Late night barbecue/juerga on September 22, 2007 (photos by Pablo and Ginette)

It's 9:38pm on Sunday as I type these words. It's been quite a lazy day--spent most of it in bed catching up on sleep. Although I did get up for a few hours this morning, I went back to bed and didn't wake up until 6pm, really!

But unlike other times when these sort of lazy periods come up, I didn't feel like I squandered my day. In fact, I'm feeling pretty satisfied--last night I got my flamenco fix as always, hung out with friends and enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous weather. What more can I ask for? I did need the extended rest anyway.

So around 4:30 Sunday morning I had been home for about 45 minutes already as I was editing photos from Saturday night (see collage above) when a chat window popped up: "Go to bed Miguelito!" My online friend was teasing me--party girl had just gotten home herself.

While I do spend a lot of time on the Internet and have a huge list of friends in my chat programs, only a few of my many online friends share the same schedule as myself so when I wake up late in the day (relatively speaking) or come home late at night, I can almost always find one of those friends who's up and willing to chat. Kinda reminds me of those days when I did work in an office cubicle when I'd carry on conversations with a coworker as we went about our office tasks. Nowadays my "cubicle" is my apartment and my "coworkers" are at their respective computers around the globe. Although I've been known to keep a couple of my DC area friends distracted at work chatting for hours during the day.

Anywayz, on Saturday I was invited to a late night barbecue at a friend's house and as it turned out there were a couple of flamenco dancers there so you can pretty much guess what eventually happened: someone asked me to pull out my guitar and we got a little juerga going.

One of the party hosts served us juicy tender bite-size pieces of steak fresh from the barbecue with a bit of chimichurri to dip into. No untensils here. We just used our fingers and had lots of napkins handy. Alcohol was in abundance but I was the designated driver for the night (and besides I had more than my share of Coronas the night before at Cabanas--more on that later). Although I couldn't be rude and turn down an offer for one small drink (Bacardi and Coke) which I sipped very slowly. But that was it, I had been drinking Evian pretty much all night.

In true Spanish style, around 1:30am we decided to checkout a couple of clubs. Now that I have a government- issued ID again (it's a long story), it was very liberating to confidently go out with friends knowing that I wouldn't be turned away at the door. I mean I'm obviously over 21 but most places in the DC area very strict about whether or not you have valid identification. Fortunately, there are a couple of clubs where I have been a regular for years, so they don't check me for ID anymore. Plus it was good to be driving again.

Here are a couple of pics from the show at Tapeo from last night (Saturday) courtesy of my friend Gil...

Pam de Ocampo, Matteo Romero and Ginette Perea at Tapeo. September 22, 2007 8:21pm (photo by Gil)

Pam in seguiriyas. September 22, 2007 8:39pm (photo by Gil)

Ginette dancing alegrías. September 22, 2007 8:49pm (photo by Gil)

Pam and Ginette in bulerías. September 22, 2007 8:54pm (photo by Gil)

September 22, 2007 8:54pm (photo by Gil)

Here are some pics provided courtesy of our new friend Jenn Fitzpatrick, a flamenco dancer from Vancouver, British Columbia...

Miguelito. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

Matteo. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

Ginette dancing soleá por bulerías. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

Ginette. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

Pam dancing alegrías. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

Pam and Ginette dancing Sevillanas. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

Ginette and Jenn. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

Ginette, Miguelito and Jenn. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

At Clarendon Ballroom. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

Isabel, Gaby and Ginette at Clarendon Ballroom. September 22, 2007 (photo courtesy of Jenn Fitzpatrick)

For my regular readers out there, you should pretty much recognize the faces in the above pics which you've seen many times in my blog before. So I won't go into any commentary this time. Although, as you can tell by the pics, you gotta admit that Tapeo is one of the more beautiful places to watch a flamenco show outdoors and as the weather gets cooler we will soon be moving the stage indoors. Come to Tapeo soon and see for yourself!

Ok, now that I've done something productive for the day, it's now time for me to catch up on more sleep. Good night!

