January 6, 2007 8:44pm

After the show, we hung out for awhile at the bar, chatted with the customers and enjoyed some tapas and drinks. Then I packed up my equipment and we headed over to Las Tapas to enjoy the show by Cesar and José Oretea.

Remember my new friends Sally and Jamie from Guarapo the previous week? They were at Las Tapas too. They can both do contratiempo palmas so I got to practice along with Duende Camarón's music.

Miguelito, Sally and Jamie at Las Tapas. January 7, 2007 1:27am (photo by Michael Long)

Next day (Sunday) I met up again with Michael and we got a late afternoon lunch at El Patio and this time I had the carne salteada and it was as good as I expected, then we headed over to Guitar Center across the street so I could buy a new guitar case---I wear these cases out as I lug my equipment everywhere nearly everyday in all kinds of weather!

Of course, the Guitar Center is like a toy store for us and we couldn't resist trying out all the new instruments and gadgets. Although it only took me 5 minutes to select and purchase a new guitar case--I'll have a pic for you in the next blog entry.

Since we tried out so many guitars, we lost track of time and ended up arriving 45 minutes late at our next destination: Anna Menendez's Sunday evening class at DC Dance Collective. It had been a long time since I'd been here but it was good to be back! You can feel the energy of the dancers here--I love volunteering my services here although they do sometimes buy me a beer next door. Flamenco is my profession, but it's also a large part of my non-work life. And I love my job!

Miguelito playing for Anna Menendez's class at DC Dance Collective. January 7, 2007 5:12pm (photo by Michael Long)

OK, it's like 3:57pm. I better get out of the house and pick up my sound system at Cafe Citron before it starts raining. I'll be performing at Las Tapas tonight, see you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ginette Perea and Miguelito in Sevillanas. January 5, 2007 8:29pm (photo by Michael Long)

It's 9:51am on Tuesday as I type these words. These pics are from last week, I know. But hanging out with my friend Michael literally every night the past two weeks had taken its toll on me and during that time, I found myself sleeping in much later than usual and getting up with no time to work on the blog. Oh well. I had a blast while he was here. And I knew that my loyal readers would wait for me, albeit impatiently, until got myself back in front of the computer again. Anywayz, this will be the first of three blog entries that I'll hopefully all publish today.

As you know, the restaurant business slows down a bit during the colder months, so we sometimes have to adapt to the economics of the situation. In this case, I decided to reduce the performers on Friday nights at Cabanas to two: one guitarist and one dancer. I was very pleased, as usual, to be working with dancer Ginette Perea. She absolutely loves to dance and it shows! When you're enjoying yourself onstage, the audience can pick up on this. And even if they don't, we can still say we had a good time.

It was an unseasonably warm night--people were actually sitting at the outdoor patio tables! The turnout was actually pretty decent and a couple of friends (old and new) showed up including Serenity, Rachel, Adrian, Tia and Christina. Serenity and her sister Rachel sometimes come to my Tapeo gig in Pentagon City on Saturday nights. Actually Serentiy did take some flamenco pics for my blog back in November. But for this particular evening, my photographer was Michael Long. Enjoy!

January 5, 2007 8:29pm (photo by Michael Long)

According to the hostess and the servers, most of the reservations on Friday nights specifically come for the flamenco. So the customers asked to be seated around the stage, yay! Michael got one of those tables with an unobstructed view of the performance. The challenge in taking flamenco photos in a restaurant is getting a clear line of sight.

January 5, 2007 8:30pm (photo by Michael Long)

It's not too often that you see female dancers performing in pants. It's a nice change and it provides the opportunity for the dancer to use a different choreographic vocabulary to express herself. While I love the elegance and grace of a female dancing in a skirt, it tends to obscure the lines of the lower body. In some ways, dancing in pants can be more expressive. Ginette's use of a shawl for the upper body in a way replaces the skirt.

