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Miguelito's Photo Diary and BlogOctober 1, 2005 - October 5, 2005
Random thoughts at 6:00am October 5, 2005  It happened again. I woke up at 6:00am again. I'm not complaining. The streets in my neighborhood are very calm at this hour. If I didn't know the time in my just-out-of-bed grogginess I could almost convince myself that it's sunset. The rest of the house is still asleep so I can't practice guitar yet. I was chatting online awhile with a friend who starts work at this hour, but I figured I should get out of the house in the morning for a change. Cool thing is that I don't have be anywhere anytime soon, except a rehearsal in Arlington at 2:30pm, but I don't want to have to go back home to pick up my instrument so I'll just put on my "stage" clothes now and take my guitar with me as I head out the door. I'll be performing at Cafe Bonaparte at 8:00pm tonight--I love that place! Man, I am soooo fortunate to be doing what I love for a living. If this current life of mine was the Matrix and you "unplugged me" I'd probably want to be plugged back in! I still don't have a new camera yet and I didn't remember to borrow my brother's camera last night to capture last night's special performance. It was Jen's first time to perform at Las Tapas last night. (Here are some pics from my first performance with Jen last year.) And just like pretty much all the dancers you currently see at the tablaos in DC, I accompanied them at their stage debut or at least sometime early in their "career." I spend a lot of time with many young up-and-coming dancers like Jen. Like I've said before, they will become the pros of the future so the least I could do give them as much support as I can so they can benefit from my knowledge and experience. Yeah I'm a generous guy, but I'm also thinking ahead. I'm investing in the future of flamenco in DC. Of course I'm very happy for her. She had a large and very enthusiastic audience for the first show. She danced alegrías. The audience loved her because she did something very important and I'm not talking about executing the choreography perfectly, although that certainly helps. The important thing that Jen did was trust herself and have a good time. Well, I'll take some credit for helping with her confidence--she's rehearsed and performed with me before and I have a well-known reputation as an excellent dance accompanist. Dancers know that I'll be there to musically support them no matter what they do--this inspires them to relax and enjoy themselves more. Assuming you've got the confidence part taken care of, the next thing you gotta do is communicate with your audience. Take your moves, steps, choreography, whatever you want to call it and say something with it. Express some kind of emotion. Otherwise it becomes nothing more than an exercise or demonstration of technique. As a guitarist, I'm depending so much on the dancer expressing some emotion and musicality so that I have something to work with as I create music on-the-spot. Personally, after a show, I'd rather hear someone tell me that they were emotionally moved by my music instead of them saying "You've got amazing technique!" In a way, the flamenco guitar accompaniment is like a movie soundtrack. When it's good, you don't notice it because, when done properly, the music is so closely interwined with the dancer's movements and emotions. On the other hand, a bad movie soundtrack really stands out. You notice the music a lot more cuz it clashes with the timing and emotional content of the scene. Likewise with flamenco guitar accompaniment. OK it's 9:10am on Wednesday and I'm done with my "sermon" for the day. I hope I gave you something useful to think about. Ciao for now! P.S. Yesterday, I got an email from one of my former guitar students. She writes: "What about you? Anybody special in your life? Besides your guitar--it's a joke Mike. Remember I used to tell you that? I used to tell you that your guitar was your girlfriend. Anyway, you seem happy. From what I can tell in the pictures, you look happy even if you don't smile often like your friend told you. I know you're smiling inside." My former guitar student, now more like my friend, lives in Florida but still keeps up with the DC flamenco scene through my website. Of course, I'm very touched that she, just like many others around the USA and all around the world, actually read my blog regularly! According to my website statistics, these are the top ten countries that my readers view my website from:
OK, OK. I said I was getting out of the house early. I'm leaving now! :-) Red Maple October 4, 2005 Dancer Tamara Sol Flys writes: "The night was magical with so much energy! Of course, the party continued after the show, with local students practicing sevillanas inside (sorry no pics, I was changing), and out in the courtyard the typical jam session with guitar, cante, and even trumpet and flute sometimes!" 