Posted by Miguelito at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

María and Danielle dancing Sevillanas at Cafe Citron. September 17, 2007 9:37pm (photo by Bethany)

It's almost 4:00am as I type these words. Got home sometime after 2:00am and tried to go to sleep but ended up here in front of the computer editing photos instead--I was so looking forward to seeing what my volunteer photographer for the evening, Bethany, came up with.

Who's Bethany? She was my upstairs housemate at the Pink Flamenco. As you know, I moved out two months ago, but she still lives there and she said the sweetest thing to me: "I miss you!" Funny thing is that while I lived there, we hardly saw each other, but she said I was the "perfect housemate": I was clean and quiet. Except when I made noise by practicing guitar late at night---in which case she enjoyed whatever music she heard from the floor below--unlike my current next door neighbor. She's a late night kind of person like me anyway.

Anywayz, I was hanging out with a friend yesterday afternoon and we ran into Bethany and invited her to come out to my show at Citron. So she stopped by in time for the second show and she gladly took pics for me. Cool thing is that for once I didn't have to explain all the buttons on my camera. She knew how to use it and even experimented with the controls as you'll see in the following pics. She took more than 100 pics last night, and it was hard for me to decide which ones to publish. Enjoy!

Closeup of María and Danielle's hands. September 17, 2007 9:37pm (photo by Bethany)

Closeup of María's feet. September 17, 2007 9:40pm (photo by Bethany)

Miguelito. September 17, 2007 9:43pm (photo by Bethany)

September 17, 2007 9:43pm (photo by Bethany)

September 17, 2007 9:44pm (photo by Bethany)

September 17, 2007 9:44pm (photo by Bethany)

Closeup of Miguelito's hands. September 17, 2007 9:47pm (photo by Bethany)

María dancing alegrías. September 17, 2007 9:52pm (photo by Bethany)

September 17, 2007 9:53pm (photo by Bethany)

September 17, 2007 9:51pm (photo by Bethany)

Gerard, Miguelito, Ramin, Danielle, María and Jason. September 17, 2007 10:57pm (photo by Bethany)

As is part of our Monday night tradition, we headed over to Ozio to continue the "party." It was Danielle and Bethany's first time here.

Danielle, Roxanne and Jason. September 17, 2007 11:11pm (photo by Bethany)

Turned out to be an especially fun night cuz we were celebrating Valerie's finishing up grad school and Cesar's birthday.

Miguelito and Valerie at Ozio. September 17, 2007 11:12pm (photo by Bethany)

Danielle, María, Roxanne and Jason. September 17, 2007 11:16pm (photo by Bethany)

Gerard and Ramin at the bar. September 17, 2007 11:18pm (photo by Bethany)

Closeup of Valeríe. September 17, 2007 11:22pm (photo by Bethany)

Shot of the bar at Ozio--notice the reflection in the lower half: Bethany, Jason, Roxanne and María. September 17, 2007 11:27pm (photo by Bethany)

Sitting at the bar is Ramin. In the reflection: Miguelito, Bethany, Jason and Roxanne. September 17, 2007 11:28pm (photo by Bethany)

Corona y candela. September 17, 2007 11:32pm (photo by Bethany)

Bethany and Miguelito. September 17, 2007 11:38pm. (photo by Bethany)

Jason "Bogart" and Bethany "Monroe." September 17, 2007 11:45pm (photo by Miguelito)

At some point, I fell asleep writing this blog and woke up again around 8:00am to finish it up. Just got a call from a friend who's in my neighborhood and wants to meet for breakfast so I better sign off and get dressed. As for tonight (Tuesday), I'll be at Las Tapas. See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 3:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

View of Potomac from the Washington DC side. September 15, 2007 6:12pm

It's 8:22am on Sunday as I type these words. I did go to bed earlier than usual last night cuz I knew I was going to be getting up early this morning. I have plans to meet a friend for breakfast and didn't want to be late.

