Saturday Night Flamenco at Cafe Citron. January 16, 2010
Sara Jerez and Miguelito. January 16, 2010 (photo by Steve Johnson)
It's 2-something pm on Sunday as I type these words. Apparently, it seems that a LOT of people had the same idea I had on this rainy day: spend the afternoon sipping coffee at the café and do some work on the laptop. Luckily, a table freed up moments after I arrived.
Anywayz, about last night: the attendance was very good! (I know, I know. I'm an artist and my attention should be focused solely on the quality of the show, but as a struggling self-employed musician I can't neglect the business side of making a living in the arts.) You'd think that being that the show is on Saturday, it should be no problem getting people to come out to my show. Thing is that Citron is a very popular club on the weekends but the insanely large crowds don't arrive until 11:00pm-ish. So it's still my job (and the restaurant's) to somehow get the word out and get people to come in at 7:00pm or 8:00pm on a Saturday night in time for the flamenco.
It's still a better night than Mondays, when the flamenco show used to be scheduled. Although I do take pride in saying that my fellow artists (and there have been many!) and I were able to bring in crowds on Mondays from 2001 to 2009 (that's eight years!) which is traditionally a very difficult night to get people come out!
Anna Menéndez and Sara Jerez. January 16, 2010 (photo by Steve Johnson)
So last night, all the tables next to the stage were reserved for dinner for people who wanted to see the flamenco show (yay!). Also a couple of the booths were reserved too. The first two tables next to stage were occupied by friends of mine, who incidentally were former coworkers from when I had a full-time day job almost ten years ago. Plus I had some friends from my current temp day job! On top of that I had my usual group of flamenco friends in the audience too! Thanks everyone for your support!
But still, there were quite a few faces I didn't recognize, and that's a good thing! We're bringing in new people, yay! I did take time to meet some of these new people, told them about my website etc etc. Hopefully they'll be back again and they'll bring in more new faces. We'll see in the coming weeks.
Sara Jerez and Anna Menéndez. January 16, 2010 (photo by Steve Johnson)
The first four pics you see here were taken by friend Steve Johnson, who was playing with his new Nikon DSLR that he got himself for Christmas. Good job Steve! I asked him for a few more details about his new toy. He writes:
"The camera is a D90, and that lens was a AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm VR. I'm actually excited to come to the next show, because I have a few different lenses I want to try out. I'm still learning the settings with this camera, so different lighting and movement situations like this are great practice. I'm going to buy a AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 in the next week or so, which is supposedly great for low lighting."
Miguelito and Sara Jerez. January 16, 2010 (photo by Steve Johnson)
The remaining ones you see in this blog, were taken by my friend Jani, who has taken literally hundreds of photos of my shows over the years. Thanks Jani! He used my Canon S3IS. While being a very powerful consumer point-and-shoot, my S3IS has taken lots of abuse from heavy use over the years. It's been dropped, spilled on etc and yes, I did take it with me once while paintballing on a muddy field!
For those of you photographers who want to know what lights I use:
1. Standard flood light 100 watt halogen PAR38 with hot pink gel coming from stage right
2. MBT PAR64 LED cycling through the spectrum from stage left
Miguelito. January 16, 2010 (photo by Jani)
For those of you haven't been to Cafe Citron to see my flamenco show the past few Saturdays, I hope these pics give you some idea of what it's like. Just bear in mind, that unlike before, you need to reserve a table near the stage to get the best view of the show. Last night, most of the tables near the stage were reserved a week in advance! So if you plan on coming, do yourself a favor and make your reservation NOW! The number is 202-530-8844.
Sara Jerez and Miguelito. January 16, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Sara Jerez is the regular dancer here and she has quite a following, but she will be sending alternate dancers from time to time. This coming Saturday, we'll have a guest dancer, but I don't know who that will be yet. I'll announce the name of the guest dancer later this week. Past guests have included Ginette Perea, Sara Hart, Emily Mazzotti, Kyoko, Pam de Ocampo and many more, each of whom have their own hordes of fans!
Sara Jerez and Miguelito. January 16, 2010 (photo by Jani)
We did have a special surprise appearance by our dancer friend Anna Menéndez. She happened to be at Citron celebrating a birthday of a special someone: her husband Tom! And of course, we couldn't resist inviting her to join us onstage for some Sevillanas. If you don't already know, Anna is a very well-known performer and teacher (she teaches at American Dance Institute in Rockville) who has trained quite a few dancers in the DC area!
Sara Jerez. January 16, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Anna Menéndez, Miguelito and Sara Jerez. January 16, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Sara Jerez, Anna Menéndez and Miguelito. January 16, 2010 (photo by Jani)
It's all about customer service right? Well, the people who were seated in the booths were too far away from the stage to see the show. So to sort of make up for it, we did an impromptu serenade at a few individual tables (see pic below). Just one copla of Sevillanas each for three booths. It was kind of spontaneous and the crowd seemed to like it.
Sara Jerez. January 16, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Sara Jerez and Miguelito. January 16, 2010 (photo by Jani)
Mmm...yeah. I know...I kinda slacked off on my New Year's resolution of blogging at least once a week. I'm behind schedule by one day, so sue me! 
In any case, thanks again to everyone who has come out to the flamenco show on Saturdays the past few weeks. I appreciate your support!!!
PS Don't just support me. Checkout all the local flamenco and rumba shows listed in my calendar of events.
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