Karina, Miguelito, Andrea and Cheryl. June 28, 2004

I know it's been more than a week since I last blogged. What can I say? In some ways, I'm just an ordinary human being in that I'll have my occasional periods of non-inspiration. I think I already mentioned that around this time last year, I had blogged 45 days in a row! That's pretty damn good considering there's only so much a person can think of something to blog about the DC flamenco scene on a daily basis. Then again, some of the entries were just simple blow-by-blow descriptions of each day's events accompanied by a bunch of fabulous pics. But c'mon...I may be wise and experienced in some ways, but I'm not a philosopher. I can't expect myself to come up with something profound or thought-provoking every single day.

Anywayz, it's 11:45pm on a Wednesday, my night off from flamenco gigs. I just finished chatting with a dancer friend and we just so happened to be talking about my blog. (her name has been changed for privacy reasons and to add a little intrigue...hehe)

dancer_friend: i miss your blogs. its been a while :(

miguelito: thanks #######. i miss my blogs too. i actually enjoying reading them. it's awesome how i sometimes include so much detail that it transports me back to all those good times.

dancer_friend I enjoy reading them they are wonderful what have you been up too lately?

miguelito: thanks #######. tonight, you are the reason i'm inspired to blog again. i just have to come up with a topic...

dancer_friend mmm. you are so good at writing that you can write about anything and you just make it interesting

miguelito: hehe...thanks. i just try to keep it real, so to speak. if i try too hard to write, then it sounds like i'm making stuff up to make it sound good. but if i just write in a conversational style and don't edit or censor myself too much then it comes across as genuine...which it is. and besides when i write a lot, i don't have time to edit and make everything grammatically perfect and formal.

dancer_friend aah I see. you just have that gift

miguelito: it's my secret to writing....shhhhhh! :-)

dancer_friend I will have to use it and see if it works for me! what are you up to tomorrow?

When I interviewed Ulrika Frank a few weeks ago, she asked me if I ever get tired doing tablaos gigs all the time. The answer is yes: I do get physically and mentally exhausted. But I still love it. Artistically it's very satisfying for me. Besides the obvious technical and artistic challenges of flamenco alone, there is the professional challenge of being able to summon the inspirational energy on a nightly basis--or at least give the impression that I am inspired. When I stop and think about it for a second, it is pretty amazing that I can perform every night and somehow get in the flamenco mood I'd say 90% of the time.

I could go on and get into a discussion comparing the challenges of tablao flamenco versus the challenges of theatre flamenco, but I'll save that for a future blog entry. Or maybe I'll interview some of my fellow tablao veterans.

Madiha, Gisele, Liliane and Ivana. August 23, 2004 11:17pm (photo by Maynol)

One of the drawbacks of performing all the time at night is not being able to go out with my friends or make new friends at normal hours for going to clubs and parties. So aside from the friends I make amongst the flamencos in DC, I tend to befriend the people I meet at the many venues where I perform.

Miguelito, Alejandra and Katerine. January 19, 2004 10:58pm

So a good number of my friends do come out to my shows a lot but I can't expect them to come every single week--hello? they've got a life outside of flamenco too. And sometimes weeks or months go by where I don't see some of them which is totally understandable. But the least I could do is call them up every now and then just to say hi to let them know I appreciate their friendship and that I haven't forgotten about them.

This past weekend, one particular friend called me up out of the blue. I hadn't talked to her in a while. Her name showed up on Caller ID of course, but I just picked up and said "Hola" knowing that she spoke Spanish. I was just playing around. But I can remember when I got my first cell phone ten years ago. People were always a bit shocked when I picked up and the first thing I said was "Hello (insert name of caller)."

Miguelito with Sarika (from India). October 25, 2004 9:36pm (photo by Nancy)

So we both caught up on each other's lives since we last saw each other. And as I spoke to her, I made a mental note to visit my blog entries from 2004 to reminisce about when I first met this friend. I don't know what it was exactly about myself that year, but 2004 was when I made a LOT of new friends at Cafe Citron. There was something or someone that inspired me to want to come out of my shell that year. Talk about overcoming shyness (I still am a bit shy though), I even came up with the courage to ask this one girl to dance with me on the bar at Citron one night. And yeah, I did meet a lot of girls and few a guys but I didn't take too many pics of the guys. Deal with it!

So for today's blog, I just randomly picked a few pics of some of my female friends that I first met that particular year (and just by coincidence they all happen to be very beautiful, hehe) but it was hard to narrow it down and I know I left some out. My deepest apologies but here's a piece of trivia that I know will astound you: I have published in my blog 1,484 pics from my shows at Cafe Citron from the past five and half years I've performed there! Unless you're a professional photographer, that's quite a large number of archived pics to sift through. But thank God I figured out a manageable filing system to help me quickly find a specific pic from a specific place from a specific time frame. It's not 100% fool-proof but I'm able to locate just about any photo from any gig most of the time. Perhaps someday when I grow old (which will be never ), I'll write a book about the history of the DC flamenco scene and I'll have the largest collection of historical photos to choose from.

Cafe Citron regular and flamenco dance student Sonia with Miguelito. November 1, 2004 9:16pm (photo by Jeff)

Some of my closer friends know I had kind of a rough week last week. We all have our rough times and it was my turn. But I survived it, thanks to the support of a few of my friends who patiently listened to me as I blew off steam. You know who you are. And you know I all love you and appreciate you with all my heart.

