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!