January 5, 2007 8:30pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 8:36pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 8:36pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 8:37pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 8:37pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 9:39pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 9:40pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 9:41pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 9:49pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 5, 2007 9:51pm (photo by Michael Long)

Miguelito, Christina, Ginette, Serenity and Rachel. January 5, 2007 10:14pm (photo by Adrian)

OK, that's one blog entry down and two more to go. Gonna reward myself with a quick nap and an early lunch before getting back to work. Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Miguelito warming up at the bar at Las Tapas. January 2, 2007 7:55pm (photo by Michael Long)

It's 11:12am on Wednesday as I type these words. Another quick blog entry so I can get out of the house, finish up a few personal errands and catch an early show of Almodovar's Volver.

Last night (Tuesday), I was back at Las Tapas after a three week break. The last two times that I normally would have a show here, the restaurant cancelled on account of the seasonal Christmas slump in the restaurant business. As usual, I didn't know who the dancers for the evening would be. And as usual, I preferred it that way. Hehe. It's always a nice surprise and this time the dancers turned out to be Pam de Ocampo and Carmel Shelly.

Normally we do two sets. We had a decent size audience but the hostess wasn't expecting a lot of people to arrive for the second set, so what we do in this case is just perform only one very long set. The timing varies depending on the length of the dance and guitar solos. But with Pam, Carmel and myself the show started at 8:00pm and ended at 8:55pm!

My friend Michael Long stopped by and of course I got him to take pics of the performance. Here are a few...

Miguelito playing the opening guitar solo. January 2, 2007 8:00pm (photo by Michael Long)

Pam de Ocampo and Carmel Shelly in Sevillanas. January 2, 2007 8:08pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 2, 2007 8:09pm (photo by Michael Long)

Miguelito playing an introduction to seguiriyas. January 2, 2007 8:11pm (photo by Michael Long)

Pam de Ocampo in seguiriyas. January 2, 2007 8:11pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 2, 2007 8:12pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 2, 2007 8:12pm (photo by Michael Long)

Carmel Shelly in alegrías. January 2, 2007 8:18pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 2, 2007 8:19pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 2, 2007 8:20pm (photo by Michael Long)

January 2, 2007 8:23pm (photo by Michael Long)

It's not too often that I get pics from my show at Las Tapas, so I just want to give special thanks to Michael for volunteering to by my photographer for the evening. Thanks Michael! As for tonight (Wednesday), I'm off. I'm sure I'll find something fun to do and maybe I'll have some pics for you tomorrow. Ciao for now!

P.S. It's official as of yesterday: smoking is banned in bars and clubs in DC. We'll see how that affects business this coming Monday for flamenco night at Cafe Citron. You are coming, aren't you?

P.P.S. I'll be performing with Pam de Ocampo this Thursday at 8:00pm at the Andalucía Restaurant in Rockville. Call 301-770-1880 to make your reservations.

P.P.P.S. Last week, I got a big fat check from Google, yay! I won't say for how much exactly but I'll tell you that the number is in three figures, really! And it came just in time to make up for the lost business during the Christmas slump. If you have a high-traffic website, I highly recommend signing up for their Adsense program.

Posted by Miguelito at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Bell tower of Healy Hall on the Georgetown University campus. January 1, 2007 9:58pm

It's 2:11pm on Tuesday as I type these words. Got up a little after noon, took a shower and got some lunch across the street: Salvadorean style beef soup, yum!

So last night, the first night of 2007, there weren't too many places open for business, but we had to do something. I had been in bed all day catching up sleep from the past weekend and very much needed some fresh air and exercise. So I met up with Michael Long and Geno and went to a mostly deserted Georgetown University campus for a late night tour courtesy of Michael, a Georgetown alum!

Over the years, I had been here many times of course. A number of my flamenco friends have studied here and some are currently still studying , so I have an excuse to visit them on campus, usually during the warmer months and hang out in Red Square.

