Little gifts. May 31, 2006
It's 10:39pm on Wednesday. Had the night off from performing and could've gone out. A friend invited me to go to Citron and I was so tempted but I know I would've ended up spending more money than I should have right now considering that I'm saving up for a couple of trips this summer.
Besides, I'm almost finished with Sarah Bird's The Flamenco Academy
So I promised myself I'd crank out a quick blog entry and as a reward I'd allow myself to read the remaining pages.
Anyway, I love the author's poetic descriptions of the interaction between guitarist and dancer--anyone who reads passages like these will never want to use a recording ever again. Here's a good one from page 267 about the guitarist character Tomás Montenegro's accompaniment of a dancer:
"Tomás stared straight into my eyes. He studied every curl of each finger I fanned upward, read what I wrote in those twining arabesques and translated them into languages I understood, though I'd never heard them before...Each note Tomás played was only for this second, an instant that was gone as soon as he'd thought of it."
I know what you're thinking...that it sounds like a romance novel. Perhaps it is but I'm totally eating it up. :-) Oh well. It still brought a smile to to my face as I read all five pages vividly describing a dancer and a guitarist's passionate performance of a seguiriyas.
Why did I smile? The author understands the importance of interaction in flamenco--something you can never duplicate when dancing with a recording. If you've been reading my articles and blogs over the years, you know very well what a big deal I make about the importance of live music in flamenco.
I promised myself this would be a quick blog, so let me move on to the aforementioned little gifts.
First off, we have a lapel pin that some friends brought back for me from their recent trip to Spain where they attended the Feria in Sevilla. And appropriately enough, they gave it to me on the day of the DC Feria de Sevilla. Nice!
As you know, I was bit annoyed that my Monday at Citron was cancelled for Memorial Day. I got over that, but I've been hurting a little for money this week, but the flamenco gods are thinking of me...
I got a nice little check from some obscure IT company called Google. Heard of it? :-) Thanks to the ever increasing popularity of my website, the little advertising deal I have going with them is paying off! The more my visitors visit my website and click-through on the Google banner ads the more money I get. So thank you to my loyal readers for this little gift which partially makes up for my lost income this week.
Another couple of friends brought me something from Bali. A t-shirt with a tasteful guitar design embroidered on the front. I've been getting a lot of guitar-related gifts lately which I've mentioned in my blog over the past year. Yeah, I know a t-shirt is not exactly something that represents the culture, but I just love the fact that while my friends were enjoying themselves they took a moment to think of me. That's a gift in itself. Thank you!
Next up we have a studio-quality print by my friend Niko Alexandrou--which I received via Fedex today. It features an inspiring action shot of dancer Ginette Perea with yours truly on guitar and Mariya providing palmas at Tapeo. (In a previous blog entry I published his photos from a recent exhibtion in Boston.) Anyway, Niko's been kind enough to donate his professional quality services to the DC flamenco community and various other flamenco communities all around the USA over the years. He truly enjoys what he does and he makes us artists look good! The least I could do is give him credit which I'm very happy to do. Thank you Niko!
This last little gift needs no explanation. Very simply, it made my day.
Of course I was happy to see all the tables (outside) filled-up. But believe it or not, we get more people who stand in front, behind and to the side of the stage watching the show for free! Lately, I've noticed a lot of young children getting into the show as they sit down in front completely enraptured by the foot stomping, the beautiful dresses, my pretty dancers and my guitar playing. Ginette usually hangs her castanets on the railing behind the stage after she finishes Sevillanas. I had to keep an eye on them during the show to make sure some innocent little child didn't grab them and walk away.
On the other hand, I could take it as a compliment that they don't notice me. Why do I say that now? Well, look at it this way: flamenco guitar accompaniment is like a movie soundtrack. If the music perfectly complements the scene in a movie you don't notice it--you just take it all in as a complete experience. If the music doesn't go well with the scene it stands out more. Same for flamenco: if it's done right, you don't notice the guitar playing specifically. The dancing, singing (when we're lucky to have cante) and guitar accompaniment ideally merge as one.
. Not exactly family entertainment but something stimulating to watch very late last night. Anyway, while I was writing this blog entry this morning I got caught up with all the behind-the-scenes featurettes. It kinda makes it hard to watch the particularly gory movie (think Quentin Tarantino) again without thinking about all the behind-the-scenes stuff. You know...like watching the actors walk around between scenes with all the bloody makeup on and crack jokes with the crew.
As much as we all know and love the DC feria, I think I've given it plenty enough exposure in my blog, so let's move on shall we? :-)
My friend ordered the Thai iced tea--a perfect choice for a humid day. My instincts told me to order somethin' else just to be different but the thought of sipping something cool and refreshing with a touch of the exotic won me over to my friend's choice. Minutes later, our server brought us two glasses filled with iced tea and to my surprise a little glass of condensed milk and a sugar syrup kettle. That's classy.
It was unbelievably crowded last night (Friday) with a lot of customers celebrating graduation (probably from Georgetown U mostly). I was a bit concerned cuz I invited a small group of friends to celebrate Ginette's birthday and it didn't look like we were going to get a table until very late. But things worked out perfectly: the hostess arranged to have two tables pushed together to seat all of us right next to the stage in time for the second show, yay!
Yesterday (Thursday), it would rain then it would stop. And just when I thought it was safe to go out, I'd start to feel a few drops comin' down. Of course I was dragging along a hundred pounds of equipment and I had to decide whether to find shelter or just walk more quickly (you just can't run with all this heavy music gear).
Um, I wasn't appropriately attired for this "expedition" and I nearly poked an eye out when a broken tree branch attacked me. Just kidding sort of. :-) And my once shiny boots were splattered with fresh mud. And now I was in an area where if I fell down and broke my leg nobody would notice me for who knows how long--remember I had to crawl through a hole in the fence to get here? So why do it? The thrill of imminent danger? Perhaps. Nah. It's because I was able to cut down a 20-minute walk down to 5, yay!
. I couldn't put it down and managed to read it from cover to cover (144 pages of quick reading prose). Didn't learn anything particularly new, but it gave me a little jolt of inspiration.
Yeah I know I haven't blogged for a few days. I went up to NYC with a friend on Wednesday morning and came back Friday afternoon with just enough time to pick up my sound equipment and arrive at Cabanas in time to setup and start my show.
Thursday morning, got up early. I crashed at a friend's house (a flamenco I knew previously from DC) in Brooklyn and he was leaving for work at 7:00am so I opted to leave at the same time and explore NYC for a few hours on my own until my dancer friend woke up. She was staying at an apartment in East Village near Gramercy Park (nice!), a friend of a former college classmate or something.
Breakfast #1 was out of the way. I took in a bit of the graduation festivities and reminisced about my own college experience--good times!
Admission was like $16 each and there are pushy salespeople trying to sell all kinds of extras like a virtual reality movie that simulates visiting the Empire State for a ridiculous price--kinda lame cuz why look at a movie of the place you're going to visit when you're already there?
Wednesday morning, I got up early so I could meet a dancer friend in downtown DC to catch an 8:30am bus to New York. I was feeling a bit groggy from having to get up so early, but I figured I could catch some zzzz's during the four-hour trip.
It's 11:49pm on Tuesday as I type these words. Just got home from Las Tapas about 30 minutes ago. I had the pleasure of working with two relatively new dancers on the local tablao scene: Pam de Ocampo and Sarah Hart.