Jenifer Jaketic (from Spain) and Miguelito. Jenifer came to Citron back in August. November 8, 2004

Spring is here, yay! I just wish Mother Nature would make up her f#*&ing mind and decide whether to make it cold or hot. What's it gonna be. Make up your mind already! I just have to say that the few warm days we've had so far made me want to get out of the house early in the morning---part of the reason why I haven't blogged much lately. Just being outside breathing fresh air, soaking up the sun rays and picking up on the positive energy from my fellow Washingtonians enjoying the outdoors like myself was enough to get me out of my grumpy mood from last week. So it's like 1:06am now and I should get to bed so I can wake up early and enjoy yet another gorgeous day. Ciao for now!

P.S. this blog is dedicated to "Lunch Girl" who knew just the right "buttons" to push to make me want to blog again. (I made up that nickname for her just now cuz we usually chat online when she's on her lunch break at work.) I also dedicate this blog to "Sobrina" who so patiently put up with me last week as I went through my bad moods. You rock!

Posted by Miguelito at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Miguelito at Tapeo. March 16, 2007 (photo by Ginette)

Just a quick blog entry before I get out of the house and do some personal errands. It's 11:02am on Monday. I'm in an especially good mood. Why? A couple of reasons. First of all, I did a couple of fun private gigs with some of my favorite dancers over the past few days. Last night's gig at the Andalucía was the highlight though.

I didn't have any further details about the party theme other than that they wanted two dancers and a guitarist and two shows. So I got Ginette Perea and Pam de Ocampo.

Of course I had lots of combinations of dancers to choose from, but as it turns out Ginette got her first start in tablao performing here at the Andalucía and Pam has been a pretty regular performer the past couple of months. They were very familiar with the venue and they work very well together.

So far so good. Then when we got there, I found it was a surprise birthday party for someone turning 50. And one of the guests wanted to do a slideshow using a laptop and a digital projector. Very thoughtful touch, except anyone who's done business presentations before knows that you need to get to the venue early and work out the technological logistics with plenty of time to spare, not half-an-hour before the party. Ugh.

As the resident technology guru it was left to me to figure out how to get the dude's laptop connected to the restaurant's digital projector. Turns out the remote wasn't working. So while all the guests were getting seated I had to put a chair in the middle of the dining room, stand on it on my tiptoes and fumble around for a power switch on the ceiling-mounted projector and just hope that I hit the right one to turn it on.

Just to make a long story short, that was just the beginning of the technological obstacles. I didn't need the extra stress, but in a way, it kind of helped the performance. I guess you could say it gave me some emotional energy to channel through the music. When it was showtime, I did my opening solo to get warmed-up (something I should've been doing earlier but couldn't do since I was busy setting up the digital projector). When Ginette and Pam and came out to perform Sevillanas, I felt a sigh of relief as we musically transported ourselves to the wonderful world of flamenco.

I wasn't the only one without stress or pain. Ginette sprained her ankle the night before. She got through the show although there were some movements that she couldn't execute but while she was dancing she forgot about the pain. Believe it or not, it turned out to be one of her more inspired performances of soleá.

March 16, 2007 (photo by Ginette)

It had been about a month or so since I last played for Pam. She went overseas so she wasn't available to dance in my other tablaos shows for the time being. So this was the first time in while. I don't know if she had been practicing all that time, but her footwork improved. And when it came to the buildup at the end of her alegrías, she surprised me when she kicked the tempo up a few notches more than before and ended the dance in a dramatic climax. Nice!

The audience was an older crowd and they gave us their undivided attention and responded to our performance with some very enthusiastic applause.

After the show, Ginette and Pam had places to go and people to see , but I was in the mood for a movie so I called up a friend and went out to see 300, an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel. I had been dying to see a movie all week but my schedule was filled to the top with flamenco shows and rehearsals--which is a lot of fun, mind you, but you know me....I love going to the movies.

March 16, 2007 (photo by Ginette)

Saturday was St Patrick's Day, right, but I'm not on of those people that really cares. I mean c'mon what's the point? Nothing against drinking and having fun, but I do this pretty much every week and I don't really need the Irish theme this or that to have a good time.

We did have quite a crowd at Tapeo though. It was a party of about 50 or so Lebanese to celebrate a birthday. They were supposed to come at 8:00pm and we especially rescheduled the show just for them, but they came sometime after 8:30pm, ugh. But I got to hangout with my friends Chris, Serenity and Carol at the bar while Ginette and Nelson warmed-up in the back.

Ginette and Miguelito at Tapeo. March 17, 2007 (photo by Serenity)

Just for fun, I tried having my monitor speaker on the floor so that my dancers could really hear the guitar. You know how it is: it's easier to dance when you can get "inside the music." Like at clubs, the music is set at high-volume for a reason...not to make you deaf necessarily, but so that the music overpowers you to the point where you just can't stop yourself from wanting to dance.

Ginette was telling me how the sound was good the night before when we did the private gig at the university. And I had the speaker setup on the floor that night. So I just thought I'd try that setup here at Tapeo.