I do have many fond memories of my college experience. Of course being a music major, I spent a huge amount of time isolated in the practice rooms on the third floor of the performing arts building at Cal State Fullerton. I'm not complaining, mind you. But it was kind of lonely playing guitar for hours and hours by yourself--and sometimes I stayed very late at night! Ocassionally I'd run into my fellow music majors in the hallway and we'd chat for a few moments before going back to practicing.

But I had do something about this cuz it wasn't healthy to be by myself all the time, so without really trying I hit upon a solution that worked. The technical progress was coming along just fine--I was putting in the time and applying the techniques and practice methods that my teacher gave me each week. But one thing I needed serious help in was stage fright. One thing I did notice when I got nervous was that my fingertips would go cold and my finger muscles would tighten up. So I figured, OK, I'll practice in the early mornings outside when it's cooler and learn how to deal with the coldness.

Path from Healy Hall to Red Square on the Georgetown University campus. January 1, 2007 9:59pm

I know it's not exactly the healthiest to do. Looking back now I realize it was more of a psychological problem and that the cold fingertips were just a symptom of my nervousness. So I should've focused on the nervousness instead. Anywayz, I got into the routine of practicing outdoors early each day. Of course, going to school in Southern California, a cold day was in the 50's so it wasn't that cold. But on most days it was rather pleasant with temperatures in the 60's and 70's typically. So I actually started enjoying playing outdoors although there were quite a few distractions: namely pretty girls. Hehe. But it worked out to my advantage in a number of ways. For one thing, I found that when I played in for pretty girls I focused on trying to impress them with my guitar playing, but I found that I lost my concentration and couldn't play as well as I wanted.

Thing was that I had no problem playing for large audiences such as in an auditorium or concert hall, but ask me to play for one person, then I would freeze up.

So over the course of a month or so, I continued my self-assigned personal project of learning to play in front of an audience of one. There was a concrete bench in front of the performing arts building where'd I'd sit and practice pretty much every morning around 7:00am but I'd come back to this particular bench throughout the day between classes and started developing a small group of regular listeners. Hehe.

Usually, in the middle of a piece someone would sit down on the bench next to me and watch me play. I wouldn't look up to acknowledge them because I wanted to avoid eye contact which would derail my performance. When I finished playing I was back to my normal non-nervous self and started a conversation with my one-person audience. I met lots of people (and a number of pretty girls) one of whom later became my first flamenco guitar teacher, Isabel Montes.

With time I overcame my stage fright nervousness. It also helped that I read a number of performance psychology books including The Inner Game of Music. The basic premise is that we all have an inner voice in our mind that sends performance-distracting feedback like, "Uh-oh, here comes that hard part!" or "That guy in the first-row is a guitarist too and knows you messed up that one measure in the beginning." So the solution is to keep your mind so busy that this distracting inner voice has no opportunity to send you distracting feedback. The book covers a number of methods of accomplishing this. Actually this book is based on "The Inner Game of Tennis," a sports psychology book. In a way, athletes and musicians are alike: we both are required to perform highly-refined motor skills in front of large audiences. Anywayz, you get the idea. Check the book out.

January 1, 2007 10:01pm

Seems I went off on a long-winded tangent, so sue me! After Michael gave us our tour of Georgetown University, we headed over to the Tombs, the popular off campus hangout, got some beers, fish and chips and talked about music and life. Good times.

As for tonight, Tuesday, I'll be performing at Las Tapas. See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Miguelito playing an introduction to Sevillanas at Tapeo. Saturday December 30, 2006 8:54pm (photo by Michael Long)

It's 1:11pm on Monday, New Year's day as I type these words. My second blog for the day, woohoo! Brought Michael Long again to check out my Saturday night flamenco show at Tapeo and recruited him once again as my official photographer. As I expected, he managed to get quite a few nice pics using my cheap consumer-quality camera. Thanks Michael!