Yesterday was sunny and beautiful. Perhaps a bit on the cold side compared to the previous week, but I was with a friend enjoying a drive down George Washington Parkway with its gently winding tree-lined road and teasing occasional postcard-perfect views of the Potomac. We had the windows rolled up so we could enjoy the music we were listening to: Chambao's "Pokito a Poko"--incidentally the theme for my Myspace profile--the perfect song to set the mood.

Met up with another friend at the Georgetown waterfront and enjoyed a drink at the riverside bar before going our separate ways. I picked up my sound system at Cabanas and headed towards Tapeo to get ready for my gig that night...

My new usual drink: sherry. September 15, 2007 8:26pm

I arrived around 6:30pm and it was dead--there was one couple enjoying some tapas and the majority of the wait staff was in the corner relaxing and enjoying conversation. I put off setting up my sound system for now so I could join them. It's very rare that I actually get to talk to the servers--usually they're way to busy. As it turns out, the hostess is a serious dance student and has studied just about every major form of dance out there except flamenco but plans to take classes very soon. She told me that she recently discovered my website and was very impressed and found herself reading my blog for hours. Hearing her say that made my night!

The dancers scheduled to perform this evening were Claudia and Isabelita. My guitar student Matteo also was planning to sit-in with us for the show playing guitar and cajón. Right around 8:00pm, as if on cue, the restaurant started filling up with customers. On a cold night like this, I'm going to assume that the people came out primarily to see our show. And they were a very enthusiastic crowd anyway. It had been a while since I last played for Isabelita and I must say, she has come a long way as a performer. She's a very passionate dancer as it is--but with the additional inspiration from Claudia's cante, Isabelita was dancing on a level I had never seen before. I was impressed and so was our audience--Olé Isabelita!

Miguelito, Claudia, Isabelita and Matteo at Tapeo. September 15, 2007 9:36pm

This is just a quick blog. I better get ready so I can meet my dancer friend for breakfast and not be late. Afterwards we're rehearsing at the Pink Flamenco--I'll try to get pics. As for tonight (Sunday) I'll be performing for a private party at Las Tapas with Ginette Perea and Pam de Ocampo. Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

José Oretea at Ozio Monday night. September 11, 2007 12:48am

It's 1:20am on Saturday as I type these words. Been a busy flamenco week performing just about every night except Thursday, but instead that night I went to see flamenco dancers perform. Usually I stay up late (relatively speaking) and sleep in late except on this past Tuesday when I went to the DMV to get my license in which case I had to get up really early to beat the crowds. Ugh.

I feel like a slacker for only posting one blog this week. So I'm going to try to make it up to you by sharing a random pic from each day this week so far...

The pic above was taken at Ozio on Monday night after my gig at Cafe Citron. I brought along with me a couple of friends including percussionist Jason Vera y Aragón and another musician named Greg (who sometimes sits in with Michael Bard, Deborah and Amilcar Cruz on Thursday nights at Bambule.)

Saw the usual familiar faces when we arrived. Got myself a Corona and made my rounds saying hello to everyone before finding a seat to enjoy the show. Of course, before we arrived here, I was telling Jason and Greg that I intended to leave by 11:30pm so that I could catch the metro and get home early for a change--I needed to catch up on sleep.

Naturally I stayed pretty late at Ozio, but for once we left around 1:15am so that we could get a late night snack at Julia's Empanadas. Jason offered to give me a ride home--it's a 45 minute walk to my house, but I wasn't in the mood for exercise at this late hour. His car was parked right in front of Cafe Citron and since the club was still open we just had to at least stop in for a little while. Hehe.

Made it home sometime after 2:00am and didn't go to bed until 6:00am--practiced guitar until my neighbor knocked on my door. Oops! This time I was apologetic. I guess I'll limit my guitar practicing to daytime hours for now. Got about two hours of sleep and had to get up cuz I was supposed to meet my ride to go to the DMV at 9:00am to stand in line and get my license. And yeah, I had to take the test--it's a long story. But the good thing is that I got a perfect score, yay! And now I can legally drive.