Ginette and Serenity at Tapeo. March 17, 2007

Only problem though was that the sound was good for the dancers but not so good for the audience. So for the second show, I setup the speaker on the stand as usual. But the restaurant manager said he had an extra speaker just like mine that I could use for a monitor the next time. I'll give that a try this coming Saturday.

Nelson, Ginette and Miguelito at Tapeo. March 17, 2007 (photo by Serenity)

Anywayz, I said this would be a quick blog entry. It's 11:45am and I have a 12:30pm appointment and still need to get dressed, yikes! As for tonight, I'll be at Cafe Citron as usual. See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"Rainy Night Rush Hour" Flickr photo by PaulAndAPentax

It's 12:25am on Friday as I type these words. I can remember around this time last year, I had blogged a record 45 consecutive days! Part of it was just being on a creative roll and developing a momentum that kept me going even on those days when I just didn't feel like blogging--it happens.

The past couple of weeks though, I'd come home at my usual late hour and sit in front of the computer hoping that inspiration would come. But most of the time, I end up feeling sleepy and go straight to bed, wake up the next day and try again. Still nada. So I end up just going out.

Man if I had a laptop that would be nice. Then I could blog whenever the inspiration hits wherever I am--or maybe not. Then again, knowing me, I like to travel light. When I got my first PDA like seven years ago, I thought that I could increase my writing productivity but trust me on this: any more than 5 minutes of writing with a stylus gets old real fast.

Yesterday (Thursday) I did a private flamenco gig with Ginette. The client suggested that we bring business cards--which normally is not a problem 'cept I ran out of cards. So while I was out and about Thursday afternoon, I had a free hour or two and visited Kinko's, bought a fresh supply of blank inkjet business cards, rented a computer and attempted to use one of the business card templates in Microsoft Word thinking to myself: "This'll be a no-brainer and I'll be in an out of here in less than an hour."

Being the creative person I am, I figured the majority of the time would be spent endlessly mulling over several design options before commiting to one, printing out a small supply of maybe 20 or 30 cards and I'd be on my way ready to promote myself at the gig.

Of course, it didn't work out that way. We've all gone through this before: I'd print out a set of business cards and somehow it gets misaligned such that images or text are cut off. And every time I hit return or try to drag the image around to fix the problem, some unexplainable tiny error happens and the whole thing gets messed up. After spending $14.99 on a pack of blank cards and $10 on computer rental time and not getting any good results, I was so close to blowing up, but I caught myself, took account of the situation, realized it wasn't worth it, took a deep breath and just shrugged it off and decided that at tonight's gig, Ginette and I would just pass out our promo cards for Cabanas and Tapeo instead.

I made it home with about an hour to spare before Ginette's arrival, so I checked and double-checked the directions to the gig, warmed-up a little and tried to decide which of my many black shirts I would wear for the evening's gig.

It was already 5:00pm, our agreed upon time to meet and head out towards the gig. Around 5:15pm Ginette texted me to say that there's traffic and that she'd be a litte late. Of course I felt a bit flustered, but it wasn't her fault there was traffic and rain, not to mention the idiots who drive crazily on days like these. There wasn't much I could do anyway, so I picked up my guitar and practiced to keep myself occupied and before I knew it, I could see Ginette's car pulling up. In less than a minute, I managed to pack my equipment in the trunk, put my guitar in the backseat and take my position up front and finally relax a little--we were on our way to the gig, yay!

The first half of the directions was pretty straightforward--just major streets---so I took some time to ask Ginette about her day (she's on Spring break) and told her about my own. Meanwhile, traffic was stop and go. The directions for the rest of the trip were all side streets so I had to start paying attention. Despite the difficulty reading street signs in the rain, it all went pretty smoothly and on one particular long stretch, we got back to talking again which I enjoyed of course--Ginette's a good friend of mine--but it also served to distract me from the fact that we were running pretty late already. As a courtesy, I texted the client telling her our current location and estimated time of arrival. She texted back instructing me to just call when I arrive at the venue.

We made it to the university campus where the gig was to take place. Time to celebrate? Um, no, not yet. Universities are notoriuously bad with signage and ridiculously labrynthine tangles of narrow streets. Luckily I had been to this campus many times before and our destination was across the street from a building that I was very familiar with. So we quickly found a parking space and quickly headed to the gig. So close 'cept we had a long flight of stairs and 100 pounds of equipment. Normally I could handle this myself, but Ginette offered to carry my guitar case while I focused on keeping the cart steady and as I bounced it down one step at a time which normally wouldn't bother me but since I was moving slowly one step at a time in the rain, I was getting wetter and wetter. It's not cool walking into a gig looking like I just took a shower in my clothes.

We entered the building. I parked my equipment, found the bathroom, grabbed a fistful of paper towels and quickly patted myself dry before heading towards the ballroom.

The evening's event was running behind schedule on account of the bad weather, so in a way, we were on time. Now all I had to do was go into the ballroom and quickly setup and start playing, finally! Meanwhile, Ginette changed into costume. I arrived at the stage to discover that it was carpeted. Ugh. Don't panic. I just put a microphone on the floor and told the client to pass on the word to Ginette of the situation. I quickly setup the sound and lights, took my seat and breathed a sigh of relief as I started to play the guitar and lost myself in the music. The sound system was sounding good: bright crisp treble and full-sounding warm bass with just a touch of reverb. Before I knew it, Ginette joined me onstage and the emcee introduced us and we started the Sevillanas, followed by alegrías.

