July « 2006 « Flamenco Photo Diary and Blog by Miguelito

29Jul/06Off

Miguelito’s birthday at Cabanas. July 28, 2006

July 28, 2006 11:08pm

First of all, thank you to everyone who came to the party, called me, sent me birthday cards, ecards, text messages, commented in my blog, commented in myspace. Too many people to acknowledge. You know who you are. Just know that I appreciate all of you for taking a moment on my birthday to show that you care.

The cake pictured above was lovingly created by my friend Cindy with the help of Raquel and Isabel. Aside from the fact that they made it into the shape of a guitar, I'm very flattered that they spent a huge chunk of their afternoon slaving away in the kitchen creating something in honor of me. Thank you ladies!

It was also a special treat to have dancer Sara Candela perform with us here at Cabanas. She's visiting for a few days from Chile, so I took the liberty of booking her for a few of my tablao gigs. Checkout the pics....

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14Jul/06Off

Pastora rehearsal. July 13, 2006

Alfonso Cid and Behzad Habibzai. July 13, 2006 6:48pm

It's 10:38am on Friday as I type these words. Yesterday (Thursday) was pretty cool. We got a lot done in rehearsal with singer Alfonso Cid, Anna Menendez and the Pastora dancers. It was a long but enjoyable day where we basically practiced from 1:00pm until 7:00pm with lots of breaks, but we survived. Today we'll be rehearsing just a lil' bit putting the final touches, and getting a good night's rest so we can put on great performance in Peña Flamenca on Saturday night. You've bought your tickets already, haven't you?

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13Jul/06Off

Wednesday with Miguelito. July 12, 2006

Rehearsal at American Dance Institute: Jen, Sarah Hart, Anna Menendez, Cecilia Terrasa and Christina Conrad. July 12, 2006 5:00pm

It's 10:15am on Thursday as I type these words. Got a busy day ahead of me where I'm basically rehearsing from 1:00pm until 7:00pm! Of course it's going to be a lot of hard work, but it'll be fun too. Behzad and I will be working with singer Alfonso Cid, yay!

Anywayz, yesterday (Wednesday) was pretty busy too. Behzad and I rehearsed with the Pastora dancers for a few hours at the American Dance Institute (ADI) in Rockville where we'll be performing this Saturday in a concert titled Peña Flamenca. The large studio here at ADI converts into a decent size theatre with professional lighting and sound. As is typical here with shows in the DC area, the dancers and guitarists perfect and polish their material so when we bring in the singer, usually a day or two before the show, we can focus on the collaboration with the cante.

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11Jul/06Off

Cafe Citron. July 10, 2006

Mariya in soleá. July 10, 2006 9:56pm (photo by Carla Pacheco)

It's 9:37am on Tuesday as I type these words. Crowd-wise last night was a pretty civilized evening at Cafe Citron. I have been performing here for almost five years now, so yeah, I know that it's a bar and drunk people tend to shout a lot. But this time around there weren't that many loudmouths. There was a decent amount of people in the audience and in fact they actually all shut up during my intro to soleá. Loved it!

Mariya tried out some of the Campallo remates that she learned at the Albuquerque festival last month. There were unusual accents galore and I didn't catch all of them on the spot, but oh well. The important thing is that I gave Mariya a solid compás canvas upon which she painted her rhythmic pattern. Next week my accompaniment will be more complementary.

Anywayz, got some morning errands to do so I'll just quickly publish a few pics and head out. The rest of this week is going to be very very busy. I've got rehearsals for the upcoming Peña Flamenca show at American Dance Institute which will be this Saturday. I'm pretty excited especially since I'll get to work with singer Alfonso Cid for the first time not to mention that some of Anna Menendez's very talented most advanced students will be performing. Buy your tickets early--I have a small supply for sale, just talk to me at one of my tablao shows this week: tonight at Las Tapas, Wednesday at Cafe Bonaparte or Thursday at Andalucía.

Hopefully, I'll finish my errands early and be able to squeeze in a movie this afternoon. Ciao for now. Enjoy the pics!