Hector (playing guitar) and Samuel at Las Tapas Tuesday night. September 11, 2007 10:10pm

Tuesday night was fun. I performed at Las Tapas as usual but this time with dancers Pam de Ocampo and Emily Mazzotti. Afterwards we had the added treat of hanging out with our friends from Málaga and Salvador all of whom sing and play flamenco so we had a little juerga doing everything from bulerías to tangos to Sevillanas to fandango natural--even Emily sang a letra of bulerías. This went on until the manager turned up the lights and we had to end the party early.

View from stage at Guarapo on Tuesday night. September 12, 2007 8:50pm

[Editor's note: Ok...I'm starting to feel sleepy right now, so I'll just quickly finish up here and get to bed.]

Wednesday night I performed at Guarapo in Arlington--very close to my apartment in Rosslyn, yay! The dancers were Ginette Perea and Claudia. The stage sounds good in certain spots (for footwork) and since it's raised, we're visible to the audience members all the way to the back--nice! However, the large size of this room necessitated really cranking up the volume. So I had some minor technical difficulties with the floor microphones and eventually had to turn them off. Afterwards, I hung out with Ginette and her Mom and got some dinner here at Guarapo--the food was kinda pricey but was very good! I had Ceviche de Atún and Sopa de Choclo. Yum!

Jason Vera y Aragón and Claudia at La Tasca Rockville Thursday night. September 13, 2007 8:15pm

Thursday I went up to Rockville to practice taking pics of dancers at La Tasca. Jason and Claudia were the ones performing that night. I wasn't satisfied with the pics I took (although I learned a thing or two as I experimented with various camera settings), but it was a gorgeous night and since I wasn't "working," I just hung out with Jason and Claudia when they weren't dancing Sevillanas.

September 15, 2007 12:35am

Friday I pretty much stayed in bed all day catching up on sleep, crawling out every now and then to chat online with friends and login to MySpace etc. I was rummaging through my moving boxes and found a pack of blank business cards, so I went ahead and made a small supply and borrowed from my friend Gil the idea of printing my show schedule on the back. A simple but very good idea.

September 15, 2007

Friday night, I did my usual gig at Cabanas with dancers Ginette and Pam. We were "feeling it" artistically and the audience was very responsive. All in all a good night. Although towards the end, my body reminded me that I needed to get home soon so I can get some sleep. But here I am spending 40 minutes or so writing this blog when I really should be in bed.

Today (Saturday) I play for flamenco class at American Dance Institute in Rockville, then I have my gig at Tapeo with dancers Claudia and Isabel--it's been a while since I last worked with Isabel, so it should be fun. Sunday I have a rehearsal at noon with a dancer friend at the Pink Flamenco--afterwards we'll do a photo shoot so I can get some more practice using my camera and maybe we'll get some nice pics that she can use for her portfolio. Sunday night I'm doing a private gig at Las Tapas with Ginette and Pam. Then my flamenco work week begins all over again on Monday.

Am I going to try to catch up on sleep? I'll try. Am I going to be tired anyway? Most likely--the experts say you can't really "catch up" on sleep. I just need to make a commitment to myself to stick to a regular sleep schedule. Oh well. It's all good. I'm having fun making a living doing what I love. What more can I ask for?

So why am I staying up late anyway? Just realized a good reason for writing a blog: since it takes some effort to think about what to write about my daily life, writing a blog forces me to think about the good and bad parts of my day and what I can learn from them. Good for the mind and soul. OK now that I've written this blog and reflected on my day, now it's time for me to do some good for my body. Off to bed for real this time. Hehe. Night!

Posted by Miguelito at 1:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Katie dancing Sevillanas at the Adams Morgan Day Festival. September 9, 2007 3:44pm

It's 3:15pm on Monday as I type these words. Yesterday (Sunday), I went to the Adams Morgan Day Festival where Furia Flamenca was performing. The show was only about half an hour long but I managed to take more than 200 pics! The lighting was perfect for taking photos (partly cloudy) and I got myself a great spot in the crowd with noone blocking my view. Anywayz, this is just a quick entry with no commentary and lots of pics. Enjoy!