This was a large ballroom and honestly only half of the room was paying attention. Nothing wrong on our end. It's just not exactly the right kind of venue for a flamenco show. But we still had a job to do and there was no reason why couldn't just perform for each other and just have a good time which we did. For the second set, Ginette just danced her soleá por bulerías and we ended the show sooner than planned since the client had to squeeze in an awards presentation while the guests were just finishing dinner and starting dessert.

On the drive back home, there was no traffic and what took more than an hour going one way, took only 20 minutes going the other. We briefly recounted what a difficult night it had been leading up to the show. But Ginette feeling good from the performance (and the delicious meal they served us afterwards) focused on the positive and said, "I had a good time. The flamenco was the highlight of my evening."

"Yeah, me too." I coudln't agree more.

Of course, we all have our good days and bad days. Sometimes what starts out bad turns out good in the end--and vice-versa. But when the flamenco is good, even for a few fleeting moments, it's all worth it! (And when we get paid for it and paid very well, even better!)

So what inspired me this morning? It's currently 2:03am. For one thing, I told Ginette I was feeling good and that I was going to blog about it. She went on to tell me how writing is easy and natural for me. She meant every word of it of course, but a little ego stroking sometimes helps me to get into the mood to write. Then again, I just happened to have a bottle of Power-C Glacéau Vitamin Water on my desk. Feeling a bit thirsty, I took a swig just before launching into this blog before realizing that it contains taurine---one of the primary ingredients in Red Bull for boosting alertness---hence my early morning loquaciousness. Hehe. Looks I'm going to be up for awhile now. Oh well. Let's hope I can back into the blogging momentum again. We'll see. Ciao for now.

Posted by Miguelito at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Evian water, Ferrero Rocher chocolates and a private table. That's what I call VIP seating! March 11, 2007 5:00pm

It's 6:35am on Monday morning. Yeah I've been up all night working on my blog and editing pics just to get something published for you to enjoy just in case you didn't make it to see Ulrika Frank's Café Flamenco--her final show in the DC area before leaving for Sweden in a few months.

As a very kind gesture of appreciation for my promotion and publicity for the show, Ulrika gave me a pair of complimentary VIP tickets. Thank you Ulrika! Of course, I invited my dancer friend Ginette Perea to join me--thanks for the company Ginette! We got the royal treatment and had a reserved private table next to the stage--perfect for taking pics of the show. Very nice!

View of stage from our table. March 11, 2007 5:00pm

Well, I'm going to get some sleep right now. I'll add some commentary later when I wake up. Better yet, do me a favor (while I'm in dreamland) and feel free to use the form at the bottom to add your own comments. Thanks and enjoy the pics!

Percussionist Jerry Fields, cantaor Alfonso Cid and guitarist Ricardo Diaz. March 11, 2007 5:23pm

Ulrika Frank in soleá por bulerías. March 11, 2007 5:27pm

March 11, 2007 5:28pm

March 11, 2007 5:29pm

Ulrika and Vendela in Sevillanas. March 11, 2007 5:38pm

Jerry and Ricardo in bulerías. March 11, 2007 5:42pm

Renée Gokey. March 11, 2007 5:46pm

Ulrika and Marija Temo watch as Mirada Flamenca enters the stage and begins bulerías. March 11, 2007 5:47pm

Renée, Olivia Rojo, María Roncal and Sharon García. March 11, 2007 5:47pm

Renée, Sharon, Debra Belo, María and Nicole Totah. March 11, 2007 5:49pm

Renée, Sharon, Olivia, María, Jackie Perodin, Nicole and Debra. March 11, 2007 5:51pm

Ulrika in Vengo del Moro. March 11, 2007 5:57pm

March 11, 2007 5:57pm

March 11, 2007 5:58pm

Carmen Delgado, Marija and Alfonso in martinete. March 11, 2007 6:14pm

March 11, 2007 6:20pm

Suzanna Carnevali-Doan and Graciela Barada-Aymerich in Sevillanas. March 11, 2007 6:23pm

Graciela, Suzanna and Mariana Gatto-Duran. March 11, 2007 6:24pm

Julia Tulloh, Suzanna, Graciela and Mariana. March 11, 2007 6:27pm

Jackie, Olivia, Renée, Nicole and Debra in tangos. March 11, 2007 6:29pm

March 11, 2007 6:30pm

Olivia, María, Jackie. Nicole, Debra and Renée. March 11, 2007 6:33pm

Mirada Flamenca and Ulrika Frank in alegrías. March 11, 2007 6:47pm

Debra. March 11, 2007 6:50pm

Sharon. March 11, 2007 6:50pm

March 11, 2007 6:54pm

March 11, 2007 6:55pm

March 11, 2007 6:56pm

March 11, 2007 6:57pm

March 11, 2007 6:59pm

Ulrika accepting flowers from Vendela. March 11, 2007 7:01pm

Marta presenting flowers to each dancer. March 11, 2007 7:01pm

Final bows. March 11, 2007 7:01pm

Debra Belo with Ginette Perea, Gloria Monge with her daughter Maya, and Helena Cerda' with her daughter Julia. March 11, 2007 7:08pm

Jerry Fields and Ulrika. March 11, 2007 7:24pm

Sharon García and family. March 11, 2007 7:26pm

Mariana and Sharon. March 11, 2007 7:27pm

Ginette and María Roncal. March 11, 2007 7:30pm

Ulrika and Alfonso Cid. March 11, 2007 7:32pm

Congrats to Mirada Flamenca, the musicians and of course to Ulrika Frank herself on a job well done!