Tamara Sol Flys. October 4, 2005 (photo by Natalia Cuesta)  October 4, 2005 (photo by Natalia Cuesta) 
Onstage: Jesús Montoya, Richard Marlow and Tamara Sol Flys. In the audience: Marta Chico Martín, Cesar Oretea, Edwin Aparicio and Carmela Greco. October 4, 2005 (photo by Natalia Cuesta) 
Fausti and Marta. October 4, 2005 (photo by Natalia Cuesta) 
Jesús, Richard, Tamara, Carmela and Edwin. October 4, 2005 (photo by Natalia Cuesta) 
Cesar Oretea (on guitar) with trumpet player and flutist. October 4, 2005 (photo by Natalia Cuesta) 
Fausti, Tamara and Marta. October 4, 2005 (photo by Edwin Aparicio) 
Jesús and Richard. October 4, 2005 (photo by Tamara Sol Flys) Red Maple features a live flamenco show every Tuesday night. Call 410-547-0149 to make your reservations. Pink Flamenco October 4, 2005 My body clock is so messed up. After consecutive late nights this weekend (including an all-nighter), I woke up 6:00am this morning and was wide awake. These are some rare pics of me early in the day! :-) 
Miguelito on the front porch of the Pink Flamenco house. October 4, 2005 6:59am 
Walking down the street to Panera. October 4, 2005 7:02am 
Double espresso and a bagel with cream cheese. Yum! October 4, 2005 7:11am So after getting myself caffeinated, I got a lot accomplished this morning as far as publishing recent pics and writing a little. But I know that quite a few of you have missed my daily photo diary updates so I hope this makes up for it for now. Cafe Citron October 3, 2005 I was able to borrow my brother's digicam to get these cool pics. It was a fun night. My thanks to all my friends who came including a special thanks to Jesús Montoya and José Oretea who sang some bulerías at the end of the second set. That Jesús is a walking flamenco fiesta. Wherever he goes, the flamenco party spirit comes alive! 
Gerard Moreno and Jesús Montoya. October 3, 2005 8:09pm 
Shahram Tehranian dancing a Garrotín accompanied by Miguelito. October 3, 2005 8:26pm (photo by Lillie)  October 3, 2005 8:29pm (photo by Lillie)  October 3, 2005 8:30pm (photo by Lillie) 
Miguelito and Gerard. October 3, 2005 9:12pm (photo by Lillie) 
Shahram and Cecilia Walcek dancing Sevillanas. October 3, 2005 9:12pm (photo by Lillie) 
Jesús Montoya singing a bulería with Richard Marlow providing palmas. October 3, 2005 9:36pm (photo by Lillie) Cafe Citron has a live flamenco show every Monday night at around 8:00pm and 9:00pm. Call 202-530-8844 to make your reservation. Turkish Festival October 2, 2005 I spent a sunny Sunday afternoon showing a dancer friend around DC including a visit to the Turkish Festival on Pennsylvania Avenue where the Bluestar Dance Troupe was performing. 
Playing Turkish "castanets." October 2, 2005  October 2, 2005 4:35pm  October 2, 2005 4:40pm  October 2, 2005 4:52pm  October 2, 2005 4:53pm  October 2, 2005 5:03pm The troupe's director, Maviyildiz (pictured on the right in the pic above) also has studied flamenco dance in North Carolina with Carlota Santana.  October 2, 2005 5:07pm 
Future Turkish dancer. October 2, 2005 5:10pm  October 2, 2005 5:17pm  October 2, 2005 5:26pm (photo by Rosa) After the performance, we walked around and ran into several of my friends including Jori Mema, Bedriye, Ayhan and Chris Kobar. 
Rosa and Miguelito. October 2, 2005 5:36pm (photo by Ayhan) Later we stopped for a quick bite at Jaleo in Crystal City where Renee and Heidi were performing Sevillanas.  October 2, 2005 8:50pm Taste of Bethesda October 1, 2005 Ugh. It's 12:59am on Tuesday. I only got three hours of sleep last night, but I just had to publish these pics from Saturday's show. I'll add commentary later. In the meantime, enjoy! 
Miguelito. October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) 
Shahram Tehranian and Marta Chico Martín in Sevillanas. October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) 
Yours truly explaining flamenco to the audience. October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) 
Marta in Tientos/Tangos. October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag)  October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) 
Shahram in Garrotín. October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) 
Tamara Sol Flys in alegrías. October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag)  October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) Singer Marija Temo happened to be walking by so naturally we invited her onstage to sing. What a special treat to have live cante! 