Heidi. September 9, 2007 3:49pm

Karina. September 9, 2007 3:50pm

Antonio. September 9, 2007 3:51pm

Amy. September 9, 2007 3:56pm

Karina. September 9, 2007 3:53pm

Karina. September 9, 2007 3:57pm

Antonio playing cajón. September 9, 2007 3:58pm

Jennifer and Estela. September 9, 2007 3:57pm

Tammy and Amy. September 9, 2007 3:57pm

Katherine. September 9, 2007 3:59pm

Daniel and Estela. September 9, 2007 4:01pm

Sylvia. September 9, 2007 4:01pm

Karina, Katie, Katherine, Lauren and Torcuato Zamora. September 9, 2007 4:03pm

Daniel and Estela. September 9, 2007 4:05pm

Amy. September 9, 2007 4:06pm

Torcuato. September 9, 2007 4:06pm

Katie. September 9, 2007 4:10pm

Estela and Daniel. September 9, 2007 4:12pm

Daniel and Estela. September 9, 2007 4:12pm

Torcuato and Antonio. September 9, 2007 4:13pm

Karina and her friends Liz, Jessica and Enrico. September 9, 2007 4:14pm

According to the Furia Flamenca website, the next performance will be on Saturday September 29th at the Magical Montgomery Festival in Silver Spring.

As for tonight (Monday), I'll be at Cafe Citron as usual with singer Gerard Moreno and a dancer (either Sara Jerez or Mariya). See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pictured: Ginette Perea dancing alegrías at Cabanas on September 7, 2007 at 8:53pm--photo by Van

It's 4-something in the morning on Sunday as I type these words. I did get home a couple of hours ago, but I haven't been to bed yet which probably doesn't come as surprise if you know me by now. Anywayz, since I'm up, I might as well bring you up to date on my weekend so far.

Friday night, I performed at Cabanas in Georgetown with dancers Ginette Perea and Emily Mazzotti. Despite the heat and humidity, the crowds fillled-up the outdoor bars and some of those very same crowds spilled over into the restaurant throughout the evening. By the time we did our third set, the bar at Cabanas was full! OK so it meant that us performers had to compete for the attention of our bartender since there were so many customers. But the good thing about it was that business was good, yay!

While we did perform inside the restaurant, all the patio doors were open so we had to deal with the humidity from outside. Unfortunately, I was running late that day and arrived at the venue with barely enough time to setup my sound system and immediately start the show. So I had to deal with a bit of the stress left over from running late and rushing to setup. And by the time the first set started, I was already drenched in sweat. Oh well... maybe I'm whining a bit, but I can't really complain. When I think about it, a not-so-good day in a flamenco gig still beats a good day at a boring day job!

After the second show (we do three sets at Cabanas), a charming young lady approached me, complimented me on the show and said something that made my night: "I read your blog all the time." Nice! It's so cool when I meet my readers. It's like coming around full circle. How's that? Well, while I may not directly reveal all my personal details in my blog, if you read it regularly, eventually you start to notice patterns in things I like to write about. Through my words you pick up on how I speak--since I try to keep an informal conversational tone. The point is that a lot of readers who I have not met in person yet know a lot about me. And it's just cool for me to get to know them too even if it's for a moment when they compliment me on my blog.

Ginette. September 7, 2007 8:55pm (photo by Van)

But I'm not trying to be a writer. I put in some effort to write clearly, but I don't strive for textbook perfect English. What I'm trying to do here with this blog is give you a glimpse into the life a full-time flamenco guitarist. It takes enough time as it is just to come up with stuff to write about and being the busy performer I am, I don't have time to be perfect everyday. In fact, I believe that the charming little imperfections of my prose does give my blog an air of sincerity. It's the real me: the good , the bad, my strengths, my weaknesses, imperfections and all. Take it or leave it!