It would be sooo cool if you could leave a comment or two about the show and any special thoughts you might like to leave for Ulrika for all the world to read. Thanks!

Posted by Miguelito at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ginette Perea, Nelson Sitton and Lourdes Elias at Tapeo. March 10, 2007 8:27pm

It's 2:19am on Monday as I type these words. With all these late nights this past week, I intended to go to bed early to catch up on sleep, but it seems that my body is back to its late night schedule again. Oh well. Since I'm up, I might as well catch up on my blog.

So last Friday dancer Samantha Zerpa called to tell me that she was moving away to Texas next week and that she wouldn't be able to perform at Tapeo on Saturday as originally planned. (We'll miss you Samantha and we wish you the best in San Antonio.)

Anywayz, I needed to find a replacement dancer and quick! So I decided to give dancer Nelson Sitton a call. It had been quite a while since I last worked with him--he and I had a tablao gig with Ziva performing something like five or six consecutive nights at Tuscana West more than ten years ago. Good times. But then he moved away to Chicago for a job and got involved in the flamenco scene there. All the while, he still kept up on the DC scene through my website. When he moved back in February, he immediately emailed me expressing an interest in getting back into performing again here in the nation's capital.

We met up at Tapeo about half an hour before showtime, rehearsed in the back kitchen area for like 10 minutes and less than 20 minutes later, Nelson, Ginette and myself started the show.

My friend and guitar student Matteo gladly volunteered to be my photographer for the evening. Checkout the pics...

Ginette and Nelson in Sevillanas. March 10, 2007 8:32pm (photo by Matteo)

March 10, 2007 8:34pm (photo by Matteo)

Nelson in farruca. March 10, 2007 8:42pm (photo by Matteo)

March 10, 2007 8:43pm (photo by Matteo)

I'm proud to say that business is picking up again and our flamenco show has a large part to do with it. I had quite a few friends in the audience including fellow flamenco and longtime friend Lourdes Elias, my guitar student Matteo, his friend Chris, my future guitar student Gil Mendez, Serenity and Carol. Plus we gained a couple of new fans who promised to come back again very soon.

But when the show was over, the customers lingered only a short while longer. Nelson and Lourdes left early and close to 11:00pm it was just myself, Ginette, Serenity and Carol hanging out the bar.

Ginette, Miguelito, Serenity and Carol. March 10, 2007 10:47pm (photo by Danko)

We did around of shots (but Ginette politely declined since had to drive) and relaxed awhile enjoying conversation while Tapeo owner Danko changed the background music and dimmed the lights to give a more loungey ambience.

March 10, 2007 11:29pm

Since I had an early day Sunday (a guitar student was coming at noon), I walked Ginette to her car and afterwards went back to Tapeo to hang out with Serenity and Carol a short while longer before calling it a night.

Ginette's keys. March 10, 2007 11:45pm

Posted by Miguelito at 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

View of the Strathmore Music Center theatre during intermission. March 6, 2007 8:52pm

I had this evening planned several days in advance. I even arranged for guitarist Behzad Habibzai to cover me at Las Tapas, since I would normally play there on a Tuesday. But as it turned out, the show at Las Tapas was cancelled anyway--not enough table reservations on account of the cold weather I guess. Oh well.

Anywayz, not to boast, OK maybe a little, but I had a pair of free tickets for a performance by Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana for last night at Strathmore which is practically in my neighborhood (just three metro stops away). So I invited a dancer friend of mine to join me. We got some dinner in Friendship Heights and got on the metro around 7:30pm and arrived at the theatre just moments before the show began--talk about cutting it close!

View from our seats at Orchestra Left, Row M, seats 1 and 3. March 6, 2007 9:02pm

The ushers were simultaneously polite and insistent as they rushed us to our seats and for a good reason. As soon as we sat down, the house lights dimmed and several spotlights came onstage to reveal three dancers playing castanets to the accompaniment of Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve. It was a series of classical Spanish style dances choreographed to several classical pieces closing with Isaac Albéniz's famous Asturias. So far the presentation was very polished, well-staged and immaculately executed, but I don't know....it's been years since I last saw this group. And when I settled into my seat, I was expecting to hear flamenco. Nothing wrong with classical music, mind you, but when your heart is set on flamenco and you hear something else, you can't help but feel a bit disappointed. Despite my misgivings, I tried to reorient myself and enjoy this opening with a clear mind, but still I wasn't "feeling it." If nothing else, I was impressed by Juan Carlos Calleja's pirouettes--he was the taller of the two male dancers.

Not to worry. When the stage went dark after the classical segment of the program, I could make out the silhouettes of the musicians as they found their places in stage center. My dancer friend nudged me and whispered, "Live music!" Yes! the flamenco segment was about to begin, finally!

