Normally I don’t do weddings, but I’ll make an exception :-)

Jason Vera y Aragón and Claudia dancing Sevillanas at La Tasca in Clarendon. January 18, 2008 8:38pm

It's 10:04am on Monday as I type these words. Been a busy, but fun, week! And yeah, I know I haven't blogged in a loooong time (three weeks!) but either I've been uninspired or just too tired to write anything. I do have a number of concerned readers out there who sent me emails to check up on me, thanks to you all, I appreciate it!

Anywayz, business at just about all the flamenco and Sevillanas venues has been going up and down (mostly down) during the winter season. If you recall I was practically laid off for two weeks around Christmas and New Year's. Didn't take it personally of course. I treated it like a vacation and so when I wasn't working on a night that I normally had a gig, I'd go check out local performances by some of my fellow flamencos.

The pics you see here, however, are from mid-January. I figure that you've seen plenty of pics from my show at Citron and not enough of say, La Tasca. And besides, this particular branch of the Spanish restaurant chain is only two metro stops from my house. How convenient!

Goodbye Pink Flamenco! :-(

Sandra the do-it-yourselfer fixin' up the future Pink Flamenco. September 26, 2003 6:43pm

A little more than four years ago, my friend Sandra had this idea of setting up a sort of arts center at this house in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Artistic people would live there and be responsible for setting up arts-related events: house concerts, dance workshops, arts-themed parties, painting and photo exhibitions. I already had a comfortable place to live at the time and it never crossed my mind that I would eventually become one of the artists-in-residence. But as luck would have it, in the summer of 2005, I needed to find a new place to live just when Sandra was looking for a new tenant for the house, which at the time she called the Pink Flea. Being a flamenco dancer herself, she was thrilled with the idea of having one of the DC area's most well-known flamencos (that's ME!) living there, so she renamed it the Pink Flamenco.

As silly as the name sounds, it stuck. Mention Pink Flamenco to anyone who's been actively involved in the DC flamenco scene the past few years and they'll know exactly what you're talking about and can probably tell you about a number of funny stories from one of the many fun nights we've had there over the years.

This building used to be a dental office and in fact each of the rooms on the ground floor had a dental chair complete with all the drills and lights etc. I can remember having a Halloween party there in 2003, and my dancer friend, Tamara, came dressed as a sexy scientist...

Retrospective: backstage at the Arte Flamenco student recital December 3, 2000

Bret, Torcuato and Enrique tuning up in the dressing room. December 3, 2000 3:03pm

It's 1:33am on Friday as I type these words. I really should be in bed by now considering I have to be at the office at 9:00am. But I'm wide awake anyway, so there's no use in fighting it, right? Might as well make myself productive and crank out another retrospective blog. And besides I'm kind of in a nostalgic mood.

Earlier this evening, I was able to "rescue" more pics from a corrupted hard drive, yay! These are a bunch of candid shots taken backstage right before a student recital of the Arte Flamenco dance studio, directed by Natalia Monteleón. The recital took place on Sunday afternoon, December 3, 2000. That's a little more than seven years ago! Anywayz, I just uploaded these for your viewing pleasure. Those of you who've been involved in the DC flamenco scene for awhile will recognize some of the dancers. Those of you who are in the pics will get to relive some good memories. For the rest of you, this is a little peek at what goes on before a student recital, brought to you by yours truly. Enjoy!

First time in an office in eight years!

January 2, 2008 7:51am

It's 7:24pm on Wednesday as I type these words. Yeah, you heard right. Yours truly actually worked in an office today from 9:00am until 4:30pm! I don't know how it came about, but last week one of my dancer friends called me totally out of the blue to ask me if I'd like to temp in her office for a few days.

I'm doing OK moneywise (knock on wood!) but then again, due to the holidays, flamenco business around here has slowed down and I hadn't performed for ten days straight! So why not try the office thing? I'm free during the day anyway. Plus I'd be making some money and getting a first-hand look at what my friend does at work. What's funny is that during a typical day she and I "poke" each other back and forth online (Get your mind out of the gutter! Facebookers know what I mean!). I almost got the impression that she was at home like I was just surfing the web at her leisure. Boy was I wrong!