Miguelito. September 7, 2007 8:56pm (photo by Van)

Whoops...I digressed. Getting back to Cabanas...Ginette's friend Van came to the show and agreed to take pictures for me--thanks Van! Emily's husband Chris came of course. And later in the evening dancer Jason Vera y Aragón and his friend arrived in time for the last show. So we got them onstage to join us for Sevillanas. Afterwards, we joined our friends at their table in front of the stage and relaxed for awhile before heading out into the night our separate ways.

Fast forward nearly 24 hours later: I was at my Saturday night gig at Tapeo with dancers Ginette Perea and Claudia with my guitar student, Matteo, sitting in with us onstage. Matteo has been a good sport so far. We don't do things the same from week to week. The singer/dancer Claudia will try out different letras sometimes without warning and it's up to me as the lead accompanist to appropriately harmonize the cante melody. As for Matteo, he just has to memorize the basic cante chords and listen carefully and figure out what chord variations I'm playing and keep up while watching the dancer! Just to be safe, I do turn down the volume, just a little, on his channel in the mixer. He's already comfortable onstage since he also works on and off as a jazz guitarist in Southern Maryland.

Miguelito, Ginette, Matteo and Claudia at Tapeo. September 8, 2007 9:12pm (photo by Abdon)

One of waiters, Abdon, gladly took pictures of our show using my camera. Interestingly, he chose to take closeup pics of us musicians...

Miguelito. September 8, 2007 9:17pm (photo by Abdon)

It was humid again and although you can't tell in these pics, my shirt was drenched in sweat again. Ugh. But I soon forgot about all that as I drifted "into the zone." Yeah it was a good show overall. We were artistically communicating quite well with each other and we fed off the energy of a very responsive and friendly crowd. Afterwards, we got an unusually large number of requests for our business card. Nice!

Miguelito. September 8, 2007 9:21pm (photo by Abdon)

Hehe...Matteo has the right idea: on a hot and humid evening like this, he opens his shirt a few extra buttons. I'd do the same, but I don't have a cool tattoo to show off...yet!

Matteo. September 8, 2007 9:22pm (photo by Abdon)

Miguelito and Matteo. September 8, 2007 9:45pm (photo by Abdon)

Miguelito and Matteo. September 8, 2007 9:46pm (photo by Abdon)

These last few pics are a bit blurry or grainy, but they give you some idea of the energy of the show...

Miguelito, Ginette, Matteo and Claudia in bulerías. September 8, 2007 9:50pm (photo by Abdon)

Ginette and Matteo. September 8, 2007 9:50pm (photo by Abdon)

Miguelito and Matteo. September 8, 2007 9:41pm (photo by Abdon)

OK, it's almost 6am now and this vampire has to go to bed before sunrise. Hehe. Besides, I'm meeting up with dancer for a rehearsal at noon then I'm hoping to make it to the Adams Morgan Day Festival to take pics of Furia Flamenca's performance at around 3:30pm. See you there!

In other news...remember dancer Richard Chavez? He came to DC last year and performed at Taberna. I knew him when he got started at Blanca Luz Academy in California, where I got my first start accompanying dancers. Another dancer that got her first start at the same school, Arleen Hurtado, has also come a long way since then and will be in DC in November touring with Benise. She also got a gig dancing in a car commercial for Dodge Avenger that I think you'll enjoy watching. Check it out in Arleen's myspace profile.

Also...I just read in today's Washington Post that Gala Hispanic Theatre is hosting the Third Annual Flamenco Fest: Fuego Flamenco III, featuring Madrid's Casa Patas. Check it out!

Posted by Miguelito at 4:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Estela Velez dancing a Garrotín at Taste of Jerusalem. September 6, 2007 7:30pm

It's noon on Friday as I type these words. Last night (Thursday), I decided at the last minute to go see dancer Estela Velez perform at Taste of Jerusalem in Silver Spring. It had been awhile since I last saw her dance in a tablao--in fact the last time I saw her in a tablao I believe I was the one playing guitar and that was like almost two years ago at Las Tapas! Of course she's been in other tablaos since then, but you know me: I'm a busy performer myself, I can't go to all the shows.