There might have been a slight miscue because as singer Pedro Sanz sang his opening Ayyy! in the dark, he startled quite a few members of the audience. I even heard a few gasps and giggles for a few moments, but as the sound person quickly found the right level for the singer's microphone, that little bumpy start was soon forgotten as Pedro, guitarists Calvin Hazen, Javier Navarro and a cajón player (not mentioned in the program) hypnotically drew us in to the world of the seguiriya.

[Editor's note: I gotta sign off and head out to Gala Theatre for the 7:30pm show of Bizet's Carmen. In the meantime, read Sarah Kaufman's review in the Washington Post. Ciao for now!]

I'm back--I'll write about Bizet's Carmen in another blog entry.

Anwayz, so where were we? Oh yeah, The musicians were drawing us into the world of seguiriya. Enter the two male dancers Juanjo Garcia and Juan Carlos Calleja wielding wooden canes as a percussive instrument to complement their footwork. As you might expect from a choreography for two males, they took turns trying to show was the better dancer. Although Juan took the prize, so to speak in the opening classical number with his balletic pirouettes, this time Juanjo had an edge in the realm of flamenco. Of course, I enjoyed the cleanly articulated footwork of the two dancers but Juanjo had that extra bit of earthiness that seemed more flamenco. Just before I thought the duel was over, the female dancers made their entrance donning mantones. Nothing remarkable here--just filler leading up to Olga Castro's entrance.

I could have sworn Olga danced a soleá por bulería but when I checked the program afterwards it was labeled as "Solo" in the Suite de la Seguiriya." Help me out here. Did anyone else notice this? Regardless, Olga Castro's solo obviously was the centerpiece of the Suite. Nothing unusual or cutting edge here--very simply, the music and the choreography complemented each other well and the level of energy was tastefully paced leading up to a very satisfying climax.

I wish I knew the name of the cajón player. He was quite good although I was a bit puzzled by his choice in cajón brand: Meinl. I'm not a percussionist myself, but when I tried the Meinl brand at Guitar Center last week. I wasn't impressed. It didn't have that crispness in the treble that I hear in the Mario Cortés brand--the more popular name amongst flamencos. Oh well. Just goes to show that it's not what you have (as far as instrument). It's what you can do with what you have. And despite the dullness of the cajón, he managed to get a decent range of tonal colors--not to mention some really funky counter-rhythms to mesh with the guitars, footwork, palmas and cante.

Finally just want to highlight guitarist Calvin Hazen whose composition for guitar and cante was featured in the second half of the program. For those of you unfamiliar with the palo of Jaleos, it feels a lot like a bulerías. It's more like a half-compás of bulerías played over and over. As far as I could tell, Calvin's version was in the key of E minor--something that I'm playing around with myself. Anywayz, I had heard about Calvin for years. In the USA he's most associated with being a regular at the Festival Flamenco in Albuquerque---according to the program bio, he currently performs at the tablao Corral de la Moreria in Madrid. He's got all the technique and aire that I'd expect from a flamenco guitarist born and raised in Spain. Excellent musician and a very tasteful accompanist for the dance and cante. All I can say, is that when I got home, I was very inspired to try out some new musical ideas for accompanying dancers. Thank you Calvin!

Final bows. March 6, 2007 9:56pm

After the show, we got a private tour of the facilities including a visit to the topmost balcony to better appreciate the cavernous expanse of the Strathmore Music Center.

My dancer friend checking out the view from the precariously high balcony. March 6, 2007 10:07pm

The railing here comes up to around my knee. I think the builders were making a compromise between safety and maximizing the line of sight. Needless to say, you can't help but feel a bit queasy walking along the edge. Although, just out of curiousity I might come back here to here a symphony orchestra just to appreciate the acoustics. I imagine by the time the sound reaches the topmost balcony, all the different instrument sounds must be either a cacophonic mess or a beautifully blended mix.

March 6, 2007 10:07pm

Why the pic of the tickets with the program? I don't know. Just habit. I can remember when I took Dance 101 and Music 101 as a freshman and part of the assignment was to turn in the program with a ticket attached to prove that we actually went to the concert. Hehe.

March 7, 2007 12:12am

OK, it's 1:45pm. I'm outta here. Tonight I'll be at the Andalucía playing solo guitar.

Posted by Miguelito at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Samantha Zerpa dancing tangos. March 3, 2007 (photo by Julio Suárez)

Another quick blog...so it seems that business is picking up again: the restaurant was packed with people, yay! Among these were quite a few of our friends including a couple of my new guitar students--yes, it's true that I'm starting to teach again. The majority of the pics were taken by Samantha's boyfriend Julio. Thanks Julio!

March 3, 2007 (photo by Julio Suárez)

March 3, 2007 (photo by Julio Suárez)

Ginette Perea dancing soleá. March 3, 2007 (photo by Julio Suárez)

March 3, 2007 (photo by Julio Suárez)

Samantha and Ginette in fin de fiesta bulerías. March 3, 2007 (photo by Julio Suárez)

There happened to be a group of family and friends (17 in all!) and this young girl was dying to get up on our stage to do a little dance. So she did and with the help of her personal cheering section we put on a little encore...

March 3, 2007 (photo by Julio Suárez)

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to pose with the two prettiest girls.