The dancers for the evening were Ginette Perea and Sarah Hart. We also had a number of friends in the audience including our new acquaintances from Thursday night at Guarapo: Sally, Jamie and Geno plus Michael's friends Adrian, Tia and their son. The lovely Isabelita decided to come back to Tapeo a second night in a row, but this time as a member of the audience. She brought along her equally lovely friend from school: Shai.

So with all these wonderful people coming out to show their support, I was feeling pretty inspired.

I'm going to keep the commentary to a minimum so I can quickly finish this blog entry, take a short shower and get out of the house, get some fresh air and see what's open today. I'll call Michael later, and if he's not already tired of hanging out with me , maybe we'll find a café somewhere, pull out our guitars and jam. Send me a text mesage later if you wanna come along. OK, without further adue, here are the pics...

Sarah Hart and Ginette Perea in Sevillanas at Tapeo. Saturday December 30, 2006 8:56pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 8:57pm (photo by Michael Long)

Ginette Perea in soleá por bulerías. Saturday December 30, 2006 9:00pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 9:00pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 9:00pm (photo by Michael Long)

Sarah Hart in soleá. Saturday December 30, 2006 9:07pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 9:08pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 9:09pm (photo by Michael Long)

Ginette Perea in fin de fiesta bulerías. Saturday December 30, 2006 9:16pm (photo by Michael Long)

Ginette Perea and Sarah Hart in bulerías. Saturday December 30, 2006 9:19pm (photo by Michael Long)

Sarah Hart in tientos. Saturday December 30, 2006 7:52pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 7:52pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 7:54pm (photo by Michael Long)

Ginette in soleá por bulerías. Saturday December 30, 2006 7:58pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 8:00pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 8:00pm (photo by Michael Long)

Saturday December 30, 2006 8:00pm (photo by Michael Long)

After the show, we all headed over to Las Tapas again just like last night. Duende Camarón was awesome as usual, but there wasn't as big a crowd as Friday--I'm guessing that people were saving their energy for New Year's Eve. Anywayz, most of the pics were too dark and blurry but here are a couple that came out allright.

Sally, Geno, Isabelita and Shai at Las Tapas. Sunday December 31, 2006 12:40am (photo by Michael Long)

Miguelito and Isabelita. Sunday December 31, 2006 12:46am (photo by Michael Long)

It's 1:30pm now. Wow! I cranked out a blog in less than 20 minutes. OK, I'm outta here. Happy New Year everyone. Ciao for now.

Posted by Miguelito at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Isabelita and Raquel "backstage" at Tapeo. December 29, 2006 8:25pm

As I type these words, it's 5:53am on Monday January 1st, 2007. Happy new year! The past few days and nights, I I've been pretty busy hanging out with my old friend Michael Long so I haven't been able to blog that much. But I sort of made up for it by taking lots of pics (and having Michael and a few other friends take pics for me)--close to 400 in all from this past Friday and Saturday alone!

So Friday night, I took Michael to see the Sevillanas show at Tapeo. The dancers were "Isabelita" and Raquel. Business picked up again after expected Christmas holiday weekend slump, yay! And although the dining room wasn't completely full, there was still a decent-size lively crowd. Of course, I helped add a little paparazzi touch with the constant flash of my camera as Isabelita and Raquel captured the attention of the audience, giving them a little taste of what they'd see in a typical fiesta in Sevilla.

Isabelita and Raquel dancing Sevillanas in the dining room at Tapeo. December 29, 2006 7:30pm

Raquel and Isabelita. December 29, 2006 7:322pm

Every Friday night at Tapeo, Isabelita regularly performs Sevillanas with a different partner that changes from week to week. Previous partners have included Jason Vera y Aragón, Samantha Zerpa, Raquel and I'm sure a few others whose names escape me at the moment. The Friday show at Tapeo has been around a little more than a month now while the flamenco show on Saturdays, when I perform here (usually with dancers Ginette Perea and Sarah Hart) has been around since May 2006 when Tapeo first opened its doors to the general public.