Marija Temo singing bulerías. Thank you Marija! October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag)  October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) 
Fin de fiesta bulerías. October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) 
Tamara, Bedriye Ozdag and Marta. October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) 
Performing Sevillanas by the Jaleo caseta. They gave us some free paella. Yum! October 1, 2005 (photo courtesy of Ayhan Ozdag) Someone from ABC 7 news recorded Tamara and yours truly doing one of those "Good morning, washington!" television spots. Just so you know to expect it in case watch the news in the morning. It took us several takes cuz I kept on saying "Good morning, America!" Ugh! Tamara, being the natural actress, nailed this simple line each time. Oh well, so much for my acting career. :-) Ziva's Spanish Dance Ensemble was scheduled to go on at 2:15pm so I stuck around long enough to see the group arrive so I could say hello. I might even be getting some pics from their show to publish (with their permission of course). Stay tuned. Week in review October 2, 2005 I didn't realize how much people religiously visit my photo diary. So I take a couple of days off from updating it, and next thing I know, I'm getting these thoughtul emails asking if I'm OK. Yeah, I'm fine. Just been busy with gigs and personal stuff including hanging out with friends--so don't worry, I'm getting out of the house and having fun too. ;-) Recently, I find myself getting home late and waking up late, by artists' hours, and finding myself having to squeeze in a ton of stuff and still end up cutting it too close to showtime almost every night. Thank God I'm gigging five nights a week! It's fun, I'm making decent money, by artist standards, and meeting cool people all the time. So let's see what I did do the past week: Saturday September 24, 2005: The night before we went for an unexpected driving tour of the DC area as Jason Vera y Aragón and I drove another friend home early in the morning. We were hungry so we ended up at a the Broadway Diner in Rockville and stayed there for an hour or so before heading back to his house. I used to live there so there was an extra bed. Of course being the crazy flamencos we are, we ended up practicing for probably an half-an-hour. But when I started dozing off in the middle of a bulerías (it was around 6:00am), I knew it was time for bed. :-) I got up around 9:00am cuz I wanted to get some breakfast at El Patio, the Argentinian cafe near Jason's house. There's this one cute waitress there who told me she knows everything about me, thanks to one of my guitar students who's a regular customer there. Of course, I try to play it cool with just a friendly hello but she caught me off gaurd when smiled and said to me, "I know a lot about you: I know your name, where you're from, that you're his teacher." When she saw the surprised look on my face, she reassurred me, "It's good!" Whew! I know I'm semi-famous here in the local flamenco community. Thank God I made a good impression on my student (or least I hope I have). :-) I ordered my usual revuelto gramajo (Argentinian-style scrambled eggs with ham and cheese) with café cortado which is always served with a short glass of cold agua con gas presumably to chase the strong coffee flavor. It's just a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning, practice my Spanish and enjoy the music and atmosphere and get me in the frame of mind for flamenco. At noon I started playing for Anna Menendez's dance classes at American Dance Institute. One of the students is a Spanish professor who loaned me some flamenco CD's to supplement my continuing independent study of García-Lorca. Right now I'm reading the Lorca biography   For quite some time now, I've stopped bringing my amplifier to dance class. In a way, it's cool to be able to walk to dance class with nothing else but me and my guitar. On the other hand, it's a challenge to fill-up the room with the sound of the guitar without straining your hand. While a I recommend playing for dance classes as much as possible to learn accompaniment, I advise against beginners trying to compete with the sound of 10 dancers all doing footwork at the same time. I play everyday and perform five nights a week so I have the strength, endurance and agility and I've been doing this for years and years. I also know how to make my instrument loud without playing excessively hard. It's 11:20am on Sunday as I type these words and it's an unbelievably gorgeous day. I'm going to spend the afternoon/evening with a friend to relax on my day off and come back refreshed. Maybe I'll have some pics. In any case, I'll continue this week-in-review when I get back. Ciao for now!
Photos taken with the Olympus Stylus 300 Digital Camera
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