Serenity, Miguelito and Ginette. March 3, 2007 8:58pm (photo by Chris)

Rachel, Ginette, Serenity, Carol and Miguelito. March 3, 2007 9:59pm (photo by Chris)

OK, I hope you enjoyed this entry. I'm just going to publish one more quickie before I head out to my neighborhood movie theatre.

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

March 2, 2007 11:25pm

Last Friday after my usual gig at Cabanas, I decided to head towards Dupont Circle and perhaps visit Cafe Citron. Along the way, I passed by Cafe Japone, a place where I used to gig about 10 years ago. It just so happened that Kenji, the owner of Japone, was outside. He immediately recognized me although it had more than a year since I last stopped by his restaurant, so he invited me in and offered to have the chef make me some dinner. Kenji's a very generous guy. He asked me, "What do you want to drink?"

I was in the mood for a Bacardi and Coke, but I just said, "Anything's fine."

So he says something in Japanese to Megumi the bartender and two seconds later, she set down in front of me one of those large (32 ounce) bottles of Sapporo beer. Aw man, that's way too much. Hehe. But it's OK. It's not like I'm driving home. So I just chilled at the bar with Kenji and we reminisced about old times.

Anywayz, so like 10 years ago, I used to perform here every Wednesday night with dancers Edwin Aparicio and Melisa Tomá. Cool thing was that I didn't have to bring a sound system--we just used the microphones, amplifier and speakers the restaurant already had setup for karaoke. If I recall correctly, we did two sets which, besides the usual dance numbers, also included an opening guitar solo and a Gipsy Kings rumba sung by the multi-talented Melisa.

The pay was OK. We were all relatively new to negotiating money, but Kenji made up for it by letting us order whatever we wanted from the menu after the show. And you know how I love sushi! We were having fun, getting to know each other artistically, gaining stage experience and getting paid for it.

We had a small number of regulars who came to our show including our good Paul Fradin who later became the producer for the New York show of Edwin Aparicio's Entresueños last year.

So what's new with Kenji?

March 2, 2007 11:44pm

He's expanding his restaurant operations to Spain. Just last year he opened a new location in Barcelona called Tono Kitchen located at Calle Roselló, 186. Call 93-451-08-63 to make reservations.

March 2, 2007 11:44pm

At first when Kenji mentioned Spain, I thought he meant that he had just visited that country. But when I looked at the framed magazine articles on the wall, I realized what he really said. Congrats Kenji!

Main dining room of Japone. March 2, 2007 11:46pm

Lounge at Japone. March 2, 2007 11:46pm

Kenji and Miguelito. March 2, 2007 11:55pm (photo by Megumi)

This is just the first of several quick blogs I'm publishing today. It's been a busy week where I've been doing personal stuff, catching up with friends I haven't talked to in awhile etc. I still have tons of business-related things on my agenda, but today I'm just going to finish up these blog entries, sign off and go see a movie or something. As for tonight, I'm going to the Gala Theatre to checkout my flamenco friends Gerardo Moreno and Behzad Habibzai as they perform in a production of Bizet's Carmen. Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ginette Perea and Miguelito and the Andalucía. March 1, 2007 8:24pm (photo by Monica)

Would you believe that as of this coming July it will be ten years that I've been performing at the Andalucía? In 1997 and for many years after that we had shows every week that featured at least two dancers. But lately, the flamenco dance shows are scheduled only on the first Thursday of the month and only feature one dancer. I had been rotating through a small list of various dancers the past year or so, but this time around, I was lucky enough to book Ginette Perea. She hasn't appeared at this particular venue in quite a while.

In fact the first time I worked with Ginette in a tablao setting was here in this very restaurant way back in January 2004 when at the last minute, one of the regular dancers couldn't make it, so I had to find a sub and I decided to give Ginette the opportunity. At the time, she was just getting started performing with me on a regular basis and of course now, a little more than three years and a couple of hundred tablao shows later, she now has the special kind of confidence and skill that you can't learn in a dance studio. The tablao experience is an education in itself. But you've heard me say this before: dancing in a class and performing on stage are two different skills.

Uh-oh, I hear a lecture coming on....but I'm going to stop myself now before I get all worked up and start. Thing is that I'm working on part two of Ulrika Frank's farewell interview and ideally I want to publish it sometime tonight--I'm blogging right now to take a break, believe it or not. It's pretty labor-intensive since I first have to transcribe the interview from my digital voice recorder (this takes up the most time), then make any necessary grammar corrections etc, convert it to HTML and add a few accompanying pics which I have to select from the 350 photos I took last Wednesday at Mirada Flamenca's rehearsal, not to mention having to tweak them in Photoshop--another time-consuming process.

Seriously, I'm not complaining though. My self-appointed job duty in the DC flamenco community is to keep you all informed. And while I do try my best to keep up with everyone's events and announcements, it's the in-depth interviews like Ulrika's (and previously Carmel Shelly's) that really give you some insight into the minds of the "movers and shakers" of the local flamenco community. While I may not always agree with everything my interviewees have to say (and this goes for just about anyone), deep down inside I realize we're all the same on another level: we all share a love for the world's greatest art form, flamenco, and hopefully this point is communicated in the articles themselves. As an added bonus: if this commonality helps bring our community a little bit closer, then it's definitely worth it. As for the "free" flamenco concert tickets I frequently receive (and appreciate very much), trust me on this: I earn them!