With the Sevillanas shows also going on Friday nights at La Tasca in Clarendon and its recently opened "sister" in Old Town Alexandria, this could be yet another recent sign of increasing popularity of flamenco in DC or perhaps the local Spanish restaurants are simply jumping on the bandwagon of the Sevillanas floor show idea that the original downtown DC Jaleo restaurant started back in April 1993.

I know because I was actually there at Jaleo's grand opening accompanying members of the DC chapter of the Spanish Dance Society in a flamenco show including dancer Jaime Coronado--this was one of the few times that Jaleo featured something other than Sevillanas. Also at Jaleo's 1993 grand opening was guitarist singer Marija Temo who made one of her very rare restaurant appearances accompanying dancer Susana Lorenzo.

Isabelita. December 29, 2006 7:33pm

From a business perspective, the floor show idea works well for the restaurant. They only have to hire at the most two dancers and there's no need to sacrifice table space for a costly stage and they perform with recorded music. But at the same time, there is the challenge of performing between tables oftentimes dancing just inches from seated customers.

Careo. December 29, 2006 7:34pm

Since I was already here supporting my fellow flamencos, I decided to enjoy a few tapas. They are done very well here at Tapeo: the chef obviously takes great pride in presentation of his exquisitely-prepared culinary creations and yes, the food tastes as good as it looks!

Vieras al Azafrán (scallops with saffron cream sauce with mashed potatoes). December 29, 2006 8:05pm

Chorizo a la Parilla (grilled Spanish sausage with mashed potatoes). December 29, 2006 8:05pm

Actually I had a glass of beer, but I couldn't help noticing this bottle behind the bar...

Bottle of tempranillo with a guitar on the label. December 29, 2006 8:24pm

Raquel and Isabelita dancing second show of Sevillanas. December 29. 2006 8:34pm

December 29. 2006 8:37pm

December 29. 2006 8:55pm

I had my guitar with me, so Isabelita asked me if I would play a little. She also suggested doing a set of Sevillanas outside (it wasn't that cold anyway) for fun of course and for a little publicity for the crowds passing by.

Raquel and Isabelita dancing Sevillanas outside in front of Tapeo accompanied by Miguelito. December 29. 2006 8:56pm (photo by Michael Long)

December 29, 2006 8:57pm (photo by Michael Long)

Raquel, Miguelito and Isabelita. December 29, 2006 8:57pm (photo by Michael Long)

Raquel had to rush off afterwards, but the night was still young and it wouldn't make sense to let Michael go home for the night without at least stopping by Las Tapas where rumberos Cesar and José Oretea aka Duende Camarón perform every Friday (and Saturday). Of course, we asked the lovely Isabelita to join us. She gladly accepted our invitation and soon after arriving at Las Tapas, as the party was just getting started, Isabelita didn't waste any time getting on the dance floor and not surprisingly charmed the other customers there with her beautiful and flirtatious rumba moves. She obviously absolutely loves to dance and you can see it in her facial expression...

Isabelita dancing rumba at Las Tapas. December 29. 2006 11:10pm

December 29, 2006 11:19pm

Isabelita acknowledging the band: Armand, José and Cesar. December 29, 2006 11:41pm

José did a spontaneous interpretation of one of Michael's favorite songs: "Vengo del Moro."

Michael Long and José Oretea. December 30, 2006 1:11am

December 30, 2006 1:11am

I hope you enjoyed these pics. I really should go to bed now, but I was feeling inspired and couldn't resist doing a little blogging about Friday's fun-filled night. Hopefully later today (New Year's Day), I'll get around to editing pics from Saturday night's show at Tapeo featuring dancers Ginette Perea and Sara Hart. Ciao for now. Goodnight!

P.S. Just a reminder, for those of you hardcore flamencos who wanted to squeeze in some partying at Cafe Citron, unfortunately the usual Monday night flamenco show is cancelled for tonight. But let's all plan on coming to the show next Monday January 8th and start off the new year with bang, OK?

Posted by Miguelito at 5:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)