Joining Estela were Furia Flamenca members Sylvia and Daniel. I sat at the table with dancers Katherine and Heidi--they could've easily walked onstage and danced a Sevillanas copla or two, but they chose to sit back, relax and simply enjoy the show for a change. I was in a chill-out kinda mood myself but I still took a few pics...

Estela, Torcuato Zamora, Sylvia and Daniel. September 6, 2007 7:32pm

Sylvia, Daniel, Estela and Torcuato Zamora. September 6, 2007 7:50pm

Daniel dancing a Guajiras. September 6, 2007 7:58pm

Daniel and Estela. September 6, 2007 7:58pm

September 6, 2007 7:59pm

View of the dining room of Taste of Jerusalem. September 6, 2007 9:09pm

The shows at Taste of Jerusalem are every Thursday night starting around 7:00pm. The restaurant is located at 8123 Georgia Ave just a few blocks from the Silver Spring metro on the Red Line. Call 301-495-3067.

BTW, Furia Flamenca will be performing this Sunday at the Adams Morgan Day Festival at around 3:30pm. I got lots of stuff going on that day, but I'm going to try to stop by and take pics. As for tonight (Friday), I'll be at Cabanas accompanying dancers Ginette Perea and Emily Mazzotti. See you there!

Posted by Miguelito at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BEFORE: D-string on its last thread. September 6, 2007 12:25am

It's 1:00am on Friday as I type these words. It's yet another day where I've been inspired to practice for hours and hours. So right now, I'm just squeezing in a quick blog about something that may or may not interest you unless you're a fellow guitarist. Oh well. Just want to write a little somethin' for you to read so I can finish up and get back to practicing. Selfish selfish me! Hehe. It's still educational nonetheless. So read on...

Doing flamenco gigs several nights a week every week in addition to practicing several hours a day obviously is going to put some wear and tear on guitar strings. Normally, I'll keep a set of strings on anywhere from one week (if I'm really practicing and gigging intensively) to a month (if I'm just playing the normal amount of weekly gigs and practicing moderately). But I change the strings to regain that bright and punchy attack that comes with a fresh set of Savarez or D'Addario's. It can be pretty uninspiring to play a guitar that sounds muffled if the strings are "dead" tone-wise.

Occasionally, I'll play the guitar enough that the strings actually break or come close to breaking. As you can see in the pic above, the D string has worn down to the point that it's being held together literally by a thread. It's just a matter of minutes away from breaking.

Sometimes the string does break in the middle of a show, but I've dealt with it numerous times, that it almost never throws me off. The dancers onstage with me would see my situation knowing that within a few seconds I'd remove the string or just somehow get it out of the way so I could go on playing without losing the compás.

My tuner. The arrows on the left indicate that I'm a little flat. The clamp of the tuner passes on the vibration of the guitar to the tuner itself. September 6, 2007 1:00am

Last night (Thursday) I was recording some flamenco rhythm tracks with my DigiTech Jamman Looper and Phrase Sampler Pedal and I wanted to make sure that they sounded their best so I put on a fresh set of Savarez strings (normally I use D'Addario brand but one of my dancer friends gave me a supply of Savarez strings for my birthday---NICE!!). I've used Savarez strings in the past and the tone is muy flamenco but they don't keep their tone as long as the D'Addario's. Still it's worth it while it lasts.

Anywayz, after removing the old strings and putting on the new ones, it was time to tune up. The device I use these days is the Intellitouch PT1 Tuner which is perfect for a musician like myself who regularly performs in loud venues like Cafe Citron. I mean, yeah, I could tune by ear but with all the loud music playing, courtesy of the DJ, it's almost impossible to hear the guitar enough to tune it accurately. So I use the Intellitouch tuner which picks up the frequency of the note of the plucked string by feeling the vibration through the neck of the guitar and displays on the backlit LED readout how close (or far) I am from the proper pitch for each particular string. So even if there's loud music playing, the tuner only hears the guitar.