Aw man, did I digress or what? Meanwhile back at the Andalucía...since I have a dancer perform with me only once a month here, it's rare that you'll see pics. Unfortunately, my usual Andalucía photographer Monica is the manager and server and hostess amongst a million other duties, so she usually only has like two seconds while she's working to pull out the camera and snap a few. So here's what I got for you...

March 1, 2007 8:26pm (photo by Monica)

As you can see, out of all the venues where I perform, the Andalucía is the most intimate. I had Monica turn down the house lights to help set the mood. While the pics are blurry, you can still definitely get a sense of the warm ambience.

March 1, 2007 8:27pm (photo by Monica)

It turned out to be an especially good night. The audience was very responsive and courteous. Both Ginette and I even gained a couple of new fans who I'm sure will come back to the Andalucía for next month's dance show.

Back in 2004, every Thursday night for six months, Ginette took the bus and the metro for an overall trip lasting more than an hour, plus walked half a mile from the train station to the restaurant. Of course she did it for the love of flamenco. But like we all do occasionally, I'm sure there were times when she didn't feel like making the long trip. But she did anyway. So what was the payoff? Besides earning a solid professional reputation of being reliable, she also gained that extremely valuable education of the tablao experience, not to mention spending quite a few fun evenings doing what she loves and getting paid for it!

Ginette and Miguelito. March 1, 2007 8:38pm (photo by Monica)

Anwyayz, I took a long enough break. Time to get back to work. Ciao for now!

P.S. as for tomorrow (Monday), I'll be performing at Cafe Citron as usual. But since my singer Gerard will be performing at the Gala Theatre-Tivoli in a production of Bizet's Carmen that night, instead I'll have two dancers sharing the stage with me: Mariya and Cecilia Terrasa. Behzad's also performing at Gala Theatre-Tivoli, but hopefully he can stop by Citron afterwards to celebrate his brithday.

Posted by Miguelito at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Miguelito and Ginette Perea at Cabanas. February 23, 2007 9:52pm (photo by Valerie)

It's been a crazy week. Had lots of personal stuff to deal with, not to mention having to cancel an important appointment last Sunday due to the snow. Ugh. So while I catch up on my blog, the entries will be short.

Actually I'm working on an article about Ulrika and Mirada Flamenca which I will publish later today, but just taking a break by blogging. Am I crazy or what? Nah, I'm in my creative groove right now and got to go with it although my body is telling me, "Go to bed and take a nap." Can't do that though. Got a lot to do and little time to do it.

So last Friday, I did my usual gig at Cabanas with dancer Ginette Perea. For the past month or so we've had to get accustomed to the format of a one dancer show--cutting it down from two dancers is just our way of adjusting to the winter business slump. I'm proud to say that we've been performing here continuously for a year-and-a-half now. But I have to admit that there were some days when the weather was so cold, that we weren't able to get that many customers to show up. I was almost ready to hear the manager tell us, "Sorry we gotta let you go." But thank God it hasn't happened. And it's not just here at Cabanas, it's the same kind of situation at all the restaurans where I perform including Cafe Citron, Las Tapas, Andalucía and Tapeo.

I won't try to pinpoint the cause of the slump. I just know it happens every year and we've got to do whatever it takes to deal with it. Everyone seems to have their theory:

1. "It's too cold to go out." OK, well a couple of times I've gone to Cafe Citron after my gig the past few bitterly cold Fridays and it was packed with people.

2. "it's the economy. No one wants to go out. Gas it too expensive." True. But there are ways around that. I don't think anyone is going to let gas prices stop them from going out and having a good time. Partying is a basic human need and it's not like people are going out every night.

3. "It's a holiday weekend. Everyone's out of town." Um, no. Not everyone is out of town. I'm here. Ginette's here. We do have some people here tonight. Maybe not a lot. But I wouldn't attribute the slow business to the holiday.

4. "It's pouring rain. No one wants to drive in the rain." Well, interestingly when it rains, especially during the summer, it seems to encourage people to want to come off the streets and go inside a club. In fact there have been nights when I've seen it more crowded on a rainy night than on a clear warm night. And sometimes when the weather is nice, the clubs are dead. Why? Perhaps people would rather hang out and enjoy the fresh air.

I've beeen performing regularly in restaurants and clubs for 11 years now--my first weekly gig was at Havana Village with Sara Candela on Thursday nights in 1996. You'd think that I should be able to explain the seasonal slump in business by now. But I've had my personal theories both disproved and proved equally. And while a lot of the theories by my friends do have some factual basis, they're just theories with just as much possiblity of being disproven. OK so it makes for interesting conversation, but it just cracks me up how people will tell me their theory with such an air of authority as if they really know what's going on.

Anywayz, I digressed. Since we didn't see any personal friends in the audience last Friday at Cabanas, we couldn't get any pics during the show. But trust me on this, we had a good time regardless. So I asked the manager, Valerie, to take pic of Ginette and myself after the show which turned out very nicely. Thanks Valerie.

OK, it's 11:24am. Time for me to go across the street and get some lunch, come back and get back to work on Ulrika's article. As for tonight, I'll be performing at Cabanas with dancer Mariya. Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)