Saturday Night Flamenco at Cafe Citron. January 23, 2010
Dancer Emily Mazzotti and guitarist Miguelito at Cafe Citron. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
It's Sunday around 5-something pm as I type these words. Seems to be my ritual on Sundays now to blog at my neighborhood Barnes and Noble. It has everything I need: free WiFi, delicious coffee and the occasional distraction of interesting books, magazines and pretty girls. 
About last night...so far my efforts promoting the Saturday flamenco show at Citron are paying off: besides the announcements in my blog, website and Facebook status updates, I also tweet regularly. Still…other than seeing the end result of filling Citron with customers every Saturday, it's hard to track the success of my online publicity campaign. But guess what? Last week, I did meet two people who told me they heard about my shows via Twitter!
Last night, however, we didn't pack the place until the second show. There are all kinds of factors that come into play: the weather, traffic delays, competing events around the same time, who knows? But it seems that we're always pushing the showtime later as we wait for customers to arrive in time for their table reservations.
Thankfully, it so happened that my dancer for the evening, Emily Mazzotti, was celebrating her birthday so a bunch of flamenco friends showed up—mostly dancers. Cajón player Jason Vera y Aragón even joined us onstage! (Thanks Jason!)
Emily Mazzotti. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
One minor problem with having the show in the back dining area is that the number of available seats is very limited. If people arrive for dinner and the flamenco show, without a reservation they usually end up being seated in the booths further back where the view of the stage is obstructed.
So I was toying with the idea of installing a video camera focused on my stage and projecting a live video of the show on a large screen for the rest of the club to see. Citron uses a projector by Optoma. So all I need to do is buy a video camera (but which one?) and the appropriate cable or can I do this wirelessly? If anyone out there has experience setting up a live video feed, email me!
Miguelito. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
For now, in addition to the shows on stage, we might continue to do what we tried out the previous week: perform Sevillanas for the customers seated in the booths area. We just did one copla each for each table. I played the guitar "unplugged" and strolled alongside Sara Jerez as she danced and played the castanets. The customers loved it. And at the very least they got to see what they came for: a live dance show, albeit a short one.
Emily Mazzotti. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Emily Mazzotti. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Emily Mazzotti and Miguelito. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
For the first eight years that I performed at Citron, we always had live cante by singer Gerard Moreno and for a short while with José Oretea. But when the economy took a dive last year, we had to cut the budget slightly and cut back the performers to just guitarist and dancer.
Of course I've been doing shows for a long time without a singer in many different venues, but after having live cante in the show at Citron for so long, it felt a little strange not to have it anymore. But as they say, "The show must go on!"
January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
I'm hoping that at some point in the near future, we'll bring back a singer into the show. We'll see. But for now, in a way, not having a singer, does give me the opportunity to grow more as a musician.
Miguelito and Emily Mazzotti. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Escobilla de soleá. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Anywayz, so that's my DC flamenco scene stream of thoughts for now. To paraphrase one of my favorite YouTubers PhilipDefranco, "That's all that really mattered to me this Sunday, my name is Miguelito and you've just been filled-in!" Except his name is Phil so "filled-in" sounds like "Phil'd in." Get it? I wanna come up with a clever sign off playing off my name for when I start making YouTube videos on the DC flamenco scene.
Atsushi, Emily and Miguelito. January 23, 2010 (photo by Jani)
My thanks to everyone who came out to my show at Cafe Citron last night. Your support is very much appreciated. Speaking of support, I'm about to head out to Vinoteca to take pics of the rumba/flamenco show featuring guitarists Richard Marlow and José Oretea with dancer Sara Jerez. It starts at 8:00pm and I'm already running late, yikes! See you there!
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