AFTER: fresh set of strings. September 6, 2007 1:00am

Another cool thing about this tuner is that the readout is viewable in a dimly lit place like Cafe Citron. Of course, I just use the tuner to get a ballpark tuning up for my guitar. But I still do a last-second checkup once I'm plugged into my sound system with the volume cranked up and am about to start my set.

September 6, 2007 1:02am

So there you have it: a little inside look at one of the numerous little but important details that we flamenco guitarists have to think about in addition to keeping the compás.

OK, so if you'll excuse me. Time for me to get back to practicing.

P.S. I went to Taste of Jerusalem to take pics of dancer Estela Velez and members of Furia Flamenca as they performed Thursday night with guitarist Torcuato Zamora. I'll publish those pics very soon. Stay tuned (pun intended).

Posted by Miguelito at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Matteo, Claudia, Gil, Ginette Perea and Miguelito at Tapeo. September 1, 2007 9:03pm (photo by Mom)

Wow, I can't believe it's already September! This summer went by so quickly. I guess that's a good thing--time flies when you're having fun, right? It's always a blast here at Tapeo, but admittedly some nights are better than others and it's usually on the better nights that it so happens a lot of our friends come out.

So last night (Saturday), my Mom came to my show and she brought with her a large group of filipino friends including the Cui's, a couple I hadn't seen since I went to high school in West Africa--yeah, it's true, I spent two years living in Ghana, but that's another story. Of course, I made sure they got the table right in front of the stage.

My Mom, if you recall, majored in music in college (she went to USC and majored in voice) and I followed in her footsteps and got my Bachelor of Music in classical guitar performance at Cal State Fullerton. Both of my parents are artists and my brother Kevin followed in my Dad's footsteps (Dad went to Art Center College of Design, a very prestigious graphic and industrial design school) and became a full-time visual artist. Anywayz, the point is that I'm sure whenever my Mom comes to my shows these days, she always gets a little kick out of the fact that she had a major influence in my career choice. When I was growing up as a child doing student recitals she was always the one in the audience shouting "That's my son!" I don't know if she still does that cuz if she did, her shouts would be drowned out by the thunderous applause. Hehe.

Also, I invited my guitar student Matteo to join us onstage. And his parents showed up and got a table with a good view for taking a video. No doubt his parents were proud to see him making beautiful music with us onstage and musically connecting with the audience.

Miguelito and Matteo. September 1, 2007 8:07pm (photo by Mom)

Apologies for the blurry pic. I forgot to my reset camera back to normal settings before I handed it to my Mom. But it's important to me to have a visual record of one of Matteo's first flamenco performances.

It had been awhile since I last saw Serenity and friends--I think the last time was at my birthday in July. So she brought along her brother Isaiah, her sister Rachel, Vic, Carol, Chris and Rebecca. Seriously though, wherever Serenity and friends are, that's where the party's at.

And we mustn't forget my fellow musician friend Gil, who may not come every week but comes to my shows more than anyone I know. Thanks Gil. He plays acoustic classic rock mostly and hanging out with him sort of rekindled my interest in guitarist Steve Vai (Yeah, I played electric as a teenager when Steve and Eddie Van Halen were among my music idols).

Ginette, Mom and Claudia. September 1, 2007 9:05pm

OK, this is just a quick blog entry. What can I say? It's 8-something in the morning on Sunday and despite going to bed at 3 or 4am, I'm up at this early hour. Just to quickly sum up last night: the weather was gorgeous, we had a great audience, my Mom came and so did a lot of our friends, my guitar student joined us onstage and Ginette, Claudia and I were feeling inspired. Good times!

As for tomorrow (Monday), my flamenco show at Cafe Citron is canceled for the Labor Day holiday and will resume next week.

As a little sidenote, just want to mention that María, who writes for the blog A Time to Dance: Juggling a Passion for Dance with Real Life, mentioned me in an entry titled Challenges of Keeping a Community Dance Website. Thanks for your support María!

Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)