Memories of L.A. August 29, 2006

Waitin' for da train at King St. August 29, 2006 9:56pm (photo by Rocio)

I meet a lot of people at my shows and it turns out probably half of them already know about the dcflamenco website. It's funny how they comment, "Oh, that's your website?" Hehe...I mean yeah, it is my website but it's not like I plaster my pic all over the place.

For those that don't know about it, I give them my biz card with my website address on it and they'll usually say something like, "Cool, I'll go checkout one of your other shows."

Well, days turn into weeks and weeks into months and time passes and it turns out very few of them actually follow through on their promise. Not that my whole life depends on it. So when people like my new friend Rocio actually do show up, my faith is restored in humanity , well not really, but still it is very cool.

Cafe Citron. August 28, 2006

Karine and Mariya in Sevillanas. August 28, 2006 9:31pm (photo by Ric)

There were all kinds of sound problems going on last night at Citron. I'm not going to bore you with the details except to tell you that it was enough to distract me--I was fiddlin' with da knobs on my mixer when I shoulda been watching my dancer. Oh well, I'm allowed to have a bad show every now and then, right?

Then again, it was just my overblown perfectionist perspective. The audience apparently thought otherwise--they loved it. In fact after the show, I was dumbfounded when people were complimenting on how good it was.

At one point during the show when I was cringing with each feedback squeal and distorted signal, I thought to myself, Yeah the sound really sucks tonight and I've done all I can to fix it so just let it go and focus on putting your energy into the performance. So I did and the show got better, started to have fun again and my mood improved dramatically. End of story.

DC Dance Collective on Sunday August 27, 2006

August 27, 2006 6:32pm

It's been awhile since I last played for classes at DC Dance Collective on Sunday nights. This was the first Sunday I happened to have no gigs, rehearsals or social visits planned. I was actually free, if you can believe that, but it turned out I didn't have my guitar with me. It was cool though.

At least I had my camera with me so I took some pics of Ulrika Frank's flamenco performance workshop. It was a Farruca choreographed to Behzad's composed music. Some (hopefully all) of these students will perform this choregraphy at DCDC's Collaborate Arts Festival on Saturday September 16, 2006.

Tapeo on Saturday August 26, 2006

Maggie (from Mexico) and Ginette Perea. August 26, 2006 8:46pm

This particular night, I overheard customers asking the staff when the flamenco show was going to start. So I made a mental note of where these customers were seated, I took the liberty of greeting them while they waited for the show to start.

If you've been reading my blog the past year or so, you know that meeting the members of the audience is one thing I'm doing to overcome my shyness. Anyway, it was a good move cuz I had to stall a little while since the show was running a little behind schedule.

One group was a Venezuelan family and the daughter, Andrea, turned out is a flamenco dancer. They came especially to Tapeo this evening just to see the show. One member of this family even proclaimed that he is an aficionado and that he would be watching our show with a very critical eye.

Cabanas on Friday August 25, 2006

Ginette Perea. August 25, 2006 8:38pm (photo by Raquel)

It's 10:08am on Monday as I type these words. Had a busy weekend so I've fallen behind on da blogging. In fact when I was at DC Dance Collective last night (Sunday), one of my loyal readers jokingly scolded me for neglecting my blog--I took it as a compliment though, it means she really appreciates my work.

Anywayz, you know the drill. When I'm playin' catch-up, I just publish pics and keep the commentary to a minimum. Enjoy these pics from Friday at Cabanas. BTW, as of next Friday it will be one year that we've been performing at Cabanas, yay! Small milestone, but a milestone nonetheless!